(The Conversation) Like humans, trees need water to survive on hot, dry days, and they can survive for only short times under extreme heat and dry conditions.
During prolonged droughts and extreme heat waves like the Western U.S. is experiencing, even native trees that are accustomed to the local climate can start to die.
Central and northern Arizona have been witnessing this in recent months. A long-running drought and resulting water stress have contributed to the die-off of as many as 30% of the junipers there, according to the U.S. Forest Service. In California, over 129 million trees died as a consequence of a severe drought in the last decade, leaving highly flammable dry wood that can fuel future wildfires.
Firefighters are now closely watching these and other areas with dead or dying trees as another extremely dry year heightens the fire risk.
A dyed cross section of a ponderosa pine sapling shows the water transport tissue and conduits. Raquel Partelli Feltrin
Fears that toll is going to rise into the hundreds...
As someone living in the Pacific Northwest, it's been absolutely brutal the past few days. Daytime temperatures broke records, reaching into the mid-high 40s multiple days in a row. There was no reprieve at night, with high humidity keeping temperatures elevated into the high 20s. It seems like the heat dome has started breaking down, as temperatures finally failed to break 40 today. It's the first time I can even think in days, it's been so hot. The hottest I ever remember.
According to climate science, we can expect events such as these to become more common than once a century. I think if this becomes a typical summer phenomenon, living in underground cities would not be such a bad idea. AC places a huge demand on the power grid, and it may end up being a better solution to simply live in naturally cool places.
The Multnomah County Medical Examiner Program has identified 45 deaths related to excessive heat since Friday, June 25. The preliminary cause of death is hyperthermia. Hyperthermia is an abnormally high body temperature caused by a failure of the body to deal with heat coming from the environment.
The people who died ranged in age from 44 to 97; and include 17 women and 27 men. (records regarding gender were not complete). Many had underlying health conditions. Many of those who died were found alone, without air conditioning or a fan.
For comparison, for all of Oregon between 2017 and 2019, there were only 12 deaths from hyperthermia.
“This was a true health crisis that has underscored how deadly an extreme heat wave can be, especially to otherwise vulnerable people,’’ said Multnomah County Health Officer Dr. Jennifer Vines. “I know many county residents were looking out for each other and am deeply saddened by this initial death toll. As our summers continue to get warmer, I suspect we will face this kind of event again.’’
The deaths occurred as County officials recorded the highest-ever number of 911 calls for medical emergencies and a dramatic spike in heat-related emergency department and urgent care care visits.
Between Friday, June 25, when the National Weather Service excessive heat warning went into effect, and Monday, June 28, there were 131 emergency department and urgent care clinic visits for heat illness in Multnomah County. Normally we would see one.
Temperatures have soared close to 50C as the US Pacific north-west and Canada is gripped by a heatwave that has already contributed to dozens of deaths.
The sweltering heat is being caused by a “heat dome” according to meteorologists, as temperatures climbed to 49.5C in Lytton, British Columbia, on Tuesday.
In Vancouver, the police department said it had redeployed dozens of officers and asked the public to call 911 only for emergencies because heat-related deaths had depleted frontline resources and delayed response times.
The force added that it had already responded to 130 sudden deaths since last Friday. In total, nearly 250 deaths have been reported across the Pacific Northwest
In the American west, temperatures hit a high of 46C in Portland, Oregon, as roads buckled, schools were closed and large wildfires continue to burn in the region.
Satellite photos from NASA showed the extraordinary temperatures in the Pacific Northwest compared to that of other portions of North America, as residents continue to grapple with record-breaking temperatures.
After a dangerous fire forced all residents of a small B.C. village to evacuate their homes Wednesday evening, the province's solicitor general says some people are still unaccounted for.
Mike Farnworth spoke about Lytton's devastating blaze at a last-minute news conference Thursday.
"Because the fire hit so fast, people evacuated very quickly, about 1,000 people," he said
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
It's not just the Western region of the US that's sweltering right now. Siberia in Russia is baking, and satellites are bearing witness to a brutal heat wave above the Arctic Circle. Copernicus Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B satellites captured a snapshot of land surface temperatures on June 20, and it was hot.
According to NASA, "Land surface temperature is how hot the 'surface' of the Earth would feel to the touch in a particular location." The Sentinel image shows a peak ground temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) near Verkhojansk, a small town usually known for its extreme cold temperatures.
The World Meteorological Organization has been tracking the rise in temperatures around the world. "The most dramatic change is in the Arctic, which is warming more than twice as fast as the global average," the agency said Monday in a statement aimed at raising awareness of the urgency to act on the climate crisis.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
The United Nations on Thursday recognised a new record high temperature for the Antarctic continent, confirming a reading of 18.3 degrees Celsius (64.9 degrees Fahrenheit) made last year.
The record heat was reached at Argentina's Esperanza research station on the Antarctic Peninsula on February 6, 2020, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said.
"Verification of this maximum temperature record is important because it helps us to build up a picture of the weather and climate in one of Earth's final frontiers," said WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas.
"The Antarctic Peninsula is among the fastest-warming regions of the planet -- almost 3C over the last 50 years.
"This new temperature record is therefore consistent with the climate change we are observing."
