“Giant Italy Hail Sets European Record Twice In Five Days… Severe thunderstorms in Europe appeared to set a continental hail record twice in the span of five days in Italy…
“One massive oblong hailstone recovered Monday night in Azzano Decimo, about 35 miles northeast of Venice, Italy, was estimated to be 19 centimeters – almost 7.5 inches – long.
“According to the European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL), this was the largest diameter hailstone of record anywhere in Europe. Incredibly, that European hail record only stood for five days prior to Monday…”
https://www.wunderground.com/article/storms/severe/news/2023-07-26-italy-hail-europe-record
“Italy readies special furlough scheme to save workers from heatwave.
“Italy is preparing special measures to help construction and agricultural firms keep staff at home during an intense summer heatwave, government officials and trade unionists said on Tuesday. Giorgia Meloni’s cabinet will probably discuss the furlough scheme at a meeting on Wednesday…”
“Swiss bird centre saves winged victims of extreme heat.
“Sparrows and swifts have arrived in droves at a Swiss centre treating distressed birds after soaring temperatures caused them to dehydrate, with chicks even leaping from their nests in a desperate attempt to evade the blistering heat.”
“German forests face threat from bark beetles following years of drought.
“The dense, green woodlands of Germany that gave rise to the “Grimms’ Fairy Tales” are turning gray and dying. Forest still covers a third of the country, but 80% of all trees are sick. Weakened by years of drought, they now face another onslaught – bark beetles.”
“‘The heat is relentless’: Scorching temperatures bring misery to daily life in Spain.
“A spate of heat waves stretching across southern Europe has pushed temperatures in parts of Spain, Greece, Italy and Albania to record levels in recent weeks. Researchers say the climate emergency is strongly increasing both the likelihood and intensity of the extreme weather conditions.”
“‘Like a blowtorch’: Mediterranean on fire as blazes spread across nine countries.
“Wildfires were burning in at least nine countries across the Mediterranean on Tuesday as blazes spread in Croatia, Italy and Portugal, with thousands of firefighters in Europe and north Africa working to contain flames stoked by high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds.”
“Albania hits all-time high…
“On Tuesday, Kuçovë in west-central Albania soared to 111.2 degrees Fahrenheit (44C), the country’s highest temperature on record if confirmed. This follows the mercury hitting 118.4 degrees (48C) Monday on Sardinia…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/07/24/greece-southern-europe-heatwave-fires/
“The Mediterranean Sea hit its highest temperature ever recorded on Monday amid back-to-back extreme heatwaves buffeting Europe.
“The average Sea Surface Temperature (SST) for the Mediterranean was 28.4C (83.1F) on Monday, the European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) confirmed. The previous record was set on 23 August, 2003 at 28.25C (82.85F).”
“Another day of brutal heat in the Mediterranean: Tunisia has been living a hell for weeks, today all time records smashed on the coast.
“49.1C Gabes [120.4F]; 48.8C Enfidha; 48.3C Monastir; In Italy record at Lamezia with 42.7C; Yesterday Malta tied its July national record with 42.7C.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1683929874938101760
“Drought-hit N.Africa turns to purified sea and wastewater…
“Across the Maghreb region, which takes in parts of the Sahara and is plagued by scorching summer heat, countries are banking on new desalination plants and facilities that can purify wastewater for farming.”
“At least 150 killed in Pakistan’s monsoon rains, flooding…
“Around 2,000 people were killed by catastrophic floods and the subsequent outbreak of diseases in Pakistan in 2022, when a third of the country was submerged, affecting 33 million people. Pakistan is responsible for less than one per cent of global carbon emissions but is among the top 10 most climate-vulnerable nations.”
https://gazettengr.com/at-least-150-killed-in-pakistans-monsoon-rains-flooding/
“Mumbai Records Its Wettest July Ever With 1557.8mm [61.3 inches] Rainfall.
“After intense showers throughout the day, Mumbai registered its wettest July ever on Wednesday with the month… The previous wettest July on record was in 2020 when 1,502 mm rainfall was logged by the IMD’s Santacruz observatory (representative of Mumbai’s suburbs).”
https://www.bqprime.com/nation/mumbai-records-its-wettest-july-ever-with-15578-mm-rainfall
“Heat wave in Southern China – Hong Kong and Macau. Today Sheng Shui in Hong Kong with 38.8C [100.8F] was just 0.2C from the highest temperature ever recorded in the territory.
