Monday June 8th… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog 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).😉
Main Topic: The Timing And Path Of Cristobal… A Sign Of A Warming World
Dear Diary. Over the weekend Tropical Storm Cristobal moved into the central Gulf Coastal area with its center coming ashore just west of New Orleans. If Cristobal had been a CAT 4 or, God forbid, a CAT 5 hurricane taking the exact same path and speed New Orleans would have been devastated far more than due to Katrina in 2005. Cristobal was only a moderately strong tropical storm with top sustained winds of 50 mph. I seriously doubt that the name Cristobal will be retired because the system lacks destructive historical significance. Cristobal will be recycled back in NHC’s names, making a reappearance in six years on their list of Atlantic storms for 2026.
Still, the 2020 version of Cristobal should be remembered for three reasons, which are signs of our warming world. First:
Second (because the atmosphere is getting more moist due to climate change):
And third if this forecast verifies:
A tropical storm or depression can survive as far inland as Wisconsin ANY time of the year ONLY if it moves north and westward surrounded by a deep envelope of heat and tropical moisture, undisturbed by any baroclinic feature such as a cold front. West of now tropical depression Cristobal the atmosphere is super hot, particularly in the Northern Plains where Minneapolis should get into the low-mid 90s ahead of a front today:
I also need to mention that it’s very unusual to get the “C” named storm so early in the Atlantic Basin.
I fear that Cristobal will only be one of many eye opening tropical systems to form in the Atlantic this year. Rather than trying to forecast what these will do on this blog I’ll inform my readers what characteristics, if any, these future systems will have that we can identify as being affected by climate change. I’ll try to be fair with each one, and if you are a meteorologist this should be a scientific discussion for all of us to chew on.
Here is more climate and weather news from Monday:
(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 each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
Now here are some of today’s articles and notes on the horrid COVID-19 pandemic:
(As usual, the most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
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Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”