Climate-change skeptics will dismiss this summer’s North American weather as just that – weather. They’ll argue it says nothing about longer-term climate trends. It’s true that the U.S. droughts of the 1950s and 1930s were worse than the current one, at least so far. But even without getting into the causes of this unusually hot and dry summer, data clearly show that the frequency of extreme weather is soaring around the world. For example, in the 1950s, summertime heat events that scientists classify as abnormally severe – technically, those that are at least three standard deviations from the average temperature and that experts call “three-sigma events” – affected less than 1 per cent of Earth’s land area. Now, in any given summer, three-sigma events affect about 10 per cent of our land area.

Climate change’s costs hit the plate – The Globe and Mail

Data shows nothing of the kind. Heatwaves were much worse during the 1930s, and it wasn’t just the US

11 Aug 1930 – 130 IN THE SHADE! HEAT-WAVE IN MESOPOTAMIA PEOPL…

27 May 1935 – 122 IN THE SHADE. Madras Suffers. Deaths From He…

02 Jul 1935 – HEAT-WAVE IN FRANCE. LONDON, July 1.

23 Jan 1939 – SNAKES STARVE TO DEATH. Heal Dries Up Frog Ponds…