106 days over 100°F for Phoenix

Posted on by rapidclimatechange_tfkjps

Phoenix breaks new heat record with 106 days over 100°F

And 56 days over 110°F

South America & Amazon burning as never before

Half of Brazil is in an extended megadrought as other nations cut hydro

From Brazil’s Amazon rainforest to the world’s largest wetlands to super dry forests in Bolivia an unprecedented onslaught of wildfires  is smashing all time records. Brazil’s space research agency Inpe reports 346,112 fire hotspots so far this year in all 13 countries of South America. This alarming statistic breaks the 2007 record of 345,322 hotspots. Even the capital was threatened, as flame erupted in Brasilia, destroying almost 5,000 acres in Brasilia National Park. The city was covered in smoke, schools were canceled and hundreds of millions in crops were lost.

Ecuador has cut power to half the country due to extreme drought. Colombia was fighting out of control burns across seven states. Bolivia has declared a national emergency.

 “It’s a hurricane of flames!”

Fires burning in all South American countries

 

Flash glacier outburst flood in Juneau as GLOF events increase globally

In a repeat of a 2023 catastrophe, an “outburst flood” from the Mendenhall Glacier has sent millions of gallons of rock and water into a neighborhood in Juneau. About 100 homes were evacuated and a state of emergency was declared. According to authorities, shocked residents managed to swim out of their homes in the middle of the night.

Two miles from the end  of the Mendenhall Glacier, ice dams blocks Suicide Basin valley, an open space left after the glacier melted away. GLOFs originating from Suicide Basin have occurred annually but flooding has worsened in recent years. Record flood levels were set both last year and this year.

For the past decade, the valley has filled with rain and meltwater as the glacier recedes.  Then the water burrows a tunnel into the ice dam, which eventually breaks through and pouring into the city below.  

As glaciers melt at a frenetic pace new lakes back up behind newly formed ice dams in the Andes, Alps and Himalayas. When the dams break, the water rushes downstream, often in a cataclysmic flood. These floods have become more common as global warming causes rapid melting of glaciers around the world.

200,000 displaced in latest Nigeria flooding

Hundreds dead after weeks of torrential rains and floods

 Weeks of flooding have killed nearly 200 people in Nigeria and washed away homes and farmlands, the country’s disaster management agency said, further threatening food supplies, especially in the hard-hit northern region.

The floods have destroyed 107,000 hectares of essential in the north, the source of much of the country’s ag output. Nigeria has the highest number of hungry people in the world, with 32 million — 10% of the global burden — facing acute hunger.

Nigerian floods

107°F breaks record as Australian winter ends with large scale heat event

Hottest ever winter temperature recorded down under

The temperature is the hottest every recorded on the continent for any winter month (which as a reminder, is the seasonal opposite of the Northern Hemisphere).  

Records are also being broken in Queensland, Western Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales.

“It doesn’t matter how you slice and dice it…The temperature records have been gobsmacking.” –  Dr Linden Ashcroft,  the University of Melbourne.

Australia land hurricane turns deadly as winds top 100 MPH

Derecho, hurricane forces winds have killed at least one in Victoria State, a heat wave is driving bushfire in Queensland and Tasmania is under water as Australia undergoes a triple climate event. 

Monday saw with record flooding in Tasmania, an emergency bushfire in NSW, and more than 600 houses damaged by wind in Victoria.

In Queensland, firefighters are continuing to fight bushfires in the Scenic Rim in the state’s south-east. Residents near Kerry Road have been told to prepare to leave as hot and dry weather are creating “perfect” conditions for bushfires, the state firefighting service said.

Land continues collapsing in Rancho Palos Verdes as power is cut

Electricity has been cut to hundreds of residents of Rancho Pales Verdes, CA as landslides in the area continue to occur without warning.

“There is no playbook for an emergency like this one,”  –  L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn.

