“Shocked climate scientists are wondering how even worst-case scenarios failed to predict such furnace-like conditions so far north.”

Very little shocks climate scientists these days.

“Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said the recent extreme weather anomalies were not represented in global computer models that are used to project how the world might change with more emissions. The fear is that weather systems might be more frequently blocked as a result of human emissions. “It is a risk – of a serious regional weather impact triggered by global warming – that we have underestimated so far,” he said.”

It’s pretty clear the Earth’s climate is trending along with the worst-case climate models, if not worse.

“More people in more countries are feeling that their weather belongs to another part of the world. Across the border, in Washington state, the maximum heat measured at Olympia and Quillayute was 6C higher than the previous all-time record, according to the Weather Prediction Centre. In Oregon, the town of Salem hit 47C, smashing the previous record by 9C. Several areas of California and Idaho also saw new highs.
“The previous week, northern Europe and Russia also sweltered in an unprecedented heat bubble. June records were broken in Moscow (34.8C), Helsinki (31.7C), Belarus (35.7C) and Estonia (34.6C).”

Southern Spain is on target for 47°C this week. And then we get to the coldest inhabited place on Earth, which is not Canada, it turns out:

“Further east, Siberia experienced an early heatwave that helped to reduce the amount of sea ice in the Laptev Sea to a record low for the time of year. The town of Oymyakon, Russia, widely considered to be the coldest inhabited place on Earth, was hotter (31.6C) than it has ever been in June.”

And there’s another heatwave on the way for the western US this week.

I don’t know about you, but I sniff a smoky trend here.

[Cover photo: Near Lytton, British Columbia last week. Canadian Press/Rex/Shutterstock]