Visitors to this site can access information on tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean as far back as 1851. Information provided here includes a yearly map showing the tracks of all storms, and individual maps for each storm. The individual maps are accompanied by data tables that show latitude, longitude, wind speed, dates, and times. Full description.

Users can select a variety of materials on El Nino/La Nina. Materials presented here include bibliographies, news articles, technical and research information, movies, animations, and cartoons. Full description.

This article describes the global weather factors used by Colorado State University Professor William Gray to make predictions on the number and severity of storms that will occur in a hurricane season. Links to forecasts and to other weather-related topics are included. Full description.

This press release examines recent evidence that the rate of global warming is accelerating, and that in the past twenty-five years it achieved the rate of two degrees Celsius per century, a rate that had been predicted for the twenty-first century. Full description.

This text explains why the sun rises at the South Pole in September of every year after six months of darkness. A brief summary of the unique characteristics of the seasons on other planets is also included. Links to a webcam located near the South Pole and to other related sites are also provided. Full description.

Visitors to this site can read a discussion about the weather in Anarctica, including why it is so cold, how weather observations are conducted there, and what role the continent plays in the global weather system. Links to related topics, a wind chill calculator, and a Fahrenheit-Celsius-Kelvin temperature converter are also provided. Full description.

In the winter of 1999-2000, relatively little snow cover blanketed North America, and it melted early. Users can read and view satellite imagery that discusses how NASA's Terra satellite and its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) were able to record this phenomenon, and how spring snow cover data can be used to predict flood or drought conditions. Full description.

Visitors to this site can read and view satellite imagery about the most recent La Nina event, which produced less-than-normal snowfalls in Western North America. A TOPEX/Poseidon image of the Pacific ocean illustrates the warmer water and higher-than-normal sea surface height in the Western Pacific which are characteristic of a La Nina event. A discussion of the uncertainties of long-range climate ... Full description.

Users can view imagery and read about tropical Pacific near-surface currents. The analysis is based on satellite altimeter- and scatterometer-derived sea level wind data. Materials presented here include monthly surface current maps, beginning with October 1992 and ending with the latest available satellite data (usually about one month delay). Links to related sites, a publications list, and a presentations ... Full description.

The deserts of the world today are not the deserts of the planet's past. Fossilized hippopotamus and elephant bones tell us that the Sahara, for instance, was a much moister and more hospitable environment 8,000 years ago than it is now. Each of the Earth's modern deserts are a consequence of one of the following mechanisms: air mass subsidence, rain shadows, distant moisture sources, or cold offshore ... Full description.