Big Heat Waves Hitting Large Parts Of World, Are We Next?

When you see a weather pattern like this in the
summer with a big ridge or northward bulge in
the jet stream over the Northeast, expect a heat
wave. This is one forecast for next Tuesday, 
though computer models are varying on the
strength and duration of the hot spell. 

With climate change taking hold more and more, dangerous, record breaking heat waves have been hitting different parts of the world each summer in the past few years.  

It's only June, but the deadly extreme heat fest for 2025 has already started here on Earth.

 What strikes me the most is that there are currently so many record heat waves going on in different parts of the globe simultaneously. 

There's always a heat wave somewhere in the summer, but the fact that places as diverse as Japan, France, and Kuwait are breaking all time record highs for the month of June all at the same time is pretty unsettling.

We in Vermont could get at least a taste of the hot weather next week. And I think all time record heat will hit the Green Mountain State within the next few years.  More on that in a bit. 

WORLDWIDE HEAT

First, we'll look at some of the incredible heat withering different parts of the world. Much of this information comes from Maximiliano Hererra, a climatologist who tracks worldwide heat waves.

Our first visit is to Kuwait, since the strongest heat was there. Kuwait is an extraordinary hot nation anyway, but this is ridiculous. At last report, the following Kuwaiti figures haven't been confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization.

But if these temperatures are real, they're insane. 

If the 130 degree temperature in Kuwait is confirmed, it would tie the reliable record for the world's hottest temperature on record, which was 130 degrees in Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California on July 9, 2021.

The widely reported hottest temperature isn 134 degrees in Death Valley on July 10, 1913, but there are questions about the reliability of that long-ago reading. 

EUROPE HEAT

A heat wave is building in Europe, too, with record high temperatures already reported in France and Germany. A few cities have already set record highs for the entire month of June. One town in France has hit 100 degrees over the pst couple of days. It's been as hot as 96 degrees in Germany.

Nights in parts of western Europe have been sultry, giving no real relief from the heat. Overnight lows in much of Germany over the weekend were in the low 70s. 

Mertola, Portugal on Sunday reached 105 degrees, hottest for so early in the season. Parts of Spain broiled over the weekend in temperatures as high as 107 degrees.

ASIA

At least 23 weather stations in China have broken their all time record high temperatures for the month of June. In Japan, at least a dozen cities have set record highs for the entire month of June, with readings reaching the upper 90s.  Parts of Indonesia, India and Pakistan are also reporting unprecedented June heat. 

UNITED STATES

The eastern United States is being plagued by persistent storminess that has led to some terrible flash flooding in the central Appalachians. Those floods are expected to continue for the next couple of days, but a new element is about to be added.

Forecasts call for a strong, hot ridge of high pressure to develop over the East early next week. At least a some record high temperatures are expected from the Plains to the East Coast. It's possible a few cities could see their all-time record for the month of June threatened. 

Some computer models depict insanely hot weather in the Northeast early next, though I think a few of these are overdone.  Some runs of the European model bring New York City to an all time high of 107 degrees. The Euro depicts highs up to 101 degrees in southeast Vermont and 97 degrees as far north as Burlington.

I doubt it will get that hot. I think the European model is exaggerating. But the way things are going around the world, who knows?   

VERMONT FORECAST

A taste of very warm, oppressive weather will arrive tomorrow and Thursday, with high humidity and temperatures well up into the 80s.  This won't be anywhere near any record highs, but it will be our most solid introduction to heat and humidity yet this year.

Showers and thunderstorms both tomorrow and Thursday will help hold temperatures well under 90 degrees, but will help keep the humidity incredibly uncomfortable.

We get a brief break Friday and Saturday with high temperatures both days in the 70s. But then the heat should begin to build back up starting Sunday, when it should get into the 80s with increasing humidity. 

Most forecasts have much of Vermont in the low 90s next Monday and Tuesday. There's a slight chance those outlier models of extreme, record breaking heat early next week are correct, but for now, I'm really doubting that. 

The heat next week should be mercifully brief, as temperatures by midweek should drop some.  But only to levels that are normal, or a little warmer than normal for this time of year. 

The long range weather pattern forecast also suggests that strong heat will spend most of the rest of June and probably beyond lurking not all that far to our south and west.  If the wind swings in the right direction, we have the potential for more big oppressive hot spells through the summer. 

NOAA forecasts for this summer in New England have consistently pointed toward a hotter than normal summer. 

