{"id":519424,"date":"2010-04-07T16:06:08","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/?p=22685"},"modified":"2010-04-07T16:06:08","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T20:06:08","slug":"weather-channel-asks-%e2%80%9cjuly-in-april%e2%80%9d-record-smashing-heat-wave-hits-much-of-the-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/519424","title":{"rendered":"Weather Channel asks, \u201cJuly in April?\u201d &#8211; Record smashing heat-wave hits much of the nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 312px; height: 234px;\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imwx.com\/web\/multimedia\/images\/content\/SCORECARD.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>CP:\u00a0 So it&#8217;s friggin&#8217; hot in DC and much of the country.<\/p>\n<p>Audience:\u00a0 How hot is it?<\/p>\n<p>CP:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/answers.yahoo.com\/question\/index?qid=20060620183918AAmCFhM\">It&#8217;s so hot that<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walkin&#8217;.<\/li>\n<li>The robins are laying their eggs sunny side up.<\/li>\n<li>I saw squirrels fanning their nuts.<\/li>\n<li>Even meteorologists are doing stories about human-caused global warming.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Settle down, disinformers, they&#8217;re only jokes.\u00a0 We all know that you can&#8217;t use a single weather event as evidence for or against climate change &#8212; unless of course that weather event is a big snowstorm [see &#8220;<a title=\"Permanent Link to Massive moisture-driven extreme  precipitation during warmest winter in the satellite record \u2014 and the  deniers say it disproves (!) climate science\" rel=\"bookmark\" href=\"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/2010\/02\/08\/climate-science-extreme-weather-moisture-precipitation-warmest-winter-satellite-record-deniers-jeff-masters\/\">Massive moisture-driven  extreme precipitation during warmest winter in the satellite record \u2014  and the disinformers say it disproves (!) climate science<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>What people should be talking about are record highs versus record lows across the country.\u00a0 The figure above comes from a Weather Channel post by Jonathan Erdman, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.weather.com\/outlook\/weather-news\/news\/articles\/0406-july-in-april_2010-04-06\">July or April?  Spring skipped?<\/a>&#8220;:<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-22685\"><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 312px; height: 234px;\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imwx.com\/web\/multimedia\/images\/content\/0406_PTRN_JULY.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>To the south of this front, temperatures had soared into the 80s and,  yes, 90s in many locations, shattering daily record highs.\u00a0 In fact,  according to the National Climatic Data Center, <strong>in the seven-day period  from March 29 through April 4, over 1100 daily record highs were either  tied or broken in the nation!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Now that is a heat wave!<\/p>\n<p>The data in the top graphic might remind you of this figure from a must-read 2009 study led by National Center for Atmospheric \t\t\t\t\t  Research (see &#8220;<a title=\"Permanent Link to Record high temperatures far  outpace record lows across U.S.\" rel=\"bookmark\" href=\"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/2010\/02\/11\/science-meehl-ncar-record-high-temperatures-record-lows\/\">Record high temperatures far outpace  record lows across U.S.<\/a>&#8220;):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ucar.edu\/news\/releases\/2009\/images\/temps_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ucar.edu\/news\/releases\/2009\/images\/temps_2med.jpg\" alt=\"temps\" width=\"504\" height=\"331\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>This graphic shows the ratio of record daily highs to record daily lows  observed at about 1,800 weather stations in the 48 contiguous United  States from January 1950 through September 2009. Each bar shows the  proportion of record highs (red) to record lows (blue) for each decade.  The 1960s and 1970s saw slightly more record daily lows than highs, but  in the last 30 years record highs have increasingly predominated, with  the ratio now about two-to-one for the 48 states as a whole.\u00a0 (\u00a9UCAR,  graphic by Mike Shibao.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>NCAR begins its release on this study:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>Spurred by a  warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often  as record lows over the last decade across the continental United  States, new research shows. The ratio of record highs to lows is likely  to increase dramatically in coming decades if emissions of greenhouse  gases continue to climb.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Climate change is making itself felt in terms of day-to-day weather \t\t\t\t\t  in the United States,&#8221; says Gerald Meehl, the lead author \t\t\t\t\t  and a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric \t\t\t\t\t  Research (NCAR). &#8220;The ways these records are being broken \t\t\t\t\t  show how our climate is already shifting.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;d be nice if the Weather Channel would say something close to that or at least mention the NCAR study if not the overall warming trend.