Persistent heat breaks records in US, abroad
30 million Americans under NWS advisories
From the normally chilly Russian Arctic to the traditionally sweltering American South, big swaths of the Northern Hemisphere continued to sizzle with extreme heat as the start of summer more resembled the dog days of August, with parts of China and Japan setting all-time heat records Friday.
In the United States, a heat dome of triple-digit temperatures, in many places combined with high humidity, oscillated from west to east. On Thursday, at least 15 states hit 100 degrees, according to the National Weather Service, which held 30 million Americans under some kind of heat advisory.
The extreme discomfort of Thursday came after 12 states broke the 100-degree mark on Wednesday and 21 records were tied or broken. Since June 15, at least 113 automated weather stations have tied or broken hot-temperature records. Scientists say this early baking has all the hallmarks of climate change.
In China’s northern Henan province Friday, Xuchang hit 107.8 degrees and Dengfeng hit 106.9 degrees for their hottest days on record, according to global extreme weather tracker Maximiliano Herrera. And in Japan Friday, Tokamachi and Tsunan set all-time heat records while several cities broke monthly marks, he said.
“It’s easy to look at these figures and forget the immense misery they represent. People who can’t afford air conditioning and people who work outdoors have only one option, to suffer,” said Texas A&M climate scientist Andrew
Dessler, who was in College Station, where the temperature tied a record at 102 degrees Thursday. “Those of us with air conditioning may not physically suffer, but we are prisoners of the indoors.”
In Macon, Georgia, the temperature swept from 64 degrees to 105 in just nine hours Wednesday. Then on Thursday the temperature peaked at 104, a record for the day. Even Minneapolis hit 100 on Monday.
Probably only the Pacific Northwest and Northeast have been spared the heat wave, said National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard at the Weather Prediction Center. On Thursday, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Colorado, Nevada and California all hit at least 100. Houston; Dallas; Austin, Texas; New Orleans; and Orlando, Florida, all tied high record marks on Thursday.
“It’s persistent,” Chenard said. “It’s been over a week, and it’s going to continue in some aspects.”
It’s not just the U.S.
The Russian city of Norilsk, above the Arctic Circle, hit 89.6 degrees Thursday for its hottest June day on record and tied for its hottest day in any month on record, according to Herrera.
Saragt in Turkmenistan rose to 114.6 degrees, but Herrera said in the next days it could get even worse.
Herrera said tracking heat records is so overwhelming that he doesn’t have time to eat or sleep.
A European heat wave has also caused problems with fires in Germany and Spain.
Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini said this early heat wave is “very consistent with what we’d expect in a continually warming world.”