Busy 10 Days: Highest Temperature On Record, CA Fires, China Floods, Irish Hurricane Winds, Laura
Pick almost any slice of time in the recent past and you can find clues to how climate change is jacking up dangerous weather extremes. Because of greenhouse gas pollution, this year will end up as one of the hottest three on record. In the last 30 days, all-time high temperature readings in the United States outnumbered record lows 86 to zero, and for the year-to-date, the ratio of heat records to cold records is 212 to 11. In the 1950s, the ratio was one-to-one.
Given these trends, it's no surprise that one of the recent record highs may end up being the hottest temperature ever reliably recorded on Earth, 129.9 degrees Fahrenheit, on Aug. 16 in California's Death Valley. Maxx Dilley, climate program director with the World Meteorological Organization, said the potential record is still being investigated, but it's clear that, with global warming, many more such records will be set in the years ahead.
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Aug. 17: Extreme Heat in Japan
As California started burning, Japan, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, was also experiencing extreme heat, tying the national record of 106 degrees Fahrenheit that was set just a couple of years ago, in 2018. The concern in Japan isn't wildfires, but the combination of heat and humidity. Recent research shows that parts of Asia, in particular, are close to a deadly climate threshold that will test the limits of human survivability.
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Aug. 19: Flooding in China
A summer of flooding in China peaked with concerns about the potential failure of the recently completed Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric facility. Record rains fell during the intense monsoon season, displacing millions of people. Global warming will drive even more intense rainfall in the future, because a warmer atmosphere holds more water (7 percent for every 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit warming). And scientists have also documented how ocean currents that transport heat energy, moisture and stormy weather are shifting closer to southeastern Asia. Extreme rainstorms have contributed to other recent dam failures in California and Michigan.
Link to tweet
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28082020/climate-extremes-record-heat-wildfires-hurricane-laura-floods
