Leading hail experts say scientists are making substantial progress in better understanding hailstorms, a key step toward improving forecasts of the multibillion-dollar hazard.

Fire experts across the nation call for a more strategic and interdisciplinary approach to pursuing wildfire research and protecting vulnerable communities.

A field campaign to study extreme rainfall is underway this summer, bringing together an international team of atmospheric experts in one of the wettest areas of the globe. Based out of western Taiwan and a southern island of Japan, the Prediction of Rainfall Extremes Campaign in the Pacific (PRECIP) research team, including experts from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), will be carefully collecting data and observations of the extreme storms and monsoons that are common in this region.

A new technique developed by NCAR uses artificial intelligence to efficiently update the vegetation maps that are relied on by wildfire computer models to accurately predict fire behavior and spread.

This summer’s western wildfire season is likely to be more severe than average but not as devastating as last year’s near-record, according to an experimental prediction method developed by NCAR scientists.