Disappearing Clouds and a Darker Earth May Explain 2023's Record Heat

Photo by NASA

A new study may explain why scientists were surprised by the extreme spike in global temperatures last year.

But before we go there, we're still reviewing 2024 and have arrived in week 28, the week of July 8-14, 2024. It was the week when the media reported that global temperatures breached the threshold of 1.5C for 12 months in a row. Sea surface temperatures reached their warmest month for 15 consecutive months.

Do you remember the extremes of last summer? Japan issued a heat stroke alert in about half the country's regions, urging people to stay indoors, use air conditioners, and drink lots of water. The New York Times covered Pakistan's heatwave, describing hundreds of patients suffering from heat-related illnesses who pour into the hospitals every day, pushing them far past their capacity. In the US, about 36 million people were under excessive heat warnings. In week 28, there were reports about Hurricane Beryl, knocking out power to nearly three million homes and businesses, record rains in Mumbai, and gale-force winds in Cape Town, South Africa.

New Study

That was five months ago; there aren't extreme weather events that caught my eye in the news today (which says likely more about the lack of reporting than their suggested absence). However, there is relevant climate news in the form of a new study that may explain why scientists were surprised by the extreme spike in global temperatures last year. A paper in the journal Science suggests that a lower number of low-altitude clouds was responsible for a drop in "planetary albedo," meaning that less solar radiation was reflected into space. The lack of clouds was especially noticeable above the Atlantic Ocean, which saw remarkably high temperatures. If this proves to be a structural change, the impacts of climate change may be even worse than predicted.

My week 28 and your week 28

Most of us continued our daily lives, which would be fine if leaders in politics and business took the responsibility to lead during the climate crisis. They don't, which worries me profoundly but makes me less apologetic for enjoying my life that week. The beauty I encountered reminds me of what's at stake on this beautiful planet.

In week 28, July 8-14, my photos show I was in The Hague. I like the picture's composition with Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring as a mural on the left and the street with Dutch flags on the right. If you visit The Hague, you can see the painting in the Mauritshuis museum. I've seen the painting described in a tourist guide as the "Mona Lisa of the North;" you won't be surprised that we like to refer to Leonardo's masterpiece as the Girl with a Pearl Earring of the South.

The other photos show the Passage in The Hague, and -in the chat- a butterfly, and the nearby nature on my island. The 'alexnote' popped up when I searched on the date, but it is one from exactly one year earlier: July 13, 2023. I decided to add it to today's collection of memories (also in the chat) because I wrote yesterday to one of you in notes about the view from the town of Castrojeriz, and I added a photo. For those who saw that one, this electronically made sketch shows my first view of the town after walking for hours through the flat open landscape of northern Spain's Meseta. Each step brought the remarkable silhouette of the town closer, and I took many photos to get the view exactly as I wanted it so I could later change it into this sketch version.

In week 28, I also wrote about a memory of my second Camino, which I'll add here for those who missed it.

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