Summer 2021 Breaks Heat Record Set During the 1936 Dust Bowl

The record for hottest summer in the U.S. has stood since 1936, the worst of the Dust Bowl. But 2021 has eclipsed that 85-year-old mark amid a season of drought, flames, and suffering.

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Source: https://gizmodo.com/summer-2021-breaks-heat-record-set-during-the-1936-dust-1847644023
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Brian Kahn

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Satellite images show impact of West’s historic drought on Colorado River region in just 1 year

Newly released satellite images of the Colorado River and Lake Mead in Nevada show the impact the historic drought has had on the region in just one year.

The big picture: The nation’s largest reservoir by volume is at its lowest level since being filled after the Hoover Dam’s completion in the 1930s — prompting the federal government to this week for the first time declare a water shortage for Lake Mead. The Hoover Dam has been operating below its maximum capacity all summer, and it may drop further.

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Lake Mead on the Colorado River

Lake Mead on the Colorado River on Aug. 8 2020. The West is in the grip of the worst drought of this century, while has been hit by the first climate change-caused megadrought seen in the past 1,200 years, per Axios’ Andrew Freedman.Photo: Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies

Lake Mead on Aug. 8 this year. Photo: Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies

Southern Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam

An overview of Southern Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam on May 18, 2020. Photo: Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies

An overview of Southern Lake Mead and Hoover Dam on July 27 this year. Photo: Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies

Hemenway Harbor Boat Launch area

Hemenway Harbor Boat Launch at Lake Mead and Hoover Dam on May 18. Photo: Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies

Hemenway Harbor Boat Launch at Lake Mead and Hoover Dam on July 27. Photo: Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies

The Hoover Dam

The Hoover Dam on May 18. Photo: Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies

The Hoover Dam on July 27. Photo: Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies

Source: https://www.axios.com/satellite-images-extreme-drought-colorado-river-1be12df1-c222-4114-b790-171c3761ac17.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rebecca Falconer

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Biggest US reservoir declares historic shortage, forcing water cuts across west

Officials issue first-ever declaration of tier 1 shortage at Lake Mead as it falls to lowest level since its creation

Officials have declared a dire water shortage at Lake Mead, the US’s largest reservoir, triggering major water cuts in Arizona and other western states. The US Bureau of Reclamation’s first-ever declaration of a “tier 1” shortage represents an acknowledgment that after a 20-year drought, the reservoir that impounds the Colorado River at the has receded to its lowest levels since it was created in the 1930s.

Already, the lake is at about 35% capacity – the white “bathtub ring” that lines its perimeter indicates where the water level once was. The lake’s level is projected to fall even lower by the end of the year, prompting cutbacks in January 2022, the Bureau of Reclamation announced Monday.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/16/lake-mead-drought-reservoir-water-level-cuts
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Sicily may have set Europe’s all-time heat record as temperatures climb to nearly 120 degrees

A weather station in Sicily may have set an all-time high temperature record for all of Europe on Wednesday, when the temperature climbed to a scorching 48.7°C (119.7°F) amid a regional heat wave that has shown few signs of relenting.

The big picture: The intense heat wave continues to roast the Mediterranean and northern Africa. The hot and dry weather has played a large role in creating the conditions conducive for explosive and devastating wildfires in Turkey and Greece.

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Details: Numerous monthly and national temperature records have fallen during the heat wave, including in Greece, Turkey and Tunisia, but if verified through an examination of the weather instruments, the Sicily observation would be the most noteworthy. The previous continental heat record was 48°C (118.4°F), set in Greece in 1977.

• For the record to be considered, a committee from the World Meteorological Organization would need to investigate the instrumentation and circumstances of the data, including whether similar temperatures were observed nearby.

Context: As detailed in the IPCC climate report released Monday, human emissions of greenhouse gases are dramatically escalating the risk and severity of extreme heat events across the globe.

