Nationwide Heat Is Certainly Persistent

And the heat goes on.  Most of the nation, including Vermont
can expect above normal temperatures through the
end of July. 

It's been a hot month for pretty much all but the northwestern corner of the continental United States as no real cold fronts or pockets of cooler air have interrupted the long, drawn out heat in the troubled summer of 2020.

The length of time the heat has settled over us, and the broad area it has covered is the impressive part. There haven't been many all time record hot tempertures, but the torrid weather has just dragged on.

Washington DC's longest stretch of consecutive days at 90 degrees or hotter is 21, set in 1980 and 1988.  As of today, they're up to 20 consecutive days this year.  The forecast high in DC today is 90 degrees. Tomorrow, it's forecast to reach 94 degrees.

Miami, Florida, just endured 20 days with a daily heat index reaching at least 103 degrees.  There have been 23 days this year with a high temperature of at least 94 degrees in Miami, the most for any entire year on record. And it's only mid-July, so there's more coming.

Buffalo, New York,  endured 90 degree temperatures daily from July 3 through 10, peaking at 98 degrees. Those eight days were the longest streak of 90 degree weather on record.

An exception to the lack of all time record highs rule this summer is Texas.  San Antonio, Texas on Monday had its hottest July day on record when it reached 107 degrees. Amarillo, Texas set a record for the month of July and suffered its second hottest day in that city's history with a reading of 110 degrees. Del Rio, Texas tied its July record of 112 the same day.

In Death Valley, California, the low and high temperature there Sunday were 100 degrees and 128 degrees. Yes, it's always torrid in Death Valley during the summer, but that 128 degrees is the hottest any place in the world has seen for at least two years.

The Pacific Northwest is the one "air conditioned" spot in the U.S. this summer. For instance, all but three of the first 15 days of July in Spokane, Washington were a little cooler than average.

Here in Vermont, the warmth has been persistent, too. Especially at night.  Burlington is having one of the longest periods on record in which the temperature has stayed at 60 degrees or above.  So far, we're up to 20 consecutive days.  The longest such stretch was 30 days in July and August, 1988.

Only one day so far this month has failed to reach 80 degrees. It was "only" 79 degrees on Tuesday.

Those looking for a break in the warmth, heat and humdity are out of luck. We in Vermont enjoyed a taste of slightly lower humidity the past couple of days, but that's coming back, starting tomorrow.

A warm front will at least hopefully bring a round of showers tomorrow morning. By Saturday and Sunday, we will probably be closing in on 90 degrees again, with increasing humidity.

It will cool down slightly again next week, but it will be far from chilly, with daily highs still likely to exceed 80 degrees, with no big pushes of cool, dry air from Canada expected. The overall pattern features generally warmer than normal weather here in the Northeast through the end of the month.

Will This Be The Hot Summer Most Of Us Dreaded?

Jackson the Weather Dog on Sunday gave up recording
consecutive days of 90 degree heat in St. Albans, Vermont
and found a cool spot on the concrete floor of his
basement to escape the outdoor scorcher. 

I've fled the heat of the main floor of my house and am hiding in the basement as I write today's post. With me are Jackson the Weather Dog and Tonks, our doggie weather assistant.

When the weather makes people hide in basements, it's usually because a tornado is coming.

There is most certainly no tornadoes near me today in Vermont, but the heat sure is baking outside. Only one room of the house is air conditioned, but the basement stays nice and cool. So that's where I'm hiding.

All levity aside, this is getting nasty.

As I write this shortly after 1 p.m., nearby Burlington has reached 90 degrees for the fourth day in a row. It will be the seventh day in this young summer season with at least a 90 degree reading.  Normal for an entire year is five such days.

Forecasts indicate we could be in for two more 90+ days tomorrow and Tuesday before somewhat cooler air arrives later in the week.  

That would give us six consecutive 90 degree days, a record long streak of such weather for June, says the National Weather Service in South Burlington.  It would also tie for the second longest streak of consecutive 90 degree days in Burlington for any month.

Long range forecasts, admittedly not always accurate, suggest the much warmer than average weather could continue through the month of July.

This is all making me slightly worried that we here in Vermont will have our turn to get stuck under a relentless, dangerous heat wave that could last all summer. This is completely speculation on my partm and not based on any real science.

However, there does seem to be an increasing trend in parts of the Northern Hemisphere to have disastrous summer long unprecedented hot spells

Could this be our turn?  Only time will tell.

These heat waves over the past decade have been much more brutal, and much longer lasting than past heat waves. This is almost certainly made worse by climate change, which can contribute to hotter temperatures, and at least according to some scientists, favor "stuck" weather patterns that dont change for weeks or even months.

Some examples:

In 2003, a heat wave settled over western Europe for most of the summer. Temperatures stayed near or above record levels for weeks in August.  The heat killed 30,000 people, 14,000 of those in France.

A 2010 heat wave sent temperatures soaring to 100 degrees in Moscow, with the heat lasting weeks, killing an estimated 11,000 people.

As with any extended period of heat, these massive hot spells created massive droughts.

This year, an intense spell of heat is hitting Siberia. Actually, parts of that region near the Arctic Circle have been off the charts above normal with temperatures all year so far.

On Saturday the city of Verkhoyansk, in northeastern Siberia reached 100 degrees. If that reading verifies, it would be the first time on record a temperature has reached 100 degrees north of the Arctic Circle.

The normal high temperature in Verkhoyansk this time of year is in the upper 60s, and it can get to 90 degrees there occasionally.

I got a bit of a scare of sorts in 2018 when a strong heat wave enveloped Vermont, and especially Quebec in the first part of July.  The heat was persisted for nearly a week with an all time high daily minimum temperature of 80 set on July 2 that year.

Luckily, the heat eased after that first week of July, 2018, though temperatures remained above normal through the rest of the summer.

Long heat waves have happened before in Vermont, but not that  often. The worst was probably August, 1994, when 13 of the first 17 days of the month reached 90 degrees in Burlington. One of those days set the all time record high in Burlington, which still stands -- 101 degrees.

So, back to my question: Are we at the start of a summer long siege of heat and drought? The short answer is nobody knows. We'll just have to wait it out.

The maximum number of 90 degree days in any year in Burlington is 26, set in 1949, so a fairly long time ago.

The trend in recent years is a little dismaying, though, if you don't like hot weather. The last time we had a summer with a below average number of 90 degree days was in 2014, when there were only three such days.

Since then, it has ranged from seven so far this year, eight in 2017 and a yikes-factor 17 afternoons in the 90s in 2018. Have the "normal" summers of five 90s passed us by?

