Since January more than 40,000 hot weather temperature records have been broken in tihe U.S. while fewer than 6,000 cold records have been broken. More than 3,000 of those hot weather records were broken in June alone. Over 2.1 million acres of land across the country has burned in raging wildfires and two-thirds of the country is experiencing extreme drought.
As fires, droughts, floods and extreme hurricane-like weather events have plagued the West and the Midwest for the past five months, the conversation surrounding climate change and its relation to evolving weather patterns worldwide has been steadily scaling up.
Jonathan Overpeck, professor of geosciences and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona told the Associated Press: “this is what global warming looks like at the regional or personal level.” Adding, “the extra heat increases the odds of worse heat waves, droughts, storms and wildfires. This is certainly what I and many other climate scientists have been warning about.”
This week conservative commentator and climate change skeptic George Will dismissed the significance of the last month’s heat wave, saying, “we’re having some hot weather. Get over it.”
The latest installment of Peter Sinclair’s Climate Denial Crock of the Week video series connects the dots between extreme weather and climate science.
If for nothing else, this video is worth watching to see the movement of a derecho – a freakishly strong storm front with unnaturally high wind and energy levels – as it gallops across the nation. The storm left millions without electricity and killed more than 20 people.