The moving land that is creating a danger to electrical equipment in the area, according to Southern California Edison. While hundreds of homes are affected, but most are expected to be temporary shut offs. However about 20 homes in Seaview will be losing power “indefinitely.” Gas company officials said the area continues to experience significant new land movement damaging roads, homes and further threatening the safety of SoCalGas’ infrastructure

The crisis is over a year old, as massive landslumps have accelerated on about 700 acres as a delayed reaction to heavy rains from spring 2023. 

“This is bigger than Rancho Palos Verdes. This land movement is so gigantic and so damaging, that one city should not have to bear the burden alone.“

Rancho Palos Verdes cuts

Climate threatens global food supply

Global food supply is fraying as heat looms

The accelerating climate emergency poses a significant threat to the global food supply, with both direct and indirect effects on crops, livestock, and fisheries.
Planet wide heating is already having far-reaching effects on the global food supply, impacting crop yields and increasing food insecurity. These impacts are shaped by rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, more frequent extreme weather events, and increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
The climate emergency affects crop yields due to extended heat waves and water scarcity, extreme weather and unpredictable precipitation patterns. Often overlooked, nutrient content in staple crops may also be affected. Crop yields may even increase due to higher CO2 levels, but actual nutrients may decrease, resulting in more empty calories.
In addition, warming lake and ocean waters are stressing marine life, which affects fisheries and aquaculture. Increased CO2 levels in the ocean are causing fundamental changes to acidity.
The range of crop destroying insects and other pest is migrating toward the poles.
As luxury goods and basic stables become more expensive and then unavailable, it will become increasingly challenging for paid climate deniers to keep up the lies.

Summer ends with record breaking heat, floods, landslides and wind events

Link to more stories.

325 ft high wall of wildfire sweeps Jasper, Alberta

Posted on by rapidclimatechange_tfkjps

Wildfires devastate Jasper, Alberta and National Park

25,000 evacuated in Canadian Rockies

The town of Jasper, AB and surrounding national park were laid waste by a 328 ft. wall of fire that swept through, melting cars, torching buildings and infrastructure with apocalyptic heat.

Intense heat melted vehicles, torched buildings

As of late July, there are 48 wildfires burning “out of control” around the province of Alberta as the region sees the continuation of annual fire problem that seemingly has no end.

 

Wildfire devastates Japser, Alberta

wildfires melt car in Jasper, AB

Amped up megafires driven by climate-fueled cocktail of conditions.

Alberta has experienced significant wildfires in recent years, reflecting broader trends in increasing wildfire frequency and intensity due to climate change. The causes are warmer temperatures, prolonged droughts, and earlier snowmelt contribute to drier conditions, increasing the likelihood of wildfires.

.

Western USA continues to burn as firenado is recorded in California

The cataclysmic Park Fire in Northern California was growing at a rate of 8 sq miles an hour and has burned more than 350,000 acres of land north-east of Chico. Hundreds of fires are out of control in Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

Communities elsewhere in the U.S. West and Canada also were under siege Saturday from fast-moving flames. More than 110 active fires covering 2,800 square miles (7,250 square kilometers) were burning in the U.S. on Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center

Firenado recorded amidst devastating wildfires

Summer 2024 brings it

Floods, record breaking cyclones, lethal heat waves and landslides happen simultaneously as the human species sleepwalks into oblivion.

Current update here

.

 

Dubai hits 140F heat index

Posted on by rapidclimatechange_tfkjps

IS IT WARM OR IS IT JUST ME?

“The body doesn’t care what the instruments report, it only knows whether or not it can cool itself.”

This week has seen reports of heat index records in the Gulf and Near East that exceed 140°F, in some cases as high as 150°F. That level is well above what the human body can tolerate for long.

The most newsworthy event focused on Dubai, which measured a 144°F heat index and a “real” temperature of 113°F. Asaluyeh, Iran also reported a 149 °F heat index. But the parade of broken records is covering much wider swaths of the planet, including catastrophic heat waves in the US West and East coasts, Southern Europe, South Asia and Africa.

