Here's what climate change looks like (Part II)

Back at the beginning of February, I published a somewhat well-received diary on what climate change looks like. Present tense. That is, not just what it will look like in the future, but what it does look like now. At this very moment. And several days after I posted that diary, I told several of those who asked that I would post a second, updated version later in the year.

Well, it's now later in the year.

So, again, if you're curious as to just what climate change is going to look like when it really gets cranked up in a few years, read on for a special—and possibly disturbing—look at what's already happening.

These first maps are from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. This first one shows the location of each of the 112 daily low maximum temperature records set or tied in the contiguous U.S. so far this month (the blank circles indicate where a previous record was tied; the circles with an 'X' inside are where a record was broken):

...and this one shows the location of each of the 1,798 daily high minimum temperature records set or tied in the contiguous U.S. so far this month:
While there are obvious areas that haven't been quite so warm this month—namely along the northern tier of states—there are other areas where heat records have been so frequent and so many that they're jammed together side-by-side in a thick blanket of record-breaking high temperatures.

1,798 high minimum records, and just 112 low maximum ones. That's lopsided—better than 16-to-1. That's startling. And that's what climate change looks like.