Washington Post (April 1)
“Earth has a long-running fever that shows little signs of easing. The planet has set high temperature records in each of the last nine months, and March is poised to become the 10th. Multiple locations around the world observed unprecedented heat on the month’s final weekend, as if to put an exclamation mark on this exceptional run of warmth.”
Tags: Earth, Exceptional, Fever, Heat, High, March, Planet, Records, Temperature, Unprecedented, Weekend, World
New York Times (June 29)
The twin threats of “dangerous heat baking…the Southeast” and “the wildfire smoke filling the skies” in the Midwest “aren’t connected directly. But a common factor is adding to their capacity to cause misery. Human-caused climate change is turning high temperatures that would once have been considered improbable into more commonplace occurrences. And it is intensifying the heat and dryness that fuel catastrophic wildfires, allowing them to burn longer and more ferociously, and to churn out more smoke.”
Tags: Catastrophic, Climate change, Dangerous, Dryness, Heat, Human-caused, Improbable, Intensifying, Misery, Smoke, Temperatures, Wildfire, Wildfires
BBC (July 20)
“Heat records tumbled and firefighters faced new blazes as much of Western Europe baked in a gruelling heatwave.” The UK “saw temperatures of more than 40C (104F) for the first time.” Germany had “its hottest day of the year,” as did the Netherlands, while in France “37,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes” due to wildfires. In the past week, Portugal alone has recorded “more than 1,000 heatwave-related deaths.”
Tags: Blazes, Deaths, Firefighters, France, Germany, Gruelling, Heat, Heatwave, Netherlands, Portugal, Records, Temperatures, UK, Western Europe, Wildfires
The Guardian (January 11)
“If you want to know how fast climate change is happening, the answer is in the oceans.” Last year, they “absorbed heat equivalent to seven Hiroshima atomic bombs detonating each second, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.” Global ocean temperature data “paint a clear picture: the Earth is warming, humans are the culprit, and the warming will continue indefinitely until we collectively take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Tags: Atomic bombs, Climate change, Culprit, Earth, Emissions, GHGs, Heat, Hiroshima, Humans, Oceans, Temperature data, Warming
Reuters (August 1)
“As competitors battled for the podium on the third day of Olympic athletics on Sunday, it was Tokyo’s oppressive heat that perhaps dished out the most pain. Punishing conditions greeted athletes and officials as a trackside thermometer touched 40 degrees Celsius (104°F) and the humidity hovered around 60%, with sun beating down on an Olympic Stadium devoid of spectators due to COVID-19.”
Tags: 40 degrees Celsius, Athletes, Battled, Competitors, Conditions, COVID-19, Heat, Humidity, Officials, Olympics, Oppressive, Pain, Podium, Punishing, Spectators, Sun, Tokyo, Trackside
USA Today (September 8)
“Intense heat, parched conditions and high winds fueled record-shattering wildfires and strained the electrical grid across much of California on Monday…. California has been struggling with a record-breaking fire season this year – more than 2 million acres have been torched. The days ahead look equally grim.”
Tags: California, Electrical grid, Grim, Heat, Parched, Record, Strained, Struggling, Torched, Wildfires, Winds
ABC News (December 18)
“Australia has sweltered through its hottest day on record as the ongoing heatwave starts to bite across parts of the country. The Bureau of Meteorology says the national average for yesterday was 40.9 degrees, eclipsing the previous record set just six years ago. But forecasters say the record could be broken again, with the heat set to intensify over the next two days.”
Tags: Australia, Broken, Forecasters, Heat, Heatwave, Hottest, Intensify, National average, Record, Sweltered
South China Morning Post (September 2)
“Hong Kong will have to endure more of the protest-ridden heat as the unrest continues beyond summer. And it’s going to heat up indeed. So the question remains… how long before Beijing runs out of patience?”
The Economist (July 28)
“No consequence of global warming is as self-evident as higher temperatures. Earth is roughly 1°C hotter today than it was before humanity started belching greenhouse gases into the atmosphere during the Industrial Revolution.” This summer the consequences are widespread: “Heat is causing problems across the world.” But if global warming continues, “the toll on human lives is hard to imagine.” The bright spot is that better government response appears to be saving some lives. “If only the world could take in a similar lesson about the importance of stopping climate change in the first place.”
Tags: Climate change, Consequences, Earth, GHG, Global warming, Government, Heat, Human lives, Industrial Revolution, Response, Temperatures
Bloomberg (August 18)
“Last month wasn’t just the hottest July on record for the surface of earth. It continued the longest-ever streak of record-breaking months—15.” The data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came at an alarming time. “As more than 100,000 Americans flee destructive wildfires in California and floods in Louisiana, earth sends yet another reminder that the worst is yet to come: a new record for planet-wide heat.”
