![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/260911-heatwave-ch-1358-533866.jpg\")
People shelter from the sun at the Santa Monica Pier on Aug. 24 in Santa Monica, Calif.Arwen Clemans \/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\nThe new report, published in the journals Earth\u2019s Future and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, was produced by 175 independent climate scientists, including many who had taken part in previous national climate assessments.<\/p>\n
The document outlines areas of climate research that the authors think deserve more focus, like the risks of compounding events \u2014 when a heat wave follows a hurricane, for example. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen this summer instances of high heat coupled with wildfire. We\u2019ve seen extreme precipitation leading to flash floods and electricity outages, and those risks are commonly overwhelming legacy policies and infrastructures,\u201d Kenney said. <\/p>\n
The report also notes areas where scientists have made improvements since the fifth and last National Assessment, released in 2023, such as how to characterize flood risk with a better understanding of hurricane rapid intensification and U.S. coastal subsidence. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a couple of years since the last U.S. National Climate Assessment, and a lot has progressed,\u201d Kenney said. \u201cWe hear what our communities are saying, and they\u2019re telling us they need scientific information. They need us to continue working so that they can better understand the impacts that they are experiencing and what we expect will happen in the future.\u201d <\/p>\n
The future of national climate assessments remains murky. <\/p>\n
People shelter from the sun at the Santa Monica Pier on Aug. 24 in Santa Monica, Calif.Arwen Clemans \/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Global Change Research Act of 1990 requires the USGCRP to submit a report \u2014 the National Climate Assessment \u2014 to the president and Congress every four years. It has typically contained a summary of science about the physics of climate change, its effects on the United States and how society is adapting. The assessments also contained localized climate predictions for different regions of the United States, which are meant to give the public a better idea of the risks facing their communities.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the Trump administration appointed Matthew Wielicki to direct the USGCRP. On his personal blog, titled \u201cIrrational Fear,\u201d Wielicki has criticized the scientific consensus on climate change and has criticized media coverage of heat waves being intensified by climate change<\/a> as \u201chysteria.\u201d<\/p>\n Wielicki and the White House Office of Science and Technology did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the special collection, the future of the National Climate Assessment and whether the publication would continue. <\/p>\n The Trump administration has also proposed to edit the content of the National Climate Assessment from 2023 to remove discussion of a high-emissions scenario it considers unlikely. Scientists said it was unusual to propose editing a three-year-old report that was produced by hundreds of scientists and already subjected to peer review and public comment \u2014 especially when a new version was due so soon. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a complete violation of basic scientific best practice,\u201d said Rachel Cleetus, a senior policy director with the Union of Concerned Scientists\u2019 climate and energy program, describing the proposed amendment as \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d editing. \u201cThey\u2019re just advocating coming and proposing to make changes to a report that they were not even authors on.\u201d <\/p>\n![\"Flooding](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/260815-indianapolis-flooding-ww-1318-896d30.jpg\")
Flooding in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Indianapolis, near the White River, on Aug. 15.NBC News<\/p>\n