“Near-record high temperatures will hit around the world in 2019, Met Office scientists have predicted.
“The average global temperature next year is expected to be around 1.1C above pre-industrial levels, bringing it close to the record-breaking heat seen in 2016 when temperatures peaked at 1.15C above the 1850-1900 period used as a baseline for global warming.
“The rise will be the result of human-driven climate change combined with modest warming from the El Nino weather phenomenon in the Pacific, which pushes up temperatures further, the scientists said.”
“Choking from smoke, sweltering in the heat or cursing early or late snow, Canadians could be forgiven for asking just what the heck happened to the weather in 2018.
“”It was almost a smorgasbord of everything that could go wrong,” said David Phillips, senior climate scientist for Environment Canada. “I don’t think there was anything missing.””
“Central Florida is on track again to end one of its hottest years on record, marking a four-year spree of higher temperatures.”
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-ne-orlando-2018-among-hottest-years-20181219-story.html
“In 2018, natural disasters touched nearly every part of the country. Hurricanes Michael and Florence hit the East Coast, killing at least 89 people and causing more than $21 billion in damage. Wildfires engulfed large parts of California, driving thousands of people out of their homes and killing at least 44. And in June, parts of North Texas got tennis ball-sized hail resulting in about $1 billion in damages. As of October, there’ve been 11 disasters nationwide that cost more than $1 billion this year, including the hail storm in Texas.”
https://www.texasobserver.org/the-strange-record-setting-weather-extremes-texans-faced-in-2018/
“The human tide streaming to America’s southern border may only grow in coming years as the impacts of climate change push northward migration… weather patterns resulting from climate change are contributing to the movement of people north. The extreme weather includes a severe years-long drought along a large swath of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua known as the Dry Corridor.”
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/12/19/all-we-have-here-is-poverty-and-drought
“Frequent droughts are changing the assortment of trees in Amazon basin ecosystems, with water-loving varieties slowly being replaced by more drought-resistant species. However, the forests are not adapting fast enough, and are failing to keep pace with the rate with which the basin’s climate is changing.”
“Extreme high temperatures in Paraguay, with thermometers reaching 40 degrees Celsius in some areas, and high humidity have led to record demand for electricity.”
http://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/electricpower/paraguay-shores-up-grid-amid-record-demand/
“A joint assessment by two government agencies on Super Typhoon Yutu found that the storm brought gusts up to 200 miles per hour.
“The National Weather Service Forecast Office on Guam and the University of Guam Water and Environmental Research Institute, or WERI, conducted a wind assessment of the storm.”
“Battered Sydney residents are assessing the damage after multiple severe thunderstorms rolled across the city on Thursday evening, raining down cricket ball-sized hailstones that dented cars and smashed through windows across the city.
“The Insurance Council of Australia declared a “catastrophe” after the storm “with a large number of claims already lodged”.”
“Scorching weather has been predicted over the next four days in Queensland, with temperatures set to soar over 40 degrees Celsius in the state’s western interior.
“The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted north-west and central-west Queensland will see temperatures of up to 43C, while the south-west of the state will reach close to 50C.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-20/heatwave-weather-across-queensland/10634450
“Torrential rain has continued to pound much of the South [of Thailand], killing one man in a road accident and affecting more than 2,000 residents in Phatthalung. Up to 69 villages in five of the province’s districts are inundated…
“More downpours were forecast in many areas of the South.”
https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1597290/storms-continue-to-drench-deep-south
“Cilida has strengthened into an Severe Tropical Storm and will track dangerously close to the island of Mauritius in the southern Indian Ocean this weekend. Cilida is expected to become even more intense over the warm waters of the southwestern Indian Ocean as it churns east of northern Madagascar late this week.
“”By the start of the weekend, Cilida can be an intense tropical cyclone (the equivalent of a Category 3 major hurricane in the Atlantic or eastern Pacific oceans),” said AccuWeather Meteorologist Tyler Roys.”
“Between 2015 and 2017 South Africa’s South Western Cape region experienced three of its lowest rainfall years on record. This led to the progressive depletion of water supply reservoirs and by the summer of 2017/18 there was a real danger that – without drastic reductions in water use – the region, and especially the city of Cape Town, would run out of water… the risk of drought has increased substantially because of global warming. Our best estimate is that the risk of a drought of this size has increased by a factor of just over three.”
https://phys.org/news/2018-12-global-severe-droughts-cape-town.html
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