Wow... A strong meander in the jet stream has allowed exceptional heat (for late September) to intensify over North America.

A staggering 100°F (37.8°C) was recorded as far north as Hazen in North Dakota at 47.3N latitude.
The incredible heat extended well into Canada, well into the 30s Celsius.

Again, staggering for the time of year.
The jet stream adopted a strongly amplified pattern in the days leading up to the most intense heat.

In this scenario, warm sources are able to lift north and intensify over central/northern US and Canada.

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More from @ScottDuncanWX

21 Sep
Wait for it...

The 7 hottest summers in recorded history have all occurred in the last 7 years.
The last frame as individual images.
I often get asked why I use 1951-1980 average instead of something more recent...

The answer is covered in the FAQs: data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/faq/

Also, the baseline period for comparison to 'average' does not affect the underlying data or trend.
Read 6 tweets
19 Sep
The volcanic footage coming out of La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands is just jaw dropping right now 🌋

Previous eruption was 1971 and 1949 before that.

🎥 Via @Armeteo

Many link this volcano back to a documentary and research which hypothesised a potential megatsunami threat in the Atlantic.

This theory is criticised. The wiki page shows many research papers against this idea.

Check out the 'Tsunami scenarios' section.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Palma Image
This is a nifty graphic showing when and where previous eruptions took place on La Palma, Canary Islands.

Read 4 tweets
19 Sep
Wait for it...

Greenland Sea ice is at its lowest extent in recorded history right now.
The final frame in more detail next to the mapped ice extent and concentration via @NSIDC data.

Notice the median ice edge (1981-2010 average) for this time of year represented by the orange line. ImageImage
Notice the high annual variability. I have plotted last year in yellow just to show how different extent can be year-on-year. Sea ice extent is driven by many factors.

Data available here goes back to the late 1970s.
Read 5 tweets
15 Sep
Summer 2021 was exceptionally hot when compared to a summer average from 1951-1980.

But it felt cold in large parts of Europe? This map must be wrong?

It turns out, 'how we feel' can be explained - without data, we are just opinions.

A thread...
Let's start by comparing summer of 2021 to a more recent average of 1981-2010.

Already looking less fiery and red. This basically tells us that the summers between 1981 and 2010 were warmer than those between 1951-1980.
But what about Summer 2021 vs the 21st century average so far?

The reds in western Europe erode and essentially we learn that the summer in 2021 was nothing special compared to this average (but is still considerably warmer than 1951-1980 average for example).
Read 5 tweets
14 Sep
Extreme heat in 2021 breaks the famous Dust Bowl record from 1936 for hottest summer on record in the USA.

In 1936, we observed a hot blob on a relatively cool planet. Today, we have a hot blob on a warm planet.
More on the breakdown here: ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-preci…

Notice it was the minimum temperatures from 2021 that really packed the biggest punch to beat the record of 1936 hot summer record.
A lot of comments and questions about the data plotted in the main post.

Please check out the frequently asked questions
data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/faq/
Read 4 tweets
7 Sep
Europe has just observed its warmest summer on record according to the data of @CopernicusECMWF
I urge those that might comment to read the summary by @CopernicusECMWF

It wasn't warm everywhere in Europe. But where it was, it was exceptional. Some historic heat in the mix.
Read 5 tweets

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