In all of recorded human history — and probably for at least the last 100,000 years — our planet has never been as hot in the month of February as it is right now.
February is on course to break a record number of heat records, meteorologists say. A little over halfway into the shortest month of the year, the heating spike has become so pronounced that climate charts are entering new territory, particularly for sea-surface temperatures that have persisted and accelerated to the point where expert observers are struggling to explain how the change is happening.
“The planet is warming at an accelerating rate. We are seeing rapid temperature increases in the ocean, the climate’s largest reservoir of heat,” said Dr Joel Hirschi, of the UK National Oceanography Centre. “The amplitude by which previous sea surface temperatures records were beaten in 2023 and now 2024 exceed expectations, though understanding why this is, is the subject of ongoing research.”
Humanity is on a trajectory to experience the hottest February in recorded history, after a record January, December, November, October, September, August, July, June, and May, according to Berkeley Earth scientist Zeke Hausfather.
As extreme as the record February temperatures on land are right now, it's the off-the-charts ocean heating that really has scientists worried...
“The planet is warming at an accelerating rate. We are seeing rapid temperature increases in the ocean, the climate’s largest reservoir of heat,” said Dr Joel Hirschi, of the UK National Oceanography Centre. “The amplitude by which previous sea surface temperatures records were beaten in 2023 and now 2024 exceed expectations, though understanding why this is, is the subject of ongoing research.”
Ocean surface heat continues to astonish seasoned observers and raises the prospect of intense storms later in the year. The hurricane specialist Michael Lowry tweeted that sea surface temperatures across the Atlantic main development region, where most of the US category 3 or stronger hurricanes form, “are as warm today in mid-February as they typically are in middle July. Incredible.”
Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy, said the uncertainty about the interaction of the different factors was a reminder that we do not fully understand every aspect of how the complex Earth system is responding to unprecedented radiative forcing. “This is happening at a much faster rate than ever documented in the past,” she said. “If anything, we are much more likely to underestimate the impact of those changes on human society than to overestimate them.”
@breadandcircuses@FantasticalEconomics It looks like the slope has increased to the graph of ocean temps the past few years. That must make it almost impossible for climatologists to predict future temps and effects. It astounds me that great masses of people are not alarmed and demanding change.
If you live in the USA or Canada or Western Europe, as do most of my followers, it's probably felt warmer than usual recently. But that's likely nothing compared to the extreme heat records being broken right now in Asia and elsewhere around the world...
The first half of February shocked weather watchers. Maximiliano Herrera, who blogs on Extreme Temperatures Around the World, described the surge of thousands of meteorological station heat records as “insane”, “total madness”, and “climatic history rewritten”. What astonished him was not just the number of records but the extent by which many of them surpassed anything that went before.
In the first half of this month, Herrera said 140 countries broke monthly heat records, which was similar to the final figures of the last six record hottest months of 2023 and more than three times any month before 2023.
reports of shorter monsoon season and hotter weather in #Malaysia - but it took me quite a bit of digging to find this article, whilst the front pages are full of "business as usual" reports (I don't know how much independence this site has from the Malaysian government, it might be slightly less than a "Western" country but nowadays not that much less)
@breadandcircuses
Tell if i'm wrong but if you take a look at our worldwide climate situation and if you also know that we give a fuck on all the things that need to be done to save our future there is no chance to fix it.
It will take 10-15 years when our infrastrucure will break down.
My daughter will be 20 years old that time.
@breadandcircuses I’ve been asking for actions to mitigate climate change for over half my life. Now it looks like I have a good shot of witnessing the establishment of the climate apocalypse. No, I’m not happy about that, while wondering if I am living in a simulation? 🤔
@breadandcircuses it's the middle of the coldest and snowiest month here in canada, and there's not a flake of snow that can stay on the ground these days
@breadandcircuses Every update and I want to scream every consequence video I’ve made.
Asia is the world’s manufacturer. A disruption to their food supplies will disrupt everything we buy (nearly). Every Western nation faces hardship with Europe facing the worst of it. The US (all Americas really) are not escaping either.
And tech asshats are busy burning energy and leeching water for AI. They want $7 trillion investment.