World of extremes: Western heat, sudden Greenland melt

Minnesotans can be thankful for relatively pleasant weather so far this summer.

In other parts of the planet during the hottest year on record globally so far, extreme and persistent weather patterns are creating some unusual events.

Record heat in Western U.S.

It's not just hot out west. It's the warmest year on record so far from Seattle to San Diego. Five western states recorded the hottest June on record.

Where are Minnesota's 90s this summer? Hop a flight to smoky hot Seattle.

https://twitter.com/NWSSeattle/status/617677267871731712

The western strategy? Try and survive peak fire season in the next few months, then pray for the strongest El Nino in decades to deliver heavy rains this winter.

Climate Central has more on the mechanics of the record heat wave baking the western United States so far this summer.

The most recent heat wave in June broke or tied 233 records across the West, primarily in the Pacific Northwest. While that scorcher elicited much attention, such acute heat waves haven’t been the main reason the West has stayed so warm, rather it has been the persistence of above-average temperatures day-in and day-out.

“It just really isn’t getting down to normal,” Swain said.

Because the ocean doesn’t change temperature as quickly as land does, the huge area of warm ocean is “not going to go away anytime soon,” Swain said, which means that it will continue to influence temperatures in the West through a good chunk of the rest of the year.

For the next few months, that means that the drought in the region is only likely to get worse, as higher temperatures mean increased evaporation and transpiration in plants. That’s particularly worrying going into the traditional peak of the fire season in early fall, when Santa Ana winds can rapidly spread wildfires on tinder-dry landscapes.

The hope is that the El Niño will bring relief come winter, as strong events have historically been associated with increased precipitation in parts of California, though it’s by no means a guarantee.

But by the time that happens, the year may nearly be at its end, and for California, at least, it could edge out last year as the warmest the state has ever seen in 120 years of record-keeping.

Europe: Hot too

In western Europe, temperatures over 100 degrees are challenging some of the all time hottest readings on record for European cities.

Capital Weather Gang's Jason Samenow lists some eye opening numbers.

Europe

• The new all-time high temperature for any location or date in Germanyof 104.5 degrees was set July 5  in the city of Kitzingen. This breaks Germany’s previous record of 104.4 degrees set first in 1983 and then tied twice  in 2003.

• The hottest June temperature ever recorded of 104 degrees occurred inMadrid on June 30.

• On Tuesday, Geneva soared to 103.5 degrees, its highest temperature ever recorded. That’s the highest temperature ever recorded in all of Switzerland in July, and the second highest temperature ever recorded in the country during any month. Source: Jeff Masters

• The second-hottest temperature Paris has seen on any day since they began weather records (in 1873) of 103.5 degrees was set July 1.

• The new hottest temperature ever recorded in downtown Frankfurt of 102.2 degrees was set July 5, according to Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at Weather Underground. Masters found that the Frankfurt airport also set a new record for all-time hottest temperature July 5 at 101.8 degrees.

• Via Jeff Masters: “The temperature in Maastricht, the Netherlands, hit 100.8°F (38.2°C) on July 2, setting an all-time July heat record for the nation.”

• London Heathrow climbed to 98.1 degrees July 1, the hottest temperature ever recorded during the month of July anywhere in the U.K. The previous record of 97.7 degrees was set  July 19, 2006.

The extreme atmospheric blocking pattern features a super pumped up high pressure heat dome over western Europe.

Mashable's Andrew Freedman has some insight on how these blocking patterns foster record heat waves.

Such blocking patterns are often seen in extreme heat events, including the historic heat wave of 2003, when between 40,000 and 70,000 people are estimated to have died across western Europe, particularly in France, when temperatures soared into the low-40s during August, when many doctors were off for the month and the government was caught unprepared for the event.

Such a high death toll is not expected from this event, in part because authorities have learned from mistakes made in 2003, and also because this heat wave is not quite as severe as that event was. However, the heat wave is extremely unusual in its severity for this time of year.

Paris reached its second-highest temperature ever recorded according to Meteo France, with a high temperature of 39.7 degrees Celsius, or 103.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This falls short of the all-time record of 40.4 degrees Celsius, or 104.72 degrees Fahrenheit.

On July 1, London's Heathrow International Airport recorded its hottest July day on record, when the temperature reached 36.7 degrees Celsius, or 98.06 Fahrenheit. The Met Office said on Twitter that the previous hottest July day on record in London had been 36.5 degrees Celsius, set in 2006. The actual high temperature at Heathrow may still rise slightly, adding to the record margin.

Greenland: Rapid ice melt now twice seasonal average

The sudden onset of warmth over Greenland this month has lead to rapidly melt for as much as 50 percent of the Greenland ice sheet. That's twice the average for this time of year.

It's not yet clear how much soot from raging wildfires over the western North America has arrived in Greenland to darken the ice sheet. That absorbs more sunlight and speeds up the melt process.

Climate Central has more on how this season's ice melt is running at near record pace on the Greenland ice sheet.

Estimates from the National Snow and Ice Data Center indicate that roughly half the ice sheet’s surface is melting, well above the average of around 25 percent for this time of year.

In addition to warmer than normal temperatures, Greenland’s ice sheet has been getting steadily darker. This year currently ranks as the third-darkest on record for early July.

The darker the ice sheet is, the more incoming radiation from the sun is absorbed and the more it can melt. Water is darker than snow, but dust as well as soot from wildfires can also be swept up from far off locales and deposited on the ice sheet. It’s unclear if the wildfires currently raging in Alaska and Canada are having an impact.