Most of these places are historically hot. But not this hot for this long. Real people are dying, including the barely reported June deaths of 1,300 Hajj pilgrims in Mecca in 120°F heat. They were going to throw stones at the devil.

Is the heat index – which accounts for air temperature and humidity – real?

Short answer: real enough to cook your internal organs, my friend.

In the context of effect on the human body, the heat index is EVEN MORE REAL than standard air temperatures as measured on the thermometer. The body doesn’t care what the instruments report, it only knows whether or not it can cool itself.

For example, Persian Gulf International Airport reported successive thermometer air temperature readings of “only” 108°F and 106°F, but heat indexes of 149°F. Why the big difference? Part of the answer is a lesser reported stat: a 95°F reading of Persian Gulf water temperatures, which generate massive amounts of humidity.

The body cools itself by sweating, but at those levels it is unable to do that because moisture doesn’t evaporate. The human body begins to shut down at a core temperature of around 109.4°F. At that point, we begin to heat from inside. Any heat index over 105°F is dangerous to the human body (new studies are concluding even lower levels can be lethal). Above 124°F is considered extremely dangerous.

Then you die.

“It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.”

In the US, most places experiencing this rapid increase in temperatures are in the Desert Southwest, which typically have lower humidity and also air conditioning. So those with the means can live inside during long heatwaves, going from air conditioned home to air conditioned car to air-conditioned restaurant. So for now, it’s mostly the poor and homeless who die.

The other under-reported stat is overnight lows, which are increasing even faster than daytime highs. If anything, these numbers are more critical to any environment, because humans and plants are unable to recover. Humans can migrate if they are able, but trees not so much.

In the Near East, nighttime lows have been in the 80s up to high 90s in places. The same trends are clear in other regions of the overheating planet.

As heat indexes become more widely reported, climate denialists are lining up to deride these statistics as woke science, not real, like birds. It is another conspiracy, although who benefits is a different question altogether.

After 20 years of covering the global climate disaster, I have divided denialist trolls into two camps: 1) those who are well paid to continue the multi-billion dollar, multi-decade gas lighting extravaganza brought to you by the fossil boys and 2) fools.

However, there is likely significant overlap between these groups.

Link to global updates

 

Florida Man Ron Cancels Water Pollution Alerts

Posted on by rapidclimatechange_tfkjps

If you don’t talk about it, it’s not real

A bi-partisan bill passed in the Florida legislature last week would have mandated the Department of Health to monitor polluted beaches and report the data to the public. Florida SB 165 authorized the Department to close coastal beaches and public bathing spaces if necessary “to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”
I say “would have” because Gov. DeSantis vetoed it.
The bill required counties and municipalities to warn the DOH within 24 hours of unsafe of fecal matter (shit) or enterococci bacteria levels in the water and post health advisory warning signs. There is a lot of water in Florida, and a whole lot of it is impaired by everything from toxic algae blooms, sewage, nitrogen and phosphorus. Ask any manatee.
Ron is no more concerned about dirty swimming water than he is about human rights, actual history or climate breakdown. Ron cares about tourist dollars and the effect that warning visitors about threats to their health might have on revenue. Ron cares about the money flowing into his campaign coffers from the people responsible for the pollution.
That’s why he vetoed this common sense law.
It’s also why he happily signed legislation that bans the use of “climate change” or similar terms in any official state document or communication
.
This accounts for his popularity among the magical thinking segment of the public.

