52 votes

Monday breaks the record for the hottest day ever on Earth

13 comments

  1. [8]
    skybrian
    (edited )
    Link
    Wow, that’s quite the graph. I was expecting to read that they broke a record at Death Valley, but that’s not what this article is about. I think this is a good point: A global average is...

    Wow, that’s quite the graph. I was expecting to read that they broke a record at Death Valley, but that’s not what this article is about. I think this is a good point:

    Copernicus uses average temperatures for the entire planet to create a global mean temperature. “But ultimately, what is biting us back is not the global mean temperature because nobody lives in the global mean,” Buontempo said. “It’s really what’s happening in our backyard, what’s happening in our rivers and our mountains and so on.”

    A global average is statistics, not personal experience. 63 degrees seems like kind of nice weather, but that would be missing the point. It means it’s been hot in lots of places.

    I’m reminded of how bad science fiction sometimes forgets that planets are big. “It was raining on planet Mongo.”

    One thing I’m wondering: isn’t it winter in the southern hemisphere? We’re averaging the entire planet, including places where it’s winter, and it’s still 63 degrees? And why does that chart peak during the northern summer?

    It seems that there’s just not enough land mass in the global south to get a lot of cold weather, outside Antarctica.

    14 votes
    1. [3]
      Promonk
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      There's far, faaaar more land in the northern hemisphere. The projections that we use for maps give us a skewed picture of the world. Here's a projection more accurate to the relative sizes of the...

      There's far, faaaar more land in the northern hemisphere. The projections that we use for maps give us a skewed picture of the world. Here's a projection more accurate to the relative sizes of the continents.

      It takes a lot of energy to heat water, and ocean currents move quite a bit of thermal energy. Additionally, the Southern Ocean is bounded by a circumpolar current that prevents warmer northerly currents from moving much heat to the Antarctic, so while Antarctic temperatures are usually cooler than Arctic ones, the rest of the southern hemisphere tends to stay warmer relative to latitude than the North.

      22 votes
      1. chocobean
        Link Parent
        The Vancouver Aquarium has a pretty big south-side-up globe, and when one looks at it one can really see that most of the planet is ocean. Here's a picture but it looks bigger and more water-y in...

        The Vancouver Aquarium has a pretty big south-side-up globe, and when one looks at it one can really see that most of the planet is ocean. Here's a picture but it looks bigger and more water-y in person

        5 votes
    2. [4]
      Spydrchick
      Link Parent
      It's a hard trend that's unlikely to stop. The wildfires in North America are a prime example, they are literally out of control. I live in the northern part of Wisconsin. Last winter we didn't...

      It's a hard trend that's unlikely to stop. The wildfires in North America are a prime example, they are literally out of control.

      I live in the northern part of Wisconsin. Last winter we didn't have to shovel hardly at all. My heating bills were not bad because the temps were pretty moderate for winter. No one was snowmobiling because when snow did fall, it would melt. That's bad for the lakes, rivers, streams and agriculture that need the run off from accumulated snow melt.

      We moved here from SE Wisconsin (Milwaukee area) partly because of the unbearable summers. We were topping upper 90s for more days than ever. While its not the southwest like Arizona who are seeing temps over 110°, up to 120°, it certainly serves as a reminder that climate change is affecting everybody, everywhere.

      11 votes
      1. [3]
        DefinitelyNotAFae
        Link Parent
        In IL though our summer temps haven't been awful this year, we're at 100 tornados this year, 25 in Chicago alone. The average is 50. A year. It's July and we're double that. Outliers exist but...

        In IL though our summer temps haven't been awful this year, we're at 100 tornados this year, 25 in Chicago alone. The average is 50. A year. It's July and we're double that.

        Outliers exist but it's not a promising trend

        7 votes
        1. [2]
          Hobofarmer
          Link Parent
          Also Chicago, just adding that winters have become milder and drier in my experience as well. Last year we had basically no snowfall and only a week of a really hard freeze. Ticks are out of...

          Also Chicago, just adding that winters have become milder and drier in my experience as well. Last year we had basically no snowfall and only a week of a really hard freeze. Ticks are out of control this year thanks to that.

          3 votes
          1. DefinitelyNotAFae
            Link Parent
            Oh boy I hate ticks so much and I already don't go out into the woods or the grass often, but I'm legit worried about tickborne disease.

            Oh boy I hate ticks so much and I already don't go out into the woods or the grass often, but I'm legit worried about tickborne disease.

  2. [2]
    chocobean
    Link
    When can world governments move to "we were lied to, we're going to sue oil and gas companies for everything they've got and use the money to reverse course" happen? 93% of EU citizens already...

    The Earth has set heat records for 13 straight months

    When can world governments move to "we were lied to, we're going to sue oil and gas companies for everything they've got and use the money to reverse course" happen?

    93% of EU citizens already believe climate change is a serious problem -- people aren't that stupid when they have less ExxonMobil lies to deal with in their governments. I've accepted climate collapse but I still want to see actions, and maybe even be proven wrong.

    11 votes
    1. skybrian
      Link Parent
      Much of the world has been changing course for many years - alternative energy is huge. But not enough, given the scale of the challenge.

      Much of the world has been changing course for many years - alternative energy is huge. But not enough, given the scale of the challenge.

      7 votes
  3. kfwyre
    Link

    Driven by oceans that won’t cool down, an unseasonably warm Antarctica and worsening climate change, Earth’s record hot streak dialed up this week, making Sunday, then Monday, the hottest days humans have measured, according to the European climate service.

    There’s a good chance that when the data comes in for Tuesday, it will be three straight days of global record breaking heat, said Carlo Buontempo, the director of the European climate service Copernicus. “These peaks are not normally isolated,” he said.

    9 votes
  4. [2]
    ACEmat
    Link
    We've apparently had the hottest summer in 10 years here in Atlanta (I moved here 2 years ago, I have to trust others), but funny enough this week was the first week that we had highs below 90 the...

    We've apparently had the hottest summer in 10 years here in Atlanta (I moved here 2 years ago, I have to trust others), but funny enough this week was the first week that we had highs below 90 the whole time.

    Just funny that we didn't join in on the festivities.

    4 votes
    1. hamstergeddon
      Link Parent
      Same up here in southern PA. Been in the very high 80s and low-to-mid 90s since June, but this past week or so has hung around the low-to-mid 80s. Of course we've been getting juuuust enough rain...

      Same up here in southern PA. Been in the very high 80s and low-to-mid 90s since June, but this past week or so has hung around the low-to-mid 80s. Of course we've been getting juuuust enough rain to ensure it's humid as hell, so it's still uncomfortable :(

      7 votes