“It’s not just another unusually hot summer—it is climate change."

[marmar]

This piece originated with Climate News Network.

CHENNAI—India, one of the key players in the efforts to reach an international agreement on global warming, has no doubt of its malign effects. It was, says a government minister, the warming climate that caused last month’s devastating heatwave.

From mid-April till the end of May, nearly 2,200 people were killed by the heat—1,636 of them in Andhra Pradesh, the worst-affected state. The normal May figure for the whole of India is about 1,000 heat-related deaths.

Dr Harsh Vardhan, India’s Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, has blamed the heat deaths squarely on climate change.

Improve understanding

Launching a supercomputer at the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting to improve understanding of climatic changes, he said: “It’s not just another unusually hot summer—it is climate change.

“Let us not fool ourselves that there is no connection between the unusual number of deaths from the ongoing heatwave and the certainty of another failed monsoon.” ................(more)

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/india_blames_heatwave_deaths_on_climate_change_20150619

[Romeo.lima333]

1. we need to grow lots and lots of plants

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. REad yesterday that Cal.'s normally abundant water is an anomaly

That for most of Cal.'s history, it has been serious desert except in No. Cal. coastline.

So the period of time that people poured into Cal. in the last 200 years, the rain and snow were NOT part of a normal weather pattern.
Just happened to be a long cycle and now is returning to "normal"
Something about the tree rings speaking.......

Humans, of course, see only human cycles.

[dembotoz]

3. Dangerous to label any one specific event as climate change

Climate is weather over time
If we fall into this trap then a cold day proves climate change is garbage


That being said, things are trending sucky for parts of the planet

[NutmegYankee]

4. The Northeast is seeing it, but not as heat.

Back to back hard winters with this winter taking the record as the coldest February in Connecticut on record. Then we come off of that with the record warmest May on record. And no the June is cool with not one day at 90 or higher and none forecast.

[GeorgeGist]

5. Worldwide adequate for you?

The heat goes on: Warmest May, spring and year on record

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/06/18/warmest-may-spring-year-noaa-climate-report/28936525/

[Skittles]

6. this is the tamest summer I have ever seen in Texas

past the middle of June and it hasn't even hit 100 degrees yet

[Blue_In_AK]

7. It's been very warm in Alaska

and is predicted to continue for the rest of the summer, although today - finally - is overcast and cool and feels fantastic. Above 80 is much too hot for me.


http://www.adn.com/article/20150619/forecast-predicts-warm-weather-alaska-through-september

<snip>

Several factors are combining to keep Alaska warm, said Thoman, who spoke about the forecast in a Friday webinar hosted by the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

One important factor, he said, is the current positive phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, an oceanic cycle that periodically switches, and its associated warm sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska and the rest of the North Pacific.

There are also warm water temperatures in the Bering Sea, a phenomenon that is not linked to the positive PDO, Thoman said.

Another important factor is the diminished state of Arctic sea ice, which is particularly low around Alaska, he said. Melt in the Chukchi Sea off the state’s northwest coast is dramatic and resembles conditions from June 2011, which was “the earliest melt-out of record that we know of,” he said. “This year is right on target for that, if not earlier.”

<snip>

Although there are aspects of this that are "weather," the Alaska Natives who have been here a long, long time are worried about the trends and the effects they have on their subsistence lifestyle.