A weak La Niña and signs of a disrupted polar vortex are forecast to shape colder-than-average winter conditions across the northern United States, southern Canada, and parts of Europe during the 2025/26 season. Early seasonal outlooks suggest a higher likelihood of Arctic air intrusions and persistent cold anomalies from December 2025 through February 2026.
New research published on August 6, 2025, in JAMA estimates that 440 excess deaths occurred in Los Angeles County, California, from January 5–February 1, 2025, due to the Palisades and Eaton wildfires, compared with 30 direct deaths officially reported.
Global natural disasters caused an estimated USD 135 billion in economic losses in the first half of 2025, with insured losses reaching USD 80 billion. This was driven largely by January wildfires in the Los Angeles area that generated about USD 40 billion in insurance claims, according to Swiss Re Institute.
A large landslide hit Tracy Arm, Southeast Alaska at approximately 05:30 LT (13:30 UTC) on August 10, 2025, generating a localized tsunami, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center.
Milwaukee recorded its second-wettest day on August 9, 2025, with 146 mm (5.74 inches) of rain causing historic flooding across the city and nearby areas.
Preliminary data from KBGSRAS shows that the southern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula shifted southeastward by nearly 2 m (6.6 feet) after M8.8 earthquake on July 29. This is comparable in scale to displacement observed during the 2011 M9.1 Tōhoku earthquake in Japan.
The M8.8 earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula sent tsunami waves of up to 1.2 m (4 feet) to Crescent City Harbor, California, on July 30, 2025, coinciding with high tide. The tsunami waves caused damages worth nearly USD 1 million. The city also set a new record for the highest tsunami waves on record for the continental United States.
A massive dust storm swept across the Ica Valley, southern Peru, on July 31, 2025, with experts describing it as unprecedented in the region. The phenomenon reduced visibility to near zero, disrupted transport, and was driven by an unusual convergence of high‑ and low‑pressure systems.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 4 % chance of striking the Moon on December 22, 2032, potentially ejecting up to 100 million kg of lunar debris into space, with as much as 10 % of it reaching Earth and producing a rare, slow-moving meteor storm.
The World Meteorological Organization confirmed a new lightning flash record spanning 829 km (515 miles) across the Great Plains, United States, observed on October 22, 2017.
