#ClimateDiary I don’t know whether anyone else does this, but with so much I read about what is happening right now, like this on #Arizona and heatstroke measures, I can’t help imagining it both as a document read by later historians (“how it all unfolded”) and as a report from the future - ie, this is what I thought would start happening in the future, if we don’t do anything to prevent it.
It is a lot to process that this really is our reality, right now 1/2
A saguaro cactus is seen during a 27-day-long heat wave with temperatures over 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona, July 26, 2023. A Flir One ProThermal camera registered a surface temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius), with an air temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius). REUTERS/Carlos Barria
It’s not summer yet, but more than 17 million people in the western United States are already under excessive heat warnings as temperatures climb 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit above average, with large swaths of California expecting to see thermometers hit 108F (42.2C). Meteorologists are saying the scorching weather is caused by a heat dome, when high pressure traps heat over an area, making it hotter the longer it lasts. The BBC has more.