FUTURE HEAT

While June and all-time heat records have been falling worldwide in recent years, the all-time hot records for Vermont remain distinctly old fashioned.

The hottest on record for anywhere in Vermont still stands at the 105 degrees recorded down in Vernon way back on July 4, 1911. The hottest it's ever gotten in Burlington is 101 degrees on August 11, 1944.

Now that climate change is increasingly in our lives, I think it's just a matter of time before those old records are broken. And I suspect it could come within just a matter of a few to several years.

We've had some incredible, record smashing hot spells in Vermont in recent years, but they have tended to not come in the summer.  It's just a roll of the dice when they hit. 

In Burlington, records go back to the 1880s. But the records for hottest temperature on record for the entire months of February, May, September, November and December have all happened since 2002 - so pretty recently in the grand scheme of things. Just last Halloween we shattered the record for hottest for so late in the season - 78 degrees on October 31.

That's why I think we are close to breaking are all-time record highs. An intense mid-summer unprecedented heat wave feels inevitable in this age of climate change. 

In Many Areas, Dangerous Summer Heat Waves Now Hit In The Spring

Springtime heat waves are growing more frequent,
widespread and deadly worldwide, 
thanks to climate change 

It's a relatively cool, rainy day here in Vermont, but something weird is happening with spring around the world. 

In many cases across the Northern Hemisphere, it's no longer that pleasant, mild time of year in which everything blooms. 

Instead, increasingly, many locations are getting blasted by strangely torrid weather. 

In many other areas of the world, where extreme summer heat is now a springtime thing, too, thanks to climate change. 

It's been going on pretty much yearly in the past decade, and the phenomenon is becoming more frequent and widespread. It's not just that these spring heat waves are weird. They're dangerous. 

As Vox reports:

"Cities like Phoenix and Palm Springs, California, closed in on triple digits in March; Phoenix usually doesn't reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit until May. This month, hundreds of millions of people across India and Pakistan, experienced temperatures as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit, triggering power outages and protests. The heat has also created conditions for thousands of wildfires in the region."

It's not just this year in which spring heat waves are popping up all over the place. 

Vox continues:

"It's part of a pattern. Last year, heat waves coursed through Africa and Europe during the spring, setting new temperature records in more than a dozen countries. Mexico experienced a series of heat waves beginning in April. A heat wave in Texas in May sent power demand to a record high for the month."

Heat waves are very often deadly, killing thousands of people every year. In some ways, these new spring heat waves might be even deadlier that ones that hit in July or August in the northern hemisphere. 

People are not acclimatized yet to hot weather and then a heat wave arrives prematurely.  The shock to the system can kill in some cases.

The spring heat waves also just make summer seemingly last forever.  The longer a heat wave goes on, the more punishing they are on the human body, unless people have access to cool rooms and plenty of water. Perhaps billions of people around the world have little or no access to air conditioning.

And spring heat - especially when they keep  going into the summer -   can cause droughts, contribute to wildfires and strain electrical grids. 

LATEST HEAT WAVES

 In the past few days, unprecedented early season heat has hit a broad area of North Africa, the Mideast, and adjacent parts of Asia. 

Climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who carefully tracks heat waves around the world is calling this huge heat wave an extraordinary event. "Thousands of stations will pulverize their records in the next days... with the hugest margins seen in climatic history," he wrote on X. 

Some examples in the past few days include 113 degrees in Gaya, Niger, the hottest temperature on record for any month in that area. 

 It was also 113 degrees in Hazeva, Israel. At Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, Israel,  it was 104 degrees.

Kuwait gets incredibly hot in the summer, but not quite so much in the spring. Until now. It was 120 degrees in Kuwait this week, their hottest April temperatures on record. 

Saudi Arabia also saw its hottest April weather on record with temperatures as high as 115 degrees. 

In war-torn Sudan temperatures in the past week have gotten as hot as 112 during the day and failed to drop below the mid-80s at night.  Heat waves are more dangerous when it does not cool off at night, as the unrelenting temperatures never give the human body to recover from the extreme heat of the day. 

Other incredible heat examples this week include 108 in Turkmenistan, 104 in Uzbekistan, and 100 degrees in Kazakhstan.  

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has warned residents of that nation to expect more unprecedented April heat through the end of the month before cooler storms arrive in early May. 

