At about summer鈥檚 halfway point, the and weather extremes are both unprecedented and unsurprising, hellish yet boring in some ways, scientists say.
Killer heat. Deadly floods. Smoke from wildfires that chokes.
And there鈥檚 no relief in sight.
Expect a hotter than normal August and September, American and European forecast centers predict.
鈥淲e are seeing unprecedented changes all over the world,鈥 said NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt. 鈥淭he heat waves that we鈥檙e seeing in the U.S. and in Europe, in China are demolishing records left, right and center. This is not a surprise.鈥
Imperial College of London climate scientist Friederike Otto said examining what鈥檚 causing heat waves is 鈥渂oring鈥 in a way since it keeps happening. Yet she added that it matters 鈥渂ecause it shows again just how much climate change plays a role in what we are currently experiencing.鈥
鈥淭his story, these impacts, are going to continue,鈥 Schmidt said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be seeing this pretty much this year and into next year鈥 with a natural El Nino warming of the Pacific adding to the overwhelming influence of largely from the burning of coal, oil and gas.
Here鈥檚 a rundown of the summer of Earth鈥檚 discontent.
RECORD-SHATTERING HEAT
Globally, June this year was 鈥 and scientists say July has been so hot that even before the month was over they could say it was the . But it鈥檚 individual places where people live that the heat has stuck around and killed.
Phoenix, where the last day of June and each day of July (43 degrees Celsius), set records for the and longest stretch when the temperatures didn鈥檛 go below 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius) at night.
El Paso, Texas, had 44 days of 100 degree (37 degree) heat. Schools closed in Nuevo Leon state in northern Mexico a month earlier than usual as temperatures reached 113 degrees (45 Celsius).
Farther east, Miami added for 46 straight days of feels-like temperatures of 100 or more.
with at least 27 days of 95 degrees (35 Celsius) in July, after a three-day streak of at least 104 (40 Celsius) in June. And the country set it鈥檚 all-time highest temperature on July 16 in remote Sanbao township with 126 degrees (52.2 Celsius).
Heat records fell . Sardinia, Italy, hit 117 (47 Celsius). Palermo in Sicily broke a record that goes back to 1791 by a whopping 3.6 degrees (2 degrees Celsius). Temperatures hit 115 (46 Celsius) in Gytheio, Greece.
Spain reported nearly 1,000 excess deaths from the heat, mostly among the elderly, by mid July.
In Argentina, where it鈥檚 mid-winter, temperatures were above 89.6 (32 Celsius) four straight days in June in the northern part of the county. One July night in Buenos Aires didn鈥檛 get below the 70s (low 20s Celsius).
TOO MUCH RAIN
More than 10,000 people had to be evacuated caused at least 70 houses to collapse. In Yichang, that buried a construction site and killed at least one person.
Australia鈥檚 Queensland outback got 13 times its normal monthly July rain in just one day.
Thousands of people were evacuated from Delhi in India as . Elsewhere in the country at least 100 people were killed by the downpours.
In the United States, sudden heavy rain killed people in , Connecticut and with tragic stories of .
WILDFIRES AND SMOKE
Too little rain in Greece and Spain . In the Canary Islands, , others to wear face masks and had 400 firefighters battling it.
Hot and dry conditions caused about 160 wildfires to break out in Israel in early June.
But what really brought fires home where few people live. Rare far northern Quebec wildfires triggered nasty smoke that , then switched to .
As of late July more than 600 wildfires were out of control in Canada. A record 47,490 square miles (123,000 square kilometers) burned, and fire season isn鈥檛 near done. That鈥檚 an area larger than the state of Pennsylvania or North Korea.
WATER TEMPERATURES
Water temperatures in the Florida Keys and off the Everglades hit the high 90s (high 30s Celsius) with in what could be an unofficial world record for surface water temperature, although that鈥檚 in dispute.
The North Atlantic . The world鈥檚 oceans as a whole were their hottest ever in June and got even hotter in July. In Antarctica, sea ice smashed record-low levels.
Ocean temperatures take a long time to warm up and cool down, said University of Northern Illinois meteorology professor Victor Gensini. So it doesn鈥檛 look good for the rest of the summer, he said.
A HOT FORECAST
鈥淲e are favoring above normal temperatures for the next three months,鈥 said NOAA Climate Prediction Center meteorologist Matt Rosencrans.
The only potential relief he sees, especially in the hot Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, is if a hurricane or tropical storm moves through.
The peak of hurricane season in September hasn鈥檛 even started.
When going through the litany of this summer鈥檚 weather extremes so far, University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann had one question: 鈥淗ow on God鈥檚 Earth are we still burning fossil fuels after witnessing all this?鈥
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