Extreme heat and wildfires wreak spring havoc, with hottest months still ahead

Spring has only just begun to transition to summer in the Northern Hemisphere, but some of the season’s most odious and dangerous extreme weather is already running rampant.

Prolonged and punishing heat waves in Asia have sent temperatures soaring to 100 degrees as far north as Siberia and above 110 degrees in Thailand and Vietnam, breaking records.

Wildfires are raging in Canada, which has never seen so much land burn so early in the year. They come after a record-warm May.

Extreme conditions extend to the Southern Hemisphere too, where record warmth and historically low sea ice levels linger even as that part of the globe enters winter.

The extremes are all connected to ocean waters that have hovered at record-warm levels for months, boosted by human-caused climate change. The weather chaos could escalate in the coming months as summer temperatures peak and a developing El Niño elevates air and water temperatures worldwide further.

Record Siberian heat

Over the weekend, parts of Siberia soared to highs near 100 degrees (38 Celsius), setting all-time records.

In Jalturovosk, the 100 degrees (37.9 Celsius) recorded June 3 was the highest ever observed there, according to extreme weather historian Maximiliano Herrera. Alexandrovskoe and Laryak in Siberia also set all-time records on Sunday, with 97 degrees (36.1 Celsius) and 95 degrees (34.9 Celsius), respectively.

Many additional records — some all-time — were set on Monday.

Pulsing warmth and dry conditions have been common in the region this year. An outbreak of wildfires several weeks ago killed more than 20 in the Ural Mountains and Siberia.

Unusual warmth at high latitudes is a hallmark of climate change. On June 20, 2020, the temperature in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk, which sits above the Arctic Circle, soared to a searing 100.4 degrees. It was confirmed as the highest temperature ever recorded so far north.

Record heat in China and Southeast Asia

Parts of China and surrounding East Asian nations including Thailand and Vietnam are in the midst of a several-month heat wave that has broken more than a thousand daily, monthly and all-time records. The record heat comes on the heels of similar episodes in the summer of 2022.

Herrera tweeted that the heat wave in China was “mind blowing” and “rewriting” the weather history books.

Just since June began, all-time records have fallen in dozens of locations across southern China, with temperatures reaching at least 108 degrees (42.2 Celsius), and mountainous locations also witnessing heat on a level rarely seen.

Record highs for the month of June have been observed in Vietnam, where Muong La reached 111 degrees (43.8 Celsius) and in Hong Kong where it reached 100 degrees (37.9 Celsius). In late April and May, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos established national all-time heat records with temperatures over 110 degrees (43.5 Celsius).

The heat in southeast Asia, in its 13th week, is “most brutal never ending heat wave the world has ever seen,” Herrera tweeted.

Japan just finished its warmest March to May period on record, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The country and surrounding area later faced a pulse of high heat on the periphery of Typhoon Mawar before the storm delivered all-time record 24-hour rainfall to Japan’s Pacific coast, including 19.3 inches in Toba.

Rounds of record heat have also occasionally spread westward toward the Middle East. A new pulse of extreme temperatures is expected to envelop much of China for the next seven to 10 days.

Canadian wildfires raging amid record heat

At least 8 million acres (3.3 million hectares) have been scorched across Canada, which endured its hottest May on record. More than 6 million acres (2.5 million hectares) went up in flames during May alone.

Persistent warmth and drought is affecting areas from coast to coast, with the worst fires so far in parts of the Alberta and Saskatchewan prairies, as well as Nova Scotia in the Atlantic Maritimes and Quebec to the north of New England. Total burned area is currently about 1,200 percent normal for the year to date, with several provinces running more than 4,000 percent normal.

The average annual burned area in Canada is 5.2 million acres (2.1 million hectares). 2023 has already blown past what are typically full-year totals even though historically a vast majority of the fire activity is still to come.

Record low sea ice in the Antarctic

As portions of Antarctica warm five times faster than the global average, the area around Antarctica covered by sea ice is at a record low for this time of year at about 10 million square kilometers, compared to a historical average of about 12 million square kilometers.

For most of the year, sea ice extent has hovered at or near record low coverage.

Antarctic sea ice reached its annual minimum for this year on Feb. 21. The 1.79 million square kilometers (691,000 square miles) covered by sea ice was the lowest minimum on record. 2023 is now the eighth year in a row that the annual minimum has been below average.

“Whether this was due to natural variability or the start of a climate-change signal was not clear as of February 2023,” NOAA said in an online story. “Making such a determination could require several more years.”

Earlier this year, unusually warm temperatures completely melted the snow in several regions of Antarctica that typically hang on to at least a little snow through the entire year.

Record warm oceans

The world’s oceans are warmer than they’ve ever been. The average sea surface temperature is currently just under 70 degrees Fahrenheit compared to a historical average of just over 68 degrees.

The fever is running particularly high in the North Atlantic Ocean where the average surface water temperature is currently 72 degrees. At 0.9 degrees above average, that is the warmest temperature on record for the North Atlantic.

Global ocean temperatures have been running at record highs since the middle of March. Other ocean hotspots include the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru and the northern central Pacific.

The warmth in the eastern Pacific along the equator signals a developing El Niño, which typically leads to extreme weather for some parts of the world.

The convergence of record warm ocean waters and El Niño has complicated this season’s hurricane forecast for the Atlantic Ocean, since El Nino typically limits hurricane development in the Atlantic while warm ocean waters can enhance storm development.