As the earth roasted last month, reaching a global average temperature that scientists have confirmed to be the highest on record for any month, the Colorado High Country got an uneven sampling of the heat.
While parts of the southwestern Colorado Rocky Mountains were locked under the same heat dome that broiled states like Arizona and New Mexico, the northern mountain region mostly escaped that unprecedented pattern of heat.
Still, most Coloradoans, like people in many parts of the world last month, felt the influence of climate change helping to drive up temperatures. In the U.S., 244 million people — 73% of the population — experienced at least one July day with temperatures made at least three times more likely due to human-caused climate change, according to an estimate from independent scientists at the nonprofit Climate Central.
The record-breaking July was marked by heatwaves, “in multiple regions of the world,” a climate scientist told the United Nations this month. Based on data known as proxy records, which include cave deposits, calcifying organisms, coral and shells, the scientist said, it “has not been this warm for the past 120,000 years.”
Read more at summitdaily.com.
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