• This summer has featured unprecedented heat in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., as well as in Europe. In the U.S. on Wednesday, about 170 million are under heat advisories or excessive heat warnings from the Northwest to East Coast.

Source: https://www.axios.com/europe-all-time-heat-record-set-sicily-065cef11-fdb7-4aaf-abd5-82b5b8d7a475.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Andrew Freedman

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Powerful heat wave to cause 100-degree temperatures for 25 million in the U.S. this week

Heat warnings and advisories are in effect for at least two dozen states through the end of the week. 25 million people are projected to see highs reach or eclipse 100°F this week, as yet another powerful heat dome-dominated weather pattern affects a huge swath of the country.

Why it matters: The heat wave will combine with drought conditions in the Pacific Northwest to aggravate an already dire wildfire situation, and bring more miserable weather to residents of Portland, Oregon, and other states hit hard by record-shattering heat in late June and early July.

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• This time around, heat and high humidity will combine to make for dangerously hot conditions in the Mid-Atlantic and Central states, too.
• The hot and dry weather will only worsen the ongoing wildfires and potentially lead to new ignitions from thunderstorms. California’s Dixie Fire, the second-largest blaze in state history and the largest ongoing wildfire in the U.S., grew further overnight toward the 500,000-acre mark, threatening more homes.

By the numbers: A strong area of high pressure across the Pacific Northwest, also known as a “heat dome,” will ratchet up the heat from northern California to Washington state during the Wednesday-through-Saturday period in particular.

• High temperatures of up to 112°F are possible in inland valleys in western Oregon, the National Weather Service predicts, with little overnight relief in many areas.
• High temperatures will generally be between 10°F and 15°F above average for this time of year.

Threat level: When it comes to fire weather, the Weather Service forecast office in Medford, Oregon, is warning of “excessively hot, very unstable and dry air” across southern Oregon and northern California — where the Bootleg Fire is still burning, in addition to the Dixie and other blazes.

• Fire weather warnings for potentially extreme wildfire behavior, including the formation of pyrocumulus clouds, go into effect on Wednesday.
• Portland, Oregon, which set an all-time high temperature record of 116°F back in July, is predicted to reach a sizzling 104°F on Thursday.
• Meanwhile, in the Eastern U.S., highs in the mid-to-upper 90s°F will affect the urban corridor between Washington and Boston, with scorching heat even reaching parts of New Hampshire and Maine.

Context: The heat wave comes just a day after a landmark climate science report was released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which definitively linked the increasing frequency and severity of heat waves to human emissions of greenhouse gases.

• The report described this connection as “established fact,” a striking increase in confidence level since its last major assessment, which is the equivalent of a CT scan for the planet, in 2013.
• At the same time as the U.S. is feeling the heat and seeing more than 105 large wildfires burn across the country, a brutal heat wave in the Mediterranean region is continuing to fuel deadly blazes in Greece and Turkey.

Source: https://www.axios.com/heat-wave-us-august-25219a5f-3280-485a-86c7-5350a75c7203.html
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Mass graves dug for horses in Kazakhstan as Central Asian steppe hit by brutal heat wave, leaving wells and rivers running dry

International organizations are warning that months of severe drought in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan are causing livestock to perish from hunger and thirst as supplies of food and water vanish in the sweltering heat.

A report by Reuters, published on Saturday, described how mass graves are being dug for hundreds of horses, farmed on the steppes for their meat and milk. One ranch owner, Gabidolla Kalynbayuly, told reporters that 20 of his steeds had already perished in the unseasonable heat this year, which has seen record-shattering temperatures in the Central Asian nation of up to 46.5 Celsius (115.7 Fahrenheit).

After months of sweltering weather, crops have failed and grass used to graze horses has virtually vanished. The drought has also left animals without food or water, while the price of hay and barley has shot up. At the end of July, the European Commission’s humanitarian aid watchdog agency warned that “minimum reserves of food and water are exhausted leading to the mass death of animals” in the west of Kazakhstan.