“Local minimum temperatures were above 30C with stifling humidity. Map is courtesy of HK Observatory.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1684144380209233920
“Endless record heat in Japan, from North to South records have been falling for weeks. It’s one of the worst heat waves in Japanese history.
“Yesterday highest minimums temperatures for July (and all time) broken in several stations specially in Hokkaido. See list by JMA.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1684476263145123840
“A powerful typhoon brought widespread flooding and landslides to the Philippines on Wednesday, killing at least five people, authorities in the country said.
“Typhoon Doksuri, known as Egay in the Philippines, has caused flooding across five regions and more than a dozen rain-induced landslides, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.”
“Drought-hit Panama Canal restricts daily crossings in water-saving move.
“The Panama Canal will extend restrictions on ships’ maximum depth, it said on Tuesday, and it has limited average crossings at one of the world’s busiest trade passages to just 32 ships a day as a prolonged drought continues. The Panama Canal Authority will maintain a depth limit of 44 feet, or 13.41 meters, for neo-Panamax container ships.”
“Due to the record warm sea surface temperatures, the Caribbean keeps beating records all the time.
“In Cuba monthly records fell again: 36.7 [98.1F] Pinar del Rio; 36.9 Jaguey Grande; 37.2 Colon… Pinar del Rio this year has broken the monthly records of all the 7 months so far. Impressive.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1683878031360765968
“As Florida ocean temperatures soar, a race to salvage imperiled corals…
“Already, scientists have reported widespread coral bleaching along parts of the roughly 360-mile-long reef, the third largest on the planet. If the heat drags on, they say, a massive coral die-off could follow, with grave consequences for fish and other ocean organisms that depend on the reefs, tourism, commercial fishing and part of the state’s very identity.”
“As Texas swelters, crops and cattle are increasingly at risk.
“…as the entire state sees blazing temperatures that only keep climbing, farmers are questioning if the whiplash-inducing weather will lead to another busted year… The heat has been unrelenting across the state. Last month, there were an unusually high number of days when temperatures were above 100 degrees. This month, El Paso has set seven new daily heat records and is on pace for its warmest month ever on record.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/as-texas-swelters-crops-and-cattle-are-increasingly-at-risk/
“This July 2023 in Phoenix will be one of the most anomalous in any US station, with a heat wave lasting from the 1st to the last day of the month. 119F [48.3C] and 118F last two days after a Tmin of 96F. Further South, Mexicali in Mexico 51.1C/124F, 0.9C from Mexican national record high.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1684349568622755842
“Lightning strikes spark new wave of Interior Alaska wildfires.
“Thousands of lightning strikes around Alaska’s eastern Interior sparked new wildfires Monday… The new fires come as Interior and Southcentral Alaska skies see smoke from wildfires burning in Canada’s Yukon Territory.”
https://alaskapublic.org/2023/07/25/lightning-strikes-spark-new-wave-of-interior-alaska-wildfires/
“Live reporting from a climate scientist in the trenches of Alaska.
“Watch me explore how permafrost thaw is cutting new channels into now unstable soil, eroding ancient biomass that was once locked away in frozen ground… This is ancient carbon being thawed, eroded, and transported from the safety of frozen ground.”
https://twitter.com/queenofpeat/status/1684237594392154114
“Relentless record heat in Canada.
“Yesterday all time high at Natashquan with 29.0C [84.2F]. Data since 1914. The other station at the airport (CMNT) reached 29.3C; beating the 29.1C of July 21, 2018. Warm also in St. Pierre et Miquelon with 23C and 22C of dew point, very rare there.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1684188337421123585
“‘1 in 1,000-year event’: Halifax officials assess damage after devastating floods.
“Erica Fleck, director of Emergency Management for the city, said… “We do modelling for the average one-in-10-year storms, we planned for one-in-100 for how we respond, but this one was a one-in-1,000-year event as we ran the modelling … because of the water levels and the issues that we’ve seen.””
https://globalnews.ca/news/9857299/halifax-mayor-asssess-flood-damage/
“Persistent ridging over the Labrador Sea this month has assisted in creating the SST mega-anomaly in that region.
“Water temperatures are 11-14°F (6-7.5°C) above normal for this time of year east of Newfoundland!”
https://twitter.com/BMcNoldy/status/1684255562735972352
“The average sea surface temperature in the North Atlantic has now reached as hot as its ever been in recorded history… a full month before the climatological peak.
