“Australia has posted its hottest summer and the first season in which temperatures exceeded two degrees above the long-term averages, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
“With one more day to round out the season, it is clear Australia has eclipsed the previous hottest summer set in 2012-13, David Jones, manager of the bureau’s climate monitoring, told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“”It’s been extreme and certainly something we haven’t seen before,” Dr Jones said. “It’s been dry and intensely hot right through summer.””
“Temperatures are ramping up towards 40C in southern states, as code red warning weather kicks in. Parts of South Australia will hit 38C today – while on Friday and Saturday the mercury will peak at 40C.”
“Forest fires which have been raging in Riau province, Sumatra since January are worsening due to the current heatwave plaguing the region.
“The current blaze has spread to over 1,136 hectares and is growing, and smoke is beginning to blanket the area, data from the Riau District Disaster Management Agency revealed today. Indonesian authorities are currently struggling to douse the fires through methods such as water bombing, Bernama reported.”
https://www.nst.com.my/world/2019/02/464351/haze-way-sumatra-forest-fires-rage-amidst-heatwave
“Two more people have been killed in a landslide in Peru, bringing to at least 50 the number of people who have died since the rainy season started in September, according to the Centre for National Emergency Operations.
“The landslide was triggered by torrential rain in the city of Huancavelica, where hospitals and schools have been inundated…”
“Sonoma County, California, officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for the Russian River area, following a massive mudslide near Monte Rio on Tuesday.
“Following relentless rainfall, the Russian River is quickly rising toward its banks and forecast to reach nearly 14 feet above flood stage by late Wednesday.”
“Santa Rosa saw the wettest day on record Tuesday after two straight days of rain.”
“A federal utility says the Tennessee River Valley on average has endured a record amount of rain for February. “
https://www.wjhl.com/local/february-rainfall-breaks-tennessee-river-valley-records/1811806545
“With more potholes piling up across the District [Washington DC], and about a third of local roads already in poor condition, the city is struggling to keep up with fixes due in large part to last year’s record rainfall.
““We lost 45 full days during our paving season due to the rain,” District Department of Transportation Director Jeff Marootian told the D.C. Council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment earlier this week.”
“This may go down as the coldest February on record in Metro Vancouver.
“Despite the recent sunshine, the unofficial average temperature has been 0.3 degrees Celsius, and we’re days away from beating the last record set in 1989.”
https://www.citynews1130.com/2019/02/26/vancouver-cold-record/
“Greece’s Defense Minister Evangelos Apostolakis will travel to Crete to assess the damage after the Aegean island was hit by torrential rain and gales causing extensive damage to roads, buildings and infrastructure, the government said Tuesday.”
“In the Netherlands, three days in a row of unusual warmth have beaten the previous record by a remarkable 3C. In Belgium, the warmest February day on record has just happened with 18.8C on the thermometer.
“This is a mere 0.1C above the last record set in 1960 but records go back to 1901 and give the average February temperature of 7C.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/record-warmth-uk-belgium-netherlands-190226090337620.html
“The UK has broken the record for its warmest winter day for the second consecutive day, with a temperature of 21.2°C in Kew Gardens, London.
“Monday was the first time temperatures of over 20C had been reported in winter, breaking a record that had stood since 1998. It means parts of Britain have been hotter than destinations such as Ibiza.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47374936
“Fire crews have extinguished a huge blaze on moorland in West Yorkshire. The fire, described by one witness as “apocalyptic”, started at about 19:30 GMT on Tuesday and covered about 1.5 sq km of land near Marsden.
“West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said it was “one of the biggest moorland fires we’ve ever had to deal with”. It came as the UK broke the record for the warmest winter day for a second time and on the same day as a gorse fire on Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-47381119
“A crack along part of the Brunt ice shelf in Antarctica first appeared in October 2016, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa). The crack is spreading to the east. This rift, known as a Halloween crack, is set to intersect with another fissure that was apparently stable for the past 35 years but is now accelerating north at a rate of around 2.5 miles a year.
“Once these two rifts meet, which could happen within weeks, an iceberg of at least 660sq miles is set to be loosened.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/26/iceberg-break-away-antarctica-ice-shelf
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