The extreme weather we’re seeing around the Northern Hemisphere, such as heat waves, floods, droughts, and wildfires, is related to an unusual, undulating pattern in the jet stream. The other part of this that’s atypical is that this undulating pattern doesn’t usually hold longer than a few days. But this one isn’t going anywhere. Our work shows that this sort of pattern, which has been associated with many of the most extreme, persistent weather events in recent years, including the 2003 European heatwave, the 2010 Moscow wildfires, the 2011 Texas and Oklahoma drought, and the 2016 Alberta wildfires to name a few, is becoming more common because of human-caused climate change, and in particular, because of amplified Arctic warming. Michael Mann, Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State
h/t Meteorologist Nick Humphrey
The code red lights are blinking furiously as the world’s climate continues to change as fossil fuel emissions ramp up yet again. Nowhere are these changes more noticeable than in the polar regions.
The Arctic is experiencing what scientists call Arctic amplification, a phenomenon where temperature rise are two to three times warmer than anywhere else on earth. Feedback loops such as a rapid decline in sea ice, thawing permafrost, changing rain and snowfall patterns, more powerful storms, changes in atmospheric wave patterns along with many other increasingly scary feedbacks amplify the greenhouse effect due to our inability to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels.
FishOutofWater’s recommended diary from April 29th explains the heat wave that kick-started the melt season in Greenland. Gulp.
Meanwhile, in Siberia’s Barents Sea coastal communities, yet another heatwave has struck, melting snow, thawing frozen soil and softening sea ice and ice caps.
Severe Weather Europe writes:
A new outbreak of cold Arctic maritime airmass will push across central into southern and southeastern Europe this weekend and early next week. Temperature anomalies along the cold front and behind it will be up to 10-15 °C below average for this time, very cold indeed. Meanwhile, a strong ridge builds up over extreme NW Russia. Temperatures in this region will be up to 20-25 °C above average for this time.
In absolute terms, daytime highs in the mid to upper 20s are expected on Sunday (May 12th) as far north as parts of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, up to about 66° N, just below the Arctic circle! Meanwhile, daytime highs may plunge as low as only 7-8 °C across parts of Hungary, Croatia and the surroundings at about 46 °N. That is a ~20 °C difference across 20° in latitude, with the northern locations being warmer! But that is only the absolute temperature – the far northern locations would be a priori much colder than the southern ones. So the temperature anomaly needs to be considered: there will be a difference of 30-35 °C in temperature anomaly between the two!
Black skies over Siberia as wildfires rage around the world’s oldest lake
Federal and local routes are disrupted, residents complain they fear getting burned alive while driving through the blazing taiga near to Lake Baikal.
Thousands of firefighters and volunteers are out in woodland in the Irkutsk and the Trans-Baikal regions of Eastern Siberia, desperately seeking to extinguish the infernos.
Russian Consumer rights watchdog RosPotrebNadzor issued a warning to the locals, calling on them to keep windows shut at all times, to wear damp masks and drink a lot of water.
A very hot day today in the center of Rovaniemi in North Finland (afternoon the meter was showing +32°C) ... at the beach, people weren´t the only ones, who needed a little cooling! These are reindeer, the domesticated versions of caribous found in North America. They roam free in most areas around North Finland. 2018
Bill Nye sums up the situation we are in this clip from John Oliver, The planets on fucking fire.
