Summer Weather Review
The hottest... no wait, coldest... summer on record
The diminishing ice sheets of Greenland are commonly used to demonstrate the devastating impacts of Climate Change. However, this summer was characterized by a series of record ice GAINS.
As summer draws to a close in the northern hemisphere, it is time to do my seasonal round-up of weather reports from around the globe.
While I fully acknowledge that numerous ‘hottest day’ or ‘unprecedented heat waves’ have been reported this summer, I am deliberately not focusing on that end of the weather spectrum here. My objective is to show you that it isn’t actually all one way traffic, by any means…
USA
Just days after Boston hit a sweltering 38 degrees Celsius at the end of June, the city set a new record low-max temperature, breaking a record that had stood since 1914.
A similar record low temperature was also broken in nearby Worcester, Massachusetts, with the maximum daily temperature not hitting the 14 degrees Celsius mark.
Throughout July, similar records fell across various states including New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut, according to National Weather Service data.
An Arctic air mass produced low temperatures and frost across much of northeast Minnesota on Thursday, reports mprnews.org. For example, Brimson, hit a new July benchmark when the bulb dropped to -1 degree Celsius according to mprnews.org.
At the end of July, coolwx.com reported a total of nine daily low temperatures across the north-eastern region of the US.
Continuing into August, from Texas up to South Dakota, and from Massachusetts down to Alabama, tens of daily low temperature records have fallen.
Africa
The winter cold arrived some two months earlier than expected in parts of Africa, as reported by the Kenya Meteorological Department.
According to the Department’s data, Nairobi in July saw an average overnight low of 10 degrees Celsius, a huge eight degrees below the average, and daytime highs averaging at 18 degrees Celsius, an impressive six degrees below the average.
Such extremes were being reported a having devastating impacts in crops from Kenya and beyond as some regions saw temperatures drop to freezing point according to xinhuanet.com.
Moving to the Western side of the continent, Namibia also reported extreme cold weather during July, with the nations lowest ever July temperature (in Sandveld) hitting -10 degrees Celsius, almost beating the all-time record low of -10.5 degrees Celsius of any month.
Lows spread to nearby places such as Botswana which witnessed harsh frosts and record colds, including -7.7 degrees Celsius observed at Tsabong, -6.2 degrees at Werda, and -5.6 degrees at Tshane — all unprecedented lows
Throughout the southern hemisphere winter months, South Africans will have seen their national South African Weather Service (SAWS) and Eskom, the power provider, issue numerous weather related warnings. Multiple record low temperatures were reported during July with temps plummeting to -10 degrees Celsius in some southern parts. Even in the northwestern regions, places such as Van Zylsrus and Twee Rivieren recorded 20-year lows.
Etscourt in KZN reported an all-time low in July of -4.8 degrees Celsius, a record which had stood for almost 50 years.
Postmasburg in the Northern Cape saw a new lowest ever temperature of -7.5 degrees Celsius. In the Western Cape, Mossel Bay also break a previous record low temperature when it hit 5.2 degrees Celsius which had been set in 2008.
Lydenburg, Mpumalanga comfortably beat its previous cold record when it dropped to -3.8 degrees Celsius.
In July, residents of the South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg, also experienced their coldest day for 10 years.
Into August and low lying areas such as Drummond reported seeing sleet for the first time following ‘very rare indeed’ wintry showers (reported by SAPeople’s). Killarney, Johannesburg reported its first snowfall in living memory, as well as parts of KZN.
Europe
The month of August saw unusually high snow fall for the European Alps, with early openings of ski-fields across Austria, France, Switzerland and Italy.
Belgium experienced a colder than average month of July, with record amounts of rain falling too. A total of 166 mm of rain fell over the course of the month, versus the norm of 77 mm — smashing the previous record of 133 mm set back in the year 2000.
It was a similar situation in the Netherlands, with July being both cooler and wetter than normal.
Further north in Finland, the often overlooked metric of lake temperature was reported as being much colder than normal across the Scandinavian country.
Australia and New Zealand
Australasia has seen its fair share of weather extremes during their 2021 winter.
During the month of May, Australia’s east coast suffered the longest cold streak in 50 years. Lows of -7.5 degrees Celsius were recorded at Glen Innes in Northern NSW, while the Alpine town of Perisher touched –9.5 degrees Celsius.
As early as June, tens of flights were cancelled in New Zealand’s southernmost airports due to a severe ‘polar blast’, leaving many passengers stranded. Snow swept even sea-level areas with the wind chill hitting as low as -20 degrees Celsius. Towns such as Stratford and Midhirst witnessed snowfall for the first time in 10 years.
The North Island capital Wellington was hit with not only violent hail storms, but also the worst tidal storms in many years, with authorities putting residents on evacuation standby.
Sydney saw its coldest July day in a decade after maximum temperatures reached just above 12 degrees Celsius in the middle of the month.
Into August, and yet more weather warnings were delivered across Western Australia as temperatures plummeted and a polar front brought gales, hail, heavy rain and snow.
Greenland
The diminishing ice sheets of Greenland are a commonly used statistic to demonstrate the devastating impacts of Climate Change. However, this summer was characterized by a series of record ice GAINS.
At the end of May, a single day at the end of May saw a record gain of more than 12 gigatons according to the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), which was quite literally ‘off the charts’.
An average daily ice gain for that time of year is something in the order of one to two gigatons.
Further record breaking gains were recorded throughout June, with another astonshing day seeing 4 gigatons being added - the highest since the DMI’s records began for a June day - whereas at this time of year the average condition would see a net ice loss of 2-3 gigatons.
Antarctica
Moving to the opposite polar region, the ice sheet was growing rapidly during the early winter season, rising comfortably above historic averages, recording a bone shattering -81 degrees Celsius along the way!
“Sea ice in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica was well above the 1981 to 2010 average extent in June, rising above the ninetieth percentile near the end of the month”. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)
The trend of the satellite era, over the last 40 years or so, remains one of growth of approximately 1% per decade.
Conclusions
What was your general impression of 2021’s (northern hemisphere) summer period?
I will finish with the following late August headline from a British newspaper:
‘‘UK on course to see one of hottest summers on record.’’ Birmingham Mail
Wait, what?!
For my British readers, can you HONESTLY say that the headline matches your lived experience?
I hope you enjoyed!
-Tristan