Here's some terrible news to mark the beginning of permanent fire season in California: It's going to stay like this, hot and dry, until May. The Climate Prediction Center says winter will come and go without the usual winter storms that provide the snowpack that provides all the water people use. Fire conditions will be awful until summer, when they will continue being awful until next winter, if winter ever shows up again.

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have confirmed what many in America had already suspected: For the lower 48 states, last month was the hottest month on record.

While many central and southern states have been dealing with scorching temperatures for days now, it wasn't until this week that the heat wave began spreading east and enveloped the entire country. So just how much of the country is suffering from the sweltering heat? Check out the time-lapse animation from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to find out—and turn up the A/C while you're at it! [via Fark]

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration believe they have a "smoking gun" after finding dead coral 4,500 feet below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico, seven miles from the Deepwater Horizon rig site. What a coincidence.

Good news on the oil spill front! Not only is BP's "static kill" tactic apparently working, there's a new report from the U.S. government saying that the oil in the Gulf of Mexico "poses only a slight risk." Huzzah!

The 2000s were the hottest recorded decade, according to a new NOAA report calling global warming "undeniable." Well riddle me this, "the U.S. National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration": How can there be global warming... if it still snows? [NatGeo]