GLOBAL WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS

GLOBAL WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS

JUNE 2023

EUROPE

Thursday  (1^st) saw potentially the lowest June temperature on record in Finland.  A weather station in Lapland, Enontekiö Kilpisjärvi Saana, reached -7.7C. This may not seem that cold for northern Finland, where winter temperatures reach as low as -51.5C, but the last time Lapland saw a minimum temperature of -7C in June was on 3 June 1962.  In addition, at this time of year Lapland experiences midnight sun where it is constantly light and the sun does not set. This unseasonal cold was possible in the first month of summer due to a large area of high pressure to the west of Finland, blocking the usual westerly/south-westerly flow of weather systems across the Atlantic and North Sea.  The mostly stationary area of high pressure to the west meant that polar air continued to flow in from the north for several days. The cold is expected to continue through this week, but the high pressure will finally edge eastwards allowing some relative warmth to return.

UNITED STATES

Texas is trapped under a “heat dome” that is expected to bring more record highs and strain the power grid. As the heatwave expands through parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and all the way across the Gulf coast, tens of millions are facing excessive heat warnings.   Houston, the largest city in Texas, hit a high of 100F (38C) today, and officials are expecting daily high temperatures in Austin to remain above 100F for the next several days.  Meanwhile, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot) said power use reached record high of 80,828 MW on Tuesday evening, with peak demand expected to rise higher tomorrow, as residents crank up their air conditioning. The agency had warned residents last week to conserve energy if possible, amid record demand. Ercot anticipates it will have enough resources to meet current demand.

Extreme and prolonged heat looks set to continue across the southern states of the US and Mexico through this week. This heatwave, which has already brought record temperatures across Texas through the past two weeks, will extend into states such as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana over the coming days.  At least 50 million people have been placed under extreme heat advisories as temperatures are forecast to soar at least 5-10C above the climatological average, with daily maximum temperatures reaching 40-45C (104-113F). San Angelo airport in Texas has already recorded two consecutive days where the temperature hit 45.6C (114F), which surpasses its highest ever temperature by three degrees.  This heat will continue to put stress on power grids across the southern states and Mexico. Texas in particular is uniquely vulnerable to power failures as it is the only state in the contiguous US that is disconnected from the national grid. As a result, the power grid operator for Texas has asked residents to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand.  In Mexico, demands on energy have already surpassed last year by 9% due to the heat. Blackouts have been reported in Cancún and Tulum, leaving many without air conditioning and fresh water. Several heat-related deaths have been reported by local media.

Across Australia, a long band of rain will stretch more than 3,000km (1,800 miles) from the north-west through to the central region and into the south-east – including the outback. It is expected to bring anywhere between 10 and 100mm of rainfall across the entire region through this week. For the outback, this will easily surpass the winter climatological average for rainfall in just a few days.  An area that is particularly at risk is around Alice Springs and Yulara, across southern and western parts of the Northern Territory, where the highest rainfall totals are expected of 50-100mm. This region of the Northern Territory is classed as a semi-arid or arid environment and on average receives only 250-300mm of rain every year. Alice Springs usually gets only 10.3mm of rainfall in June. As a result, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has issued a flood watch warning through the entire week across four states.

Heavy rain fell across Northwest New Jersey from the middle of the evening on May 31st into the mid morning on June 1st. Doppler Radar storm total estimates ranged between 1.5 and 3 inches across most of Morris, Sussex and Warren Counties. The heavy rain led to flooding along sections of the Rockaway and Pequannock Rivers on June 1st and 2nd with poor drainage and low lying flooding occurring elsewhere. Storm totals included 3.25 inches in Montville (Morris County), 2.49 inches in Chatham (Morris County), 1.84 inches in Sussex (Sussex County) and 1.56 inches in Andover (Sussex County).

Three weak tornadoes were reported in Sherman County during the afternoon of June 1st. The tornadoes formed on a slow-moving surface boundary, and were part of a larger episode of land spout type tornadoes which occurred on this day. All tornadoes were weak and occurred over open country with minimal or no damage.

ASIA

Many people in China have experienced a variety of weather extremes in recent days. Parts of southern and eastern China experienced prolonged periods of torrential rainfall, as the summer rains known as “dragon boat water” got off to a remarkable start.

