Peter Sousounis

The current drought in the Southwestern U.S. has broken records that have stood for a very long time.

In 2021, severe thunderstorm activity in the U.S. was anything but noteworthy—until December 10.

Across many parts of the U.S. the frequency and intensity of flooding have increased during recent decades.

Aristotle believed that earthquakes were the result of air escaping violently from subterranean caves.

By October 1, a total of 46,279 wildfires had burned more than 5.9 million acres across the U.S. in 2021.

The report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, represents the consensus view of the more than 200 scientists from 66 countries who make up the IPCC’s Working Group I.

The influence of sea surface temperatures on North American hurricane activity has long been recognized

Insurers are being asked increasingly pointed questions about preparedness for a changing climate.

Due to its location and large size, visitors to Spain can generally expect a Mediterranean climate.

For the first time in the satellite era Somalia, in the Horn of Africa, was struck by a hurricane-strength typhoon.

Understanding climate change’s impact on tropical cyclones goes beyond considering impacts at landfall.

Eunice Newton Foote first demonstrated the impact of CO2 on atmospheric warming in 1856.

Thanks to seasonal rains China is no stranger to summer flooding, particularly in the south and center.

Let's put scientific findings surrounding climate change's impact on jet stream waviness into perspective.

This latest pandemic has prompted me to think how climate, if not climate change, may affect the outcome.

The bushfires raging across Australia have many asking if climate change caused this extreme event.

As AIR's first Director of Climate Change Research, I am responsible for identifying the research we must undertake.

The UN Environment Programme's Emissions Gap Report, released today, offers the best insight into RCPs.

Venice has been celebrating its marriage to the sea since a military victory in the year 997, but the relationship is becoming strained.

Two IPCC Special Reports were released in the run-up to the U.N. Climate Summit held in New York this September.

Typhoon Hagibis made landfall with 1-minute sustained wind speeds of about 145 km/h (90 mph), the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane, on the main Japanese island of Honshu. Unprecedented rainfall followed.

September's Tropical Storm Imelda was the fifth wettest tropical cyclone on record in the U.S. and the second wettest storm to flood Texas in three years behind Hurricane Harvey in August 2017.

In a blog published earlier this year, I commented on the potential future effects of arctic amplification and noted that one of them would be an increase in wildfires.

Climate change has long been a challenging issue—with potential climatological, ecological, and economics responses, among others. But insurance needs to have a response, too.

The Arctic and Antarctic regions have been bellwethers for climate change for decades; have been warming at more than twice the global average.

Late January storms dumped more than 1 meter of rain within 48 hours on parts of Queensland in northeastern Australia, and widespread flooding ensued.

What do our clients and the greater insurance industry think about climate change? We did some market research to find out.

The National Climate Assessment (NCA) is an interagency report issued every four years or so on expected impacts of climate change in the U.S., mandated by Congress.

For the second time in the last two years, hurricane precipitation in the U.S. will be exacerbated by incredibly slow movement.

The sea level has risen globally in the last century and climate change is the culprit. Inaction during Sunny Day Floods is especially unacceptable.

AIR’s meteorological team reviews 18th AMSConference on Tropical Meteorology and Hurricanes with talks about stormsurges, hurricane landfalls, and more.

In this era of global warming, how is it that the northeastern U.S. just experienced four nor'easters in the space of three weeks, and Spain, Italy, Ireland, and England were slammed by Arctic winds, bitter cold, and major snowstorms?

I saw that the October value for the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation Index was 0.436 and thought, “that seems high”. A quick check confirmed that it was the highest October value since 1856!

The North Atlantic hurricanes Harvey and Irma made landfall along the U.S. coastline within two weeks of each other. We were curious to see how often major hurricanes made consecutive landfalls along the U.S. coast.

The Atlantic Hurricane Season has only just recently passed its peak (September 10) and there is a lot more time left. But this year is already going into the record books for many reasons.

Hurricane Harvey's recorded 130 mph winds and 3 meter storm surge—and the damage they caused—were certainly noteworthy, but they are not what people will remember.

A study by Dr. Jim Kossin—a well-respected tropical cyclone scientist—was published in Nature in January 2017. It could shed some light on why there has been a major hurricane (Category 3 or higher) drought in the U.S. for the last 11 years.

Most scientific research on the influence of climate change on hurricane activity has focused on the relationship between warm Atlantic Ocean conditions and tropical activity in the basin, but how is climate change going to affect the risk of U.S. hurricane landfalls?