\u00a0 Instead the piece opens with this:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>To get a feel for what&#8217;s going on in the world&#8217;s weather, meteorologists  look at weather patterns, namely, the juxtaposition of dips and rises  in the jet stream that dictate the weather we feel here on the surface.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Yes, as we know, for many if not most weather reporters, it&#8217;s all just one of the greatest coincidences in human history (see &#8220;<a title=\"Permanent Link to In yet another front-page  journalistic lapse, the NY Times once again equates non-scientists \u2014  Bastardi, Coleman, and Watts (!) \u2014 with climate scientists\" rel=\"bookmark\" href=\"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/2010\/03\/29\/climate-scientists-meteorologists-bastardi-coleman-watts-new-york-times-leslie-kaufman-false-balance\/\">In yet  another front-page journalistic lapse, the NY Times once again equates  non-scientists \u2014 Bastardi, Coleman, and Watts (!) \u2014 with climate  scientists<\/a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a title=\"Permanent Link to Is that airlifted snow on your  Olympic ski mountain, or is your enormous helicopter just happy to see  me?\" rel=\"bookmark\" href=\"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/2010\/02\/11\/airlifted-snow-olympic-ski-mountain-vancouver-global-warmin\/\">Is that airlifted snow on your Olympic ski mountain, or is your  enormous helicopter just happy to see me?<\/a>&#8220;)<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, for the rest of us, assuming we keep doing what we&#8217;re doing, which is to say, nothing, NCAR predicts (and yes, they use the word &#8220;predictions&#8221; not &#8220;projections&#8221;):<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>The modeling results indicate that if nations continue to increase their  emissions of greenhouse gases in a \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d scenario, the  U.S. ratio of daily record high to record low temperatures would  increase to about 20-to-1 by mid-century and 50-to-1 by 2100.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In short, if you like the current heat wave, you ain&#8217;t seen nothing yet (see <a title=\"Permanent Link to Our hellish future:   Definitive NOAA-led  report on U.S. climate impacts warns of scorching 9  to 11\u00b0F warming  over most of inland U.S. by 2090 with Kansas above 90\u00b0F  some 120 days a  year \u2014 and that isn\u2019t the worst case, it\u2019s business as  usual!\" rel=\"bookmark\" href=\"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/2009\/06\/15\/us-global-change-research-program-noaa-global-climate-change-impacts-in-united-states\/\">Our   hellish future: Definitive NOAA-led report on U.S. climate impacts   warns of scorching 9 to 11\u00b0F warming over most of inland U.S. by 2090   with Kansas above 90\u00b0F some 120 days a year \u2014 and that isn\u2019t the worst   case, it\u2019s business as usual!<\/a>\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>h\/t <a href=\"http:\/\/akwag.blogspot.com\/2010\/04\/so-much-for-global-cooling.html\">WAG<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Related Post:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Permanent Link to Skeptical Science explains how we know  global warming is happening:  It\u2019s the oceans, stupid!\" rel=\"bookmark\" href=\"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/2009\/11\/09\/2009\/11\/03\/2009\/10\/27\/2009\/10\/26\/2009\/10\/10\/skeptical-science-global-warming-not-cooling-is-still-happening-ocean-heat-content\/\">Skeptical  Science explains how we know global warming is happening:  It\u2019s the  oceans.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Permanent Link to Watts not to love:  New study finds the poor  weather stations tend to have a slight COOL bias, not a warm one\" rel=\"bookmark\" href=\"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/2010\/01\/28\/watts-not-to-love-new-study-finds-the-poor-u-s-weather-stations-tend-to-have-a-slight-cool-bias-not-a-warm-one\/\">Watts  not to love:  New study finds the poor weather stations tend to have a  slight COOL bias, not a warm one.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Permanent Link to Must-read AP story:  Statisticians  reject global cooling; Caldeira \u2014 \u201cTo talk about global cooling at the  end of the hottest decade the planet has experienced in many thousands  of years is ridiculous.\u201d  Levitt \u201csaid he does not believe there is a  cooling trend\u201d!!\" rel=\"bookmark\" href=\"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/2009\/11\/09\/2009\/11\/03\/2009\/10\/26\/global-cooling-myth-statisticians-caldeira-superfreakonomics\/\">Must-read  AP story: Statisticians reject global cooling; Caldeira \u2014 \u201cTo talk  about global cooling at the end of the hottest decade the planet has  experienced in many thousands of years is ridiculous.\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CP:\u00a0 So it&#8217;s friggin&#8217; hot in DC and much of the country. Audience:\u00a0 How hot is it? CP:\u00a0 It&#8217;s so hot that: I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walkin&#8217;. The robins are laying their eggs sunny side up. I saw squirrels fanning their nuts. Even meteorologists are doing stories about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":687,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/687"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}