2024 was a brutal year for the Amazon rainforest, with rampant wildfires and extreme drought ravaging large parts of a biome that's a critical counterweight to climate change.

A warming climate fed drought that in turn fed the worst year for fires since 2005. And those fires contributed to deforestation, with authorities suspecting some fires were set to more easily clear land to run cattle.

California is beginning 2025 with a solid start to the winter snowpack, officials said Thursday, but they cautioned that more storms are needed to keep the state's water supplies on track.

Officials at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range that covers the eastern part of the state, recorded a snow depth of 24 inches (61 centimeters), said Andy Reising, manager of the Department of Water Resources' snow surveys and water supply forecasting unit. The water content of the snowpack at the station is currently at 91% of the average for this time of year and 37% of the average for April 1, when the Sierra snowpack is typically at its peak, he said.

Russian officials have warned of severe environmental damage as thousands of people came out to clean up tons of fuel oil that spilled out of two storm-stricken tankers more than two weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, near Moscow-occupied Crimea.

Officials assessed the damage on Sunday after a strong storm system moved across the southern U.S. over the weekend, spawning tornadoes and killing at least four people.

People around the world suffered an average of 41 extra days of dangerous heat this year because of human-caused climate change, according to a group of scientists who also said that climate change worsened much of the world's damaging weather throughout 2024.

The analysis from World Weather Attribution and Climate Central researchers comes at the end of a year that shattered climate record after climate record as heat across the globe made 2024 likely to be its hottest ever measured and a slew of other fatal weather events spared few.

Communities and firefighters across Australia's second-most populous state were preparing Thursday for potentially devastating wild fires as a heat wave fanned by erratic winds presented the worst fire conditions in several years.

With temperatures in Victoria state reaching 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit) and with wind changes expected throughout the day, fire chiefs have issued stark warnings to rural communities to delay travel or leave their homes and seek safety at shelters.

Electric vehicles had another whirlwind year around the globe, driven by buyers in China, and growth in parts of Europe and the United States, despite headwinds.

In a milestone for China, the world's biggest auto market, EVs hit 50% of new car sales in July. That included pure battery EVs plus plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Chinese companies such as BYD continue to gain traction worldwide with their inexpensive EVs.

Long-horned cattle wade through flooded lands and climb a slope along a canal that has become a refuge for displaced families in South Sudan. Smoke from burning dung rises near homes of mud and grass where thousands of people now live after floods swept away their village.

"Too much suffering," said Bichiok Hoth Chuiny, a woman in her 70s. She supported herself with a stick as she walked in the newly established community of Pajiek in Jonglei state north of the capital, Juba.

France marked a national day of mourning Monday for the victims of Cyclone Chido, which devastated the French overseas department of Mayotte earlier this month. Flags were flown at half-staff across the country, and a minute of silence was observed.

The cyclone, the most destructive to hit Mayotte in 90 years, caused extensive damage to the island, known as France's poorest territory, and left 35 dead and around 2,500 injured. The actual toll is likely much higher due to the widespread destruction of infrastructure and precarious living conditions.

President Joe Biden is pledging to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60% by 2035 as he fights to ensure his legacy on slowing global warming, even as President-elect Donald Trump vows to undo much of Biden's climate work when he takes office next month.

Biden said the new goal — which supersedes a previous plan to cut carbon emissions at least in half by 2030 — keeps the United States on track to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide by 2050. The U.S. is making a formal submission of the new target, known as a Nationally Determined Contribution, to the United Nations under terms of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, Biden said Thursday.