Why Is The U.S. Warming Faster Than Average?

We’ve all heard that we should keep global climate change under 2 degrees of warming, but did you know that there are many places around the globe that have already surpassed that? Some places around the globe are experiencing extreme warming, while other places have actually seen some cooling. So what’s with all the variation?

In this episode of Weathered, we’ll talk with a couple climate scientists from NOAA to dive deep into the numbers, and we’ll call up a resident of the fastest warming county in the U.S. to see what it's like.

Weathered is a show hosted by weather expert Maiya May and produced by Balance Media that helps explain the most common natural disasters, what causes them, how they’re changing, and what we can do to prepare.

This episode of Weathered is licensed exclusively to YouTube.

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[YourXavier]

Anyone claiming that global climate change is false because a single country had a temp drop over the course of less than a decade, clearly has no understanding of the terms "global" or "climate".

[yoboo]

My father is a die hard trump supporter and climate change denier. Last time I went to his house, we actually had a productive talk about the climate. He had alot of questions that, thankfully, I was able to answer and by the time I left he had a much better understanding of why the weather and climate are doing what they're doing. It all started with the simple phrase if him saying, when I was your age, we didn't have this kind of weather in March... I saw the opening and took it to make him more informed and educated on the subject. Hes no longer a climate change denier. One down, 75 million to go haha 😂

[mvalthegamer]

Living in Mumbai, India. The average temperature here hasn't changed that much over the last thirty years, but it is a lot more variable than years gone by. The main reason is longer, heavier rains. The rains used to start in early June and end in September, with the inner months getting around a week of sunshine on average. Now the rains start in May and end in November, with not a single sunny day in July.

[jasonclow]

I'm a landscaper in Portland Oregon. I've been noticing some native plants really struggling in the last few years due to heat waves. During summer the year before last, we had an awful heat wave, with official records saying it hit 117 F, but some areas were a little hotter. I've seen that the Salmon Berries, Rhododendrons, and some prunus still haven't recovered from that event. These heat waves are destabilizing our fragile ecosystems, especially in our forests.

[castlering]

Here in the UK we've had the highest ever recorded temperature records broken 3 times in the last few years. It's not a coincidence.

[aprilmorris]

I've lived in southern Oregon for more than 5 decades, and I can say with authority that our weather has changed dramatically. On June 27, 2012, it hit 117.2° in the shade at my home. That's the highest ever recorded in the Rogue Valley. And east of us in the Klamath Basin, Klamath Lake used to freeze over every year; it's been at least *eight* years, and I think it's actually over ten years since it froze over. The Klamath Wildlife Refuge normally hosts the largest gathering of Bald 🦅 Eagles and snow geese, but since there's no water, there's very few birds compared to centuries before. The climate now is closer to 200+ miles south of us, so I feel bad 😞 for those who live the now. On September 8, 2020, the entire state of Oregon had wildfires and evacs from border to border. What a way to spend Labor Day. 🙄 So, yeah, I'm a believer in climate change. I also think we need to do everything we can, although I'm skeptical 🤨 that I'll work.

[heymike]

I live in Ottawa, Canada. This was the first-ever winter that the Rideau Canal Skateway did not open. Let me emphasis this point. We have a canal that is a major tourist attraction for our city and a huge part of winter activities and people's everyday commutes. It did not freeze solid enough this winter to allow people to skate on it for the first time in history. The winter simply wasn't cold enough. That is literally unheard of. Our winters are noticeably warmer now and we have moved up at least one plant hardiness zone since I was a kid in the 1980's. I can grow watermelons here in the summer now. If you were to have suggested trying that when I was a kid you would have been laughed out of the plant nursery. The changes are real and happening fast.

[conlon]

I live in England. I know our memories of our childhoods aren't always accurate, but I remember it used to be far more cloudy than it often is now, especially in Summer. We used to get a lot of cloudy summers, whereas now the summers are hotter, sunnier, and dryer, and heat waves seem more frequent, more intense, and longer. Also it used to be that every few days of a heat wave we'd get a thunderstorm, but last year we went over a week of blistering heat without any storms or even rain. Also, we definitely used to get proper snow cover most winters, whereas that's definitely a rarity now. I loved the temperatures in England, but now it frequently gets too hot for me in the Summer. I'm planning to move to Scotland once I'm done with my commitments here.

[hollyf.]

I'm in north Mississippi. The extreme heat over the summers has changed when I plant my gardens. I now start my seeds in January and try to plant as much as possible in early April. Spring rains can complicate that, but I want to beat the summer extremes.

