Beyond Normal

Heat, poor air quality, rain and flooding affected New England summer theater this year.

In New England, with extreme temperatures and excessive rain, it's been a tough growing year. While the increasing warmth could allow for new plant varieties and a longer growing season in the Northeast, southern diseases are also heading this way.

Advocates for New England's cold-water fish — trout and salmon — say changes to their habitats are already impacting their longevity.

More intense storms, rising sea levels, toxic algae blooms, and other environmental crises are making it harder for tribes to practice their culture and to pass it on.

Scientists expect poison ivy will take full advantage of warmer temperatures and rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to grow faster and bigger, and become even more toxic.

A new pilot program sends alerts to remind clinicians to talk to patients about protecting themselves on dangerously hot days, which are happening more frequently because of climate change.

Trees provide a wide range of benefits, from filtering out air pollution, to improving mental health, to cooling city neighborhoods on hot summer days.

Several global weather patterns were factors in the amount of rain that hammered the region.

Volatile weather fueled by climate change has ruined nearly 3,000 acres of crops in Massachusetts, affecting more than 100 farms and costing about $15 million. And it has left farmers asking how to keep farming in a rapidly changing climate.

Many farmers cannot replant fields until next growing season.