Also on rt.com

Why you should care about Kazakhstan: The drought nobody is talking about could be a harbinger of doom for the region & the West

The government has imposed a six-month ban on the exports of both food and livestock, insisting that produce should stay at home while it struggles to meet demand and rescue the agriculture sector. In addition, the drought has sparked diplomatic tensions with neighboring Kyrgyzstan, which spans the mountains from which Kazakhstan’s water sources flow. Kyrgyz officials have come under pressure to ban water exports in response to overall scarcity.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country is already seeing the effects of climate change, and being affected disproportionately by global warming. Putin explained that the average annual temperature for the past 44 years has been growing 2.8 times faster in Russia than the global average. “I have already spoken about this, and experts are well aware of this,” he said.

READ MORE: Putin says effects of global climate change disproportionately hitting Russia, as country battered by floods & raging wildfires

However, there are hopes that climate change could also bring positives to the world’s largest country, with vast regions currently too cold for agriculture thawing and opening up new opportunities for farmers to graze livestock. Analysts have repeatedly pointed to Russia as one potential winner from global climate change, against the backdrop of catastrophic predictions for the fate of much of the southern hemisphere.

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Source: https://www.rt.com/russia/531502-graves-horses-heat-wave/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
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Utah’s Great Salt Lake Is Officially at Its Lowest Point in Recorded History

Water levels in Utah’s Great Salt Lake have officially dwindled to their lowest ever recorded. It’s an effect of the megadrought that has impacted water supplies across the West.

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Source: https://gizmodo.com/utahs-great-salt-lake-is-officially-at-its-lowest-point-1847370873
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Tom McKay

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A Stifling New Heat Wave Is Baking the U.S.

Well, apparently this is Hot Dome Summer.

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Source: https://gizmodo.com/a-stifling-new-heat-wave-is-baking-the-u-s-1847372144
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Expect more record-shattering heat waves like the one that hit the Pacific Northwest

The recent deadly heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, during which all-time temperature records were shattered by several degrees, is a prologue to what is coming across much of the U.S., Europe and Asia, a new study finds.

Why it matters: The study shows that the rate of climate change is an under-appreciated driver of extreme heat, and that today’s quickening pace of warming virtually guarantees more extreme temperature records in coming decades.

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• The study, published Monday in Nature Climate Change, also finds that looking to past extreme temperatures when making infrastructure decisions offers a poor guide to the future given how quickly human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are transforming the likelihood of unprecedented heat extremes.

Details: The study shows that the rate of warming, rather than the absolute amount of warming compared to preindustrial levels, is an important determining factor in how likely it is that heat waves will greatly exceed temperatures previously observed in a particular location.

What they did: Using computer models and records of past weather events, Erich Fischer and his colleagues at ETH Zurich examined how the chances for record-shattering heat waves have been shifting and will continue to change as global warming continues.

• They focused on the occurrence of week-long, record-shattering heat waves, such as the one that recently occurred in the Pacific Northwest and Canada, and examined how these probabilities would change depending on the rate and amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

By the numbers: During the Pacific Northwest’s deadly heat wave, Seattle hit an all-time high of 108°F, while Portland shattered its old record to reach 116°F. The previous record in Portland was just 107°F, whereas Seattle had only seen the mercury rise to 103°F prior to this event.

• Typically, all-time temperature records are exceeded by fractions of a degree.
• The study found that under a high emissions scenario, record-shattering heat extremes (at least three standard deviations from average) are two to seven times more likely during the 2021–2050 period, and three to 21 times more likely during the 2051–2080 period.
• The greatest frequency of these heat extremes would occur during periods of faster warming immediately following years of relatively flat temperature growth.
• The planet is currently warming at a rate of about 0.18°C, or 0.32°F per decade, according to NOAA. This is considerably faster than the warming rate during the previous 40 years, which puts us at greater risk of unprecedented heat.