[jamesharrison]

America as we know it is finished. All indications point to 2023 being a year of severe economic pain across the country. Put that money to work right away to make it grow. I knew I had to make an investment. I never imagined that a few thousand dollars per month would add up. However, it is. I've made around $600, 000 since 2020.

[krobbins]

You have to add concrete to the cause it absorbs heat and makes water flow to other regions coupled with the loss of trees and vegetation it's going to get much worse. I enjoyed the previous video about how grasses play a part in holding water. In China and areas of Africa a lot is being done to bring back growth in desert areas. We need sea grass as well it's been destroyed and it absorbs carbon as all trees and plants it worse when they are burnt or cut down for a parking lot.

[alanwadsworth]

I live in New Zealand. There is no denying that the climate has warmed significantly in the province where I live. The occurrence of frost is now less than 50% from 50 years ago. Likewise, our maximum summer temperatures are warmer along with increased humidity.
Roads are more frequently washed away with rains. Glaciers are reseeding.
I do have concerns for the youth of today and the uncertain future we leave them

[writerconsidered]

Northeast here. That warm water off the coast from Delaware to Maine explains our weather. We no longer have winter, we have long falls now. Its been happening for several years now. We may have gotten 2-3" inches of snow this year as a total. I imagine we are getting drier as well. Since we don't have a melting snow pack seeping into the groundwater.

[it_was_my_cat]

I'm from southern England which is one of the fastest warming parts of Europe, which is already the fastest warming continent. I've noticed that winters are a lot milder than they used to be even just 20 years ago in the early 2000s when I was a kid. It almost never snows here any more, and if it does it's less than an inch and melts after a day or two. We only have a handful of days that ever go below freezing.

Summer here is starting to feel more and more Mediterranean; noticeably drier and hotter. Heatwaves seem to be more frequent, and we even reached 40C last summer for the first time since weather records began. England and France pretty much turned into a desert last summer because of how little rain there was. You can google the satellite images, they're crazy.

[axmajpayne]

My biggest worry is that we end up on track to stay under the 2 degree warming from the Paris agreement, but that still ends up being high enough to cause an unforeseen feedback loop with something like thawing permafrost which causes warming to take off uncontrolled and out of our hands.

[mikebennett]

April 15 and 16th just past (2023) and we just had to have our air conditioning on (in Southern Ontario, Canada). We hit 29c twice plus humidity, and most of the week was high 20s. Areas close to us saw over 30c.. highs you expect in peak summer on occasion. Normal around here is maybe 10c, give or take this time of year. A/C on in April is a first in my lifetime (in my 60s). Aside from that event, I have noticed in the last decade or more a lot of swings from warm and dry, to wet... weeks of drought to non stop flash floods. In winter 50-60cm snow storms that melt just a few days later. No longer can we make back yard hockey rinks that last anything like they did as a kid when they stayed totally frozen mid Dec to early Mar. Noticeably warmer over all from the 50s, 60s, 70s, even the 80s.. it has had a severe impact on the forests, and farming.

[GoldenAgeVideo]

Here in north Louisiana. We've started getting near-record cold snaps in the winter, but also near-record highs every summer. 'Tornado season' used to be from November-December, then April-May, but now it's stretching through the winter. And there's a pattern shift around mid-July every year, roughly, if it was rainy and mild before that's when the heat cranks up. So that loopy jet stream is having an effect.

[droogsurgeon]

I live in Atlanta, and I still notice the difference. It’s drastically different than when I was younger. It was like 2009 I remember that was the first year without a winter really. It was shocking. Now it’s normal. Winter is more like spring and spring just goes to summer immediately.

[Krranski]

Awesome work! 🎉
Thanks for presenting the information so clearly and personally. I love seeing how climate is communicated. I am very shy, so I have a tough time with in-person communication; I appreciate seeing this work to help me better communicate climate science with folks outside the scientific community and in other disciplines.
- A climate scientist

[Maya_Ruinz]

I’ve lived in San Antonio for the last 25 years and the weather has definitely shifted, it’s still hot but not quite as hot when I was a kid, it used to be more desert like, with consistent droughts and heat that would crack roads. Within the last 6 or 7 years though it has slowly become more like a swamp, more rain, more humidity, cedar fever lasts longer it doesn’t get super hot until late June when it used to be scorching as early as March. This year we have barely even hit the mid 90s and it’s almost June.. that is just wild.