The United States has experienced multiple consecutive heat waves this summer. June 2021 was the hottest June in the last 127 years. It went past the June 2016 record as the hottest by 0.8 degrees. A United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that the world has warmed 1.1 degree Celsius since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Scientist say this is just more proof of climate change, which has been discussed for years.
Starting in May of 2021, about 43% of the United States was dealing with the effects of a summer drought. Almost all of the land from California to the Southwest experienced drought.
Not only was it the hottest June in the United States, but the fourth hottest June worldwide. But human-caused climate change cannot be totally blamed for the heat wave. Livesceince.com explains that the main cause was an omega block. An omega block is a weather phenomenon in which “a dome of hot air trapped in place by atmospheric currents,” livescience.com stated on their website.
On June 28, Seattle was 108 degree fahrenheit. This is by far Seattle’s hottest day in history. It was 34 degrees fahrenheit, over the normal temperature during June.
Canada also recorded a new high temperature for three days in a row. Peter Scott, a climatologist at the U.K. Met Office said that the data is, “ telling us that changes in average climate are leading to rapid escalations not just of extreme temperatures, but of extraordinarily extreme temperatures.”
A mix of climate change and an omega block have made 2021 a really hot summer across the globe.