ARCTIC HEAT WAVE

[GordMay]

Arctic Heat Wave
Multiple locations, throughout Canada’s Northwest Territories [NWT], recorded their hottest August days on record.

A weather station, in Little Chicago, located within the Arctic Circle, along the Mackenzie River, in the Northwest Territories, recorded a historic high temperature of 35.9°C [96.62°F], on Wednesday, hotter than Miami, Florida’s high temperature of 35°C.

Fort McPherson, Inuvik, and Trail Valley also saw their all-time hottest readings, on Wednesday, as readings soared into the mid-30s, across the region.

A significant ridge of high pressure parked over northwestern Canada is responsible for this formidable spell of Arctic heat. Air sinks beneath ridges, warming up and drying out as it descends toward the ground. This allows temperatures to soar far above normal beneath clear, sunny skies.

Cooler temperatures are expected, by Friday, and into the weekend, as the ridge finally relaxes, and clouds, and rain, move into the region.

Typically at this time of year, temperatures, in the NWT, are much more temperate, with highs in the mid- to high-teens.

[SailOar]

Not only high latitudes but also high altitudes are experiencing unprecedented heat.

Recent tropical Andean glacier retreat is unprecedented in the Holocene

Editor’s summary
Tropical glaciers, which are particularly vulnerable to climate warming, have retreated rapidly over recent decades, but how large they are now compared with during the rest of the Holocene is unclear. Gorin et al. report measurements of cosmogenic nuclides in recently exposed bedrock at the margin of glaciers in the tropical Andes showing that these locations remained covered by ice throughout the Holocene, implying that these glaciers, at least, are smaller now than they have been in at least 11,700 years. These findings are a dramatic reminder of just how perilous the state of tropical glaciers is in our warming world. —Jesse Smith

[Mike OReilly]

I’m spending another season plying the waters of NE Newfoundland. I’m just shy of 50 deg. N. We’ve had continual and extended periods of both heat, and extreme humidity. It’s too early to say if this is record-breaking, but I bet it will be.

This continues a trend of record-breaking warm years up here.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I’m spending another season plying the waters of NE Newfoundland. I’m just shy of 50 deg. N. We’ve had continual and extended periods of both heat, and extreme humidity. It’s too early to say if this is record-breaking, but I bet it will be.

This continues a trend of record-breaking warm years up here.

Shhhhhhhh…. Don’t tell everyone…

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I’m spending another season plying the waters of NE Newfoundland. I’m just shy of 50 deg. N. We’ve had continual and extended periods of both heat, and extreme humidity. It’s too early to say if this is record-breaking, but I bet it will be.

This continues a trend of record-breaking warm years up here.

Yikes.


I've been in Norway and the Shetland Islands, above 60N. No heat waves there. I've been wearing my heavy Faroese fisherman's sweater the whole summer. And thinking that a country where you can wear a sweater all summer is the right place to live.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Yikes.

I've been in Norway and the Shetland Islands, above 60N. No heat waves there. I've been wearing my heavy Faroese fisherman's sweater the whole summer. And thinking that a country where you can wear a sweater all summer is the right place to live.

Yikes indeed. We’ve had at least four runs of multi-day, sometimes over a week, where daytime highs were hitting high 20s, and low 30s. Humidexes were consistently upper 30s, with the occasional 40+ day. This is southern Ontario kind of weather, or even southern usa.

Way too hot for me.