We learned during the deadly Christmas weekend blizzard last December that Western New York will not always be a haven from the worsening impacts of accelerating global warming. There were likely, but not yet conclusive, links between the ferocity of that horrific storm and the rapid warming occurring in the Arctic and across high northern latitudes.
A case can be made the Northern Hemisphere has been undergoing the most extreme warming on record this summer. From this, thankfully, our region has been a haven with no extraordinary heat thus far and none in sight for at least the next several weeks.
What has been occurring in many other parts of the hemisphere qualifies as extreme heat at its worst, at least substantially driven by global warming. We can start with the Southwest, where people are presumably acclimated to extreme heat.
Taken by itself, 112 degrees in Phoenix is not an especially big deal (128 in Death Valley Sunday does qualify as a record). But Saturday, a record high of 118 was reached during a month in which every day has been 110 degrees (just once) or higher. Phoenix low temperatures have ranged from 91 to 95 since July 10, with more of the same this week. This persistence is debilitating and dangerous to the very young, the elderly and the economically disadvantaged, with no relief overnight. The mean temperature for the month is 101.3 degrees, a whopping 5.8 degrees above the normally brutal heat. This week looks to bring more of the same.
This is already the longest streak of 110-degree-plus highs in Phoenix history.
In the Southeast, the temperatures have been well into the 90s, but with humidity added in, the heat indices have been a real hazard, and relentless again in the Monday forecast.
Relentless is a key word, because the persistence is what takes the greatest toll. Atop the “normal” steam heat climatology of southern Florida in the summer, Miami had its first-on-record excessive heat warning…
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