Probably not, but they will also likely become increasingly rare in the future, too.

Time For Heat Waves To Begin: How Many Record Highs This Summer?

Amazing what a week of warmth can do. This is May 14 in my St.
Albans yard, just as weather was turning warm after a cold snap....

It's Memorial Day weekend, as we all know, so it's the unofficial start to summer, goes the cliche anyway.

It's also the unofficial start to the season of punishing heat waves, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.

Things are off to a roasting start with record highs possible on the West Coast, big time in Siberia, and maybe even some challenged records coming soon to Vermont and the rest of northern New England.

I mentioned the Siberian heat the other day, but it really  has gone off the charts in the past couple of days.  There's a town way up in northern Siberia that has a normal high temperature this time of year of 32 degrees. The record high for the date had been 54 degrees, but the temperature soared all the way up to 78 degrees.

That's basically as if temperatures here in Vermont were in the mid-70s in February.
t
The heat isn't, and won't be as extreme elsewhere, but it will be felt.

Excessive heat watches are in effect for California and the Desert Southwest this upcoming week.

-----and this is May 21, same view after just a week of warm sunshine. 

I know, I know, it's always hot in the summer in the Desert Southwest.

But by mid to late week, temperatures will be right around record highs in places like Las Vegas, where it would get to between 105 and 110 degrees. Hotspots like Lake Havasu City and Bullhead, Arizona could get as high as 115 degrees, and Death Valley could flirt with 120 degrees.

Ouch!

In central California, in places like Sacramento, temperatures are likely to get into the low 100s. Even the normally chilly San Francisco Bay area will share in the heat.

So will Vermont, but of course it won't reach 100 degrees.

It's already been quite warm, a nice reversal from our snowy Mother's Day weekend. It got up to 87 degrees in Burlington yesterday, though very low humidity made it feel anything but oppressive. Normal high temperatures are around 70 this time of year.

A weak cold front passed through northern Vermont and will do the same in southern Vermont today, cooling temperatures slightly and temporarily today and Sunday. Highs should "only" be in the mid to upper 70s both days, still pretty toasty for this time of year.

A lot more heat, this time accompanied by our first real humid spell of the year, comes in Tuesday into Thursday. Tuesday and Wednesday will be the hottest, with everybody well up into the 80s with maybe a few places touching 90 degrees. That could endanger a few record highs.

There will probably be some afternoon showers and thunderstorms around Wednesday and Thursday amid the humid conditions.  It's too soon to tell whether any of them will be strong. But, as noted yesterday, the rainfall is unlikely to be extensive enough to solve the growing dryness around here.

Heat Wave's End Causes Lots Of Severe Weather, Except In Vermont

Clouds tried to build over St. Albans during the heat wave
this past weekend, but the triggers weren't there to set off
much in the way of real storms.

Toward the end of a big heat wave, severe thunderstorms often break the heat.

That was certainly true with the just-ended heat wave. Tornadoes and derechos in the upper Midwest over the weekend prompted a state of emergency in Wisconsin, where hundreds of acres of forest were leveled by straight line winds that probably exceeded 100 mph in spots.

Storms in the Mid-Atlantic states and southern New England that ended the heat caused widespread tree damage and flash flooding.  Wind gusts hit as high as 80 mph in a couple spots.

There was even a tornado warning for a time on Cape Cod last night.

It all went around Vermont. True, far southern Vermont got a nice soaker yesterday, with rainfall totals exceedeing two inches. But there were very few reports of severe weather. Maybe an isolated incident or two Saturday evening, but that's about it.

That Vermont escaped the storms was probably just dumb luck.  The timing and set up of the cold front around us just wasn't right to trigger lots of big storms this time. Unlike much of the rest of tje nation, the Green Mountain State has so far had a mellow severe storm season. There have just not been that many damaging storms.

Of course, summer isn't over yet so we can still get hit. We do know that there's nothing major coming our way through the next week or so. It will turn very warm and humid again by the weekend, which are good ingredients for storms.

But like last weekend, there will be no real triggers to set off storms, so there will only be a few isolated storms. At least that's the way it looks now.

Some videos:

Here's the storm destruction in Post Lake, Wisconsin:



Acres and acres of forests leveled in northern Wisconsin:


During the beginning of the storm in Wisconsin. Apparently, it got a lot worse after they went
inside after the conclusion of this video:



This brief video looks like the midst of a hurricane, but it was a New Jersey severe storm:



News report here gives a pretty good summary of how things went in New Jersey and New York:

June In Vermont Was A (Mostly) Cool Spot In A (Mostly) Hot World

A shower blossoms over Lake Champlain Sunday. It was a fitting
close to a wet June 

Vermont experienced another relatively cool month in June, with most places running a little below normal in temperature and definitely above normal in rainfall.

With the final numbers in for June, the Champlain Valley actually eeked out a month that was pretty much right on normal for temperature.

But away from the lake, it was definitely cooler. Montpelier, which had a mean June temperature of 60.6, was 2.2 degrees chillier than normal. St. Johnsbury was downright frigid, with a mean temperature of 62 degrees. That was 3.6 inches colder than normal for June.

Did I mention all the rain? For the most part, we didn't have any kind of record rains, though there was certainly some flash flooding across central Vermont on June 20.  Montpelier had 2.55 inches of rain that day, contributing to a month's total of 7.06. That's more than three inches wetter than normal.

Most other areas of Vermont were wetter than normal in June, too, but not to the extent that central parts of the Green Mountain State experienced.

As you might have heard on the news, Vermont is a relatively cool island in a world that is experiencing yet another summer with odd heat waves. Well, OK, the Northern Hemisphere. South of the Equator, it's winter. I get it.

We've already mentioned that heat wave in Europe, which brought the hottest temperature on record to France and other areas of the continent. Countries that set new records in the past week for the hottest June temperature include Poland, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg.

Also in late June, Florida had an intense heat wave. Yes, I know it's always hot in Florida in the summer. Miami set 10 daily record highs in June, including four consecutive ones last week. That city has been at or above 95 degrees eight times this year already. Before this year, Miami had never had more than six 95 degree days in the first half of the year, notes meteorologist John Morales on Twitter.

It was hot in the northern and central Plains this weekend, too. Heat indexes in some areas South Dakota and Iowa reached 110 degrees Saturday, thanks to temperatures in the upper 90s and dew points (a measure of humidity) in the upper 70s.

