Currently in Boston— April 11th, 2022

The weather, currently.

The skies will clear overnight tonight, allowing temperatures to fall back down into the 30s. It will be a gorgeous Monday, with plenty of sunshine and readings up near 60°F in the afternoon. Another weather system brings somewhat unsettled conditions for later Tuesday, with building clouds and the chance of a couple of showers. It will be mild though, with readings again in the 60s, which is quite a bit above average for the time of year. It continues to be mild on Wednesday, with more in the way of sunshine and no chance of showers.

—Dave Epstein

What you need to know, currently.

Old-growth forests are key to mitigating climate impacts—they store an incredible amount of carbon, act as the lungs of the earth, and cool their surroundings. Because they’re centuries old, they are more resistant to fire and extreme temperatures than their younger counterparts.

A study, published on Tuesday in Nature Communications uses a crowd sourced database in an effort to better understand the tipping points for mass forest die-offs. The database, which is now hosted by the International Tree Mortality Network, references forest die-offs at 675 locations, beginning in 1970. The findings were fairly grim.

Although reforestation is often touted as a climate solution, severe drought can permanently damage plant function and metabolism, leaving them more vulnerable to subsequent heat waves. Nearly half a billion trees have already died from extreme drought in Texas and California since 2010.

All is not lost, however. While the study predicts drastically simplified tree communities in the near-term, where many species die off, researchers are working to develop drought resistant trees, with denser root systems, that may be more reliably used in reforestation efforts.