According to the report, the drought caused roughly $11.4–$23 billion in economic losses in 2020—including impacts from associated wildfires. Economic losses for 2021 will also be substantial, and the drought is expected to continue at least into next year.

In a new EOS Opinion Article, MAPP Drought Task Force leaders Rong Fu, Andrew Hoell, Justin Mankin, and Isla Simpson, working with NIDIS staff member Amanda Sheffield, describe the disastrous impacts droughts, heat waves and fires have globally. They also highlight new MAPP- and NIDIS-funded research that tackles the challenges of a drier, hotter, more fire-prone future.

Dr. Camargo journeyed from Brazil's most populous city to New York in 1999. She came with little more than a passion for physics and mathematics, as well as a strong drive to leave a mark on the world. Now, an accredited climate researcher and scientist with the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, Camargo shares her story. Camargo documents her upbringing, her climate research, diversity in the climate science field and more in a profile-feature story for Women's History Month. 

In honor of Women’s History Month, we are profiling female staff and scientists who work at the NOAA Climate Program Office (CPO) or are funded by NOAA CPO. Dr. Allison Wing, the subject of this interview, works as an assistant professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science (EOAS) at Florida State University. She also holds an appointment as an adjunct associate research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

In honor of Women's History Month, NOAA is highlighting a few of its female scientists and funded researchers who are making significant strides in the climate sciences and other science fields. The following interview features Dr. Angeline Pendergrass, Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science at Cornell University and Project Scientist I at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). She is a co-lead of the NOAA CMIP6 Task Force, which is funded by the NOAA Climate Program Office’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) Program. She focuses on extreme precipitation and its response to climate variability and change.