Back here in Vermont, we're setting up for quite a warm week, but we won't be seeing any record breaking heat. Each day through Friday will be in the 80s, and some spots could get into the 90s Wednesday and Thursday.

Another Summer, And Record Heat Waves In World Are Starting To Pop

People in India wilting in this months record heat.
Photo via Getty Images.

Here in Vermont, we haven't had much in the way of summer heat. At least not yet.

The hottest it's been in Burlington so far this young summer is 85 degrees. And there is no sign yet of any sustained hot weather. It's actually going to be a bit cooler than normal over the next few days.

Last summer, heat waves blossomed in many, many areas of the Northern Hemisphere, including Vermont.  At least six deaths were attributed to the Vermont heat last July, making the hot spell the state's worst weather disaster since Hurricane Irene in 2011.

A lot of the heat waves around the world last year were  attributed to climate change.  At the time, I wondered if this year would be a repeat of those frequent, record setting heat waves.

You wouldn't know it here in Vermont with the cool weather, but the summer is off to a rough start in the Northern Hemisphere. There have already been some big, record setting, dangerous heat waves.

Much of India normally broils in May and June, before the seasonal monsoons hit. This year is no exception, except the heat there is even worse and more dangerous than anyone has seen.  New Delhi reached 118 degrees, the city's hottest reading on record.

In the lower elevations of India,  a heat wave is declared if daily temperatures reach or exceed 104 degrees. This heat wave is threatening to become the longest on record. The Hindustan Times said this hot spell has lasted 32 days so far.  The record longest heat wave lasted 33 days, so they're very close.

Elsewhere, Finland and parts of Russia just recorded the hottest weather on record for so early in the season.

Record heat has engulfed the West Coast, too. For three days in a row, numerous towns and cities in the San Francisco Bay Area have seen record high temperatures.  It got up to 100 degrees at the San Francisco airport Monday, tying the record for the fifth hottest day on record there.

That 100 degree reading is also the first time it's been that hot in San Francisco in a month other than September, which is when the Bay Area gets its most intense heat waves.  Monterey, California reached 97 degrees, the hottest day on record for meteorological summer (June-August.)

The heat is extending northward into Oregon and Washington, too.

In far southern Texas, record heat combined wit stifling humidity to create a heat index of 128 degrees, which of course is damn dangerous.

It looks like it will be a long, hot summer. If not in Vermont, then elsewhere

Cool Weather Returns To Vermont, But Much Of World Has Had Hot Spring

Extreme warmth in the Arctic (dark red) more than offset
relative coolness in central North America, southern South
America and parts of Asia during March

Here in Vermont, after a relatively warm spell during the middle of this month, we're back into a cool regime.

High tempereratures this time of year should be around 60 degrees, give or take.

Highs over the past couple of days have been closer to 50 degrees or so, and that state of affairs should continue most of this week. 

Meanwhile, some other parts of the nation have been quite chilly, with two snowstorms having already affected part of the Plains and Midwest in the past few days. A third snowstorm is brewing in the Rockies and High Plains of Colorado and Wyoming over the next couple of days.

Vermont, or the Northern Plains, are not the entire world, of course. The world, it turns out, has been having a generally very warm spring, in keeping with trends over the past few years and even decades. Climate change is at least partly to blame for that warm trend.   (And yes, I'm fully aware it's autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Work with me here.)

We can start by looking at March. That month was a little chillier than average here and Vermont and it was quite cold compared to average out in the northern Plains and northeastern Rockies of the United States. Montana was especially chilly with mean temperatures as much as 10 degrees below normal.

But the world as a whole had its second warmest March on record, says NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.  March was also tied for fifth place in the list of all months with the greatest departure from normal on the hot side, so March was a pretty remarkable month globally.

March also seemed awfully extreme, with notable cold actually popping up, as noted in central North America and to a lesser extent around India.

This chill was more than offset by incredible warmth for the season in Alaska, northwestern Canada, most of Europe and northern Asia, especially Siberia, southern Africa and Australia.

April data isn't available yet, since we have a couple more days to go in the month. Still, there have been some pretty impressive pockets of early season heat.

Vietnam just in the past week recorded its hottest temperature on record - 110 degrees. It's normally in the 80s this time of year in the part of Vietnam that was so hot.

This tmight be temporary, but Arctic sea ice extent was the lowest on record for the season as of mid-April. Greenland was as much as 36 degrees warmer than normal earlier this month, and the summer melt season got underway too early for sure. Whether these worrisome trend continues into the summer depends upon weather patterns and cloud cover over the next few months in the Arctic.

Wildfires have started up in weird places for April, including moors in West Yorkshire, England during a record Easter heat wave. Those record and near-record Easter highs in Great Britain ncluded 74 degrees in Edinburgh, Scotland, 70 degrees in Northern Ireland and 76 degrees in London.

In northern and central India, intense heat has settled in and is expected to last into May.  While punishing heat waves always occur in this region before the seasonal monsoons set in, this year is similar to recent years in which the heat arrives earlier in the spring than what had long been considered normal.

As always, with or without climate change, there have been some cold patches, too.

While part of Australia had that record late season heat in mid-April, a sharp cold front from Antarctica brought very chilly air into western Australia and New Zealand earlier this month. Parts of southeastern Australia had its coolest morning in three decades for so early in their autumn season.

Of course, it remains to be seen where big heat waves next develop around the world. With summer fast approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, we run the risk, especially with climate change, of seeing frequent, intense, near record heat waves like we did in 2018.

In all depends upon the underlying weather patterns and cycles.

Trump's Climate Tweet Is Ignorance Again. Or Just More Gaslighting

Yes, it's cold this week in eastern North America (blue shading)
But it's warm in much of the rest of the world (orange).
Donald Trunp would have you scoff that the northeastern
U.S. cold disproves climate change. Don't believe it
He's either dumb, lying or gaslighting. 

Yes, I'm partisan, but I just have to comment on yet another Donald Trump tweet.

Last night he said on Twitter: "Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS - Whatever happened to Global Warming?"

I'm not sure why Trump is obsessed with improperly placed capital letters but I'll leave the argument for another day, or just call the grammar police.

He's done this kind of false climate tweet before but it still irks me.

For the record: Yes, anybody who steps outside this morning and the rest of today anywhere in the Northeast knows it's friggin' cold outside. Awful.  Some record low temperatures for the date will be set, if they haven't been set already.

I'm in Rutland, Vermont this morning and the temperature as I write this is 1 below zero. Being originally from Rutland, I don't remember the last time it was below zero this early in the season.

