“Hurricane Florence was the nation’s second rainiest storm in 70 years, a top rainfall meteorologist calculated.
“Only last year’s Hurricane Harvey rained more over a 14,000 square mile area during a four-day time period, said Ken Kunkel, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and North Carolina State University.
“Scientists said climate change likely boosted rainfall totals for both storms.
Kunkel’s preliminary analysis found more than 17.5 inches fell on average over five weather stations in the 14,000 square miles of the eastern Carolinas stretching from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Florence, South Carolina. The amount is second to Harvey’s 25.6 inches.
““That’s a lot of water,” Kunkel said.
“The third rainiest storm was in March 2016 in northern Louisiana and the seventh was in southern Louisiana in August 2016. The three rainiest and four of the top seven have all occurred in the last three years — which Kunkel said is no coincidence.”
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/hurricane-florence-nations-second-wettest-storm-hurricane-harvey/
“For much of the United States, September played out as follows: Rain tonight, followed by more rain in the morning. Watch for occasional drizzle and downpours, which will be interspersed with rain. “It really worked out to be an odd September. It’s been a very wet month for two-thirds of the country,” says Jon Gottschalck, the chief of operations at the Climate Prediction Center in the National Weather Service.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/09/why-september-was-so-rainy-noaa/571186/
“Heavy rains caused flash flooding and dangerous road conditions in parts of Connecticut Tuesday. Officials warn residents to never drive through flooded roadways – vehicles can be damaged or get stuck, requiring rescue.” Photos:
“A hard frost settled over Prince Edward Island overnight Monday, and unofficial readings show record cold in Charlottetown and Summerside. Charlottetown appears to have set records for both Sept. 24 and Sept. 25. “This is what we would call our first real killing frost,” said Amy Smith of Heart Beet Organics in North Wiltshire. “All the basil plants are down, the zucchini, eggplants, cucumbers. All the real tender crops are definitely done.””
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-september-frost-record-cold-1.4837516
“Different areas of the state Vargas, in northern Venezuela, are flooded due to heavy rains that have plagued the entity. Citizens reported, through Twitter, that the precipitations have created great vehicular chaos in the streets of the different sectors of Vargas.
“They indicated that the water has dragged some vehicles.”
“It was once the world’s highest ski resort. Now it’s a victim of climate change. The Chacaltaya glacier in Bolivia stands as a reminder of the past, and a warning for the future….
“Nowadays, it’s a sad relic of the après ski lifestyle some Bolivians enjoyed on this once mighty glacier, which has melted faster than scientists had predicted.”
https://america.cgtn.com/2018/09/25/melting-glacier-in-bolivia-puts-fresh-water-supply-at-risk
“Tropical Storm Rosa, which formed off the Pacific coast Tuesday, is expected to strengthen rapidly and become a hurricane Wednesday and a major hurricane Thursday.
“But the National Hurricane Center, in Miami, says Rosa is likely to stay far offshore.”
“Even though the official start of the South Pacific tropical season is still more than a month away, an area of low pressure could become a named tropical cyclone in the next day or two.
“The official start of the tropical season in the South Pacific Basin is Nov. 1… Regardless of tropical development, daily downpours will bring the risk of flash flooding to the Solomon Islands each of the next several days.”
“Powerful Trami remains a powerful typhoon on Wednesday as it slowly meanders toward the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. The powerful cyclone is currently equal to a Category 3 major hurricane in the Atlantic or East Pacific oceans.
“Trami will remain over the open ocean in an ideal environment through at least Thursday, allowing the storm to remain a dangerous and powerful typhoon.”
“In a shearing shed surrounded by browning fields at Briagolong in East Gippsland, a small group of farmers meets to discuss their growing concerns about the lack of rain. Property owner John Freeman says the farm has had less than a third of its average annual rainfall. Just 178 millimetres have fallen so far this year. Usually that number would be up around 600 millimetres. “I’ve seen a few droughts come and go but this one would have to be almost the daddy of them all,” he says.”
