Can't wait to chat mountains & climate & water & math at EGU in two weeks!

Heat waves are invisible. But we need to see them for what they are A heatwave has shattered records in the U.S. When that happens, we have to confront the dramatic, terrifying change they signal – no matter where they’re happening

A shattered record is categorically different than a broken record, with the recent US heatwave the latest in a series of record-shattering extremes. A few of my thoughts on heat, water, and the face of climate change for @theglobeandmail.com:

www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/0cdc78b...

It turns out that 2021 wasn't a warning; it was a promise.

Graph of snow water equivalent in the state of Colorado for 2026 relative to climatological statistics since the 1980s. 2026 is current a record low around peak conditions typically in March and April.

Awful. Conditions just continue to worsen for Colorado's snowpack (and across many other western U.S. states), with average snow water equivalent nosediving after the historic March heatwave. (which actually continues today with more record heat!)

Graphic: nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/awdb/basin-p...

Another coolwx.com map showing locations currently breaking temperature records. There are, once again, countless in the western and central U.S.

I can't believe we're doing this again, but...we're doing this again. Another day of record-shattering Match heat across interior West & Central U.S., w/countless March (& even some April) monthly records broken. Some locations are even breaking monthly records set...last week.

Exactly why non-summer heatwaves matter so profoundly for water resources, especially in mountain regions where even small deviations in temperature drive large changes in where, where, and how much melt occurs.

‘Snow-Eater’ Heat Wave Behind Big Sierra Melt Is a Look at Our Climate Future | KQED An early spring California heat wave is feasting on what’s left of the Sierra Nevada snowpack, raising wildfire and drought concerns.

Spring heatwaves drive enhanced early-season melt, raise risks of freshet flooding, and -- once they end -- leave basins parched as they face the impending summer. This is one type of non-summer heatwave that has outsized impacts on water resources!

www.kqed.org/science/2000...

DAYS ON DEVON ISLAND | Polar Film Festival 2025 | Cinematic 4K Arctic Drone Footage YouTube video by Sam Anderson

I submitted this short film to the 2025 Polar Film Festival to express some of the experiences we had during our time on Devon Island this past summer. The Canadian High Arctic is evocative and remarkable, and I'm so grateful to have spent that time in Nunavut!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtoS...

BC 👍

Nice! Good luck :)

Yes, that's me!

A photo of a rocky bath down to a beach at sunset on the West Coast of Canada. Mountains across the fjord frame the ocean.

Fun update! My postdoc is continuing in partnership between @sfuscience.bsky.social and Northwest Hydraulic Consultants here in Vancouver, where I will continue to better understand the ever evolving links between climate extremes and the water we live with. Exciting updates to come!

a) – d) The fraction of heatwave days with more than 1 mm of precipitation, for winter (DJF), spring (MAM), summer (JJA), and autumn (SON; columns). e) – h) The fraction of non-heatwave days with more than 1 mm of precipitation. i) – l) The difference in the fraction of wet-days between heatwave and non-heatwave days. Blue indicates where heatwave days are more frequently wet than non-heatwave days, and red indicates where heatwave days are less frequently wet than non-heatwave days.

... and that there are strong seasonal patterns in precipitation characteristics, too. Check out the full paper for more details (and maps!).

A map of 14,425 basins across North America from HYSETS, coloured according to the clusters defined by the basins’ heatwave-precipitation frequency curves. Basin colours and their corresponding cluster are defined by the colourbar (right). An inset of the west coast (left), with the inset area shown by the bounding box in the full map. White areas are those without basins in the HYSETS database.

We find that there are strong spatial patterns in where precipitation happens during heatwaves...

Heatwaves can be dry, or wet, or dry-then-wet, or wet-then-dry, or wet-then-dry-then-wet, or...

It all depends where you are and what season it is! Our new paper dives into the cool world of heatwaves and precipitation.

doi.org/10.1088/3033... @ioppublishing.bsky.social @sfuscience.bsky.social

Climate shift index for June 23, 2025 across the eastern half of the United States. This is for minimum temperature and there is a level 5 change in likelihood due to climate change for most areas.

Today's Climate Shift Index (CSI) is highlighting just how much climate change has made today's heat wave more likely to occur, especially for the warm nighttime temperatures.

Follow along with real-time and forecast CSI global maps from @climatecentral.org at csi.climatecentral.org/climate-shif...

A map of the Northeast USA showing the forecast risk of unhealthy heat for Tuesday, June 24. High risk extends from NYC to Raleigh to Indiana.

I spend most of my time thinking and writing and researching about heat waves. Being in one reminds me why -- extreme heat cuts deep.

Not only did this event foreshadow the globally-unprecedented heatwave that engulfed Western North America 80 years later in 2021, but it is a stark reminder of the long scars carved by climate extremes.

A photo of myself and my research poster, titled "The Unprecedented Western North American Heatwave of 1941: Digitized Newspapers to Understand Far-Reaching Social and Physical Impacts".

✨ Archive newspapers teach us about the social and physical impacts of historical climate extremes ✨

Last week at @egu.eu I presented my recent work in which I use archived newspapers across North America in addition to climate reanalysis data to reconstruct "the lost heatwave" of 1941.

Screenshot of Vancouver byelection results showing Sean and Lucy each with more than 30,000 votes, way ahead of the rest.

Huge congratulations to @lucymaloney.bsky.social @onecityvan.bsky.social and @seanorr.bsky.social @copevancouver.bsky.social!

Vancouver’s two new City Councillors!! 🥳

do you or someone you know work at noaa and are dealing with the AWS contract debacle? i'd love to talk to you :) signal mollytaft.76, you can speak anonymously

Headline from The Globe and Mail in 1941: "Removal of Tariff Helps Manufacture"

And, from two days later...

Newspaper headline from The Globe and Mail in July 1941: "Farm betterment / Tariff ups living cost of farmers"

Headlines from The Globe and Mail in 1941 feel highly relevant in the modern day, too.

Who’s afraid of trans visibility? | Xtra Magazine OPINION: On International Transgender Day of Visibility, we must call out Canada’s right for weaponizing the triumph of our visibility

From #TDOV last year: "For the same reasons that trans people celebrate trans visibility .. so too do anti-trans actors fear it for awakening another person who questions or challenges the traditional heteronormative, sexist, racist version of capitalism we live in."
xtramagazine.com/power/identi...

On an island carved by climate extremes, I came to better understand our own polarization The fractures in our social and political fabrics are, in some ways, not unlike the landscape of Devon Island, in the High Arctic: torn open and deepened by extremity, unhidden and cascading

On cascading extremes in climate and politics, through my experiences in the Canadian High Arctic last summer. Check out my latest in The Globe and Mail here: www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/0cdc78b...

This is fascinating -- and those figures are incredible!

DAYS ON DEVON ISLAND | Polar Film Festival 2025 | Cinematic 4K Arctic Drone Footage YouTube video by Sam Anderson

I submitted this short film to the 2025 Polar Film Festival to express some of the experiences we had during our time on Devon Island this past summer. The Canadian High Arctic is evocative and remarkable, and I'm so grateful to have spent that time in Nunavut!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtoS...

A map of Canada, pointing out the location of Stag Island, the southernmost part of Nunavut. Stag Island is further south than Edmonton, AB, and nearly as far south as Calgary, AB.

Today I learned that the southernmost point of Nunavut -- Stag Island -- is deep in James Bay. This means that Nunavut extends further west than Alberta, further east than New Brunswick, near the North Pole, and further south than Edmonton.

The geography of this country is amazing. 🇨🇦

CANADA spelled out using Landsat images. Source: https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/apps/YourNameInLandsat-main/

Canada standing strong 🍁🇨🇦

Super interesting, nice work!