VERMONT SPRING HEAT

Dangerous heat waves are of course less likely here in Vermont than in many other parts of the world. But heat waves have been known to kill even here.  Six Vermonters lost their lives in an intense July, 2018 heat wave for instance

Vermont, too, has been experience weird spring hot spells in recent years and decades. So far, this spring has mostly been an exception to the hot early season weather. Though we did have three days in March this year that got into the 70s, which is pretty strange.

Temperatures reaching 90 degrees in May used to be relatively rare in Vermont. But half the Mays since 2010 have gotten to 90 degrees or more in Burlington, Vermont. 

Some specific spring heat waves recently have been really something.  

On April 13 2023, the temperature in Burlington reached 88 degrees, by far the earliest on record it's been that hot. It was 89 degrees that day in Springfield, Vermont. 

On May 27, 2020, the temperature in Burlington reached a torrid 95 degrees, breaking the old record for hottest day in May by two degrees. On June 1, 2023, it was 96 in Burlington, the hottest for so early in the season. 

Weather Problems/DIsasters Continue Around The World, It's Not Just the United States

Tornado damage in Guangzhou, China. 

 As I periodically like to do, here's an update on the latest weather disasters and weirdness afflicting the world outside the United States.  

It's not just the Grand Ole U.S. of A having its trouble with tornadoes and such. 

CHINESE TORNADO/FLOOD

China is also dealing with tornadoes. A powerful twister hit the huge city of Guangzhou, killing five people, injuring about three dozen and trashing about 140 factory buildings.

Guangzhou is a little northwest of Hong Kong and has a population of about 15.3 million. 

Tornadoes happen fairly frequently in China, with average of about 100 twisters a year. Nearly 1,300 people have died in Chinese tornadoes since 1961.

The province around Guangzhou has also suffered severe flooding in recent weeks. The floods have killed four people and forced 110,000 people to relocate, CNN reports. 

The weather problems in China continued this week. A massive squall line crossed much of central and southern China, packing destructive winds and large hail 

In, hail as much as 5.5  inches in diameter was reported in Sandu, Guizhou Province. That's somewhere between the diameter of a grapefruit and a one-gallon paint can

In  Guangdong province, flooding caused a busy highway to collapse, killing at least 19 people, AccuWeather reported. 

TANZANIA/KENYA FLOOD

Flooding in Tanzania has caused at least 155 deaths in the past two weeks and displaced 200,000 others.

The inundations in Tanzania are worst along the coast and in the capital, Dar es Salaam.  

The flooding in Kenya was not quite as deadly but still calamitous

Per the Washington Post:

"Social media sites were awash Thursday with images and videos of people on rooftops of submerged houses, Residents across Nairobi neighborhoods used boats to rescue those stranded by rising floodwaters. 

"Venant Ndighila, the emergency response manager of the Kenya Red Cross, said 38 deaths and 11,275 displaced people have been reported across the country. He warned about the accompanying risks, including disease outbreaks and the disruption of goods and services."

April is usually the rainy season in Tanzania and Kenya, but this was beyond the pale. 

This year, water temperatures in the Indian Ocean were above normal, a result of both El Nino and climate change. Warm ocean waters can transport more moisture inland than cooler temperatures, so rainfall becomes heavier and more dangerous. 

SOUTHEAST ASIA HEAT

Dangerous heat has once again built up across huge swaths of Asia.  One city in Vietnam reached 111.2 degrees, tying the record for hottest temperature on record anywhere in that nation. Laos reached 110.5 for the hottest temperature on record there. 

Manilla, Philippines had an all time record high of 101.8 degrees Saturday. 

In Bangladesh, temperatures as hot as 110 degrees have prompted the government to close schools. In India, a long-lasting heat wave has pushed actual temperatures to 115 degrees and the heat index to a highly dangerous 122 to 140 degrees.  There's going to be a death toll from the Indian heat for sure, but we don't have figures on that yet. 

Thailand has had record heat since March. The Washington Post reports more people have died in Thailand of heat stroke so far this year than in all of 2023. 

Records for warmest nights on record have been set in dozens of cities, including Bangkok, as overnight lows dropped only into the mid and upper 80s.

Hot nights are especially dangerous in heat waves because the lack of a cooler nighttime interlude takes a toll on the human body.  This, in turn, increases the death toll in heat waves, which are already the most deadly type of weather disaster on Earth.   

As We Deal With A Spring Snowstorm In Vermont/New England, Heat Blasts On Much Of Planet

 Sure, winter has just given us (hopefully!) a last big blast here in Vermont. 

