Oregon Public Broadcasting

A natural reaction to this week's triple-digit temperatures is to ask whether we're feeling the effects of global warming.

The short answer is no, according to the director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute Phil Mote.

Phil Mote: “We can't blame any one weather event, including this week's heat wave, on the rising greenhouse gases that we know are changing global climate.”

Mote says the immediate cause of the heat wave is a high pressure system that's parked over the Northwest. It's blocking the cooling winds that usually blow in off the Pacific.

Phil Mote: “What rising greenhouse gases might do is just provide a little extra warmth, you know, a degree of warmth.”

Mote says computer modeling of the twenty-first century Northwest climate does include a higher probability of summer heat waves and dry spells.