The Climate Change Thread

[Retro]

Monday broke global heat records again due to climate change.

While it's pretty warm here in Blighty right now, I'm glad to say we're not getting a killer 40c+ heatwave at the moment and hopefully won't this year. tbh, a repeat of one of those terrifies me, which is why I keep mentioning it.

Monday was the hottest day on record following a record-breaking Sunday, according to preliminary data from the European Union's monitoring agency.

The world's average surface air temperature reached 17.15C (62.87F) on Monday, inching past the new record that had just been set on Sunday of 17.09C - a difference of 0.06C.

The preliminary data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service makes Monday the hottest day on record since 1940.

The record hot days come in a period when millions of people around the world sweltered in heatwaves in Japan, China, the United States and "hellishly hot" southern Europe, where temperatures soared to 44C (111.2F) in Spain.

'Truly staggering': World breaks hottest day record for second day in a row

Monday was the hottest day on record following a record-breaking Sunday, according to preliminary data from the European Union's monitoring agency. The world's average surface air temperature reached 17.15C (62.87F) on Monday, inching past the new record that had just been set on Sunday of...

uk.news.yahoo.com

@Tiffany you'll be interested in this one.

 

[Tiffany]

Really surprising and continual uptick in temperatures world wide and all of the records being broken for summer of 2024. I didn't think 2024 could be worse than the past two summers but it looks like it is, and we have a couple of months to go still. Good article explaining the overall weather events around the globe.

Not only are extreme temperatures noticeable this summer, but you can add to that the typhoon season over the Pacific Ocean islands and India. The Atlantic hurricane season story is still to be written. I think along with the record breaking heat, the typhoon and hurricane season will top records, as well this year.

 

[Retro]

Just in case you were feeling cheerful on this fine Thursday morning, here's another apocalyptic climate change article to drag you back down.

A vital system of Atlantic Ocean currents that influences weather across the world could collapse as soon as the late 2030s, scientists have suggested in a new study — a planetary-scale disaster that would transform weather and climate.

Several studies in recent years have suggested the crucial system — the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC — could be on course for collapse, weakened by warmer ocean temperatures and disrupted saltiness caused by human-induced climate change.

But the new research, which is being peer-reviewed and hasn’t yet been published in a journal, uses a state-of-the-art model to estimate when it could collapse, suggesting a shutdown could happen between 2037 and 2064.

This research suggests it’s more likely than not to collapse by 2050.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/02/climate/atlantic-circulation-collapse-timing

 

[Tiffany]

Well, that was a sunny forecast for our Atlantic ocean. Good grief!!

 

[Retro]

Many more heat records broken. Man, it never ends.

A record 15 national heat records have been broken since the start of this year, an influential climate historian has told the Guardian, as weather extremes grow more frequent and climate breakdown intensifies.

An additional 130 monthly national temperature records have also been broken, along with tens of thousands of local highs registered at monitoring stations from the Arctic to the South Pacific, according to Maximiliano Herrera, who keeps an archive of extreme events.

He said the unprecedented number of records in the first six months was astonishing. “This amount of extreme heat events is beyond anything ever seen or even thought possible before,” he said. “The months from February 2024 to July 2024 have been the most record-breaking for every statistic.”

Unprecedented number of heat records broken around world this year

Exclusive: In 2024, 15 national temperature records have been set as weather extremes grow more frequent, climate historian says

www.theguardian.com

 

[Tiffany]

I can totally relate to the heat records from February to present. There's always mild winters and hot summers, but we've experienced a "super mild" winter and an extremely hot summer this year.

“The months from February 2024 to July 2024 have been the most record-breaking for every statistic.”

 

[Retro]

See level rise could end up being a lot faster and higher than anticipated which will have huge consequences for the world.

Startling facts from bombshell sea level rise report

The new report by the UN’s Climate Action Team highlights a number of 'tipping points' that have sparked calls for action "before it is too late"

uk.news.yahoo.com

 

[Tiffany]

The rising sea levels challenges world wide coastal towns with residential homes built right on their beaches, including condominiums and hotels. I've seen far too many pictures of homes falling into the sea due to destabilization of both sea level and soft ground due to the inundation of rising sea levels. Sad!

 

[Retro]

There's such a lot of uncertainty surrounding the precise effects of climate change and its chaotic nature, which this article illustrates nicely. Following my post two posts up about sea level rise potentially happening much faster than previously expected, here's an article published today which shows how it might be slowed down instead.

Note to climate change skeptics: this isn't an invitation to "debunk" climate change as nothing to worry about. It's still happening and the effects are still really serious, we just can't predict everything with high precision. Yet.

There are stadium-sized blocks of ice crashing from the soaring face of the Kangerlussuup glacier in western Greenland. Fierce underwater currents of meltwater are shooting out from its base and visibility below the surface is virtually zero thanks to a torrent of suspended mud and sand. It’s little wonder scientists have never explored this maelstrom.

Yet today, they are sending in a multimillion-dollar remotely operated submarine, potentially to its death. As the scientists onboard the Celtic Explorer research ship repeatedly say: “It’s a high risk, high reward mission.”

