Earth  ID: 11066

Hot Hot Heat

Story by Kathryn Hansen Released on August 28, 2012
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Extreme summer heat waves are more likely now than they were in the middle of the 20th century.
Summers in the Northern Hemisphere are getting hotter. Scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies analyzed temperature data for land in this part of the world and found that extremely hot summers are more likely now than they were 30 years ago. Crop-devastating heat through the summer of 2012, for example, included the hottest month on record for the contiguous United States. Scientists show the rise in likelihood of these events is the result of global warming, a connection that becomes evident in the statistics. The frequency of "hot" (orange), "very hot" (red) and "extremely hot" (brown) summers in the Northern Hemisphere in relation to the average summer temperature determined for the region from 1951 to 1980 can be seen in the visualization. Summers defined as "average" (white), unusually "cold" (light blue), "very cold" (dark blue) and "extremely cold" (purple) are also shown.
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Watch how summer temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere change from 1955 to 2011.
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Memorable events, such as the 2003 European heat wave, fall into the "extremely hot" category.
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The 2006 North American heat wave generated record temeperatures in cities across the United States and Canada.
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In 2009, almost 70 percent of land in the region was hotter than average, while 13 percent was unusually cool.
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In 2010, extreme heat waves afflicted the Middle East, Western Asia and Eastern Europe.
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The 2011 heat waves in Texas, Oklahoma and Mexico would not likely have occurred in the relatively stable climate of the mid-20th century.
 

Related Story

Summer Temperature Anomalies for the Northern Hemisphere, 1955-2011

For More Information

NASA.gov

Story Credits

Visualizers/Animators:
Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC)
Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)

Lead Scientists:
James Hansen Ph.D. (NASA/GSFC GISS)
Makiko Sato Ph.D. (NASA/GSFC GISS)

Lead Writer:
Kathryn Hansen (Wyle Information Systems)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11066

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Earth