So yes, it's quite a cold wave. But no. ALL RECORDS, as Trump put it, won't be shattered.  There have certainly been worse cold spells than today's. This is not an extended "Cold Blast." It started yesterday evening and will be over with by Friday night. That's a  pretty brief cold spell, all things considered.

Most importantly, and we have to say this over and over again: A cold spell in one corner of the world tells us absolutely nothing about global warming, one way or another. I think even the most ardent ciimate change skeptics would tell you that. So would so-called climate change alarmists.

The immediate cause of this cold snap is a well placed, sharp southward dip in the jet stream. Most often, cold waves come down from Canada across the northern Great Plains then move eastward. The air warms up a little bit by the time it gets to the Northeast. That means places like here in Vermont get cold, but not unreasonably so.

This time, the jet stream aligned so that we got a straight shot of Arctic air coming down from near the North Pole, then across snow- covered Quebec and Ontario and down on us. There wasn't really time for the air to modify on its trip south.

The air had even less time to get warmer than it otherwise would because strong winds between high pressure in Ontario and western Quebec and low pressure in eastern Quebec propelled the bitter air quickly down on New England.

As for why the jet stream and other weather systems aligned themselves this way to give us this cold shot, who knows? I suppose one could make an argument that climate change is making the jet stream screwy, creating extreme weather events like this cold wave. But I have no way of knowing that.

Likely, this cold wave is just a random,  chance event. A fluke. Climate change doesn't cancel out a lot of the natural variability of weather. Remember, weather is akin to a person's mood.  Climate is like a guy or gal's personality.

A mood, and weather is transitory. Climate, and personality are a long term thing.

If this cold wave is a sign that there's an absense of global warming, as Trump suggests, how do you explain the record heat that gripped the Northeast this past July? Again, a heat wave in one corner of the world does not tell you much about climate change.

But by Trump's logic, there must have been intense global warming last summer, but a new ice age now in November. See?  He's making absolutely no sense.

By the way, as we shiver here in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada, much of the world is pretty warm this week. As the map above in this post shows,  forecasts for the current week we're in does show some pretty cold air over the eastern half of Canada and the northeastern United States.

It also shows it to be vaguely chilly in central South America and in a few areas of Europe. But look at all the orange, which signifies above normal temperatures. The majority of places are quite warm, including western North America, most of Africa and Asia, Antarctica and the Arctic, particularly Greenland.

One week in one year of the world's weather doesn't prove or disprove climate change either. But at least by taking the whole globe into account, it shows that what happens in the Northeastern United States doesn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.

I suspect Trump knows all this. He's gaslighting us again, because that's what he does. He sows doubt and division and makes us question reality by inventing "alternative realities"

We really just need to keep relying on the experts and let them inform us. Question the experts, yes. Challenge them. Ask for evidence. Don't take them at their word. But if there's a convincing argument, like there is from the scientists on climate change, we need to pay attention.

The world might depend on it. Meanwhile, somebody really needs to hide Donald Trump's phone.

July Was Globally The Fourth Hottest On Record

Red planet? Most of the Earth was warmer than normal in July.

As we've been writing incessantly here, there's been a whole lot of heat waves hitting big areas of the Northern Hemisphere this summer, particularly in July.

So how did the month pan out on the Earth as a whole?

Turns out on a global basis, it was the fourth hottest July on record. Each of the past four Julys have been the hottest on record, with the top one being 2016.

It's not surprising that July, 2018 came out close to the hottest, but not THE hottest. The fading La Nina weather pattern tends to suppress global temperatures a little bit. Long range forecasts call for another El Nino to develop, which tends to nudge up the heat for the Earth a notch. So I think we're still facing hot times ahead.

Especially since climate change is adding to the heat.

In July, 2018, extreme heat in northwestern Europe, parts of southwest Asia, much of the United States and western Africa was offset ever so slighlty by relatively cool conditions in central Russia, an area south of Greenland, and parts of Chile and Argentina.

Year to date, we're also having the fourth hottest year on record on Planet Earth. At least so far.

Here in Vermont, we did have the hottest July on record which also meant we had the hottest month on record. August is on pace to be among the top 10 hottest in Burlington, Vermont, and maybe even THE hottest if temperature trends continue.

Other than tomorrow, which could be a very slightly cooler than average, the rest of the month looks like it will be on the relatively warm side here in Vermont.

I'm not sure, but I don't think this will be Vermont's hottest summer on record because June wasn't particularly warm. It was just close to average, and even a little on the cool side in parts of the state.

Heat Waves Likely Being Powered By Global Warming

Blame it on climate change.

Punishing heat and drought this year wrecked this German
sunflower field

The heat waves that have been plaguing much of the Northern Hemisphere this month really do seem to have been boosted by climate change.

The sheer number of heat waves, and the fact that so many records are being broken, is evidence that we might be in a "new normal" of summer temperatures.  

Of course, heat waves occur every summer. The past is full of humdingers, too.

For example, in the Dust Bowl 1930s often saw temperatures in the 110 to 120 degree range through vast areas of the Great Plains.  Just like this year, punishing heat waves hit both New England and Old England (Great Britain) in July, 1911.

This year, however, the heat has been popping up with unusual frequency and intensity throughout much of the Northern Hermisphere. (This is not a global heat wave, as some would have it. The Southern Hemisphere is in winter, so no heat there to speak of. Plus, some places in the North have escaped the worst of the heat.)

Still, the record heat waves have hopscotched the Northern Hemisphere at a dizzying pace this summer. England, Scandinavia, Quebec, Japan, North and South Korea, Texas, California, Siberia, Germany, and yes, here in Vermont.

Today will be the 13th day this summer with temperatures in the 90s in Burlington, Vermont. That in itself is not a record in this record breaking summer, but it's more tha double the average number of 90s per summer. And the season isn't even over yet.

ATTRIBUTION

Although it's hard to pin a single weather event on climate change, scientists are starting to get better at making that determination. For instance, the Guardian recently had this reporting on the European heat wave:

"The heatwave searing northern Europe was made more than twice as likely by climate change, according to rapid assessments by scientists.

The result is preliminary but they say the signal of climate change is 'unambiguous'. Scientists have long predicted that global warming is ramping up hte number and intensity of heat waves, with events even worse than the current one set to strike every other year by the 2040s."

The Guardian had this money quote: "Serious climate change is 'unfolding before our eyes,' said Professor Rowan Sutton, director of climate research at the University of Reading. 'No one should be in the slightest surprised that we are seeing very serious heat waves and associated impacts in many parts of the world.'"