“Based on the 1991-2020 climatology, the current temperature has 1-in-41,000-year odds of happening (0.0025%).”
https://twitter.com/BMcNoldy/status/1684236860787392513
“Study: Key Atlantic Ocean circulation could shut down by mid-century.
“Part of a “global conveyor belt” that moves water around the world, the AMOC helps to regulate everything from the rate of sea level rise on the East Coast to Europe’s average temperatures… Michael Mann, a climate scientist… finds its conclusions plausible. “I think the authors in this case are on to something real,” he told Axios via email.”
https://www.axios.com/2023/07/25/gulf-stream-collapse-atlantic-ocean-circulation
“Polar Vortex And Polar Jet Stream Are Facing An Earth-Changing Upset.
“Polar vortexes play a massive role in controlling our fate, at least in terms of the bitterly cold weather we face in the winter months. As global temperatures continue to creep up, we’re playing an increasingly dangerous game that could seriously upset this grand force of nature – the consequences of which are not totally known.”
“The start of spring in the Arctic is increasingly unpredictable.
“Instead of coming earlier and earlier as the climate warms, the onset of spring in the Arctic is now extremely variable from year to year, bringing challenges to wildlife. The timing of spring in the Arctic has become more and more erratic…”
“The whole Northern Hemisphere is +1.23°C warmer than average (1979-2000) and +0.44°C warmer than ever observed.“
https://twitter.com/LeonSimons8/status/1684113380913840128
Commenter Curtis Bush was enquiring about macro-climate sources the other day. I happened upon this round-up; seems somewhat relevant:
“A List Of US, Europe, Global Heat Records Smashed This Summer… What follows is a sampling of some of the most eye-popping, noteworthy heat records we’ve seen in recent weeks, by location.”
“Rising temperatures are “likely to be beneficial” for Britain as more people die of cold than heat in this country, Lord Frost has said.
“The Tory former minister and Brexit negotiator said he is “sceptical” about mitigating the impacts of climate change, urging the Government to “move away” from “high-cost” mitigation efforts.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/britain-lord-brexit-government-athens-b2381122.html
You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an “Economic” thread.
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And after this summer, with the jet stream weakening, for next winter, the northern hemisphere will get chunks of the polar vortex breaking through.
https://youtu.be/HNqnfc0QGWc
Followed by summer 24, even worse than this year after the El Nino kicks in for real.
Rain, I hope that El Nino does not mean another hideous round of bushfires for Oz. There must be so much vegetation after all of that wet weather and now it sounds like parts of NSW are really drying out:
“It makes the start of this winter Sydney’s driest since 1938 and the third-driest on record since meteorologists started keeping records in 1859.”
https://www.9news.com.au/national/canberra-on-track-for-warmest-july-max-temps-on-record/1d0b9683-7dda-4cc0-b6a6-1e32bfa51407
Pan, if I hadnt read your report from 9 News, I would not have known my own home town (Canberra) had broken a warm July day record!
Was only by about 0.5 degrees, and a maximum of 14C isnt much to worry about for mid-winter. Only lasted an hour or so!
But, it has been a lovely sunny week, no chilly winds off the snowy mountains, and being outside has been lovely, (once the frost melts off anyway.) Canberra was just a tad north of the last cold front, for once!
As for fire hazards, they are predicting we are likely to have a “busy fire season”, but mostly grass fires on the ‘slopes and plains’. It shouldnt be as bad as last time, which tore through the forests of the coastal ranges and southern alps. Or so they say now.
At least we shouldnt have any water shortages, that triple-dip La Nina filled the aquifers, largest artesian basin on the planet and the main reason eastern Australia has often survived through long mega-droughts.
Its the following summer in 2024 that worries me.
I’ve been wondering about mini-methane bursts where higher concentrations of methane get dragged south into these heat domes that are now part of everyday life and supercharging the local effects.
Dale, honestly, I’m not sure. It would make sense to me that places with continuously high methane emissions, like Turkmenistan, would experience at least some localised warming from that. My assumption is that methane bursts in the North would disperse and cause more generalised warming rather than crossing jet streams into more southerly heat-domes and exacerbating those.
I do know that warming effects from aerosol reductions are much more immediate and localised than warming from ghg emissions, for example: “Abrupt emissions reductions during COVID-19 contributed to record summer rainfall in China.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28537-9
Hello Pan,
at least Mr. Frost is bringing us some “coolness” in Southern Europe. Frits Varenholt also made himself heard again. It’s all a normal summer, nothing wrong is his argument 🙂 Just a bit warm, and the argument that more people die from the cold than the heat you also hear almost every day. They are ‘over there’? Used to it
Those ‘climate’ skeptics can’t be broken.
