Climate and environment updates: 7 key measures of Earth's health in danger, report warns

The government organization responsible for forecasting hurricanes and keeping people safe during these deadly and destructive storms set a new record for forecast track accuracy in 2024. But recent budget and staffing cuts by the Trump administration could jeopardize this progress.

Part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Hurricane Center played a crucial role in helping people prepare through timely and accurate forecasts. NHC issued 347 official forecasts during the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, and its track predictions set accuracy records for every time period, according to a new report released on Wednesday.

Track forecast performance, which details the path a storm will take, was the best in history for the agency. Official track forecast errors have decreased significantly in recent years and are now up to 75% smaller than they were a few decades ago, according to the report.

The report also analyzed intensity forecast accuracy, which continues to lag behind track forecasts. However, the report said overall intensity predictions have shown steady improvement over the past decade.

NOAA and several key divisions, like the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center, have been impacted by recent staff reductions approved by the Trump administration. According to current and former NOAA employees who spoke to ABC News, these cuts are impacting offices that are already coping with inadequate staffing levels.

Staffing limitations have impacted several key services provided by the National Weather Service, including reducing weather balloon launches at select sites nationwide. With fewer upper-air observations, less data is available for the weather models that forecasters rely on.

NOAA and the United States Air Force operate aircraft, commonly called the Hurricane Hunters, which fly into tropical cyclones to collect data essential for forecasting a storm's path, timing and strength. According to a March report from the Government Accountability Office, these vital missions have also faced staffing and maintenance challenges in recent years, which has resulted in canceled flights.

Hurricane Hunter flights provide critical meteorological data from inside the storms, a necessary component for producing detailed tropical cyclone forecasts. NOAA research shows that their collected data improves hurricane forecast accuracy by at least 10%. The more high-quality data that forecasters have at their disposal, the more effectively they can develop precise and detailed forecasts.

-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck

It's been more than 50 years since the first Earth Day in the United States. On April 22, 1970, people gathered at events across the country to raise awareness about the environmental issues impacting our nation and the planet. While the Earth Day movement has helped raise awareness about human-amplified climate change and has led to some regulatory actions, 5 1/2 decades later, the planet continues to warm at an alarming rate, with the impacts of that warming worsening with each passing decade.

Climate scientists have long recognized that increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere contribute directly to global warming. There is a strong and well-established link between rising global temperatures and extreme heat events as a result of human-induced climate change.

Since the first Earth Day, the annual average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by more than 30%. It is now rising at the fastest rate on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

All 50 states and 240 cities across the U.S. have experienced warming since the first Earth Day, according to an analysis by Climate Central, a nonprofit climate research group. Alaska has warmed the fastest, followed by Delaware, Massachusetts and New Jersey.

The Arctic region is heating much faster than the global average, which has pushed Alaska to the top of the list, with its average annual temperature rising by 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970. Among cities, the fastest-warming over the past 55 years include Reno and Las Vegas in Nevada, El Paso and Tyler in Texas and Burlington, Vermont.

Overall, the contiguous United States is now about 2.8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was in 1970, based on average annual temperatures.

Warming global temperatures are also driving sea-level rise, which has been accelerating in recent decades due to melting glaciers and ice sheets, as well as the thermal expansion of seawater as it warms.

Since 1970, sea levels have risen by more than half a foot, on average, across the contiguous United States, according to the Interagency Task Force on Sea Level Change. Some regional coastlines, states and cities have experienced even greater increases. Sea-level rise varies regionally along the nation's coastlines due to shifts in both land elevation and ocean height.

The Northeast coastline, for example, has recorded an average increase of 9 inches since 1970. Florida has seen a rise of 7 inches over the past 5 1/2 decades, while in Washington, D.C., the sea level is now 8 inches higher than in 1970.

-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck

Artificial intelligence is growing at a meteoric rate, requiring a larger share of the world's energy. Powering AI is a vast infrastructure of data centers, cloud networks and computing systems that are fueling a growing energy demand.

In a first-of-its-kind comprehensive report on AI and energy, the International Energy Agency said the global expansion of AI data centers is likely to drive some of the fastest growth in global electricity demand seen in recent years.

"With the rise of AI, the energy sector is at the forefront of one of the most important technological revolutions of our time," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said.

The IEA projects electricity demand from global data centers will more than double over the next five years and, by 2030, consume as much as the nation of Japan does today.

According to the report, data centers in the United States are likely to account for almost half of the growth in electricity demand. The report emphasizes that by 2030, the U.S. economy will use more electricity for data processing than for producing all energy-intensive goods combined, such as steel, aluminum, cement and chemicals.

Despite concerns over rising global energy demand, the IEA said their analysis shows positive impacts, like increased productivity, enhanced competitiveness and cost reductions, could outweigh the negative effects. In fact, the growth of AI in the energy sector could even help reduce global energy-related emissions, a reduction that could be far larger than new emissions from data centers, the report found.

While a mix of energy sources will be needed to meet the world's growing data center electricity demands, renewable sources are expected to supply roughly half of the global demand growth over the next five years, according to the report. Data centers may also serve as hubs for new low-emission energy projects. And as AI becomes more integrated into scientific research, the IEA said it could help accelerate innovation in energy technologies such as batteries and solar PV.

For example, leaks are a significant source of methane emissions in oil and gas production. The report said AI can facilitate rapid leak detection so that repairs happen sooner, limiting total emissions. AI could also help reduce transportation-related emissions by choosing the most efficient travel routes in real time, according to the report.

-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck

It has been an active start to the severe weather season. According to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. tornado activity in March was more than twice the monthly average, with over 200 tornadoes recorded.

This trend continued through the first week of April, with more than 150 tornado reports across the South and Midwest during a devastating multi-day stretch of life-threatening weather conditions.

The report also highlighted notable temperature and precipitation trends nationwide in March. Last month, the average temperature of the contiguous U.S. was 46.9 degrees Fahrenheit, more than 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit above average. That ranked last month as the nation's sixth warmest March on record. Above-average to way above-average temperatures were observed across most of the Lower 48, except for parts of California and the Southeast.

Precipitation was below average across much of the Plains and South in March, which brought expanding and intensifying drought conditions to states like Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. Persistently dry conditions also kept a drought in place across much of the Carolinas, fueling the destructive wildfires that ravaged both states last month.

North Carolina experienced its driest March since 2016, and South Carolina has had its driest first three months of the year in nearly 40 years. The extremely dry conditions were a primary contributor to the rapid spread of the flames, which was exacerbated by the millions of downed trees in the region due to Hurricane Helene last fall. This created an abundance of dry fuel, allowing wildfires to explode in size. Drought conditions are likely to persist across the Carolinas through the end of the month.

According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report released on April 1, about 43.4% of the contiguous U.S. is experiencing drought.

-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck