A study shows that there are almost twice as many risky days for large human-caused fires in the American West as there are for lightning-caused fires, due to differences in the level of heat and aridity under which each type of fire is likely to occur. The discrepancy is not accounted for in most fire early warning systems. In addition, risky days for human-caused fires are growing faster than risky days for lighting-caused fires as the climate warms. 

New published research from Virginia Tech and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institution finds that electric vehicles generally produce less non-exhaust emissions compared with gasoline-powered vehicles.

In June 2024, southern China experienced record-breaking heavy rainfall, resulting in devastating societal and economic impacts. The underlying cause of this extreme event remained unclear until this study, published in Science Bulletin, provided new insights. Based on analyses from numerical simulations using an Earth System Model (ESM), an international team of scientists identified excessive spring land heating over the Tibetan Plateau as the primary factor driving the catastrophic June 2024 rainfall in southern China.

In a new study, scientists pulled from a 35-year dataset to examine long-term population trends of the federally endangered Schaus’ swallowtail butterfly (Heraclides ponceana). They found that the swallowtail’s population size was positively influenced by something unexpected — hurricanes.