 

HOT WATER: KILLER HURRICANE BERYL THINKS IT’S SEPTEMBER

Posted on by rapidclimatechange_tfkjps

HOT HOT HOT CATEGORY 5 STORM IS BREAKING EVERY RECORD

After having leveled 90% of the buildings on Carriacou, Grenada, Cat 5 Hurricane Beryl has already broken lots of records as it barrels toward Jamaica. The rapid intensification of this storm is unprecedented for this time of year (and for most any time of year), a condition made possible by Atlantic surface temperatures that are historically high. Rapid Intensification (RI) is defined as an increase of 35 MPH or more in a storm’s wind speed over 24 hours. Beryl’s wind speed more than doubled to 160 MPH from Monday to Tuesday.
The year 2023 was the warmest globally on land, sea and air. According to Copernicus’ ERA5 data records from June, 2024 is already hotter, with global sea surface temperatures across most of the world’s seas at unprecedented levels even as the El Niño cycle slackens.
The current temperatures are typical of September, not early July. On average, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season tends to form during early to mid-August. The first Category 3 generally doesn’t usually occur until Sept. 1, records show. Beryl hit Cat 5 in early July.
Average daily sea surface temperature for the month of May hit a new all-time high of 69.67 F a monthly new record for the 14th month in a row. In a nutshell, the temperatures we are now seeing are decades ahead of what climate models predicted.

DEEPER LAYERS OF HOT WATER INHIBIT SELF MODERATION

It’s fairly easy to grasp how extreme heat and water vapor levels can contribute to radical spikes in a storm’s intensity. But there is another factor contributing to Rapid Intensification that is less intuitive: the DEPTH of the upper layer of warm ocean water. In the past, when a storm passed over very warm water it fed off of the energy stored in the water, but also churned up that top layer to allow cooler water to rise from below.
Up until a few years ago, the normal scenario was that mixing of the cooler layers lowered the over all temps at the surface, reducing the energy available to the storm and therefore the intensity. In a sense, there was some self-regulation built in to the systems. However, with warmer surface layers now extending deeper, the upper layers stay warmer, the system energy stays higher and storms continue to power up.
The planet’s seas have been absorbing heat and CO2 for decades, and we are now beginning to pay the price. Storms like Maria, Otis, Beryl and those that will follow this season are a preview of what is coming.

 

 

 

South Asia Climate Emergency Pushes Human Limits

Posted on by rapidclimatechange_tfkjps

 

126°F in India

“This isn’t heat, it’s a punishment, maybe from God.”

Courts, schools and government offices were closed in late May after the country broke its time high temperature record of 126° F (52.3C) registered in Delhi. More than 37 cities in the country reported temperatures over 113° F.

Initial heat related deaths were in the dozens but expected to climb. Meanwhile, forest fires are reported as the heat wave continues and foliage dries out. 

The ongoing regional water crisis was worsened by the heat wave, exacerbated by wanton waste of water by the wealthy. 

Midwest tornado onslaught driven by heat and moisture 

Town of Greenfield laid waste, 250 ft turbines toppled and Grandma Dixie was buried alive (but lived). 
Several tornadoes ripped a swath of destruction across Iowa leaving several people dead before tearing into parts of Illinois and Wisconsin. Four deaths have been reported and much of the town was laid waste.
“There is basically nothing left,” said Clel Baudler, a former Iowa state representative who lives a half mile from Greenfield.

Mexico heatwave causing howler monkeys to fall dead from trees

How hot is it? It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees.

Howler monkeys live in the steamy jungles of the Mexican Tabasco state and are uniquely adapted to their habitat. So when it stays so hot this long that they begin dying of dehydration, something is very wrong. Since early May, officials in Mexico have counted hundreds of monkeys lying dead on the ground beneath the trees. 

 

“They were falling out of the trees like apples,” Pozo said. “They were in a state of severe dehydration, and they died within a matter of minutes.” 

The monkey mortality event has multiple causes, including  heat, drought, forest fires and logging that deprives the monkeys of water, shade and the fruit they eat.

Temperatures in the region have reached 113F.

Sea levels are rising ever faster as Miami smashes May air and water records

As Miami and South Florida bake under record May heat, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that sea level rise is increasing at an accelerating rate.

