From | Message | ||
---|---|---|---|
|
![]() Temperature records have been shattered from California and Nevada to North Carolina in the last few days, and relief is still days away, forecasters say. July 8, 2024Updated 6:29 p.m. ET A blistering heat wave is believed to have killed four people in the Portland, Ore., area, officials said on Monday, and is expected to push temperatures into the triple digits this week across the Western United States, from Washington to Arizona. The medical examiner’s office in Multnomah County, Ore., which includes Portland, said that heat was suspected in three deaths in the county between Friday and Sunday, after record temperatures scorched the region. A fourth person, who was transported to a Portland hospital from outside the county, also died from an illness that was believed to be heat-related. The heat wave was expected to bring more sweltering weather to the southern parts of Arizona, Nevada and California, where daily temperatures were expected to rise to well above 110 degrees. The stifling conditions were expected to last through the workweek, according to the National Weather Service, and temperatures could run 15 to 30 degrees above average in some parts. The heat wave has already shattered records across interior California and in Las Vegas. In Death Valley, Calif., temperatures reached 127 degrees on Friday, a record for the date, and then 128 on Saturday and 129 on Sunday. A motorcyclist who was visiting Death Valley National Park died from heat exposure on Saturday, and another was treated for severe heat illness. Few details were released on Monday about the deaths in the Portland area. The four victims, all men, were in separate locations, according to Multnomah County. Portland set new daily records each of the last three days, reaching 100 degrees on Sunday, 20 degrees hotter than the average for the date. Many residents in the region don’t have air conditioning, and the prolonged stretch of high heat was “very unusual” there, said Noah Alviz, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Portland. Compounding the situation, he said, were relatively high overnight temperatures, especially in urban areas. “This is not the Portland that I know,” said Rabbi Michael Z. Cahana of Congregation Beth Israel, which opened its doors over the weekend to Portlanders seeking shelter. In Palm Springs, Calif., the temperature reached 124 degrees on Friday, the highest ever recorded there. Las Vegas also broke a heat record when its temperature climbed to 120 degrees on Sunday. The highest temperatures on Monday in the two desert cities were expected to be only a few degrees lower. Many residents of Palm Springs and Las Vegas are used to searing heat in the summertime. In Palm Springs at the Demuth Community Center, where people can find water, snacks and air-conditioning, the number of visitors has not increased noticeably since last week, said Janice Lopez, the supervisor at the center. “The only thing that we did do was open on Sunday, since we’re kind of in a heat wave, constantly being over 120 degrees,” she said, noting that the center was usually closed on weekends. The heat wave was forecast to stretch north to Washington state and east to Arizona. In southeastern Washington, record temperatures of up to 111 degrees were expected to arrive Tuesday, about 15 to 20 degrees above normal. In Phoenix, temperatures were set to climb as high as 118 degrees on Monday, which would set a daily record. Soaring temperatures will continue to pose a danger to people who are vulnerable or who lack access to cool shelter and electricity, according to Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md. “But the heat is high enough out West that it is really not just the vulnerable population,” he said. “It’s dangerous to everyone.” A worker in a wide-brimmed hat walks in a farm field on a sunny morning. Mountain ridges are visible in the hazy distance. A farmworker wore protective clothing in the morning heat near Coachella, Calif., last week.Mario Tama/Getty Images As humans continue adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, experts say, record-breaking heat will become even more common, as will extreme weather events like droughts, wildfires and floods. Globally, 2023 was the warmest year ever recorded, and the planet has set new monthly records for heat in each of the past 12 months. In the inland regions of California, millions of residents are waiting for relief as an unusually long heat wave has kept temperatures well above 100 degrees for the past week. Redding, in Northern California, reached 119 degrees on Saturday, setting a new high temperature mark for any date in recorded history. Officials in Western states also warned that the extreme heat, when coupled with high winds, could propel new wildfires. In the mountains of Santa Barbara County, Calif., the Lake fire exploded over the weekend and