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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced yesterday that September 2020 was the hottest ever recorded and that they now fully expect that 2020 will be one of the three hottest years on record.
Why This Matters: Every month for the last 429, global temperatures have been “at least nominally” above the 20th-century average — so it’s not just Septembers that are warm.
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Climate change is causing a change in the “balance” of the seasons according to new research by a scientist with the National Weather Service, The Washington Post reports. On average, the U.S. and Canada gained a week of summer. Oh, and May of this year was the warmest ever recorded.
Why This Matters: Some cities gained not just weeks, but more than a month of summer.
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In yet another painful ripple effect of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Scientific American, scientists are being forced to pause critical data collection and research that could reduce the quality of weather forecasts in the near term, and threaten long-standing climate studies.
Why This Matters: There’s that word again — unprecedented. The loss of water and air data that is critical for use in weather forecasting models is unprecedented.
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Storm Ciara battered the U.K. and northern Europe with hurricane-force winds and heavy rains Sunday, grounding thousands of flights and canceling trains across the continent, and producing heaving seas that closed down ports — even the English Premier League had to cancel games as authorities urged millions of people to avoid the outdoors due to falling trees and downed power lines.
Why This Matters: Severe travel disruptions, power outages, coastal flooding and weather damage to cars and property, and yes, even soccer (or football as they say there) games had to be canceled.
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Cities in Alaska and the Southeastern U.S. saw some of the greatest extremes in weather in 2019 — with Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, coming in at 9.3 degrees warmer than average and Bozeman, Montana was 5.3 degrees colder than average, while Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas was the wettest with 25.02 inches more rain than average and of U.S. cities, Tallahassee, Florida, had a 20-inch rainfall deficit.
Why This Matters: There were some big extremes in 2019 — with an impressive list and geographic spread of U.S. cities seeing record-breaking weather. Record warmth for Alaska is one of the biggest stories of the year.
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Scientists who have studied global weather data say that beginning in 2012 “on the basis of a single day of globally observed temperature and moisture, we detect the fingerprint of externally driven climate change, and conclude that Earth as a whole is warming.”
Why This Matters: When we talk about climate change, we can now explain it as something that is immediately apparent — not something that takes years to comprehend. This should help in rebutting climate deniers insofar as they were resting on arguments about weather variability.
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