Weather Extremes

A paper by Erich Fischer and Reto Knutti at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science determines that 75 percent of rare, hot days can be attributed to climate change.

It is the most rare and extreme events for which the largest fraction is anthropogenic, and that contribution increases nonlinearly with further warming.

Fischer explains:

Climate change doesn’t ‘cause’ any single weather event in a deterministic sense. But a warmer and moister atmosphere does clearly favor more frequent hot and wet extremes.

Update (July 17):  Two studies show that climate change is already making extreme weather events worse.

Update (May 30, 2019):  A preliminary count shows 500 tornado observations in the past 30 days.

Bill Bunting, the [U.S. Storm Prediction Center's] chief of forecast operations, told Bloomberg on Wednesday that only four other 30-day periods in the official record — in 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2011 — saw an excess of 500 tornado reports.

Less Education and Less Pay

A report from the Hamilton Project shows that workers will less education lost income between 1990 and 2013.  There is both a shift to lower-paying occupations and downward pressure on pay.

Warmest March

Do I get to start over with a new list of temperature records?  According to NOAA, last month was the warmest March since records began.  It beat the 2010 record for March by 0.05 degrees Celsius.

Update (June 19):  And now the warmest May.  Beating the 2014 record for May by 0.08 degrees Celsius.

Update (July 18):  And now a tie (with 1998) for the warmest June according to NASA.

Update (July 20):  NOAA agrees--June broke last year's record by 0.12 degrees Celsius.  The first six months of 2015 are also the warmest first half year.

Update (August 15):  And now the warmest July. A strong El Nino event is likely to make 2015 the warmest year on record. I'm not sure if this makes last month the warmest ever in weather records.

Update (August 20):  So, yes, last month was the warmest on Earth since records began.  The average of 16.6 degrees Celsius is 0.08 degree warmer than the previous record from July 1998.

Update (September 20):  And now the warmest August. Also the warmest summer.

Update (October 13):  And now the warmest September according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency.

Update (November 17):  And now the warmest October.  Last month was the largest anomaly of the 1600 month temperature record.

Update (December 16):  And now the warmest November.  Last month was 0.25 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous record.

Update (December 22):  This is what this year looks like compared to the six warmest years.

Good One

This really does sum it up:

Stephen KingVerified account‏@StephenKing

Cruz, Paul and Rubio, all running for President. Hey, I thought I was supposed to write the horror stories.

Update (July 20):  I'm worried this guy won't make it to the first Republican debate.  And I was really looking forward to that fiasco.

Update (February 15, 2016):  Who really scares King?