Fueled by climate change, the heat wave is unprecedented in its timing, intensity and scope. Coupled with a catastrophic drought that has damaged crops and shrunk vital reservoirs to all-time lows, the blazing weather is a trademark of human-caused warming.

It was December when the first reports started coming in: All across the frozen Mongolian steppe, saiga were dying from a virus. The antelope species, with its tawny coat, ringed horns and incongruous oversize snout, has roamed the world's chilly northern grasslands since the Pleistocene.

The remote Arctic tundra may seem like the last place on Earth human pollution should be causing a problem — yet it’s filled with mercury contamination.

The devastating storm once known as Hurricane Harvey, already the biggest rainstorm in the history of the continental United States, delivered another punishing wave of rain Wednesday to Texas and Louisiana.

But the age-old Inugguit lifestyle is changing fast as the climate warms, disrupting long-held patterns and possibilities and forcing economic challenges as a traditional hunting culture weighs new industries such as fishing and even tourism.

A permafrost coastline is receding dramatically along Alaska's North Slope region. It could be an indicator of far more massive land losses across the Arctic.

A spill from a pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico has released over 1 million gallons of oil, threatening local wildlife and prompting containment efforts.

The last confirmed instance of local transmission happened in 2003, when eight people became infected in Palm Beach County, Fla., the CDC said.

Fires are already erupting in Siberia this spring, sending billowing smoke into the western United States. One of the regions with the largest number of extinguished forest fires was in Omsk Oblast. Videos from the Siberian Times showed wildfires raging across the Omsk and Tyumen oblasts in Western Siberia, while satellite data showed several fires across the landscape beginning in the first half of April.

Central and northern Japan have received record snowfall this week, with some locations seeing as much as 12 feet.

Residents are lamenting a December without the constant layer of snow that defines Russian winters, when what little light there is typically reflects off the white covering and brightens the days.

The relatively warm weather, arriving a month earlier than normal, is projected to stick around for the next 10 days, potentially accelerating sea ice loss.

The varnished wooden cross stands amid a cluster of grave markers tilted at odd angles in the cemetery, because the ground beneath them is sinking. Rising temperatures are thawing the once-frozen earth, forming pools of water that run through the graveyard.

The storm presents an amazing contrast from a possible world-record high-pressure zone over Mongolia.

Almost 20 percent of residents in one town have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Researchers are asking the public for help in identifying a condition that has left endangered panthers in Florida with neurological damage.

Dorian has risen to the top of the charts among the most powerful hurricanes ever observed in the Atlantic Ocean.

An off-course beluga whale was spotted splashing around near London, and Brits can’t quite believe it.