Several places broke heat records for the day, including downtown Los Angeles, which hit 108 degrees. Van Nuys and Burbank airports set all-time records of 117 and 114 degrees, respectively. The San Diego County community of Ramona reached its highest recorded temperature — 112 degrees — by 11 a.m., forecasters said, and later hit 115 degrees.
The broiling temperatures were the result of a strong high-pressure system combined with offshore winds blowing from the desert to the ocean, said Todd Hall, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
Like many Southern Californians, Hall does not have air conditioning at home and was not looking forward to leaving his nice, cool office.
This isn’t typically what I would write about in this blog, as I typically cover threatening ocean storms. However, this has implications for the Arctic Ocean and possibly mid-latitude weather. An extreme heat event for this particular region…with high temperatures of greater than 40 degrees F above recent normals…will impact the coast of the Arctic Ocean (specifically the Laptev Sea and Eastern Siberian Sea) Wednesday-Friday. This will generate maximum daily temperatures as high as 90-95 degrees near the open ocean coast!
Yes, you read that correctly.
Wednesday Afternoon (local time) high temperatures along the Laptev Sea in Northern Siberia. Widespread 80s to mid-90s, over 40 degrees above normal as forecast by the Global Forecast System Model.
2018 has unfortunately been a prime example of global warming’s effect on the jet stream. And northern Siberia has been getting blowtorched by heat that refuses to quit because of an ongoing blocked pattern favorable for intense heat.
The northern Barents Sea is an Arctic warming hotspot, says Sigrid Lind with the Marine Research Institute in Tromsø, Norway. Changes go from Arctic to Atlantic climate, concludes a study Lind and other scientists have made. The results are published in a recent article in Nature.
The ocean researchers have used a compilation of hydrographic observations from 1970 to 2016, investigating the link between changing sea-ice import and the warming hotspot of the northern Barents Sea.
“A sharp increase in ocean temperature and salinity is apparent from the mid-2000s, which we show can be linked to a recent decline in sea-ice import and a corresponding loss in freshwater, leading to weakened ocean stratification, enhanced vertical mixing and increased upward fluxes of heat and salt that prevent sea-ice formation and increase ocean heat content,” Sigrid Lind tells in the article.
Thus, the northern Barents Sea may soon complete the transition from a cold Arctic to a warm and well-mixed Atlantic dominated climate regime. In fact, the entire Barents Sea will be ice-free year-around.
“Such a shift would have unknown consequences for the Barents Sea ecosystem,” Lind says.
Norway’s Meteorological Institute has all summer published highly worrying ice mapsfor the Barents Sea. Though, better named “ice-free maps” when looking closer. Wednesday, July 4th, map Svalbard shows the Hinlopen Strait with very little ice. Also, waters around the islands of Nordaustlandet, Kong Karls land and Kvitøya have no sea-ice.
“This is the lowest area for this day of the year in our records dating back to 1967,” Norway Ice Service writes in a tweet.
“For the waters around Svalbard it is a record low ice area by a good margin,” says Nick Hughes, Leader of the Ice Service in Tromsø to the Barents Observer.
For Hinlopen, however, Hughes says “it is not so unusual to have little or no ice in the strait at this time of the year.” He points to the three years 2016, 2006 and 1984 when it was even less than today.
Further north, and around the archipelago, the ice chart for July 4th shows 183,751 square kilometers of ice. This is 131,416 square kilometers below the 1981-2010 average.
Only some few spots with very open drift ice can be seen. From north of Svalbard up to 82 degrees, it is today possible to sail all east to the west coast of Franz Josef Land before meeting sea-ice.
I was checking my weather app and scrolled down to my hometown of Santa Ana and was floored to see a figure of 112. I still have relatives in Silverado Canyon and it said like 114.
Not to argue with the fact that it’s rapidly getting warmer, which it absolutely is, and fires and even firestorms are worsening, which they absolutely are…but I assume the fact that the town of Santa Ana shares its name with the hot dry winds in the area is not coincidence. Are those temperatures unusual for those places at this time of year?
Typically, we see Santa Ana extreme heat events in early Fall (September to October). July can be hot in coastal Southern California, but not 115+ hot.
