The biggest and best studied reef in the world is looking good
Despite record high emissions of carbon dioxide, and hottest ever temperatures, the Great Barrier Reef was again enjoying one of its best years yet. In the 40 years that AIMS has been studying it, the last four years are great results.
Judging by the data, corals are coping fine with today’s heat and CO2. But the more money we spend finding a climate crisis, the worse our science institutions get. One-sided money and monopoly science can turn any institute into a tax-grabbing-machine, that serves the Blob, not the people. Thus is it so.
The AIMS annual reef survey for 2025, tells us that the Great Barrier Reef had suffered “a sharp decline after a record breaking heatwave “. Worse, mass coral bleaching is becoming more frequent as the world warms, and the time between events is shrinking, giving corals less time to recover.
So Peter Ridd took the same data and did the graph that AIMS, with $90 million in taxpayer dollars, couldn’t do, so we can all appreciate the full disaster. And here it is:
As the 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season enters its historical peak, atmospheric and oceanic conditions continue to favor an above-normal season as NOAA first predicted in May.
Forecasters from NOAA’s National Weather Service updated the number of expected named storms to 13-18(with winds of 39 mph or greater), of which 5-9 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or greater), including 2-5 major hurricanes (winds of 111 mph or greater).
The adjusted ranges are for the entire season from June 1 though November 30, and are inclusive of the four named tropical storms that have already formed. In the Atlantic basin, a typical hurricane season will yield 14 named storms, of which seven become hurricanes and three become major hurricanes.
The likelihood of above-normal activity is 50%, a 35% chance of a near-normal season, and a 15% chance of a below-normal season. This updated prediction is similar to the initial outlook issued in May.
“NOAA stands ready to provide the forecasts and warnings that are vital for safeguarding lives, property, and communities,” said Acting NOAA Administrator Laura Grimm. “As we enter the second half of the season, this updated hurricane outlook serves as a call to action to prepare now, in advance, rather than delay until a warning is issued.”
A summary infographic with a pie chart showing hurricane season probability and numbers of named storms predicted, according to NOAA’s updated 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook on August 7, 2025. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30.
So far, the season has produced four named tropical storms and no hurricanes. Tropical Storm Chantal made the first U.S. landfall of the season and brought high winds and deadly flooding to the Carolinas during the Independence Day holiday weekend.
“No two storms are alike,” said NOAA’s National Weather Service Director Ken Graham. “Every storm presents unique, life-threatening hazards that can impact people in both coastal and inland communities. Have a plan in place, and know the actions you should take before, during and after the wide range of hazards that the hurricane season can bring.”
Atlantic basin tropical storm activity is expected to be elevated due to a combination of factors, including warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Seas, and an active West African Monsoon. ENSO-neutral conditions are expected to continue, meaning there is neither an El Nino nor La Nina to influence this season’s storm activity.
The alphabetical list of 2025 Atlantic tropical cyclone names as chosen by the World Meteorological Organization with storms that have occurred so far this season (as of August 7, 2025) indicated by an orange slash through the name. Find a text version of this list at hurricanes.gov/aboutnames.shtml#atl
“Many of the factors we identified ahead of the season are still at play, and conditions are largely tracking along with our May predictions,” said Matt Rosencrans, lead hurricane season forecaster with NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction, part of the National Weather Service.
NOAA’s outlook for a below-average Eastern Pacific season — with 12-18 named storms — remains on track, but it did have a rapid start with nine named storms. The Central Pacific outlook remains unchanged, calling for 1-4 named storms.
About NOAA’s Hurricane Season Outlook
NOAA’s Hurricane Season Outlook is for overall seasonal activity and is not a landfall forecast. Landfalls are largely determined by short-term weather patterns, which are only predictable within about a week of a storm potentially reaching a coastline. NOAA’s National Hurricane Center provides tropical weather outlooks out to seven days in advance, provides track and intensity forecasts for individual storms and issues watches and warnings for specific tropical storms, hurricanes and the associated storm surge.
Stay informed: Consult the National Hurricane Center website, hurricanes.gov, for the latest about tropical storm and hurricane activity in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins. You can also follow regular updates from NHC on X at @NHC_Atlantic and on Facebook.
Climate, weather, and water affect all life on our ocean planet. NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict our changing environment, from the deep sea to outer space, and to manage and conserve America’s coastal and marine resources. See how NOAA science, services, and stewardship benefit your community: Visit noaa.gov for our latest news and features, and join us on social media.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
A recent article in Florida Today (FT) “Invasive fire ants spread, get boost from climate change in Florida” is not just false—it’s a classic case of alarmist reporting that ignores decades of entomological and ecological data. Fire ants have been widespread in Florida for decades, the existing climate being conducive to their flourishing across much of the country. The climate has not changed in any meaningful way to make the spread of fire any colonies to new locations more likely.
An excerpt from the FT article states:
With temperatures rising and winters getting milder, invasive fire ants are finding it easier to expand their range across Florida. Climate change, scientists say, is giving the ants a leg up, pushing them farther north and deeper into the state.
It’s a tidy story for headline writers, but it glosses over the well-established reasons behind the spread of fire ants—namely, accidental introduction through global and regional trade, poorly regulated movement of nursery stock and soil, and the absence of natural predators in North America.
The science is clear: fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) first arrived in Mobile Alabama via South American shipping in the 1930s—not because of climate change, but thanks to lax port controls as documented by USDA’s APHIS website. Their spread consistently is tracked with expansions of highways and railroads, plus the movement of landscaping materials, not minor temperature shifts. Even the University of Florida’s IFAS Extension points to “human-assisted movement of infested sod, soil, nursery plants, and other materials” as the primary culprit. This becomes clear when you look at the timeline of fire ants in Florida based on multiple sources of data, including a peer-reviewed study from the University of Texas.
This table summarizes the timeline:
This timeline clearly underscores that the fire ant invasion in Florida has been overwhelmingly complicit with human-mediated transport and habitat alteration—not a result of minor climate fluctuations. Indeed, as the timeline shows, fire ants first landed in northern Florida, the portion of the state that experiences cooler, sometimes freezing temperatures, far more often than any other region of the state. The red imported fire ant’s rapid spread is attributed to its ability to adapt to new environments, its lack of natural predators in the US, and its accidental dispersal through cargo, soil, and nursery stock.
The facts show that fire ants spread explosively in the 1940s through 1970s northward from the coasts, during a period when the Earth was modestly cooling, decades before “global warming” became a household term. Nor is there any evidence the modest warming experienced in North Florida, or elsewhere in what is already fire ant range, has made the invasive pest more likely to flourish than it already does.
To claim otherwise, as Florida Today does, is journalistic malpractice. By promoting climate alarmism, while ignoring the data, Florida Today does a disservice to readers and local policy makers alike. One wonders whether the editorial staff even bothered to consult entomologists before greenlighting this copy-paste climate narrative, which is nothing more than misinformation.
Iowa Climate Science Education 