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#extremetemperatures — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #extremetemperatures, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Central #Maine smashes third temperature record in a week

    Augusta's high temperature Wednesday tied the warmest temperature ever recorded at the site in the month of November

    by Ethan Horton, November 6, 2024

    AUGUSTA — "Central Maine set yet another heat-related record Wednesday, marking the third time in the past week a daily temperature record has been broken.

    "Wednesday’s unofficial high temperature reached 76 F (24.4 C) in #AugustaMaine and 73 degrees (22.7 C) in #WatervilleMaine, breaking the local record of 72 degrees (22.2 C), set in 2022. The area also broke records on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, easily surpassing high temperature records set in 1956 and 2003, respectively.

    "The #PortlandMaine area broke a record for the entire month Wednesday: The high of 79 degrees F (26.1 C) shattered the warmest temperature ever recorded at the site in the month of November, set at 75 degrees F (23.8 C) on Nov. 5, 2022. Augusta’s high temperature Wednesday tied the area’s all-time November record."

    Read more:
    centralmaine.com/2024/11/06/ce

    Archived version:
    archive.ph/cjLkB

    #ClimateDiary #ClimateDiaryMaine #ExtremeTemperatures #RecordHeat #RecordTemperatures #RecordBreakingTemperatures

  2. Nuclear watchdog ASN mentions that limits were raised, but the article does not mention those limits. I'll be keeping a watchful EYE 👁️ on this story (and see what I can dig up...!) (From 2023: France’s #NuclearPower stations to limit energy output due to high river temperatures

    By Euronews Green with Reuters
    Published on 13/07/2023

    "EDF is committed to adapting its facilities to #ClimateChange, a company spokesperson said. They added that since 2000, losses due to high river temperatures have represented an average drop of just 0.3 per cent of annual power production.

    "The nuclear operator said previously a study it conducted showed last year's higher temperatures had no impact on biodiversity.

    "However, a study conducted by French #nuclear watchdog #ASN saw a slight increase in #algae and #plankton growth around the #BugeyPlant during the #HeatWave. Fish populations were also affected through the autumn at the #SaintAlban plant.

    "The watchdog stipulated it is currently impossible to distinguish the impact of the raised limits compared to the other #ecological effects of the #HeatWave, but it is continuing to monitor the river #biome."

    euronews.com/green/2023/07/13/

    #NoNukes
    #NoNewNukes #NuclearPowerPlant #NuclearPlants #NuclearIsNotCarbonFree #RethinkNotRestart #ClimateCrisis #ExtremeTemperatures #ExtremeWeather #ExtremeHeat

  3. From 2011:

    In Tennessee, #HeatWaves Diminish #Nuclear Power Output

    By Alyson Kenward
    April 10, 2011

    "On July 8, 2010, as the temperature in downtown Decatur, Alabama climbed to a sweltering 98°F, operators at the #BrownsFerry #NuclearPowerPlant a few miles outside of town realized they had only one option to avoid violating their #environmental permit: turn down the reactors. For days, the Tennessee Valley Authority (#TVA), which owns the nuclear plant, had kept a watchful eye on the rising mercury, knowing that more heat outside could spell trouble inside the facility. When the #TennesseeRiver, whose adjacent waters are used to cool the reactors, finally hit 90°F and forced Browns Ferry to run at only half of their regular power output, the TVA hoped the hot spell would last just a few days.

    "Eight weeks of unrelenting heat later, the plant was still running at half its capacity, robbing the grid of power it desperately needed when electricity demand from #AirConditioners and fans was at its peak. The total cost of the lost power over that time? More than $50 million dollars, all of which was paid for by TVA’s customers in Tennessee.

    "The Browns Ferry nuclear plant, located on the Wheeler Reservoir along the Tennessee River near Athens, Alabama. It has three reactors, each producing about 1000 megawatts of electricity. Credit: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

    “'Last summer, the water in the Tennessee River warmed up early and stayed warm,' says TVA spokesman Ray Golden. 'When it got hot again in July and August, we were impacted by that and had to reduce power at the plant and get it from somewhere else.'

    "With river water so warm, the #NuclearPlant couldn’t draw in as much water as usual to cool the facility's three reactors, or else the water it pumped back into the river could be hot enough to harm the local #ecosystem, says Golden. But for every day that the Browns Ferry plant ran at 50 percent of its maximum output, the TVA had to spent $1 million more than usual to purchase power from somewhere else, he says.

