Currently in Miami — July 20, 2023: More heat, less rain

The weather, currently.

It's hard to imagine that this heat could continue any longer, but it’s only expected to get hotter the rest of this week and even into next week. This is being driven by extremely warm sea surface temperatures along both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Heat indices will once again approach the 105-108 degree range on Thursday, but will rise to between 106-112 degrees with temperatures in the upper 90s by the weekend. Otherwise, despite drier air moving in, scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible again on Thursday afternoon, particularly over the interior communities.

El tiempo, actualmente.

Es difícil imaginar que este calor pueda continuar por más tiempo, pero solo se espera que aumente el calor el resto de esta semana e incluso durante la próxima. Esto está siendo impulsado por temperaturas extremadamente cálidas en la superficie del mar a lo largo de las costas del Golfo y del Atlántico. Los índices de calor volverán a estar en el rango de 105-108 grados el jueves, pero subirán a entre 106-112 grados con temperaturas en el rango alto de los 90 para el fin de semana. Además, a pesar de la entrada de aire un poco más seco, aguaceros y tormentas eléctricas dispersas serán posibles el jueves por la tarde, particularmente en las comunidades del interior.

—John Morales

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.

A strong tornado hit Rocky Mount, North Carolina on Wednesday, damaging a Pfizer medicine plant — a worrying reminder of the overlap between the climate crisis and public health.

A Pfizer spokesperson told the AP that no employees were hurt during the storm, although the estimate is 50,000 pallets of medicine were damaged or destroyed. The damaged factory was “one of the largest sterile injectable facilities in the world,” according to Pfizer, making about 25% of injectable drugs used in U.S. hospitals every year.

There’s growing evidence in recent years that tornado alley has been shifting eastward in recent decades, away from Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, and towards more populated areas like Tennessee, George, and the Carolinas. The change is significant, too, with the bullseye of tornado frequency shifting about 500 miles eastward from near Oklahoma City to near Nashville.

The reasons for this aren’t well-known, but climate change seems to be playing a role with dryer weather in the West and higher-moisture air in the Gulf of Mexico. The work of Stephen Strader shows that, when taking into account the historical reasons why the South has the highest poverty rates in the country, this is another example of climate change creating worse outcomes for the most vulnerable members of society.

—Eric Holthaus