Putting This Summer’s Record Global Heat Into Context
This summer saw global average temperatures that were unprecedented. June set a record for the most popular June. So did July—not only as the most popular July, however the hottest month ever since modern record keeping began within the nineteenth century. August got here in second for the all-time record. The outcomes: deadly heat waves, overheated ocean waters, massive wildfires.
To assist put these phenomena into context, listed below are among the hottest articles on heat and climate that we’ve published over the past few years, together with media reports about this 12 months’s baking temperatures that quote our experts.
Potentially Fatal Mixtures of Humidity and Heat Are Emerging Across the Globe
by Kevin Krajick | May 8, 2020
Map by Jeremy Hinsdale; adapted from Raymond et al., Science Advances, 2020
In keeping with a latest study, dangerous combos of warmth and humidity are already appearing across the globe. The study identifies hundreds of previously rare or unprecedented bouts of utmost heat and humidity in Asia, Africa, Australia, South America and North America, including within the U.S. Gulf Coast region. Along the Persian Gulf, researchers spotted greater than a dozen recent transient outbreaks surpassing the theoretical limit of human survival. The outbreaks have to this point been confined to localized areas and lasted just hours, but they’re increasing in frequency and intensity, say the authors.
Summer Heat Waves Caused Several Glaciers to Collapse
by Jaden Hill | September 13, 2022
Through the summer heat waves of 2022, glaciers within the Italian Dolomites, Kyrgyzstan and central Switzerland experienced collapses attributable to the intense heat. “This summer’s heat wave serves as a dramatic lesson, prompting multiple unexpected changes suddenly,” creator Jaden Hill writes.
You Asked: How Exactly Does Carbon Dioxide Cause Global Warming?
by Sarah Fecht | February 25, 2021
Over the past few years, we’ve received many questions on carbon dioxide — the way it traps heat, how it may possibly have such an enormous effect if it only makes up a tiny percentage of the atmosphere, and more. With the assistance of Jason Smerdon, a climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, we answer.
Study Maps Urban Heat Islands With Deal with Environmental Justice
by Jeremy Hinsdale | August 26, 2021
Buildings, roads and infrastructure all absorb and re-emit more of the sun’s heat than natural landscapes do. Mix a densely built environment with heat generated by human activities and also you soon begin to see urban heat islands—inner-city zones where temperatures might be as much as 20 degrees F warmer than surrounding, vegetated areas. In summer 2021, researchers collaborated with citizen scientists to map the warmth in parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx at the road level for the primary time.
Photo: Grant Harley/University of Idaho
1,000-Plus Years of Tree Rings Confirm Historic Extremity of 2021 Western North America Heat Wave
by Kevin Krajick | March 27, 2023
A tree ring study in Western North America indicated that the region’s summer 2021 heat wave was almost actually the worst in at the very least the past millennium. “The unprecedented nature of summer 2021 temperatures across [the study area] suggests that no region is impervious to the economic and biological impacts of accelerating summer temperatures,” wrote lead creator Karen Heeter and colleagues.
The Fire This Time: Facing the Reality of Climate Change
The Fire This Time: Facing the Reality of Climate Changeby Steve Cohen | June 12, 2023
“Last week for a number of terrifying days, we saw additional evidence of our interconnected biosphere. Fires burning about 400 miles from Recent York City turned the air orange and drove Recent Yorkers from their streets,” wrote creator Steve Cohen. “People in other parts of America and other parts of the world are acquainted with this phenomenon—Recent Yorkers weren’t. Now we’re.”
Exposure to Deadly Urban Heat Worldwide Has Tripled in Recent Many years, Says Study
by Kevin Krajick | October 4, 2021
A latest study of greater than 13,000 cities worldwide has found that the variety of person-days during which inhabitants are exposed to extreme combos of warmth and humidity has tripled because the Nineteen Eighties. The authors say the trend, which now affects nearly 1 / 4 of the world’s population, is the combined results of each rising temperatures and booming urban population growth. “This has broad effects,” said the study’s lead creator, Cascade Tuholske. “It increases morbidity and mortality. It impacts people’s ability to work, and ends in lower economic output. It exacerbates pre-existing health conditions.”
Photo: Radhika Iyengar
Are You Feeling the Heat Yet?
by Radhika Iyengar | May 3, 2022
A private report on among the ways climate change is impacting India, now the world’s most populous country. “My relations there report that hot air is burning their noses and their shoes are sticking to the road tar because it melts in the warmth once they walk. It has turn out to be unbearable to live in lots of parts of India. And in fact, people who find themselves economically deprived will bear the brunt of this dangerous heat.”
Greener Ways to Keep Cool During a Heat Wave
by Renee Cho | August 3, 2018
“It is admittedly essential for people to try to remain cool through the summer heat and particularly during heat waves, because heat can kill people and it may possibly make people sick, and that features even healthy young folks and athletes,” said Kim Knowlton of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. For those who don’t have access to air-con, or opt not to make use of it, listed below are some greener strategies to maintain cool. Hopefully they’ll also prevent money in your electricity bill.
- Recent Research Shows Direct Link Between Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Polar Bear Decline
Inside Climate News | Sept. 3, 2023
A 2021 report from the Sabin Center for Climate Law summarizes the scientific findings concerning the impacts of climate change on endangered species. Global warming is an overarching threat to almost all species, and if biodiversity collapses, among the planet’s best natural mechanisms to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and slow atmospheric heating will fail. - Extreme heat may speed up cognitive decline for certain people
The Independent | Aug. 23, 2023
In keeping with scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, July 2023 was hotter than another month in the worldwide temperature record. With harsher summers and global temperatures on the rise, it may possibly be quite hard for the body to regulate. - Wildfires, hurricanes and warmth: The U.S. is getting hit by extreme weather from all sides
NBC News | Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023
The myriad disasters ought to be a wake-up call about society’s vulnerabilities to climate-aggravated hazards and the necessity to mitigate and adapt to the realities of a warming world said Andrew Kruczkiewicz, a senior staff research associate on the Columbia Climate School. - Mediterranean Sea warming to ‘unprecedented’ levels amid global heat wave
United Press International| Aug. 18, 2023
A worldwide heat wave is pushing temperatures within the Mediterranean to latest highs. The Goddard Institute for Space Studies on the U.S. space agency NASA said this July was 0.43 degrees warmer than any July on record. “The science is evident—this isn’t normal,” said Gavin Schmidt, the director at GISS. - Americans Flock to Areas With Harshest Climate Change Effects
Nerd Wallet | Aug. 8, 2023
“Extreme heat and humidity goes to be a reality just about regardless of where you progress,” says Alex De Sherbinin, senior research scientist on the Columbia Climate School. “But life-threatening damages from those sorts of things are going to be more restricted to some locales than others.” - Swaths of the US reside through a brutal summer. It’s a climate wake-up call for a lot of
Associated Press | Aug. 7, 2023
Radley Horton, a scientist who studies ocean and climate physics at Columbia University, said there are a number of additional ingredients that may converge to create a heat wave. Drier conditions, for instance, mean more of the sun’s energy can go toward heating the air somewhat than evaporating water from plants and the soil. The time of 12 months can even play a task: At latitudes farther from the equator, the Earth’s tilt can result in summer days with 15 hours or more of sunlight — a protracted time for warmth to accumulate. - July’s heat waves, high ocean temperatures show extreme weather to return
The Washington Post | July 31, 2023
Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, largely agrees. Conditions during what was Earth’s hottest ever observed month were shocking, but not surprising,” he said. Because the sweltering summer of 2023 marches into August, with one other round of triple-digit heat advisories, scientists and environmental advocates are hoping the recent extremes one way or the other spur the type of global, collective motion that has been largely absent. - Antarctica has a winter sea ice shortfall 4 times the scale of Texas
Axios | July 31, 2023
Scientists don’t know what’s driving the shortfall, but they’re deeply concerned about its consequences, as sea ice influences the planet’s climate, global ocean currents and marine ecosystems. Lettie Roach, an associate research scientist at Columbia University, said she finds it especially concerning to see the ocean ice shortfall occurring similtaneously scorching heat is breaking global temperature records.
