The first six months of 2006 were the warmest, on average, since the United States started keeping records in 1895, and global warming is a contributing factor, a U.S. climate expert said on Wednesday. Reuters

Some scientists in Arizona and California think so (via Think Progress): The increase in the number of large western wildfires in recent years may be a result of global warming, researchers say. An analysis of data going back to 1970 indicates the fires increased “suddenly and dramatically” in the 1980s and the wildfire season grew [...]

Or are they? There are forecasters in the National Weather Service’s Albuquerque office who have never seen a really juicy monsoon. You know the kind— towering late-afternoon knots of summertime purple over the mountains that roll down and cleanse the Rio Grande Valley, day after day. The last time summer gave us that kind of [...]

Via Headwaters News I came across this must-read article on population growth and water demand along the Rio Grande basin. Staci Matlock writes today in the Santa Fe New Mexican: Cities in the basin that splits New Mexico lengthwise are growing at an unprecedented rate and with it their need for water. Their demands compete [...]

This guy is the go-to guy on New Mexico climate stuff, hands down. He posted this a week ago (sorry I’m late) but I thought it was worth mentioning: I blogged earlier today at work about the latest ENSO assessment from the Climate Prediction Center, and said this: “We’re at the point in the year [...]