Record heat in Summer 2021 breaks temperature record set during the 1936 Dust Bowl

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Summer 2021 breaks heat record set during the 1936 Dust Bowl
Summer 2021 breaks heat record set during the 1936 Dust Bowl. Picture via Wikipedia

California and several other Western states experienced their hottest summers on record this year.

Warming trends are fundamentally altering life on the West Coast. Here is a breakdown of what the super-heated summer means:

Dust Bowl territory

Nationwide, the stretch from June to August tied with the 1936 Dust Bowl summer as the hottest on record, with temperatures across the country averaging 2.6 degrees above normal, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A record 18.4% of the contiguous United States experienced record-warm temperatures.

The grim conditions of the Dust Bowl years were more of an outlier, said Karen McKinnon, an assistant professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, while the latest extremes belong to a larger warming trend. In fact, she said, the summer of 2021 was even hotter than mere extrapolation would suggest, leading some to question whether that warming is accelerating.

Wildfires

Rising heat and drought conditions have fueled huge fires this summer. Firefighters say the heat has made the terrain so dry that it is primed for ignition, spreading faster and hotter fires than they’ve ever seen.

The Dixie and Caldor fires became the first to burn from one side of the Sierra to the other, and officials fear conditions will worsen in the coming months as the winds of fall arrive.

More than 2 million acres have already burned this year, and more than a dozen active wildfires are blazing across California. Added heat, dryness and the potential for dry lightning could make conflagrations worse or even ignite new ones.

The warming of temperatures overall can lead to drying, and that drying later in the season can lead to warming, and all of those things can lead to enhanced wildfire,” McKinnon said. “Basically, it’s all linked.

Drought

California water regulators took unprecedented action this summer, passing an emergency regulation that will bar thousands of Californians from diverting stream and river water as the drought worsens.

In Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District — which supplies water to some 19 million people across six counties — declared a water supply alert in August, calling on the region to conserve vital resources.

The move came one day after U.S. officials declared the first-ever water shortage on the Colorado River, which is a key source of water for the region.

While Gov. Gavin Newsom urged all Californians to voluntarily cut their water usage by 15% in July, it is likely that more restrictions will come soon.

Heat impacts

Alan Barreca, an environmental economist at UCLA, said extreme heat is among the deadliest of natural disasters, and soaring temperatures often disproportionately affect the most vulnerable, including pregnant women and infants, elderly people, homeless people and residents of low-income neighborhoods.

Extreme heat also could be deadly for people without air conditioning during a heat wave, especially when residents are prompted to stay inside with doors and windows shut to avoid the hazardous effects of wildfire smoke.

A heat wave that blanketed the Pacific Northwest in June claimed the lives of hundreds, including immigrant farmworkers and the elderly.

An estimated 1 billion sea creatures died because of heat off the coast, and the Sacramento River is facing a “near-complete loss” of young Chinook salmon because of abnormally warm waters.

Power grid

Conditions have already become so dire that the California Independent System Operator, which runs most of the state’s power grid, on Tuesday asked the federal government to declare an “electric reliability emergency” that would allow six natural gas-fired power plants — including facilities in Huntington Beach and Long Beach — to generate power at maximum levels, even if they violate air pollution limits.

It‘s a scrambling effort by state officials to reduce the risk of rolling blackouts in the face of increased energy demands by adding new electricity supplies, including fossil-fuel resources that contribute to worsening heat waves — a short-term sacrifice that has proved controversial among clean energy groups.

The grid operator was granted a similar request during a heat wave last September, but only for a week. This time, the agency is asking for 60 days — a sign that it expects extreme heat could continue well into the fall. The ISO has already issued two flex alerts this week, which call on residents to conserve energy from 4 to 9 p.m., when net demand is typically at its peak.

Climate by the numbers

Meteorological summer 2021 | June through August

The average temperature during meteorological summer for the contiguous U.S. was 74.0 degrees F, 2.6 degrees above average. This technically exceeds the record heat of the 1936 Dust Bowl Summer, but the difference is extremely small (less than 0.01 of a degree F).*

A record 18.4% of the contiguous U.S. experienced record-warm temperatures. California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah each reported their warmest summer on record, as 16 other states had a top-five warmest summer on record.

The average summer precipitation total was 9.48 inches — 1.16 inches above average — making it the eighth-wettest summer in the historical record. Mississippi had its wettest summer on record while Alabama, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York had a summer that ranked among their five wettest. Meanwhile, Minnesota had its seventh-driest summer on record.

