We are now living on a planet with a record number of record-breaking climate events.
News of the hottest June was quickly eclipsed by the declaration of Earth’s hottest day, a record that would be broken 16 more times before the end of July, which registered as Earth’s hottest month.
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We are living through Earth’s hottest month on record, scientists say
And it’s not going to end, really. We are on a streak.
For decades to come, under almost all scenarios, climate scientists say we should be prepared to see records shattered so frequently, so routinely, that the statistics and the superlatives — warmest, wettest, lowest, driest — might melt together in the public mind like asphalt in August.
The previously abnormal is becoming our normal.
“These events are not rare anymore,” said the authors of a study that found July’s protracted heat waves in the United States, Asia and Europe would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change.
Heat waves in U.S., Europe ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change, study finds
Just a few years ago, experts often insisted on caveats in their discussions with reporters and politicians, anxious about linking any one record-breaking event to human-caused climate change. They are more confident today to make those assertions, based on observed data and computer simulations.
They don’t exactly say, “We told you so.” But they come close. Their climate models are proving remarkably prescient.
Ten years ago, “we were talking about climate change and the impacts as something that you would see in the future. I think everybody now sees it on their television screens or even just outside the window,” said Jim Skea, professor at Imperial College London and the newly appointed chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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(The Washington Post)
We’re tracking dangerous heat waves across the United States daily. Look up your city to see extreme heat risks near you.
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He told The Washington Post: “Scientists have predicted that this is the kind of world in which we will be moving into. But I think there is some surprise about what we’ve seen this summer coming so quickly.”
It’s not just hot. Climate anomalies are emerging around the globe.
There are now so many records being smashed that you need a spreadsheet to keep up.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tallied that the United States broke nearly 3,000 heat records in the past 30 days.
The historic heat included 128 degrees Fahrenheit registered in Death Valley, Calif. — two degrees short of the highest reliably measured temperature on Earth — as well as a dangerous 31 straight days above 110 degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix.
It is not just land surface temperatures that are troubling.
Ocean temperatures are off the charts, too. Florida has been seeing sea surface records at hot tub settings, leading to massive die-off of coral in the Keys. In the North Atlantic, off Newfoundland, average sea surface temperatures have been approaching 77 degrees Fahrenheit, almost beyond the most extreme predictions.
Ocean temperatures are off the charts. Here’s where they’re highest.
Also startling: Scientists have been pointing to exceptionally low sea ice at both poles. One recent scientific analysis read: “Arctic, low. Antarctic, whoa.”
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Inside the most extreme heat wave the Southern U.S. has faced
age
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Scientists know that all these records — even fractions of a degree rise and fall — describe the realities facing people and plants and animals around the globe.
Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, has thought a lot about records and how to communicate what they mean.
To a child, one might say that was the warmest July you have ever seen. “But there is another way to think about it,” he said. “It is possible to flip the story around and to say, ‘Well, this is probably one of the coolest summers you’ll ever see in your life.’”
News of the hottest June was quickly eclipsed by the declaration of Earth’s hottest day, a record that would be broken 16 more times before the end of July, which registered as Earth’s hottest month.
Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
We are living through Earth’s hottest month on record, scientists say
And it’s not going to end, really. We are on a streak.
For decades to come, under almost all scenarios, climate scientists say we should be prepared to see records shattered so frequently, so routinely, that the statistics and the superlatives — warmest, wettest, lowest, driest — might melt together in the public mind like asphalt in August.
The previously abnormal is becoming our normal.
“These events are not rare anymore,” said the authors of a study that found July’s protracted heat waves in the United States, Asia and Europe would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change.
Heat waves in U.S., Europe ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change, study finds
Just a few years ago, experts often insisted on caveats in their discussions with reporters and politicians, anxious about linking any one record-breaking event to human-caused climate change. They are more confident today to make those assertions, based on observed data and computer simulations.
They don’t exactly say, “We told you so.” But they come close. Their climate models are proving remarkably prescient.
Ten years ago, “we were talking about climate change and the impacts as something that you would see in the future. I think everybody now sees it on their television screens or even just outside the window,” said Jim Skea, professor at Imperial College London and the newly appointed chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Skip to end of carousel
How bad is heat risk near you?
(The Washington Post)
We’re tracking dangerous heat waves across the United States daily. Look up your city to see extreme heat risks near you.
End of carousel
He told The Washington Post: “Scientists have predicted that this is the kind of world in which we will be moving into. But I think there is some surprise about what we’ve seen this summer coming so quickly.”
It’s not just hot. Climate anomalies are emerging around the globe.
There are now so many records being smashed that you need a spreadsheet to keep up.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tallied that the United States broke nearly 3,000 heat records in the past 30 days.
The historic heat included 128 degrees Fahrenheit registered in Death Valley, Calif. — two degrees short of the highest reliably measured temperature on Earth — as well as a dangerous 31 straight days above 110 degrees Fahrenheit in Phoenix.
It is not just land surface temperatures that are troubling.
Ocean temperatures are off the charts, too. Florida has been seeing sea surface records at hot tub settings, leading to massive die-off of coral in the Keys. In the North Atlantic, off Newfoundland, average sea surface temperatures have been approaching 77 degrees Fahrenheit, almost beyond the most extreme predictions.
Ocean temperatures are off the charts. Here’s where they’re highest.
Also startling: Scientists have been pointing to exceptionally low sea ice at both poles. One recent scientific analysis read: “Arctic, low. Antarctic, whoa.”
Press Enter to skip to end of carousel
More on the extreme heat waves
Inside the most extreme heat wave the Southern U.S. has faced
age
End of carousel
Scientists know that all these records — even fractions of a degree rise and fall — describe the realities facing people and plants and animals around the globe.
Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, has thought a lot about records and how to communicate what they mean.
To a child, one might say that was the warmest July you have ever seen. “But there is another way to think about it,” he said. “It is possible to flip the story around and to say, ‘Well, this is probably one of the coolest summers you’ll ever see in your life.’”
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