“The same cold front that swept south through the Arabian Peninsula, bringing a widespread dust storm from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, has brought heavy rain to Pakistan.
[South East Asia has also had unusually heavy precipitation this January.]
“On Sunday night, it rained in Karachi, a rarity in January.
“The average rainfall is 9mm for January but by dawn on Monday, 38mm had fallen. It flooded many streets and plunged large swaths of the metropolis into darkness as the ground-mounted electricity transformers stopped working…
“The Indian Met Department has issued warnings of heavy or very heavy rain and snow for Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
“More than one metre of snow is expected. These warnings extend into Uttarakhand for Tuesday.
“Jammu and Kashmir has already reported a 20 percent excess of precipitation for the month. In Srinagar, it has rained or snowed virtually every day this year.
“So far 90mm have been recorded and the January average is 48mm.”
“Rafique Mohammed Pathan, 47, is a farmer in Jammu & Kashmir…
“This year’s record-breaking snowfall not only covered his farm but his house as well… leaving him no choice but to migrate with his wife and two children to the Diamond City. Since Rafique has no source of employment in Surat, he has to literally beg for food and money to support his family.”
“Chaturangi glacier, a tributary of the Gangotri glacier, is retreating at a “considerable rate” and may vanish in the future, according to a research paper accepted to be published in the Current Science journal’s February edition.
“The retreating glacier is another example of the impact of climate change and, according to one of the study’s contributors, affects water flow in the Ganga…”
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/himalayan-glacier-recedes-as-climate-change-hits-home/story-ptcPXOEpKBWrl3MjKpGVFL.html
“Local chiefs in Stung Treng province claimed on Monday that the Mekong River has risen by almost 2m…
“Thary said the area has been flooded for four or five days and he theorised that, due to heavy rainfall in Thailand, water was flowing into Laos, forcing it to open a hydropower dam’s floodgates and causing water to discharge into Cambodia.”
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/stung-treng-and-kratie-hit-high-water
“[Australia’s] Sunshine Coast was on track to record the driest January on record with only 0.4mm falling over the first 21 days of 2019.”
https://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/january-on-track-to-be-driest-on-record/3628204/
“Adelaide’s 80-year heat record could topple this Thursday, as the Bureau of Meteorology prepares to upgrade the forecast to 45C. The city’s highest recorded temperature stands at 46.1C, but John Nairn of the Bureau of Meteorology said that figure could be topped.”
“The freezing temperatures broke records in parts of New England. Boston only reached a high of 10 degrees and the temperature only climbed to a high of 1 degree in Worcester, Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service Boston.
“Earlier on Monday, Worcester tied its record low temperature at negative 6 degrees. And frigid air “will continue to overspread New England today and tonight,” the National Weather Service’s Boston office said Monday.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/21/weather/winter-weather-monday-wxc/index.html
“Look at all that snow in the Alps; has global warming taken a break?
“Alas, no, it turns out that the recent record-breaking dumps of snow across much of southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria are more likely a consequence of global warming. Why? Balmy temperatures in the North Sea and Baltic Sea are cooking up the ideal conditions to create snow.”
“Already a troubled region, the Sahel – which hugs the Saharan desert from Senegal to Eritrea – has seen a threefold increase in mega-storms over the last 35 years.
“The ferocious storms – which produce roughly the same amount of energy in 12 hours that the entire UK consumes in a year – can devastate everything in their path with powerful winds and torrential rain.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/mega-storms-size-england-rise-north-africa/
“Mozambique’s fourth-largest city has been inundated by flooding after being hit by a tropical cyclone…
“Some 277 millimetres [11 inches] of rain was reported in Biera in the 24 hours until 06:00 GMT on Tuesday, more than the 250mm expected in the entire month of January. And the rain continues to fall… Cars were submerged up to their windows and dirty floodwater rushed into people’s homes and businesses.”
“A keystone prey species in the Southern Ocean is retreating towards the Antarctic because of climate change. Scientists say warming conditions in recent decades have led to the krill contracting poleward…
“Already there is some evidence that macaroni penguins and fur seals may be finding it harder to get enough of the krill to support their populations.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46953652
“A series of devastating storms, including Hurricane Michael in the US, Typhoon Jebi in Japan and Typhoon Rumbia in China, helped drive economic losses solely due to weather events in 2017 and 2018 to $653bn (£506bn) and insured losses across all risks to $237bn, research from insurer Aon showed.”
http://www.cityam.com/271984/natural-catastrophes-led-more-than-half-trillion-pounds
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