Given recent discussion regarding indirect role of anomalous precip (& associated upstream diabatic heating) in amplifying record-breaking heatwaves, even thousands of miles away (inc. Mar 2026 event), I wanted to share this excellent paper from 2025:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60811-4
Blocking diversity causes distinct roles of diabatic heating in the Northern Hemisphere - Nature Communications
Atmospheric blocking patterns are often categorized into several types and diabatic heating is thought to primarily contribute positively to blocks. Here, the authors show that diabatic heating strengthens ridge blocks, while it dampens dipole blocks in the Northern Hemisphere.
Another day, another sequence of monthly record-breaking March heat across portions of 8 Western U.S. states. Note: some of these monthly "records" might not technically be such anymore following even more extreme record-shattering heat in the same locations...just last week. ðŸ«
It is, ultimately, humbling that so many people and entities want to engage. Truly.
It is also, decidedly, exhausting. And it speaks to the desperate need for institutions to support far more scientists in public facing roles: the demand is extreme, and the supply is tiny.
I really do try very hard to respond to every person and organization, but I am inherently limited by the simple math of the number of hours per day. I also manage a severely energy-limited auto-inflammatory condition (Yao Syndrome, if you're interested!), which flares ~monthly.
Please keep in mind that I don't have any administrative support; it's just me! At times like the present, I work 7 days a week and well into the evenings and am still only able to say "yes" to 5-10% of requests (which is...alas...probably still too high a fraction!).
I just wanted to let folks know that I have, in fact, read your email, but due to the incredible volume of inbound requests I have unfortunately reached the point that I simply don't have capacity to respond to all of them. So thank you for your patience and understanding!
But my main concern remains the interior West, especially Colorado River Basin. Here, there is a growing near-term risk (by later this spring and summer) of water supply and hydroelectric shortfalls, an early and intense fire season, and ecosystem degradation. This is a big deal.
Even in these areas, anomalous warmth and historic snow drought will still lead to ecological and wildfire-related impacts as soon as this spring, and possibly wider water challenges by late summer and beyond.
Some regions have more of a buffer than others. In California, and Washington State (as well as some parts of the Northern Rockies), the extreme snow drought does not translate to a severe hydrological drought at this time due to decent overall precipitation. However...
While there may be some modest relief in early April in the form of cooler temperatures and some precipitation, it will be for all intents and purposes statistically and meteorologically impossible for a real recovery to happen between now and summer.
