‘Compound extremes’: why a cocktail of natural disasters is battering the US

As world heats up, historic' weather events will increase and overlap, testing the limits of nation's resiliency and recovery

Summer in the American west is off to an explosive start, with extreme weather events ravaging multiple states in recent weeks. In Montana, historic flooding devastated communities and infrastructure in and around Yellowstone national park and forced a rare closure. Further south, reservoirs sank to new lows, triple-digit heatwaves left millions sweltering, and wildfires ripped through Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska and California.

These layered disasters offer a glimpse of what's to come. As temperatures continue to climb, extreme events will not just increase - they're more likely to overlap, causing more calamity and testing the limits of the nation's resilience and recovery.