Currently in D.C. — November 2, 2023: The sunny and cool weather continues

The weather, currently.

We have another cold and sunny day. Most of the day we’ll experience temperatures in the 40s. Around 4 in the afternoon it will reach a high of 53°F, but it will drop again as the night comes. Also, we’ll see a few clouds in the sky from 2 to 5 pm. Overall, I’d say it’s a beautiful and cold autumn day.

Still, I don’t feel right to start this month without reflecting on October’s weather. It was the hottest October in history but I’m not sure we really noticed it. The baseline syndrome theory suggests that we normalize things that would have been abnormal in the past, like the changes in the climate. When we forget how things were, it’s easy to not pay much attention to the changes, but they’re real and they’re impacting our daily weather.

Quoting the British astronomer Martin Rees: “When people talk about a mean temperature rise of say two, three or four degrees, that's a sort of global average which really is a signature of large scale change in climatic patterns.”

I relish in writing this newsletter for you because I love nature and the weather, and I’d like to see the climates and ecosystems that fill my soul endure into the future. We can still make a difference.  

— Myriam Vidal Valero

What you need to know, currently.

With water temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean at far-and-away record highs, one of the strongest-ever cyclonic storms to hit northwest Europe made landfall in the UK early Thursday.

According to the UK Met Office, Storm Ciarán underwent “explosive cyclogenesis” on Wednesday, rapidly deepening to a central pressure of 950mb — one of the strongest ever recorded in western Europe. According to UK-based climate scientist Ed Hawkins, “Only two other similar events for pressure in observational records - 25/02/1989 and 25/12/1821.”

Heavy rain and strong winds around hurricane-force will affect Ireland, the UK, France, Spain, and Portugal on Thursday.

— Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

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One of my favorite organizations, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, serves as a hub of mutual aid efforts focused on climate action in emergencies — like Hurricane season. Find mutual aid network near you and join, or donate to support networks in Florida: