Early Summer Heat Broils Northern Hemisphere

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/comment.html?entrynum=280

By: Christopher C. Burt June 10, 2014

While the summer has started off relatively cool for the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. many other locations in the world have been broiling the past several weeks. Record or near-record heat has been observed in portions of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, India, Nepal, China, Japan, Korea, Libya, Chad, and Mexico. Here’s a brief summary of the highlights.

An intense heat wave has developed in portions of Europe the past few days. On June 9th Ihringen in Germany reached 37.9°C (100.2°F). This was close to the all-time German national heat record for the month of June (which was 38.2°C/100.8°F at Frankfurt on June 27, 1947). This time, Frankfurt reached a sweltering 35.0° C (95.0°F), unheard of so early in the summer.

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In Switzerland the temperature reached 36.4°C (97.5°F) at Liestal (also on June 9th), just 0.1°C (0.2°F) short of the Swiss June national record. Temperatures in France topped off at 37.7°C (99.9°F) at Carpentras on June 10th. Climatologist Maximiliano Hererra noted that in northern Italy it reached 38.9°F (102.0°C) at least one (unspecified) location. In Austria, Schaerding hit 35.6°C (96.1°F) on June 10th with Vienna reaching 35.0°C (95.0°F) on the 9th. Elsewhere in Europe unusually hot weather for the early summer was experienced in the Lapland regions of Finland and Sweden last week with temperatures reaching 30°C (86°F) above the Arctic Circle for almost an entire week. In Russia, Moscow saw a daily record high of 28.6°C (83.5°F) on June 4th. This follows the unprecedented mid-May heat wave that struck Russia, Finland, and Estonia in mid-May.

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Earlier I also blogged about the record heat wave in China, Japan, and Korea during late May and early June but some of the records mentioned therein were beaten more recently. Most impressive was that Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan broke its June monthly record again on June 4th with a high of 33.7°C (92.7°F). Asahikawa, another major city in Hokkaido, hit 35.9°C (96.6°F) also on June 4th, smashing its previous June record of 34.6°C (94.3°F) set on June 24, 1905 and coming within just 0.1°C (0.2°F) of its all-time any month record of 36.0°C (96.8°F). Records at this site date back to 1889.

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El Paso, Texas saw a string of four consecutive record-breaking days June 2-5 with a peak of 109°F (42.8°C) on June 3rd. This was the hottest temperature ever measured so early in the summer for the city.