Technologies

Expect Record-Breaking Global Heat in Next 5 Years, Study Says

The World Meteorological Organization predicts that last year’s record-setting temperatures have an 80% chance of happening again within the next five years.

It’s no secret that 2024 was hot. In fact, it was the hottest year ever recorded, with massive heat waves plowing through the US on multiple occasions. It followed up on 2023, which was also the hottest year at the time. Based on predictions, the heat is likely to get even worse over the next five years.

The World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday published its predictions for the next five years. It reports that there’s a roughly 80% chance that at least one of the next five years will surpass 2024 as the warmest humans have seen since recordkeeping began in 1850.

«We have just experienced the 10 warmest years on record. Unfortunately, this WMO report provides no sign of respite over the coming years, and this means that there will be a growing negative impact on our economies, our daily lives, our ecosystems, and our planet,» WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett said in a statement.

In addition, the WMO predicts a 70% chance that the average warming increase will be higher than 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next five years. This is significant because it’s the long-term limit set by the Paris Agreement, indicating that climate change is getting dangerously close to exceeding the agreement’s goals. However, the UN notes that individual months or years can fluctuate due to things like El Niño/La Niña and other weather adjustments. The first calendar year period with temps exceeding the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold was 2024.

Arctic warming is also predicted to continue

Despite the surprising growth of ice in the Arctic due to uncharacteristic snowfall in early 2025, that famously frigid part of the planet is also expected to warm even more than the rest of the globe due to a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. This is caused by bright, reflective sea ice melting, allowing the sun to better warm the darker water underneath. This has a snowball effect where the Arctic gets warmer faster as it loses more and more ice.

While global temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius in 2024 and will likely do so again over the next five years, the temperatures in the Arctic are even warmer.

WMO predicts that the Arctic will warm up by «three and a half times the global average» for the next five winters. The prediction goes on to say that further reduction of sea ice is probable, while weather conditions in northern regions like Alaska, northern Europe and northern Siberia will likely be wetter than average due to warming.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 31, #454

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 454 for May 31.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Todays NYT Strands puzzle could be easy if you spend a lot of time in hair salons, or if you’re familiar with styling your own hair. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Next to the bobby pins.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Beauty helpers.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CRAB, CARE, CARES, STORE, TORE, TOES, SHIR, RACE, RACES

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

CLIP, CLAW, BARRETTE, HEADBAND, SCRUNCHIE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is HAIRACCESSORIES. To find it, start with the H that’s four letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 31, #250

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 250, for May 31.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Connections: Sports Edition isn’t too tough today — a rare thing for this puzzle, which usually stumps me. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Jumping jack is one.

Green group hint: Do your job.

Blue group hint: Think Rawlings.

Purple group hint: Parent of your parent.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Exercises, in singular form.

Green group: Work hard.

Blue group: Materials in a baseball.

Purple group: Grand ____

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is exercises, in singular form. The four answers are crunch, plank, situp and squat.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is work hard. The four answers are grind, labor, strain and toil.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is materials in a baseball. The four answers are cork, leather, rubber and yarn.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is grand ____. The four answers are canyon, prix, slam and stand.

Technologies

SpaceX Plans a Launch Almost Every Other Day for the Rest of 2025

The company anticipates 170 orbital launches for the rest of the year, shooting past its record-setting 134 launches in 2024.

SpaceX wants to launch rockets into space 170 times in 2025. That’s an amibitious goal, considering that only 64 launches have been completed so far this year, and to hit that goal, SpaceX would need to launch a rocket nearly every other day. That’s a significant increase from SpaceX’s single-year record of 134 orbital liftoffs in 2024. For comparison of just how normal the new cadence has become, in 2020, there were only 25 launches. The average launch is every two to three days now.

Read more: SpaceX Loses Contact With Starship in Third Test Flight Failure in a Row

SpaceX can undertake so many launches because of the Falcon 9, the world’s first orbital-class reusable rocket. Being able to reuse the most expensive parts of the rocket not only drives down the cost, but it also allows SpaceX to increase the number of launches each year. Falcon 9 performed 132 of 2024’s liftoffs, and the other two in 2024 were performed by the Falcon Heavy, which is composed of three reusable Falcon 9 engine cores. So far in 2025, all 64 orbital missions have used Falcon 9.

Read more: Here’s How to Watch Every Major US Space Launch for the Rest of 2025

It could also be another big year for Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite venture. Two-thirds of the launches last year were in efforts to build SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation. And growth is expected to continue — of the 64 orbital missions in 2025, 48 have been Starlink flights.

This number doesn’t include the suborbital Starship test flights. Orbital launches require more speed to go into or beyond the Earth’s orbit. Suborbital launches move at lower speeds since they don’t enter orbit.

Starship, a suborbital rocket, is a reusable craft designed to carry humans and cargo through space one day. The three most recent Starship test flights, including one on May 27, have ended with the craft breaking up. Previous rocket explosions happened in both January and March.