Think Progress has a fascinating article up today showing how climate change has come to Washington D.C.
For over five and a half days, the temperature was at least 80 degrees in D.C. This 138-hour streak is the longest on record, dating back to 1871, and besting the 128-hour streak of two years ago.
Well, perhaps, as the climate change deniers might argue, that was just a fluke of nature, a bit of extreme weather unrelated to any long-term problem.
Except that:
As Jason Samenow of the Capital Weather Gang notes, this record is just the latest in an “astonishingly long list” of heat-related milestones amassed over the past four summers, including: hottest three Julys, hottest three summers, most 100-degree days in a month, and longest uninterrupted stretch above 100 degrees.
And here's another interesting statistic:
D.C.’s warming trend over the past few years is remarkable. Capital Weather Gang found that “daily heat records have outnumbered cold records in the nation’s capital by a 7 to 1 ratio since the year 2000 and by nearly 16 to 1 in the past 3.5 years.”
You can understand - if not forgive - anti-science politicians for ignoring or denying the reality of global warming when it's just some island in some godforsaken corner of the world being threatened with inundation as a result of the changing climate, but when the evidence shows up in their own Goddamn back yard, you'd think they might finally stand up and take notice. Oh well, I'm sure they'll be back out there this winter declaring how the latest blizzard is evidence that climate change is a hoax!