Today marks Earth Day...number 54 since its inception on April 22, 1970! All holidays and special days are intent on bringing awareness to whatever subject and bringing that awareness to our warming planet could not be more important than right now. March of this year was the WARMEST on record, putting 2016 in second place, 2020 in third and 2017 in fourth.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization (NOAA) offers this graphic of extreme weather around the world just last month:
The highlights above include North America (our part of the world!) having had the 9th warmest March on record while our first three months came in 4th. South America, Africa and parts of Europe suffered through their warmest March on record, which goes back 175 years.
This kind of warm atmosphere leads to notable precipitation events, too: Severe flooding in France, Argentina and Brazil (and then THIS month, that Dubai flooding in a matter of hours).
RELATED: A STORM DUMPS RECORD RAIN ACROSS THE DESERT NATION OF UAE
The full NOAA report can be found here. You can also see a very user-friendly table called Climate at a Glance. It’s pretty apparent that 2024 is on track to be the warmest in history across the globe.
All of this information is important for a variety of reasons. For me, I give a lot of hurricane talks this time of year but the question that I’m hearing most is: Will we have another horribly hot summer like last year? There is no reason to think we won’t. The Climate Prediction Center has us at least above normal along with most of the nation from June-August (and into the fall):
You’ll remember that last summer was not just hot but very dry. We may do a little better in that department with at least a 50/50 chance of having average amounts of rainfall:
Happy Earth Day! Remember to take care of it. And enjoy this current cool snap--90° is likely to show up next week and then we are off to the races!
Frank
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