“By some measures, it has been the busiest South Indian Ocean hurricane season on record. In terms of damage and major hurricanes, it appears to have been the worst in modern history…
“For this season, the South Indian Ocean has recorded 10 “very intense cyclones,” the equivalent of a major hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean, or a Category 3 or stronger storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale. According to Klotzbach, the previous record for major hurricanes in the Indian Ocean is eight, which occurred during the 2006-2007 season. Records prior to 1979 for this area are generally unreliable, due primarily to the lack of full satellite coverage until that time.
“The most notable storm of this season has been Cyclone Idai, which followed a remarkable track that brought it onshore the African nation of Mozambique in March…”
“Mozambique’s National airline LAM has suspended flights between the capital Maputo and Pemba on the northeast coast because of Cyclone Kenneth, it said in a statement.
“The UN warned that the latest storm could trigger flash flooding and landslides in Mozambique’s far north and the government closed dozens of schools likely to be in the storm’s path.”
“The death toll in KwaZulu-Natal [South Africa] as a result of heavy rains and flooding this week has risen to 70, acting Premier Sihle Zikalala announced on Thursday morning.
“At a media briefing on Thursday, Zikalala began by thanking government, communities and all those who have offered support in the aftermath of the devastating floods.”
https://allafrica.com/stories/201904250353.html
“The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday said that after gaining more strength, the cyclonic circulation has finally induced a low-pressure area. The system is formed over Equatorial Indian Ocean and adjoining the southeast Bay of Bengal. The organisation also predicted that it will continue to move west-northwest and gaining latitude.”
“The hottest time of the year has come and locations in Maharashta have been sizzling hot for the past couple of days…
“Brahmapuri – which falls in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district – recorded a maximum temperature of 45.1c [113f] on Wednesday.”
“This summer, some parts across Vietnam would experience unbelievable mercury climbing up to 39-42 degree Celsius…
“…and the temperatures at some points may hit record highs, said Nguyen Van Huong, head of the Weather Forecast Office under the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting.”
https://vietnamnet.vn/en/society/vietnam-undergoes-record-breaking-heat-wave-526396.html
“Kangaroos have been wandering into residential areas of Melbourne in search of food and water, as the city experiences the driest start to the year in more than five decades.
“Residents in the Melbourne suburbs of Doreen, Reservoir, Craigieburn, Heidelberg, Eltham and South Morang have reported seeing scores of kangaroos in their neighbourhoods.”
“Only some of the soybeans could be saved, while the quality of the cotton was very compromised… In the southwest of the Chaco [Argentina], according to a report by INTA Las Breñas, 1070.6 mm were recorded in this region so far this year. In just four months the annual average was exceeded, which is 944 mm there.
“Meanwhile, if you consider the last six months, when the excessive rains began, the total is already around 1623.7 mm.”
“In La Pampa and Buenos Aires, the situation is totally different – worsening drought.”
https://www.meteored.com.ar/noticias/actualidad/inundaciones-en-el-norte-y-sequia-en-el-sur.html
“…the federal government [of Michoacan, Mexico] issued an Extraordinary Emergency Declaration for 34 municipalities located mainly in the area of Tierra Caliente, Central West of the entity.
“State Civil Protection reported in affected districts, the thermometer has marked up to 46c [115f] and it is expected that the heatwave will extend at least until next weekend.”
“The first significant heat wave of 2019 in the U.S. has parts of the West feeling like it’s Memorial Day weekend already, but it’s only a few days past Easter. Several record highs were reported by the National Weather Service… The high of 90° at Sacramento Executive Airport broke the daily record that stood for 57 years.”
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/weather/first-heat-wave-of-the-year-baking-the-desert-southwest
“The storm system that resulted in three deaths and one person being injured, plus dozens of damage reports across western and northern Texas on Tuesday, also dumped flooding rain upon the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex into the overnight hours…
“Three people were killed after they drove their vehicle through floodwaters and were swept away south of Dublin, Texas.”
“Old Man Winter paid a long visit to Caribou, Maine, this year, with the town measuring at least one inch of snow on the ground for 163 consecutive days, starting on Nov. 10, 2018 and ending on April 21, 2019.