A tropical feel to the atmosphere on Burlington, Vermont's
waterfront during a record heat wave in July, 2018.
We're far from any heat records here in Vermont this
week, but many all time heat records have been
broken in the past couple weeks in
many parts of the world. 

Meanwhile, much of the rest of the world is hot, hot, hot. March closed with all time monthly highs in large parts of Europe, Asia and central America, just to name a few hot spots. 

Most of the following information comes from weather historian and climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who runs the Extreme Temperatures Around the World (@extremetemps) on X, formerly Twitter. 

Eight eastern European nations logged records for their hottest March day on record, says the Washington Post. Numerous cities in Russia, Ukraine, Greece and Turkey also set record highs. 

Tokyo and other parts of Japan was actually kind of on the cool side during March, but that all changed at the end of the month. Tokyo got up to 82.6 degrees, easily its hottest March day on record. several other cities in Japan also had all time record highs for the month. 

In the last week of March, Hong Kong also had its hottest March day on the 24th with a reading of 88.7 degrees.  On March 27, Phuket, Thailand reached 102.6 degrees, its hottest temperatures record in any month.  

Cities in Taiwan, southern China, Myanmar and the Philippines also broke heat records by large margins in late March. Record highs have been reported somewhere in Thailand every day so far this year. 

Parts of Mongolia also reported record high temperatures for March. This follows an intense spell of frigid temperatures and snow in February that killed millions of livestock. 

April seems to be picking up where March left off, with heat records falling in a whole bunch of disparate places around the world - except here in Vermont, apparently. 

Kayes, in the western African nation of Mali, reached a terrible 119 degrees on Wednesday. That was the hottest temperature on record for any date for the entire nation of Mali. It was also the hottest April day on the entire African continent. It was also the hottest temperatures on record anywhere on Earth for early April. 

Central America also got into the act as April opened. 

On Tuesday, Guatemala reached 95 degrees for a new national record for the month of April. Costa Rica also hit an April record with 104 degrees. Not to be outdone, Belize City reached 100 degrees, its hottest day on record for any time of year. 

This is only some of the hot records noted around the world in recent days. And more record heat is due over the next week in several other parts of the world. 

But not here in Vermont. 

Sure, it will warm up to seasonable temperatures for April by Monday. But no record heat is in the cards for at least two weeks, probably longer. 

However, with all the heat waves hitting in rapid succession around the world, it's only a matter of time before Vermont starts breaking record highs again, like we did in February and early March.  

Let's just hope they're all time record highs in the middle of summer. 

I can't blame the heat waves 100 percent o climate change, but it's certainly having an influence. is 

 

Not Just Vermont: Widespread Impressive Record Highs Being Set Across U.S., World

Map of United States temperatures shows the entire
Lower 48 quite hot except northern Plains, northern/
central Rockies and Pacific Northwest. 

I've been harping on the record and near record heat enveloping us in Vermont, but this hot weather has been pretty widespread lately.  

This is following a summer trend that has largely excluded Vermont until now. 

Record heat has been settling into various parts of the nation all summer. But the last time we had any record highs in Vermont was in early June. 

Both New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana had 33 record highs this summer, for instance. 

As September opened, record heat gripped much of the nation, and this time, it spread into Vermont. Some of those records outside the Green Mountain State have been pretty impressive.  

On Sunday, the often frigid cities Duluth and Hibbing, in northern Minnesota reached all time highs for September, with Duluth getting to 99 and Hibbing reaching 95 degrees. Wausau. Wisconsin tied its September record, reaching 99 degrees.

Monday, more cities hit all time record highs for the month of September,  said weather historian Maximiliano Herrera.  Those included ten cities in Minnesota and six in Wisconsin. Borger, Texas and Lancaster, Pennsylvania also set all time records for the month of September. 

On Tuesday, the heat was widespread, as record highs were reported as far west as Abilene, Texas, which had a high of 107 degree, a new September record. Other record highs for the date were reported as far northwest as Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, as far south as Raleigh, North Carolina and as far northeast as Millinocket, Maine. 

On Monday, temperatures over 100 degrees were reported as far north as Huron, South Dakota.  

Usually, school closings come in winter, as snow and ice storms cause havoc. This time, it's the heat. Schools in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, New Jersey and Missouri closed this week due to hot weather. 

This all isn't limited to the United States, either. All time record heat for September was reported in Japan, South Korea, China, Myanmar, Iran, Iraq, sections of Europe from Spain to Switzerland and in parts of northern Russia, Herrera, the weather historian noted. More than 200 French cities have already reported all time record highs for September. 