“China’s carbon emissions have risen this year by an amount that experts say is “globally significant”… The news follows a summer heatwave across the northern hemisphere, with China’s June temperatures the second highest on record. New research also suggests that China’s northern plain – its most important region for food production and one of the most populous areas in the world – could be hit by the world’s most deadliest heatwaves by the end of the century if emissions are not drastically curbed.”
https://theecologist.org/2018/sep/26/chinas-emissions-keep-rising
“Kerala, India, now faces continued tragedy as water wells across the state appear to be drying up. According to the latest news from the flood-affected state, reported by the Times of India “A series of issues including soaring mercury levels, unprecedented dip in water level of rivers, sudden drying up of wells, and depletion of groundwater reserves and mass perishing of earthworms have caused widespread concern in various parts of Kerala after the devastating deluge last month.”
https://missionsbox.org/news/earthworms-die-kerala-fears-drought/
“Torrential monsoon rains have caused flash flooding in India’s hill state of Himachal Pradesh. The heavy downpours forced a rise in water levels in rivers and flooding in residential areas, stranding people in remote villages…
“A total of 10 districts in the hilly Himachal Pradesh state are affected by floods and the landslides they triggered.”
“[Iran’s] unprecedented decline in precipitation during the past water year (Sept. 23, 2017-Sept. 22, 2018) and years of drought have caused a steep decline in the water stored in hydroelectric dams. As a result, energy produced at 53 hydroelectric power plants in summer fell to 3.65 million megawatt hours, indicating a 36% reduction compared to the corresponding period last year, the Energy Ministry said.”
https://financialtribune.com/articles/energy/94034/iran-hydropower-production-down-36
“The classic aridity of the Middle East is evident almost everywhere in Israel at this time of year. Both the flora and the fauna and the nature sites where they are found, have developed the endurance and ability to adapt to intense heat and lack of rain. But the climate change in recent years, along with increasing overconsumption of water resources, have made life much harder even for those plants and animals that were used to a long, hot and dry summer.”
“Nearly a quarter of a million households in Nigeria are at risk after heavy rains caused flooding that has inundated 80 per cent of the country. The rainfall began in July and has continued into September, causing Nigeria’s two main rivers – the Niger and the Benue – to burst their banks. The resulting disaster is affecting 34 of the country’s 36 states and has caused 141 deaths and 265 injuries to date. The Government of Nigeria has declared a state of emergency in the four worst-affected states of Kogi, Niger, Anambra and Delta.”
https://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/80-nigeria-affected-floods-disaster
“A wildfire whipped by strong winds has forced dozens of people to evacuate part of a peninsula in southern Croatia as the army joined local efforts to fight the flames…
“Tinder dry conditions on the other side of the Adriatic Sea have caused similar problems in Italy. A huge forest fire which broke out in northern Tuscany on Monday night forced the evacuation of around 700 residents from their homes.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/wildfires-evacuations-croatia-italy-180926082648688.html
““Snowing occurs from time to time in Štrbské Pleso [Slovakia] by the end of September... but the incidence of continuous snow cover in the third weeks of September in this locality is quite a rarity,” the meteorologists summed up.”
https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20922330/shmu-three-centimetres-of-snow-in-strbske-pleso.html
“The German Ministry for Food and Agriculture (BMEL) recently issued a preliminary estimate for the 2018 grain and winter rapeseed crops. It put grain production (excluding corn) at 34.5 million tonnes, compared to 41 million tonnes a year ago. Germany’s corn crop was more severely impacted, as BMEL forecasts a 50% reduction in production compared to a year ago, which would be the lowest output since 1994.”
https://world-grain.com/articles/11015-drought-to-make-germany-a-net-grain-importer
“…after one of the Nordic region’s driest and warmest summers ever, hydro reservoirs are at their lowest level since 2006, and the price of futures contracts have soared to records.
“The risk of shortages rises as winter approaches and brings with it higher demand for heating, increasing the chances that price spikes during critical hours in the morning and late afternoon, according to the grid.”
https://www.tdworld.com/outage-management/blackouts-swedens-biggest-island-stoke-fear-reactors-shut
“The whale, “out of its normal habitat” away from the coasts of the Arctic and Greenland, ordinarily swims in groups but might have become separated from its pod as a result of illness or injury or been driven off course by a “disturbance” at sea, Ms Babey speculated. This disturbance could be anything from a weather front to it being startled by a noise from a ship, she said.”
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