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: The Southern Hemisphere’s Year Without a Winter
Dear Diary. Yesterday we touched on the fact that boreal summer came to an end on September first, so statisticians are busy compiling climatological data for that season across countries across the world. Japan had its hottest summer on record, for example. This goes for countries in the Southern Hemisphere, which is coming off boreal winter and now moving into spring.
I’ve been keeping an eye out for weather news coming from major countries across the Southern Hemisphere, and it appears that there was not much cold weather at all occurring there during their winter of 2023. In fact, we saw eye opening winter heat waves from time to time across Argentina, Australia and southern Africa and many other smaller Southern Hemisphere countries. Here are some examples:
What about Winter 2023 as a whole for Southern Hemisphere countries? Here is some new climatology to chew on:
I have no doubt that South Africa and Argentina had their record warmest winters, and I’ll be reporting on official stats from there in the next few days when they are processed.
Perhaps the most alarming phenomenon from the Southern Hemisphere this past winter was the lack of Antarctic Sea ice that normally builds around the continent. Penguins depend upon it to nest and feed from. Without it, high concentrations of ice on the Antarctic continent itself could melt, flooding our coasts and wrecking our fragile climate:
All of this is quite alarming concerning climate trends highly influenced by carbon pollution. Will the Northern Hemisphere be next to have a “non winter?” Stay tuned.
Here are some other “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is some more brand-new August 2023 climatology:
Here is more climate and weather news from Sunday:
(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.)