• Welcome to ZD Forums! You must create an account and log in to see and participate in the Shoutbox chat on this main index page.

Summer 2021

Chevywolf30

The one and only.
Forum Volunteer
Joined
Sep 29, 2020
Location
The Lone Star State
Gender
Manufacturer recommended settings
This summer has been pretty wack. Up in the northern USA, they're constantly getting temperature over 100°f, while in NWA and the rest of the South, its been a pretty hot day if we break 90°f and we're getting a lot of rain. Is there any one thing that's making this happen, or is it just a weird summer?
 

Mikey the Moblin

sushi is a suspicious hello
Joined
Aug 31, 2014
Location
southworst united states
Gender
Dude
my best guess from staring at doppler radar is that there's a high pressure front moving through the northern half of the US while a low pressure front is moving through the southern half, traveling past each other

I don't think any of this weather is particularly odd or uncalled for, just a bit on the extreme side (which could be due to global warming/climate change)
I would like to know what the actual reason is tho
 

Spiritual Mask Salesman

CHIMer Dragonborn
Staff member
Comm. Coordinator
Site Staff
and we're getting a lot of rain.
This is the key. A heat wave is usually brought on from a period of drought beforehand. It hasn't rained in awhile in those areas experiencing heat waves currently, but here in the south we are getting rain.

Climate change is happening but this isn't the sign of a massive climate alteration where there is, say, a pole shift. It will still be colder up in the northern US when winter hits.
 

Mellow Ezlo

Spoony Bard
Joined
Dec 2, 2012
Location
eh?
Gender
Slothkin
This heat wave is unprecedented, but Mikey has the right of it in that it is caused by a high pressure front traveling through the pacific northwest and western Canada. This would have happened regardless of climate change, though it's uncountable that global warming has contributed to just how ridiculously high the temperature is in many places. Lytton, a small village in British Columbia, for example broke Canada's all time heat record three days in a row, topping out at an insane 49.5C (roughly 121.3F), and other records are being broken all over the place, including here in my city where it hit 39C for the first time ever and is expected to hit 40+ today. Temperatures would not be this extreme had global warming not been at play, even though it didn't cause the heat wave itself.
 

Ragnarokio

AVATAR NOT BY JIMMU
Joined
Jan 19, 2018
Gender
If you don't identify as the default options of Male/Female, you may enter your gender here.
weather is extremely chaotic and never has a singular cause. Climate change will result in trends in weather changing gradually overtime but there'll never be an instance where you can say "this is hot because of climate change". Records will continue to be set occasionally as long as the global temperature continues to rise, and it seems like it will.

I don't think this summer is too strange though. Its not unheard of for the north to suffer from heat waves while the south is unaffected as a result of chaotic weather patterns. The degree of the heat is also only on par with the hottest heat waves since we started tracking temperature in the early 1900s. Lots of places aren't even setting records. Because heat levels are the result of a lot of factors and global warming is very gradual it could be years before we see another heat wave this hot, but what once was "once in a century heat" will eventually become "once in a decade heat" and then eventually it'll just be a normal yearly heat wave. This will only take place over the course of a lifetime though, and so its not likely that anyone will really be able to appreciate the difference in temperature at least. How hot a day is can easily change dozens of degrees from year to year, if not more. Global warming will comparably probably only increase the average heat in most areas by a handful of degrees a decade or so, and so it'll be largely invisible to people since normal heat variations are much larger.

What will be more apparent as a result of global warming (as far as i've heard it) will be the increased frequency of superstorms like katrina. Flooding on the coasts may eventually make headlines too, as currently wealthy areas will eventually either be submerged in water or people will build dikes to hold back the sea.
 

mαrkαsscoρ

Mr. SidleInYourDMs
Joined
May 5, 2012
Location
American Wasteland
What will be more apparent as a result of global warming (as far as i've heard it) will be the increased frequency of superstorms like katrina. Flooding on the coasts may eventually make headlines too, as currently wealthy areas will eventually either be submerged in water or people will build dikes to hold back the sea.
I'll hit y'all up once I'm broadcasting from the bottom of the ocean
 

Dio

~ It's me, Dio!~
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Location
England
Gender
Absolute unit
This summer has been pretty wack. Up in the northern USA, they're constantly getting temperature over 100°f, while in NWA and the rest of the South, its been a pretty hot day if we break 90°f and we're getting a lot of rain. Is there any one thing that's making this happen, or is it just a weird summer?

It's climate change. It's possible that the earth is undergoing a natural warming anyway, this historically has happened without humans as there are natural climate fluctuations but there seems to be good evidence that mankind is speeding this warming process along rapidly and perhaps creating temperatures that wouldn't otherwise have been reached.

Fossil fuel burning seems the most major contributor to this warming as it is releasing trapped carbon into the atmosphere and preventing heat from escaping the planets atmosphere. This causes even further gas release from melting permafrost which has been holding trapped natural gas for thousands of years.

There's also the deforestation releasing carbon into the atmosphere and removing trees which take in CO2 and release O2.

It's a vicious cycle which needed to be broken probably 20 years ago. Every year it gets hotter and we've gotten to that point now where it's becoming very noticeable in places with usually temperate climates. I don't think it's just a wierd summer as I expect every summer to be like this now and getting worse each year.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom