The great environmentalist Bill McKibben sent a stream of tweets yesterday about the unprecedented heat wave sweeping the midwest and heading east. I thought I’d just reprint them here — warning, many are shocking.
– Chicago one day shy of the record for most 80 degree days…in April (link)
– So far chicago’s march temp would make it the 7th warmest…april on record.
– March 12-18: 3,350 record high temps in the U.S., 18 record lows. (link)
– For 2012, U.S. high temp records outpace low records by 15,785 to 1,385, or 11.4 to 1.
– Even the top of Mt. Washington sets new record (And NWS computer asks local observer: You sure about these #s?) (link)
– Now it’s Maine: town of Caribou broke old heat record by…23 degrees (link)
– It’s not just this week: DC posts the warmest winter in its history, by two full degrees
– March days this hot maybe once in 4779 years statistically?
– I know I’m a little obsessed with this heat wave–but: it’s not just off the charts, it’s off the wall the charts are tacked to.
Ok, so who can blame Bill for getting a bit obsessed with all of this? I’m always really hesitant to say that a warm day or week or month “proves” climate change, since then people can (and do) say that a cold day disproves it. But really, let’s get serious. The odds of all of this happening without the “theory” of climate change behind it are very, very low. It’s time to get real.
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