The Weather Blog
Daily weather updatesJune Sizzle – May Was Wettest Month Ever Observed, Nationwide
June 8, 1972: 8 inches of rain falls in 7 hours at Madelia Township in Watonwan County.
June 8, 1893: Violent windstorm at Maple Plain from 1:30 to 2:15pm. A large frame house was moved 8 feet from its foundation. Many barns and haysheds blown over by the wind. One barn was blown across Dutch Lake. Source: Twin Cities National Weather Service.
Welcome to what should be the hottest day of 2015, to date – temperatures top 90F by late afternoon. Cauliflower cumulonimbus thunderheads bubble up by tonight along the leading edge of slightly cooler air.
A few highlights from May:
– U.S. temperature average was 0.6 degrees F. above average and near the median value in the 121 year record.
– 11th warmest spring on record for the contiguous U.S.
– Wettest May on record and the wettest month of any in the 121-years of record keeping.
Northern Hemisphere Hurricane Season Off To Record Start, Fueled by El Nino. 3 out of the 4 typhoons that have formed in the northwest Pacific grew into Category 5-class storms. Abnormally warm ocean water in the Pacific helps to fuel tropical systems, but El Nino usually sparks stronger sub-tropical winds aloft, which tends to be a deterent for Atlantic storms. Here’s an excerpt from The Capital Weather Gang: “…To determine how active a hurricane season has been so far, scientists use a tool called accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) — a measure of wind speed over time in each individual storm, which is then added across all storms. This measurement is a rudimentary way to calculate the activity of any given season. According to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach, this measurement of hurricane activity has surged to a new record high in 2015. As of Sunday, the ACE for the Northern Hemisphere was an astonishing 152, while the previous high for the year-to-date was 102…”
Image credit above: “ .
Minnesota Energy Coop Offers Renewable Power to Electric-Car Owners. Here’s a snippet from a story at Christian Science Monitor: “…Many electric-car owners start to think more seriously about the source of their electricity when they plug their cars in to recharge. And at least in California, data show that owners of plug-in electric cars have far higher interest in photovoltaic solar panels than drivers at large. Now a Minnesota energy cooperative is offering all-renewable electricity to the state’s electric-car owners for the same price as that generated from fossil fuels, in a program it’s dubbed Revolt…”
WEDNESDAY: Sunny, slightly cooler and less humid. Dew point: 55. High: 82
THURSDAY: Showers and T-storms, some heavy. Wake-up: 61. High: 71
FRIDAY: Wet start, then slow clearing. Wake-up: 58. High: 75
SATURDAY: OK morning as clouds build, PM T-showers likely. Wake-up: 62. High: 74
SUNDAY: More sun, nicer day of the weekend. Wake-up: 63. High: 83
MONDAY: Hazy sun, feels like summer. Wake-up: 65. High: 84
Climate Stories…
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
– Upton Sinclair
Lindsey Graham Urges Action on Climate Change. Is the GOP orthodoxy on fossil fuel support breaking down or is Senator Graham whistling in the wind? Personally, he’s the voice of science-sanity in the wilderness, and we wish him well in his quest to become President of the United States. Here’s an excerpt from Politico: “…If I’m president of the United States, we’re going to address climate change, CO2 emissions in a business-friendly way,” the South Carolina senator said. “I do believe that climate change is real.” ”When 90 percent of the doctors tell you you’ve got a problem, do you listen to the one?” Graham added, in a nod to the vast majority of scientists who say climate change is real and caused by human activity...” (Photo credit: AP).
Richard Parker: The Price of Ignoring Climate Change. From crippling droughts to biblical floods, Texas, along with Florida and California, appear to be some of the first states to be directly impacted by a warmer ocean and warmer seas, sparking more weather extremes and whiplash. A columnist at The Dallas Morning News is challenging Ted Cruz and other climate change skeptics/denialists on the science; here’s an excerpt: “If Ted Cruz wants to be president, then I have an invitation for him: He should spend the next year not campaigning but instead cleaning mold out of homes and hauling and burning debris along the Blanco River. The reality is that there is a profound disconnect between the politicians of Texas and the 27 million Texans who increasingly feel the effects of climate change. Texas is getting hotter and drier before much of the rest of the country, and that only makes storms worse as they defy nearly every model. The science is clear; only the politicians are fuzzy…”
File photo credit above: “Mark Baker takes photos of the Trinity River in Dallas on Saturday, May 30, 2015. The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for portions of Central and South Texas, which could see as much as five inches of rain Saturday if a storm system stalls over the area.” (AP Photo/Rex C. Curry).
Wallace to Santorum: If Pope Shouldn’t Talk Climate Change, Why Should You? Mediaite has the story and video clip from Fox News; here’s an excerpt: “…I’m saying, what should the Pope use his moral authority for?” he asked. “There are more pressing problems confronting the earth than climate change.” Santorum went on to say that the scientific consensus about climate change was an alarm for him. “Any time you hear a scientist say science is settled, that’s political science, not real science,” he said…”
A Moral and Christian Duty to Defend The Planet. Here’s an excerpt of an Op-Ed at philly.com: “…With an encyclical on the environment, Pope Francis would be doing his part to protect and defend a planet we share with current and future generations. Nothing is more Christian or moral than promoting environmentally friendly ideas aimed at uplifting all of humanity. The promotion and protection of life are of paramount concern for Catholics. Therefore, if Rick Santorum is truly a faithful defender and promoter of life, he will come to embrace the teachings of Pope Francis on the environment.”
File photo above: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia.
NOAA Study Confirms Global Warming Speed-Up Is Imminent. Here’s a snippet from an explainer at ThinkProgress: “A major new study from NOAA finds more evidence that we may be witnessing the start of the long-awaited jump in global temperatures. As I reported in April, many recent studies have found that we are about to enter an era of even more rapid global warming. Indeed, one March study, “Near-term acceleration in the rate of temperature change,” warns the speed-up is imminent — with Arctic warming rising a stunning 1°F per decade by the 2020s...”
Warmer, Lower-Oxygen Oceans Will Shift Marine Habitats. As oceans warm species will be pushed away from the equator and toward the poles, a trend which is already underway, according to The National Science Foundation; here’s an excerpt: “...The scientists found that these changes will act to push marine animals away from the equator. About two thirds of the respiratory stress due to climate change is caused by warmer temperatures, while the rest is because warmer water holds less dissolved gases such as oxygen. “If your metabolism goes up, you need more food and you need more oxygen,” said lead paper author Curtis Deutsch of the University of Washington...”
Image credit above: “ .
* A link to the research referenced above is available here.
What Your Neighbors Think About Climate Change. 63% of Minnesota adults acknowledge that it’s warming up – the same percentage as adults in Texas. Here’s an excerpt from Huffington Post: “…A research team at Yale and Utah State Universities combined seven years of survey data, including more than 13,000 individual respondents, to develop a statistical model. The model accurately estimates American public climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy support in all 50 states, 435 Congressional districts, and 3,000+ counties. A description of the model and how it works can be found in the recently published paper in Nature Climate Change ...”
Forget About The “Hiatus” – Warming Of The Earth Has Continued. Much of that extra warmth has gone into the oceans in recent years, according to a story at Climate News Network and truthdig.org. Here’s an excerpt: “Forget about the so-called “hiatus” in global warming. The planet’s average temperatures are notching up as swiftly now as they did 20 or 30 years ago. A team of US researchers has looked again not just at the data for the last 60 years but at how it has been collected, and done the sums again. They conclude, in the journal Science, that the “estimate for the rate of warming during the first 15 years of the 21st century is at least as great as the last half of the 20th century. These results do not support the notion of a ‘slowdown’ in the increase of global surface temperature rise...”
Shell’s Former Chairman Made a Startling Comment About Climate Change. TIME Magazine has the story; here’s the intro: “When the oilmen themselves are arguing for stronger action to fight climate change, it’s probably time to start acting. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, the former chairman of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, said that the lack of progress the world has made on climate change is, “distressing,” and that it was “rational” for investors to start divesting their money from companies that extract fossil fuels, according to a report in The Guardian...” (Image: NASA’s International Space Station).