Thursday March 28th… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing post will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Another Anomalous Arctic Heat Wave
My jaw has been dropping looking at what has been happening across the far northern climes of this planet during most of early 2019. When my jaw moves down the threat of climate change moves up. While the lower 48 states have seen near average temperatures so far in 2019, Alaska and the Arctic have been stuck in a “heat wave.” Here is a popular tweet I sent out a couple of days ago with graphics depicting the warmth:
Let’s get one thing straight. Temperatures are not really “warm or hot” compared with what most of us residing at lower latitudes think of those descriptors, but above average such that Arctic sea ice is threatened to melt faster as spring rolls along. We have seen many “extreme temperature” record reports such as this that would be very cold by Florida standards, but down right warm in Alaska:
Of course, it’s not just Alaska that is warm but parts of the Canadian Arctic, as well:
Also, over the winter due to anomalous warmth we haven’t seen a very good, robust refreeze:
This forecast over the next week is not good, remaining anomalously warm:
The warmth in part can be blamed on a weakened polar vortex due to carbon pollution, which made all sorts of “weird” undulations over the winter as noted by climate scientist Zack Labe:
Perturbations moving southward, or lobes of the polar vortex were responsible for a cold winter across southern Canada and most of the United States except the Southeast.
Why is all, of this important? Because if we see a longer period over the summer than ever recorded of darker open sea across the Arctic climate change will accelerate. The rate of sea level rise will increase if more and more warmth surrounds Greenland, melting that island nation’s huge depository of ice. Also, permafrost, which is already under mighty stress across vast territories of Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada will thaw at accelerated rates.
I’ve noted urgency from what others are writing and have seen the concern first hand from climate scientists I have me over the last month at Climate Reality. I know that this latest Arctic heat wave leaves most shaking their heads.
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Here is some climate and weather news, as usual, for Thursday.
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see articles.)
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Guy Walton- “The Climate Guy”