“Earth’s climate swings increasingly out of balance,” according to a World Meteorological Organization press release discussing findings from the State of the Global Climate 2025 report, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) on Aug. 10, 2026. The report includes research supported in part by data from the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), which is managed by researchers in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington.

Lightning is recognized as an Essential Climate Variable, and data from global lightning networks, including WWLLN, revealed significant lightning anomalies during 2025. Among the most notable examples was Tropical Cyclone Melissa, the strongest tropical cyclone of 2025, and one of the strongest ever recorded. Researchers observed copious lightning within both the storm’s eyewall and rainbands.

The lightning analysis presented in the BAMS report was conducted by Emeritus Professor Robert Holzworth and the WWLLN team. Their work contributes to the broader scientific assessment of the current state of Earth’s climate and its changing patterns.

WWLLN is the world’s oldest real-time global lightning detection network. More than 100 sensors distributed around the globe continuously detect lightning activity, with data transmitted and processed in real time in ESS, providing a unique resource for weather, climate, and atmospheric research worldwide.