80 degrees of global warming in five days in 1934. Hansen would have declared this to be impossible without the emissions from your SUV.
1934: What would become one of the hottest summers on record in Iowa began to intensify as a heat wave in the last three days of May resulted in nearly every location in the state exceeding 100 F on at least one of those three days. The heat wave peaked on the 30th when the temperature soared to as high as 111 F near Inwood which is the highest temperature ever recorded in Iowa in May. Other high temperatures on the 30th included 110 F at Boone, 109 F at Logan and Spencer, 108 F at Le Mars, and 107 F at Storm Lake. Des Moines and Sioux City also set their respective May records as both reached a high of 105 F. Amazingly this extremely hot weather came only a few days after unseasonably cool temperatures in the 30s had been recorded across much of the state with frost on the 25th and 26th. In fact, at Boone the low temperature on the morning of the 25th was 30 F so the temperature at that location rose by 80 F in just five days. To put this into perspective, the largest temperature range ever recorded across the state of Iowa during the entire month of May is 88 degrees.
h/t to Andy DC
Our record breaking heat wave here in the Northeast (as reported by every major media outlet with the caveat of “global warming intensifying”) has hardly been record breaking.
The breakdown:
Reagan National missed by one 98 – 99 (1931)
BWI missed by two 98 – 100 (1931)
Dulles missed by three 94 – 97 (1964)
Martinsburg missed by five 93 – 98 (1931)
Philadelphia missed by one 97 – 98 (1931, 1923, 1893)
Reading missed by five 96 – 101 (1923)
Trenton missed by three 95 – 98 (1923)
Central Park missed by four 94 – 98 (1923)
Bridgeport missed by one 92 – 93 (1953)
Boston missed by one 97 – 98 (1953)
Providence missed by one 94 – 95 (1941)
Worcester missed by one 92 – 93 (1953)
Albany missed by three 94 – 97 (1953)
Pittsburgh missed by three 92 – 95 (1994, 1888)
Watertown missed by three 87 – 90 (1971)
Tied records
Atlantic City 95 (2010)
Mount Pocono 89 (1953)
Broke records
Burlington by one 95 – 94 (1988)
Hartford by one 97 – 96 (1995, 1953)
I guess it was hotter in 1888, 1893, 1923, 1931, 1941, 1953, 1964, 1971, 1994
Just as hot as 2010
Slightly hotter than 1995 and 1988
Including this year that’s 13 years since 1888 with equally hot or hotter days than yesterday. It will be hot again today and tomorrow a cold front moves through to cool things down for the next two weeks. Welcome to global warming. Two day long heatwaves (old definition of a heat wave was three straight days) which don’t hold a candle to the heat of 1923, 1931 and 1953
This is a garden variety heatwave that will break by tomorrow. Next week is forecast to be unseasonably cool over the eastern half of the US.