What they’re saying: “The main message is that we need to prepare for more record heat events in the coming decades that shatter previous record temperatures by large margins,” Fischer told Axios via email.

• “Because the probability of record-shattering events is directly related to the speed of warming, this is yet another piece of the puzzle that demonstrates that in order to reduce the risk of such record-shattering heat, greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced very rapidly,” Fischer said.

Outside experts who were not part of the new study told Axios the research helps explain what’s being seen in the real world.

• “All I can say is, wow, what a remarkably prescient paper,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, noting that it was completed and submitted for publication prior to the heat waves this summer.
• “The notion that events we assumed were vanishingly rare or impossible, due to our relatively limited historical record, are probably not nearly so rare in the real world,” Swain added, noting that in the case of the Pacific Northwest heat event, unusual but not unheard of weather patterns were able to produce astonishing temperature records.
• “We don’t need to invoke some kind of exotic new mechanism for so-called ‘black swan’ heat waves,” he said. “All it takes is to get unlucky with a confluence of the same ingredients that produced lesser historical heat waves.”
• Friederike Otto, who helps lead the global effort to analyze climate change’s role in producing extreme weather events, said the paper shows that even very rare events like the Pacific Northwest heat wave are “increasing rapidly in likelihood with still increasing warming rates.”
• On the other hand, Michael Mann of Penn State University told Axios that model shortcomings regarding the physics of extreme events and atmospheric circulation means that the new study’s projections are quite uncertain.

What’s next: Even if world leaders decide to slash greenhouse gas emissions in the near term to avoid potentially devastating amounts of global warming, unprecedented heat extremes will still grow more common and damaging during the next several decades due to the lag time that the planet’s climate has built into it.

Go deeper: In summer of apocalyptic weather, concerns emerge over climate science blind spot

Source: https://www.axios.com/record-shattering-heat-waves-becoming-far-more-likely-study-e13fde50-45d8-4bcd-bc86-efecba6c5217.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Andrew Freedman

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Lake Powell, Second-Largest Reservoir in U.S., Hits Record Low as Megadrought Worsens

Amid the West’s dire megadrought, there’s more bad news on the water front. Lake Powell, a crucial reservoir on the Colorado River, has now hit its lowest level on record since the reservoir was first filled in the late 1960s.

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Source: https://gizmodo.com/lake-powell-second-largest-reservoir-in-u-s-hits-rec-1847361776
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Molly Taft

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Oregon Bootleg Fire: Evacuations as largest US fire burns 300,000 acres

The Bootleg Fire has burned an area larger than New York City and forced thousands to evacuate.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57890935
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Another heat dome poised to roast northern Rockies, Canada

The next in a series of relentless heat waves is taking shape across parts of the West and northern Plains, with temperatures set to vault into the triple-digits once again from Idaho and Montana north into Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Why it matters: The West has already been extremely hot so far this summer, with a series of heat waves of unparalleled intensity for some regions.

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The heat waves have combined with drought conditions to yield massive, rapidly spreading wildfires from Washington state to California and eastward into Idaho. A staggering 64% of the West is mired in “extreme” to “exceptional” drought conditions, the top two worst categories, per the U.S. Drought Monitor.

• Though the next event won’t be as far-reaching in scope as the previous heat waves, it has the potential to significantly escalate the West’s wildfire woes.

How it works: With extreme drought conditions firmly in place across the West, the region is locked in a positive feedback where the dryness helps heat the atmosphere, which only dries conditions out more, thereby adding to the heat.

