This year has been full of weird, sobering, and traumatic events, and to top it all off, the weather has been acting… well let’s just say strange.
From unusual heat, to early season tropical storms, early and late season snow and record highs in Death Valley, let’s take a look at what else 2020 (and Mother Nature) has had in store for us so far.
- World Record Temps in Death Valley
In the last few weeks of August, the normally hottest place in the United States, got even hotter.
What just may be the highest temperature ever reliably recorded on Earth — 130F , or 54.4 C, has been reached in Death Valley National Park, California. The recording is being verified by the US National Weather Service.
2. California Wildfires
All across California, deadly wildfires have been raging, setting a record of over 2 million acres of land burnt already this year. The scariest part? California’s typical wildfire season, September through October, hasn’t even happened yet.
As of this past Monday morning, Cal Fire reports that over 14,100 firefighters were fighting 23 major wildfires across the state.
3. Winter Weather Advisory, 2 Days after 101 Degrees Day
Residents of Denver are experiencing some extremely strange weather conditions this week.
Just two days after the city felt record heat of 101 degrees this past Saturday, there has been a winter weather advisory put into effect, that could be bringing 8–14 inches of snow to the Denver and surrounding Colorado areas.
4. Two Tornado Warnings in One Day
Hawaii saw an unprecedented two tornado warnings in one day in mid March, just as the coronavirus pandemic was making its initial impacts across the United States.
On St. Patrick’s Day morning, a pair of tornado warnings were issued by the National Weather Service in the Hawaiian Islands. Only two tornado warnings had previously been issued in Hawaii, with the most recent being over a decade ago in 2008.
5. World Record Heat in Siberia
By far, one of the strangest heat related weather activities we’ve seen so far in 2020, has also been one of the most disturbing.
On June 20, the high temperature in Verkhoyansk, a small town in northeast Russia, topped out at 100F or 38C.
This extreme temperature was confirmed by the Russian Federal Service, topping the city’s previous record set on July 25, 1988.
It may also have been the hottest temperature on record north of the Arctic Circle, according to a meteorologist with Meteo France.
Haven’t we had enough of strange events this year? We will just have to wait and see what Mother Nature has for the rest of the year.
