There can be only one (pun)
In which we look at the past, present, and future.
Hey weather fam! Just wanted to say a few things before we dive in:
- Welcome to the new subscribers! This newsletter is meant to be fun and informative and I hope you get both out of these posts.
- The next two weeks might be a little light on posts. I got some stuff keeping me busier than normal but we should be back to the regular schedule in a few weeks.
And now, on with the show!
Maybe it’s old news now but…
June 8, 2023 - The expected El Nino has emerged, according to scientists at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service. In the monthly outlook released today, forecasters issued an El Nino Advisory, noting that El Nino conditions are present and are expected to gradually strengthen into the winter.
This plays into the WMO’s projection for temps getting warmer, which we’ll of course be monitoring. And for those of us in NorCal, we’ll be quite interested to see what happens with winter next year.
With this announcement came an ENSO Blog post. I really loved this graphic. It’s sort of a simplified look at how they determine whether El Niño conditions are present.
There’s a dictionary for that
I present to you, the Climate Dictionary (I’ve added this to the resources page as well). You can always google these terms but it’s nice to have them all in one place too.
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Remember May?
Let me refresh your memory with the U.S. Climate Report and the Global Climate Report. As usual, they collect some key points so you can skim them if you want. Here are my two picks:
- Drought coverage in the contiguous U.S. has dropped nearly 44% over the last seven months, from 63% on November 1, 2022 to 19% on May 30, 2023—the fastest reduction in drought coverage since the start of the U.S. Drought Monitor (since 2000), and the smallest drought footprint since May 26, 2020.
- The May global surface temperature was 1.75°F (0.97°C) above the 20th-century average of 58.6°F (14.8°C). Last month ranks as the third-warmest May in the 174-year record. May 2023 marked the 47th consecutive May and the 531st consecutive month with temperatures at least nominally above the 20th-century average.
Office hours with Daniel Swain
I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet but it’s from a few days ago. Looks like he was going to cover ocean temps, El Niño, and recent weather patterns so I’ll probably go back and watch.
How the hail are you?
I promise that’s the only pun this time. Anyway, Boulder, CO got so much hail it was flowing down streets. Below is a brief video recap of the event (and a WaPo article if you’d rather read).
And while we’re looking at hail, Tornado Titans shared a short timelapse video recently of a pretty neat storm.
Today’s word is…
Technically this was from a few days ago but still cool (this was from dictionary.com).
A not-so-missed connection
Hurricanes and climate change. I liked this article because it had a clear section describing why the topic matters.
There is a general realization that we are facing a more challenging reality,” Maarten van Aalst, director of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Climate Centre, which connects climate science with emergency response, told Inside Climate News.
In the last quarter century, NASA has tracked the largest stretch of high energy hurricanes on record. “So while there aren’t necessarily more Atlantic hurricanes than before, those that form appear to be getting stronger, with more Category 4 and 5 events,” according to NASA.
And then it followed up with some numbers and links to relevant articles. Ya know, the way an article should be.
And it wouldn’t be complete
Without some satellite and radar imagery. These are from today and show some storms passing through the south. It just never gets old seeing storms bloom.
See you next time weather fam
I’ll leave you with some photos from last week.
