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- Currently in Denver — September 19, 2023: Mostly Sunny
Currently in Denver — September 19, 2023: Mostly Sunny
Plus, Antarctic sea ice is having a weird year.
Eric Holthaus & Julia Dinmore
September 19, 2023
The weather, currently.
Mostly Sunny and a Little Cloudy
This Wednesday will see a high near 82 degrees with mostly sunny skies and some clouds rolling in later in the evening. Nothing that will stop you from basking in those UV rays (with sunscreen, I hope)! ☀️
It’s looking like this warm sunny weather will be the norm for a little while. Our sunny Denver days are back! It’s great, but I don’t have air conditioning in my car, so I’m eagerly awaiting those sweater weather days. If you’re still clinging to summer, though, I’m happy for you.
What you need to know, currently.
Antarctic sea ice continues to grow at a pace far below any previous year on record. As we approach springtime in the Southern Hemisphere and with a Pacific El Niño strengthening, there are worries that melt season may have already begun weeks early.
There is some speculation that Antarctic sea ice extent, which has been at daily record lows for the last 4 months, might already have peaked for this year.
It has been a very weird year, that I'm not sure anyone entirely understands.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde)
2:21 PM • Sep 18, 2023
The BBC interviewed Antarctic research scientists, and their words are worth reflecting on.
"It's so far outside anything we've seen, it's almost mind-blowing," Walter Meier, who monitors sea-ice with the National Snow and Ice Data Center, told the BBC.
Since it is already floating, melting sea ice does not on its own raise sea levels. But sea ice forms a buffer encircling Antarctica from warming waters, and the loss of that sea ice would accelerate the loss of land ice in the Antarctic ice sheets, which would raise sea levels — perhaps dangerously so.
This is one further sign that we are in the emergency phase of the climate crisis, and that world leaders need to do uncomfortable things to restore a climate balance and pave the way for a just future for everyone.
What you can do, currently.
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