“The worst ravages of climate change are on display around the world.
“Wildfires have ripped through towns in Greece, floods have submerged parts of Laos, and heat waves have overwhelmed Japan. These are striking examples of climate change playing out in its deadliest forms, and they’re making the term “natural disaster” an outdated concept.
“This is already Greece’s hottest year on record… Longer summers, more intense drought, and higher temperatures are all linked to greater fire risk…
“It’s the hottest month of one of the hottest years in the history of human civilization, and unusual wildfires are sprouting up all over the map. Sweden has called for emergency assistance from the rest of the European Union to help battle massive wildfires burning north of the Arctic Circle. Across the western United States, 50 major wildfires are burning in parts of 14 states, fueled by severe drought. The wildfires burning in Siberia earlier this month sent smoke plumes from across the Arctic all the way to New England, four thousand miles away. Last year, big wildfires burned in Greenland for the first time in recorded history.
“And then there are the rains…”
https://grist.org/article/the-world-is-hot-on-fire-and-flooding-climate-change-is-here/
“The UK may be on track to record its highest ever temperature in the coming days, with forecasters predicting the blisteringly hot weather to continue for another 30 days.”
“The greater Paris region of Île-de-France and the far north of the country were on official heatwave warning on Wednesday as temperatures soar around the country.”
https://www.thelocal.fr/20180725/heatwaves-paris-placed-on-alert-as-mercury-rises
“Temperatures between April and July this year were the hottest for more than 150 years. Small glaciers are melting, the danger of forest fires is rising and the water level in many rivers and lakes is decreasing at a worrying rate. Switzerland’s hottest summer for more than a century and a half is reaping havoc on Switzerland’s water bodies.”
https://www.thelocal.ch/20180725/switzerland-experiencing-the-hottest-summer-since-1864
“Benchmark futures trading in Chicago have surged almost 20% this year, and Paris wheat for December is trading near a record for the contract. Dry weather means Russian production will fall for the first time in six years. Output in Ukraine will be lower than expected. Crops in France, Germany and the Baltic countries are also expected to decline from a year earlier.”
https://www.investors.com/research/futures/wheat-crop/
“A building in Istanbul, Turkey was filmed collapsing, after torrential rains caused a landslide on a nearby construction site” – video
“Local media portals in Cameroon are reporting of floods in parts of the country. On Tuesday, the city of Limbe in the country’s South West was hit by floods. Whiles in Douala, the country’s largest city and economic capital located in the Littoral region, heavy rains accompanied by landslides are said to have left scores stranded.”
http://www.africanews.com/2018/07/25/cameroon-cities-of-douala-limbe-hit-by-heavy-flooding/
“Torrential rains followed by floods have swept through several parts of the town of Kassala in Sudan, causing hundreds of houses to collapse. Fatalities have also been reported.”
https://allafrica.com/stories/201807250431.html
“The low-lying parts of Chittagong city have again gone under knee-high to waist-deep water, severely disrupting the lives of the city dwellers, after experiencing heavy rainfall accompanied by gusty or squally wind since Sunday.”
“Eleven people are believed to have died and more than a million forced to flee their homes as the monsoon and three tropical cyclones caused widespread flooding and landslides across the Philippines.”
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1344776/world
“Tropical Cyclone Son-Tinh’s final act will likely be to deposit up to 250mm more rain onto southwest China, specifically Guangxi and Yunnan.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/07/tropical-cyclone-son-tinh-landfall-180724151918714.html
“A typhoon moving over the Pacific Ocean south of Japan could approach and make landfall on the country’s main island of Honshu over the weekend, the Meteorological Agency said Wednesday.”
“An El Niño event has been predicted for the end of the year, leaving [Australian] farmers already struggling with a devastating five-year drought facing disaster. The Bureau of Meteorology announced the odds of an El Niño system forming this year are now twice as high as normal. El Niño events often result in severe droughts, bringing higher temperatures, lower than average rainfall and increased risk of bushfires, lasting as long as two years.”
“El Salvador on Tuesday began taking emergency measures in a drought that has plagued the country for a month and cost tens of thousands of farmers their corn crops, the civil protection agency said. The east of the Central American country has gone 33 days without rain and temperatures have hit a record 41 Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit), leaving many families without water.”
“Historic heat records fell in California earlier this month. Yet, two weeks later, another mass of warm air has returned to the southern part of the state, heating the region for days.”
https://mashable.com/2018/07/24/heat-wave-california-climate-change/?europe=true#NHJjNzLqoSqJ
Video of flash-floods hitting Colorado:
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/07/24/colorado-flash-floods-hail-orig-vstop-klj.cnn
“After a muggy Monday with record-setting rainfall [Ottowa], more showers or thunderstorms loom Tuesday and the forecast high will feel like 36.”
“More than 30 million people from the North Carolina coast to central New York could be impacted by flooding Wednesday. Numerous flash flood watches and warnings are in effect throughout the Mid-Atlantic after the accumulation of record rainfall in the last few weeks.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/24/weather/mid-atlantic-flooding-wxc/index.html
“…in the past few decades, scientists noticed that things have changed. Temperatures in the Arctic have been getting warmer earlier and earlier in the season — by about a day per year — and this is putting significant pressure on the migrating barnacle geese.”
https://www.livescience.com/63151-exhausted-barnacle-geese.html
