Global warming is now at the forefront of massive heat waves occurring in a large part of the USA, Canada, Europe, Japan & China and right here at Olympia Regional Airport, Thurston County’s official weather station, and 20 miles from Yelm.

Photo from Port of Olympia website

Indeed, the triple digit heat record broken at the airport Friday and the 99 degrees Saturday which tied the former 1978 record have affected this area, too. The interesting thing this writer observed is that the low on Saurday was 69 degrees, 8 degrees below the normal high.
The Olympian reported that “Temperatures of 100 and higher have happened only eight times in Olympia since 1948, said Ted Buehner, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Seattle.”
Even Seattle & King County are taking global warming seriously, according to this Seattle Times report.

The 98 degree high temperature recorded today was one degree short of a tie with the 2004 record high of 99 degrees.

Reuters reported today on the climate debate and points out some interesting observations:
A. “Skeptics of the global warming theory, which predicts droughts and floods this century unless greenhouse gas emissions are curbed, say the media play up hot summer days for dramatic effect.
Bill OKeefe, a board member of Washington think tank the George C. Marshall Institute and a consultant to the oil industry, said the record heat could be seen as part of a natural cycle of highs and lows.”

B. “But many scientists say a warming trend is already clear. U.S. space agency NASA says 2005 was the warmest globally in more than a century and that the preceding three years were also the warmest since the 1890s. The U.S. National Climatic Data Center said the first half of 2006 were the warmest six months since records began in 1895.”

Whom do you believe?
The usual skeptics and an oil industry consultant?

Or,
the facts and supporting scientific evidence?

You decide…