Currently in Chicago — July 25, 2023: Here comes the heat!

Plus, wildfires force the largest evacuation in the history of Greece.

AuthorAuthor

Tim McGill & Eric Holthaus
July 24, 2023

The weather, currently.

Here comes the heat!

Takeaways for Chicago’s weather:

1. Steamy summer weather

2. Mainly hit or miss thunderstorms

3. Cooling down by the weekend

Partly to mostly sunny skies Tuesday with hit or miss showers and thunderstorms and highs hitting the upper 80s. Turning up the heat Wednesday as highs hit the lower 90s with a chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms early and late but most of the day will see a mix of sun and clouds. Still steamy Thursday as highs climb into the lower 90s under partly to mostly sunny skies. Best chance for scattered showers and thunderstorms Thursday night and Friday. Sun and cloud mix for most of Friday but afternoon storms possible with highs in the lower 90s. A few showers possible Saturday afternoon and cooler with highs in the middle 80s.

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.

Extreme temperatures reaching 45°C (113°F) amid the hottest July weekend in 50 years in the Greek island of Rhodes helped fan horrific wildfires over the weekend that prompted the largest evacuation in the long history of Greece.

Nearly 20,000 people were forced to seek shelter on the island, with some evacuating by boat ahead of the growing flames. The fires progressed extremely rapidly towards the sea, forcing the evacuation over the span of several hours. The fires look even more horrific from space, with the burn scar covering nearly 10 percent of the island.

Most of those who were evacuated were tourists, some of whom described a “near-death experience”.

The fires are getting a lot of media attention, and rightfully so. The Mediterranean is one of the epicenters of this year’s surge in global temperatures, that have also affected much of eastern North America, as well as China. The Mediterranean heat wave is especially affecting migrants making the dangerous voyage from North Africa to Italy, as Currently has previously reported, and which also recorded its all-time highest temperatures in recent days.

A paper published last year concluded that the "prevalence and extremity of fire weather has already emerged beyond its pre-industrial variability in the Mediterranean due to climate change" — namely that the fires in Greece cannot be explained without the influence of decades of burning fossil fuels.