Climate Point: Hottest summer on record
The warming climate played “a huge role” in the Libya flooding earlier this month, a new study reports, and extreme heat may be contributing to the deaths of New Yorkers.
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly summary of climate, energy and environment news across the country. I’m Dinah Voyles Pulver, a writer on Paste BN’s climate team.
The devastating disaster in Libya “shows how climate change-fueled extreme weather events are combining with human factors to create even bigger impacts,” said Julie Arrighi, director at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.
It was the hottest summer on record in the northern hemisphere and the warmest winter in the southern hemisphere, two federal agencies concluded in September, writes Paste BN's Doyle Rice.
In what some say could be the coolest summer of our lifetimes, health officials say the heat in New York is killing senior citizens with diabetes and heart problems.
A visual explainer shows just how extreme the warming patterns have been this year, even before El Niño fully kicked in. And, in response to some of the events this year including continued record-breaking warm temperatures in the air and oceans, global protests took place last weekend.
But despite grave concern over the changing climate, in a video from the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit, Prince William said there are reasons to find hope.
Hurricane headaches
- National Weather Service survey teams concluded Hurricane Idalia’s storm surge reached as high as 12 feet on Florida’s Gulf Coast, but could have been much worse.
- In the northeast, where Lee delivered winds and rain last week, researchers say the warming climate could bring more hurricane-force winds.
- In Rhode Island, Alex Kuffner, a reporter at the Providence Journal, a Paste BN network paper, explained how a hurricane barrier works to protect Providence when tides are high.
A hint of fall
While it may still be the peak of hurricane season for much of the eastern United States, some parts of the country are getting a break from high temperatures.
- The Northwest saw its first snow forecast for the fall.
- Two visual explainers delve into the fall equinox and how vibrant fall foliage might be this year.
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