consumed more than 20,000 acres, threatening the former Neverland Ranch that was once owned by Michael Jackson and other properties. In less than three days, it has become the state’s largest wildfire so far this year. Sweltering conditions were not limited to the West. A separate high-pressure system in the East has broken daily heat records in Raleigh, N.C., and other areas. The two heat waves — and the space between them — are also affecting the path of Beryl, which was downgraded Monday morning to tropical storm from a Category 1 hurricane, though it still delivered damaging winds and rainfall to Texas. A trough between the high pressure areas is drawing the tropical storm north and through the center of the country, said Mr. Jackson, the meteorologist. As of Monday, more than 146 million people across the United States, about four-tenths of the nation’s population, were under extreme heat advisories, watches or warnings, according to the Weather Service. |
||
|
![]() |
||
|
![]() How do I know that? Because if it had been invented anywhere else, it would be called a teeth brush. |
||
|
![]() It’s not just you. Here’s where this summer really has been the worst By Mary Gilbert, CNN Meteorologist CNN — normal Heat is normal during the summer, but this year’s has been anything but, and halfway through the season’s hottest month it’s clear this one is for the record books. Hundreds of cities in nearly every US state – including parts of Alaska and Hawaii – are on track for one of their 10-warmest summers on record. About 100 of these cities are enduring their hottest start to summer on record. The deadly heat has not been unexpected. Forecasters have been warning of a searing summer for months due to the troubling combination of a budding La Niña and a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution. Last summer was the warmest on record globally and one of the warmest for several states. But so far, this summer has felt even worse for many in the US. Extreme heat has baked almost all of the Lower 48 so far this summer, but the worst of it has concentrated in the East Coast states and West. View this interactive content on CNN.com Average daily temperatures – calculated by taking the average of each day’s high and low – have soared several degrees above normal for hundreds of cities since June 1. These temperatures are a more complete indicator of how hot the season has been, as they factor in both hotter days and warmer nights. Summer nights in the US have been warming nearly twice as fast as summer days since records began in the late 1800s, according to data from NOAA. Warmer nights increase the danger of heat by compounding heat stress through a reduction in the amount of time the body has to cool down naturally. Las Vegas is experiencing its hottest summer on record and holds the top spot in the entire country. Many of the cities experiencing the most exceptional summer heat are in the West, notably in or near California’s Central Valley. Searing heat there has been relentless since it started in early June. On the opposite coast, a historic mid-June heat wave has only been spelled by brief bouts of relief. Dozens of cities from New England to the Mid-Atlantic are experiencing their hottest start to the summer on record, including Washington, DC, which just smashed a high temperature record Tuesday when it hit 104 degrees. Some of the most abnormal heat in the region is focused in New England and New York state. The South has also sweltered under more than its fair share of historic heat so far this summer. Atlanta and Tampa, Florida, are both on pace to record their hottest summer on record. For some locations in the region, it’s the second consecutive year summer has had a blistering start. View this interactive content on CNN.com Last summer ended up quite warm for the Lower 48, but the worst heat was confined to the Gulf Coast. By mid-July last summer, the season was pacing as one of the warmest on record for cities nearest the coast, including cities like New Orleans, Houston and Brownsville, Texas. But in other parts of the country, last summer was downright cool compared to this year’s extreme heat. Washington, DC, is currently on track to record its hottest summer on record, but it was only the 44th-warmest summer by this time last year. Sacramento, California, is experiencing its hottest start to summer on record. But this time last year California’s capital city was experiencing is 62nd-warmest summer. Forecasts for the rest of the season aren’t cool, either. Despite some upcoming brief periods of respite, much of the Lower 48 is expected to endure above-average temperatures through August and into September, according to the Climate Prediction Center. |
||
lord_shiva 18-Jul-24, 08:58 |
![]() |
||
|
![]() The climate is always changing. The last time it changed this rapidly, however, a massive impact extincted the dinosaurs. Is current climate change the result of some unknown but perfectly natural phenomenon? We emit close to forty billion (40,000,000,000) TONS of CO2 every year. Over 1.6 TRILLION tons since 1980, which was about the time we passed 350 ppm (parts per million). We’re now over 420 ppm. The pre industrial average was 280 ppm, which varied about 5 ppm per thousand years in the preceding ten thousand years. What percent increase is (420-280)/280? This is just a trace gas. Who cares how much it increases? Plants love it. Sailors in submarines survive higher concentrations. It isn’t the concentration that is the concern, but the effect. CO2 is less potent than CH4 (methane) or H2O (water vapor). So what if we increase CO2? If all this CO2 was CO (carbon monoxide) instead, the effect is that we would all be dead. In my neighborhood mere gallons of PFAS have percolated into our water table. The concentration is mere parts per billion, but you can rest assured my neighbors are very concerned about the cancer clusters and other adverse health effects from that. We are increasing CH4 also, not from cow farts as the ignorant insist, but from eructations (cattle belches). What happens to that gas? It is dissociated by solar UV (ultraviolet radiation) into CO2 and H2O. The H2O literally rains out of the atmosphere. If you have ever gone camping, when you wake up in the morning and see dew or frost over your tent or sleeping bag (I use a tent only when it rains), that water is condensation out of our atmosphere overnight. CH4 lingers about 25 years before becoming the less potent CO2. CO2 remains in the air thousands of years. The natural rate of change is about ten ppm every two thousand years. To get from 420 ppm back down to 350 ppm is going to require more than simple math. We will pass 500 ppm before 2050 |
||
|
![]() The months January, February and March weer basically one continuous heat wave in South Africa, with very little rain. Winter is already long gone and the official spring date (1 September) is still a few weeks into the future. Already we are back to summer temperatures. I do what I can to keep my carbon footprint as small as possible, and to offset as much as I can, but it feels like a losing battle. Then ill-informed and mostly illiterate people do all they can to increase the problem, due to traditions. One of these things is to burn every patch of open grass, deforest what little trees are left for fuel, and contaminate our rivers with refuse. Thanks, lord_shiva, for that science explained. We have a massive burden of education before us, but education alone won't solve the problem. We need offer alternatives. In Africa the biggest problem is deforestation for fuel to cook, stay warm and fend of animals. If we offer alternatives, it should help, shouldn't it? No necessarily so! There was a project some years ago to provide solar ovens for free. It principal was very simple: just cover the inside of a tea-crate with some insulation, put tinfoil inside that, and point at the sun! This project failed because it was abathagathi: magic! It was something the people didn't want to associate with. They burned the tea-crates for fuel, though...... |
||
|
![]() I can remember when 'Wattle Day', the portent of Spring, was September 1st. My wattle tree was in bloom on August 1st. My flowering gum is also in bloom, but that's not surprising; it bloomed four times last year. The vegetation is thoroughly confused. I can recall having to scrape ice off the windscreen of my first car most winter days when I was in my late teens. I don't think I've done that even once in the last 20 years. But Summer is now the season for record-breaking floods. The air is so warm that it can carry Noachic volumes of rain. |
||
|
![]() Hurricane Debbie, a mere category 1 hurricane, dumped up to 30 inches of rain in Georgia, Florida and the Carolina's. We were expecting 3-5 inches of rain in my area to help with the red zone drought we're experiencing in the West Virginia Eastern Panhandle, but the rain gauge at my house ended-up recording a pittance 0.29 inches for the past 30 days (average for the season is 2.7 inches). Hurricane Debbie then marched Northward to dump millions of tons of water on New York up-ward Bottom line: The Three beautiful, 50'+ tall Sequoia trees (dawn redwoods) in my back yard are dying due to lack of water, and that's getting personal. ufi.ca.uky.edu |
||
|
![]() www.facebook.com |
||
|
![]() "Latin music superstar Nicky Jam. Do you know Nicky? She’s hot," Trump said during the Friday event at The Expo at World Market Center. I can only assume Trump was using Nick’s preferred pronouns. I know this doesn’t belong on this thread, but “hot” reminded me of how much hot water the hot Latin heartthrob landed senile Donald in for misgendering him. |
||
|
![]() |
||
|
![]() June–August 2024 was the Northern Hemisphere's hottest meteorological summer on record, at 2.74 degrees F (1.52 degrees C) above average. The season, which also marks the Southern Hemisphere's winter, was the Southern Hemisphere's warmest winter on record at 1.73 degrees F (0.96 of a degree C) above average. Also The average global land and ocean surface temperature in August was 2.29 degrees F (1.27 degrees C) above the 20th-century average of 60.1 degrees F (15.6 degrees C), ranking as the warmest August in the global climate record. This August marks the 15th-consecutive month of record-high global temperatures — which is itself a record streak. Europe and Oceania had their warmest August on record, Asia saw its second-warmest while Africa and North America each had their third-warmest August. |
||
|
![]() So much more CO2 than now. What happened to all that carbon? I thought the nitrogen might have come from NH3 UV photo dissociation, but instead mantle heat broke the nitrogen bonds, and volcanic outgassing released N2. The carbon fell prey to benthic organisms locking it up in limestone. Calcium carbonate. From 3.8 to 1.8 billion years ago the evolution of photosynthetic Cyanobacteria gradually beefed up atmospheric oxygen. We know this from the banded iron formations dating to that time. Iron rusts in oxygen rich water, but oxygen is aggressively promiscuous, readily bonding with anything. Hydrogen (water), iron (rust), silicon (sand), sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, etc. Later terrestrial flora would end up buried, sequestering more gigatons of atmospheric carbon in Carboniferous coal seams and oil deposits. To be continued… (with Zebu cattle) |
||
|
![]() We know they raised cattle partly because of the many figurines of cattle with the characteristic hump over the shoulders dating back to that time period. The population of this area rose from five million in 10,000 BCE to 40 million by 5000 BCE. It is hard to know the ratio of cows to people. In modern Iran the ratio is 18 people per cow. But in agrarian eras cows were used for more than just meat and dairy. Gemini asserts the ratio for agrarian England ranged from 4 people per cow to 2 people per cow. This would have out the global population of domestic cattle at twenty million. By 1600 global population approached 600 million, and cows were almost everywhere, spreading across the Americas. That makes 100 to 300 million cattle. Atmospheric methane did not rise appreciably over all this time, remaining a fairly constant 700 ppm. Even the start of the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s did not bear witness to a rapid increase. It wasn’t until 1800 that methane levels began a steep ascent, now exceeding 1900 ppm. There were a billion people in 1800, and likely half a billion cows. The cattle industry began a big expansion. There are currently 1.5 billion cattle, close to one cow for every five people. 100 million to 1.5 billion is only a 15 fold increase. What is 1900/700? Cows easily account for all the difference in CH4 increase. |
||
|
![]() Minor point; did you mean 'parts per billion'? 'Two thousand parts per million' sounds very high! |
||
|
![]() Hm. It didn’t this time—I possibly typoed it. |
||
|
![]() |
||
|
![]() |
||
|
![]() |
||
|
![]() Here's why: 2024 was the warmest year on record: . Multiple sources confirm that 2024 was the warmest year globally since records began in 1850, according to Climate.gov. 2025 is on track to be very warm: . Current data indicates that 2025 is very likely to be among the top five warmest years, and is currently predicted to be the second warmest, behind 2024, says NOAA. El Niño and La Niña: . While El Niño conditions contributed to the warmth in 2023 and 2024, a shift towards La Niña conditions was expected to temper temperatures in 2025. However, sea surface temperatures remain unusually high in many ocean basins, suggesting the transition may be slower than anticipated. End quote. My MAGA FB friends (Meta) insist they are FAR more worried about incipient ice age than they are any runaway greenhouse effect predicted by idiot scientists paid to spew fear mongering nonsense by shills not aligned with fossil fuel industry honesty and integrity, MAGA. Though to be fair I have not asked them recently—this was back circa 2014 when IT was the hottest year on record. |
||
|
![]() And that it's projected to get quite cooler in a couple months. www.wunderground.com |
||
|
![]() What REALLY matters is the ocean temperature. That's what puts moisture into the atmosphere, causing cyclone (hurricanes), floods and changing wind patterns which in turn cause droughts. And ocean temperatures do NOT vary day by day because it takes an enormous amount of heat energy to shift them by even a tenth of a degree. It's also ocean temperatures that drive Greenland and Antarctic melting which is raising sea levels, making coastal areas vulnerable to storm surge and salination. So what is the ocean doing? Here is the answer:- www.bing.com |