Climate Change News & Discussions

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N. Atlantic ocean temperature sets record high: US agency
https://phys.org/news/2023-07-atlantic- ... gency.html
by Lucie AUBOURG

On the heels of a new record high in the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic reached its hottest-ever level this week, several weeks earlier than its usual annual peak, according to preliminary data released Friday by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The news comes after scientists confirmed that July is on track to be the warmest month in record history—searing heat intensified by global warming that has affected tens of millions of people.

"Based on our analysis, the record-high average sea surface temperature in the North Atlantic Ocean is 24.9 degrees Celsius," (76.8° Fahrenheit) observed Wednesday, Xungang Yin, a scientist at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, told AFP.

The record is particularly startling as it comes early in the year—usually, the North Atlantic reaches its peak temperature in early September.

The previous record high was recorded in September 2022, at 24.89 degrees Celsius, Yin said.

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Colorado River Basin megadrought caused by massive 86% decline in snowpack runoff
https://phys.org/news/2023-07-colorado- ... ssive.html
by Hannah Bird , Phys.org

The Colorado River Basin provides freshwater to more than 40 million people within the semi-arid southwestern United States, including major cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles. However, between 2000 and 2021 the basin experienced a megadrought (a severe drought lasting multiple decades), which researchers have suggested likely would not have occurred if it were not for anthropogenic climate change. In particular, during 2020 and 2021, the river basin recorded the driest 20-month period since 1895 and the lowest river flow since 1906.

Dr. Benjamin Bass and colleagues at the University of California aimed to identify how precipitation and runoff within the basin have changed since the 1880s, in line with a 1.5°C increase in temperature over the same period. New research, published in Water Resources Research, identified a 10.3% decrease in runoff within the basin as a direct result of anthropogenic warming and vegetation changes in the landscape, meaning available water resources to support the local population have declined 2.1 km3.

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Climate change made July hotter for 4 of 5 humans on Earth, scientists find
Source: AP

By SETH BORENSTEIN
Updated 5:10 AM CDT, August 2, 2023

Human-caused global warming made July hotter for four out of five people on Earth, with more than 2 billion people feeling climate change-boosted warmth daily, according to a flash study.

More than 6.5 billion people, or 81% of the world’s population, sweated through at least one day where climate change had a significant effect on the average daily temperature, according to a new report issued Wednesday by Climate Central, a science nonprofit that has figured a way to calculate how much climate change has affected daily weather.

“We really are experiencing climate change just about everywhere,” said Climate Central Vice President for Science Andrew Pershing.

Researchers looked at 4,711 cities and found climate change fingerprints in 4,019 of them for July, which other scientists said is the hottest month on record. The new study calculated that the burning of coal, oil and natural gas had made it three times more likely to be hotter on at least one day in those cities. In the U.S., where the climate effect was largest in Florida, more than 244 million people felt greater heat due to climate change during July.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/climate-chan ... 57b54618ac

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Greenland's largest glacial floating ice declined 42% due to global warming, scientists determine
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-greenland ... lined.html
by Hannah Bird , Phys.org

Greenland's ice sheet has been melting at an accelerated rate over recent decades, which may have resulted in a 1.4 mm/year rise in sea level. It has three glaciers with a floating tongue (floating ice attached to a glacier emerging into the sea) remaining, with Nioghalvfjerdsbrae (located at 79 degrees latitude north so colloquially termed 79NG) being the focus of a new study reported in The Cryosphere regarding the effects of climate change on its decline.

Dr. Ole Zeising from Alfred Wegener Institute at the Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Germany, and collaborators have used a combination of remote sensing, airborne and ground-level measurements to determine this ice tongue has thinned 42% since 1998, losing an average 38 m ice thickness since 2018. The scientists attribute this to increasing ocean temperatures bringing warmer currents into the area and causing enhanced melting and glacier retreat.

Research since 2010 has used airborne radar to generate images of the surface and internal structure of the glacier, finding that a 500-meter-high and 1-kilometer-wide subglacial (under the glacier) channel has eroded the glacier at the base due to the inflow of warm Atlantic intermediate water (saline water mass originating in the Atlantic that flows at 500 m to 1000 m depth) at temperature exceeding 1°C.

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Ocean heat record broken, with grim implications for the planet

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The oceans have hit their hottest ever recorded temperature as they soak up warmth from climate change, with dire implications for our planet's health.

The average daily global sea surface temperature beat a 2016 record this week, according to the EU's climate change service Copernicus.

It reached 20.96C. That's far above the average for this time of year.

Oceans are a vital climate regulator. They soak up heat, produce half Earth's oxygen and drive weather patterns.

Warmer waters have less ability to absorb carbon dioxide, meaning more of that planet-warming gas will stay in the atmosphere. And it can also accelerate the melting of glaciers that flow into the ocean, leading to more sea level rise.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-enviro ... 387537.amp

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[raklian]

The desertification of southwest US intensifies.

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[Powers]

Hot take but could the current spike be in part related to the wildfires in Canada?