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Hot off the press: As Longyearbyen hits 90 months of above-average temps, here’s the story of the “Hell on Earth” summer told in headlines

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Hitting 90 straight months of above average temperatures in Longyearbyen certainly makes for a hot headline. But it’s nothing compared to the heat felt by locals spending their summer holidays scattered elsewhere around the world.

Sweltering social media posts about sweating in record temperatures reaching nearly 50 degree Celsius in southern Europe, nearly 40 degrees in mainland Norway and more than 30 degrees above the Arctic Circle was just the tip of the rapidly melting iceberg. A global heatwave caused widespread deaths and health problems, massive disruptions in community and commercial activities, and a flareup of fears this is the new normal due to climate change.

Meanwhile, even while continuing its streak of unusually warm months, Longyearbyen yet again proved why its one of the coolest places on Earth as the average temperature of 7.2 degrees in July was a mere 1.3 degrees above normal. And the heat never even reached an unlucky 13 degrees, with the highest temperature reaching 12.9 degrees on July 31.

Furthermore, there was plenty of cooling rain and clouds, with the 34.1 millimeters of rain during the month well exceeding the norm of 18.0 millimeters. (It’s worth noting that with researchers blaming climate change for the widespread freaky weather, Ny-Ålesund set a precipitation record with 99.4 millimeters and approached the monthly average of 28 millimeters in a single day with 22.4 millimeters on July 11.)

But hitting a landmark month for Longyearbyen’s streak with those kinds of stats are hardly likely to fuel many burning passions. So, in honor of hitting that mark, here’s the story of the “summer from hell” told in 90 heated headlines that begin in the neighborhood, spread to the rest of the world, ponder short- and long-term implications, and descend into the embers of sheer lunacy.

Heat wave under the midnight sun

It’s 90 degrees in the Arctic Circle this week. Here’s why.

Arctic Circle hits 32C as Europe heatwave nears record temperatures

Barents Region is on fire

The heatwave is so harsh, reindeer are hiding in tunnels to keep cool

Norway is in the grips of a severe heatwave

Norway could see 40-degree summers: climate experts

Sweden Wildfires Most Serious in Recent Times Aggravated By Record-Smashing Heat, Ongoing Drought With No End in Sight

A Global Heat Wave Has Set the Arctic Circle on Fire

Ten times more wildfires in Russian Arctic than a decade ago as ice melts and gives way to flame

Warming Arctic could be at heart of deadly July heatwave

Warming alters predator-prey interactions in the Arctic

Migratory barnacle geese threatened by rapidly rising Arctic temperatures

Huge part of Arctic ocean is shifting to an Atlantic climate, study finds

Heatwave Europe on verge of 48C record as temperatures put Britain in the shade

How Record Heat Wreaked Havoc on Four Continents

Global heatwave: Scores dead across Europe and Asia, thousands more injured

All the reasons much of the world is in the grip of a heatwave

We’re Going to Die in Record Numbers as Heatwaves Bake The World, First Global Study Shows

Deadly heat wave to grip Japan early this week

Japan heat wave pushes temperature to record high 41.1 degrees

Japan heatwave: Death toll climbs to 80

Japan’s heat wave drives up food prices, prison inmate dies

Tokyo’s heatwave suggests risky temperatures for the 2020 Olympics. Here’s what the city can do

China region set to become deadliest heat wave zone: report

Sanctions-hit North Korea warns of natural disaster brought by heat wave

Heat wave blamed for 53 deaths in Montreal

Heat wave in Spain claims eight lives

Red alerts for Portugal, Spain amid smothering heat wave

The brilliant pictures that sum up the heatwave of 2018 in Wales

Hot in the Highlands: Scottish games defeated by heat wave

Warmer than average autumn expected after UK summer heatwave

Is Germany’s Heat Wave a Preview of the Future?

