Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Record-Breaking Warm Weather Expected Around Globe As Human-Caused Climate Crisis Now As Powerful As El Niño's Effects, Says WMO

Just imagine if NPR, MSNBC, CNN, FOX, and all corporate-funded mainstream neoliberal media reported the truth about the climate emergency and immersed us all in the same kind of coverage that they are giving to the coronavirus. Just imagine if we Americans were actually informed and understood collectively that this is the greatest crisis which humankind has ever faced. Just imagine if we knew that most life on Earth is threatened with extinction by the end of the century if we don't immediately enact dramatic systemic changes NOW such as that embodied in the Green New Deal. Just imagine. There would be only one presidential candidate we would choose to both beat Trump and to be our President — because Bernie Sanders is the ONLY one who has been speaking the truth about climate change and fighting the climate crisis for decades AND who is 100% committed to declaring a Climate Emergency and allocating the funding needed to implement the Green New Deal immediately. Just imagine if we all understood that the very lives of our children and grandchildren and all children everywhere would be facing civilization collapse and extinction if we fail to act NOW. Just imagine. — Molly


 The world's top meteorological experts issued the warning as cities and countries around the world reported record-breaking warm winters.
By
As countries accustomed to cold, snowy winters reported record-breaking warm weather this season, meteorological experts on Monday predicted that temperatures over the next several months will also be warmer than usual—even without the effects of El Niño.

In its El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) update, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that the naturally-occurring El Niño phenomenon has only a 20 to 35% chance of taking place between March and August 2020. Warm weather mirroring El Niño's effects, however, is 55 to 60% likely over that same time period.

"Even ENSO neutral months are warmer than in the past, as air and sea surface temperatures and ocean heat have increased due to climate change," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas in a statement. "The signal from human-induced climate change is now as powerful as that from a major natural force of nature."

El Niño, which involves changes in Pacific Ocean surface temperatures and in the "overlying atmospheric circulation," as the WMO wrote, is associated with drought, rain, and other weather events associated with warmer temperatures.

Even without the phenomenon, above-average sea surface temperatures are expected in both tropical and non-tropical regions in the next several months, which will lead to unusually warm weather on land as well.

The WMO report came as officials from around the world reported that cities and countries in a number of regions are experiencing unusually warm winters.

Moscow has had its warmest winter season in 200 years of record-keeping, with an average temperature of 32.3 degrees Fahrenheit—the first winter the city has experienced with an average temperature above freezing. Data is still being recorded throughout Russia, the Washington Post reported, and the entire country may have set a warm-weather record this winter.

Japan and France have also recorded their warmest winters.

A number of cities accustomed to snowy winters saw little to no snowfall this year; Helsinki, Finland recorded a total accumulation of 0.2 centimeters all winter, with no snow in January and February. In the U.S., Washington D.C. recorded less than an inch of snow this winter, compared to its average snowfall of more than 15 inches. New York City also recorded its second-least snowy winter ever.

On social media, climate experts recorded a number of unusually warm winters around the world, with the Post's Capital Weather Gang calling some of the records "astonishing."

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