In the past, I've talked about how a warming Arctic might be messing with the jet stream, causing it to move more slowly, and get stuck in patterns that leave certain regions trapped under the same weather regime for months.

Evidence is mounting that this jet stream problem is related to climate change. The jet stream is fueled by the contrast between a cold Arctic and hot tropics. The Arctic is warming up faster than everywhere else, so the contrast between hot and cold is lessening. Less contrast means a weaker jet stream.

"Heat waves over northern hemisphere continents in recent years fit the hypothesis that rapid Arctic warming is playing a role," Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University told New Scientist. 

 This summer has left many scientists stunned at how many hot temperature records have fallen. According to Axios:

"Climate scientists told Axios that while they are not surprised by the simultaneous extremes observed so far this summer - reports have warned about this for years - they are taken aback by the severity and number of extreme events.

'Even for somebody who understands extreme weather and how climate change affects extreme weather, what's happening this summer is incredible,' said Bernadette Woods, chief meteorologist and climate matters program director at Climate Central, a non-partisan climate science research and communiciations group."

ECONOMIC PAIN

The worst part about heat waves is obviously the fact that they kill. Heat is often the deadliest weather disaster possible. Wildfires are another deadly and destructive side effect of climate driven heat waves.

But even if you lucked out this summer and live in a place that stayed relatively cool (Hello Upper Michigan!) you are still probably going to suffer from the heat.

As Bloomberg noted recently, some commodity prices are rising because of the hemispheric heat. Grain prices are rising, in large part because heat and drought in places like Texas, Russia and other parts of Europe.

In some places, the hot, stagnant conditions mean river water is too warm to cool electric generating plants. And the lack of breezes brings wind turbines to a standstill.

Anyone who works outside knows that higher temperatures affect productivity. I know from my gardening business that I'm not working as hard as I'd like during this long, hot summer.

Even people who work in air conditioned offices are less productive during heat waves, NBC News reports.

Suicide rates rise in heat waves. Heat waves make us dumber, too, often slowing the brain by 13 percent.

Nothing good can come from these heat waves. But we are stuck with them. And they're going to get worse in coming years and decades.

Heat Worldwide: Weather Off The Rails - Continued

People flee into the sea in Greece
as wildfires bear down on them
this week. 

It's been a busy month across the Northern Hemisphere as records keep falling in so many disparate locations.

Plus, throw in deadly wildfires, devastating flash floods, incredible hail accumulations, and a few tornadoes to make the whole mess complete, and you've got quite a July to report.

I've already described some of the very, very weird weather over the past month - the deadly Quebec heat wave that killed dozens of people, the Siberian heat wave, the extreme floods in Japan, the Midwest tornadoes, it goes on and on.

There's so many new extremes being reported over the past several days that I can't keep up. And I'll get to the weather weirdness here in Vermont later in this post.

You probably have already heard of the tragic wildfire in Greece, the one that roared through a coastal resort town and killed at least 74 people.

People had to flee on foot to the ocean ahead of the fast-advancing flames and many people didn't make it. Or, they got trapped on a cliff overlooking the sea and the blaze overtook them.

It's too horrible to even think about.

JAPAN ROASTS

Meanwhile, heat waves are still breaking records all over the world. Japan, devastated by that flood earlier this month that I mentioned, is having its worst heat wave on record.

As Dr. Jeff Masters noted in his indispensable Category 6 blog, the city of Kumagaya, Japan, about 40 miles northwest of Tokyo, reached 106 degrees on Monday, establishing the record for the hottest temperature on record anywhere in Japan.

Records there go back to at least the late 1800s.

People trying to beat the heat this week near Tokyo, Japan.
Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images

Until this month, the all time record high temperature for Kyoto, Japan was 101, set in 2014. Starting on July 14, six out of seven days beat that previous 101 degree reord high, peaking at 103.6 on July 19, tying Kyoto's all time record high for any month, Masters tells us. 

Needless to say, the heat wave is killing scores of people in Japan and South Korea. Several cities in both North and South Korea set all-time record high temperatures.

In Japan, the good news is the heat wave will ease within the next few days. The bads news is that's because a typhoon is headed their way. Japan can't catch a break.

FIERY SCANDINAVIA

Meanwhile, Scandanavia, including areas north of the Arctic Circle of all places, have also been contending with record heat lately.

All time record highs have been set at 14 locations in Norway, ten places in Finland and 3 towns in Sweden.

Large forest fires in Sweden this week. Photo by Maja Muslin/AFP/
Getty Images

Rare 90 degree heat has been seen north of the Arctic Circle. A village in northern Sweden just north of the Arcrtic Circle of 90.5 degrees, said climatologist Maximiliano Hererra, as reported by the Weather Channel.

It was also 90 degrees in Lapland, which we associate with winter reindeer. At least I do.

The result of all this heat is the northern fir tree forests in Scandanavia are on fire, big time.  Dozens of dangerous wildfires are burning across the region.

The bad news is it looks like intense heat will rebuild across most of western Europe, including Scandanavia, over the next few days. Those wildfires will only get worse.

NORTH AMERICA HEAT

Here in the United States, the parts of the Southwest from Texas westward  continue to bake in a relentless heat wave.

On July 23, Waco, Texas broke its all time record high temperature when it reached 114 degrees, breaking the old record of 112 set on August 12, 1969. Record high temperatures were reported across much of Texas earlier this week.

Thermal, California lived up to its name this week when it reached a record high of 122 degrees two days in a row. That's the first time on record Thermal had two consecutive days so hot.

Normally cool Seattle had three day in a row this week with 90 degree heat. This will also be onlu the fifth July in Seattle with five days that hit 90 degrees. It was 94 degrees or hotter for four days in a row in Portland, Oregon.

Way up in northern Canada - here we go with Arctic heat again, it was near 90 degrees this week in the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. Normally frigid Dawson, Yukon was 88 degrees.

Atlantic Canada shared in northern New England's oppressive humidity this week. Heat advisories were up as overnight temperatures in the region were at record highs.

Here in Vermont, Burlington is on track to possibly have its hottest month on record. It depends on what the closing days of the month do. (The next few days are going to be somewhat cooler than they recently have been. It has been 90 degrees ten times this month, tying the record for the second highest number of such days. (There were 11 days in the 90s in July, 1949.)

This post is statistics heavy. Here, I just wanted to prove that this heat is everywhere this summer.

I purposely didn't get into why all these heat records are being broken, and what this means for you and me. That deserves a separate poset, which I will get to in the coming days.  Lots of interesting science and economics associated with this.

