NOAA Sea to Sky: Education resource database

These "tiny tutorials" are designed to break the ice and get you started. These simple animations walk you through our data visualizations step by step. From there, each data portal offers many variables and dimensions to explore. So roll up your sleeves, fire up your browser or phone, and start exploring the ocean and atmosphere. Explore tiny tutorials on auroras, historical climate, magnetic fields, environmental response, fire weather, and hurricane data products from NOAA.

There’s a saying among climate scientists: What happens in the Arctic doesn’t necessarily stay in the Arctic. That’s especially true when a sudden warming of the polar stratosphere -- the layer of the atmosphere just above the layer where we live -- in winter causes the Arctic jet stream to slow and wobble, spilling frigid air and extreme weather south over North America and Europe, often for weeks at a time. 

The term jet stream is used increasingly in both weather forecasts and news reports of extreme events, from cold spells and flooding to heatwaves and droughts. But what is the jet stream, and why do we care about it so much?

At the Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve, a new community of students is getting their boots wet gathering data through a new program that serves the children of migrant farmers.

A key issue facing hurricane scientists and climate scientists is how Atlantic hurricane activity might be expected to change assuming the climate continues to warm over the coming century.

Even though he’s been forecasting since 1887, Punxsutawney Phil’s track record for the entire country isn’t perfect. To determine just how accurate he is, we’ve compared U.S. national temperatures with Phil’s forecasts. On average, Phil has gotten it right 40% of the time over the past 10 years.

Celebrate the season of spring with NOAA! From new graphics to educational resources, spring into science with us and check out our content.

GOES-T will track destructive wildfires, lightning, Pacific Ocean-based storms, dense fog, and other hazards that threaten the U.S. West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska. It will also monitor solar activity and space weather to provide early warnings of disruptions to power grids, communications and navigation systems. 

This old saying actually has a scientific explanation. It relates to moving high and low surface-pressure weather systems, and the way that the colors in sunlight are scattered differently by dirty and clean atmospheres. This is the explanation of how these phenomena combine to color our sunrises and sunsets.

A NOAA-funded study shows that the 1918/1919 El Niño was one of the strongest of the 20th century, a finding counter to earlier analyses that viewed it as weak. This research could ultimately lead to a better understanding of how El Niño events impact weather in the United States and globally. It also suggests a possible link between El Niño and the 1918 flu pandemic. NOAA's Climate Program Office funded the study.