People spend time at the park at sunset during the summer heat wave in Hoboken, NJ, on July 21, 2022.
Andres Kudacki / AP
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Andres Kudacki / AP
People spend time at the park at sunset during the summer heat wave in Hoboken, NJ, on July 21, 2022.
Andres Kudacki / AP
Speaking of hot nights, America had some for history books last month.
The continental United States in July set a record for overnight warmth, meteorologists say, providing relief from the sweltering heat of the day for people, animals, plants and electricity grids, and greenhouse gases. said iconography.
The average low temperature in the lower 48 states in July was 63.6 degrees (17.6 degrees Celsius), beating the previous record set in 2011 by a few percent. The mark is not only the hottest nightly average for July, but also any month in 128 years, said climatologist Karin Gleason of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The nighttime low of July was 3 degrees (1.7 degrees C) warmer than the 20th-century average.
Scientists have long talked about how nighttime temperatures – reflected in increasingly hotter minimums, which often occur after sunset and before sunrise – are important for health. strong.
“When you have daytime temperatures at or near record highs and you can’t recover in a night of sub-cooling temperatures, that puts a lot of stress on plants, animals and people,” he said. Gleason said Friday. “This is a big broblem.”
In Texas, where average daytime highs were above 100 degrees (37.8 degrees Celsius) for the first time in July and the power grid was stressed, the average nighttime temperature was 74.3 degrees (23.5 degrees). C) – 4 degrees (2.2 degrees C) ) above the 20th century average.
Over the past 30 years, nighttime lows in the US have warmed by an average of about 2.1 degrees (1.2 degrees Celsius), while daytime highs have increased by 1.9 degrees (1.1 degrees Celsius) degrees Celsius) at the same time. For decades, climate scientists have said that global warming from burning coal, oil and natural gas will cause the world to warm faster at night and in the arctic regions. Research reported earlier this week that the Arctic is currently warming four times faster than the rest of the globe.
The night warms up faster because daytime warming helps the air hold more moisture, and then the moisture helps retain heat at night, Gleason said.
“So that’s in theory to be expected and that’s also what we’re seeing happening in the data,” Gleason said.
NOAA on Friday also released its global temperature data for July, showing it was the sixth hottest month on record with an average temperature of 61.97 degrees (16.67 degrees Celsius), warm 1.57 degrees (0.87 degrees C) more than the 20th century average. It was a month of heat waves, including the UK breaking all-time heat records.
“Global warming is continuing to happen,” said Colorado meteorologist Bob Henson.
