Fog and a chill the main ingredients this Tuesday morning on California’s north coast as we work our way into the week.
Nothing new, but everything.
Still the big deal here on the Left Coast is heat — as in fire and as in temperature. There’s still a couple of big forest fires blazing in the north, one growing by the day, and other is winding down, hopefully.
And no relief in sight, especially as the environment stays warm, as apparently it will — from the LA Times: The first seven months of this year have been the warmest on record for California, according to the National Weather Service.
(Illustration found here).
Furthermore:
Forecasters averaged high and low temperatures from January to July for the entire state this year and recorded an average temperature of 60.2 degrees, said Paul Iniguez, National Weather Service Hanford’s science and operation officer.
“It’s quite a bit warmer than the previous record,” he said.
The temperature beats the record temperature of 59.3 degrees set in 1934 by nearly a full a degree, he said.
Which, of course, complicates the intensity of our drought, also the worse on record.
And there’s nothing in the pipeline to help, the fabled El Niño failed to materialize, thus, all the rain we were hoping would be falling on us, won’t, and most-likely never will — mainly because this planet is really, really screwed-up.
This weekend from Phys.org:
New research has found rapid warming of the Atlantic Ocean, likely caused by global warming, has turbocharged Pacific Equatorial trade winds.
Currently the winds are at a level never before seen on observed records, which extend back to the 1860s.
The increase in these winds has caused eastern tropical Pacific cooling, amplified the Californian drought, accelerated sea level rise three times faster than the global average in the Western Pacific and has slowed the rise of global average surface temperatures since 2001.
It may even be responsible for making El Nino events less common over the past decade due to its cooling impact on ocean surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific.
“We were surprised to find the main cause of the Pacific climate trends of the past 20 years had its origin in the Atlantic Ocean,” said co-lead author Dr Shayne McGregor from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (ARCCSS) at the University of New South Wales.
“It highlights how changes in the climate in one part of the world can have extensive impacts around the globe.”
…
“The rapid warming of the Atlantic Ocean created high pressure zones in the upper atmosphere over that basin and low pressure zones close to the surface of the ocean,” said Prof Axel Timmermann co-lead and corresponding author from the University of Hawaii.
“The rising air parcels, over the Atlantic eventually sink over the eastern tropical Pacific, thus creating higher surface pressure there.
“The enormous pressure see-saw with high pressure in the Pacific and low pressure in the Atlantic gave the Pacific trade winds an extra kick, amplifying their strength.
“It’s like giving a playground roundabout an extra push as it spins past.”
Dude, that’s all we need is a freakin’ ‘extra push.’
Climate change is a cancer on human life — just don’t water down the problem — ha!
Via Climate Central:
A two-day ban on drinking water has been lifted in Toledo, Ohio.
But the toxic algae bloom that led to the ban is still floating around Lake Erie and ones like it could become more common as the climate continues to change in a warming world.
Nutrients in agricultural runoff is the biggest contributor to algae blooms in Lake Erie.
What brings that runoff from farm fields to the lake is rain, and lots of it.
“It’s a combo of more rainfall; that climate change is predicted to cause more severe rain events. And more rainfall means more nutrients and higher nutrients mean more toxicity,” Timothy Davis, an ecologist at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, said.
An increase in heavy rainfall is already being seen throughout the U.S.
The Midwest has seen a 37 percent increase in the amount of rain falling in heavy precipitation events since the late 1950s, the second-highest increase in the U.S. over that period.
Areas along Lake Erie’s shores are where the frequency of heavy precipitation is likely to increase the most over the next century in the contiguous U.S.
Heavy rainfall events are projected to be 4-5 times more common there by 2100 under current levels of emissions.
Davis also said that increased water temperatures are a factor that not only contribute to more toxic blooms, but blooms that can last longer.
We’re in a dreadful fix — and shit, it’s only Tuesday, we got a whole week left!
(Illustration out front: ‘Lazy Sunday Afternoon‘ by funkymarmalade found here).