The surreal heat that’s baking much of the central and eastern USA has unleashed an unusually early and intense blast of tree pollen, making life miserable for tens of millions of people who suffer from seasonal allergies. Forecasters and allergists blame the unseasonably warm weather, and few cold snaps, for causing plants to bloom weeks [...]
Signal: Heat Waves
Mutant Heat Wave Shattering Records
More than 2,200 warm temperature records have been set so far in March. Take a look at the map above to see where temps are crazy departures from normal. This isn’t your average heat wave. Its duration, set against more than a century of record keeping, makes it one for the climate change chronicles. Here’s [...]
Summer in March: “one the most extreme meteorological events in U.S. history”
Each year, when the list of coldest U.S. cities is compiled, International Falls, Minnesota regularly winds up at the top of the list, earning its title as “Icebox of the Nation”. The city once hit -55°F (on January 6, 1909), and takes pride in the distinction of being the coldest city in the U.S., having [...]
Weathercasters “freaked” over weird, hot weather
Our intrepid reporter Mr. Mat Honan spent some time in Kentucky this past week, and he said the weather was incredibly, unseasonably hot. It was in the 80s in March. Not normal. What the heck? So we asked our friends at The Weather Channel: please explain? We were hoping they’d say something reasonable, like, about [...]
Northern Plains towns see all-time record warm January
The average contiguous U.S. temperature in January was 36.3 degrees F, 5.5 degrees F above the 1901-2000 long-term average — the fourth warmest January on record, and the warmest since 2006. Warmer-than-average temperatures were widespread across the contiguous United States during January. Nine states – Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, [...]
Texas has hottest June-August on record in the U.S.
Texas just finished the hottest June through August on record in the U.S., the National Weather Service said Thursday. Weather service meteorologist Victor Murphy told The Associated Press that Texas’ 86.8 average beat out Oklahoma’s 85.2 degrees in 1934. That Dust Bowl year is now third on the list for the three-month span, behind No. [...]
July 2011: The hottest month in Washington, D.C. history
Congratulations D.C.-area readers. You have just experienced — or tolerated, survived, and suffered — the hottest month in recorded history. We did it last July too, but this time we soared just over another degree on average to achieve an incredibly toasty 84.5F at Washington Reagan National Airport. That’s 4.7 degrees hotter than the new [...]
Records rains, unusual warmth driving “allergy storm”
There may be a dusting of truth to allergy sufferers’ complaints that this season is, well, a bigger headache than years past. Heavy snow and rain in some parts of the country have nourished a profusion of tree pollen, while a sudden shift to warm, sunny weather has made its release more robust. Add in [...]
2010 the hottest summer for European continent in at least 500 years
The heatwave that scorched eastern Europe in 2010, killing thousands of people and devastating crops, was the worst since records began and led to the warmest summer on the continent for at least 500 years, a new scientific analysis has revealed. Searing temperatures in July and August 2010 across Russia are estimated to have killed [...]
