In July Alone, Nearly 3,000 US All-Time High Day Temps Set, Along W. 6,000 Nighttime Highs

[hatrack]

EDIT

In short, this has been a highly unusual summer in Texas, and also in much of the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains. In July alone, nearly 3,000 daily high temperature records were set or tied across the country, along with about 6,000 record warm nighttime low temperatures, according to Climate Central's record temperature tracker.

But what’s unusual today will be typical in the future, climate scientists say. Due in large part to manmade global warming, summers like this one will happen so often, in fact, that they will be the new normal.

“If the planet hits the two degree warming threshold, 70-80 percent of the global land surface will be regions where historical extremes have become the norm,” says Boston University climate scientist Bruce Anderson.

EDIT

Scientists say the trend towards more hot extremes has already begun. In the U.S., for example, record breaking hot days have already become more common than they once were. According to climate scientist Jerry Meehl, recording breaking hot days used to be as common as cold ones. But in 2000, there were twice as many warm temperature records as cold records in the U.S., and he says that in 2011, so far there have been three times as many. Over the past decade, a growing body of research has concluded that heat extremes are going to get worse later this century, and not just in the West. Heat waves that last a few days are likely to happen more frequently in the Midwest, too. In the Southeast, scientists predict that the number of days that climb above 90°F every year could triple towards the end of this century.

EDIT

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/extreme-summer-temperatures-will-soon-be-the-norm-scientists-say/

[Viking12]

1. Nothing to see here. Move along. Quietly.

[Nihil]

3. I'd have thought that whistling may be more apropos ...

... seeing as how we're seeing the foundations of a graveyard being put in ...

[kestrel91316]

2. K&R