The city of Yulin in the Guangxi region experienced 35 hours of non-stop rain on 8-9 June, while the nearby city of Beihai was flooded after 614.7mm of rainfall over 24 hours in the same period. This is approximately a third of the city’s average yearly precipitation, and a June record for the Guangxi region. It is in stark contrast to May, when Guangxi experienced its lowest rainfall in 60 years.  Meanwhile, parts of eastern China were hit by severe thunderstorms over the weekend. Gale-force winds and hail caused damage to many areas, with three people killed in the city of Wuhu in the Anhui province when a shipyard crane was toppled. 

Shanghai in China has reported a record high May temperature of 36.7C, breaking the previous record by 1C. The new high temperature on 29 May comes amid the heatwave affecting southern and eastern Asia since mid-April. Vast swathes of the region have had temperatures exceeding 40C, with parts of Pakistan reaching almost 50C in mid-May.  South-east Asia has been affected particularly badly, with record high national temperatures in Laos (43.5C), Vietnam (44.2C), and Thailand (45.4C). This is due to low amounts of rainfall over the previous winter resulting in drier soils, which can heat up more quickly than moist soils, thus exacerbating the effect. 

The heatwave is estimated to have affected a third of the world’s population, and has led to at least 17 deaths and 60 hospitalizations from heatstroke. Many local authorities have taken measures such as closing schools and offices early and imposing restrictions on outdoor activities, while farmers and other outdoor laborers have reported being unable to continue working past mid-morning. Last week, the first to be born in India for more than 70 years succumbed to the heat.  As people turn to fans and air conditioning, the demand for electricity has led to power outages. The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has been hit by frequent power cuts in recent weeks, with blackouts of up to 12 hours leading to protests outside power stations. Meanwhile, Vietnam implemented rolling blackouts of up to seven hours to cope with demand, with the city of Hanoi reducing the amount of public street lighting.  The heatwave will continue into June, with parts of western China looking most likely to see new temperature records in the coming days.  Meanwhile, as Antarctica moves towards winter, sea ice is rapidly expanding but remains well below the long-term 1981-2010 average. The current extent is about 1.8m sq km below normal, a record low for this time of year.  Scientists are closely monitoring the progress of ice formation, keen to determine whether this anomaly is down to natural variability or a longer term change as a result of human-induced climate breakdown. Sea ice influences the global climate through maintaining the Earth’s energy balance and plays an important role in protecting and stabilizing Antarctica’s ice shelves, as well as being important for marine biodiversity.   The headline and text of this article were amended on 2 June 2023 to clarify that 36.7C is a record high temperature for May, not overall as an earlier version implied.

Heavy rain across parts of Japan killed one person, left two missing and injured dozens more, authorities said, with thousands of people issued evacuation warnings.  The inundation was caused by the remnants of former typhoon Mawar, downgraded to a tropical storm.  A rescue team in central Aichi region’s Toyohashi, where the highest-level evacuation alert was issued on Friday, “found a man approximately in his 60s in a submerged car, but he was later confirmed dead”, a city official said on Saturday. 

In western Wakayama, where several rivers burst their banks, officials said they had resumed the search for a man and a woman missing in the region. 

CANADA

Canada is experiencing its most destructive wildfire season on record, as hundreds of blazes burning from coast to coast continue to send tremendous plumes of smoke into the atmosphere. Thick bands of soot and smoke particles captured over the last month by satellite images showed the extent of the air pollution traveling south over the Canadian border and into the United States, producing hazy skies and triggering air quality alerts across parts of the country.  In late June, the smoke plume stretched as far as Europe, while air quality alerts were effected again for millions of Americans.

Wildfire season typically happens around this time of year in Canada, which is home to about 9% of the world's forests. But with the season occurring annually from May until October, devastation seen from the outset this year put the country almost immediately on track for its worst season in more than 30 years. Out-of-control blazes have cropped up in nearly every corner of Canada and forced thousands of people to evacuate.   Eastern provinces like Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia have been hit particularly hard this year by large and at times uncontrollable blazes. Officials on Friday reported 106 active fires in Quebec. To the west, Alberta had the second-highest number of active blazes with 101 while British Columbia, along Canada's west coast, had 95.

