Desdemona Despair

Dr. Jeff Masters
16 July 2018

(Weather Underground) – June 2018 was the planet's fifth-warmest June since record keeping began in 1880, said NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) on Monday. NASA rated June 2018 as tied for third-warmest June on record. NOAA found that the only warmer June months were 2016, 2015, 2017 and 2014, in that order. Occasional differences in rankings between NASA and NOAA arise mostly due to how they handle data-sparse regions such as the Arctic, where few surface weather stations exist.

Global ocean temperatures during June 2018 were the sixth warmest on record, and global land temperatures were also the sixth warmest on record, according to NOAA. Global satellite-measured temperatures in June 2018 for the lowest 8 km of the atmosphere were the ninth or tenth warmest in the 40-year record, according to the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH) and RSS, respectively.

Two billion-dollar weather disasters in June 2018

Two billion-dollar weather-related disasters hit the Earth last month, according to the June 2018 Catastrophe Report from insurance broker Aon Benfield: a severe weather outbreak in the U.S. that cost $1.4 billion, and flooding in China’s Yangtze River basin that has cost $1.3 billion since May. In addition, damage claims from a March severe weather outbreak in the U.S. topped the $1 billion mark by the end of June. Here is the list of the twelve billion-dollar weather disasters so far in 2018:

1. Drought, Argentina and Uruguay, 1/1 – 3/31, $3.9 billion, 0 killed
2. Winter Storm Riley, Eastern U.S., 3/1 – 3/3, $2.25 billion, 9 killed
3. Winter Storm Friederike, Western & Central Europe, 1/18, $2.75 billion, 13 killed
4. Winter Weather, China, 4/2 – 4/18, $1.5 billion, 0 killed
5. Severe Weather, Rockies, Plains, Midwest, Northeast U.S., 6/17 – 6/20, $1.4 billion, 0 killed
6. Severe Weather, Rockies, Plains, Midwest, Northeast U.S., 5/12 – 5/16, $1.4 billion, 0 killed
7. Severe Weather, Plains, Southeast, Northeast U.S., 3/18 – 3/21, $1.35 billion, 0 killed
8. Flooding, China, 5/1 – 6/30, $1.3 billion, 108 killed
9. Winter Storms Eleanor & Carmen, Western & Central Europe, 1/1 – 1/4, $1.3 billion, 7 killed
10. Drought, South Africa, 1/1 – 5/31, $1.2 billion, 0 killed
11. Winter Storm Grayson, Central & Eastern U.S., 1/3 – 1/5, $1.1 billion, 22 killed
12. Winter Weather, China, 1/24 – 1/29, $1.1 billion, 2 killed [more]

June 2018: Earth's 5th Warmest June on Record