Every so often, a dome of upper-level high pressure sits in place for a few days, sometimes as long as several weeks. A major block can produce seemingly endless stretches of blazing heat or bitter cold. By the time it dissipates, it may leave behind a whole stack of broken weather records and an array of disastrous consequences.

A small but active group of discipline-crossing specialists are analyzing the response of disease transmission to temperature, moisture, and other atmospheric variables.

New research that involves NCAR's Bette Otto-Bliesner questions conventional wisdom with regard to massive iceberg discharges in the North Atlantic Ocean during the last glacial period, pointing toward climate rather than ice sheet instability as a cause.