Several records have been tied or broken across South Florida including Key West, which tied its highest heat index at a 115° F degrees and broke it’s “real” temperature record at 96° F,

“The oceans are running hot and they’re running high,” NOAA Oceanographer Dr. William Sweet said. “We’re melting more land-based ice out of Antarctica and Greenland and mountain glaciers, and the ocean is heating, especially in the Gulf of Mexico and the Southern Atlantic.

S has increased about a foot in the last 80 years, with 8 in. of that coming in the last 30.  The next ft. of inundation may take only 20 years. And NOAA reports that that rate is increasing quickly. 

Record ocean temps:

For two weeks, the water temperature measured at Virginia Key has hit record highs, reaching temperatures that are more common during the peak summer months of July and August. 
Water temperature in May was four degrees F. The 90F reading was a new record and bodes ill for the rest of the season. 

This will be the warmest May on record by at least 1.5 degrees F.

Evacuation orders in BC as fire season resurges

During Canada’s warmest ever winter, Zombie fires continued to burn, the drought dragged on and the snow didn’t come.. Now the smoking disasters of last summer seem doomed to repeat themselves as evacuation orders were issued to thousands in Mid-May in British Columbia and Alberta amidst a resurgence of wildfires. The government ordered thousands to leave Fort Nelson, BC as a resurgent zombie blaze threatened the town. A zombie fire means it smoldered over the winter and was never extinguished. 

Forty of the wildfires were listed as out of control on May 13h. In a repeat of last year’s apocalyptic smoke issues, Minnesota is reporting air quality issues 2,000 miles away. 

 

The province of Alberta is now in Stage Four of its five-stage water shortage management response plan. 

 

Exxon CEO: you are to blame for climate crisis

Posted on by rapidclimatechange_tfkjps

Exxon says the climate disaster is your fault

Darren Woods, CEO of the world’s largest oil company, says the world “waited too long” to develop carbon-free technologies. Wonder why we did that? 
For the past year I have been joking but not really joking, pondering at what point the fossil fuel boys and their hand maidens in the Republican Party would figure out a way to blame the Democrats for the climate catastrophe.
(They have pivoted seamlessly from denial to it isn’t really that bad to oh it’s cyclical to it isn’t human caused, to ok but we can’t afford to do anything about it, don’t you worry, we are going to just vacuum up all the carbon and put it underground somewheres. And on and on).
The story cited by the Guardian is the next stage in the plan as Exxon’s CEO blames Joe Citizen for using their products. The fact that these fucks have known more about the catastrophic effects of pouring CO2 and methane into the atmosphere than anyone else, and they have spent $ hundreds of millions and most likely billions hiding the truth from the gently snoring public is missing from his comments.
Since it was first reported, this story has gotten almost no coverage, what with MAGA world and the NFL draft sucking all the air out the room.

Global warming slowing Earth rotation

Posted on by rapidclimatechange_tfkjps

Melting ice drives global mass redistribution

If you don’t believe in global warming, then you most likely won’t be aware that one of its least obvious effects is a very small slowdown in the earth’s rotation. And unlike the lethal droughts, heat waves and floods currently sweeping the planet, this one second lapse has no harmful effects at this point.

The cause of the phenomenon is the shifting of huge masses of water as ice melts rapidly at both ends of the planet. The ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica are several miles thick, enough mass to exert a strong gravitational pull on the oceans. The global redistribution of weight is actually slowing Earth’s rotation minutely, which may result in the elimination of a “leap second” later this decade.

Greenland Is Shedding 33 Million Tons of Ice… Per Hour

None of this is shocking in the greater scheme of things: the planet’s rotation speed is also affected by natural phenomenon such as volcanos, earthquakes  tidal forces, and changes in wind patterns. 

Quoted in Scientific American, Geophysicist Duncan Agnew said: “This is another one of those ‘this has never happened before’ things that we’re seeing from global warming: the idea that this effect is large enough to change the rotation of the entire Earth.” Duncan is co-author of the research just reported by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

More immediate climate developments are summarized here.

