WILL THIS BE THE SUMMER WHEN THE WORLD REALIZES GLOBAL WARMING IS TRULY REAL?

The continuing saga of the Russian mini-revolt is well-explained by Leonid Bershidsky, a former columnist of Bloomberg Europe. He is a 51-year old Russian journalist now based in Berlin, having moved there in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea. Has previously worked at Newsweek and The Moscow Times. He has written several books.

But to the topic of the day, is this that impactful summer that will finally convince decision-makers to take global warming seriously? Possible, but unlikely, for a key reason to be provided.

The New York Times yesterday said:

Today, New Orleans will reach 113 degrees in the heat index. Houston will reach 111. Mobile, Ala., and Jackson, Miss., will also surpass 110. And those are only a few of the places that will experience dangerous heat this week.

Summer technically just began, and parts of the U.S. are already seeing the unusual heat that experts warned about and that is becoming more common as a result of climate change. About 45 million people — or 14 percent of the U.S. population — live in areas that are expected to reach dangerous temperatures in the coming days.

Today and tomorrow, the heat will be concentrated in Texas, Louisiana and parts of the South. By the end of the week, it is expected to spread in the South and to the West, as these maps show:

Last week India got up to 116 F, and people began to die. China is sweltering:

Between 1990 and 2020 Beijing averaged 10.6 days where temperature got up to 95 F or higher.
June is not over and the city went past this temperature for the 11th time.

Texas has a heat dome, and this week 45 million Americans live where some level of heat alert is in effect. Several Texas cities were in the range of 115 F, and Corpus Christi might have reached 125 F. A heat dome occurs when a persistent region of high pressure traps heat over an area. Keep in mind that crops and animals also are suffering.

The following heat index factors in relative humidity to indicate the danger point.

Death Valley reached 134 F, but that was in 1913. Officially the highest world temperature ever. And, incidentally, 1913 is the year when this area dropped to 15 F, its coolest ever. But death valley in 2001 reached 110 F or above for 154 days in a row. The ground temperature at Furnace Creek in Death Valley had an air temperature of 128 F in 1972, but the ground temperature was 201 F! They had no rain in 1929 and 1953.

The 12 hottest places on Earth:

#1 Death Valley
#2 Kebili, Tunisia
#3 Mitribah, Kuwait
#4 Turbat, Pakistan
#5 Dallol, Ethiopia
The rest are in the Middle East and Africa. Only been to Death Valley, in the summer, and you worry, a lot, if your car will die on the road getting there and out.

The list of the ten hottest cities in the world is rather surprising, as I have regularly traveled to most of them, and didn't realize they were so.

#1 Jazan City (right), Saudi Arabia, with a population of 2 million.
#2 Bangkok, Thailand, where the temperature routinely rises to 104F.
#3 Las Vegas also regularly gets to 104 F, and higher.
#4 Hong Kong, where the humidity makes the difference.
#5 Mexicali, #6 Melbourne, #7 Kuala Lumpur, #8 Phoenix, #9 Athens, and #10 Cairo.

However, the past eight years have been the hottest ever.

2022 was Europe's warmest, surpassing the previous all-time high, which was in 2021.
Last year the U.S. surpassed the heat from the 1936 Dust Bowl summer. But 2022 was only the third-warmest.

So is this the summer that the world finally realizes that global warming is truly real? Still got two months to go, I think not. Why? Only perhaps a hundred died in the recent India heat wave. Decision-makers won't take note unless millions, and maybe it will need tens of millions, perish. Until that happens, humanity will be testing Mother Nature awaiting a possible crescending doom.

Don't want to alarm anyone in Hawaii, but our first hurricane of the season, Adrian, just formed off Mexico and is headed our way. However, the prognosis is for an early weakening.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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