“It’s been a severe and dangerous summer, some of the heatwaves have been devastatingly hot. … I don’t think anyone anticipated temperatures would be so hot right now. I don’t think we could have expected so many heatwaves in the same general region in one summer. These sort of events are completely unprecedented. You expect records to be beaten by tenths of a degree, not 5F or more.”

— Michael Wehner, Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Nat’l. Lab

National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center: 6 to 10 Day Outlooks July 30 to August 03, 2021.

“According to NOAA’s 2020 Annual Climate Report the combined land and ocean temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.13 degrees Fahrenheit ( 0.08 degrees Celsius) per decade since 1880; however, the average rate of increase since 1981 (0.18°C / 0.32°F) has been more than twice that rate.”

July 25, 2021 Albuquerque, New Mexico – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s map above is a shocking reality check for atmospheric scientists who have warned about global warming for decades, but never expected in 2021 that there would be repeating episodes of severe and dangerous heat, forest fires and torrential rains with persistent flooding.

Michael Wehner, Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California is worried. “It’s been a severe and dangerous summer, some of the heatwaves have been devastatingly hot. We certainly expected these type of temperatures as global warming continues, but I don’t think anyone anticipated they would be so hot right now. I don’t think we could have expected so many heatwaves in the same general region in one summer.”

The Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon is the largest wildfire so far in 2021 in the United States, having burned up 530 square miles of forest and grasslands by July 23rd, and still raging. Image by The Klamath Tribes. — The Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon is the largest U. S. wildfire so far in 2021, having burned up 530 square miles of forest and grasslands by July 23rd, and still raging. Image by *The Klamath Tribes.*

Scientists Alarmed By Pacific Northwest Heat Domes and Forest Fires

“With the Pacific north-west heatwave, you’d conclude the event would be almost impossible without climate change. But in a straightforward statistical analysis from before this summer you’d also include it would be impossible with climate change, too. That is problematic, because the event happened.”

Smoke emitted from increasingly large wildfires is causing breathing difficulties for many people across the entire United States where skies have turned white this summer from wildfire smoke contamination. “These sort of events are completely unprecedented. You expect records to be beaten by tenths of a degree, not 5F or more.”