“Floods caused by the flooding of the Paraguay River have left a total of 88,000 people homeless and caused one of the biggest crises in the country in the past 50 years, government sources reported Tuesday.
“The catastrophe caused considerable damage in places located all along the Paraguay River and the government decided to declare an environmental emergency.
“The latest statistics report 30,000 displaced people only in Asuncion, while parks, streets and other places are turning into improvised shelters, because of the lack of housing for the affected people.
“Ivan Allende, Director of the Social Department of the Municipality of Asuncion, told the newspaper La Nacion this situation could continue until June and July due to the natural rise of the river and later to the October rains.”
“The second severe weather outbreak in less than a week will bring the risk of tornadoes and is poised to strike across the southern United States, parts of the Midwest and Northeast from late Wednesday through Saturday.
“AccuWeather estimates that 118 million people are at risk during the upcoming severe weather outbreak. The storms will hit as travel, outdoor plans and religious services ramp up as the Easter holiday approaches.”
“As devastating images of the 2019 Midwest floods fade from view, an insidious and longer-term problem is emerging across its vast plains:
“The loss of topsoil that much of the nation’s food supply relies on. farmers are facing millions of bushels of damaged crops such as soybean and corn.
“This spring’s heavy rains have already caused record flooding, which could continue into May and June, and some government officials have said it could take farmers years to recover.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-04-dirt-soil-loss-midwest.html
“Earlier this week, snow fell in Chicago. But 48 hours later, temperatures rose to 70 degrees, effectively melting it all and giving residents quite a shock.
“According to local station WGN on April 16, the strange weather broke a meteorological record. Since records started in the 19th century, “never before … has a 3-plus inch snowfall been followed by 70-plus degree temps 48 hours later.””
“Experts say 51 children died in hot cars in the United States last year — the highest toll on record. The previous single-year high was 49 deaths in 2010, the National Safety Council (NSC) said. With another hot summer approaching, the safety council has issued free online training.”
https://www.webmd.com/children/news/20190416/hot-car-deaths-hit-record-high-in-2018
“In the past two hurricane seasons, recordbreaking hurricane floods have engulfed our coastal zones in the Carolinas and Texas as storms have drawn more water and grown larger from rapidly warming oceans.
“As the climate system continues to warm, we’ll need better prediction systems so we can prepare vulnerable coastal areas from bigger, wetter, and faster-strengthening hurricanes. Hurricane season is just six weeks away.”
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/As-oceans-rapidly-warm-due-to-climate-change-an-13771815.php
“Tons of snow the past several months have catapulted parts of the Sierra Nevada Range into the record books, busting a year-long drought at the same time.”
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/weather/record-breaking-snow-season-breaks-sierra-nevada-drought
“As surely as they are melting elsewhere around the world, glaciers are disappearing in North America, too.
“This great melting will affect ecosystems and the creatures within them, like the salmon that spawn in meltwater streams. This is on top of the effects on the water that billions of people drink, the crops they grow and the energy they need.”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/16/climate/glaciers-melting-alaska-washington.html
““The Arctic biophysical system is now clearly trending away from its previous state and into a period of unprecedented change, with implications not only within but also beyond the Arctic,” said the synthesis report, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters and prepared for the Arctic Council’s Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program.
“All the indicators tracked in the paper show the same trend, said co-author John Walsh of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.”
“…there is another element to the maritime “Great Game” China is playing: the Arctic Ocean.
“This may seem counterintuitive – last time I looked at a map, China did not have any Arctic waterfront. But this has not stopped Beijing from an aggressive program of building influence in what the Canadians call the High North.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-16/china-is-joining-the-rush-for-arctic-riches
“The Likwama Farmers’ Union chairperson, Alfred Chilinda, says drought has destroyed most of the crops in the Zambezi region.
“Chilinda said most of the affected are small-scale farmers who produced 8 000 tonnes of white maize in 2017. However, this season things do not look good for them because of the extreme climate conditions.”
https://www.namibian.com.na/77699/read/Drought-ravages-crops-in-Zambezi
“Last night heavy rain, which caused flooding, has led to the death of six people in Silte zone of Ethiopia’s Southern region. The flooding has also resulted in the death of over 1,000 livestock, while over 637 houses are destroyed affecting the lives of over 5,000 people, according to the state broadcaster _ ETV.
“Attributing to climate change meteorology forecasts show that some parts of Ethiopia including the capital Addis Ababa are likely to experience heavy rain before the country’s rainy season begins in June.”
https://newbusinessethiopia.com/flooding-leads-to-death-of-6-people-in-ethiopia/
“Iran has shut down some oil fields in its southwest Khuzestan province bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf, as the Islamic Republic is looking to control the damage from recent flash floods that have cost it billions of U.S. dollars.
“Iran shut down last week oil fields in Khuzestan as it tries to control the damage and prevent an environmental disaster…”
“Sixteen of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces were hit in the past 24 hours by deadly floods, destroying or damaging hundreds of houses and sweeping away livestock, said Hashmat Bahaduri, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Disaster Management Authority.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-04-intense-drought-deadly-lash-afghanistan.html
“As we step into the months of April and May, the weather changes from blissful winds to the scorching heat and there is a sense of irritability all around. With every passing year, we set a record for having the highest temperature in more than a decade or often even a century…
“Much like many other South Asian countries, the temperatures are drastically rising in Pakistan. Alongside the temperature rise, the country also faces an ever increasing number of floods, droughts, heat waves and many other natural disasters.”
https://pakobserver.net/pakistan-vs-the-environment/
“Aizawl, the capital city of Mizoram, India, on Tuesday recorded a maximum temperature of 35.2 degrees Celsius…
“…which is the highest ever experienced in 20 years since 1999, breaking the Monday’s record of 34.2 degrees Celsius, according to data released by Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), IMD, Guwahati.”
https://www.eastmojo.com/mizoram/2019/04/17/aizawl-records-highest-temperatures-in-20-years
“Thirty-five people died and several people were injured…
“…due to unseasonal rain, dust storm and lightning in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and other parts of the country [India] on Tuesday.”
“The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has issued fire weather warnings for the Mid North and Mount Lofty Ranges, where the bushfire threat level has been rated as severe.
“”We’re also seeing a strength in our northerly winds. We had unseasonally warm weather yesterday and that continued overnight,” forecaster Jenny Horvat said. “It looks like there could be some April record minimum temperatures broken.”
“Satellite measurements of the Earth’s surface temperature have confirmed that global warming is heating up the planet. The infrared system measures heat radiating from the earth and was used to record temperatures from 2003 to 2017.
“The surface skin temperature map , which is derived solely from the satellite data, showed a warming pattern consistent with other measurements taken on land. A combination of both data sets and all the existing research now offers almost irrefutable proof of global warming, researchers claim.”
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