Saturday August 1st… 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 Topics: Recent Western Heat Wave Ramps Up Wildfire Potential/Isaias Threatens U.S. East Coast
Dear Diary. Welcome to August, the third and last month of meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Over the summer of 2020, as usual, we have been covering different heat waves as they occur across the planet. Yesterday we reported on this year’s tremendous Middle East heat wave in which Baghdad saw an all-time record of 125°F. Today we will cover events in the United States.
First, a western heat wave maxed out in Thursday and Friday, but is continuing in the Southwest through this weekend. A heat dome getting up to near 599 decameters got parked directly over Arizona:
When the center of an upper ridge forms over Arizona during the summer the monsoon gets cut off. People living in the Southwest rely on the summer monsoon to hold extremely high temperatures in check, increase humidity so that any vegetation will not get overly parched and produce thunderstorms, which also can limit wildfire growth. This year I’m afraid that we have no such luck concerning the monsoon.
Excessive heat warnings remain in effect from the National Weather Service in the deserts of the Southwest:
During July Phoenix saw numerous high temperature records, and here is one big one:
The biggest cities in the Desert Southwest area, Phoenix and Las Vegas, will actually be a little cooler on Sunday but still roasting with maxes near 110°F:
Unfortunately wildfires have already begun to occur in the Southern California area. Here are a few notes from the Los Angeles NWS office:
Here are some of Saturday’s “ET’s:
Now back to the stormy East. Here are more updates on Isaias. As usual on this blog, the most up to date information will appear at the beginning of this list of social media notes:
(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.)
Here is more climate and weather news from Saturday:
(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”