“This is another one of those ‘this has never happened before’ things that we’re seeing from global warming: the idea that this effect is large enough to change the rotation of the entire Earth.”

– Geophysicist Duncan Agnew, Scripps.

 

Florida GOP Bans Climate Change

Posted on by rapidclimatechange_tfkjps

FLORIDA GOP LEGISLATURE DEFEATS GLOBAL WARMING WITH MAGICAL THINKING

A simple and elegant Republican solution

While some scientists waste time urging immediate, large scale adaptation to the planetary climate crisis, Florida lawmakers have simply made it go away via House Bill 1745, which combines enlightened legislation with magical thinking.
Having achieved major success banning library books about trans people and minority history, the emboldened GOP-dominated legislature has now outdone itself in the area of climate science. Ron’s army simply went ahead and banned the term “climate change” from official state documents and proceedings. References to energy efficient vehicles, contracting with “green lodgings” for meetings and cleaner fuels for conferences have been eliminated.
In a separate move, local governments in Florida will not be permitted to mandate heat protection – water breaks etc. – for outdoor workers, the need for hydration being another woke liberal hoax.
To be sure, some alarmists are concerned about Florida’s vulnerability to global warming, manifested by 100°F water temperatures last year, a massive coral bleaching emergency, accelerating temperatures, rapidly rising sea levels (about 8 in. since 1950), location in the path of intensifying hurricanes and soaring insurance rates. That’s why we needed Untermensch DeSantis to make it all go away with a flick of his little pen.
The boys of the GOP did manage to rename A1A to Jimmy Buffet Highway, effective until the iconic coastal thoroughfare disappears under the waves of the insurgent Atlantic Ocean.
Summary on Spring 2024 climate shocks:

 

including sudden Dubai inundation, western and southern Africa droughts, Venezuela ablaze, Florida cancels climate change. epic China floods, sparkling wine threatened by drought, Bangalore running out of water, Bogota running out of water, Madagascar extended drought and Dengue fever spreading.

.

Historic storms, floods smash Dubai

Posted on by rapidclimatechange_tfkjps

Are you ready for Rain Enhancement Science?

UAE cloud seeding triggers floods

There are some interesting take aways to be derived from April’s torrential desert rain event, which dropped 5 to 10 inches of water in one day on Dubai, killing several people (including schoolchildren) and truly messing up one of the planet’s most modern cities.

The region was hit by four consecutive storms that inundated a large swath of the United Arab Emirates and moved on to Pakistan and Iran. This was well over a year’s worth of rain in a city that has little or no flood drainage infrastructure. The storms were unusual in the suddenness of the onslaught, and the force they brought to bear, unrooting palm trees and shattering windows.

This was well over a year’s worth of rain in a city that has little or no flood drainage infrastructure. While it is clear that this was a historic weather calamity, it is not clear whether it was unprecedented. Official government press releases reference the beginning of government data collection in 1949, but make no mention of a massive flood that may have triggered it.

UAE has been engaged in weather control attempts for decades, primarily cloud seeding.

Whether or not government cloud seeding (AKA Rainfall Enhancement Science) directly caused this particular record-shattering event, human caused global warming was the ultimate driver. Most experts are saying weather enhancement efforts may have triggered the storms, but can’t account for their unrelenting violence. Rising temperatures associated with global warming increase evaporation, fueling other extreme weather events, including droughts. Such a parade of alternating climate disasters is devastating for nations such as Bolivia and Australia.

What could go wrong?

The government of UAE is not known for transparency, but it does not deny engaging in climate control efforts. It seems relatively likely that cloud seeding by plane took place earlier in the week and perhaps had unintended consequences. This is not the first human effort at human weather geoengineering (fucking with things we don’t fully understand) and it is only the beginning.

Geoengineering has already been blamed for storms in California and Australia, although cause and effect is generally shaky. I can only assure you that weather control is going to be fertile ground for conspiracy theories.

And some might even be true.

Catch up with spring 2024 climate shocks right here.