Another Historic Heat Wave, Record Floods as Trump Purges Climate Change Projects from EPA

It's been relatively mild where I live, but unfortunately for people in places like Turkbat, Pakistan, the last two weeks have been a time to break their thermometers, or at least fry eggs on their sidewalks.

The last week of May 2017 and first week of June brought one the most extraordinary heatwaves in world history to Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The mercury shot up to an astonishing 53.5°C (128.3°F) at Turbat, Pakistan on May 28, making it Earth’s hottest temperature ever recorded in the month of May—and one of Earth’s top-five hottest reliably-measured temperatures on record, for any month. Both Pakistan and Oman tied their all-time national heat records for any month during the heat wave, and all-time national heat records for the month of May were set in Iran, Norway and Austria. [...]

A dome of high pressure from Morocco extended over Western Europe beginning on May 24, then moved north and then east. As a result, monthly records of highest temperatures were widespread in Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Germany and Austria. [...]

An intense heat wave caused by downslope winds from the Laotian mountains towards the Vietnamese coast affected the area around Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi in early June, particularly between June 2 - 4. The central observatory of Lang on June 4 recorded 41.5°C (106.7°F), destroying its previous all-time record of 40.4°C, set in 1971. On June 4, the district of Ha Dong (which hosts an international weather station representative of Hanoi) recorded 42.5°C (108.5°F), by far the highest temperature ever recorded in the Hanoi area.

And predictions for June in the southern regions of Europe are on the toasty side:

A corridor stretching from eastern Spain into eastern Europe is forecast to be hit by a heat wave in June, according to six meteorologists surveyed by Bloomberg. While the U.K. will mostly be dreary, it may see a burst of warmer-than-normal temperatures at the end of this month, which kicks off the meteorological summer. [...]

“We predict a Europe split in two halves, with higher chance of above-average temperatures over the southern countries,” Giacomo Masato, a London-based meteorologist at Marex Spectron Group Ltd., said in an email.

Meanwhile, back in TrumpLand (f/k/a the United States of America), its denizens merely have to worry about historic floods this spring. Again.

National Weather Service Meteorologists say rivers will reach record high crest levels as snowpack melts this week. [...]

The Big Wind River near Riverton is at 10 ½ feet, while flood stages begin at 9 feet.

By this Friday (June 9th), water is expected to rise to 12 feet, which will be a new record for Crest Height, previously set in 2011.

Some people are even changing their minds about this whole climate change nonsense. I can't imagine why.

Add climate change to the common bouts of inundation, and towns along the Mississippi are confronting a new reality, Walker said, one that compounds the misery of previous floods. The 180-year-old town has had five flood events in the past four years, he said, and four of those have been in the top 10 flooding disasters in Alton's history.

"We're now living in a world of extremes on the Mississippi River," [the Mayor of Alton IL] said. "We just don't get normal spring rains anymore. We get huge downpours." [...]

"I hope people are just realizing that climate change is playing a role in all these tragedies our region is facing these past several years," said David Stokes, a Republican who serves as executive director of the St. Louis-based Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, an organization that addresses issues affecting wetlands and floodplain use in the confluence region of the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois rivers.

That flooding was caused by a once every 1,000 year precipitation event.

The massive amount of rain that caused the devastating flooding in the past few weeks in Missouri was a rare 1-in-1,000-year event, meteorologists said Friday.

Most of the “once-in-a-millennium” rainfall from late April to early May occurred in Texas and Howell counties in southern Missouri, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. Some areas picked up over a foot of rain within a few hours April 29.

In my own patch, we've been dealing flooding caused by with the highest water levels in Lake Ontario since record keeping began:

GREECE, N.Y. — Homeowners dealing with the highest water levels on Lake Ontario in 100 years of record keeping will receive $7 million in help from the state and boulders from the federal government, according to New York's governor.

Waves already have destroyed public and private breakwalls along the shores of both Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, countless structures have been flooded and roads have been closed at times.

Lake Ontario is at the end of the five Great Lakes, and a dam near Massena, N.Y., regulates its flow into the St. Lawrence. Officials can't open its gates all the way because extremely strong currents affect shipping, could damage turbines in two hydroelectric plants along the river and create flooding in the Montreal area.

Naturally, all of this "unusual weather" that is no longer so unusual, weather resulting from human caused global warming, was predicted by climate scientists as early as 1981.

