“Australia continued a string of “hottest ever” months in March, the government said Monday, as global warming emerges as the hot button issue in national elections just weeks away.
“The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said the country had experienced the warmest March on record, with mean maximum and minimum temperatures above average for nearly all of the vast continent nation.
“BOM said the national mean temperature was 2.13 degrees centigrade (3.83 degrees Fahrenheit) above the long-term average for the month of March.
“It was the fourth month in a row of record heat in the country, and January was Australia’s hottest month ever, with mean temperatures across the continent exceeding 30 degrees Celsius for the first time.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-04-australia-temperatures-fourth-month-row.html
“Researchers have touched down in the Iron Range rainforest in Queensland’s Cape York to map what they fear is decades of damage wrought by Cyclone Trevor.
“The cyclone made landfall on the eastern Cape York coast earlier this month, bringing relentless wind and heavy rain for several days.
“”It looks bad at the moment, the trees are down, there are no leaves and it’s a different world,” said ecologist Gabrielle Davidson.”
“Okarito residents [New Zealand] are disgusted as decades of old rubbish has turned their once pristine West Coast beach into a tip.
“The historic Fox Landfill ripped open in last week’s storm, washing rubbish out to sea. It’s left landfill waste strewn across 100 kilometres of the West Coast beach. The storm that hit the region eroded away the closed and capped landfill site near Fox Glacier.”
“Alaska residents accustomed to subzero temperatures are experiencing a heat wave of sorts that is shattering records, with the thermometer jumping to more than 16.7 degrees Celsius above normal in some regions.”
https://www.news24.com/Green/News/alaska-bakes-under-heat-wave-linked-to-climate-change-20190330
“Inuvik, well north of the Arctic Circle [Canadian] averaged a daily high temperature of about -4ºC through March, well above its usual March average high of -16.8, and on one afternoon the temperature climbed all the way to 8.7ºC.
“To give that some perspective, Winnipeg, Man., some 4500 km to the south, averaged -2.9ºC, and recorded a high temperature for the month of 9.2ºC.”
“B.C.’s January was unusually warm, February was brutally cold and March is threatening to rewrite the record books for drought. “There has been a lot of huge fluctuation,” said Armel Castellan, a meteorologist for Environment Canada. Fort St. John has received a minuscule 0.8 per cent of its normal precipitation.”
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/weather-in-2019-has-been-just-plain-weird
“It appears wildfire season has come early in the B.C. Interior with reports of two wildfires burning west of Chase, B.C., in the Shuswap region.
“The B.C. Wildfire Services’ active wildfires interactive map shows both blazes are burning on the north side of the Thompson River, southeast of Niskonlith Lake.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/5115379/wildfire-season-arrives-early-in-the-b-c-interior/
“At least 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) of U.S. farmland were flooded after the “bomb cyclone” storm left wide swaths of nine major grain-producing states under water in March, satellite data analyzed by Gro Intelligence showed.
““There’s thousands of acres that won’t be able to be planted,” Ryan Sonderup, 36, of Fullerton, Nebraska, who has been farming for 18 years, said in a recent interview.”
“After a quiet first two days in April, the threat for severe weather will return to the south-central United States at midweek. Cool weather will usher April in on Monday, but temperatures are expected to rebound across the South Central states by midweek… “This is often a classic setup for supercell thunderstorms, which can produce damaging straight-line winds, very large hail and tornadoes,” Sojda said.”
“Nearly two dozen Florida homes have been evacuated because of a 500-acre wildfire that grew rapidly overnight because of downed trees from Hurricane Michael.
“Authorities say the fire broke out Saturday in the Panhandle about 10 miles east of Panama City and quickly grew to 500 acres by Sunday afternoon. At least 35 structures are in danger.”
https://keysnews.com/article/story/500-acre-florida-wildfire-fueled-by-hurricane-michael-debris/
“The intense rains have caused the overflow of the Perene River, in the Peruvian department of Junín, which already affects thousands of families throughout the province of Chanchamayo…
“According to official Peruvian sources, more than 13,000 people have been affected by the floods and at least fifty-one have died this rainy season.”
