“”Cyclone Idai has had a “massive and horrifying” impact on Mozambique’s port city of Beira, the Red Cross says.
“”It made landfall on Thursday with winds of up to 177 km/h (106 mph), but aid teams only reached Beira on Sunday.
“”People have been rescued from trees, homes have been destroyed and roofs were ripped off concrete buildings, head of the Red Cross assessment team, Jamie LeSeur, told the BBC.
“”The cyclone has killed at least 150 people across southern Africa.
“”More than 80 people have died in eastern and southern Zimbabwe, information ministry head Nick Mangwana told Reuters news agency…
“Malawi has also been badly hit. The flooding there, caused by the rains before the cyclone made landfall, led to at least 122 deaths, Reliefweb reports…
“A state of disaster has been declared in Zimbabwe. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has returned home early from a trip to the United Arab Emirates to “make sure he is involved directly with the national response”, the authorities say.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-47609676
“Zimbabwe is facing one of its greatest famines after below normal rains this farming season. Silobela is in one of the country’s most arid parts with villagers resorting to gold panning to augment their incomes.
“Added Mpofu: “There is serious food insecurity in my constituency that there is need of food aid. The villagers need help soon.””
https://www.newzimbabwe.com/drought-ridden-silobela-battles-wild-animals-menace/
“The Northern regions of Namibia are facing a drought situation of a magnitude that goes beyond anything seen in recent years. Octogenarian Hertha Nelenge of Okahao constituency in the Omusati region says she cannot remember ever seeing a drought of such proportions.
“Unlike many others, 79-year-old Saki Lungameni of Ondobe constituency in the Ohangwena region has not given up hope.”
https://informante.web.na/2019/03/18/northern-namibia-faces-unprecedented-drought/
“Millions of people in the Horn of Africa are suffering from a prolonged drought that is coinciding with the United States’s proposal to slash funding for lifesaving food aid… Climate change is also dramatically impacting crop yields in some of the poorest areas of the world.
“The number of extreme climate-related disasters including severe heat, droughts, floods and storms has doubled since 1990, according to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report released by the United Nations last year.”
“Since April 2018, Afghanistan is experiencing an increase in the frequency and severity of drought due to a rise in temperature and decrease in the amount of rainfall during monsoon season. Most areas in Afghanistan have experienced between four to six consecutive seasons of far below average rainfall over the last three years…
“According to Integrated Food Security Phase Classification analysis, as of September 2018, 9.8 million people (43.6 per cent of the rural population) were estimated to be in Food Crisis and Emergency…”
“A Level 2 heatwave alert has been issued for parts of the Malaysian state of Kedah, as a heatwave grips the country… If the situation worsens and temperatures exceeds 40 degree Celsius for at least three consecutive days, a Level 3 alert will be raised.
“This would allow the federal government to declare a state of emergency.”
“Flash floods and mudslides triggered by days of torrential rains tore through mountainside villages in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua province, killing at least 58 people, wounding scores and forcing more than 4,000 from their homes…
“…that number of dead and injured may increase since many affected areas had not been reached…”
“Tropical Cyclone Trevor is expected to intensify to a category three system before it crosses Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula on Tuesday night…
“The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said the cyclone was now a category two, and was rapidly intensifying into a category 3 as it moved towards the Far North Queensland coast.”
“Record rainfall for the Gold Coast as more than 300mm [12 inches] lands on the city…”
“The conditions indicate one of the most extreme droughts of the last 20 years in Yucatán [Mexico], as high temperatures prevail, which causes most of the territory to be very dry, as a result of the lack of rain.
“Faced with this situation it is advisable to take all kinds of precautions, avoiding throwing cigarette butts on the roadsides, as well as glass containers. Also, people must report any fire to 911, even if it is a small one.”
“After not hitting the 70-degree Fahrenheit mark in February for the first time on record, another temperature phenomenon has occurred in Los Angeles.
“For the first time since Nov. 15, temperatures in downtown Los Angeles reached 80 degrees.”
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/this-springtime-weather-milestone-is-on-the-horizon-for-los-angeles/70007715
“Western Canada is in for what could be record breaking temperatures for March this week.
“Meteorologists are saying this could be one of the earliest pattern of warm weather B.C. and the rest of western Canada has seen.”
“Fairbanks, Alaska, had record breaking heat Sunday afternoon with temperatures reaching 47 degrees, a single degree above the previous record from 1981…”
“Two people have been killed in Nebraska as the submerged state grapples with the worst flooding its seen in 50 years.
“Rainfall and swollen rivers, left in the wake of the ‘bomb cyclone’ winter storm swirling through the US, has left Nebraska inundated with water, neighborhoods completely submerged, and bridges ripped apart. Governor Pete Ricketts declared a state of emergency in 53 counties.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6819153/Two-killed-record-levels-floods-Nebraska.html
“As this winter languishes, with storms dropping record snowfall across the state [of Wyoming] and ushering in frigid temperatures, the state’s wild herds are suffering…”
“Despite record cold air temperatures, soil temperatures averaged slightly warmer than normal in Illinois this winter. Consequently, the arctic conditions are expected to have little effect on overwintering field crop insect pest populations.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-bitter-cold-january-wont-field.html
“Stretching across the canal basin, this raft of rubbish is grim testimony to our throwaway culture. Plastic bottles, food packaging, polystyrene, carrier bags and even car tyres have formed the floating island in the shadow of the BBC headquarters in Salford.
“The eyesore in the Manchester Ship Canal is a frequent sight following bad weather such as the heavy rainfall brought by Storm Gareth.”
“Flood warnings are in place across the UK after some areas saw a month’s worth of rain in the space of just 24 hours. Alerts for snow, ice, wind and rain were lifted on Sunday after a spell of bad weather brought a mixture of snow, heavy rainfall and strong gales to the start of the weekend.”
“As the frozen Antarctic landscape at the bottom of the world adjusts to an ever hotter planet, we keep finding more mysterious phenomena beneath and within the ice. Now, there are “ice quakes” to add to that list…
“As for the quakes at the wet station, it’s not the first time scientists have observed diurnal cycles of seismicity on an ice shelf like this – but it’s never before been linked with ice-shelf melting and surface hydrology, which is what the researchers propose is going on here.”
“Earth is now the warmest it’s been in some 120,000 years. Eighteen of the last 19 years have been the warmest on record. And concentrations of carbon dioxide — a potent greenhouse gas — are likely the highest they’ve been in 15 million years.
“The consequences of such a globally-disrupted climate are many, and it’s understandably difficult to keep track. To help, here’s a list of climate-relevant news that has transpired in 2019, from historically unprecedented disappearances of ice, to flood-ravaged cities. As more news comes out, the list will be updated.”
https://mashable.com/article/climate-change-2019-list/?europe=true#7wfp7dUZoZqQ
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