But hey, we live in a new era where the science doesn't matter, and indeed, has been rejected by the political appointees of the Trump administration. Scientists at NASA, NOAA and the EPA all face severe budget cuts. Government scientists literally fear using the term "climate change" in official communications.

“If it was a project associated with climate change, people at headquarters would pick up the phone rather than email,” she said. “Staff were paranoid that their programs were going to get cut if they mentioned climate change. One day it was fine and then it was like you were being slapped in the face every day.” [...]

An EPA air quality scientist, who did not want to be named, said the leadership of the agency “seems to have disdain for our work” and claimed that climate change tasks were being wound down.

“All action at the agency on climate has effectively stopped; the only thing that hasn’t is the collection of emissions data,” the scientist told the Guardian. “Climate work has been de-emphasized and halted. There was a climate conference in Atlanta last month and EPA employees were told not to go, so even simple interactions are coming to an end.”

The announcement that the US was withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord was merely symbolic, as that agreement only required "voluntary" action by signatories. What's happening at the federal agencies tasked with research and mitigation of climate change is much, much worse. This is what Americans should be protesting and haranguing their Congressional Representatives about, not withdrawal from the so-called historic Paris Accord, which was more a publicity stunt than a substantive treaty.

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Steven D's picture

I bet Putin is behind all this weird, catastrophic weather, too, having weaponized Russia's advanced weather modification technology.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

boriscleto's picture

But we've had the third wettest spring since record keeping began. Lake Ontario is 33 inches above normal...

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

featheredsprite's picture

@boriscleto 33 inches! Wow!

I used to live in Cleveland, OH and know what an extra bit of water can do to one of the Great Lakes. Windy storms from the NW will put waves right into houses!

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

riverlover's picture

Our warm up begins today? 67F at noon here. I still have heat coming on in my house. My neighbor had ceremoniously turned off her heat several weeks ago and she has turned it back on. The good news is that last year's drought is over. It has been raining since February IIRC. Every time heavy rain is predicted the flood warnings begin anew. My gravel driveway is gully washed. In some crown areas there is now a valley 1' deep. An expensive undertaking is in my near future.

I have ordered a cranberry plant. No need to flood the ground.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

snoopydawg's picture

which is way above normal for this time of year. July and August are when we usually see temps go that high.
We had a lot of snow this winter and a very wet spring on top of that. The reservoirs are at capacity and they have been having to release their waters because of the unseasonably warm temperatures.
Every river in Northern Utah is at dangerous levels and there have been 5-6 drownings in less than 3 weeks.
One was a 8 year old boy who for some reason was able to go alone to the Ogden river.
3 people drowned last weekend during a hiking trip when a young girl who was wading in the river was swept away and her mother and another person went in to try to save her. All 3 bodies were recovered after the reservoirs stopped releasing water to help find them.
Another person who was hiking tried to jump over the river, lost his footing and the river swept him away.
I usually let my black lab Abby go swimming in the river during our walks, but this year I have been walking elsewhere so that she isn't tempted to jump into it.

Yeah, the Paris climate agreement was so watered down that it was basically useless. But the damage the Trump administration is doing is in the agencies that are working on this.
And this is my biggest concern with this Russia, Russia, Russia bullshit. While so many people are distracted by this side show, the republicans with the help from the democrats are destroying every regulatory agency we have and trying to impose their draconian health and tax bills. This is what the RussianBots are helping TPTB get away with. They should know better to trust our intelligence agencies who have been lying to us way since they were created.
Their heroes Comey and Mueller helped cover up the Saudi complicity in the 9/11 attacks.
Even after the 28 pages were released 15 years after the event that showed how the Saudis funded the people who supposedly flew the planes in to the building, the country yawned. Not one media asked "Why did our government hide theses facts from the American people?"
So yes, I have a problem with people hanging on to every word that Comey is sputtering out today. This is just another distraction while the republican destroy everything they can.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Arrow's picture

someone filed (many)freedom of information act requests to get the purged websites back.

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I want a Pony!

n/t

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

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Not coal jobs, not ISIS, not trickle down or a universal wage. Russian interference doesn't matter. Trump's lies and the DNC cheating Bernie doesn't matter, if the planet isn't habitable.

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Beware the bullshit factories.