Super Active 2017 Weather Year Was Second Warmest On Record, Burlington, Vermont

Ice accumulation in St. Albans, Vermont during a
January 23, 2017 ice storm. 

As we woke up on this subzero first day of 2018, after enduring six days of such weather with plenty more on the way, here's something that might warm your heart.

Vermont - at least the National Weather Service office in South Burlington - had its second warmest year on record in 2017.

The mean temperature for the year was 48.7, second only to the record hot year of 2012, which had a mean temperature of 49.9.

This leave us with a list that shows all of the top five warmest Burlington years have happened since 1998, and seven of the top 10 warmest have been since that year, 1998. Records in Burlington go back to the 1880s.

December was cold, as we well know, clocking in at 3.5 degrees colder than normal. March was cold, too. But January, February, May, September and October were all at or near record warm, so that powered the toasty 2017.

Near zero visibility and stuck cars on Fairfield Hill Road in
St. Albans, Vermont during the March "Pi Day Blizzard"

Although some months in 2017 were quite wet, others were quite dry.

Precipitation for 2017 averaged out only somewhat wetter than normal, nowhere near any records. Burlington had 36.8 inches of rain and melted snow, which is just over three inches wetter than average.

Below is a pretty long list of weather highlights from 2017 in Vermont. It was an incredibly active, dramatic year, full of sometimes unprecedented weather events. Seems like everything was off the rails in 2017, including the weather.

January 23: An ice storm hit much of Vermont on this date. Luckily, in most places the ice accumulation fell just short of causing major damage or power outages, but there were a few power failures and quite a few small to mid-sized branches fell.  

Mid-February: A series of mid-February snowstorms in Burlington, Vermont brought the total for the month to 29.8 inches. That's the seventh snowiest February on record. That deep snow didn't last long. See next entry.

This very snowy April Fools Day 2017 scene in Burlington,
Vermont made us think that spring would never arrive,
but temperatures quickly warmed in the days
after this photo was taken and the snow quickly melted.

Amazing Late February Heat: The temperature at Burlington, Vermont soared to 63 degrees on February 23rd, breaking the record for the hottest February day on record. (Old record was 62 degrees in 1981)

But this was just a hint of what was to come. Two days later, on February 25, the temperature at Burlington soared to 72 degrees.

It's rare for a monthly record to be broken, and rarer still for the record to be broken by more than three degrees. But this was by nine degrees. Needless to say, this was by far the earliest 70 degree reading on record for Vermont.  

The temperature also hit 72 degrees in Bennington.

This heat wave ended that evening with a strong cold front, which brought strong to borderline severe thunderstorms to parts of Vermont. Also incredible for Vermont. Tornadoes were reported as far north as western Massachusetts, again unprecedented for February.

March 14-15: The "Pi Day Blizzard" struck the Northeast, hitting the northwestern half of Vermont, much of New York and Pennsylvania the hardest.

A thunderstorm approaches Colchester, Vermont on May 31,
2017. The shelf cloud had a telltale blue tint, indicating hail
was in the offing. It hailed heavily a few minutes after
this photo was taken. 

Burlington, Vermont tallied 30.4 inches of snow, the second biggest snowstorm on record for the Queen City. During the height of the storm, Burlington picked up five inches of new snow in just one hour.

Elsewhere, Bolton Valley, Vermont received 58 inches of snow from the storm. Lake Placid, New York clocked in with 42 inches, Hartwick, New York had 48 inches and Utica, New York had 36 inches. Binghamton, New York had its greatest snowstorm on record with 35.3 inches.

For the month of March, Burlington had 36.8 inches of snow, the third snowiest March on record.

April 28: The low temperature in Burlington, Vermont was 64 degrees. That's the warmest overnight low on record for any April day. Spring wasn't here yet, though. I got a half inch of snow at my house in St. Albans, Vermont on May 9.  

May 17-18: Record Heat, Severe Storms. Vermont got a very early taste of summer on May 17 and 18 as a brief, record setting hot spell enveloped the state. Plus, on the 18th, some very severe, mid-summer type thunderstorms struck.

A tornado over Sebago Lake, Maine on July 1, 2017 during
an unsually strong widespread severe storm and flash
flood outbreak in northern New England. 

On the 17th, Vermont record highs included 91 degrees at Burlington; 87 at Montpelier, and 89 in St. Johnsbury.

The next day, the 18th, Burlington reached 93 degrees, tying the all time record for the entire month of May.

Late in the afternoon, scattered, but very severe thunderstorms moved into Vermont. The worst was in West Addison, where an intense microburst blew a camp away with a 75 year old woman and her dog inside. Luckily, they were rescued with minor injuries. Other damage was reported in South Burlington, Williston and Barton.

May 31: Strong thunderstorms brought lots of hail and scattered wind damage to much of northern Vermont. In Colchester, so much hail fell that some remained on the ground four hours after the storm ended.  

June 11: Another brief early season hot spell peaked. Burlington, had a record high of 95 degrees, which was the hottest for so early in the season.

June 19: Scattered flooding was reported in southern Vermont. Parts of Rutland and Brattleboro flooded. A mudslide closed a section of Route 30 northwest of Brattleboro

Storm clouds loom over Lake Champlain off of Burlington,
Vermont in early August 2017/ 

June 30-July 1: Flash flooding and severe thunderstorms hit New England, especially in New Hampshire and Maine. Much of Vermont, except the northwestern part of the state, also endured flash flooding.

Several tornadoes were reported in New York, New Hampshire, Maine. Some counties in those states endured three different tornado warnings in one day. This in places that haven't had a tornado in years.

The National Weather Service in Gray, Maine issued seven tornado warnings on July 1. The previous record for the most tornado warnings in an entire year from that office was six.

This chill dude sporting special eye-protecting glasses
checks out the partial eclipse of the sun in Burlington,
Vermont on August 21, 2017

No tornadoes were reported in Vermont, though there was a rotating wall cloud reported in Wilder. Flash flooding was the problem in Vermont, as well as New Hampshire and Maine.

An uprooted tree floating down the raging Mad River in Waitsfield speared the side of the town's covered bridge. Several buildings were damaged by flooding in Hartford, Vermont, as well as in numerous towns in New Hampshire.

August 21: Great viewing in Vermont for the partial eclipse of the sun. (Total eclipse through the middle of the United States.) However, the sky was smoky as it was for most of August and September due to numerous wildfires in the western parts of the U.S. and Canada.