NORTH AMERICA

Huge swaths of the United States continue to face extreme weather as temperatures persist into the triple digits in the south and south-west while smoke pollution is blighting the Midwest.  Chicago and Detroit both had the most unhealthy air in the world for several hours on Tuesday evening, CNN report, as smoke drifts from record Canadian wildfires. More than 80 million people, largely from the Midwest to the east coast, are under air quality alerts.  “Until the fires are out, there’s a risk,” said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “If there’s any north component to the wind, there’s a chance it’ll be smoky.” The warming planet will produce hotter and longer heatwaves, making for bigger, smokier fires, said Joel Thornton, professor and chair of the department of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington.  In Chicago, officials urged young people, older adults and residents with health issues to spend more time indoors.  Priti Marwah, jogging along Chicago’s lakefront on Tuesday, described the haze as “bad”.  “Like, you can smell it bad,” she said. “I run a hundred miles a week, so this is going to be dangerous today. You can feel it … just even parking right there and coming out, I can feel it in my lungs.”  “Just driving into the zoo … you could just see around the buildings, kind of just haze,” said Shelly Woinowski, who was visiting the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.  Some daycare centers in the Chicago area told parents that their children would remain indoors on Tuesday due to the poor air quality, while one youth sports club said it adjusted its activities to add more time indoors.  “As these unsafe conditions continue, the city will continue to provide updates and take swift action to ensure that vulnerable individuals have the resources they need to protect themselves and their families,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement.  Skies were so clouded in Detroit that observers were unable to see a flyover from the Michigan national guard marking the 100th anniversary of the air force, the Detroit News reported. The weather service in Grand Rapids tweeted that “everyone should limit time outdoors”.  Fires in northern Quebec and low pressure over the eastern Great Lakes are responsible for the smoke, Jackson said. He added that a north wind would push the smoke further south, moving into southern Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky overnight.  Meanwhile, more than 40 million Americans are under excessive heat warnings as a heat dome has settled over portions of the United States. Temperatures in Roswell, New Mexico, have remained over 105F for nine straight days, a record there, ABC News reported on Wednesday. Texas is also facing extreme temperatures and is seeing record use on its power grid.  The extreme heatwave was made five times more likely by the heating of Earth’s atmosphere with fossil fuels, according to Climate Central, a non-profit group. The heatwave comes as one of the strongest heat domes ever recorded has settled over portions of the southern US. Heat domes occur when a high-pressure system and warming air trap latent heat. Texas is also seeing an increase in heat-related visits to hospital emergency rooms, Axios reported. In San Antonio, paramedics are experimenting with a new procedure where they cool people facing dangerous heatstroke by placing them in a bag with packs of iced water while they transport them to the hospital, ABC News reported. In June alone, San Antonio’s fire department has responded to more than 250 heat-related calls, a 53% increase from the same period last year, the outlet reported.

TROPICAL

More than 100,000 people have been evacuated in India and Pakistan ahead of the expected landfall on Thursday of a “very severe cyclonic storm”.  Biparjoy, a cyclone whose name means “disaster” in Bengali, is making its way across the Arabian Sea and is expected to make landfall on Thursday evening, government weather monitors said.

Powerful winds, storm surges and lashing rains were forecast to hammer a 325km (200-mile) stretch of coast between Mandvi in India’s Gujarat state and Karachi in Pakistan.  “Over 47,000 people have been evacuated from coastal and low-lying areas to shelter,” said C C Patel, an official in charge of relief operations in Gujarat.  Pakistan’s climate change minister, Sherry Rehman, said on Wednesday that 62,000 people had been evacuated from the country’s south-eastern coast, with 75 relief camps set up at schools and colleges.  She said fishers had been warned to stay off the water and small aircraft were grounded, while flooding was possible in the megacity of Karachi, home to about 20 million people.

One of the worst hit on the cyclone’s trail was the town of Caraa, with a population of more than 8,000 people.  “The situation in Caraa deeply worries us. It is essential that we can, in an organized way, quickly map the main affected areas and identify the people who need support,” said Rio Grande do Sul’s governor, Eduardo Leite, who visited the area.  As of Friday night, Maquine, a municipality on the eastern coast, had received around a foot of rain, authorities said.  Many residents in the worst hit areas took shelter in outdoor sports facilities in their towns. The authorities issued a warning for a risk of landslides in several areas.  Leite said authorities carried out 2,400 rescues in the last two days.  “Our main objective at this first moment is to protect and save human lives. We are rescuing people who are stranded, locating missing people and giving all the support to the families,” he said.