Red-Hot Planet: heat records set all over world during past week

The heat is cranking up everywhere. Jason Samenow writes in the Washington Post about the heat records that are being shattered all around the planet. He starts off by correctly pointing out that a new record in just one place is not Climate, but instead is weather. We will hit extremes, that is normal, it happens. What is truly different is that it is not just a story about a record high temperature in one location, but instead it is happening all around the planet.

Key Point: You can’t attribute a heat wave in one location to Climate Change. When you face heat records being shattered everywhere, then you can.

What Exactly has been happening?

Via Jason’s article that lists the events …

North America …

• Denver tied its all-time high-temperature record of 105 degrees on June 28.
• Mount Washington, N.H., tied its all-time warmest low temperature of 60 degrees on July 2.
• Burlington, Vt., set its all-time warmest low temperature ever recorded of 80 degrees on July 2.
• Montreal recorded its highest temperature in recorded history, dating back 147 years, of 97.9 degrees (36.6 Celsius) on July 2. The city also posted its most extreme midnight combination of heat and humidity.
• Ottawa posted its most extreme combination of heat and humidity on July 1.

Europe …

• Scotland provisionally set its hottest temperature on record. The U.K. Met Office reported Motherwell, about 12 miles southeast of Glasgow, hit 91.8 degrees (33.2 Celsius) on June 28, passing the previous record of (32.9 Celsius) set in August 2003 at Greycrook. Additionally, Glasgowhad its hottest day on record, hitting 89.4 degrees (31.9 Celsius).
• In Ireland, on June 28, Shannon hit 89.6 degrees (32 Celsius), its record.
• In Northern Ireland,
  • Belfast hit 85.1 degrees (29.5 Celsius) on June 28, its record.
  • Castlederg hit 86.2 degrees (30.1 Celsius) on June 29, its record

Eurasia …

• Tbilisi, Georgia: On July 4, the capital city soared to 104.9 degrees (40.5 Celsius), its all-time record.
• Yerevan, Armenia: On July 2, the capital city soared to 107.6 degrees (42 Celsius), a record high for July and tying its record for any month.
• Several locations in southern Russia topped or matched their warmest June temperatures on record on the 28th.

Middle east …

• Quriyat, Oman, posted the world’s hottest low temperature ever recorded on June 28: 109 degrees (42.6 Celsius).

All of the above is just from the past week.

This however is not an isolated week. Over the past 15 months there has been an on-going trend of heat records being shattered.

• In April, Pakistan posted the hottest temperature ever observed on Earth during the month of 122.4 degrees (50.2 Celsius).
• Dallas had never hit 90 degrees in November before, but it did so three times in four days in 2017.
• In late October 2017, temperatures soared to 108 degrees in Southern California, the hottest weather on record so late in the season in the entire U.S.
• On Sept. 1, 2017, San Francisco hit 106 degrees, smashing its all-time hottest temperature.
• In late July 2017, Shanghai registered its highest temperature in recorded history, 105.6 degrees (40.9 Celsius).
• In mid-July, Spain posted its highest temperature recorded when Córdoba Airport (in the south) hit 116.4 degrees (46.9 Celsius).
• In July 2017, Death Valley, Calif., endured the hottest month recorded on Earth.
• In late June 2017, Ahvaz, Iran, soared to 128.7 degrees Fahrenheit (53.7 Celsius) — that country’s all-time hottest temperature.
• In late May 2017, the western town of Turbat in Pakistan hit 128.3 degrees (53.5 Celsius), tying the all-time highest temperature in that country and the world-record temperature for May, according to Masters.

Why is this happening?

I really don’t need to explain it. As we continue to pump out more and more CO2, a greenhouse gas, we will continue to see an ongoing warming trend continue ever upwards.

Perhaps the real question to ponder over is to wonder just when we will make decisive meaningful change and start to truly address the issue.

Right now, despite our various agreements and initiatives, the amount of CO2 within our atmosphere continues its relentless climb upwards way beyond naturally occurring levels. Looking back over the past 800,000 years (via measurements in Ice Core data), it is never been this high.

Who should I believe?

On the one hand, you have an almost countless number of climate scientists using actual measurements and also climate models advising that we have a huge problem and that we need to take decisive meaningful action.

Then as a contrast, we have the incompetent buffoon in the White House advising that it is all a Chinese hoax.

Gosh, who should I believe?

This is such a hard call to make.