    "What happened in northern Alabama last summer, at the largest of TVA's nuclear power plants, did not present a human safety concern. Operators knew there was never a risk of an explosion or nuclear meltdown, nor was there a threat of leaking radioactive material. But the prolonged spell of hot weather put the TVA at risk of violating environmental permits, with hefty fines as one consequence and potential harm to the Tennessee River ecosystem as another.

    "It’s not the first time high temperatures have affected the performance of the Browns Ferry plant, and extreme heat is a growing concern for power plant operators across the #Southeast. While some nuclear plants can improve their cooling procedures to cope with the intake of warmer water, the upgrades can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and still don’t offer an indefinite defense against extreme heat. Because scientists say the Southeast (like many other parts of the world) can expect to see more frequent and intense heat waves by the end of this century, the problems for nuclear power and the people that rely on it for electricity may only be beginning.

    #ExtremeHeat Limits Nuclear Energy Production

    "The disaster still unfolding at Japan’s #FukushimaDaiichi nuclear plant has refocused America's attention on nuclear power, calling into question its future role in the country's energy portfolio. Many advocates of nuclear power say that we need to maintain — and even expand — nuclear power to get away from using fossil fuels, such as coal, and to help lower greenhouse gas emissions.

    "But nuclear power has a paradoxical relationship with #ClimateChange. Even though it might help mitigate long-term #GlobalWarming, nuclear power is already being challenged by rising temperatures and the increasing number of heat waves around the world. Throughout the last decade, several plants have had to reduce electricity production during heat waves, just when when electricity demand typically reaches peak levels.

    “'It’s a dilemma between mitigation of climate change, and adaptation to it,' says Natalie Kopytko, an energy policy doctoral student at the University of York in England. Having recently studied the ways in which climate change could have a negative impact on nuclear power, she says nuclear power is caught in the middle because it could be used to help lower greenhouse gas emissions, but global warming is making the technology less effective at providing electricity."

    Read more:
    climatecentral.org/news/in-ten

    #Greenwashing #NoNukes
    #NoNewNukes #NuclearPowerPlant #NuclearPlants #NuclearIsNotCarbonFree #RethinkNotRestart #ClimateCrisis #ExtremeTemperatures #ExtremeWeather #ExtremeHeat

  4. Nuclear Power Plants: #NRC Should Take Actions to Fully Consider the Potential Effects of #ClimateChange

    GAO-24-106326 Published: Apr 02, 2024.

    "Climate change is likely to exacerbate natural hazards—such as #floods and #drought. The risks to nuclear power plants from such hazards include damage to systems and equipment that ensure safe operation.

    "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's oversight process includes addressing safety risks at these plants. However, NRC doesn't fully consider potential increases in risk from climate change. For example, NRC mostly uses historical data to identify and assess safety risks, rather than data from future climate projections.

    "We recommended that NRC fully address climate risks to nuclear power plants.

    "Climate change is expected to exacerbate natural hazards—including heat, drought, #wildfires, #flooding, #hurricanes, and #SeaLevelRise. In addition, climate change may affect #ExtremeCold weather events. Risks to nuclear power plants from these hazards include loss of offsite power, damage to systems and equipment, and diminished cooling capacity, potentially resulting in reduced operations or plant shutdowns.

    "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) addresses risks to the safety of nuclear power plants, including risks from natural hazards, in its licensing and oversight processes. Following the tsunami that led to the 2011 accident at Japan's #FukushimaDaiichi nuclear power plant, NRC took additional actions to address risks from natural hazards. These include requiring safety margins in reactor designs, measures to prevent radioactive releases should a natural hazard event exceed what a plant was designed to withstand, and maintenance of backup equipment related to safety functions.

    "However, NRC's actions to address risks from natural hazards do not fully consider potential climate change effects. For example, NRC primarily uses historical data in its licensing and oversight processes rather than climate projections data. NRC officials GAO interviewed said they believe their current processes provide an adequate margin of safety to address climate risks.