The reward is solving a mystery that could transform the understanding of the most profound long-term impact of the climate crisis: surging sea levels. Glaciers fed by ice caps are increasingly disintegrating, and how fast this will accelerate directly affects a billion people in the world’s great coastal cities.

‘Oh my God, what is that?’: how the maelstrom under Greenland’s glaciers could slow future sea level rise

A pioneering mission into a mysterious and violent world may reveal ‘speed bumps’ on the way to global coastal inundation

www.theguardian.com

 

[live627]

The rising sea levels challenges world wide coastal towns with residential homes built right on their beaches, including condominiums and hotels. I've seen far too many pictures of homes falling into the sea due to destabilization of both sea level and soft ground due to the inundation of rising sea levels. Sad!

May also be from sinking landmass.

 

[Tiffany]

May also be from sinking landmass.

Yes, great way to put it.

 

[live627]

NYC is one such example

Some of the motion is also caused by natural processes dating back thousands of years to the most recent ice age. About 24,000 years ago, a huge ice sheet spread across most of New England, and a wall of ice more than a mile high covered what is today Albany in upstate New York. Earth’s mantle, somewhat like a flexed mattress, has been slowly readjusting ever since. New York City, which sits on land that was raised just outside the edge of the ice sheet, is now sinking back down.

NASA-Led Study Pinpoints Areas of New York City Sinking, Rising

Scientists using space-based radar found that land in New York City is sinking at varying rates from human and natural factors. A few spots are rising.

climate.nasa.gov

 

[Tiffany]

NYC is one such example

NASA-Led Study Pinpoints Areas of New York City Sinking, Rising

Scientists using space-based radar found that land in New York City is sinking at varying rates from human and natural factors. A few spots are rising.

climate.nasa.gov

Fascinating, @live627. I love the geosciences. I have your article open to read when I have more time. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Retro]

Such small differences in temperature due to climate change are creating such havoc now.

Fuelled by heat from ocean waters, hurricanes, typhoons and tropical cyclones are sometimes known as nature's steam engines. As they barrel over the oceans, they turn its heat into brutal kinetic energy that flattens islands and inundates coastal cities, taking months of urgent repair work to heal. Ocean temperatures are now breaking all records, and these "engines" are responding accordingly, cutting different paths across the ocean, slowing down, and becoming less predictable and more dangerous.

Now there's a race to understand exactly how hurricanes are rewriting the rules and patterns we've seen before, in the hope of learning how we can adapt.

How climate change is rewriting the rules of extreme storms

The behaviour of the world's most powerful storms is evolving. To adapt to more destructive hurricanes, typhoons and tropical cyclones, we need to know how they're changing.

www.bbc.com

 

[Tiffany]

Such small differences in temperature due to climate change are creating such havoc now.

View attachment 1806

How climate change is rewriting the rules of extreme storms

The behaviour of the world's most powerful storms is evolving. To adapt to more destructive hurricanes, typhoons and tropical cyclones, we need to know how they're changing.

www.bbc.com

Good article and I'm going to have to read it again and take in more detail. The author, Martha Henriques, does describe the function of hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons very well. My only argument would be that these cycles happen in every hurricane but no hurricane is the same. There are so many factors that normally you can count on to cause a swift or slow moving hurricane like; water temperature, wind shear, El Nino, La Nina, SST (sea surface temperate), ACE (accumulated cyclone energy) and even the time of year, but all of the ingredients have to be right to form a hurricane. The main reason hurricanes highest activity in mid-August through September is the storms do not have to fight the Sahara desert dust coming off of West Africa and going across the Atlantic towards the US.

Below is a true statement especially describing this year's 2024 Hurricane season. Hurricane Beryl, made it all the way across the Atlantic in June into the Gulf of Mexico despite the Sahara desert dust. Why did this happen? Beryl broke the rules as this article suggests that Climate Change is changing the normal patterns of hurricanes.

"Hurricanes themselves just respond to the environment that they're sitting in," Kossin says. "And so if you make the environment in June look like the environment that would normally be in August or September, then the hurricanes will simply behave as though it's August or September. They don't have a calendar."

This hurricane season has proven to be a complete anomaly, despite the predictions that this year would be the worst hurricane season we've ever seen because the sea temperatures were way above normal by June. I think this hurricane season's story isn't over yet and we may well have an active October. Is this all because of climate change? Yes, there's a new pattern of storms, they are bigger, longer, more destructive and we are having more flooding, rains and areas that were usually dry all of a sudden now getting rains.

 

[Retro]

The weather has definitely turned colder now. Had to drive somewhere at 22:00 tonight and the car was frosted over even though its thermometer read 1c. Had to wait a while for the heater to clear the windscreen.

Global warming, save us!

This article gives a good picture of what to expect:

UK weather: New snow and ice alerts issued as forecasters warn of more travel disruption

An ice alert for the South East and West Midlands is among new weather warnings now in force across the UK. Wintry conditions caused widespread travel problems on Tuesday and forced more than 200 schools to close. Forecasters say the difficult conditions will last until Wednesday morning...

uk.yahoo.com

 

[Tiffany]

I hope your cold wintry and ice conditions don't cause too much havoc on the roads. Ice can be so dangerous to drive on. Texan's don't know how to drive on ice. I do though.