August 22: A rare tornado watch was issued for the western part of Vermont. Though no tornadoes touched down, there were numerous reports of severe thunderstorms. A roof blew off a barn in Vergennes. Trees and wires were reported down state wide. And Burlington, Vermont endured street flooding from torrential rains.

Sept 2: A cold morning in an otherwise warm month. 28 degrees in Saranac Lake, New York, 34 in Bennington, Vermont

Workers performing emergency, temporary repairs to a wind
damaged roof in Milton, Vermont after a severe October 30,
2017 windstorm cused widespread damage.

Sept. 24-27: An unprecedented late season heat wave hit the eastern two thirds of the United States, including Vermont. Burlington had four consecutive days in the 90s, by far the latest 90s on record. Montpelier and St. Johnsbury also had their latest 90s on record.

This was only the second September on record in Burlington that had four days in the 90s. The other, 1945, had 90s in the early part of the month.  

Interestingly, none of the eight days that hit 90 this year in Burlington happened during astronomical summer. The September 90s hit after the autumn equinox and the others occured in May and early June, before the summer solstice.

October: A record hot October in Vermont messed with the fall foliage season. The colors came up to two weeks late, and were subdued due to many unusually warm, humid days. Burlington broke the record for the hottest October by a large margin of 2.2 degrees above the previous record set in 1947.

Nearly six inches of fresh powder led to this holiday
scene in West Rutland, Vermont on December 25, 2017
The storm marked the beginning of a sharp, year-end
subzero cold wave that lasted into the first days of 2018.

October 29-30: One of Vermont's worst wind storms struck wide areas of the state, especially west of the Green Mountains. Widespread tree, power line and structural damage hit many towns, especially around St. Albans, Georgia, Milton and Colchester. Gusts reached over 70 mph in several locations.

More than 64,000 Vermont homes and business lost power, some for up to a week. There was also widespread wind and flood damage in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

November 10: An early morning cold front brought an unseasonable round of cloud to ground lightning, thunder and hail to much of Vermont. The cold front was followed by record and near record cold, including 5 above in Saranac Lake, New York, 15 in Springfield, Vermont and 16 in Morrisville, Vermont.

December 24-31: Winter storms were followed by intense cold to close out 2017. Many communities failed to rise above 10 degrees in the last five days of the month, with widespread teens and 20s below at night. Montpelier had its 10th coldest December on record.

Yes, Punish Criminals But Giving Them Heat Stroke Is Cruel And Unusual Punishment

People being held in this St. Louis jail during a recent heat
wave yelled for help from inside the building, which
lacks air conditioning, as temperatures got up over 100 degrees.

The other day I saw a disturbing video of inmates in a St. Louis jail screaming for help as heat in the building climbed to over 100 degrees.

The "Workhouse" as the local jail is called, is largely without air conditioning, and St. Louis summers can get torrid.

This was another example of how jailers use summer heat to punish prisoners beyond what they were sentenced to, and the whole thing is terrible.

I'm all for punishing criminals and getting them off the streets, but putting them in prisons without air conditioning in places that get very hot in the summer ought to be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

In some cases, people intervened, or lawsuits were filed to force the air conditioning, but often times even these efforts don't work.

In the St. Louis instance, some help arrived. Most of the people in the Workhouse were people who were awaiting trial and had not been able to post bail, so local community organizations raised money to release some of those that had been jailed on bail, according to riverfronttimes.com. 

A demonstration erupted in front of the Workhouse too, as the public demanded better conditions in the building.

And finally, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson ordered that portable, industrial-size air conditioners be installed in the Workhouse.

But why did it take public pressure after years of trouble at this building?

In even hotter Texas, state prison officials have been dragging their feet and not getting air conditioning for prisons there, most of which are not cooled.

According to the Texas Tribune:

"The lack of cooling in Texas prisons has thrown both controversy and an ongoing class-action lawsuit onto the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Inmates at another Texas prison claim that heat constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and argue that prison housing should be kept at a maximum of 88 degrees."

A federal judge in Houston recently agreed, ordering air conditioning for medically-sensitive inmates at one jail near College Station.

But of course the state of Texas is appealing that ruling, because they want to seem tough on crime. Kill a few inmates with heat stroke, even if they weren't sentenced to death, and that will make everybody feel good, apparently.

Texas maintains the air conditioning would be too expensive, yet Texas has spent $2.1 million and counting defending itself against the prison heat lawsuits.

There is even a more extreme case: In Phoenix, an overcrowded jail prompted former evil sheriff Joe Arpaio to create an outdoor tent jail, forcing inmates to endure temperatures of up to 120 degrees. 

Arpaio, of course, seemed to enjoy doing this to inmates. He was finally voted out of office last year and officials pledged to remove the outdoor tent jail.

But it was still up this June, and about 380 inmates were still there as temperatures reached 120 degrees, and dropped all the way down to 90 degrees at night.

Jail officials assured us they were giving the inmates all the ice water and ice cubes they want. Oh, as if that would help in that kind of weather.

At least there's fewer inmates in that tent jail, and they're still promising to take it down.

We'll see.

I just worry that one day, we'll have a lot of heat stroke victims in jail, combined with a terrible prison riot. This all could come back to bite prison officials in Texas, Missouri and elsewhere.

Here's the video out of St. Louis:

Hot Times Coming To New England, But If You Think 90 Is Bad......

People try to escape the heat in Lahore, Pakistan recently.
Photo from Getty Images

A spate of summer weather is finally heading toward New England, as temperatures over the past couple of days have climbed to seasonable levels, and will go upward even more by Sunday.

Sunday through Tuesday across the Northeast will see highs well into the 80s in most of northern New England, with 90s thrown in from central New England and points south.

Many people welcome the summer heat, though some people who work outside dread it.

Some record highs will probably fall in several cities from the Rockies to the East Coast over the next few days, but this won't be the nastiest heat wave ever

It could be worse, though..

 However, as I perused Dr. Jeff Masters's Catagory 6 weather blog recently, I found news of some truly awful heat elsewhere in the world.

In the blog, guest writer Maximiliano Herrera detailed incredible heat records that hit big sections of the Middle East, east Asia and parts of Europe in late May and early June.

On May 28, the temperature reached 128.3 degrees in Turbat, Pakistan, making it the hottest May temperature recorded anywhere on Earth ever.

Oman and Pakistan had their all time hottest temperatures. Not hottest for the date or the month. I'm talking hottest ever.

In Iran, the temperature reached 127 degrees, Oman broke its all time record high of 123,

Of course, they're used to heat in the deserts of the Mideast and in places like Pakistan and India, but not like this Extreme heat of this nature is very, very dangerous.