    "However, NRC has not conducted an assessment to demonstrate that this is the case. Assessing its processes to determine whether they adequately address the potential for increased risks from climate change would help ensure NRC fully considers risks to existing and proposed plants. Specifically, identifying any gaps in its processes and developing a plan to address them, including by using climate projections data, would help ensure that NRC adopts a more comprehensive approach for assessing risks and is better able to fulfill its mission to protect public health and safety."

    gao.gov/products/gao-24-106326

    #Greenwashing #NoNukes
    #NoNewNukes #NuclearPowerPlant #NuclearPlants #NuclearIsNotCarbonFree #RethinkNotRestart #NuclearRegulatoryCommission #ClimateCrisis #ExtremeTemperatures #ExtremeWeather

  5. #SevereStorms with nocturnal #tornado risk to blitz over a dozen states

    Millions of people in the central and eastern #UnitedStates are bracing not only for severe storms and tornadoes but also weather whiplash with #temperatures plummeting as much as 60 degrees in less than 24 hours.

    By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist

    Published Feb 26, 2024 12:07 PM EST | Updated Feb 26, 2024 3:32 PM EST

    "A powerful cold front will mark an end to surging June-like warmth from the Mississippi Valley to the Appalachians at the cost of potentially violent storms that will roar through more than a dozen states from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday, AccuWeather meteorologists warn.

    "The upcoming severe weather eruption, which may affect as many as 50 million people, has been on AccuWeather's radar for at least a week due to a potent storm the team has been tracking since it began its journey well out over the Pacific Ocean. As that storm interacts with a strong jet stream, surging Gulf of Mexico moisture and an increasing temperature difference between unusual warmth and February cold, natural fireworks in the form of powerful thunderstorms will unfold.

    "'The first thunderstorms will erupt along the edge of advancing warm air from mid- to late afternoon on Tuesday from northern Illinois and Indiana to southern Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as northwestern Ohio,' AccuWeather Meteorologist Alyssa Glenny said. These storms will become severe toward the end of the day.

    "Next, thunderstorms will explode southwestward along the advancing cold front, extending from northern Illinois to Arkansas Tuesday evening. The front and the severe weather it packs will move across the Ohio and middle Mississippi valleys during the overnight hours on Tuesday.

    "All modes of #SevereWeather are anticipated with the severe weather. Some of the storms will pack damaging #wind gusts, large #hail and torrential #downpours capable of leading to flash flooding. However, the potential for multiple #tornadoes is also a serious concern with the upcoming severe weather threat.

    "'The greatest threat of tornadoes may occur along and in between interstates 70 and 80 in the Midwest, beginning in Illinois and western Indiana late in the day Tuesday and expanding eastward from there Tuesday night,' AccuWeather StormWarning Meteorologist Joseph Bauer said.

    "The Tuesday evening and night tornado threat includes the massive #Chicago and SaintLouis metro areas and the cities of #Indianapolis, #SouthBend and #FortWayne, Indiana; #ToledoOhio and #LimaOhio; and #SpringfieldIllinois and #PeoriaIllinois.

    "Should the severe thunderstorms organize into a single solid line on Tuesday night, the risk of damaging wind gusts may broaden, but the risk of highly dangerous tornadoes may lower. While a line of storms may form, it may be fragmented and individual discreet thunderstorms, which are most capable of producing tornadoes, may proceed the line.

    "AccuWeather meteorologists urge people in the path of the storms to pay attention to severe weather bulletins, including signing up for alerts that may precede the messages when sleeping at night, such as the AccuWeather App.

    "The risk of severe thunderstorms, including a few tornadoes, will carry over into Wednesday as the cold front advances to the east and south toward the central and southern #Appalachians. On Wednesday, the severe weather threat will extend from southern #NewYork state to the northern parts of #Mississippi, #Alabama and #Georgia.

    "The potential for storms capable of causing property damage and localized power outages on Wednesday will include #NewYorkCity, #Philadephia, #WashingtonDC., #Charlotte and part of the #Atlanta metro area.

    "As the powerful cold front presses on toward the mid-Atlantic coast, storms will bring brief downpours and strong wind gusts, as opposed to a tornado threat. In some cases, the squally storms may occur without thunder and lightning by the time the storms reach the coast, Bauer said.
    Powerful cold front to mark as much as 60-degree temperature crash

    "One of the reasons for the severe weather will be the rapid exchange of warm and cold air. Temperatures more typical of May and early June will precede the cold front, including unusual warmth at night into Tuesday in the Central states and into Wednesday along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

    "Widespread highs in the 60s and 70s across the north and the 70s and 80s across the south are in store ahead of the front. Nighttime lows will be in the 40s and 50s across the north and the 50s and 60s across the south for the first part of this week.

