{"id":263541,"date":"2023-06-23T14:49:30","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T12:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=263541"},"modified":"2023-06-23T14:49:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T12:49:33","slug":"no-wapo-a-texas-heat-wave-has-nothing-to-do-with-global-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=263541","title":{"rendered":"No, WaPo, a Texas Heat Wave has Nothing to Do with Global Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From\u00a0ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Washington Post<\/em> (WaPo) has published a story claiming that the heat wave in Texas this week is \u201ctied to climate change.\u201d This is false \u2013 it is a weather event, not a climate event. Texas experiences heatwaves on a regular basis, and history shows that Texas experienced event greater heat waves in both intensity and duration long before climate change ever became an issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WaPo story, written by reporter Dan Stillman<\/a> is titled \u201cThe troubling heat in Texas and its ties to climate change in 5 maps\u201d<\/a> and makes these claims:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas is no stranger to searing heat, but the heat wave that arrived last week is becoming exceptional for its intensity and duration. Air temperatures have soared past 100 degrees for multiple days, even exceeding 110 in spots, and the sizzling heat index has reached as high as 125. Excessive-heat warnings are in effect into the middle of the week for a massive chunk of the state and could be extended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientific literature is replete with studies connecting the intensity, frequency, duration and size of heat waves such as this to human-caused climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heat dome responsible for the ongoing Texas heat wave is one of the strongest of all time<\/a> and, according to WFLA-TV chief meteorologist and climate specialist Jeff Berardelli, is \u201cbasically impossible\u201d without climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In essence, Stillman cites no actual scientific papers, and bases his entire linkage of the Texas heat wave to climate change on the opinion of one off-hand remark by a local TV meteorologist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If in fact, such heat domes are \u201cbasically impossible without climate change,\u201d how would they explain the famous 1980 United States Heat Wave<\/a>, affecting Texas, which occurred long before climate change was ever an issue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Dallas\/Fort Worth, Texas, high temperatures exceeded 100 \u00b0F (38 \u00b0C) a total of 69 times, including a record 42 consecutive days from June 23 to August 3,[4]<\/a><\/sup> of which 28 days were above 105, and five days above 110. The area saw 29 days in which the previous record high temperature was either broken or tied, including its all-time high when the temperature hit 113 \u00b0F (45 \u00b0C) on three consecutive days (June 26 and 27 at DFW Airport and June 28 at Dallas Love Field).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the National Weather Service in Dallas, that by tracking Annual and Consecutive 100\u00b0 Days<\/a>, it is clear there have been quite a number prolonged and intense heat waves before. In other words \u2013 these events are normal for the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The July 1936 Heat Wave<\/a>, said to be the most intense heat wave in American history<\/a>, claimed the lives of 5,000 people across the U.S., mostly in the upper Midwest. Surprisingly, Texas had below normal temperatures during that month. This illustrates two things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Intense heat waves have happened well before \u201cclimate change\u201d was ever an issue.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. The location and duration of heat waves is weather pattern dependent.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Indeed, the TV meteorologist who said the current heat wave was \u201cbasically impossible without climate change\u201d apparently hasn\u2019t studied weather history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is another important point. Heat waves are not global, they are local or regional. This map from\u00a0Weather.gov<\/a>\u00a0illustrates the dichotomy associated with how weather patterns, not climate change, rule the temperature at\u00a0synoptic weather scales<\/a>. In the map below, circled in red, you can clearly see the Texas heat wave, while to the west, circled in blue, you can see parts of California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon are suffering from freeze and frost warnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Did climate change only cause the Texas heat wave and not the freezing, or is WaPo simply confusing the difference between weather and climate? It seems they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In\u00a0Climate at a Glance: Weather vs. Climate<\/a>\u00a0there is this figure the European Space Agency (ESA) that illustrates the difference:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    The key takeaway:<\/p>\n\n\n\n