The headline in E&E News, WOWT-TV, Scientific American, WorldNewsNetwork, and other media outlets this week, “Unprecedented Heat Wave in Pacific Northwest Driven by Climate Change” couldn’t possibly be more unscientific. With absolutely no analysis, no historical context, and nothing but conjecture, author Anne. C. Mulkern eschewed science for advocacy in her reporting of the brief Pacific Northwest (PNW) heat wave this week.
Yes, the heat wave set all-time high temperature records in Washington, Oregon, and Canada. But consider this: At best, we have about 150 years of reliable weather records for the PNW, so a “black swan” outlier event like this isn’t surprising. It’s happened before, most certainly. We just weren’t around to observe it. After all, Native Americans did not keep written weather records.
High (and low) temperature records are nothing new. But it is important to look at the past, because data show us that more high temperature records were set during the first half of the twentieth century than during the past 50 years. Even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirms this.
But many climate activists immediately pointed to “climate change” as the cause, even though this week would have become a record weather event with or without recent modest warming. It is said that “climate change,” aka global warming, added about 2 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century, but the temperature of the past week far exceeded that.
The temperatures were so high, the small warming of 2°F of climate change was dwarfed. In cities, the “urban heat island effect” was also a bigger cause in this case. Portland and Seattle hit all-time highs of 116 and 108 Monday, while Lytton, Canada surged to a national record of 118. The EPA reports,
“…the heat island effect results in daytime temperatures in urban areas about 1–7°F higher than temperatures in outlying areas.”
The previous all-time record high for Portland was 107. Seattle’s all-time high was 103. Medford, Oregon tied its all-time record Monday of 115 degrees. It didn’t get hotter there than ever before because Medford was south of the center of the high-pressure dome.
Some of the high temperature records reported aren’t even accurate, for example:
Hmm, one wonders how an “error is data display” turns 108F into 120F. As far as I know the media has not reported this error.
It is often said that “weather is not climate” and that’s true. It is particularly true in this case.
The heat wave was entirely a weather pattern issue, not a climate issue. A large high-pressure dome (sometimes called a heat-dome) over the PNW is not unheard of, but this one was particularly strong. In fact, it was a result of a perfect storm of weather pattern confluence.
Similar unique weather pattern confluences happen each year to create major blizzards, torrential floods, and tornado outbreaks. It’s business as usual for Earth.
High pressure rotates clockwise, causes sinking air, and creates downslope winds (Foehn winds), which heat up because the air compresses as it flowed down the slope of the Cascade Mountains from east to west towards Portland and Seattle. It’s like the Santa Ana winds in Southern California. It’s the same effect as using a bicycle pump to fill a tire. The pump gets warm, not from friction, but because of the gas (air) is being compressed. Conversely, aerosol cans get colder, because gas under pressure is escaping and decompression occurs inside the can. This is described by science, known as the Adiabatic process.
Most interestingly, another record wasn’t trumpeted by the news media. With the heat-dome high pressure moving east, Seattle and Portland saw record rates of cooling. The National Weather Service office in Portland reported another new all-time record.
“Huge cooling Monday evening inland, with temperatures falling from above 100 deg to the 60s/70s. Portland set a new record, with a drop of 52 deg, breaking old record of 48 deg set in Sep 1988. Cooler today, with highs 85 to 93 inland, and 60s on the coast.”
That all-time record cooling event didn’t get much press because it goes against the groupthink narrative that “climate change” causes only bad things. Plus, the news media is often fixated on disaster more than good news.
When record heat and record cooling both happen within a 24-hour period, that’s inarguably weather, not climate.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) defines it well:
“Weather reflects short-term conditions of the atmosphere while climate is the average daily weather for an extended period of time at a certain location. … Weather can change from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season.”
Finally, in a hugely ironic twist, Scientific American, the same outlet that claimed the heat wave was driven by “climate change” confirms what NOAA and I just told you, saying Don’t Be Fooled: Weather Is Not Climate.
You can’t have it both ways.
Hey Joe. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/06/30/global-warming-33-year-birthday-a-celebration-of-failures/. Even ACCUweather tells it straight. https://electroverse.net/accuweather-meteorologist-global-warming-not-to-blame-for-northwests-heatwave/.. 40 years of failed predictions. Nevermind the cold in Greenland. And the Real winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Antartica is just getting colder.
