Andrew Freedman - Senior Reporter, CNN Climate & Weather
Andrew Freedman
Senior Reporter, CNN Climate & Weather
Latest
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Melissa was one of the strongest storms on record. NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters flew into it without payOct 31, 2025The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hurricane Hunters have spent the past week diving into the eye of Melissa — a storm of historic ferocity — to gather life-saving data. But the government shutdown means they aren’t getting a paycheck. -
Why Hurricane Melissa turned into a supercharged monsterOct 29, 2025Hotter-than-average Caribbean water made Hurricane Melissa stronger and wetter. Its part of a trend that scientists link back to climate change. -
You can walk faster than Tropical Storm Melissa is moving. It’s a new, troubling tendency for Atlantic stormsOct 23, 2025Tropical Storm Melissa joins a growing number of storms that are putting on the brakes and increasing the risk of dangerous impacts as a result. -
Trump ‘retired’ a database tracking the most expensive weather disasters. Now it’s back — and finding over $100B in lossesOct 22, 2025The Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters Database, which the Trump administration ”retired” in May, has relaunched outside the government — and found the most expensive half-year on record. -
US helps sink world’s first global carbon tax after threatening sanctions against countries supporting itOct 17, 2025A fierce Trump administration push to stop the global shipping industry from paying for its own climate pollution appears successful. -
Lack of weather data due to Trump’s budget cuts impacted forecast for deadly Alaska stormOct 14, 2025The forecast for the powerful and deadly storm that battered small communities in western Alaska over the weekend was likely made worse by a lack of weather data triggered by the Trump administration’s cuts. -
What the Pacific ‘blob’ + La Niña means for winter in the USOct 9, 2025A marine heat wave spanning much of the North Pacific Ocean is already influencing weather in North America and is poised to make its mark on winter. But forecasters have another global weather pattern to consider: La Niña. -
Trump is handing out public land and millions of dollars to revive big coal, sending advocates reelingSep 30, 2025While the Trump administration wages war against clean energy, it is now vowing to lease millions of acres of public lands at a discount and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to prop up the most polluting source of electricity: coal. -
What happens if a hurricane makes landfall while the government is shut downSep 29, 2025Tropical Storm Imelda swirling off the Southeast coast is a stark reminder that the potential government shutdown looms during the middle of the Atlantic hurricane season. -
Hurricane Humberto strengthened into a rare Cat 5, but there’s another storm the US needs to watchSep 28, 2025A strengthening storm brewing near the Bahamas could bring flooding rain, coastal surge, damaging winds and dangerous surf to the Southeast. -
China commits to cutting up to 10% of its climate pollution, short of the goal other countries sought of itSep 24, 2025The goal, announced via video by Chinese President Xi Jinping, falls far short of the 30% cuts the Biden administration had been pressing for. -
How to track the super polluters next doorSep 24, 2025A new tool from Climate TRACE allows people in the world’s largest metros to track their air pollution exposure and who’s doing the polluting. -
The ‘blob’ is back — except this time it stretches across the entire North PacificSep 19, 2025A record-breaking and astonishingly expansive marine heat wave is underway in the Pacific Ocean, stretching from the water around Japan to the US West Coast. The abnormally warm “blob” of ocean water is affecting the weather on land and could have ripple effects on marine life. -
Trump admin escalates space race with China, banning visa-holding scientists from working at NASASep 11, 2025NASA has banned Chinese citizens with US visas from participating in agency programs — a dramatic escalation in the space race between China and the United States. -
Scientists trace heat waves back to individual fossil fuel companies, with potentially sweeping courtroom implicationsSep 10, 2025For the first time, scientists have quantified the causal links between worsening heat waves and global warming pollution from individual fossil fuel and cement companies, pushing the boundaries of extreme weather event research in multiple surprising ways. -
EPA moves to suspend without pay over 100 employees who signed letter of dissentSep 5, 2025The Environmental Protection Agency has moved to suspend more than 100 staffers who signed a letter of dissent against the Trump administration’s policies in July, a representative of the union covering the agency’s staff told CNN on Friday.
About
Andrew Freedman is a Senior Reporter with CNN Climate & Weather, based out of the network’s Washington, D.C. bureau.
Previously, Freedman served as a Senior Climate Reporter with Axios and was an author of the daily Axios Generate newsletter. He covered climate science and policy, extreme weather, and the energy transition. Freedman has also broken multiple key stories on the Trump Administration’s plans for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service.
Before Axios, Freedman was previously with The Washington Post, where he served as an editor for the Capital Weather Gang. Freedman covered science research and policy, with a focus on climate change, extreme weather, and the environment. He was among the first reporters to popularize the term “polar vortex” during the infamous East Coast winter of 2013 to 2014. Freedman has also reported for Mashable, Climate Central, and other publications in the past.
Freedman has won several awards throughout his extensive career, including an award for Professional Excellence in Climate Reporting from the Association of Foreign Correspondents in the United States in 2024, the National Press Foundation’s Innovative Storytelling Award in 2022, and the Society of Environmental Journalists Award for Outstanding Explanatory Storytelling in 2018.
Freedman holds a masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University and a masters in law and diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts.