The BBC has a story today about the heatwave in May and early June in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico. [emphasis, links added]
Apparently, a report by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group has claimed that climate change made the heatwave 35 times more likely, though exactly what that means goes unexplained.
The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group studied excess heat between May and early June, when the U.S. heatwave was concentrated in south-west states including California, Nevada and Arizona.
Extreme temperatures in Mexico also claimed lives during the period.
Such attribution studies take some time to complete, so it is too soon for scientists to say how much of a role climate change is playing in the current heatwave stretching from the centre of the U.S. through to the north-east and into Canada.
In their new report, the scientists said such a heatwave was now four times more likely than it was in the year 2000, driven by planet-warming emissions.
Many extreme weather events including heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of climate change, experts say.
“The results of our study should be taken as another warning that our climate is heating to dangerous levels,” said Izidine Pinto, Researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.
“Potentially deadly and record-breaking temperatures are occurring more and more frequently in the U.S., Mexico and Central America due to climate change.
“As long as humans fill the atmosphere with fossil fuel emissions, the heat will only get worse – vulnerable people will continue to die and the cost of living will continue to increase.”
The WWA study focused on a region including the US south-west and Mexico, as well as Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras which also saw dangerously high temperatures.
The interesting thing about that BBC story is the complete lack of any mention of the spectacular plunge in temperatures across the northwestern United States as a major winter storm crossed over the Rockies into Montana and Idaho.
Newsweek has the story:
The calendar may be showing a date in summer, but no one seems to have told the weather — with forecasters warning of a “winter storm” for some areas despite it being mid-June.
Parts of Montana and Idaho were both hit with a “winter storm warning” by the National Weather Service (NWS), which published a map on Monday showing which regions were to be affected. Up to 15 inches of snow was possible in some areas overnight, the experts said, as they warned of the dangers for drivers and possible power outages.
WUSA9 has a video of the effects. Of course, the American West has always been prone to such extreme events, as USA Today points out:
Great Falls is scorching hot.
Great Falls is frigid.
During a week of weather extremes in the U.S., it all depends on which Great Falls the mercury is measured.
In Great Falls, Virginia, Luke Mraz, lugged a 100-pound hose around a golf course, spraying pond water over several acres of dry grass as the temperature climbed to 92 degrees.
“It feels like the moisture is literally just getting sucked right out of your body,” the 27-year-old said.
In Great Falls, Montana, a 127-year-old record for cold fell with temperatures reaching 45 degrees, according to the local National Weather Service office. A freak June mountain snowstorm even enticed a few skiers up to Showdown, the local ski hill.
“After a less-than-typical snowfall year, we’re welcoming the moisture,” said Avery Patrick, one of the resort’s owners.
Of course, the BBC stuck resiliently to the story about a heat dome in the U.S. (but managed a fleeting mention of the Montana storm in an online report that had to be hunted down for Daily Sceptic).
Make of all that what you will.
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