• During June and July, a series of strong upper level high pressure areas, colloquially known as heat domes, have set up in different positions of the West. First, one took up residence over the Southwest, sending temperatures soaring well into the triple digits in Phoenix and Las Vegas.
• Then in late June into early July, an extraordinarily strong and persistent heat dome became anchored over the Pacific Northwest, drifting slowly across southwestern Canada over time.
• That heat event yielded highs of 116°F in Portland, 108°F in Seattle, and a Canadian record of 121°F in Lytton, British Columbia. The day after that temperature was recorded in Lytton, the small town was destroyed by a wildfire.
• A study concluded that heat wave was “virtually impossible” without human-caused global warming spurred by the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and other factors.
• In between, other heat domes have come and gone across California, keeping hotter-than-average temperatures in place. As river and reservoir levels drop in the state, water temperatures are heating up, killing fish species.
• The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has said it expects that nearly all young chinook salmon in the Sacramento River could die this summer due to unusually hot temperatures.

What’s next: Over the weekend, the next heat dome is forecast to develop over the northern Rockies, extending its influence northward into southern Canada.

• In Billings, Mont., an excessive heat watch is in place for “dangerously hot conditions with temperatures climbing from near 100°F Saturday to 103 to 106°F by Monday.” Nighttime lows won’t provide much relief there, either, with temperatures only sliding to near 70°F.
• The typical high temperature for Billings on July 15 is about 88°F with a low near 60°F.
• Similarly, temperatures in Idaho are predicted to climb into the triple digits, along with Utah and North Dakota.
• Canada may see the most extreme temperatures, however, with highs up to 40°F above average for this time of year.

Of note: The heat wave may be prolonged in some areas, particularly in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where triple-digit highs could be seen through next weekend.

• From time to time, the thickness of wildfire smoke could hold temperatures down a few degrees below projected levels.

What they’re saying: “Most of the West is a tinderbox right now and if dry lightning or human actions lead to even more fires, the potential for explosive growth is seriously concerning,” said Steve Bowen, head of catastrophe insight at Aon, highlighting the likelihood for the next heat wave to instigate more blazes.

Source: https://www.axios.com/heat-wave-temperatures-to-soar-100s-montana-canada-c165aadf-0fd0-4b97-9f5f-c3d650063fc3.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Andrew Freedman

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Severe drought threatens Hoover dam reservoir – and water for US west

The wellspring of Lake Mead created by the dam’s blocking of the Colorado River has plummeted to an historic low as states in the west face hefty cuts in their water supplies

Had the formidable white arc of the Hoover dam never held back the Colorado River, the US west would probably have no Los Angeles or Las Vegas as we know them today. No sprawling food bowl of wheat, alfalfa and corn. No dreams of relocating to live in a tamed desert. The river, and dam, made the west; now the climate crisis threatens to break it.

The situation here is emblematic of a planet slowly, inexorably overheating. And the catastrophic consequences of the extreme weather this brings.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/13/hoover-dam-lake-mead-severe-drought-us-west
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Oliver Milman at Hoover dam

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Wildfires rage in California and Oregon amid scorching heatwave

Firefighters working in searing heat are struggling to contain the largest wildfire in California so far this year.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/12/wildfires-rage-in-california-and-oregon-amid-scorching-heatwave
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Death Valley hits 130 in historic heat wave

California’s Death Valley reached 130 degrees on Friday, amid a historic heat wave that is impacting the Pacific Northwest and stretching into parts of the Southwest.  The blistering tempe…

Source: https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/562415-death-valley-hits-130-in-historic-heat-wave
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A New Dangerous Heat Wave Is Coming for the West (Yes, Another One)

The West Coast can’t catch a break from dangerous and extreme heat. A new heatwave is set to hit the region this weekend. The Northwest will, thankfully, be spared the worst of the heat. But sizzling temperatures will spread across a large area that includes the entire West Coast and portions of the Northern Rockies…

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Source: https://gizmodo.com/a-new-dangerous-heat-wave-is-coming-for-the-west-yes-1847259077
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Molly Taft

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Heat waves, wildfires and tropical storms: Welcome to our hellscape summer

Deadly heat waves. An epic drought. More than a million acres in the West gone up in smoke before the end of June. And the earliest fifth-named Atlantic tropical storm on record.

