July sets weather records for cities

It's only August 1st, and already there are compilations out that many cities experienced not just the hottest July ever, but the hottest month ever. (Certainly July is frequently the hottest month of the year in North America -- about the only other contender would be
August).

The problem is (as of right now), these are only records for cities. NOAA doesn't rank cities, it ranks states. Which means all the weather stations in a state, not just the urban ones. The skeptics will decry the city data as being contaminated with Urban Heat Island effect or airport tarmac warmth or something like that -- and they'll probably still do that when the state rankings for July come out in a few days, with some argument that the state data is dominated by the supposedly "bad" urban sites.

July 2011 -- all-time hottest month

So we'll see what happens. But combine this data with the other things going on -- notably an Arctic ice melt race to the bottom, where this year's minimum might exceed the remarkably low minimum of 2007 -- and the ability of skeptics to minimize the effects of warming will be diminished.

Sadly for all of us, it is definitely warming, and what we are seeing this summer emphasizes that -- even though the more alarming effects are shorter and warmer winters, which people generally like (nobody likes to be cold), but which are more crucial harbingers of the climate changes that are becoming dangerous trends globally.