The WMO rejected an even higher temperature reading of 20.75C (69.4F), reported on February 9 last year at a Brazilian automated permafrost monitoring station on the nearby Seymour Island, just off the peninsula which stretches north towards South America.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
(Common Dreams) A pair of climate scientists on Thursday said the record-high temperatures that have ravaged the northwestern U.S. and western Canada over the past week—killing hundreds and sparking dozens of wildfires—represent the "world's most extreme heatwave in modern history."
"Never in the century-plus history of world weather observation have so many all-time heat records fallen by such a large margin than in the past week's historic heatwave in western North America," meteorologist Bob Henson and former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hurricane scientist Jeff Masters wrote for Yale Climate Connections.
"It's not hype or exaggeration to call the past week's heatwave the most extreme in world weather records," they argued. "The only heatwave that compares is the great Dust Bowl heatwave of July 1936 in the U.S. Midwest and south-central Canada. But even that cannot compare to what happened in the Northwest U.S. and western Canada over the past week."
In British Columbia, the chief coroner said her office has received nearly 500 reports of "sudden and unexpected" deaths since last Friday, many of which are believed to be connected to the record temperatures that the region has suffered in recent days.
Conclusion:
"Nowhere is safe... who would have predicted a temperature of 48/49°C [118.4°F/120.2°F] in British Columbia?" Sir David King, the former chief scientific adviser in the United Kingdom, said in an interview with The Guardian. "The risks have been understood and known for so long and we have not acted, now we have a very narrow timeline for us to manage the problem."
Kuwait recorded the highest temperature in the world for this year, registering 53.2°C, according to America's El Dorado Weather, which collects temperature data from countries’ meteorological stations.
The Kuwaiti city of Nawasib recorded 53.2 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature in the world so far this year. Meanwhile, Ahvas and Al Amidiyah in Iran registered 50.1 degrees Celsius each, and Jahra in Kuwait recorded 49.7 degrees Celsius.
This is the second time in less than a month Kuwait has topped the world’s cities in terms of the highest official temperature. On June 5, Kuwait and Doha topped a list of 143 capitals around the world and recorded the highest temperature, Al Rai daily reported.
Kuwait and Doha recorded 48 degrees Celsius according to the Norwegian time and date website, which specialises in climate and weather affairs.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
Japan's leader pushes rescue after deadly mudslide hits town
Source: AP
By KANTARO KOMIYA
ATAMI, Japan (AP) — More than 1,000 soldiers, firefighters and police on Sunday waded through a giant mudslide that ripped through a resort town southwest of Tokyo, killing at least two people and leaving about 20 missing as it swept away houses and cars.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters 19 people had been rescued, and 130 homes and other buildings were damaged in Atami.
Two people were dead, but more were feared missing, he said speaking after an emergency Cabinet meeting. Earlier, disaster officials said 20 were unaccounted for, but warned the number may rise. Shizuoka prefecture officials said three people had been injured.
“The area is still having heavy rainfall, but arduous rescue efforts will continue,” Suga said, warning residents to watch out for more landslides. “Please act as quickly as you can to stay safe.”
(Grist) There’s no longer any need to ask if heat waves are influenced by climate change.
On Monday, temperatures in Washington and Oregon soared to well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, crushing records and leaving locals — many of whom don’t have air conditioning — struggling to find shelter from the suffocating heat. In Seattle, fans and air conditioning units were sold out at major retailers as temperatures reached an all-time high of 106 degrees Fahrenheit, marking an unprecedented third straight day of 100-degree heat. In Portland, light rail cables literally melted amid record-smashing temperatures up to 40 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.
And some scientists are beginning to say that not only is the once-in-a-millennium heat wave broiling the Pacific Northwest linked to climate change — but that it’s safe to assume that all heat waves are being made more severe or more likely as a result of all the carbon emissions pumped into the atmosphere.
“Now, if we have an extreme heat wave, the null hypothesis is, ‘Climate change is making that worse,’” said Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University. Instead of having to prove that climate change did affect a heat wave, Dessler explained, the burden of proof is now on any scientist to prove that global warming didn’t play a role.
Conclusion:
For Dessler, the scary thing is that all of this is occurring at only 2 degrees F (1.2 degrees C) of warming, and the planet is slated for around 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees C) of warming before the end of the century. And climate change, he pointed out, doesn’t proceed linearly. Things might seem gradual until all hell breaks loose. “It’s going to be a lot worse than three times as bad,” he said.
New Zealand records warmest-ever June as ski fields struggle
Source: AP
By NICK PERRY
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand has recorded its warmest June since recordkeeping began, as ski fields struggle to open and experts predict shorter southern winters in the future.
A range of factors led to the record, including more winds coming from the milder north rather than the Antarctic south, and unusually warm ocean temperatures, said Gregor Macara, a climate scientist at the government-owned National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.
He said the vagaries of weather will change from month to month. “But the underlying trend is of increasing temperatures and overall warming,” Macara said.
The average temperature in June was 10.6 degrees Celsius (51 Fahrenheit), the research agency reported Monday. That’s 2 degrees C above the 30-year average for June and more than 0.3 C higher than the previous record set in 2003 and again in 2014. Recordkeeping began in 1909.
