Extreme weather news and discussion

[wjfox]

[Yuli Ban]

I fear its only a matter of time before we get some place hitting a confirmed 60°C

Edit: Look at these goddamn temperatures for Furnace Creek!
https://www.google.com/search?q=furnace+creek+weather

[wjfox]

I fear its only a matter of time before we get some place hitting a confirmed 60°C

That's hot enough to cause skin burning within seconds, and kill a lot of bacteria, small insects, etc.

Given the recent, insane temperature extremes we've seen, it may well happen in the coming years/decades.

[wjfox]

Antarctica hit record high temperature in 2020, scientists confirm

By Caroline Vakil - 07/03/21 10:55 AM EDT

Antarctica logged a new high temperature record of 64.94 degrees Fahrenheit (18.3 Celsius) in 2020, scientists with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed this week.

The temperature, which was reported on Feb. 6, 2020, and verified by the United Nations (U.N.) agency on Thursday, was recorded at the Argentine Esperanza Research Station.

The U.N. agency said the previous all-time high for Antarctica was 63.5 degrees, which was recorded on March 24, 2015, at the same research station.

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas noted that the new record was “consistent with the climate change we are observing.”

“The Antarctic Peninsula (the northwest tip near to South America) is among the fastest warming regions of the planet, almost 3°C over the last 50 years. This new temperature record is therefore consistent with the climate change we are observing,” Taalas said in a statement. “WMO is working in partnership with the Antarctic Treaty System to help conserve this pristine continent.”

https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium- ... scientists

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Record June temperatures point to more 'extraordinary' extremes

1 hour ago

North America experienced its warmest June on record, according to the EU's Earth observation programme.

That will come as no surprise given the unprecedentedly high temperatures recently recorded during the heatwave that hit Canada and parts of the US.

But UK residents may be startled to learn that despite the rain and cloud they experienced, it was the second warmest June on record for Europe.

It was also the fourth warmest June ever recorded worldwide.

Copernicus, the EU's Earth observation programme, produces its figures for world temperatures from computer-generated analyses using billions of measurements from satellites, aircraft and weather stations around the world.

Climate experts say the findings point to a frightening escalation in temperature extremes.

"We are getting used to record high temperatures being recorded somewhere around the world every year now," says Prof Peter Stott of the UK Met Office.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57742482

[Ken_J]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ency-earth

Canada is a warning: more and more of the world will soon be too hot for humans

[Yuli Ban]

‘Heat dome’ probably killed 1bn marine animals on Canada coast, experts say

More than 1 billion marine animals along Canada’s Pacific coast are likely to have died from last week’s record heatwave, experts warn, highlighting the vulnerability of ecosystems unaccustomed to extreme temperatures.

The “heat dome” that settled over western Canada and the north-western US for five days pushed temperatures in communities along the coast to 40C (104F) – shattering longstanding records and offering little respite for days.

The intense and unrelenting heat is believed to have killed as many as 500 people in the province of British Columbia and contributed to the hundreds of wildfires currently burning across the province.
But experts fear it also had a devastating impact on marine life.

Christopher Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, has calculated that more than a billion marine animals may have been killed by the unusual heat.

[caltrek]

Global Evidence Links Rise in Extreme Precipitation to Human-driven Climate Change

https://theconversation.com/global-evid ... nge-163715

Introduction:

(The Conversation) Human activities, such as burning fossil fuels for transportation and electricity, have worsened the intensity of extreme rainfall and snowfall over land in recent decades, not just in a few areas but on a global scale, new research shows (See footnote).

Past studies were able to attribute individual extreme events and long-term changes in some regions to climate change, but global assessments have been more difficult. We used a new technique to analyze precipitation records from around the world and found conclusive evidence of human influence on extreme precipitation in every one.

Footnote: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24262-x

[Yuli Ban]

Death Valley Might Break the Record for Hottest Temperature Ever Measured on Earth This Weekend

Death Valley National Park is poised to notch one of the hottest temperatures ever recorded on Earth this weekend—and possibly even break Earth’s all-time record—thanks to a blistering heat wave descending on the deserts of the western United States.

As of Friday morning, the National Weather Service predicts that Death Valley’s Furnace Creek Visitor Center will hit a high of 130°F on Sunday, July 11 and Monday, July 12. Officially speaking, if the park reaches that mark, it still wouldn’t break the record for highest temperature on earth; that dubious honor belongs to a 134°F day logged at the same station in Furnace Creek in 1913.

However, some meteorologists believe that those historical records don’t stand up to scrutiny: In a 2016 analysis, Weather Underground meteorologist and author Christopher C. Burt and climatologist William T. Reid came to the conclusion that the park’s 1913 record was “essentially not possible from a meteorological perspective,” and that unreliable equipment and inconsistencies between colonial-era and modern temperature records mean that other 130- and 131-degree marks set in Tunisia and California in the early part of the 20th century are probably too high as well. In Burt’s opinion, the highest reliably-measured temperatures ever recorded were a 129.2°F day logged at Furnace Creek in 2013 and another of the same temperature observed in Mitribah, Kuwait in 2016. If that’s the case, Sunday’s forecast temperature would handily break the real record.

[Yuli Ban]

Death Valley Posts 130-Degree Heat, Potentially Matching A Record High

The hottest place on Earth is as hot as it's ever been — at least in terms of recorded temperatures in modern times. Death Valley, Calif., recorded high temperatures of 130 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday and 129.4 degrees on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

Those temperatures come as Death Valley and other areas in the Western United States continue to be blanketed by scorching heat. The Friday temperature matches 130 degrees recorded in August 2020.

