Last night, writing about the Bizaare Weather … around the Globe, I emphasized a line from Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, that there is Just No Normal Weather Anymore, Anywhere.
Well, perhaps I should have opened the Washington Post yesterday, which had the story Across Globe, Extremes of Heat and Rain. This points to a World Meteorological Organization (a UN organization) Monday Press Release
Weather and climate are marked by record extremes in many regions across the world since January 2007.
Yes, it has been a ‘weird weather’ year, all right.
In January and April 2007 it is likely that global land surface temperatures ranked warmest since records began in 1880, 1.89°C warmer than average for January and 1.37°C warmer than average for April.
Hot, hotter, hottest … Warmest since 1880!
Several regions have experienced extremely heavy precipitation, leading to severe floods.
And, well, wet, wetter, wettest …
During the first half (June-July) of the Indian summer monsoon season, four monsoon depressions (double the normal frequency) caused heavy rainfall and floods in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Many stations reported 24h rainfall exceeding 350 mm. These
monsoon extremes and incessant rains caused large-scale flooding all over South Asia, a situation that continues even now, resulting in more than 500 deaths, displacement of more than 10 million people and destruction of vast areas of croplands, livestock and property.
How many news reports are Americans seeing about 10 million displaced people?
Cyclone Gonu, the first documented cyclone in the Arabian Sea,
Next time you hear someone say “well, guess Gore was wrong, where are the hurricanes”, remind them that this is about GLOBAL Warming and that hurricanes/cyclones are not isolated to the East Coast of the United States. The first documented cyclone in the Arabian Sea? Are we talking 1000s of years of historical record in this region?
Heavy rains during 6-10 June ravaged areas across southern China. Flooding affected over 13.5 million people with more than 120 fatalities due to floods and landslides.
That 10 million displaced, let’s double that number please.
In England and Wales the period May to July in 2007 was the wettest (406 mm) since records began in 1766, breaking the previous record of 349 mm in 1789. … Germany experienced its wettest May since country-wide observations started in 1901. In sharp contrast, the previous month was the driest April since 1901
Probably saw more flooded English homes than flooded Chinese and Indians, I expect.
And, well, heat waves as well.
Two extreme heat waves affected south-eastern Europe in June and July, breaking the previous records with temperatures exceeding 40 °C. Dozens of people died and fire-fighters worked around the clock fighting blazes devastating thousands of hectares of land. On 23 July, temperatures hit 45°C in Bulgaria, setting a new record.
In May a heat wave affected areas across western and central Russia breaking several temperature records. In Moscow, temperatures on 28 May reached 32.9°C, the highest temperature recorded in May since 1891.
In many European countries, April was the warmest ever recorded with the temperatures reaching more than 4°C over and above the long-term mean in some areas.
Oh, this is just weather. We should pay attention to Senator Inhofe (R-Exxon) as, after all, he has “offered compelling evidence that catastrophic global warming is a hoax … ” As he continued,
With all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.
Hmmm … trained scientists … hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of years of data … displaced people by flooding … heat waves … Should I believe my lying eyes seeing so much bizaare weather and many scientific reports or a paid stooge of the fossil fuel industry and Fox News reporting? Hmm, that is a hard one to decide!
What does the WMO suggest
Climate change projections indicate it to be very likely that hot extremes, heat waves and heavy precipitation events will continue to become more frequent.
On this, you might want to check out FoxAttacks re the environment.
Back to The Washington Post. Several days ago, extreme weather reporting with no suggestion that this might, possibly, have something to do with Global Warming. Yesterday, a story focused on the linkage between Global Warming and extreme weather events and patterns. Today, a front-page (long) stroy about DC’s heat extremes (Haze, Humidity, and History: 102 Degrees) that highlights that “The heat wave is turning out to be one for the record books” yet doesn’t mention the potential for Global Warming influencing the event.
And, well, the point to return to. As we look around the world and into the future, humanity’s impact on the globe, the Climate Crisis, suggests that there is Just No Normal Weather Anymore, Anywhere.
*NOTE* After writing this, saw the ClimateProgress report from the same material.