By this warped, climate change standard, Vermont is relatively cool this week. True, Burlington broke a record high for the date today, reaching 92 degrees  Montpelier also broke its record high for the date, reaching at least 86.

However, today's records are for today's date, and fell short of reaching all time highs for the entire month of September.  

 I'm sure quite a few other cities in the eastern United States had record highs today, and I can update that tomorrow. 

The heat will taper off in the east by the weekend. But new, probably record heat waves are developing in the next few days in Texas, Louisiana, Arizona and extreme southeastern California. 

 

Not Just Vermont Who Dealt With Extreme April Heat; Check Out These Figures From Asia!

Computer imagery showed intense heat in Asia this
past Monday. Since then the heat continued south,
eased in northern China and increased in Japan/South Korea.

 Sure, we had summer in April this month in Vermont. 

But if you thought our heat wave was something, check out these temperatures from parts of Asia. Around the time we had our heat wave, here's how the Washington Post describes big swaths of Asia:

"Numerous heat records have been broken across Southeast Asia, China and other parts of the continent in recent days as the region remains in the grip of a dangerously scorching heat wave, with Thailand in particular experiencing unusually extreme conditions. Weather historian Maximiliano Herrera is describing it as the' worst April heat wave in Asian history.'"

April and May are usually Thailand's hottest months, but last week got absolutely ridiculous. The temperature last Friday reached 114 degrees in the town of Tak.  This established the record for the hottest temperature anyone has ever seen in Thailand.

As that record heat hit, Thailand was celebrating that country's New Year's festivities. Because record hot weather enveloped the country, people were advised to tamp down their parties and stay indoors to avoid heat stroke. 

Up in China, at least 109 weather stations in 12 provinces recorded their hottest April temperatures on record, says the Washington Post.  

WaPo continues: 

"The hot days had been accumulating over the past few weeks, with Yuanjiang in Hunan province having exceeded 95 degrees for 22 straight days as of last Friday."

Other nations in Asia shared in this weird heat wave. 

Bangladesh ties its national April highest temperature at 109 degrees. The Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, reached 105 degrees, its hottest temperature since 1960. Temperatures reached as high as 111 in Myanmar and 107 in Nepal.  Intense heat killed at least 13 people in India.  Concern was rising in India with memories fresh from an even more intense, deadly heat wave last year. 

As of Wednesday, the record heat had spread into Japan and the Koreas. 

Early season heat waves like the one in Asia can be more dangerous than similar hot spells later in the season.  People become somewhat acclimatized to the heat later in the season.  Early heat wave come before people's bodies are ready for it. Some evidence suggests early season heat waves can be more deadly than later ones. 

If you're a regular reader of this here blog thingy and you think I've put up a lot of posts about record heat pretty much everywhere, you're right. 

And you will have seen this disclaimer, which I need to repeat. Heat waves have always happened all over the world. Now, however, we are in a mostly man-made climate change regime. Heat waves have become more frequent, more widespread and more likely to exceed all time record highs. 

It can happen anywhere, anytime. This month, it's been in places as different from each other as Vermont and Thailand.  

Glaciers Are Disappearing, Many Iconic Ones Could Be Gone Within Three Decades

Glaciers atop Mount Kilimanjero in Tanzania are among
the iconic glaciers around the world that will likely
disappear due to climate change by about 2050.

Many of the world's iconic glaciers are getting ready to disappear due to climate change, and it's very likely too late to save them even if we don't release another molecule of greenhouse gas.   

As AccuWeather reports:

"Glaciers at World Heritage sites shed around 58 billion tons of ice each year, UNESCO reports, which is equivalent to the total volume of water used annually in France and Spain combined. And these glaciers have already contributed nearly 5 percent of global sea level rise in the last 20 years."

According to the the AccuWeather report, glaciers cover around 10 percent of the world's land, which surprised me. What's supposed to happen is these glaciers can take up to 1,000 years to form. But then things get steady.  They gain mass during winter snows and cold, and lose mass in the summer as parts of them melt. 

Overall, in a perfect world, there wouldn't really be a net loss or gain of these glaciers over time. 

These glaciers will disappear whether or not effective climate change mitigation hits by 2050.

Among the glaciers expected to disappear are the last two remaining in Africa, on Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro. 

Remaining glaciers in Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks would go poof, too. 

Other iconic glaciers that are popular with tourists in Canada, Europe, central Asia and Russia are also slated to be gone by 2050 due to climate change. 

