Saturday June 29th… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Historic European Heat Wave…Day Four (Saturday)
By now most in the climate and weather world know that France topped out at 45.9C on Friday, breaking their old June record by a whopping 3.5C. Thankfully, as opposed to what happened in 2003, officials are taking every possible precaution to limit the number of fatalities from this extraordinary, historic heat wave. Today I will be in the process of cobling more information from social media from France and the rest of Europe, as well as international news articles on the European heat wave. As usual, just click on pictured items to see articles and video.
Let’s start out by showing what renowned climate expert Dr. Michael Mann has to say about this latest European heat wave:
Here are other items from Friday and today not included on yesterday’s Diary. Of course, I’ll be adding more as the day progresses:
What strikes me most here is the National Geographic headline that Europe has had five once in a “typical 500 year” heat wave in the span of just fifteen years. Quoting National Geographic:
“Another deadly heat wave has Europe in its sweaty grip this week. Record temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) in parts of France, Germany, Poland and Spain, with hotter days to come. The same thing happened last year—record-breaking heat was responsible for 700 deaths in Sweden and more than 250 in Denmark, countries that have never needed air conditioning before this new era of climate-change-driven extreme events.”
“Europe’s five hottest summers in the past 500 years have all occurred in the last 15 years, not including this summer. All have been deadly. The 2003 heat wave was the worst, having led to the deaths of over 70,000 people; in 2010, 56,000 died in Russia alone.
“These extreme heat events are all connected to a slower jet stream that locks weather systems into place, says Michael Mann of Penn State University. Mann co-authored a study last year that linked the slowdown in the jet stream—the band of high-altitude winds that sweep around the globe from west to east—to last summer’s unprecedented droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and flooding events across the entire Northern Hemisphere. And it is likely behind India’s weak monsoon rains and the widespread flooding in the U.S. Midwest this year.”
It’s interesting that the United States has not suffered similar extremes as a whole since the year of the record strong El Nino 2016, although the far West has had it’s share of deadly heat and wildfires. We will continue to keep a vigilant eye out for more extreme heat as the summer rolls along in 2019.
Now for a look at heat across the United States. By Sunday we see typical heat across the South but well above average conditions in the Midwest:
Heat will intensify next week across the South as our heat dome intensifies some, but I’m not anticipating widespread record temperatures from this fairly typical mid summer weather pattern:
Here is more climate and weather news from Friday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article.)
Here are some “ETs” from Alaska observed during Saturday:
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Guy Walton- “The Climate Guy”