2021 to date | YTD, January through August

The average U.S. temperature for the first eight months of 2021 was 55.6 degrees F — 1.8 degrees above the 20th-century average — making it the 13th-warmest such YTD on record.

California and Maine each reported their third-warmest YTD, while 16 other states had a top-10 warmest YTD.

The nation saw an average of 21.19 inches of precipitation for the YTD, 0.48 of an inch above the long-term average, which ranked in the middle third of the record.

Mississippi had its third-wettest YTD on record, while Montana had its fifth driest. California, Minnesota and North Dakota all had a top-10 driest YTD on record.

climate anomalies usa 2021
Weather anomalies in the USA in 2021. map via NOAA

Other notable climate and extreme events from the report

Hurricane Ida battered the Gulf Coast

On August 29, Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category-4 hurricane near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, with 150-mph sustained winds. It was the second year in a row that a Category-4 hurricane slammed Louisiana.

More than 1 million residents, and all of New Orleans, were without power. Grand Isle, Louisiana, took a direct hit: An unprecedented 100% of homes were damaged, and almost 40% were nearly or completely destroyed.

Multiple flooding disasters struck with lethal results

Devastating flash flooding with multiple fatalities occurred during August from Tropical Storm Fred in western North Carolina, Tropical Storm Henri across parts of the Northeast, and historical flooding from a complex of thunderstorms that moved across middle Tennessee.

From late August into early September, Hurricane Ida also dumped an extreme amount of rain across Louisiana; the hurricane’s remnants submerged portions of the Northeast. With 35 fatalities reported during August, it was the deadliest month for flooding across the U.S. since Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Wildfires swept through even more of California

The Dixie Fire in north-central California became the second-largest fire in the state’s history. The state’s Caldor Fire also grew rapidly during August, threatening communities in South Lake Tahoe. Air quality remains a concern across the U.S. due to increasing concentrations of airborne ash and fine particulates from smoke.

Just coming out of a Corona emergency, a new Dust Storm would be catastrophic… But I think we are getting rapiddly closer to a global collapse phenomenon. 2020 was just the beginning of the End… So be prepared for the worst! It is ‘en route’! [LA Times, NOAA]

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14 Comments

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  3. Looks like Norky Pig fired off some ICBM’s at 1,500 kilometer range. According to his communist news reports.

    That’s what happenes when you have an incompetent child sniffing puppet operating inside our White House. More than likely we will have more endless wars in the middle east too. Buckle up, it’s going to get much worse—exponentially worse.

  4. You know I was just thinking … in 1965 I was riding with my grandfather in his truck on Memorial day in Western Pennsylvania. I remember sitting on the floor of the truck next to the heater box because there was a freak snow storm.
    I remember Lackland AFB in December of 1979 having several RED FLAG days where the temp was below 30 in the morning and above 100 by noon.
    I also remember in February 1981 coming out of my house on Southern Blvd West Palm Beach and my wheel chair wheels slipping on the ice then sticking on the tarmac by noon because the asphalt was melting.

    This whole scam was started in 1971 and proposed as a way to create Global socialism by Maurice Strong introducing the whole idea of snow ball earth and peak oil to the Sierra club in 1974. This whole religion came out of the Iron mountain think tank in the early 1960s because they believed the insanity of John Nash and Normalized Equilibrium.
    The Idea that the world would collapse without war was postulated as the normal result of game theory so the Iron Mountain people came up with a couple of options.
    1. Endless wars
    2. Space Program
    3. Environmental Emergency
    4. Alien Invasion

  5. I noticed something yesterday that was a prime example of the fraud going on.
    Temperatures in Florida this year have been way cooler as judged by my attic fan that turns on at 100 F. My wife was looking at the temp before going for a walk the weather app said 88 degrees but feels like 106 nonsense. Our daily peek temps have been normal max temp with unusually short durations. So typically this is like Indian summer in Florida we have a couple of weeks in September in the 90s. But it drops to the mid 70s by 6 pm. During the summer it peaks at 95 or so but averages about 85 with low 80s at night. This year it has been averaging about 80 all summer. In the beginning of the year up to Jun is was unusually much cooler in the high 70s low 80s during last winter it was 40 – 75 with a couple of days in the 30s.
    The weather service is definitely faking numbers with the feels like stuff.

  6. ‘Summer’ here in KY 2021 was damn near just like Fall. We in my rural area NEVER got over 90°F and it rained in our dry time excessively!
    Take the HOT summer crap and blow it…go to
    electroverse.net to get the FACTS!

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