Temperature Extremes Projected To Worsen

There was a time in recent history when extreme Summer temperatures were only as common as extreme Winter temperatures. Anyone who’s even been remotely paying attention to the weather lately is well aware that the climate is changing. In the United States, Texas has experienced the worse year-long drought in the Lone Star state’s history, suffering from the hottest summer recorded in the US. Not only have these extreme temperatures left Texas short on water supplies, they have also damaged billions of dollars worth of crops (which also raises food prices) and left a large portion of the state burnt due to wildfires.

It is currently estimated that Texas has suffered $5.2 billion in agricultural losses due to drought caused by extreme temperatures. Cash crops such as cotton, wheat and corn have been especially hard hit; not to mention the struggle ranchers face in feeding their cattle. With no end currently in sight, it’s predicted that if the drought continues for much longer, Winter wheat crops will be lost, causing the drought to be even more expensive.

But Texas is not alone in it’s suffering from extreme heat. In fact, in a large portion of the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains, unusually high temperatures have been breaking records throughout the summer.

The prognosis is not good. Temperatures considered unusually high today will be the norm in the future. Extremely hot summers will eventually become the new norm, due largely to manmade global warming.

Scientists fear that in a short amount of time, the planet will reach the two degree Celsius warned threshold — increased by heat-trapping gases blanketing the atmosphere. In the past 60 years alone, the planet’s temperature has risen 0.8 degrees Celsius above the planet’s temperature prior to the Industrial Era. This could mean catastrophic changes to the planet (And I think we’re already seeing some of that, but just a taster..).

The garage door is quickly closing on our window of opportunity to act. Scientists estimate that within the next decade or so, extremely hot temperatures will occur every Summer in regions that only occasionally experience extreme temperatures. Warming of the planet is occurring globally, affecting many regions of the globe, such as Africa, the Southeastern and central parts of Asia, the Amazon, and Indonesia. The U.S. is on the brink of experiencing the same fate as the rest of the world.

Climate scientists hypothesize that over the next few decades, the combination of changing weather patterns and warmer temperatures will cause the extremes to change quickly. In fact, it is guessed that by the middle of the next century, huge sections of the globe will have heated up so fast, the coolest summer will still be hotter than the hottest temperatures occurring over the past 50 years.

Record breaking temperatures are quickly becoming the new norm, as well as the wild weather patterns that come with that, and the heat extremes are only projected to get worse. Temperatures are expected to keep rising, not only in the West, but in the Midwest and Southeast as well. Temperature extremes are certain to change entire seasons, which will, no doubt, have huge effects on agriculture, availability of water and susceptibility to wildfires.

Photo credit: Kevin Law

 

4 thoughts on “Temperature Extremes Projected To Worsen”

  1. The sun and moon is controlling the weather PERIOD. The earth is in outerspace among all sorts of energies and forces that are beyond our control. Man made global warming is a UN hoax. does anyone remember the global warming and cooling periods throughout history The ice age. etc. YOUR being CON’d.

    1. Sexy:

      just a little bit of digging will show you that it’s not the sun causing this global warming (and certainly not the moon):

      http://www.skepticalscience.com/solar-activity-sunspots-global-warming.htm

      http://www.skepticalscience.com/solar-activity-sunspots-global-warming-advanced.htm

      and while the climate does change, this is *exceptional* change with tremendous consequences clearly caused by humans:

      http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-change-little-ice-age-medieval-warm-period.htm

      http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-cooling-mid-20th-century.htm

      who agrees with this? check out this list:

      These Groups Say The Danger Of Manmade Global Warming Is A . . .
      FACT
      U.S. Agency for International Development
      United States Department of Agriculture
      National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
      National Institute of Standards and Technology
      United States Department of Defense
      United States Department of Energy
      National Institutes of Health
      United States Department of State
      United States Department of Transportation
      U.S. Geological Survey
      U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
      University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
      National Center for Atmospheric Research
      National Aeronautics & Space Administration
      National Science Foundation
      Smithsonian Institution
      International Arctic Science Committee
      Arctic Council
      African Academy of Sciences
      Australian Academy of Sciences
      Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts
      Academia Brasileira de Ciéncias
      Cameroon Academy of Sciences
      Royal Society of Canada
      Caribbean Academy of Sciences
      Chinese Academy of Sciences
      Académie des Sciences, France
      Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences
      Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina of Germany
      Indonesian Academy of Sciences
      Royal Irish Academy
      Accademia nazionale delle scienze of Italy
      Indian National Science Academy
      Science Council of Japan
      Kenya National Academy of Sciences
      Madagascar’s National Academy of Arts, Letters and Sciences
      Academy of Sciences Malaysia
      Academia Mexicana de Ciencias
      Nigerian Academy of Sciences
      Royal Society of New Zealand
      Polish Academy of Sciences
      Russian Academy of Sciences
      l’Académie des Sciences et Techniques du Sénégal
      Academy of Science of South Africa
      Sudan Academy of Sciences
      Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
      Tanzania Academy of Sciences
      Turkish Academy of Sciences
      Uganda National Academy of Sciences
      The Royal Society of the United Kingdom
      National Academy of Sciences, United States
      Zambia Academy of Sciences
      Zimbabwe Academy of Science
      American Academy of Pediatrics
      American Association for the Advancement of Science
      American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians
      American Astronomical Society
      American Chemical Society
      American College of Preventive Medicine
      American Geophysical Union
      American Institute of Physics
      American Medical Association
      American Meteorological Society
      American Physical Society
      American Public Health Association
      American Quaternary Association
      American Institute of Biological Sciences
      American Society of Agronomy
      American Society for Microbiology
      American Society of Plant Biologists
      American Statistical Association
      Association of Ecosystem Research Centers
      Botanical Society of America
      Crop Science Society of America
      Ecological Society of America
      Federation of American Scientists
      Geological Society of America
      National Association of Geoscience Teachers
      Natural Science Collections Alliance
      Organization of Biological Field Stations
      Society of American Foresters
      Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
      Society of Systematic Biologists
      Soil Science Society of America
      Australian Coral Reef Society
      Australian Medical Association
      Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society
      Engineers Australia
      Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies
      Geological Society of Australia
      British Antarctic Survey
      Institute of Biology, UK
      Royal Meteorological Society, UK
      Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences
      Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society
      European Federation of Geologists
      European Geosciences Union
      European Physical Society
      European Science Foundation
      International Association for Great Lakes Research
      International Union for Quaternary Research
      International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
      Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
      World Federation of Public Health Associations
      World Health Organization
      World Meteorological Organization
      Source: Planetsave (http://s.tt/13m7y)

  2. I’m glad I’m not the only person who has noted the plethora of natural weather related disasters that have happened over the last few years. This is surely as a result of global warming and should be addressed immediately. However, in news reports there is rarely any mention of this

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