Climate Change Institute

Four and a half years of visits to the University of Maine’s numerous research labs, creative arts spaces, university farms, research forests, field sites, instruments, and development facilities in Orono and beyond have taught me a great deal. I am grateful to all who have stepped away from their research time to explain what they […]

Sean Birkel, Maine state climatologist and assistant professor with a joint appointment in University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the UMaine Climate Change Institute, spoke to USA Today to fact check an article that falsely claims the sun is causing global cooling. Birkel explained that cold events can occur even on a warming planet. Climate […]

In an article featuring historical photographs of ice conditions in Maine, the Bangor Daily News cited the 2020 Maine’s Climate Future report published by the University of Maine, which shows that winter is the state’s fastest-warming season. WPFO-TV (Fox 23 in Portland) shared the BDN report.

Sean Birkel, Maine state climatologist and assistant professor with a joint appointment in University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the UMaine Climate Change Institute, spoke to the Bangor Daily News about the exceptionally warm December in Bangor. “If we look at the larger statewide scales, winters in Maine are warming on average, though there is […]

Global glacier change in the 21st century: Every increase in temperature matters David R. Rounce1,2*, Regine Hock2,3, Fabien Maussion4, Romain Hugonnet5,6,7, William Kochtitzky8,9, Matthias Huss5,6,10, Etienne Berthier7, Douglas Brinkerhoff11, Loris Compagno5,6, Luke Copland8, Daniel Farinotti5,6, Brian Menounos12,13, Robert W. McNabb14   * William Kochtitzky received an MS in Quaternary and Climate Studies through the Climate […]

In a roundup of the year’s climate stories, Maine Public cited an interview with Ivan Fernandez, a professor of soil science at the University of Maine, where he said that snow in Maine has decreased by 7% and will decrease by another 20%–40% by 2050. The article also noted that, according to the University of […]

In an article about the polar vortex, the New York Times used a data visualization from the University of Maine Climate Change Institute’s Climate Reanalyzer.

In an article about the polar vortex, the Dallas Morning News cited information from the University of Maine Climate Reanalyzer showing that the world as a whole is about the same temperature as the average was from 1979–2000 for this time of year.

Jacquelyn Gill, associate professor of paleoecology and plant ecology at the University of Maine, spoke to Physics World about the term “Anthropocene,” which geologists have not yet fully defined despite the fact that the term has entered the public discourse. “I think, in a lot of ways, the cat’s out of the bag. … What […]

News Center Maine featured Sean Birkel, research assistant professor of the Climate Change Institute, and his research with the University of Vermont and University of New Hampshire about the climate resilience of manufactured homes. “The whole basin, and also [the] Gulf of Maine, last year and this year, are the two warmest years on record. […]