Earlier this week, data from NASA and the Japan Meteorological Agency showed July was the hottest July on record, globally. Thanks to a particularly strong El Niño, these sorts of monthly records have been coming fast and furiously lately, so that news like this almost seemed like nbd. But then, on Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that not only was last month the hottest July on record globally, it was also the hottest month on record overall. Since NOAA started keeping track in 1880, there has never been a hotter month. That’s a very big deal.
The month was hot from start to finish. July 1st was the hottest day in the U.K.’s history—the Guardian briefly had to pause its liveblog of the heatwave because its computer servers overheated. On July 31st, the city of Bandar-e Mahshahr, Iran reached an unfathomable heat index of 165°F, nearly a world record.
Personally I cannot even fathom a heat index as high as 165 degrees, but I will tell you that I damn near melted in my house all through late June and July.
If this keeps up there will be no global warming naysayers left. They will have all died from heat stroke.
a hoax a obama socilist plot tomake us slavery runsara hrun save american ,,
ReplyDeleteLet's not jump to any conclusions yet. After all, most of us are not scientists, and those who are and fall back on global warming as a cause, well, those scientists have their own agenda.
ReplyDeleteAs with most things, I hope we can discuss these things, scratch our heads, study them, and at the end of the day all agree that further study is necessary and that any action now would be premature.
That strategy worked well for us during the energy crisis, immigration, infrastructure, so on and so forth.
I like to think that once the horses have the left the barn and the barn has burned to the ground, that's a good time to commission a study from which a plan can be developed.
Good idea!
DeleteI'll have a cigarette and think about it.
Too bad my old favorite Kents are so hard to find. Ever since they got weak kneed about the asbestos filters things have been going downhill faster than the safety nazis can say Corvair boycott or Nader for President!
Well, actually, uhm, no. Temperatures where I live in SW Ohio were quite comfy. Only one day over 90, low humidity for the most part, mid 8's and even soem 70 degree highs. Tons of rain in May- July though.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't change my acceptance of climate change and the importance of doing something about it though. Looking around, I see far too many people who live in constant a/c. Their windoaws are sealed shut year round and they never ever experience out side air - and the drone of air conditioners irritates the heck out of their neighbors. Wake up folks!
Need to get an AC unit G.
ReplyDeleteI've lived in the South for 22 years now. When I first got here, the winters were mild and the summers were hot and humid, but livable. As the years have gone by, the winters here are getting colder and icyer and the summers are unbearably hot and humid. The weather has definently gotten worse.
ReplyDeleteIf this keeps up there will be no global warming naysayers left. They will have all died from heat stroke.
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I hope you're right, Gryphen. Because it's going to get really ugly when those preppers, end of times nuts, and the everyday out-for-himself jerks decide it's a matter of survival of the fittest.
I agree with 4:29 above, the hotter it gets, the more people use air conditioners which just makes it worse. We need to wake up or we will be just another species headed for extinction. All life on this planet, fauna and flora, depends on each other for balance. If we keep up the careless pollution of this planet, survival of the fittest will not mean a thing to humans, it will be a battle only among the viruses and bacteria.
Mildred
'12, '13 and this year have been quite merciful summers in northern neck Virginia. No triple-digit days, no grueling strings of mid- or higher 90s.
ReplyDelete'11 was brutal; one day in July hitting a record 129 heat index, the strongest earthquake on the east coast since WWII, and brushed by two hurricanes. '12 brought a derecho wiping out power for three days; my husband and I headed for a motel in Maryland just to have air conditioning.
It is atypical here to go a summer without at least one power failure of duration enough to send two hundred dollars worth of food from refrigerator to disposal. Thus these three hospitable rounds are more spooky than celebratory. Some kind of wallop is waiting around the corner.
If you look at just the USA, it appears that the majority of land is colored white, or "near normal." AK has some slightly warmer than normal areas, but most of the map isn't too bad. And that could be the problem. Among all of teh American Patriots, exceptional people, if they don't feel it, it doesn't exist. Looking at the Eastern Hemisphere, it's turning deep red, ie. much warmer, but the USA-first gang just ignores that.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting pretty old, so I don't expect much to be done before I leave the planet, but I hope with all my spirit that my daughter and son-in-law will see great advances in renewable resources, so that my grandchild doesn't have to grow up worried that the world is going to end. Will it get warm enough and extreme enough in the U.S. to finally incite us to acknowledge the problem and start to fix it?
We gotta build a huuuuuge wall to keep el nino out, and we gotta make it beautiful, after all, someday it may be called "The Trump Wall". Don't worry, Donald will fix it!
ReplyDeleteAll joking aside, I don't ever remember it being this hot in my youth, now it's more than "it's not the heat, it's the humidity". We seem to be getting hit with many more heat waves over longer and longer periods of time. I feel for those effected most, the young, elderly, and folks with health problems. I care for my mom, who's on dialysis and in her eighties, and she's wearing sweaters and long sleeves because she doesn't "feel" the heat.
We take a lot for granted, air conditioning, clean hot and cold water by just turning a faucet, having food and cold drinks available whenever we want it. There are countries and many places here in the USA who aren't as fortunate.
And watching the news just makes it feel hotter than it already is, Once you're over the 90 degree point, what difference does knowing "the heat index" accomplish?