JMA - May 2022 was the 8th warmest recorded and Spring (MAM) 2022 was the 5th warmest recorded.


Japan Meteorological Agency

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Despite global pledge, methane emissions are increasing

Methane emissions are sharply increasing despite a global consensus to crack down on the powerful global warming gas, according to new data from the French methane tracking firm Kayrros.

The new report, based on satellite data, examines some of the biggest energy-producing regions in the world, including the U.S., Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Iran and Turkmenistan.

Why it matters: Methane acts on much shorter timescales than carbon dioxide, and emissions cuts could reduce near-term warming. Its major sources include oil and gas drilling and infrastructure, landfills and agriculture.

A coalition of more than 100 nations is taking part in the voluntary Global Methane Pledge, which looks to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030.

Zoom in: The report released Monday found that major oil, gas and coal-producing basins, including the Permian in the U.S., have seen increases in methane emissions so far this year that exceed an uptick in energy production.

The report found there was a 33% increase in methane emissions from the Permian Basin between the first quarter of 2022 and the previous quarter.

Much of the increase comes from small, privately-owned operators, the report states. These firms tend not to publicly report their methane emissions and have not committed to reducing them, it notes.

What they're saying: “This is an alarm call for the fossil fuel industry," said Antoine Halff, co-founder and chief analyst at Kayrros, in a statement.

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Two new studies shed light on the increasing risks the world faces from global warming and how such dangers can escalate in a cascading fashion.

Why it matters: One study published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters warns that certain extremes, such as drought, can exacerbate other climate hazards like heat waves.

Driving the news: When climate change-related extremes interact, they can create cascading and unprecedented outcomes, per the new research.

The Southwest is currently enduring a prolonged, human-induced megadrought, and these conditions are raising the odds for a hotter, drier summer with high wildfire risks.

The big picture: The study shows that extreme drought in the Southwest during June of 2021 led to record heat throughout the region, and exacerbated the dry conditions.

Its authors say similar interactions between drought and heat likely enabled wildfires in New Mexico to grow to record sizes in the past few months.

"The outcome is more than the sum of its parts," study co-author Benjamin Zaitchik, a Johns Hopkins University researcher, said via an email exchange.

"We're seeing a climate change signal of earlier springs, faster drying, and early summer warmth feed back on itself, leading to larger impacts than we would predict taking each hazard on its own."

Context: The threat of compound, unprecedented events, is one reason scientists have been studying differences in risks associated with different levels of global warming.

The world is already about 1.2°C (2.2°F) warmer than preindustrial levels, and is on course for around 3°C (5.4°F) of warming through 2100, barring more stringent emissions cuts.

The second study, published today in the journal Climatic Change, uses projections from 21 computer models.

The researchers determined how much society's climate risk exposure, from effects such as water scarcity to heat stress, would differ by holding warming to 1.5°C, compared to more severe levels.

What they found: The study found that by limiting global warming to the most stringent Paris target, societal risks could be reduced by 85% compared to those associated with about 3.6°C (6.48°F) of warming.

Risks to people would be slashed by 10% to 44% globally if warming is limited to 1.5°C when compared to 2°C, it found.

What they're saying: Rachel Warren, the study's lead author and a researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said via an email exchange that it is not too late to prevent the most dangerous climate change outcomes.

"It is not the time to despair, it’s the time to participate in an exciting decade of transformation," Warren said.

The study on ties between the Southwestern megadrought and extreme heat found that unusually dry conditions boosted regional temperatures in June 2021 by up to 4°F. The greatest difference occurred in forested landscapes, rather than the open desert.

Zoom in: Compound events, in which one extreme feeds into another, are recipes for record-shattering outcomes.

State of play: According to co-author Benjamin Zaitchik of Johns Hopkins University, the drought-heat nexus was on display again this spring when New Mexico's largest fire on record forced thousands to evacuate.

"Cascading dry-hot extremes could be particularly pronounced in ecologically sensitive and fire-prone forests," Zaitchik said via email.

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Extreme weather events.

  • Heat waves topple monthly, all-time records from Japan to Italy


Monthly and all-time records have been shattered in at least a half-dozen countries, from Europe to Asia, during the past week. None of these events have been typical for June, either.

Driving the news: Japan, Italy, Norway, Iran and Finland are a few of the latest nations to see heat records fall like dominoes in an extraordinary month.

Why it matters: Studies show that as the climate warms, the frequency of heat waves dramatically increases, as do the severity and longevity of such events.


  • Research into the contributors to individual heat waves, such as last year's deadly June Pacific Northwest event, has determined that some would have been "virtually impossible" without added amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
  • Extreme heat is deadly, ranking as the top weather-related killer in the U.S. in a typical year. It can also stress power grids, especially in countries suffering drought as well as struggling with a global energy crunch in the wake of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.


State of play: Rome tied its all-time hottest temperature record and set a June milestone on Tuesday, with a reading of 105.4°F. Florence and Naples also set monthly records this week, according to weather historian Maximiliano Herrera.


  • Italy is also enduring a severe drought, prompting water conservation measures in some areas. As in the U.S. Southwest, the drought may be allowing temperatures to spike even higher than they typically would.


The big picture: The Northern Hemisphere is seeing record heat in multiple places simultaneously during an atypical month for it. Most all-time heat records date to July or August.


  • With a heat dome in place over parts of Europe and low pressure to the west, ultra-hot air from Africa has been pulled north-northeast, all the way to the Arctic.
  • Tromsø, Norway, which is above the Arctic Circle, hit 86°F on June 28. This was a monthly record and came within a half-degree of an all-time record for that location.
  • Mehamn, Norway, also in the Arctic at the far northern tip of the country, reached 87.4°F on Wednesday, obliterating the previous June record of 77.7°F.


Zoom in: Japan is in the grips of one of its worst heat waves on record, period, let alone in June. The heat is noteworthy both for its intensity and persistence.




  • "Tokyo's metropolitan government staff have been advised to work in the dark," per the Post. "In supermarkets freezers across the country, lights were switched off, and at homeware stores electrical appliances were unplugged."


The bottom line: Heat waves are a typical summer hazard, but climate change is making them, along with other extreme weather events, more dangerous, capricious and fearsome.


  • And July starts tomorrow.

https://www.axios.com/2022/06/30/hea...-japan-records