Record-setting Hurricane Dorian keeps pounding Bahamas

McLEAN’S TOWN CAY, Bahamas — In a slow, relentless advance, a catastrophic Hurricane Dorian kept pounding at the northern Bahamas early Monday, as one of the strongest Atlantic storms ever recorded left wrecked homes, shredded roofs, tumbled cars and toppled power poles in its wake.

A baby sleeps inside a church that was opened up
as a shelter for residents who will wait out Hurricane
Dorian in Freeport on Grand Bahama, Bahamas, on Sept. 1.

The storm’s top sustained winds decreased slightly to 165 mph as its westward movement slowed, crawling along Grand Bahama island early Monday at 1 mph in what forecasters said would be a daylong assault. Earlier, Dorian churned over Abaco island with battering winds and surf during Sunday.

There was little information from the affected islands, though officials expected many residents to be left homeless. Most people went to shelters as the storm approached, with tourist hotels shutting down and residents boarded up their homes.

Read the story from The Los Angeles Times - “Record-setting Hurricane Dorian keeps pounding Bahamas.”

Europe’s heat wave is about to bake the Arctic

On Friday, more temperature records are falling in Europe as the historic heat wave that brought the hottest weather ever recorded in Paris, London, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany shifts northward. In a few days, the weather system responsible for the heat wave will stretch all the way across the top of the globe.

European land surface temperatures Thursday as sensed via satellite.

It’s what this system, characterized by a strong area of high pressure aloft — often referred to as a heat dome — will do to the Arctic that has some scientists increasingly concerned.

Read the story from The Washington Post by Andrew Freedman - “Europe’s heat wave is about to bake the Arctic.”

French Village Hits 114.6 Degrees, Setting New National Record

Last week Friday, the village of Gallargues-le-Montueux located in southern France outside of Montpellier topped 114.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temperature ever recorded in continental France.

This photo, taken June 30, shows how badly crops 

were burnt and dried out by heat and sun in France's 

southern wine country.

That sweltering heat broke the previous record of 113.2 degrees, which was set just hours before in the village of Villevieille. And those weren’t the only hot spots. Brian Kahn at Earther reports that at least 12 weather stations in France detected temperatures above 111.4 degrees Fahrenheit, the previous hottest temperature set in 2003.

According to Agence-France Presse, the temperature spike makes France the seventh European nation to ever break the 113-degree-Fahrenheit mark, joining Bulgaria, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece and North Macedonia.

France was not the only nation dealing with extreme heat last week. Andorra, Luxembourg, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Germany all set record temperatures for the month of June. Germany lowered the speed limit on parts of the Autobahn, worried about buckling roads. And the heat set off the worst wildfires Spain has seen in 20 years with three major blazes burning throughout the nation. (One blaze started when improperly stored chicken manure combusted due to the heatwave.)

Read the story from the Smithsonian by Jason Daley - “French Village Hits 114.6 Degrees, Setting New National Record.” 

All-time heat records have been set all over the world during the past week

Washington: From the normally mild summers of Ireland, Scotland and Canada to the scorching Middle East, numerous locations in the Northern Hemisphere have witnessed their hottest weather ever recorded over the past week.

The sun peaks around the Washington Monument as geese
 float down the Potomac River in Washington as a hot day breaks on Sunday.

Large areas of heat pressure or heat domes scattered around the hemisphere led to the sweltering temperatures. No single record, in isolation, can be attributed to global warming. But collectively, these heat records are consistent with the kind of extremes we expect to see increase in a warming world.

Let's take a tour around the world of the recent hot-weather milestones.

Read the story by Jason Samenow from The Age - “All-time heat records have been set all over the world during the past week.”

Britain set for hottest ever early May bank holiday

Parts of Britain could enjoy the hottest early May bank holiday ever recorded on Monday with temperatures set to reach 28C.

People on the beach at Tynemouth in North Tyneside. The
sunniest place in Britain on Sunday was Boulmer in Northumberland. 

The forecast follows a high of 26.3C at Heathrow airport on Sunday, while the hottest days of the year were also recorded in Scotland where it reached 22.3C in Edinburgh and Northern Ireland where it was 20.8C in Katesbridge in County Down.

The south-east of England, East Anglia and the Midlands will again have the warmest weather on Monday. But the heat also brought the familiar bank holiday transport problems.

Southern Rail, which operates the mainline from London to Brighton, advised people not to travel on Sunday because engineering work meant the line was closed south of Gatwick airport.

Read Martin Farrer’s story from The Guardian - “Britain set for hottest ever early May bank holiday.”

February the most abnormally warm month ever

For the third month in a row, Earth's global temperatures in February 2016 were the most abnormally warm on record for any month, according to an analysis released by NASA Saturday.

February's global temperature departure of 1.35 degrees Celsius above the 1951-1980 average topped the previous record just set in January (1.13 degrees Celsius above average), according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

That may not sound impressive, but ingesting temperature data over the entire surface of the Earth, NASA's analysis found this was the largest monthly warm temperature anomaly in their database dating to 1880, topping a record set the previous two months in a row.

Read The Weather Channel story - “February 2016 Was the Most Abnormally Warm Month Ever Recorded, Topping January 2016, NASA Says.”