The Virginia Climate Center is building the infrastructure to provide climate services to the entire Commonwealth. From flood mapping along the bay and measuring urban heat to creating the Virginia Climate Assessment, our mission is to assist communities with the best data and science available.

Virginia’s Highland County saw one of the worst syrup seasons in recent memory. A January ice storm and unseasonable March warmth disrupted conditions needed for sap collection. The consequences could be existential for producers. https://wapo.st/3NgNZrS

🔥Extreme heat warnings and heat advisories are already in place for many across California, Nevada and Arizona. The heat will spread east and south as the week progresses. For heat safety tips visit: www.weather.gov/safety/heat (2/2)

Seeking lightning talk proposals! We’re hosting a half-day event on infectious disease & extreme weather and are inviting 5-minute talks from students, researchers, practitioners, and community members working in extreme weather, health, and disaster-related fields. Apply: buff.ly/MrYtnMv

US science funding shutdown:

New from the Virginia Climate Voices Blog: Public health expert Dr. MB Mitcham discusses climate impacts on agriculture, crop yields, supply chains, food access, & human labor 🧺 🌾 Read about the climate signal found in our food systems: www.vaclimate.gmu.edu/blog/climate-signal-food-systems

The American Academy of Actuaries warns that dismantling NCAR would degrade the catastrophe models insurers depend on to price climate risk—driving up premiums and threatening coverage availability nationwide. "Uncertainty carries a positive cost." www.riskmarketnews.com/trumps-clima...

I invite everyone working to reduce community flood risks and increase flood resilience in Virginia (or elsewhere) to attend. @virginiaclimate.bsky.social @mason4c.bsky.social @gmupres.bsky.social

"El Apagón" is the song Bad Bunny was performing during this part of the halftime show using imagery that was apparently too subtle for some people It's one of his most interesting songs with a ton of political context and meaning plus it’s an absolute banger

New research out of the VCC 💡 What are the health implications of Virginia's growing data center industry? Our experts examined Virginia's Data Center Alley, the world's largest concentrated data center hub, and its associated health risks. Read more: www.frontiersin.org/journals/cli...

The important new research by @nckmllx.bsky.social & colleagues about the community-borne costs of data centers is an important complement to this paper that @ngour.bsky.social, @lortizuriarte.bsky.social & I published last week on potential health impacts of data centers.

Do data centers harm people's health? Given the proliferation of data centers across VA, the US & world, it's an important yet unanswered question. In this paper, @ngour.bsky.social, @lortizuriarte.bsky.social & I examine the possibilities. @docsforclimate.bsky.social @georgemasonu.bsky.social

Rapidly scaling up clean energy & phasing out fossil fuels are highly effective ways to improve the health of nearly everyone alive today. We can make that happen. For inspiration, listen to what makes former GOP Senate Majority Leader @bfrist.bsky.social hopeful. @docsforclimate.bsky.social

New postdoc opportunities in my group at Rutgers-New Brunswick, working on sea-level rise projections and/or coastal climate risk assessment & management

Our lab and collaborations are live at #AMS2026! If you have a spot open in your schedule this week, please check them out!

Trump Administration’s Illegal Work Fatally Taints EPA’s Proposal to Repeal Endangerment Finding. EDF & @ucs.org Call for Withdrawal of the Fundamentally Flawed Proposal

Frigid air and an impactful, disruptive winter storm are in the works for the weekend. These kinds of events don’t happen despite a warming climate...they’re connected to it, especially when it comes to ice and snow totals. A short 🧵to walk through the science together ⬇️

Worth repeating: “More disasters are coming, and states will bear more of the burden. But by preparing and adapting our homes and communities year-round for the storms to come, every state can build a more resilient future.” @virginiaclimate.bsky.social @docsforclimate.bsky.social

After the US admin cancelled the $B Climate + Weather Disaster dataset, @climatecentral.org hired the scientists who ran it and set it back up. Now the 2025 numbers are in: it's 3rd highest year on record and highest year w/o land-falling hurricanes. More: www.climatecentral.org/climate-serv...

Reminder: 60% of the populous is disengaged, living their lives day by day, and I’d estimate 85% have no idea what NCAR or NOAA is. Communication Matters. Yell the stories loudly from the mountaintop.

Today during the #AGU25 poster session, new research from @lortizuriarte.bsky.social @georgemasonu.bsky.social shows how transit users are exposed to heat in Chicago, DC, and NYC metro systems. Story by @pepperstclair.bsky.social.

Drop by our poster at #AGU25 tomorrow morning! Our poster just got featured by Eos AGU! NH21A-0416 Heat exposure of transit users in the three largest metro systems in the US

Ready to hit #AGU25 next week! We'll be sharing the latest research from my lab at George Mason on local and meteorological drivers of intraurban temperature variability, heat exposure of transit users, and our ongoing Google.org funded ClimateIQ! See my schedule in the image for more!