Here’s one good thing about this heat wave. Temperatures peaked on a Saturday at Disneyland. Disneyland is typically packed to capacity on summer weekend days (estimated capacity ~80,000).
That means that lots of red-state tourists got to experience firsthand 116F (that’s right, 116F) temperatures at a place where they would never expect to experience heat like that. Maybe that will make an impression on some of them.
Ditto for 1000s more tourists (many from red states) visiting Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios, etc.
And the Los Angeles area got hit with a similar heat wave (but not quite as bad) last year. Our car’s outside temperature gauge showed 113F as we drove through the San Fernando Valley at 5PM.
Remember when dealing with denialists that:
(1) With no climatic warming, the number of heat records should roughly equal the number of cold records over time.
(2) Altogether the 50 United States of American covers 2% of the planet
(3) Most of the excess heat has gone into the ocean OR MELTED HUNDREDS OF GIGATONS OF ICE.
(4) Since pollution can keep lakes from freezing over, pay attention to water temperature as the signal.
Also, it helps to check if they understand the difference between TEMPERATURE and HEAT before getting into any discussions of the physics of AGW.
You’re still “discussing” the physics of AGW with the coal/oil shills below the scientist level ? Kudos for quiet patience. Have you eliminated harps, bagpipes, streamers, volcanoes, earthquakes, Inuits extra-tilty Earth, meteors & space alien lizards from the physics of AGW yet ? More kudos.
I was checking my weather app and scrolled down to my hometown of Santa Ana and was floored to see a figure of 112. I still have relatives in Silverado Canyon and it said like 114.
Not to argue with the fact that it’s rapidly getting warmer, which it absolutely is, and fires and even firestorms are worsening, which they absolutely are…but I assume the fact that the town of Santa Ana shares its name with the hot dry winds in the area is not coincidence. Are those temperatures unusual for those places at this time of year?
“a desert wind” will “curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen.” Raymond Chandler
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Here-are-7-things-to-know-about-Santa-Ana-winds-12413155.php
https://twitter.com/ClimateSignals/status/1015641654772944896
Typically, we see Santa Ana extreme heat events in early Fall (September to October). July can be hot in coastal Southern California, but not 115+ hot.
Here’s one good thing about this heat wave. Temperatures peaked on a Saturday at Disneyland. Disneyland is typically packed to capacity on summer weekend days (estimated capacity ~80,000).
That means that lots of red-state tourists got to experience firsthand 116F (that’s right, 116F) temperatures at a place where they would never expect to experience heat like that. Maybe that will make an impression on some of them.
Ditto for 1000s more tourists (many from red states) visiting Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios, etc.
And the Los Angeles area got hit with a similar heat wave (but not quite as bad) last year. Our car’s outside temperature gauge showed 113F as we drove through the San Fernando Valley at 5PM.
“…Saturday…”
Oops — make that a Friday. But Disneyland is also jam-packed on Fridays during the summer, so my point still stands.
We went to Disneyland on a Friday in late April (i.e. not during spring break). Even then, it was ridiculously crowded.
Also, this: (the only verified 120F temperature reading ever seen in the greater LA/San-Bernardino megalopolis): https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/ca/chino/KCNO/date/2018-7-6?cm_ven=localwx_history
Remember when dealing with denialists that:
(1) With no climatic warming, the number of heat records should roughly equal the number of cold records over time.
(2) Altogether the 50 United States of American covers 2% of the planet
(3) Most of the excess heat has gone into the ocean OR MELTED HUNDREDS OF GIGATONS OF ICE.
(4) Since pollution can keep lakes from freezing over, pay attention to water temperature as the signal.
Also, it helps to check if they understand the difference between TEMPERATURE and HEAT before getting into any discussions of the physics of AGW.
You’re still “discussing” the physics of AGW with the coal/oil shills below the scientist level ? Kudos for quiet patience. Have you eliminated harps, bagpipes, streamers, volcanoes, earthquakes, Inuits extra-tilty Earth, meteors & space alien lizards from the physics of AGW yet ? More kudos.