Overcast with a chilly breeze here this Sunday on California’s north coast as we mingle the single days left in summer, which by the way, officially cranked-off yesterday.
Although we’ve been experiencing ‘summer‘ for the past six weeks or so — bright, windy and a lot of sunshine. And warm for the most part. Especially before that stout, northerly wind arrives about mid-day — as good as it gets for the region, as the locals most-likely affirm with an understanding smile.
This ain’t T-shirt land, for an old guy like me, anyhow, and in the seven years I’ve lived up here (relocated from California’s Central Coast), there’s probably been maybe two weeks-worth of what I’d call “T-shirt weather.” Just too much of chill in the air for my skinny ass.

Weather talk is no longer glib, social chit-chat, small talk for the socially awkward — nowadays, the shit’s way-serious.

(Illustration found here).

The environment has taken a backseat in the news cycle in the last couple of weeks, especially with the catastrophic events in Iraq — reported just this morning, four more towns taken by the ISIS, as those assholes appear near-about unstoppable — and from shit happening all over, from the Ukraine, to Brazil, to places in between and far apart. Despite all the other hoopla, a worse thing is coming quickly upon us — and still, “climate change” is less frightening than “global warming.”

Events, however, seem to reveal it doesn’t matter what you call it — some interesting notes from the last week or so in climate news, shit under the so-instituted, most-urgent radar.
So, climate is getting warmer, huh?
Via Mashable:

Two of the leading centers that track global surface temperatures have reported their data for May, and they both found it to be the warmest such month on record for the planet.
NASA found that May had an average global temperature that was 1.38 degrees Fahrenheit above average, which would make it the warmest such month, coming out far ahead of May 2012.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency’s separate analysis also found both May and the meteorological spring months of March through May to be the warmest on record.
…
Later this week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will release their global numbers, which typically closely match the other centers, but sometimes differ slightly in rankings.
According to the World Meteorological Agency, all but one of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred in the 21st century.

And month before? ‘April 2014 tied with the same month in 2010 for the distinction of being the warmest April on record globally, with an average global temperature 1.39 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average…’

And warm is drought-like, too.
From USAToday on Friday:

Through the first five months of the year, “temperatures in California have been about 5 degrees above average,” said Jake Crouch, a climate scientist with the center in a conference call with reporters.
The warmth in California has contributed to the drought that’s now encompassing the entire state, according to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday.
Nearly one-third of the state is now in “exceptional” drought, the worst level, the monitor reported.
This is the highest percentage in the history of the Drought Monitor, which began in 2000.
Exceptional drought is now seen in the San Francisco Bay area, parts of Silicon Valley and the farmlands of central California.
…
For the spring season, which climatologists define as March, April and May, California had its 5th-warmest spring on record, while both Wisconsin and Louisiana had their 11th-coldest spring.

Here in Humboldt County, in the north, we’re also at the “exceptional” level.
Although the drought shit persists, water usage ain’t getting the hint.
This from a new report from the State Water Resources Control Board — via the LA Times:

“While water conservation has been encouraged by urban water suppliers, measured water use hasn’t yet met a 20 percent voluntary reduction of water use called for by Governor Brown in two emergency drought declarations this year,” the report said.
“Exceptional” drought conditions have spread in Central California since a week ago, National Weather Service officials said.
Areas in Northern California have also moved into this category since last week, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Almost 33 percent of the state faces exceptional drought conditions.
About 25 percent of the state faced those conditions last week.
Every part of California remains in what is considered severe drought.
…
A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll in June found most Californians surveyed saying the statewide drought has had little or no effect on their daily lives, and a majority oppose the suspension of environmental protections or large-scale public spending to boost water supplies.
Although 89 percent characterize the drought as a major problem or crisis, only 16 percent say it has personally affected them to a major degree.
Despite widespread news coverage of the drought, the state’s major population centers have largely escaped severe mandatory rationing.
Even agriculture, which as California’s thirstiest economic sector is inevitably hit the hardest by drought, has partially compensated for reduced water delivery by pumping more groundwater.

Reality hasn’t caught with reality yet.
Animals, though, have been long-caught in the waterless heat, like our state’s raptors, who have lost their food supply, and their young are wilting:

As Accuweather reports, lack of water is causing grass that serves as habitat for the insects and small mammals that raptors feed on to dry up, which is leading to a drop in the numbers of these prey creatures and in turn has led to “emaciated” hawks and owls.
This lack of food means many owls and hawk pairs aren’t laying eggs, which means this breeding season could end up being one of the worst on record, Andrea Jones of the California Audubon Society told Accuweather.
“Birds are just not nesting,” she said. “They’re not laying eggs.”

Climate change/global warming is more subtle than war, and way-more nefarious.
According to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, Thwaites Glacier, the large, rapidly changing outlet of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, is not only being eroded by the ocean, it’s being melted from below by geothermal heat, and like a lot of other climate shit, way-unpredictable:

The geothermal heat contributed significantly to melting of the underside of the glacier, and it might be a key factor in allowing the ice sheet to slide, affecting the ice sheet’s stability and its contribution to future sea level rise.
The cause of the variable distribution of heat beneath the glacier is thought to be the movement of magma and associated volcanic activity arising from the rifting of the Earth’s crust beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Knowledge of the heat distribution beneath Thwaites Glacier is crucial information that enables ice sheet modelers to more accurately predict the response of the glacier to the presence of a warming ocean.
…
The findings of lead author Dusty Schroeder and his colleagues show that the glacier sits on something more like a multi-burner stovetop with burners putting out heat at different levels at different locations.
“It’s the most complex thermal environment you might imagine,” said co-author Don Blankenship, a senior research scientist at UTIG and Schroeder’s Ph.D. adviser.
“And then you plop the most critical dynamically unstable ice sheet on planet Earth in the middle of this thing, and then you try to model it. It’s virtually impossible.”

Anyway, enough talk about weather/environment-related shit, now back to Baghdad…

(Illustration out front found here).