Everyone getting excited about #AGU25?? To keep up with the madness, I've updated my AGU conference feeds! Collects posts from the official AGU account, + #AGU25 and #AGU2025 hashtags AGU 2025 is chronological: bsky.app/profile/did:... What's Hot AGU25 for algorithm sort: bsky.app/profile/did:...

The data center capital of the world is literally George Mason's backyard! We have an opportunity to not only take stock of the benefits this critical infrastructure provide us but how its negative impacts overlap with a changing climate.

“The climate challenges outlined in this report transcend geopolitical borders and disciplinary silos. From the hollers of western Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay and Eastern Shore, the impacts [climate] has on communities, our economy, and our well-being.” www.gmu.edu/news/2025-11...

Thank you @maibached.bsky.social! This is the result of a massive effort by @virginiaclimate.bsky.social and an extended network of experts from around the Commonwealth and beyond. We are incredibly excited to share the first of many such assessments for Virginia.

Day 7 of #30DayMapChallenge asked us to think about accessibility. @gsagostini.bsky.social considers two metrics of access simultaneously: distance to a Subway and distance to the subway.

The more I learn about the health impacts of data centers, the more convinced I become that communities should think twice before putting out a welcome mat. @lortizuriarte.bsky.social @virginiaclimate.bsky.social @virginiaclinicians.bsky.social @vacleancities.bsky.social @docsforclimate.bsky.social

As one of the lead authors of this assessment, I am so excited to share with others in just a few weeks!

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Hot classrooms impede learning, as does elevated levels of carbon dioxide. Clean energy—not fossil fuels—is the path to a better, smarter, healthier future for our children. @bfrist.bsky.social @docsforclimate.bsky.social @gchalliance.bsky.social

Having lived in Serbia during Fulbright, I am excited to announce opportunity. Interested in learning about the Balkans, drink rakiya, visit Sarajevo, Tito's Bunker or a 16th-century Ottoman-era bridge? Share with networks that may be interested such topics. #professionaldevelopment #geography

At least 70% of US households are uninsured or underinsured against floods, yet climate change is rapidly increasing the number and severity of flooding in the US. This doesn’t end well for most people—unless we do something about it now. @lortizuriarte.bsky.social @virginiaclimate.bsky.social

Who loses when America loses top scientists? America does. Reduced funding for scientific research is an unforced error of epic proportions. Tell your members of Congress to stop the madness. www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

Who loses when the POTUS wages war on clean energy? Everyone (except fossil fuel & utility company CEOs + their lobbyists). The latest casualty in Virginia? Solar for All, plus the clean air & water, better health, and local jobs it would have produced. @virginiaclinicians.bsky.social

There's a new 2025 peak demand record in ERCOT: 82,566 megawatts at 4:55 today. Solar provided 30% of the power at that time and wind about 16%; wholesale power was just $22/MWh. No conservation alerts. No energy emergencies. Just abundant, affordable power. #txlege #txenergy

Heat is deadly. Ensuring people have air conditioning is more important now than ever

It's the last weekend before the #AGU25 #abstract submission #deadline, which means it is finally time to submit your abstracts and crash their website. If you are working on #urban-scale processes, consider submitting to our sessions (links below). 1. lnkd.in/gXXtKvtb 2. lnkd.in/gWuN2Yw6

If you are having trouble finding National Climate Assessment reports, they are here. www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar...

Global emissions from heating are about 4x those from cooling. Air conditioning is an important and lifesaving adaptation to climate change. Decarbonize the grid.

"Rising food prices are the second-largest effect of climate change that people see in their day-to-day lives, only exceeded by extreme heat" Link to study since, you know, WSJ apparently didn't feel the need to include: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

New @floodlab.bsky.social paper on wildfire risk mitigation - Mitigation behaviors of homeowners and renters in the wildland urban interface www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

550p: Flash flood warnings now stretch from near Haymarket to Bethesda as cluster of storms is is unloading. A few spots with 3” of rain. Don’t drive in this if you can avoid….should slowly fade next 30-45 mins. #cwgalert

Everyone is acting like US scientists will just go get science jobs elsewhere and sure some will but there are not anywhere close to enough science jobs elsewhere. The end result of this will be much, much, much less science, not science happening in different places.

Tip of the cap to any state proactively working to identify natural hazard risk areas. This is not a trivial exercise, nor one that ends without A LOT of feedback. Oregon tried creating their own wildfire maps, and then took a step back. Washington now giving it a try. www.opb.org/article/2025...

Most climate denial falls into one of five general categories: It’s not real It’s not us It’s not bad We can’t fix it It’s too late Conspiracy theories about secret experiments have been around for decades and they fall solidly into category 2 above: “it’s not us, it’s THEM” For more, watch: