I wrote this a one point last month, but never quite got around to finishing or publishing it. Still, with the steamy weather that we seem to be having all across the North American continent, from coast to coast, it seems like this is still very much relevant.
Yesterday, it was 120 Fahrenheit in Las Vegas, Nevada, which set a new record hot temperature. In Palm Desert, it reached 124 degrees, also a record. These are not places known for cool or cold weather. So when they get record hot temperatures, it is something which we may need to pay some attention to, frankly.
Today in New Jersey, it is supposed to be just a tiny bit cooler than it has been in recent days. There will be rain and cooler temperatures lasting a few days, which I personally welcome. Then, however, it goes right back up to the mid-nineties Fahrenheit (about 34 degrees Celsius) by Sunday, and then hotter on Monday and again hotter on Tuesday. A coworker and I were recently discussing the hot weather, and he and I both expressed surprise that it has been this hot, and could not remember the last time that it was this hot this early and this relentlessly in the summer. Thinking about it now, it occurs to me that the summer of 1999 was pretty brutal, with hot and humid conditions literally every single day in New Jersey from sometime in late May right through early September. The weather that summer was just awful. It ended finally when we got a record amount of rain in just a few days with a massive hurricane that did some damage. So that was a summer of extremes.
It seems like those are becoming more of the norm these days. New Jersey might feel hot, but we have gotten off relatively light, compared to some areas. California and other western states are experiencing ridiculously hot temperatures and, along with it, massive wildfires. Texas has had some truly scorching, record-setting days this summer. And it feels like all across the North American continent, people are feeling this incredible heat.
Funny that the climate change deniers never seem to bring up how ridiculous it is to think that global warming is real while we have these extremely hot weather phenomenon all around us.
Anyway, I have written about this before. Quite a number of times, actually. Sometimes, it feels like I am being overly repetitive. And while I try to guard against that, it just feels like this is a topic of conversation which we need to talk about. Because we are seeing this unfortunate trend, and it is not merely isolated to us in one particular region, or country, or even continent. This appears to be happening all over the world, albeit at different times. If we're being honest and objective and seeing the forest for the trees, the trends sure feel unmistakable. We need to get past the climate change deniers, and see what we can do about this. Because it sure seems to me that there really is no more room left for denial at this point.
Below are some writings on the subject that I have published in recent years on this topic, including one illustration of the overall worldwide trends, as well as the source.
Let's start taking this seriously, and talking about it for real.
Technically, it is not quite summer yet in the northern hemisphere. Usually, we do not get extremely hot and muggy days this early in the year. It's still mid- to late June right now, but the past couple of days here in the northeastern United States have seen extreme heat and humidity, the kind of weather which I have heard multiple people now describe as "disgusting." Sure enough, when you go outside, it just feels oppressive, too much.
Sadly, it feels like this is the new normal. One that we collectively have apparently unfortunately come to accept, rather than trying to do anything about it (it might be too late by this point). So inflexible are we regarding our collectible lifestyle on this planet, that we seem indeed to be more than willing to sacrifice the health and happiness of future generations in order to satisfy our selfish desires for the addiction to extreme wealth, privileges, and creature comforts.
It always seemed to me that someday, in the distant future when the ramifications of our actions are not merely understood, but are being felt, that we would be cursed out by future generations. However, that does not seem to dissuade the majority of us right now. Even those among us who agree with scientists that climate change is real - and frankly by this point, how could you not, if you are objective and open to actual scientific evidence? - collectively seem unwilling to give up any part of our generally comfortable lifestyles, just so that future generations can be a bit better off.
Since around 2017, many of us have watched in horror (and also a feeling of helplessness) as new heat records were set all around the globe, and those were overtaken by new heat records within a couple of years, which themselves were overtaken by new heat records within another couple of years. It seems obvious that this is not natural, that there really is something wrong. Europe should not see highway medians on fire because of intense heat. The Arctic should not be seeing hot weather conditions. The Arabian Peninsula should not be reaching temperatures which test human habitability. Australia and the North American West should not be seeing record shattering heat temperatures and wildfires with an intensity never seen before.
Yet, this has been what we have seen, and all around the world. Extreme weather conditions that not only make us stop and marvel, but also should make us worry a little bit. Recent record hot records were established in India. Last year, it was China. Again, this truly is a global phenomenon.
One Guy Shows Chart To Counter Those Who Claim Climate Change is Overhyped
Originally published on July 30, 2022:
In recent years, I have been posting quite a bit on the seemingly endless heatwaves spread all across the northern hemisphere of our plant this summer. But there is a reason for this. It seems that climate change deniers - and there are far too many of those, frankly - jump on the opportunity to label an unseasonably cool day as proof that climate change is a hoax. But then, summer after summer, they seem to fall silent when ridiculously long and intense heat waves produce record hot temperatures that surpass records established just in recent years, which suggests that, indeed, temperatures seem to be rising worldwide.
In Britain, where they have experienced some of those new record hot temperatures and conditions, it became popular for some to suggest that, in fact, June of 1976 also saw unusually hot conditions and heat waves. This was meant to minimize the threat that the intense heat waves that we are living through are not depressing indicators of climate change, but rather, just a natural phase. These kinds of things just happen every now and then, you know? Just shrug and stop trying to alarm people by suggesting that this kind of heat is unusual, or perhaps not fully natural.
So one guy, who got tired of hearing these detractors, decided to show a chart comparing the month of June 1976 with present realities. And if anything, this chart is somehow even more alarming than the scorching heat waves and stunning wildfires raging across Europe, which climate deniers are busy explaining away as just some kind of regular cycle, some kind of normal realities, when they quite clearly seem to be anything but. Here is what he posted, including the chart:
Will Norman @willnorman
People keep telling me that because the UK had a heatwave in 1976, climate change is overhyped.
So here’s the global heat anomaly maps from June 1976 and June 2022.
https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/maps/
https://twitter.com/willnorman/status/1548547271725240323
https://twitter.com/willnorman/status/1548547271725240323/photo/1
Below is a bit that I wrote in a previous blog some years ago (I didn't get the specifics of what post it was from, or when I published it) where I included links to show that the trend of new record hot temperatures being surpassed by even hotter record temperatures seemingly every a couple of years or so are included. The links are at the very bottom. It seemed appropriate to add this part below for this particular blog entry:
Yet, this is perhaps not as bad in some other regions of the world, or at least in the northern hemisphere in particular. Here is a snippet of news (please click the link below for more details from the article that I obtained this particular quote from):
In June and July 2022, heatwaves struck Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, as temperatures climbed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in places and broke many long-standing records.
This is nothing new. In fact, this is a topic that I have covered before numerous times. Why? Because bizarre weather patterns have become the norm, just as scientists predicted decades ago. It was encompassed in what some people call the "global warming theory," and which far too many people still believe to be a mere hoax. To me, the existence of very strange and extreme weather patterns all around the world, with record hot temperatures at numerous different regions of the world throughout recent years, and record floods in some places and record droughts in others places, begs the question as to whether we can really afford to still be debating the merits of what clearly seems to be confirmation of what scientists were warning us about climate change/global warming.