Experts need to verify the 130-degree records from this year and last year, but if correct they would be the hottest temperatures reliably recorded on Earth.

Death Valley Hits 130 Degrees as Heat Wave Sweeps the West
The 130-Degree Fahrenheit Reading in Death Valley Ties for the Hottest Temperature Ever Reliably Recorded

[Yuli Ban]

‘Catastrophe.’ Extreme heat cooks more than a billion shellfish alive on beaches

A deadly heat wave engulfing the Pacific Northwest and Canada has killed hundreds of people — and more than a billion shellfish cooked alive on scorching beaches, experts say.

“A mussel on the shore in some ways is like a toddler left in a car on a hot day,” Chris Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, told CBC News.

“They are stuck there until the parent comes back, or in this case, the tide comes back in, and there’s very little they can do,” Harley said.

Harley described smelling dead mussels, clams and sea stars before even reaching a beach near his home, CNN reported.

“I started having a look around just on my local beach and thought, ‘Oh, this, this can’t be good,’” he told the network. Harley described another nearby beach as a “catastrophe.”

[wjfox]

Flash floods cause travel chaos in parts of London

14 hours ago

Heavy rain has caused flash floods in various parts of London.

Cars have been submerged as roads filled with water while train services have also been cancelled.

Photos on social media showed parts of south-west London including Barnes, Raynes Park and Richmond had been affected, as had areas of north London including Golders Green and Highgate.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-57805391

[caltrek]

In California’s Interior, There’s No Escape From the Desperate Heat
by Maanvil Singh
July 10, 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -heat-race

Extract:

(The Guardian) While coastal regions, including the Bay Area, will have been spared by cool marine air, California’s Central Valley – the state’s sprawling, agricultural innards – will have broiled.
…
Hotter, drier conditions also mean harder, and less work for the region’s hundreds of thousands of farm workers. This week, Jesús Zúñiga has been up at 3am, to get to the fields by 5am. “I pick tomatoes – which is one of the toughest jobs out here,” he said, showing off the thick calluses that have developed on his hands. For hours each day, the harsh valley sun bears down on his back as he hunches over the tomato vines. Once he’s collected 50 pounds of fruit, he sprints down the neat, irrigated rows, to dump buckets full of the fruit on to trucks. His harvest ends up in grocery stores as well as fast food restaurant chains.

On several days this week, temperatures reached dangerous highs by 10am. “So on these hot days we’re only able to work five or six hours, before we’d start to get sick,” he said. “But then, we only get paid for five or six hours.” At $14 an hour that isn’t enough to pay his rent and soaring electricity bills, or to support his family of five.
…
Farm workers die of heat at roughly 20 times the national rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But as the climate crisis triggers longer, hotter heatwaves, the risks for agricultural workers will rise, said Michelle Tigchelaar, a researcher at Stanford University. Based on climate models projecting a global temperature increase of 3.6F (2C) by 2050, Tigchelaar discovered that agricultural workers who currently labor through an average of 21 dangerously hot days a year will see that number nearly double over the next few decades.

In some parts of the Central Valley, the heat index through most of the summer will surpass what even healthy, young and well-hydrated workers could safely handle, according to the study, published last year. “These are the hidden costs of keeping our supermarkets and shops well-stocked,” she said.

[Time_Traveller]

At least 21 dead in ‘catastrophic’ flooding in western Germany

Thu 15 Jul 2021

At least 21 people have died and dozens are missing or awaiting rescue from rooftops after heavy rain and floods caused buildings to collapse in the western German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North-Rhine Westphalia.

In the Rhineland-Palatinate district of Schuld, set in the Eifel mountain range, police said on Thursday morning they were searching for about 70 missing people following the collapse of six houses. At least eight people are confirmed to have died, officials said.

“There are dead people, there are missing people, and many who are still in danger”, said Rhineland-Palatinate’s state premier Malu Dreyer. “We have never seen a catastrophe like this,” the Social Democrat politician added. “It is truly devastating.”

A spokesperson for the Koblenz police told Reuters that an “unclear number” of people needed to be rescued from roofs.

“There are many places where fire brigades and rescue workers have been deployed. We do not yet have a very precise picture because rescue measures are continuing,” the spokesperson added.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... in-germany

[wjfox]

At least 21 dead in ‘catastrophic’ flooding in western Germany

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... in-germany

Death toll at 33 now.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57846200

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Major disaster in Germany - death toll now above 100.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57858829

[Time_Traveller]

Germany floods: Huge 'sinkhole' emerges after quarry dam collapses causing landslide

16 JUL 2021

A huge sinkhole has formed after a quarry dam collapsed in Germany as Europe continues to be devastated by extreme weather.

Homes and part of a castle in Blessem, near Cologne, were destroyed after heavy rain saw the River Erft burst its banks before the quarry gave way on Friday.

Geographer Matthias Habel said the river rushed into the gravel pit which eventually could no longer withstand the water pressure.

The sinkhole is growing bigger with the erosion currently spanning over 300 metres.

It is understood several people have died as a result of the collapse, while the death toll for the ongoing floods across the country's western region has reached at least 110.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-new ... s-24550790

[Xyls]

So I've seen in some articles that the floods in Germany are unprecedented but looking at one of the rivers that was affected - the Ahr in this case - it appears that this river has had similar catastrophic flash flooding events in 1804 (widespread destruction) and 1910 (200+ dead). Seems that the collective memory and awareness of these events were not there or perhaps better flood planning in the area could've avoided the major loss of life we are seeing now. Hopefully, this causes a revision of the flood risk in these areas going forward as it appears the Ahr in particular is prone to catastrophic life-threatening flash floods every 110 years or so (and this could increase with climate change).