

June has been a crazy weather month. Then again, so were the first five months of the year. Globally, it’s shaping up to be the hottest year on record by far. It’s not just heat either. Some parts of the U.S. have recently seen record rainfall. May was the wettest month ever recorded in the U.S., and many places had record rainfall for the month of June.
Mashable’s Andrew Freedman reports there’s a “heat dome parked over the West,” which is shattering temperature records and sparking wildfires. “During the past seven days alone, 465 warm temperature records have been set or tied across the country, mainly in the West, with 49 monthly warm temperature records set or tied, according to the National [Centers] for Environmental Information,” says Freedman. This heat wave is “noteworthy for its severity, extent and duration.”
Seattle close to record high Wednesday. 88°F forecast. Redding California at 114°F is scorching. pic.twitter.com/STuZBRLLjF
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) June 30, 2015
#HeatWave in the Western U.S. surges this weekend. Record highs will be broken, and lightning could spark wildfires! pic.twitter.com/VL7CHr8O8d
— National WeatherAssn (@nwas) June 27, 2015
While current weather should not be conflated with long term climate trends, this weather does match the long term trends. Recent reports confirm that global warming increases the likelihood and frequency of extreme weather events, including heat waves, drought, flooding and fires. And the U.S. and the rest of the world have experienced all of those in recent months.