We have just moved into July, what is often called our ‘hottest month.’ But really, July has to real- ly do something to make us forget the month we just exited. June was no ‘day at the beach.’ Last month’s heatwave was uncomfortable enough to make us pine for January, our coldest month and when overnight lows average 15 degrees.
“I think it’s been an interesting June,” said Keah Schuenemann, professor of Meteorology at Metropolitan State University-Denver. “We got really hot really fast.” In fact, when Denver recently reached triple digits—June 22nd—it was the earliest date for 100-plus temperatures in nearly 700 days.
June’s heatwave, of course, was preceded by a similar weather pattern that blanketed the nation in May, the MSU-D professor said. “May was the warmest (May) ever on earth…we should be alarmed.” But May was not unique. Monthly record-breaking temperatures have occurred for the last 14 consecutive months worldwide.
Data from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, indicated May’s average global temperature was “2.12 degrees F above the 20th-century average.”
The last two months for record heat, said NOAA meteorologist Greg Heavener, “are more reserved” for late July and early August. “We’re 25-30 days early.” But it’s not just discomfort from the heat, he said, that we should be concerned about.
The trend of consistently warming temperatures, said Heavener, also contributes to the flooding that has already struck in a number of states across the Midwest and South; the deadly hurricanes that have hopscotched across a good portion of the country; the wildfires that have scorched the West, including California, New Mexico and, now Colorado.
Another negative residual of warming temperatures is something campers, amateur gardeners or everyday people wanting to spend more time outside need to be aware of.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment recently identified 2024’s first case of West Nile Virus, something that has also arrived prematurely. West Nile is transmitted by the Culex mosquito.
While West Nile virus is usually treatable, it can have major health complications for others. Health officials say about one in 150 can be severely affected. In the most serious cases, West Nile can cause coma, tremors, muscle weakness and, in the most serious cases, paralysis. Last year, more than 600 cases of West Nile were reported in Colorado. The virus struck in nearly half of Colorado’s counties.
State health officials advise people to protect themselves against West Nile by using insect repellent that clearly states DEET in the ingredients. Also, it suggests, wearing long sleeve clothing and to be especially vigilant in the early morning hours and in the evenings, when the mosquitos are usually out.
One possibility for the early start for the virus is traced to warming winters. Temperatures that used to kill off insects like the Culex mosquito, the vector for West Nile, and the pine beetle, the insect responsible for the defores- tation wrecking U.S. forests all across the West, Alaska and Canada, are not falling far enough to do the job they once did. The insects are surviving.
The cascading effect of rising global temperatures is also manifesting itself in every time zone. “There’s a lot of vulnerable populations globally who are seeing extreme record-breaking heat,” said Schuenemann.
In the Middle East and India, temperatures are regu- larly exceeding 120 degrees. Without the infrastructure, including air conditioning, people are suffering and dying. Temperatures are keeping people from working and the nights are offering no relief; crops and water sources are also drying up. But locally, there is also similar concerns.
In the University of Colorado’s, Colorado’s Arts and Science Magazine, researchers predicted that rising global temperatures very well could have a devasting impact on not just our state’s agriculture but global agriculture. “Heat waves,” CU researchers say, “are projected to become more and more frequent and intense as the century progresses, could cause as much as 10 times more crop damage than is now projected.”
The global climate trends we are now experiencing have been building for the last thirty years, say scientists. Heatwaves, growing insect populations, patterns of extreme drought and precipitation, they say, are the evidence.
Oceans are warming to what science calls a tipping point and the water evaporating from them is a serious factor in the newer intensity levels of tropical storms and hurricans.
In agriculture, growing numbers of farmers and ranchers, have already begun adapting to these emerging patterns.
In a U.S. Department of Agriculture report co-authored by Colorado State University professor Peter Backlund, said climate changes are real. “(It) is making the environment for weeds, pathogens and insects much friendlier, and their range is expanding as the climate warms.”
Despite signs that a change of direction could result in a slowdown if not reversal of the current path the planet is on, there remains a distinct population that refuses to accept science. People like Schuenemann, who believe and teach the data, try and not force it on her students.
“I try to keep politics out of the classroom,” she said. “I present a lot of the evidence and by the middle of the class, we can accept a little more.”
