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: Latest Epic European Heatwave
Dear Diary. Though much hotter than average, The United States has been much less anomalously hot this summer than most of Europe. Also, our last U.S. major heatwave that I’ve dubbed Koch, which peaked on Friday and Saturday, will be ending in a couple of days. Essentially, though warmer than average next week for large chunks of the country, the United States will have entered a fairly typical fall weather regime.
Not so in Europe. Extreme heat has affected most of Europe except the British Isles this year. The area has been undergoing some eyepopping record warmth, especially from Germany northward into Scandanavia this week as noted by Maximilliano Herrera. As usual I have added many of his record reports on each of my segments after each daily main topic.
Here is a good Washington Post writeup on the latest round of European heat, which has obviously been compounded by climate change:
A historic September heat wave has swelled over Europe – The Washington Post
A historic September heat wave has swelled over Europe
Both Sweden and Norway saw their highest September temperatures on record Thursday.
How much warmer or cooler temperatures were compared to average over the past week. (weatherbell.com)
September 6, 2024 at 11:35 a.m. EDT
With the hottest time of year on average in the rear view, Europe is still scorching as summer transitions to fall. In recent days, many parts of Scandinavia have posted their highest temperatures on record so late in the year. Several other European countries have also set notable September heat milestones, including Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia.
The September heat wave follows Europe’s hottest summer on record and the hottest summer for the planet.
Scandinavia’s historic September heat
Norway and Sweden both posted their highest September temperatures on record Thursday, surpassing 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) during the month for the first time.
- In southwest Norway, the municipality of Etne soared to 87.1 degrees Fahrenheit (30.6 degrees Celsius), surpassing the previous September national record by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius). Several other locations also topped 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius), which would have been new national records on their own before this year.
- In southern Sweden, the coastal city of Hälsingborg climbed to 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31.1 degrees Celsius), besting the previous September national record of 84.4 degrees Fahrenheit (29.1 degrees Celsius) from 1975.
“Until this heatwave … Sweden and Norway had never hit > 30 °C in September,” tweeted U.K. meteorologist Scott Duncan. “Extraordinary weather pattern in Europe right now.”
While Finland’s national September temperature record for the month was not broken, about two dozen locations saw their hottest weather during the month Thursday with highs above 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26.7 degrees Celsius).
Extreme heat in central Europe
Much of central Europe is also baking with temperatures up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius) above normal.
Earlier in the week, Germany’s Weather Service reported that Brandenburg slogged through several days of heat more extreme than any other this late in the year. The temperature topped out at 95.4 degrees Fahrenheit (35.2 degrees Celsius) on Wednesday.
Hundreds of monthly records have been set in cities across Germany over the past week, according to weather historian Maximiliano Herrera, who called it “the most records breaking event Europe has ever seen.”
Abnormally warm air has also persisted at night.
Hungary’s capital of Budapest temperatures only fall to 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius) to start September, a record for overnight warmth during climatological fall, which spans September to November.
Slovakia also observed a warmest night this late in the year with the same low in Malacky. So did Denmark, where overnight lows near or above 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius) occurred over the last several nights, which is unprecedented in historical data during fall.
The sources of the heat
A large and unusually strong high-pressure area or heat dome is over northern Europe as a low-pressure zone to the south pulls hot air northward into the region. (polarwx.com)
The primary source of the heat is an intense zone of high pressure — or heat dome — lodged over northern Europe. But the heat is also being intensified by a zone of low pressure over western Europe, cut off from the jet stream, that is helping pump hot air from northern Africa into central and northern Europe.
The ongoing heat wave is just the latest of several in recent months. Rounds of extreme warmth caused also rapid melting in parts of the Arctic and Scandinavia in August. Norwegian islands off the coast of Greenland, including Svalbard, posted their highest August temperatures on record. At the time, the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union announced the island’s ice caps melted at the fastest rate ever recorded.
Temperature forecast for Sunday afternoon in Europe. (Tropical Tidbits)
The high temperatures over Europe and globally are being fueled by the lingering effects of last winter’s high-end El Niño event as well as human-caused climate change.
More heat is expected in Europe into the weekend, especially to the east and north of France. Into next week, cooler than average temperatures should spread over western and central Europe from southwest to northeast, but temperatures may remain well above average in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.
By Ian Livingston Ian Livingston is a forecaster/photographer and information lead for the Capital Weather Gang. By day, Ian is a defense and national security researcher at a D.C. think tank. Follow on X @islivingston
Here are more E.T.’s from Europe:
Here are more “ETs” 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 more new August 2024 climatology. (More can be found on each daily post during September.):
Here is More Climate 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.)