Graph of the Day – Page 44 – Desdemona Despair

Map showing trends of early-warning indicators of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapse. a, Linear trends of the corrected restoring rate λ estimated from the HadISST dataset assuming autocorrelated noise. b, Same as (a) but for the EN4 salinity dataset. c, Linear trends of the variance estimated from the HadISST dataset. d, Same as (c) but for the EN4 salinity dataset. e, Linear trends of the AC1 estimated from the HadISST dataset. f, Same as (e) but for the EN4 salinity dataset. Note the high positive values in the northern Atlantic and the subpolar gyre region in particular for λ and AC1, but also in the southern Atlantic ocean where a salinity pileup has recently been associated with an AMOC slowdown. Graphic: Boers, 2021 / Nature Climate Change

August 22, 2021

Gulf Stream could be veering toward irreversible decline, a new analysis warns – Atlantic current “approaching a critical threshold beyond which the circulation system could collapse”

By Ben Turner 6 August 2021 (LiveScience) – One of the most crucial ocean current systems for regulating the Northern Hemisphere’s climate could be on the verge of total collapse due to climate change, a new study has revealed. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which includes the Gulf Stream and is responsible for moderating […]

Projections of annual counts of high-tide flooding (HTF) days for the NOAA Intermediate Sea Level Rise (SLR) scenario. The NOAA minor flooding threshold is used for Honolulu, San Diego and St. Petersburg. The NOAA moderate flooding threshold is used for Boston to highlight a threshold that is not yet routinely exceeded, which is not the case for the Boston minor threshold. The 50th percentile from the ensemble of projections (blue line) and the 10th–90th percentile range (blue shading, with the 90th percentile highlighted in orange) show increasing numbers of HTF days per year. The year of inflection (YOI, open black circle) for each projection corresponds to abrupt increases in the frequency of HTF days, which are highlighted by comparing the projected increases (Δ) over two adjacent ten-year periods (dashed and solid black lines). Graphic: Thompson, et al., 2021 / Nature Climate Change

August 16, 2021

Sunny-day flooding is about to become more than a nuisance – “What’s scary about this paper is the idea of the inflection point. Can we adapt fast enough to keep pace?”

By Jim Morrison 2 August 2021 (WIRED) – During the summer of 2017, the tide rose to historic heights again and again in Honolulu, higher than at any time in the 112 years that records had been kept. Philip Thompson, director of the Sea Level Center at the University of Hawaii, wanted to know why. […]

A water bottle is placed at a small vigil for Sebastian Francisco Perez as the community gathers to remember him at Ernst Nursery and Farm in Saint Paul, Oregon on Saturday, 3 July 2021. Mr. Perez was found unresponsive in a field around 3:30 p.m. on 26 June 2021, during the record heatwave, according to the St. Paul Fire District. OSHA has opened investigations into Ernst Nursery and Farms and Brother Farm Labor Contractor, who provided workers to the nursery. Photo: Brian Hayes / Statesman Journal / Imagn

August 8, 2021

Regulators refuse to step in as U.S. workers languish in extreme heat

By Ariel Wittenberg and Zack Colman 8 August 2021 (POLITICO) – When it gets so hot that the hallucinations start, and her eyes hurt and her spit begins to foam, construction worker Sharon Medina disappears behind a wall of co-workers to sneak a sip of water. She discovered the hard way not to complain to […]

Map of the U.S. showing the Covid risk levels and vaccination percentages, per county, 4 August 2021. The counties with the lowest vaccination rates hanve the highest infection rates. The highest Covid risk levels are in Louisiana and Florida. Graphic: Covid Act Now

August 4, 2021

Graph of the Day: U.S. Covid vaccination rates and risk levels by county, 4 August 2021

4 August 2021 (Desdemona Despair) – Republican election strategy became clearer today, as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blamed exponential increases in Covid infection rates on immigrants at the Southern border, deflecting blame from the unvaccinated populations in Florida and other Republican-controlled states. This ridiculous idea is easily tested by examining the spatial distribution of case […]

Daily hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in Florida, 1 August 2021. On Sunday, Florida broke a previous record for the most COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S., just one day after the state registered its highest single-day COVID-19 case number. Graphic: Covid Act Now

