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 ET’s will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ET’s (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: 2nd Update on European CAT5 Heatwave “Smaug”
Dear Diary. For over a week forecast models have predicted that today would be the day that extraordinary heat would peak across the British Isles. I’ve got to tip my hat to the improved American GFS model, which nailed a 40°C/104°F forecast at many locations many days in advance.
Conditions have gotten bad enough, very unfortunately, that I need to peg Heatwave Smaug as a catastrophic CAT5 (my highest ranking), which is comparable to the awful 2003 heatwave, which killed tens of thousands and that of the CAT5 Pacific Northwest/ British Columbian heatwave from last year.
When the body count is tallied, Smaug too will have killed thousands, although it is my hope that better modules like the GFS gave people and authorities enough advance warning to cut mortality numbers well below that from 2003.
It’s damnable if politicians don’t do much more against climate change during and after this heat event, as well as that of Heatwave Chua in the United States.
The following is a long list of reports and links to articles I am seeing off Twitter from this Tuesday on Smaug (the name I’m using, which is the fire breathing name from Tolkien’s The Hobbit- a very British tome) I may add to this list depending upon what else I see during my day:
What’s even worse is that Smaug won’t suddenly end after today. There are indications that Smaug will surge again towards the British Isles in August:
Here are more “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks:
Here is more June 2022 climatology:
Here is more climate and weather news from Tuesday:
(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.)
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Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”