With ongoing severe weather in Central US, climate change retains global attention
Media reports say that on Monday evening, supercell thunderstorms swept from the Plains into the Upper Midwest (Central US), prompting tornado watches across nearly ten states from Texas to Wisconsin and retaining the world’s attention on climate change.
According to FOX Weather, officials warned of very large hail, damaging wind gusts and strong tornadoes. Storm observers reported hail up to three inches in diameter (comparable to a teacup) in Mangum, Oklahoma, and baseball-size stones in Beaver Creek, Minnesota and Abilene, Kansas. In Gruver, Iowa, a 74 mph gust — equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane — was measured by the National Weather Service (NWS). Emergency crews in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, responded to widespread debris and structural damage as storms re-energized late Monday night and raced eastward into the early hours of Tuesday. Kansas, Minnesota and South Dakota also logged numerous large-hail and high-wind reports. FOX Weather Storm Chaser Mark Sudduth captured imagery of massive hail striking his vehicle in Westmoreland, Kansas.
Power Outages and Fatality Reported as Storms Track East
The storm complex moved into the Northeast on Tuesday, leaving more than 700,000 customers without power from the Plains to Pennsylvania, reports a FOX Weather article published Tuesday, adding that data from FindEnergy.com indicated that over half a million households lost electricity, with the Pittsburgh metro area being hardest hit by gusts up to 71 mph. A fatality was recorded south of the Monongahela River when a man came into contact with a downed power line.
US and Global News checked that the Duquesne Light Company, which serves roughly 600,000 customers in two counties including Pittsburgh, reports 222,417 outages at the time of this writing.
Flood and Severe Storm Risks Persist Wednesday
We can also report that the NWS has issued an Excessive Rainfall and Severe Thunderstorm outlook for Wednesday across parts of the southern Plains, particularly along the Red River Valley into western Arkansas, where heavy to excessive rainfall may trigger flash flooding. Scattered severe storms are also possible from central Texas through eastern Oklahoma into western Arkansas, with large hail, damaging wind gusts and isolated tornadoes all on the table. In addition, we checked that the Weather Prediction Center maintains an Enhanced Risk (level 3 of 5) of severe weather for portions of the interior Northeast and Ohio Valley — where strong winds and hail are the primary threats — and a Moderate Risk (level 3 of 4) of excessive rainfall over parts of northern Texas and Oklahoma, owing to saturated soils and potential for 2–4 inches of rain over already wet terrain.
Planetary Trends Keep Climate Change in the Spotlight
Against this backdrop of storm activity in Central US, longstanding indicators of climate change continue to command global scientific attention. According to United States federal government independent agency National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), atmospheric carbon dioxide has reached 428 parts per million and global temperature is up 1.5 °C since pre-industrial times. Methane concentrations stand at 1,943 parts per billion, Arctic sea ice minimum extent has declined by 12.2 percent per decade since 1979 and annual ice-sheet losses average 403 billion metric tons. Sea levels have risen about four inches since January 1993 and the world’s oceans have absorbed an estimated 372 zettajoules (a large unit of energy, equivalent to 1 followed by 21 zeros) of heat since 1955. NASA underscores that its fleet of over 20 Earth-observing satellites and hundreds of research programs supply the data underpinning these measurements.
It is important to note here that NASA’s website continues to display climate change-related information, with words like “There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause.”, even as United States President Donald Trump has continued to unwind federal and international climate initiatives.
On April 8, President Trump issued an executive order directing the U.S. Department of Justice to challenge state-level climate change laws — targeting measures such as cap-and-trade and renewable energy mandates in US states of New York, Vermont and California — and instructing US government agencies to identify and act against environmental justice and carbon-control regulations adopted by the US states.
In parallel, a separate executive order by the US president required US federal departments to sunset every existing energy regulation by the following year, effectively rolling back numerous clean-energy and emissions-reduction rules.
Since its January inauguration, the Trump Administration has also formally withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement, halted US global climate finance contributions and ended American participation in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In addition to broad regulatory rollbacks, the Trump Administration has intervened in specific clean-energy projects and scientific assessments. On April 16, U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum suspended construction of the 810 MW Empire Wind offshore project in the State of New York — already 30 percent complete — citing perceived deficiencies in prior environmental reviews. On April 29, the White House dismissed all authors of the congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, leaving hundreds of scientists without assigned roles in the report process.
NASA is currently being led by Trump-appointed Acting Administrator Janet Petro. American billionaire entrepreneur, pilot and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman is expected to become the new NASA administrator soon. Isaacman is the Trump-nominated NASA administrator currently waiting U.S. Senate confirmation following his Senate confirmation hearing earlier in April. His stance on climate change is not explicitly defined, as he hasn’t directly used the terms ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming.’ However, he has acknowledged the importance of Earth science and its role in protecting human life and and addressing natural disasters.
Recent Studies Highlight Accelerating Impacts
A suite of peer-reviewed studies published in early 2025 further documents the intensification of climate-driven changes:
- A January 8 Nature paper found that one-quarter of 23,496 studied crustaceans, fishes and odonates face extinction risks linked to environmental stressors, including climate-related events.
- A January 9 Nature Reviews Earth & Environment analysis reported a 31–66 percent rise in three-month “hydroclimate whiplash” events since the mid-20th century, exacerbating flash‐flood and drought hazards.
- A January 15 study in Weather observed that the terrestrial biosphere’s natural carbon-sequestration rate has declined by 0.25 percent per year since its 2008 peak.
- A January 21 PNAS article described abrupt, climate-driven shifts from “blue” to “brown” states in Greenland lakes following record heat and rainfall.
- A February 4 Environmental Research Letters paper linked stratified river-plume barriers to Hurricane Idalia’s rapid intensification in 2023.
- A March 25 Nature report traced centuries-long volcanic influences on the Atlantic jet stream, affecting European drought and flood patterns.
Scientific American magazine and online publication tweeted in 2017, “Rain from thunderstorms is rising due to climate change.”
NASA tweeted in 2019, “As tropical oceans warm, we could see a substantial increase in extreme rain storms. A new study led by @NASAJPL finds that 21% more storms form for every 1.8° F (1° C) that ocean surface temperatures rise.”
Global Records and Observations Reinforce the Urgency
In February, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced January 2025 as the warmest on record — 1.75 °C above pre-industrial averages — despite La Niña’s typical cooling effect. That same month, the WMO highlighted in a post on X the rapid retreat of Alaska’s Columbia Glacier as a stark testament to ongoing planetary warming.
As this week’s severe weather unfolds in Central US, the metrics and milestones of climate change — monitored by NASA, NOAA, the WMO and the scientific community — continue to underscore why climate change retains global attention.
Featured photo is AI-generated.
