All-time record high temperatures matched or toppled from Colorado to Scotland – “Unprecedented” and “apocalyptic” moorland fires near Manchester, England

By Bob Henson
29 June 2018
(Weather Underground) – June will segue into July this weekend with much of the central and eastern U.S. enduring a blistering, dangerous heat wave that could extend into the July 4 holiday in some areas. Excessive heat warnings were already in place Friday morning for parts of 11 states from Kansas to Michigan, and heat advisories for the upcoming onslaught extended all the way to Vermont.Ample low-level moisture—perhaps boosted by “corn sweat”—will add to the misery of the high temperatures in many locations. The heat index, a measure of the combined effects of heat and humidity, was predicted to soar as high as 120°F on Friday and Saturday across parts of northern Illinois as dew point temperatures approach 80°F. The heat index could be in the 105-110°F range in the New York City area from Sunday into Tuesday.

All-time record highs matched or toppled from Colorado to Scotland

The dome of heat building into the Northeast U.S. gripped the Rockies on Thursday. Denver’s high of 105°F on Thursday matched its all-time high in data going back to 1872. The other dates that saw 105°F in Denver were June 25 and 26, 2012; July 20, 2005; and Aug. 8, 1878. Two other nearby cities set daily records that came within 1°F of their all-time highs: Colorado Springs, CO (100°F) and Cheyenne, WY (99°F). Amid the intense heat, a wildfire in the Sangre de Cristo range of southern Colorado surged to envelop more than 14,000 acres by Friday morning, closing a major travel route (U.S. Highway 160).All-time heat records will be a bit less likely across the central and eastern U.S., but many daily record highs and record-warm minimums can be expected. Triple-digit highs aren’t out of the question by Sunday in upstate New York, where such readings are very uncommon. The last time Albany, NY, got up to 100°F was on 3 September 1953. Parts of Europe are also suffering through an intense early-summer heat wave, especially the United Kingdom. Thursday was the first day since 2013 that all four U.K. countries (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) saw a temperature of at least 30°C (86°F). The airport observing site at Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, notched the city’s highest official temperature ever recorded Thursday: 31.9°C (89.4°F). It was so hot that a membrane on the roof of the Glasgow Science Centre—designed to be “weatherproof”—began to melt. The capital of Northern Ireland, Belfast, also broke its all-time high on Thursday at the airport observing site, with a high of 29.5°C (85.1°F) beating 29.4°C (84.9°F) from 10 July 1934. In western Ireland, Shannon set its all-time high with 32.0°C (89.6°F). According to weather records expert Maximiliano Herrera, the reading at Shannon is the hottest temperature recorded anywhere in June in Ireland since 1976. In July 2006, a temperature of 32.3°C was recorded in Ireland.Extremely dry conditions have paved the way for the heat across northwest Europe. The Netherlands are expecting their driest June on record, with the De Bilt weather station now at a record-low June rainfall total of 12.1 mm (0.48”). England’s “home counties” surrounding London are on track to tie June 1925 as their driest on record; they’ve averaged just 3.3 mm (0.13”) for the month so far—about 6% of normal. Near Manchester, an unprecedented burst of moorland fires is ravaging the normally moist peat-bog countryside. […]

Dangerous ozone pollution event underway

This week’s heat wave is bringing the worst ozone air pollution thus far this year to much of the Midwest and Northeast United States. An Ozone Action Day was declared for 24 U.S. cities for Friday, including Cincinnati, Detroit, Dayton, Denver, Indianapolis, Louisville, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Salt Lake City. On Saturday, Ozone Action Days are up for 18 cities, mostly in New Jersey and Utah. Ground level ozone, which has been blamed for approximately 12,000 premature deaths per year in the U.S. between 2010 and 2016, is created from chemical reactions between volatile organic carbon (VOC) compounds and nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight. The chemical reactions that create ozone happen faster at high temperatures, and the current heat wave can be expected to cause one of the deadliest ozone pollution events of 2018. [more]