• Welcome to the summer of 2021, when scientists’ steady drumbeat of climate change warnings have reached an all-too-real crescendo.

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Why it matters: The calamities playing out across the country may have repercussions in Washington as lawmakers debate potentially huge investments for the country’s aging infrastructure.

• Depending on its provisions, the eventual legislation could make or break America’s ability to sharply cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near term, thereby affecting how disastrous future extreme weather events become.

The big picture: The deadly heat waves, which are ongoing in portions of the Northwest and Canada, constitute a public health crisis. This is partly because they’re hitting a region where air conditioning is uncommon.

• The heat waves — along with overly thirsty California crops, and electric rail systems that cease operations at high temperatures, and highways that have buckled in the heat — demonstrate the limitations of our current infrastructure.
• Everything from our roads and bridges to our buildings, mass transit and water treatment facilities were built for a climate that no longer exists.

By the numbers: Some of the temperature records set during the past week have shaken even climate scientists, despite the projections of exactly these outcomes in study after study.

• In the past 10 days, record-shattering temperatures have killed dozens in Oregon and Washington, as the thermometer hit 116°F in Portland, Ore., and 108°F in Seattle, both all-time highs for those locations.
• The heat has killed nearly 500 in British Columbia.
• And Lytton, a small about 95 miles town northeast of Vancouver, was wiped out when a fast-moving wildfire swept through on Wednesday evening. The fire followed an unnerving national all-time high temperature record set there just the day before: 121°F.

Across British Columbia, the heat wave led to an eruption of wildfires on Wednesday into Thursday, many of them resembling explosions on satellite imagery and from the ground.

• The blazes were so intense that they manufactured their own weather, generating about 710,000 lightning strikes, some of which started new fires.
• Prior to the destructive blaze, Lytton shattered Canada’s national high temperature record three days in a row.
• “It’s warmer in parts of western Canada than in Dubai. I mean, it’s just not something that seems Canadian,” Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips told CTV News on Saturday.

State of play: Top White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy said at a Punchbowl News event Wednesday that the Biden administration views the Pacific Northwest heat wave, as well as the drought and other extremes, as newly urgent reasons to take action on climate.

• “These are things that remind us that time is running out here. We have to get moving,” McCarthy said.

Between the lines: Studies show clear links between upticks in wildfire intensity and acreage burned in the West and human-caused climate change.

• Similarly, research has pointed again and again to how the warming climate dramatically increases the odds, severity, extent, and longevity of extreme heat events.

Of note: The heat hasn’t been exclusive to the West and Canada. Boston saw its second-hottest June day on record Wednesday.

• Residents of New York City received emergency alerts on their phones, urging them to cut power use or risk citywide outages due to surging demand for cooling.

The bottom line: With new forecasts calling for continued warmer and drier than average conditions in the West amid the worst drought of the century, and a hurricane season that is already in hyperdrive, don’t bet on much of a reprieve.

Source: https://www.axios.com/heat-waves-wildfires-hellscape-summer-48bc4551-2150-4b1a-b3cf-382c58a714b5.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Andrew Freedman

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Millions in India’s northern states sizzle in severe heatwave

Heatwave pushes temperature to a nine-year high in New Delhi as monsoon rains run behind schedule.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/2/india-severe-heatwave-northern-states-delhi
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California governor on climate science: ‘Believe your own damn eyes’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) urged people to “believe your own damn eyes” when commenting on climate science, …

Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/560985-california-governor-on-climate-science-believe-your-own-damn-eyes
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Olafimihan Oshin

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Portland soared to 116 degrees – hotter than Dallas, Miami and LA have ever been

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country Boston was forecast to hit nearly 100 degrees and New York City could feel like 105 degrees.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/portland-soared-116-degrees-hotter-dallas-miami-la-have-ever-n1272617
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jeremy Lewan and Kathryn Prociv

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