August 1, 2021

Florida breaks record for COVID-19 hospitalizations, a day after reporting most new cases – Dr. Fauci says more “pain and suffering” ahead as Delta variant burns through unvaccinated population

By Natalie Colarossi 1 August 2021 (Newsweek) – Florida on Sunday broke a previous record for the most COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S., just one day after the state registered its highest single-day COVID-19 case number. Florida now has 10,207 people hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus cases, a number that surpasses a previous record the state […]

Time series of climate-related responses to anthropogenic drivers, 1990-2020. Out of the 31 tracked planetary vital signs, 18 were at new all-time record lows or highs in 2020. Data obtained before and after the publication of Ripple and colleagues (2020) are shown in gray and red respectively. For variables with relatively high variability, local regression trend lines are shown in black. The variables were measured at various frequencies (e.g., annual, monthly, weekly). The labels on the x-axis correspond to midpoints of years. Sources and additional details about each variable are provided in the supplemental material. Graphic: Ripple, et al., 2021 / BioScience

July 31, 2021

World scientists’ warning of a climate emergency 2021 – Humans face untold suffering from “the consequences of unrelenting business as usual”

28 July 2021 (BioScience) – In 2019, Ripple and colleagues (2020) warned of untold suffering and declared a climate emergency together with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from 153 countries. They presented graphs of planetary vital signs indicating very troubling trends, along with little progress by humanity to address climate change. On the basis of […]

Map showing rainfall anomalies (percentage) for seasons of 2020 in the UK. This was the fifth wettest year for UK in a series from 1862, and the wettest year since 2000. It was a particularly wet year across parts of north-west England and south-west Scotland which received more than 125% of average fairly widely, and some locations recorded more than 135% of average. Winter refers to the period December 2019 to February 2020. Note that winter 2021 (December 2020 to February 2021) will appear in State of the UK Climate 2021. Graphic: Met Office

July 31, 2021

Climate change continued across the UK in 2020 – 2020 was the first year that rainfall, temperature, and sunshine values all were in the top ten in the same year

By Karen Graham 29 July 2021 (Digital Journal) – The United Kingdom’s climate has continued to warm, with the decade 2011–2020 providing a 10-year “snapshot” of the most recent of the UK’s climate events and how this compares to historical records. According to the Met Office, The Royal Meteorological Society’s latest analysis of the UK climate – […]

COVID-19 daily confirmed new cases in Florida, January 2020 - July 2021 (7-day moving average). Florida exceeded its previous peak in daily cases on 26 July 2021, as Gov. DeSantis downplayed the severity of the outbreak and told healthcare professionals that he will oppose any mask mandate for students. Graphic: Johns Hopkins University

July 27, 2021

Florida hits Covid daily case record as Gov. DeSantis downplays outbreak

27 July 2021 (Desdemona Despair) – Florida broke its COVID-19 daily-case record on Monday, exceeding the previous peak in January 2021. Hospitalizations hit the highest number since February 2021. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has downplayed the outbreak and told healthcare professionals that he opposes any mask mandate for students. Florida saw more than 18,200 new […]

U.S. life expectancy, 1900-2020. Data: NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, Mortality. U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years. Graphic: AP

July 26, 2021

U.S. life expectancy in 2020 saw “basically catastrophic” decline, biggest drop since World War Two – “In 2021, we can’t get back to pre-pandemic life expectancy”

By Mike Stobbe 20 July 2021 NEW YORK (AP) – U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, public health officials said Wednesday. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years. The drop spelled out by the […]

Forecast NWS NDFD Max temperatures (F) and departure from climatology (fill) in the United States, 25 July 2021 - 28 July 2021. Graphic: NOAA / NWS

July 25, 2021

Next 2021 heatwave to cover huge swath of U.S., bringing high temperatures to millions

By Jeanine Santucci 24 July 2021 (USA TODAY) – Most of the nation can expect above average temperatures in coming days as a giant heat wave is expected to spread across much of the continental U.S. beginning next week. The heat wave will bring temperatures that are at least 5 to 10 degrees higher than average to much of the country, according […]