Just in case you think that this is isolated, or that I am perhaps being disingenuous with claims that these stories have become so numerous that they have been covered here on this blog numerous times over the span of the years, here are links to previous blog entries regarding similar strange weather phenomenon (with a particular focus on record hot temperatures consistently being broken in some places within a couple of years after the previous record. In other words, record hot temperatures in such faraway places as the western United States (particularly the southwestern desert region), Europe, the Arabian peninsula, and Australia keep seeing record hot temperatures set just a couple of years earlier broken again within two or so years. In fact, these new records for heat seem to last, at most, a couple of years, before another wave of record hot temperatures come around to eclipse those not so old records. It has happened repeatedly in a number of different regions in the world, but especially in Australia, the Middle East (especially the Arabian peninsula), the American southwestern desert, Europe, and even in Alaska and the Arctic regions. It happened in 2015, in 2017, again in 2019, again in 2021, and now sure seems to be happening again this year, as well. I finally got around to collecting my own blog entries recording this pretty clear trend, and here are the blog entries, if you would like to take a look for yourself:
Just a Reminder That the "Global" Part of Global Warming Means Something, March 12, 2014:
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2014/03/just-reminder-that-global-part-of.html
Record Hot Temperatures Experienced in Alaska in May, June 15, 2015:
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2015/06/record-hot-temperatures-experienced-in.html
A Short, Personal History of Episodes With Climate Change Denial in the United States, February 4, 2017:
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-short-personal-history-of-climate.html
Record Heat Wave Out West Seems Part of a Growing Worldwide Trend, June 22, 2017:
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2017/06/record-heat-wave-out-west-seems-part-of.html
No Excuses Anymore - Climate Change is Real, and We Need to Take This Seriously, September 6, 2017:
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2017/09/no-excuses-anymore-climate-change-is.html
Strange Weather Lately! July 31, 2019:
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2019/01/strange-weather-lately.html
Despite Official Climate Change Denial in Trump's America, Record Heat Waves Around the World Just Part of a Growing Worldwide Trend, July 26, 2019:
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2019/07/despite-official-climate-change-denial.html
Australian Government Climate Crisis Denial is Exacerbating Current Response to Record Heat & Wildfire, January 4, 2020:
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2020/01/australian-government-climate-crisis.html
New Records of Never Before Experienced Heat Around the World Confirm Reality of Climate Change, But Skeptics Simply Keep Ignoring Facts, May 20, 2021:
https://charbor74.blogspot.com/2019/12/new-records-of-never-before-experienced.html
That's nine entries - count 'em, nine - where I covered very extreme weather conditions, particularly record heat somewhere in the world. That stretches from 2014 until this month, July of 2022. And yes, if you notice, some of these regions seem to be featured in these stories of record heat repeatedly. Right now, it is Europe and the Arabian peninsula, although much of the western and interior parts of the United States have been experiencing unusually intense hot temperatures and sweltering conditions this summer, as well. We have grown used to some of the tragedies of these stories, including very threatening wildfires raging out of control in Australia and the western United States. One such wildfire in Oregon was so big that it actually altered the weather (I will try to post an article about this particular story shortly), and I can attest that when my son and I visited Yellowstone and Colorado back in the summer of 2018, the views were not as clear as they should have been because of the huge wildfires that were then raging in California, and the smoke had traveled westward to kind of overcast the skies over the Rockies. Right now, wildfires are occurring in places where they are not quite as usual to see: Europe. This includes France, Portugal, and Spain I do not remember these places traditionally being hotbeds of wildfires due to excessive heat until recent years. In fact, much of Europe normally had relatively mild summers, comparatively speaking. Now, they appear to regularly experience record hot temperatures and dangerous, swelteringly hot conditions. I remember seeing a wildfire from record heat in France just two years ago, when old heat records established in 2019 were eclipsed. Once again, records appear to be there again in much of Europe.
But don't take my word for it. Do your own research, if you feel so inclined. Almost all of these links to my own blog entries should have links to articles covering these stories about very unusual weather events, which seem to be less and less unusual as the years pass now. See if I am being alarmist, or if maybe, indeed, there really is a trend that we should not only take notice of, but finally take action for, while there still might be time to do something about it.
Here is the link to the original article which got me on this topic to begin with, and which specifically addresses the massive, uncharacteristic heat waves and record hot temperatures being experienced in some regions of the world this year (2022):
Heatwaves and Fires Scorch Europe, Africa, and Asia July 13, 2022
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150083/heatwaves-and-fires-scorch-europe-africa-and-asia?utm_source=FBPAGE&utm_medium=NASA+Earth&utm_campaign=NASASocial&linkId=173252999&fbclid=IwAR3XL1wR9IO4HE4Jl_82DrV2sRXe-iFfbnNoDGEE68d_CJPufb4uXntF_LU
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