Tag Archive for: Weather

A Vicious Climate Cycle: Droughts Are Becoming Hotter, Raising Risk Of Wildfire, Scientists Say

Droughts don’t just make a place drier. As new research shows, they also make it hotter. A team from UC Irvine that compared temperature changes across the U.S. found that temperatures rise faster in places under drought conditions than they do in places with average climates. This relationship could also raise the risk of concurrent heatwaves and wildfires, the researchers say. As global warming continues its upward climb, the phenomenon described in the journal Science Advances highlights another complex feedback loop that contributes to more extreme weather events — events that could have serious implications for human health and safety.

Ocean Temperatures In La Jolla Measure Highest In Over 100 Years

Surface water temperatures in August hit the highest they have ever been in at least a century, according to researchers with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. On Wednesday, August 1, water samples pulled from the end of Scripps Pier showed a reading of 78.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Researchers said it broke an all-time record. Since 1916, scientists have been tracking water temperatures near the pier in La Jolla every single day. It’s one of the longest ongoing data sets in history. But why are the waters warm now? Researchers are not exactly sure but have theories.

San Diego County Wasn’t Immune To Extreme Weather In July

San Diego County didn’t escape the extreme weather happening around the planet in July that produced massive fires above the Arctic Circle, a deadly heat wave in Japan, and a 124 degree day in Algeria believed to the highest temperature ever recorded in Africa. The county had it’s own set of remarkable temperatures that stressed both plants and people. The city of San Diego had its hottest July in a dozen years and its fifth hottest since 1874. The month was 5 degrees warmer than normal, and the 96 degrees recorded on July 6 was the third highest reading ever seen in July.

This Summer’s Heat Waves Could Be The Strongest Climate Signal Yet

Earth’s global warming fever spiked to deadly new highs across the Northern Hemisphere this summer, and we’re feeling the results—extreme heat is now blamed for hundreds of deaths, droughts threaten food supplies, wildfires have raced through neighborhoods in the western United States, Greece and as far north as the Arctic Circle. At sea, record and near-record warm oceans have sent soggy masses of air surging landward, fueling extreme rainfall and flooding in Japan and the eastern U.S. In Europe, the Baltic Sea is so warm that potentially toxic blue-green algae is spreading across its surface.

California Hit With Two Heat Waves In Less Than A Month. Here’s Why It Matters.

Historic heat records fell in California earlier this month. Yet, two weeks later, another mass of warm air has returned to the southern part of the state, heating the region for days. The second heat wave of July will last from Monday through Thursday, said the National Weather Service. While this heat won’t be quite as severe as the last, it’ll still bring “record and near-record high temperatures” to different areas of California. As average temperatures around the globe continue their accelerated rise, extreme heat events like these are becoming more and more frequent.

Coping With The Heat Wave? No Sweat. Well, Some Sweat. But Things Could Be Worse

n the Anza-Borrego desert, where a puff of wind can leave you choking on peach-colored dirt, Andrea Taylor got straight to the point Tuesday when asked to describe the weather. “It’s hotter than hell,” said Taylor, who works in the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association office in Borrego Springs. “I think that’s the official statement.” The temperature peaked at 118 degrees at Borrego Springs on the second day of a heat wave that is expected to last until Thursday, when it fades, like air leaking from a balloon.

San Diego Braces For High Temperatures, High Surf And Highly Dangerous Rip Currents

A summer heat wave will coincide with a large south swell this week in San Diego County, driving people to the coast where treacherous rip currents will roil near shore waters from Oceanside to Imperial Beach, says the National Weather Service. An excessive heat warning will be in effect in all areas except the coast from 10 a.m. Monday until 8 p.m. on Thursday. Temperatures will range from the 80s at and near the coast to the 90s and low 100s in some inland valleys and foothills, the weather service says. Temperatures will peak on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Dousing Rainfall To Remain Absent From California Into Late July As Wildfire Season Ramps Up

As wildfires continue to char land in California, mainly dry, warm weather will provide little to no relief for firefighting efforts heading into the peak of fire season. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, the number of wildfires and acres burned so far this year has nearly kept the same pace as 2017, which was one of the most destructive fire seasons on record. Sixteen active fires are burning across California as of Sunday evening, July 15, according to Cal Fire.

California Is Preparing For Extreme Weather. It’s Time To Plant Some Trees.

For years, there has been a movement in California to restore floodplains, by moving levees back from rivers and planting trees, shrubs and grasses in the low-lying land between. The goal has been to go back in time, to bring back some of the habitat for birds, animals and fish that existed before the state was developed. But in addition to recreating the past, floodplain restoration is increasingly seen as a way of coping with the future — one of human-induced climate change.

OPINION: The Blithering Idiocy Of California’s Water Crisis

It’s not new that most of the rainfall in California is in the north and most of the people and farms using water are further south. It’s not new that California has wet years and dry years, or that the state is at risk of both flooding and drought, sometimes simultaneously. What’s new is that earlier generations of California politicians solved water problems, while the current generation intentionally creates them. We are the beneficiaries of monumental achievements in water infrastructure that made modern California possible.