The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary 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).😉
Main Topic: Western Heatwave Gets Our First Major “CAT3” Status Of The U.S. Summer And Is Designated “Alpha”
Dear Diary. Meteorological models have certainly been getting better over the years, now improved to the point of accurately predicting major weather systems more than a week out in time. This certainly applies to heat domes, which are the crux of surface heatwaves. We could tell early last week that a major heatwave would be brewing across the West by about Monday 6/14. Of course, that day has come.
Here is what was predicted a week ago and what should verify by Wednesday:
Certainly the heart of the ridge will verify over 597 decameters. The center will probably verify over the four corners area as opposed to northwest Arizona, so just very subtle differences with this heatwave will occur from what was predicted last week. Not bad eh?
Let’s go ahead and raise the status of this heatwave from CAT2 to CAT3 looking at the extent of NWS advisories and warnings. As discussed on this blog, should a heatwave in the U.S. attain a major heatwave status it will get a Greek alphabet name during 2021, the first, of course, being “Alpha.”
Also of note, there are heat advisories from east Texas into western Mississippi where there will be minor problems.
I do have some good news. By next Sunday 500 millibar heights decrease significantly. The heat wave will not have ended by this point, but at least most readings will be below record levels:
Just looking at these three messages we could see some amazing stats from Heatwave Alpha:
Should we start to see dozens of deaths from this heatwave, I nay need to raise the status of Alpha to a CAT4. Certainly such records as forecast here would support such a status across major metropolitan areas of the Southwest, so please take extra precautions if you reside there.
As stated, I especially don’t like the looks of this heatwave, which will be accompanied the western drought, making for high fire potential:
Today I will be adding notes about this heat wave in the space below:
Here are some of Monday’s “ET’s:”
Here is some more May climatology:
Here is more climate and weather news from Monday:
(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. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
Now here are some of today’s articles and notes on the horrid COVID-19 pandemic:
(If you like these posts and my work please contribute via the PayPal widget, which has recently been added to this site. Thanks in advance for any support.)
Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”