Currently in Chicago — July 21, 2023: Dodging some weekend storms

The weather, currently.

Takeaways for Chicago’s weather:

1. Fantastic Friday

2. Several dry hours this weekend

3. Warming up next week

Partly to mostly sunny skies will make for a fantastic Friday with highs in the lower 80s. We warm up this weekend with highs hitting the middle 80s. A scattered afternoon shower or thunderstorm Saturday and then some scattered showers or thunderstorms both early or late Sunday but most of the weekend will see a mix of sunshine and clouds. Warmer by early next week with highs in the upper 80s Monday with partly to mostly sunny skies and then more sunshine Tuesday as highs hit near 90 degrees. Cooler lakeside most days by 5 to 10 degrees.

— Tim McGill

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What you can do, currently.

The climate emergency doesn’t take the summer off. In fact — as we’ve been reporting — we’re heading into an El Niño that could challenge historical records and is already supercharging weather and climate impacts around the world.

When people understand the weather they are experiencing is caused by climate change it creates a more compelling call to action to do something about it.

If these emails mean something important to you — and more importantly, if the idea of being part of a community that’s building a weather service for the climate emergency means something important to you — please chip in just $5 a month to continue making this service possible.

Thank you!!

What you need to know, currently.

The North Atlantic Ocean heat wave is pushing further and further into uncharted territory — literally off the charts.

Versions of this graph, made by climate researcher Leon Simons, have been going viral all summer, and for good reason. Ocean temperatures in the Atlantic are right now far and above anything ever seen in the instrumental record.

The latest figures basin-wide are about 1.5°C above not only pre-industrial levels, but the recent thirty-years mean. Parts of the North Atlantic, particularly near Atlantic Canada, are right now more than 5°C above normal. These are worryingly high values, mostly because they are so far above even previous record years.

The consequences of water this warm are still playing out. Forecasters have boosted their outlooks for this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, shallow water marine ecosystems are being disrupted, and extreme weather is already plaguing people on both sides of the pond — Florida, the Caribbean, and Europe have already endured record-breaking heatwaves.

Any climate scientist who tells you they know exactly what is going on is overstating their case — there are many theories, including a response to a recent reduction in sulfur aerosol pollution (as Currently has previously covered), the weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), an ocean-wide heat-transfer mechanism, a combination of some of the above, or something else entirely.

What’s clear is, we are in a climate emergency and adapting to these rapid changes is more difficult than preventing them in the first place.

—Eric Holthaus