How hot has it been? According to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has just confirmed what you already suspected: Americans are enduring the hottest weather in our recorded history.
The following was sent out his week by the EDF:
The past 12 months have been the warmest 12 months in the continental U.S. since record-keeping began back in 1895. NOAA says the odds of our record heat being a random event — rather than part of a global warming trend — are about 1 in 1.6 million.
How hot is it, really? Consider these facts from NOAA:
• From June 1t through July 10 of this year, the U.S. broke 147 all-time high-temperature records.
• In June 2012, communities across the U.S. broke 2,284 daily maximum temperature records. In the week of July 1 through July 9 of this year, they broke another 2,071.
• The average temperature in the contiguous U.S. was 71.2 degrees F – two full degrees above the 20th century average.
• Our miserable June followed the blistering heat from last year. (See NOAA’s new report, “State of the Climate in 2011” at http://wkly.ws/1bo.)
Take a look at this partial list of cities that broke records from June of 2011 through May of 2012:
Detroit — 101 degrees, (daily record)
Syracuse — 101 degrees, (daily record)
Mitchell, SD — 102 degrees (daily record)
Minneapolis — 103 degrees (daily record)
Bridgeport, CT — 103 degrees (all-time record)
Denver — 105 degrees (all-time record)
Newark — 108 degrees (all-time record)
Houston —109 degrees (all-time record)
Miles City, MT — 111 degrees (all-time record)
Wichita — 111 degrees (daily record)
Little Rock — 114 degrees (all-time record)
Childress, TX — 117 degrees (all-time record)
The blazing temperatures have led to other problems as well:
• The U.S. Drought Monitor says more than 56 percent of the contiguous U.S. is now under drought conditions — the highest level since record-keeping began in 2000.
• Wildfires destroyed 1.3 million acres in Colorado and across the U.S. last month.
• Wyoming recorded its driest June ever this year; Colorado and Utah recorded their second-driest Junes.
• At the same time, Florida recorded its wettest June ever — thanks in part to Tropical Storm Debby, which dumped more than two feet of rain on some towns, and spawned flash floods and almost two dozen tornadoes. Duluth, Minnesota also had record floods last month. Large parts of the East Coast got hit by a killer Derecho storm that killed more than two dozen people; more than three million lost electricity, some for more than a week. And Washington, D.C. broke its record for worst heat wave ever, according to the Washington Post.
Unfortunately, these bad weather trends are not unexpected. For a long time now, the world’s top climate researchers have told us about the strong evidence of links between dangerous weather and climate change.
Greenhouse gas pollution traps heat in our atmosphere, which interferes with normal weather patterns. That means we can expect more — and probably worse — weird weather in the future.
Climate change doesn’t just mean higher heat. It means more severe and damaging weather events across the country – including more frequent and heavier rains in some areas, increased drought in others, a potential increase in the intensity of hurricanes, and more coastal erosion because of rising sea levels.
Changing weather patterns changes will affect our agriculture, water supplies, health and economy.
Source of this information is Steve Hamburg, chief scientist for EDF. He can be contacted at shamburg@edf.org
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