While some studies have suggested that continued warming of the Earth’s surface will eventually lead to an increase in the proportion of strong tropical cyclones, considerable uncertainty in this result remains, and the impact of a clear overall warming trend on the insurance industry is also somewhat ambiguous.

In the U.S., the 1993 "Storm of the Century" that occurred from March 12-14 (SOC '93) was so called for a number of reasons, the primary because of which were its size and the number of states it affected.

It seems like no matter what happens typhoon-season-wise in the Western Pacific (WPAC) Basin, something unique and impressive is almost always a part of it.

Florida's near 11-year drought of landfalling hurricanes may have ended when Hermine came ashore 23 miles south of Tallahassee on September 2, 2016, but the most memorable U.S. hurricane of the season will most likely be Matthew.

What ultimately became Typhoon Nepartak was born on July 2, making 2016 the second-latest starting western Pacific (WPAC) typhoon season—just a shade ahead (in the standings) of 1973, when Wilda formed on July 1, and several days behind 1998, when Nichole formed on July 9.

Due to the large number of tropical cyclones that form over the warm water of the Northwest Pacific Basin and the 8,700 miles of its coastline, China is impacted by more tropical cyclones each year than any other country.

People like to name things, whether animals, cars, or storms, so they can more easily identify and remember them. Meteorological organizations have been naming tropical storm systems since the 1950s, which has proved popular with the general public, media, weather forecasters, and catastrophe modelers. The practice of naming storms, however, is not as simple as it may at first appear.

It is well known that there is no real typhoon season in the Pacific north of the equator and west of the Date Line—the Northwest Pacific basin. Unlike the North Atlantic, which has official start and end dates of June 1 and November 30, the Northwest Pacific basin is open for business all year round.

Here we are, smack dab in the middle of one of the strongest—if not the strongest—El Niño events in recorded history, and we get a hurricane in the Atlantic in January! 

Just as the Atlantic hurricane season has ended, the European windstorm season is already underway.

If we ask ourselves where in the world the greatest threat from storm surge is, the Philippines may not immediately come to mind. But it should.

Most people are familiar with El Niño. During an El Niño event, trade winds that normally blow from east to west relax or even reverse direction.

AIR Worldwide recently joined The Risk Prediction Initiative 2.0 (RPI2.0), a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to focus academic research toward the needs of the insurance and reinsurance industry.

The 2014 Western Pacific Typhoon Season is officially over and although it turned out to be sub-par in terms of the total number of named storms (23), it is of interest for several reasons.

A decade ago, one of the deadliest natural disasters in history killed more than 230,000 people in 14 countries around the Indian Ocean and caused significant damage in five more. The magnitude 9.1–9.3 megathrust earthquake occurred 250 km south-south-east of Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

OK, so an epic snowstorm just dropped five feet or more of snow on parts of western New York state, and the 24-hour United States snowfall record set in 1921 may get beaten—and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet. What's going on?

Earlier this year I blogged about how a jackrabbit start for the Northwest Pacific typhoon season doesn't necessarily signal a banner year for typhoon counts there. I hate to say I told you so...but at this point the typhoon season is definitely way below a banner year.

On average, 80-90 tropical cyclones (TCs) form in the world’s ocean basins each year—and the numbers are fairly consistent from year to year. This would suggest that, in any given year, if one basin fails to produce its usual output, then another basin may yield a surplus.

Earlier this year there was a lot of hype about how the Western Pacific Typhoon Season was off to a jackrabbit start. First, let’s get one thing straight: there is no such thing as a season in the Western Pacific Typhoon Basin. Typhoons can—and do—form in any month of the year.

Late last year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Fifth Assessment Report on climate change and earlier this month, the U.S. Global Change Research Program released its third national assessment of Climate Change Impacts in the United States. Both reports highlight the increased certainty with which climate change has been occurring, its anthropogenic (resulting from the influence of human beings on nature) cause, and its expected continuation.

Earlier this month at the American Meteorological Society’s Conference on Hurricane and Tropical Meteorology, there was discussion of three storms in particular that will probably have some impact on the perception of hurricane risk in both the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean Basins.

Winter is officially over, but in the northeastern U.S., it seems to be hanging on. In fact, the biggest snowstorm of the season just brushed by Cape Cod last weekend. While many locations in the east have experienced one of their coldest winters in decades, many places out west have actually experienced their warmest winter...ever. It's been quite a season.

The word “seiche” might just be a life saver in a game of Scrabble—but what on earth does it mean? Pronounced “saysh,” it is a Swiss French dialect word meaning to sway back and forth and is used by hydrologists to describe an oscillating wave form found in enclosed or partially enclosed bodies of water.