chubbs

BS, its well known that glaciers around the world are shrinking rapidly due to climate change. The Himalayas are no exception. The increasing local risk from glacier melting was described as a "crisis" earlier this year: https://www.icimod.org/press-releases/hindu-kush-himalaya-glaciers-losing-ice-at-double-the-rate-since-2000-new-icimod-report-confirm/ Kathmandu, 18 March 2026 – Glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) are melting at an accelerating rate, with ice loss rates doubling since the year 2000, according to two new landmark reports that will be released on 21 March 2026 by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) to mark World Day for Glaciers. The reports, Changing Dynamics of Glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalaya Region from 1990 to 2020 and HKH Glacier Outlook 2026: Insights from 50 Years of Himalayan Glacier Monitoring, provide the most comprehensive evidence yet of glacier change in the region. They reveal a total loss of up to 27 metres of ice thickness since 1975, sounding an alarm for the nearly two billion people downstream who depend on meltwater from the ‘Water Towers of Asia’. “This isn’t a distant problem; it’s a crisis unfolding in real-time, with new disasters every summer and monsoon. The fact that ice loss rates have doubled this century should shock us all into action,” said Pema Gyamtsho, Director General of ICIMOD. “The Hindu Kush Himalaya is at a crossroads. The rapidly escalating impacts we’re seeing from water uncertainty to catastrophic floods underscore that we are in a critical decade for the cryosphere. We must scale up monitoring and invest in adaptation now. These aren’t blind spots becoming surprises anymore; they are our new reality.”

I estimate 1.77C is needed to break a record this year vs Jacobson's 1.84. In any case August's warmth has made a record likely this year and put 2023's gobsmacking September of 1.74C in play. Sept 2023 is still the highest ERA monthly anomaly.

“We don’t see a time in the past where El Niños have been as strong as today, and we show that the strength of El Niño changes in parallel with the warming of global temperature,” said lead author Julia Cole, professor and chair of the U-M Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. “Our findings tell us that the big El Niño events of the last 40 years are not normal in the context of the last thousand years.” https://news.umich.edu/el-ninos-more-intense-over-last-40-years-than-previous-1000-according-to-u-m-study/

Blog article on the Nepal floods by a glaciologist providing background and recent history of the area impacted. https://www.antarcticglaciers.org/2026/08/august-2026-nepal-tibet-floods/

Satellite OISST (through August) has risen to a new peak, 0.08C warmer than the previous peak in September 2023. So far, the nino spike this year is very similar in magnitude to the 2023 spike. Both larger and faster than previous El Nino.

The chart I posted shows temperature anomaly, while your chart shows temperature. August will rank a little higher on a temperature basis than it will on an anomaly basis because August is a relatively warm month.

The rise in global temperature anomalies that began in June continues through the end of August in this gfs-based forecast. August will easily break the previous August record and is tracking as the fourth highest monthly anomaly in any month on this metric, fifth highest on ERA. End of the month readings are near the peak monthly value for this metric, 1.04 in November 2023. Note that anomalies are usually highest in the colder months. We'll see what September brings. http://www.karstenhaustein.com/climate.php

Here's Zeke H latest forecasts (updated daily). An August record is almost guaranteed, while a record for 2026 is currently a coin flip. Monthly and yearly record odds have both been increasing as the month continues to run warm. https://dashboard.theclimatebrink.com/#global

This isn't a new thought, scientists have been looking for weather impacts from accelerated warming in the arctic for a while. One hypothesis is a weaker, wavier jetstream, amplifying and slowing the progression of weather patterns. As far as I am aware this hasn't been proven with studies on both sides. Not aware of any findings on baroclinic storms either. Note that increased moisture compensates for weaker temperature gradients in baroclinic storms through increased heat release from condensation in clouds. One weather effect that has been found is a northward shift in the jet stream and storm track.

In El Nino mode. 2026 started #5 in GISS in Jan and Feb, but reached #1 in July. August on track to easily top 2024. Can expect monthly records well into until 2027. The one exception is Sept, the "gobsmacking" warmth of 2023 will be tough to beat.

This study provides an estimate of transient climate response (TCR) using CERES net radiation estimates and updates temperature-based estimates through 2025. The new TCR estimates for temperature are a little higher than previous studies (orange bars) and the CERES TCR estimates (red bars) are higher still, inline with TCR estimated with the warmer CMIP6 models. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026EF008356

I don't think area burned is telling you much about CC; because, other human factors are driving the long-term trends. Per Our World in Data, the vast majority of wildfires occur in grassland and savanna in the sub-tropics and tropics, roughly 50% in Africa. Forest burning is a small portion of area burned in all regions. Our World in Data cites a Science paper that attributes the long-term decrease in area burned to the spread and intensification of agriculture. In Europe and North America, reduction in cropland burned is another important long-term trend. Have to look at other stats to see the effect of climate change. The blog I linked makes the point that the intensity of the largest fires is increasing due to climate change. Big, intense fires are the most problematic but aren't well captured by the area burned stats. Here's a recent paper that finds that a small number of extreme fires are having an out-sized impact on the forest ecosystem in western and boreal North America. https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.aeg5802

Blog on wildfire smoke in the US. There's been an increase in smoky years since the late 2010s. https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/smoke-gets-in-your-eyes

I would look at Tavg, annual and monthly, to start.

Yes, Reading and West Chester are stable in the 1929 to 1960 period and I am going to add Reading to my analyses. A couple of comments. As I said above looking at shorter time periods significantly expands the list of reference stations for individual station breaks as all stations are stable between the station breaks. Second, there is no need to restrict to short distances from Chester County. Weather station data is well correlated over hundreds of miles. An interesting first step would be to check how far good correlation with Chester County extends.