National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

"El Niño can have a wide variety of effects including lowering or raising temperatures, increasing or decreasing precipitation, extending or reducing drought conditions, enhancing or lowering risk for tropical cyclones, and increasing the potential for coral bleaching.

The coal formation process involves the burial of peat, which is made of partly decayed plant materials, deep underground. The heat and pressure of burial alters the texture and increases the carbon content of the peat, which transforms it into coal, a type of sedimentary rock. This process takes millions of years.

Types, or “ranks,” of coal are determined by carbon content. There are four types of coal, ordered from highest to lowest rank below.

A simple answer to this question is “climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.”^[1]

Traditional geothermal power uses natural steam or very hot water trapped in deep rock formations. Extraction wells – often more than a mile deep¹ – are drilled into the hot rocks, allowing the steam or hot water to flow up to the surface.

U.S. Geological Survey FAQs

"Flood predictions require several types of data:

National Integrated Drought Information System: U.S. Drought Monitor

"The U.S. Drought Monitor is a map released every Thursday, showing parts of the U.S. that are in drought. The map uses five classifications: abnormally dry (D0), showing areas that may be going into or are coming out of drought, and four levels of drought: moderate (D1), severe (D2), extreme (D3) and exceptional (D4).

Sometimes. Many droughts can be predicted up to a month in advance,^1,2 and in rare cases it may be possible to predict drought conditions more than a year in advance.² However, the complexity of Earth’s climate makes drought forecasting very difficult.

U.S. Geological Survey FAQs:

Material adapted from: Vandas, S.J., Winter, T.C., and Battaglin, W.A. 2002. Water and the Environment, p. 38-39. Published by the American Geosciences Institute Environmental Awareness Series. Click here to download the full handbook.

Material adapted from: Vandas, S.J., Winter, T.C., and Battaglin, W.A. 2002. Water and the Environment, p. 41. Published by the American Geosciences Institute Environmental Awareness Series. Click here to download the full handbook.