I think it was 2007 when it got to 118 in the part of Los Angeles where I live. I was assured that it was because of global warming and that it was the new normal. It has never come close to that since. A random spike in temperatures in a small part of the world has once again “proven” nothing! Manmade (made up) Global (regional) Climate (weather) Change (cringe).
My builder son says that people’s perception of “global warming” depends on evening news weather beat ups and where they work, like he does outdoors or in air conditioned premises they leave in the afternoon and tell one another how hot it is that day, the builders experience is another normal day in summer or even an above average temperature hotter day, no big deal.
The Australians from the “Outback” hot centre might tell you about Crows flying backwards to keep the Sun out of their eyes.
KELN Ellensburg shows 114°F on 29 June. At 10 pm on 30 June it reads 79°. The forecast is for 69 by morning, and 62° by Friday morning. That is a drop of 52.
This has to mean that CO2 is disappearing from the local air.
Where is it going?
In my teens when I was growing up in southern Saskatchewan it was not unusual to see 110-115 F in the peak of summer on the prairies (115F = ~46C)
I also grew up in the prairie provinces, north western USA and now live in BC. Except for weather stations that weren’t sited correctly, my experience is that real life conditions in many locations were/are sometimes a bit more extreme than the official weather record. Old weather records didn’t include the wet bulb temp, wind, humidity, cloudiness and several other factors that new record keeping might have available.
For people living their daily life in different circumstances than a pristine weather station location, but still in relatively close proximity, weather is what they experience in their specific locale/elevation/aspect and what you describe is also my experience in that people experience both warmer and colder temps than just the official weather station stat. For 101 reasons…but of course, it is the properly sited calibrated weather station that we want to use for long term data collection to compare equally over longer time frames.
Riiight… it is just coincidence that with a warming planet and clear evidence of climate change, this comes along now.
Also note that E Europe, Russia and Siberia have been setting record June temperatures:
A Scorcher in Siberia and Europe (nasa.gov)
On June 23, ground stations in Moscow measured an air temperature of 34.8°C (94.6°F)—the city’s hottest June temperature on record. Helsinki, Finland, also saw its hottest June day on record (31.7°C/89.1°F), and national records for the month were set in Belarus (35.7°C/96.3°F) and Estonia (34.6°C/94.3°F).
One big coincidence.
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3447.0;attach=313752;image
Loydo – are you really, really trying to tell me that, during the high point of the summer, the only thing you have to say is “land temperature anomalies are slightly higher than sea temperature anomalies”? That’s it? That’s all you’ve got?
I feel so sorry for you, but especially for your family, your parents and loved ones that must have to care for you on a daily basis. My heart goes out to them.
Riiiight….Funny (and convenient) how hot weather, or indeed any kind of out-of-the-ordinary weather happens to “prove climate change”. You Believers really are dumber than a bag of hammers.
The planet has warmed over the last 100 years and the climate changes. All perfectly natural and you can’t prove otherwise (and no, models are not proof)
The 2018 Climate Assessment had high probability that the thirties were the hottest decade since 1900. Wouldn’t that mean that it contradicts the pause busting “adjustments” by Tom Karl?
It contradicts all the Hockey Stick global charts. They all show the 1930’s as much cooler than today.
Bastardized Hockey Stick
See how the 1930’s have been minimzed by the Hockey Stick manipulations? This was done so the climate alarmists could pretend that the Earth is currently experiencing unprecedented warming.
Whereas, regional surface temperature charts show a completely different temperature profile. They all agree with the 2018 Climate Assessment that the 1930’s was the hottest decade since 1900.
Here’s an example of a regional surface temperature chart showing the 1930’s to be just as warm as it is today.
Hansen 1999:
If you look at the Hockey Stick chart, you would think the Earth is overheating and in unprecedented temperature territory. If you look at the U.S. regional chart, you would think today’s weather and temperatures are nothing out of the ordinary.
The Hockey Stick says spend Trillions of dollars regulating CO2.
The regional surface temperature charts say there is no need to regulate CO2 or spend those Trillions of dollars doing so.
I’m going with the regional charts. They are written historical records recorded by people who had no climate change bias, whereas the Hockey Stick charts are science fiction generated in a computer by Climate Alarmists with an agenda of selling Human caused Climate Change to the world. No regional chart on Earth resembles the bogus Hockey Stick temperature profile. Its bogus temperature profile is all alone in the world.
Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming is a Huge Fraud and the bogus Hockey Stick charts are the only thing showing unprecedented warming. It’s a computer-generated scam.
The press seem to be reporting ground temperatures, i.e. hot tarmac in full sunshine. Is this a new thing?
If it’s cold it’s weather; if it’s hot it’s climate. I can feel global warming when I fly!!!
The Climate Liars are really pinning their hopes on Glasgow in November, and to that end, there is a ramped-up push to get Climate Propaganda out any chance they get. I expect the Climate Hype and Hysteria will reach a fever pitch during this hurricance season.
The average global land and ocean surface temperature for January–May 2021 was 0.77°C (1.39°F) above the 20th century average of 13.1°C (55.5°F) and the eighth warmest such period on record.
And?
Yes, and the globe is currently cooling.
The globe is about 0.6C cooler than it was in 2016, the warmest year in this century.
The globe got even cooler last month.
Reality hurts when you are an alarmist.
Seems to me we have been around every time some locality sets records, whether maximums or minimums in the last 150 years.
That’s the nature of records. And since that 150 years begins at almost precisely the coldest global point in many centuries the only thing that would be remarkable is that we weren’t setting heat records here and there. That we are informs us approximately zero on the issue of how much average increase there is, if any, and how much is attributable to man, if any.
We know this because last winter when a similar sized area in Texas suffered equally record cold we were told these regional records were utterly meaningless on the question of global climate change, though it was possible in that charmingly unfalsifiable way, that omnipotent anthropogenic CO2 can do all things, at all times, everywhere.
Further on Lytton:
The village has been engulfed with fire and residents evacuate.
Sad.
The Portland record was PDX international airport . Is that even a homolgized weather station. Airport temperature sensors usually well maintained but are designed to tell pilots how hot the air above the run way is to calculate maximum load for take off.
They are NOT designed for accurate climate temperature measurement. A high quality station will have conditions with explicitly contradictory to an airport sensor.
Also I appears that the PDX data only goes back as far as 1938. A very short record.
I tried to see whether it was covered by http://gallery.surfacestations.org/main.php but it seems out of function.
Greg,
The NWS reports three stations for Portland. For some reason they report PDX as 115 °F, which is the figure I have generally quoted. But in any case, it makes very little difference.
Does anyone else remember when Scientific American was a great (and scientific) magazine. WTF happened?
Not only is the media lying about this being global warming they are lying about how hot it really got. Environment Canada says the all-time record high for Canada was set in the village of Lytton BC at 46.6C (116F) while multiple news outlets say it was 49.6C (121F).
I fail to see where either the media or Environment Canada got their figures. The village of Lytton contains about 200 people. Environment Canada does not have a climate reporting station there, and there isn’t anyone who has a PWS sending information to the Internet. My feeling is that these temperatures are reported by people calling in and saying ‘the thermometer on my deck says.’ I could say that my temperature hit 122.7F too if I didn’t have 4 other sensors in different locations on my property to cross-check. (BTW 112F was the average)
“ Environment Canada does not have a climate reporting station there”
EC has a major reporting station at Lytton. It is part of GHCN, both in in V3 and V4. Commenter Earthling 2, who is very familiar with the area, describes the site, with photo, here.
It appears that you are right. But that raises the question why isn’t it in the only list I could find on Canadian Climate stations? I still don’t know which value is right, the one that Environment Canada put out or the one that the media put out.
In Portland a combination of fire-blackened police stations and black BLM costumes have decreased the city’s albedo. Now they are reaping the consequences.
Funny people just accept these numbers as real.
I work outside. Whole week never broke 90. And yet, come home to every media propagandizing “97!”, “95!” etc.
I am pretty sure PNW didn’t break 101.
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/06/27/2000Z/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/orthographic=-108.41,43.87,417/loc=-123.040,43.833
102, I was close.
Regarding “Most interestingly, another record wasn’t trumpeted by the news media. With the heat-dome high pressure moving east, Seattle and Portland saw record rates of cooling.”: This was reported by the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang on 6/29. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/06/29/heat-wave-pacific-northwest-cause/
Same boat with a real carppola article on the heat wave by “The Guardian”. Worse than the one cited here. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/06/30/major-media-fail-on-reporting-the-pacific-northwest-heatwave/