For instance, we know at least 10 people died in an extreme heat wave in parts of India this week, and that toll will likely rise.

In Europe, Norway had its hottest May temperature on record with 90 degrees, and Austria also had its hottest May reading on record at 95 degrees at the end of the month.

One weird record high was set at the top of a 15,584 mountain in the Italian Alps when the temperature reached 42 degrees.  Chilly, yes, but still a record high for that elevation.

Enjoy summer!

Weird, Extreme Heat In U.S. Plains, Arctic And Especially Australia

Wildfires like this on in Australia are likely to get much worse
this weekend amid a long, record shattering heat wave in that country.
Other record heat waves are hitting the Arctic, and Texas.

While we in New England hunker down for an expected roaring winter storm, three heat waves are breaking records in different parts of the world. 

One of the heat waves, in Australia, is particularly dangerous and potentially deadly. We'll get to that first one in a minute.

First, in the Arctic, the third extreme blast of winter heat to get close to the North Pole this winter is headed that way. It'll bring temperatures to near the freezing point way up in the high Arctic, further slowing winter ice development up there.

Ice is already at record lows in the Arctic, thanks in part to two previous heat waves this winter. Each hot blast has driven temperatures as high as 50 degrees above normal. Totally weird.

The second big heat wave is going on in the southern Plains of the United States. Temperatures could reach the 90s in some parts of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles later this afternoon.

If that happens, it will be by far the earliest 90s on record. Some cities in Oklahoma and Texas could exceed record highs by a lot, perhaps by 10 degrees. Breaking a record high by that large a margin is really, really rare.

Not surprisingly, the unseasonable heat in the southern Plains is contributing to a very high fire danger in the region today.

This won't last too long, as a sharp cold front is diving south. Talk about extremes! Childress, Texas is expected a high of 94 degrees today and a mix of sleet and rain Sunday night with temperatures in the mid-30s.

Weather whiplash indeed.

The world's biggest heat problem right now is probably in Australia, which is suffering under torrid record temperatures once again.

The town of Perinth, Australia has set an all time record high of 46.9 degrees Celsius. (116.4 Fahrenheit.)

Observatory Hill in Sydney has reached 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) for ten consecutive days, which is a record.

The heat is so bad that some Australian cities have experience rolling blackouts because of the high demand for air conditioning.

Worse, the heat and dryness will combine with increasing winds Sunday, which Australian authorities say could cause one of the worst fire disasters in the country's history.

Many are comparing the weather situation to that of "Black Saturday" in 2009. The wildfires on "Black Saturday"  killed 173 people and destroyed 3,500 structures.

Already bush fires were burning Saturday in Australia and were threatening structures. Let's hope the wind unexpectedly slackens off, at least.

Heat Causes Highways To Buckle, Cars To Go Airborne

A buckled section of Interstate 90 in Minnesota last
week. This isn't the same buckle as in the video in thi
post, but you can see how hazardous they are.  

Last week when I was visiting South Dakota, a big heat wave settled into the state, sending temperatures up to near 100 degrees under blazing, unrelenting sunshine.

When such heat strikes in that part of the country, there's a really big hazard on the roads.

Highways buckle in spots, creating these big angular ridges on the roadway, which of course is a huge problem for any vehicles going over them.

In Sioux Falls, an hour and a half north from where I was staying last week, at least four roads buckled.  

I have to tell you I was nervous on the 80-mile trip from Yankton, South Dakota to the Sioux Falls airport for my trip back to Vermont last Saturday. It was in the upper 90s and really torrid. Luckily, no problems for me.

The same was NOT true along a Minnesota highway at the same time I was in the car headed to Sioux Falls.

A viral video, that you can see below, is a traffic surveillance camera along Highway 36 in Minnesota that buckled.

Some cars went airborne. Other motorists saw the buckle and slammed on the brakes, and cars behind those braking vehicles almost caused several rear-end collisions.

A lot of the roads in the upper Midwest are made of concrete sections, connected together by expansion joints.

This is supposed to allow the concrete to contract when its cold, and expand when it's hot, without causing major problemson the roads.

Sometimes, though, the concrete expands so much in hot temperatures that there's no room for the concrete to grow more at the expansion  joint. So the concrete buckles upward.

The buckling can happen incredibly abruptly, without warning. So traffic often gets caught in these buckles before highway crews can close lanes.

I guess every place has its weather problems on roads. Here in Vermont, most of the roads are asphalt. There's usually not too many problems in the summer, but in the winter, water gets under the asphalt and expands, causing frost heaves and pot holes.

You can't win.

Here's the traffic cam video of the buckled highway in Minnesota:

Record Heat To Turn Hot Desert Southwest Into Something Worse Than An Oven

Heat alerts are up for large sections of the southern
United States, (dark red in Southwest, orange in the Plains)  

It seems like it's shaping up to be one of those summers with pretty intense heat waves for the United States.

We here in New England had some record highs in the low 90s back in late May. The Pacific Northwest had record heat earlier this month. Last week, the central and northern Plains roasted amid 100 degree heat.

Now it's the Desert Southwest's turn.

Oh, I know, I know, it's always hot there in June. But even by their torrid standards, the upcoming heat wave could be historic, in the words of the National Weather Service office in Phoenix, Arizona.

All time record highs could be challenged in many cities in the region. Readings Sunday and Monday could come close to the hottest temperatures on record in cities like Palm Springs, California, where the all time high is 123 degrees, Phoenix (122 degrees), Tucson, (117 degrees) and Las Vegas, (117 degrees.)

This kind of heat is very dangerous, especially since overnight lows in some areas won't drop below 90 degrees. If you're homeless, or must do hard physical work outside, or just don't have access to air conditioning, which is the case for some people in the desert, believe it or not, this could be deadly.

The extreme heat is likely to last into the early part of next week at least in the Southwest. The longer a heat wave goes on, the more dangerous it becomes.

Up in the mountains in the southwestern United States, the extreme heat and even more extreme dryness is seriously increasing the chances of destructive wildfires.

The heat is extending into the central and southern Plains and the lower Mississippi Valley, with a widespread area under a heat advisory for today, tomorrow and probably Saturday. Highs there will be in the 95 to 100 degree range, cooler than the Desert Southwest.

However the humidity in the southern Plains is very high, and heat indexes will be in the 100 to 110 degree range. Again, very dangerous.

The entire northern tier of the United States will probably have a few warm to hot days over the next week or two, but frequent cold fronts will limit the heat, so things won't be so bad up there.