Friday July 17th… 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).😉
Dear Diary. Today in my part of the world in Atlanta I’m waking up to a brilliant blue sky, but it is hot as of 10 AM EDT with temperatures already in the 80s. Will we see a max today above 93°F? Probably, and I’ll let my readers know how hot Atlanta gets today. The reason I’m pointing this out is because unlike last year, conditions have been relatively mild this summer with maxes, so far, not getting over 93°F in “Hotlanta.” Despite global warming, not every place on the globe sees dire effects on a year to year basis…at least thankfully not yet. I fear that as we move beyond +1.1°C globally beyond preindustrial conditions that’s about to change.
Anyway, as usual to start this blog let’s access U.S. heat levels for the next two days. Our low level CAT 1 heat wave from yesterday has ramped up to a low level CAT 2 today. Heat advisories have been dropped across most areas in the south-central states but have been added in a large area of the Plains. Heat watches are beginning to be posted in east coastal areas:
On Saturday heat will continue to intensify east of the Rockies with most locations seeing 90s for maxes along with high humidity. We won’t see my CAT3 designation, though, because most areas won’t see near record temperature values:
Today, as expected our heat dome had a second peak during this heat wave. Remember that we had a first peak last week around 600 decameters over New Mexico. As of Friday it’s hard to discern a center, but 500 millibar heights have gotten up to 596-597 decameters in a broad area from Texas to North Carolina:
This heat dome across the United States is truly remarkable with about 4/5th’s of the CONUS area above 588 decameters. Thankfully 500 millibar heights will slowly come down through most of next week, but we will probably see a third peak sometime during the last week of July. Will it be at the following strength centered over the Plains or with some other orientation? We will see:
The Pivotal Weather temperature outlook for the last week of July remains remarkably hotter than average for most locations:
Oh…And with this heat we have added fuel for thunderstorm complexes:
As usual, I’ll be posting more updates on this dangerous heat wave as the day progresses.
Here is more climate and weather news from Friday:
(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:
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Guy Walton… “The Climate Guy”