“This is the longest streak of its kind on record, burying the previous record of 155 days set from 2002 to 2003, according to the National Weather Service.”
“Changes in temperature and precipitation have already impacted the amount of nitrogen introduced into U.S. waterways, according to new research from a team of three Carnegie ecologists published this week in Environmental Science & Technology…
“They found that climate was a key factor in how much nitrogen ended up in the water system, with warming springtime temperatures and accompanying storms having a direct impact on nitrogen runoff.”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190424125109.htm
“When it was built in the early 1900s, the road into Mount Rainier National Park from the west passed near the foot of the Nisqually Glacier, one of the mountain’s longest. Visitors could stop for ice cream at a stand built among the glacial boulders and gaze in awe at the ice.
“The ice cream stand is long gone, and so is the ice. The glacier now ends more than a mile farther up the mountain.
“As surely as they are melting elsewhere around the world, glaciers are disappearing in North America, too.”
https://www.theolympian.com/outdoors/article229652249.html
“Two years ago, homeowners in the Ottawa could comfort themselves that record floods were a freak anomaly. Rainfall in the Ottawa River basin that April — all 159 millimetres of it —was the highest it had been in 125 years according to the Ottawa River Regulation Planning Board… Now, here we are again, with flood waters approaching and, in some areas exceeding, the levels of 2017. And this, a scant seven months after a series of tornadoes ripped through the capital region.
“Is extreme weather the new normal?”
https://www.theguardian.pe.ca/news/canada/are-spring-floods-the-disturbing-new-normal-305156/
“Across the tundra, leaves and flowers were found to emerge as much as 20 days sooner compared with two decades ago. Within the same timeframe, spring temperatures warmed by 1 degree Celsius each decade on average, while loss of sea ice occurred around 20 days sooner across the different regions…
“Overall snow melt, which advanced by about 10 days over two decades, had the greatest influence on the timing of spring.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-04-early-winter-snowfall-advances-arctic.html
“Tomorrow is the First Day of Summer (sumardagurinn fyrsti) and to celebrate that, it seems, unseasonably warm weather is on its way to Iceland, making record temperatures likely in various parts of the country.
“On this day, which is a public holiday, temperatures of up to 17°C are predicted (63°F).”
https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2019/04/24/record_temperatures_likely_tomorrow/
“A spate of spring wildfires in Sweden and Norway sparked memories of last year’s historic forest fires…
“Last year a historically hot summer set a total of 25,000 hectares of forest ablaze in Sweden, almost ten times the yearly average, according to a government study.”
https://www.thelocal.no/20190424/scandinavia-wildfires-spark-fears-of-another-summer-inferno
“Russian President Vladimir Putin appears set to visit the East Siberian region of Zabaikal on Thursday as massive wildfires there have forced residents to evacuate their homes.
“The fires, which have continued for more than a month, have left 34 people injured. Ninety-nine homes have caught fire, while nearly 50 thousand residents have been forced to evacuate.”
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190425_04/
“Scottish salmon catches have dropped to their lowest level on record, with experts warning that the species is at crisis point. Only 37,196 salmon were caught last year, two thirds of the average over the previous five years and the lowest since 1952 when modern records began.
“Experts said last year’s exceptionally dry summer contributed to the decline, drying up rivers and leaving migrating salmon trapped in sea estuaries.”
“Fleas and flies are normally a blight of the summer [in the UK] but infestations have begun early this year because of climate change, according to experts…
“The blame has been laid on milder winters allowing the insects to emerge earlier to breed. This February was the warmest on record, according to the Met Office, with temperatures soaring as high as 20C.”
“As the world’s average temperatures creep higher, marine animals are far more vulnerable to extinctions than their earthbound counterparts, according to a new analysis of more than 400 cold-blooded species.”
“Extreme weather events continue to intensify, leading home insurers to develop new services and rating plans to keep their books of business more accurately priced for risk.
“The latest research shows an increase in both the number of losses and the percentage of losses that resulted from extreme weather events.”
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