How the Washington Post’s ‘Floods Above’ Won the Poynter Climate Journalism Prize

WASHINGTON – The Washington Post’s sweeping investigation into the world’s rising flood danger, Floods Above, has won the inaugural Poynter Journalism Prize for Excellence in Climate Change Reporting, a new award for scientifically grounded climate journalism announced by the Poynter Institute.

The prize, sponsored by the Hennecke Family Foundation, recognizes rigorous reporting that enlightens and informs the public about climate change through high-quality, science-based work. In its first year the honor went to the Post’s staff for a series that paired big data with people on the ground — and carried a clear warning: communities everywhere must reassess their flood risk and improve their alert systems.

Invisible rivers in the sky

The series began with a striking image: invisible rivers in the sky — enormous plumes of moisture borne over the oceans that, when released back to Earth, can bring a drizzle or a deluge.

The reporting team developed creative new tools to analyze where atmospheric moisture is intensifying and mapped where inland flooding risk is rising. Reporters then projected that risk onto infrastructure from India to Appalachia, showing how extreme rainfall threatens communities far from any coast.

How the idea took shape

The seed of the series was planted more than a year ago by meteorologist Ben Noll. Before joining the Post in 2024, Noll worked for the New Zealand government for nearly a decade. The island nation is heavily exposed to extreme rainfall and flooding, and Noll grew interested in a pattern he kept seeing in the atmosphere: increasing moisture.

Month after month, the moisture in the atmosphere was setting records — and alongside those records, flooding events and heavy rainfall kept arriving. Noll describes global moistening as a “cousin phenomenon” of global warming: the two are interconnected, but warming has received far more attention than moistening.

When Noll brought the idea to the Post, a team assembled around it: data journalist Kevin Crowe, graphics reporters John Muyskens and Niko Kommenda — who led the graphics on the series’ “Deadly Rivers in the Sky” installment — graphics reporter Naema Ahmed of the paper’s climate and environment team, and lead climate reporter Sarah Kaplan.

Data on one side, people on the other

The series combined the data analysis with on-the-ground storytelling. In Asheville, North Carolina, a woman fled her home as floodwaters arrived; her apartment was later washed away by Hurricane Helene. In Welch, West Virginia, Carol Lester watched a deluge arrive unlike anything she had seen: water came down and rose so fast, she recalled, that it appeared in places she had never seen water before.

The reporting stretched well beyond the United States — to flooding in India, and to extreme rainfall in Oman and Dubai — underlining that the intensifying water cycle is a global story.

What the judges saw

The judges praised the series for its innovative graphics and effective storytelling, calling it a valuable tool and an important account of the human cost of inaction as the climate warms. Data journalist Kevin Crowe said the project’s goal was to make the science understandable: the stories are grounded in data, but ultimately speak to the dangers facing people on the ground.

Graphics reporter John Muyskens said the visualizations help readers grasp something abstract and planetary in scale — perspectives that, as he put it, normally only astronauts see.

The finalists

Two teams were named finalists: Corbin Hiar and Karl Mathiesen of Politico for “The Risky Rise of Solar Geoengineering,” and Alex Harris and Susan Merriam of the Miami Herald for “Floods of Trouble.” According to Poynter, the climate reporting category carries a $10,000 prize.

Training the next flood reporters

The prize is also feeding back into the profession. On October 8, Poynter hosted a free Beat Academy webinar with Sarah Kaplan on covering the rising risk of flooding: how journalists can find reliable local data, identify vulnerable communities, and develop stories before severe weather strikes. Flooding, the session noted, is no longer just a coastal story.

Poynter says the award aims to inspire similar work — rigorous, science-based climate reporting that shows audiences not only what is changing, but what it means for the streets they live on.

Watan News International has previously covered the growing recognition of climate journalism, including the 2026 Romeo Bassoli award for reporting on climate and sustainability: the 2026 Romeo Bassoli award for reporting on climate and sustainability

FAKTA

• Winner: Staff of The Washington Post, for the “Floods Above” investigation
• Award: Poynter Journalism Prize for Excellence in Climate Change Reporting — inaugural year, sponsored by the Hennecke Family Foundation
• Subject: the global rise of dangerous rainfall and intensifying atmospheric moisture
• Key figures: meteorologist Ben Noll, data journalist Kevin Crowe, graphics reporters John Muyskens, Niko Kommenda and Naema Ahmed, climate reporter Sarah Kaplan
• Finalists: Politico (“The Risky Rise of Solar Geoengineering”) and the Miami Herald (“Floods of Trouble”)
• Follow-up: free Poynter Beat Academy webinar (October 8) teaching journalists to cover rising flood risks

Conclusion

Floods Above shows what climate journalism can do at its best: take an invisible, planetary-scale process and make it concrete enough to act on. For newsrooms covering climate change — and for the audiences who depend on them — that remains the benchmark.