I follow them posts daily to see when they will bend or crack. But that’s not happening at all. It’s like watching a modification of Leon Festinger’s experimental research on cognitive dissonance. The picket lines keep getting shifted as long as the “greens and renewables” can be blamed.
By now it looks like a climate parlor game between “greens and skeptics” who have one thing in common they really don’t know anything about the relationship between energy and economics. A good very comprehensive longread by Tim Watkins probably won’t have escaped your notice. It is a sort of summa in historical context.
Very worth reading….. looking for the ‘energy unicorn’ 🙂 ….”Absent the appearance of this energy unicorn, we must conclude that the age of solutions has passed… the age of consequences is just beginning.”
.
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2023/07/19/our-predicament-re-stated/
“Those ‘climate’ skeptics can’t be broken.”
They cannot, not least because their scepticism tends to be ideologically driven, financially, er, encouraged or part of some contrarian ego-trip where it’s all a freakin’ conspiracy, maaan. In none of those cases are you dealing with a person who is actually motivated to take an objective look at the science and the rapidly mounting real-world evidence.
I’ve disengaged from the debate, as I’m too busy charting the rapidly changing climate to expend any more energy on crazy-making arguments about whether or not it is changing at all; or to what extent the changes are anthropogenic; or whether it will actually result in a more verdant and hospitable world, as grateful plants and trees hoover up all that lovely, nutritious CO2, and Brits no longer keel over with hypothermia.
Thank you for the Tim Watkins link. He is on point.
Thanks for the macro-climate link, Justin!
I gotta say Joe Biden says plant a tree to fight climate change. And watch it die due to the heat and drought conditions. Fun times ahead.
How large of a container does it take to boil 8 billion frogs? Any planet sized pan.
Shouldn’t be a problem getting them into a pot. They have been jumping in since Savant Arrhenius in the 1890s.
“Svante Arrhenius, the Man Who Foresaw Climate Change”
https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/leading-figures/svante-arrhenius-the-man-who-foresaw-climate-change/
And they continue jumping after James Hanson’s testimony in Congress.
“On June 23, 1988, in the sweltering heat, Hansen told a U.S. Senate committee he was 99 percent certain that the year’s record temperatures were not the result of natural variation. It was the first time a lead scientist drew a connection between human activities, the growing concentration of atmospheric pollutants, and a warming climate.
“It’s time to stop waffling so much and say that the evidence is pretty strong that the greenhouse effect is here,” Hansen told reporters.”
https://grist.org/article/a-climate-hero-the-early-years/
Not to worry! Thoughts & prayers will save us. 😉
Pan said:
“Rain, I hope that El Nino does not mean another hideous round of bushfires for Oz. There must be so much vegetation after all of that wet weather and now it sounds like parts of NSW are really drying out:
“It makes the start of this winter Sydney’s driest since 1938 and the third-driest on record since meteorologists started keeping records in 1859.”
https://www.9news.com.au/national/canberra-on-track-for-warmest-july-max-temps-on-record/1d0b9683-7dda-4cc0-b6a6-1e32bfa51407 ”
Apologies, 9News is just scaping-the-barrel for headlines saying “records broken” in a poor news cycle. As an aside, 9News isn’t one of our better sources, its far better known for its sports coverage.
As for dryness in Sydney, depends where they recorded it – “Sydney” is a very, very large city (in land area) grown by extraordinarily lazy and haphazard urban sprawl. Bursting with NIMBYs. Plenty of water around there.
Because this morning, the few days of clear “record” *ppfftt** sunshine disappeared, we woke up to strong chilly winds rattling my carport, and icy showers. Brrrrr…
I understand the southern polar vortex is stronger and more consistent than the northern PV – doing its “normal winter” job with giving us waves of icy blasts and windchills. The snowpack is looking good too.
And Australia still holds off on declaring an El Nino:
QUOTE: The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is maintaining its “alert” watch for El Niño, saying the Pacific Ocean and atmosphere have yet to become fully coupled. UNQUOTE.
Methinx northern hemisphere countries are trying to reduce public fears over the awful northern summer, by constantly adding El-Nino to their reports. It hasn’t started in the south yet (where it always starts), and still many months away from affecting the north.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-18/bom-update-el-nino-in-australia-alert-status/102602238