Extreme Temperatures
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Sun

Heat wave scorches US Midwest and East, wildfire warnings for Colorado and California

heatwave midwest
A blistering heat wave will sweep the U.S. Midwest and East on Saturday and Sunday, when temperatures and humidity levels are expected to reach well above normal.

Tens of millions of Americans will be under heat warnings, watches and advisories as temperatures reach above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) in major cities such as Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, the National Weather Service said.

"The combination of hot temperatures and high humidity will combine to create a dangerous situation in which heat illnesses are likely," the service said in a warning for Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States.

The hot weather is especially dangerous for young children, elderly people and people with health problems, it said.

Comment: Winter battered the northern hemisphere, dragged well into spring, and now summer is scorching everywhere from Russia to the Europe to the US. Meanwhile we're still seeing epic flooding, deadly hail and stubborn snow:


Sun

UK heatwave causes farmers earliest harvest for 40 years - Yield is significantly reduced

They began harvesting their 750 acres of arable land on June 28, two weeks earlier than normal
They began harvesting their 750 acres of arable land on June 28, two weeks earlier than normal
The 86F heatwave which has swept Britain in the last week has caused an almost unheard of June harvest at a British farm.

Bisterne Estate in Ringwood, Hampshire, produces seed barley, milling wheat and biscuit rye, and began harvesting their 750 acres of arable land on June 28, two weeks earlier than normal.

Farm manager Martin Button says this is the earliest harvest there since 1976.

However, they are expecting a significantly reduced yield as the barley grain is much smaller than in a typical year, which was been attributed to the dry summer.

Comment: In recent years farmers all over the world have been fighting a losing battle against an increasingly erratic climate. With extreme cold, epic flooding, scorching heatwaves and deadly hailstorms, farmers are losing crop to disease and damage, and consumers are seeing prices skyrocket:


Ice Cube

Two tankers trapped in ice near Russian Arctic port in midsummer

STUCK TANKERS
Shipping in the Gulf of Ob is paralysed and the situation complicated, icebreaker company Rosatomflot says.

It is late June, but the winter has not abandoned the Gulf of Ob. The shallow bay, which houses two of Russia's biggest Arctic out-shipment terminals for oil and gas, remains packed with fast ice.

It has created a complicated situation, Rosatomflot says. The state company which manages the Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers, confirms that independent shipping in the area is paralysed and that LNG carriers and tankers are stuck.

Sun

Severe drought affecting 40% of Inner Mongolia, China - Plague of rats take over 4 million hectares

Mongolian township.
© ReutersFile photo of a Mongolian township.
Persistent drought in the remote northwestern Chinese region of Inner Mongolia has caused a rat plague now affecting more than 4 million hectares of grassland, an area the size of the Netherlands, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Rodents are a common problem throughout Inner Mongolia's huge and sprawling prairies, and adapt relatively well to dry weather.

Comment: This follows extremely harsh winters in Inner Mongolia which have resulted in mass deaths of cattle. And we're seeing similar erratic patterns all over the planet so, while the overall trend is towards global cooling, there's also an increase in droughts, wildfires, heatwaves, and violent storms bringing increased wave heights, microbursts, deadly hail and epic flooding: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made? as well as SOTTs' monthly documentary: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - May 2018: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs


Bizarro Earth

Rare Texas heat burst sends temperatures soaring to 99 degrees overnight

temp gauge
Two North Texas towns experienced a rarity early Sunday morning: a heat burst that sent temperatures soaring to nearly 100 degrees at a time when temperatures are usually in decline.

The heat burst was observed in the Texas towns of Breckenridge and Eastland, according to the National Weather Service. At the Stephens County Airport just outside Breckenridge, temperatures fell to 85 degrees at 12:15 a.m. CDT, but by 1:35 a.m., it was 99 degrees, and the heat burst was to blame.

"A heat burst occurs when precipitation from a dying thunderstorm evaporates and a strong downdraft accelerates toward the ground," said the NWS. "Air warms and dries as it is compressed near the ground."

In addition to the temperature spike, wind gusts to nearly 50 mph were reported and humidity levels plummeted as low as 13 percent. Five hours later, temperatures were down to the daily low of 80 degrees.

Breckenridge, a town of about 6,000, is located 100 miles west of Fort Worth.

Sun

Water shortage warnings and hosepipe ban as UK heatwave intensifies

People fill their bottles from a water fountain
© Yui Mok/PAPeople fill their bottles from a water fountain in Green Park, west London, during the hot weather.

