The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary 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: East And South To See First Significant Heat Dome Of The Warm Season
Dear Diary. For well over a decade climate science has been telling us that summer type weather has been coming earlier in the year due to carbon pollution. Not all Mays since 2000 have seen this effect, but a majority have across the world and United States. The first half of May has been cooler than average mainly east of the Rockies, with a sprinkling of record cool reports in the Midwest, East and Southeast. This temperature regime is about to suddenly change next week, reinforcing the statistics for that lengthening Sumner regime climate change effect. All models have come into agreement that a strong ridge by mid May standards will develop across the eastern third of the nation:
When I was working at the Weather Channel during the 1980s and 1990s I never saw 500 millibar heights this high in the East this early before June 1st and rarely thereafter after during the early 21st century.
Such a weather pattern should produce the following temperature regime across the United States:
Warm air should be shunted northwestward into the Upper Midwest steered by the ridge. Just how hot by late next week? Here is a preliminary chart:
While well above average, temperatures in the low to mid 80s should not be too bad to take. Could these verify hotter? Looking at the strength of the heat dome, perhaps.
I’ll let you know if we will be seeing “Heat Wave Alpha” from this particular heat dome. Heat waves will get the Greek Letter treatment this year. Also, as a reminder, heat waves will not get a name unless they reach my major “CAT 3” status. Here is our heat wave criteria for this year:
Here is more April 2021 climatology:
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”