00:00We're covering a couple of interesting climate stories today. The first
00:03discussing how 2024 is expected to be yet again the hottest year on record. The
00:09second one tying in that heat to how the western United States droughts have
00:13really become worse in the last several decades. And Brett turning to this first
00:18one from the World Meteorological Organization known as the WMO. The 2024
00:22the year here is on track to be the hottest year on record again breaking
00:27the 2023 record. Yeah not surprising we actually predicted this earlier in the
00:31year. El Nino has a fat plays a role in this but usually we see our warmest
00:37years the tail end of El Nino which was this year. So not surprising 2024 beat
00:42out 2023. 1.54 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels which if you
00:49remember the 1.5 degrees Celsius was the limit which many nations set. But again
00:56that's just one year. What that that goal is more of a decadal situation
01:02there. So it's still scary but if we start seeing that averaging out over 10
01:0720 years then we got a big problem there. Past 10 years were the warmest 10 years
01:12on record globally. Yeah and I think the impacts to that Brett are really
01:15important in there and they're really far-reaching. It extends from sea ice in
01:20the in the Antarctic being the lowest on record to I think sea level rise maybe
01:24being one of the more tangible ways that different people around the world have
01:28really experienced the impacts of climate change. Yeah sea level rise
01:30mostly due to warming of the oceans which is thermal expansion and of course
01:34the melting of glaciers and sea level rise been consistent. So storms 20-30
01:40years ago affecting the coast may have not produced much flooding. Now with the
01:44higher sea level doesn't take much to produce a significant flooding. And that
01:48heat the the warmth of the atmosphere is really contributing to our second story
01:52here and the impacts from that from the Los Angeles Times discussing how climate
01:56change is one of the or the the main driver of the drought of the worsening
02:00droughts across the western United States in the last couple years
02:03especially the 2020 to 2022 drought. Yeah over the 20th century most of the
02:08droughts in the western US were due to lack of rainfall or snowfall combined. Now
02:13what the this research is finding in the 21st century most of the the droughts
02:19that we're seeing is due to increased heat and why is that? Well the heat is
02:23causing greater evaporation so with the greater evaporation the land dries out
02:28more and the sun's energy goes directly to heating the ground instead of
02:31evaporating water. And one of the things to always be concerned about with
02:34droughts obviously is the impact on water and water availability which is a
02:38really big concern in the western US. Yeah the Colorado River has been the
02:42flow of the Colorado River since 2000 down 20% so you can just imagine what
02:47type of impact that's having. And Brett that impact on water availability is
02:50one we'll be tracking here throughout the next many decades as more people
02:54move to the desert southwest and obviously the increase in drought may
02:58become even more impactful with the fact that these droughts may become more
03:02frequent as we head towards the end of the century which is what the research
03:05shows. So thanks Brett for that insight and for this information and more
03:09climate stories you can find those at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
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