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- Currently in Los Angeles — September 19, 2023: Continued cool temps
Currently in Los Angeles — September 19, 2023: Continued cool temps
Plus, Antarctic sea ice is having a weird year.
Ade Adeniji & Eric Holthaus
September 19, 2023
The weather, currently.
Continued cool temps
A much nicer day across the southland on Monday. By 9am I already saw some blue and by midday skies were mostly sunny. The low will still be a factor on Tuesday and so it stands to reason the marine layer will be too. Expect temps to remain below normal in the 70s.
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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