    "Temperatures will range from 15-30 degrees Fahrenheit above the historical average in many areas but may reach 40 degrees in some places through Tuesday in the central states and from Tuesday to Wednesday along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

    "In the wake of the front, from Tuesday to Wednesday night, temperatures will crash 40 degrees over a broad area in a matter of hours.

    "'For example, at Kansas City, Missouri, temperatures may drop about 60 degrees in 18 hours, which could set a record,' AccuWeather Meteorologist and Social Media Producer Jesse Ferrell stated. The existing record is 56 degrees, set on Jan. 15, 1953.

    "In some cases, such as parts of the central Plains, the Upper Midwest, the Appalachians and New England, the blast of cold air will be so rapid as to catch up with the lingering moisture in the wake of the front. This temperature plunge will lead to pockets of accumulating# snow and/or a rapid #freezeup where moisture and slush can freeze into sheets of ice within an hour.

    "The #FlashFreeze will spread eastward across the Upper #Midwest Tuesday night and from the central #Appalachians to #NewEngland Wednesday evening and night.

    "In most cases along the mid-Atlantic and southern New England coasts, gusty winds will dry off roads and sidewalks Wednesday night, but there may be a few exceptions, and caution is advised."

    accuweather.com/en/severe-weat

    #ExtremeTemperatures #ClimateChangeWeatherWheel #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

  6. #Activist, 97, among dozens arrested in #Australia #climate protest

    26 November 2023

    Sydney, Australia, Nov 26 (EFE).- "Dozens of protesters, including a 97-year-old man, were arrested on Sunday during a #ClimateChange protest off Australia’s east coast that disrupted operations at the country’s biggest coal export port.

    "#ClimateActivist group #RisingTide had organized the protest to block the traffic of coal cargo ships in the port of Newcastle since Saturday.

    "The group said on its Twitter account that at least 59 people have been arrested so far.

    "Since Saturday, groups of 50 to 60 protesters have been taking turns in rostered two-hour shifts getting on canoes and inflatable boats and preventing ships from leaving the port.

    "Among the protesters who went out to sea was Alan Stuart, a 97-year-old religious pastor.

    "Stuart said he was doing it for his grandchildren and future generations after being pulled out of his boat by the police.

    "'I am doing this for my grandchildren and future generations because I don’t want to leave them a world full of increasingly severe and frequent #ClimateDisasters,' he said. 'I am so sorry that they will have to suffer the consequences of our inaction. So, I think it is my duty to do what I can and to stand up for what I know is right.'

    "Rising Tide claims that the protest prevented more than half a million tonnes of coal from leaving the Newcastle port by the time the demonstration ended.

    "Protesters demand that the Australian government stop all new projects that involve the use of fossil energy and confront the #ClimateCrisis more decisively.

    "The climate crisis is one of the big issues of political debate in Australia, a country exposed to the effects of #droughts and #ExtremeTemperatures.

    "Australia is the world’s second largest exporter of thermal coal and the largest exporter of cooking coal."

    efe.com/en/other-news/2023-11-

    #DirectAction #Fascism #CriminalizingDissent #WaterProtectors #ForestDefenders #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship #HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #BigOilAndGas #BigCoal

  7. #Siberia swelters in record-breaking temperatures amid its ‘worst heat wave in history’

    These remote regions tend to see large monthly and yearly temperature fluctuations, but the last few decades have seen a strong warming trend.

    By Laura Paddison, Jun 9, 2023

    "Despite only being early June, records are tumbling across parts of Siberia as extreme heat pushes into unusually high latitudes.

    "Last Saturday, temperatures reached 37.9 degrees Celsius (100.2 Fahrenheit) in Jalturovosk, its hottest day in history, according to the #climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who tracks #ExtremeTemperatures across the globe.

    "A slew of temperature records have fallen in Siberia since then.

    "Several all-time heat records were broken on Wednesday, including in Baevo, which reached 39.6 degrees Celsius (103.3 Fahrenheit), and Barnaul, which hit 38.5 degrees Celsius (101.3 Fahrenheit)."

    #FridaysForFuture #ClimateCrisis #WeatherExtremes #Climate

    accuweather.com/en/severe-weat