The Latest: French cities ban polluting cars amid heat wave

San Diego hits longest heat wave in 34 years

This Summer’s Heat Wave Put 100 Million Americans at Risk and It’s Only Getting Worse

Higher temperatures increase suicide rates in the United States and Mexico

Heat wave brings early harvest for Valley farmers

Weatherwatch: insurers braced for subsidence claims after heatwave

Crashed WWII plane thawed by heatwave after 72 years

The disturbing reason heat waves can kill people in cooler climates

Tropics face massive rise in heatwave deaths

Number of “marine heat waves” roughly doubled between 1982 and 2016, study finds

Oceans are suffering from heat waves too

This Heat Wave Will Never End: Are We Trapped in The Wheel of Time’s “Endless Summer”?

Is it time to stop discussing the heatwave and start talking about climate change?

This Summer’s Heat Waves Could Be the Strongest Climate Signal Yet

NHS faces ‘summer crisis’ as heatwave sees record numbers at A and E

What Employers Can Learn From The Heatwave About Work Flexibility

Shocking Global Map Shows the Extent of a Global Heat Wave

Europe’s heat wave uncovers a hidden past

Earth’s greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level reach all-time high last year

2018 will be fourth-hottest year on record, climate scientists predict

Category:2018 heat waves (Wikipedia)

Climate Change Is Cooking the Oceans

CO2 Levels Reached an 800,000-year High in 2017

Extreme temperatures ‘especially likely for next four years’

The Global Heatwave Is About to Hit Your Wallet

Extreme global weather is ‘the face of climate change’ says leading scientist

Fire and water: July’s global weather extremes – in pictures

Heatwave continues to put pressure on businesses, individuals alike

How Climate Change Contributed to This Summer’s Wildfires

Climate Change: We’re Not Literally Doomed, but…

The rate of Antarctic melting has nearly tripled in the past five years

Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change

A claim-by-claim analysis of a climate denial ‘news’ story

Climate change denial won’t even benefit oil companies soon

Ryan Zinke insists California wildfires have nothing to do with climate change. Experts disagree.

Climate change fuelling heatwaves, “experts” warn

Diary of a sweaty climate change sceptic

Sea level rise ‘overblown,’ solar energy ‘dumb,’ climate change deniers tell forum

Was this the heatwave that finally ended climate denial?

Study shows heat wave converting is some climate change deniers

Could Climate Change Destroy the Bloody Mary?

Heatwave made more than twice as likely by climate change, scientists find

Climate change multiplies harmful marine heatwaves

Climate change risks ‘devastating tsunamis’ causing havoc across globe, experts warn

6 surprising side effects of this year’s global heatwave

Sik, Kuala Krai and Beluran on heatwave alert

Searching for Language to Capture How Climate Change Has Altered Our World

Climate change means the last call of Missouri songbirds

Germany’s winemakers cope with climate change by breeding new grapes

Report: Climate Change Could Impact Everything from Baseball Games to Beaches

The country most vulnerable to climate change fights back

UK ‘woefully unprepared’ for deadly heatwaves, warn MPs

This week in 1912, a newspaper printed a spot-on warning about our warming world. We’re living in the future it predicted.

Why being a philosopher in the heatwave is so particularly unbearable

Slavoj Zizek: Words fail when real heat takes over

Could Climate Change Destroy the Bloody Mary?

City urges a break from sex to fight heat wave

The hottest planet ever found: Temperatures exceeding 4,000°C found on Kelt-9b making its atmosphere so hot iron and titanium glow in it

 

About Post Author

Mark Sabbatini

I'm a professional transient living on a tiny Norwegian island next door to the North Pole, where once a week (or thereabouts) I pollute our extreme and pristine environment with paper fishwrappers decorated with seemingly random letters that would cause a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters to die of humiliation. Such is the wisdom one acquires after more than 25 years in the world's second-least-respected occupation, much of it roaming the seven continents in search of jazz, unrecognizable street food and escorts I f****d with by insisting they give me the platonic tours of their cities promised in their ads. But it turns out this tiny group of islands known as Svalbard is my True Love and, generous contributions from you willing, I'll keep littering until they dig my body out when my climate-change-deformed apartment collapses or they exile my penniless ass because I'm not even worthy of washing your dirty dishes.
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