We should worry just as much about the melting of glaciers we never heard of as much as those that are more famous. In addition to the sea level rise to which the thawing glaciers contribute, these events cause scary water problems for millions of people.

In some areas of the world, the normal summer melt from glaciers supply critical water supplies. This works only if the glaciers are fully replenished during the winter. Since that's not happening anymore, the water supply that was coming from these ice fields disappears as soon as the glacier does. 

Or, too much water melts too fast from the glaciers. That's what happened in Pakistan this past spring and summer. Part of Pakistan's problem was excessive rains from monsoons. However, another big contributing factor was the record heat during the spring.

Glaciers melted super fast, and sometimes formed temporary lakes behind obstructions like other pieces of ice or rocks.  Finally, the water pressure would get to great, and the dams made of rock and ice would suddenly collapse, causing epic flash floods downstream.

CNN reported there were 16 such incidents in Pakistan this year, compared with the five or six that would happen in each of other recent years.

No, we don't have glaciers anywhere near us Vermonters. It's still yet another climate change problem we need to pay attention to.

Hot Weekend Here, But Elsewhere In The World, Ridiculous! Our Time Will Come, Though

People in Tokyo's Ginza district use umbrellas to shield
themselves from the intense sun during a record heat
wave last Saturday. Photo from AFP-JIJI

We had our first spell of 90 degree weather in the Champlain Valley over the weekend, but it wasn't as hot as it could be. We didn't set any real record highs.  

If you don't like heat, we got off easy. Especially since the hot spell in Vermont was brief, and it wasn't all that humid during this episode.

Elsewhere in the world, though, we're already having another summer of insane record high temperatures. I've already posted about the extreme European heat of a week or two ago, but since then, there have been other incredible hot spots. 

So let's dive in and look.

As the Associated Press reports:

"In China's northern Henan province Friday, Xuchang hit 107.8 degrees and Dengfeng hit 106.9 for their hottest days on record, according to global extreme weather tracker Maximiliano Herrera. And in Japan Friday, Tokamachi and Tsuanan set a time heat records while several cities broke monthly marks, he said." 

No fewer than 25 cities in China recorded their hottest temperature on record for any date of the year Froday. Beijing roasted at 102 degrees.

Tokyo, Japan just tied its record for the hottest June day with a high of 97 degrees, which was also hottest for so early in the season. At least nine other Japanese cities established new all time highs for June. 

Isesaki, a city about 50 miles north of Tokyo, reached 104 degrees Saturday, setting a new June record high for the entire nation of Japan.  

 Way up in Siberia, The town of Tazovskoe set a June record of 90 degrees. Some Arctic islands way up near the North Pole, near 80N have lost all of their snow, the earliest on record that it has disappeared in the summer. 

Parts of the Middle East and central Asia area also baking.  The port cit of Bander-e-Dayyer in Iran reached a whopping 127 degrees this past week.  The temperature reached 113 in Turkmenistan and 112 in Kazakhstan.  

The heat in the United States hasn't set all time records, but it has certainly been widespread.  No fewer than 15 states reported high temperatures of at least 100 degrees on Thursday. 

The hot weather is temporarily easing in the U.S. for the next couple of days, though heat advisories remained in effect for the Pacific Northwest through Monday.  No really extreme heat waves are in store for the nation at least through July 1.

But remember, there's plenty of time for renewed heat waves in July and August throughout the northern hemisphere.

The heat records I mentioned above have been coming fast and furiously.  Same has been true in the last few years, as I've noted above.

Of course, records are made to be broken, so you're always going to see a few record highs and a few record lows broken from time to time. But the fast pace of these heat waves - especially monthly and all time - is a hallmark of climate change.

Climate change is super charging heat waves. What would otherwise be forgettable hot spells have become unprecedented blasts of torrid conditions.

It can happen anywhere, anytime. I've said that so far, we in Vermont have had a Goldilocks summer. Sure it was hot this past weekend and chilly the weekend before, but we haven't had any kind of unprecedented weather so far. 

Overall, this summer is at least starting out cooler than recent ones. But there's nothing stopping us for experiencing heat Vermont has never seen before. It's really a matter of time with climate change. 

I don't know if that will happen this summer, next summer or a few or several summers from now. But eventually, Vermont's all time hottest reading of 105 degrees, set way back in 1911, and Burlington's all time record of 101 set during the World War II year of 1944, will seem quaint and cool.