Utilities companies struggling to keep up with demand as billions of extra litres are pumped into system


Utilities companies have warned of potential water shortages across the UK and a hosepipe ban has been introduced in Northern Ireland as temperatures were forecast to remain high over the weekend.

Britain saw the record for the hottest temperature of the year broken for the fourth-consecutive day on Thursday, as the mercury reached 33C in Porthmadog, Wales.

Forecasters expect the heatwave to continue on Saturday and Sunday, when northwest England, northeast Wales, western Scotland and possibly Northern Ireland could hit around 30C.

However, the conditions have left water companies concerned, with some warning potential supply problems could be around the corner after "significantly more" usage than normal in recent days.

Comment: A few months ago the UK experienced the hottest April day for nearly 70 years, which was preceded by up to 4in (10cm) of snow in parts of Scotland, northern England and north Wales and Scotland faced its coldest spring for 39 years. Extreme weather is becoming the new norm!

See also: Heatwaves, storms, wildfires and droughts: Experts issue warnings over extreme weather in Europe this summer


Mars

Heatwaves, storms, wildfires and droughts: Experts issue warnings over extreme weather in Europe this summer

Europe's extrem weather
Europe could be struck with heatwaves, thunderstorms and even droughts this summer. This temperature map shows how hot countries could get over the coming months.
The heatwave cooking Ireland could spread into the rest of Europe, sparking wildfires, thunderstorms and even droughts.

Irish people face temperatures exceeding 31C and it could get even hotter on the continent, with the mercury topping a blistering 38C in the coming months.

Experts at AccuWeather say southern France and northern Italy will experience the most intense heat, raising fears this summer could be even worse than the "Lucifer" heatwave last year.

Temperatures are expected to soar well past 32C in Lyon and Toulouse, France, and the Italian city of Florence and Berlin, Germany.

The Spanish capital of Madrid is expected to reach 35C as early as next week while Athens, in Greece, could get as hot as 34C.

Alarmingly, the likes of Germany, France and the Alps could face the same terrifying fate as Saddleworth Moor in the UK which has been devastated by wildfires since Sunday.

Ice Cube

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Global grain production drops, beer shortages in Europe and Arctic gains ice

chart
The Arctic is still nearly 100% covered with ice, most of it 1.5 feet or thicker with thickness over the North Pole at 13 feet thick. Water temperatures follow suit at below freezing.

CO2 shortages in Europe have led to beer and soft drink rationing amid the world cup, and now the USDA 2081-2019 carry over stocks are forecast at a decline of 40 MILLION tons over today's totals, that seems to be conservative as well. This should be front page news, along with no sea level rise and Greenland gaining ice.

But its all about the World Cup.


Sources

Ice Cube

Arctic is nearly completely covered with ice - And it's summertime

arctic sea ice June 2018
On the 26th of June! Where's that (so-called) global warming?

Look at this map.
  • Purple signifies sea-ice thickness of approximately ½ to 1½ meters (20 inches to 5 ft).
  • Blue or green signifies 1½ to 3 meters ( 5 ft to 10 ft) of ice.
  • Yellow or orange signifies 3 to 4 meters (10 ft to 13 ft) of ice.
  • Red signifies 4 to 5 meters (13 ft to 16 ft) of ice.
  • White signifies zero thickness of ice.

Comment: Evidence for global cooling can be seen all over the planet, and is increasingly becoming a threat to life as we know it:


Ice Cube

Inconvenient facts about Antarctica's faux meltdown

Antarctica faux meltdown
© MATHILDE BELLENGER/AFP/Getty ImagesRest easy, Antarctica isn’t melting away, and you aren’t going to drown because of it.

Nearly all of the major news outlets last week ran attention-grabbing headlines uncritically reporting a supposed crisis of rapidly increasing melting of Antarctica. According to the reporting, accelerated melting of the continent's ice could raise sea level significantly and bring catastrophic coastal flooding to communities all over the world. If true, we should all be very alarmed about severe negative consequences to hundreds of millions of people.

This spate of Antarctic alarm was triggered by a study from an international team that measured ice volume and reported a dramatic increase in ice loss in recent years. This new study contradicts previous research which had consistently shown the continent steadily gaining ice volume since the beginning of the satellite era in the late 1970s.

NASA glaciologist Jay Zwally -- likely the pre-eminent expert on Antarctic ice accumulation and loss -- published a study in 2015 showing that ice loss in western Antarctica* and the Antarctic Peninsula was more than offset by significant accumulations in the rest of the continent. Both Zwally and the recent researchers were measuring the same thing, but the difference appears to be in the corrections made in adjusting for the movement of the Earth beneath the ice.

Comment: See also: