Currently in the Twin Cities — June 16, 2023: Lots of sunshine Friday

The weather, currently.

Congratulations. If you were outside breathing Wednesday night in the Twin Cities you experienced our record-worst air quality since we’ve kept track (back to 1980). Twin Cities area air quality diminished to as bad as between 240 and 270 (you want it under 50). While cool, northeast winds have cleaned up the air substantially we’ll likely see on and off smoke problems until the overall pattern changes. We have spotty rain chances this weekend which will not elevate the drought. The best chance in the Twin Cities is Saturday night into Sunday now. We’ll be back near 90 most of next week and bone dry.

— Sven Sundgaard

What you need to know, currently.

In an address to climate negotiators on Thursday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a coordinated exit strategy for the global fossil fuel industry.

“We are hurtling towards disaster, eyes wide open,” said Guterres, calling the continued use of fossil fuels “incompatible with human survival.” His comments come in the run-up to this year’s global climate talks in Dubai, and amid fresh evidence that global warming is accelerating and that the countries of the world aren’t doing nearly enough to stop it.

The planet just completed its warmest first-half of June on record, with global ocean temperatures at an all-time high for more than three months straight. The waters in the Main Development Region of the Atlantic Ocean, the region of the tropics where most hurricanes form, are as warm in June as they typically are the first week of September.

The grandfather of climate science, James Hansen, has a new post out that argues that we could be in the early years of an acceleration of global warming, which may see us reach 2.0°C of warming by 2050, and 1.5°C as soon as 2024.

That fossil fuel companies are intentionally causing this to happen to make more money for themselves needs to be widely seen as morally reprehensible. We’re nearly there, and already popular movements are in place to bring a better world into being.

—Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

Welcome to the new-and-improved Currently!

If you’re a big fan of Currently, please share us with a friend! Our brand-new referral program is a way to give our biggest fans direct ownership of our company. We are the first weather service in the world to do this, and we’ll have much more in the coming days on our hopes and dreams for member-ownership, as well as Currently as a whole.

Thank you for taking this exciting journey with us!

—Eric Holthaus