“Two years after a mudslide that killed more than 300 people in the Colombian rainforest town of Mocoa, local authorities are struggling to get the funds to resettle tens of thousands of residents living in areas at risk of flooding.
“Torrential rains on March 31, 2017, triggered a deadly torrent of mud, debris and rocks, and caused rivers to burst their banks, washing away entire neighborhoods.”
“Austria has seen the hottest 12 months in its more than 250 years of recorded history through to the end of March, the Central Institute of Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) stated in a press release on Friday.
“The year 2018 had already set a new calendar-year temperature record, though the months from April 2018 to March 2019 now make up the hottest 12-month span since temperatures were first recorded in 1767.”
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-03/30/c_137936544.htm
“In the area of Sarajevo Canton, 13 wildfires were active, which were caused by the spring cleaning of gardens and courtyards, was confirmed for Fena by the Dispatch Center of the Professional Fire Brigade of Sarajevo Canton.”
http://www.sarajevotimes.com/thirteen-wildfires-active-in-canton-sarajevo/
“Heavy rain on Friday night and Saturday caused huge problems and damage in the north [Cyprus] with crews scrambling to help the residents of flooded houses and drivers stranded on roads.
“Reports said crews scrambled to assist people whose homes were flooded while a long stretch of the Nicosia to Famagusta road was shut to traffic because of the water.”
https://cyprus-mail.com/2019/03/30/no-major-problems-in-road-network-after-rain/
“Dramatic footage of dead livestock and of displaced Syrians struggling to walk in knee-high water has emerged after storms battered the region for several days.
“Informal camps in northern Syria were hard hit by the torrential rains, said Ismail Abdallah, a volunteer with the White Helmets rescue group. These included Atmeh and Azaz near the Turkish border, as well as Al Bab north of Aleppo.”
“Iran said on Saturday it faced an emergency in a southwestern province threatened by flooding and worked to evacuate dozens of villages…
“…forecasters predicted more of the heavy rains that have killed at least 45 people this week, state media reported.”
“Flash floods have killed at least 32 people in western Afghanistan, destroyed homes and swept through makeshift shelters that housed displaced families, a government official said on Saturday.
“Flooding caused by heavy rains started spreading on Thursday and left a trail of devastation across seven provinces, said Hasibullah Shir Khani, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.”
“Rescuers are struggling to reach villages in southern Nepal that were cut off by a rainstorm that has killed 25 people and injured hundreds more.
“The storm swept through villages in a farming region of Bara and Parsa districts in southern Nepal, about 120km south of capital Kathmandu, on Sunday night.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/scores-killed-storm-hits-southern-nepal-190401023434159.html
“Kozhikode district [Kerala, India] collector Sambasiva Rao had also issued a strict directive asking people not to engage in outdoor work between 11 am and 3 pm until mid-April.”
“Villagers plead for government help while dams recede to record-lows. The Northeast of [Thailand] is currently the area most affected by the drought, while many other districts are going through similar struggles as water levels in ponds and rivers plunge. El Nino, the weather pattern that has caused the severe drought, will worsen water shortages this year…”
https://reliefweb.int/report/thailand/thailand-drought-dries-hope
“Cholera cases among Cyclone Idai survivors have doubled in the space of 48 hours, according to authorities. Spread by contaminated food and water, the disease is a major concern for hundreds of thousands of people now living in squalid conditions in camps, schools or damaged homes in Mozambique.
“Cases have so far been discovered in the port city of Beira, whose half a million residents – especially those in crowded, poor neighbourhoods – are at particular risk.”
“The results of the 2018 research study about the ocean heat has pushed the UN to express its concerns about the effects of global warming and how it affects marine life.
“In the latest overview of the State of the Climate, The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that the oceans heat levels have been its highest in the last four years. The figures that were previously announced were taken from the provisional drafts of the report that has been submitted by the agency.”
https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/19439/20190331/ocean-heat-sets-a-new-sky-high-record-un.htm
“This month corals in Lord Howe Island Marine Park began showing signs of bleaching.
“The 145,000 hectare marine park contains the most southerly coral reef in the world, in one of the most isolated ecosystems on the planet.”
https://theconversation.com/bleaching-has-struck-the-southernmost-coral-reef-in-the-world-114433
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