“India has begun the evacuation of 800,000 people and deployed emergency personnel as the country’s east coast braces for a severe cyclonic storm.
“Tropical Cyclone Fani, located in the Bay of Bengal and packing wind speeds up to 205 km (127 miles) per hour, is expected to make landfall on the coast of Odisha state on Friday.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/02/tropical-cyclone-fani-india-evacuates-800000-people
“KARACHI:
The metropolis continues to be gripped by a heatwave with temperatures soaring to 42°C [107.5] on Wednesday. Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) issued a heatwave alert on its website which states that the maximum temperature will range between 40-42°C till May 4.”
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/465984-temperature-soars-to-42-c-as-heatwave-grips-karachi
“Five people have died after a deadly dust storm hit southern Iraq.
“More than 60 people were also injured after the storm swept through several cities on Monday. A video filmed in Najaf, where local media reported one person had died, shows a huge sand-coloured cloud slowly descending on the city.”
“Swelled by local rains and snowmelt from Turkey and Iran, both the Tigris and Euphrates and their many tributaries burst their banks and flooded plains and cities in Iraq, despite the country’s considerable networks of dams and canals.
“And despite a trend toward a hotter and drier climate, an unseasonably chilly April and high humidity damaged crops on the farmlands around Baghdad.”
“They have never witnessed or experienced a cyclone in the town of Macomia before. Yet this isolated town found itself in the eye of the storm when a weather system called Kenneth tore through the community. Nothing here was left untouched.
“The meteorologists say it is the first time in recorded history that a cyclone has tracked this far north in Mozambique and the town’s residents still seem shocked.”
https://news.sky.com/story/despair-in-the-town-ravaged-by-cyclone-kenneth-11709052
“In less than 24 hours it rained more than 200 millimeters in some sectors of Alto Paraguay, and as a result the isolation situation worsened.
“The highest volume of rain fell in the northern sector of the department and even exceeded 220 millimeters [8.6 inches].”
“The Atlantic hurricane season doesn’t officially begin for another month, but a tropical disturbance off Florida is threatening to get things kicked off early this year.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/01/us/tropical-disturbance-florida-may-wxc/index.html
“Spring was on fast forward last month as the April temperature leaped to its second-highest level on record.
“It was the second time in three years Washington has witnessed one of its warmest two Aprils.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/05/01/april-surges-second-warmest-record-washington/
“Severe weather erupted Tuesday across the central United States. Numerous tornadoes touched down in at least five states, with the focus of severe weather fury targeting Oklahoma. Heavy rain and flooding also were common.
“Large zones of three or more inches of rain fell across parts of Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Illinois, in particular.”
“The numbers are in, and Saskatoon saw its driest April on record. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada the airport recorded only 0.4 millimetres of precipitation from April 1 to 30, with that miniscule bit of moisture falling on the first two days of the month. That represents only two per cent of the typical April precipitation for the area.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/saskatoon-driest-april-on-record-1.5119065
“The cemetery has already been moved twice, the old school is underwater and the new one is facing the same fate as erosion constantly eats away at the land in Napakiak.
“The tiny village located in southwestern Alaska, along the meandering Kuskokwim River, is one of dozens of coastal indigenous communities across the state that are on the front lines of climate change, their very existence and way of life threatened by the warming temperatures.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-05-alaska-indigenous-people-climate.html
“Earth scientists are talking a lot about ice right now. I met quite a few of them at the European Geosciences Union general assembly in Vienna, Austria.
“One particularly eye-opening moment came when Harry Zekollari from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands showed me how his computer models indicate that half of Alpine glaciers are doomed by mid-century, whatever action we now take to curb carbon emissions. If anything, the models seem a conservative representation of facts on the ground…”
“The driest wet season in decades has failed to replenish groundwater levels across the Darwin [Australia] rural area and could soon see residents like Simon Smith run out of water completely…
“”Twenty-four hours without water in a nursery and you’re talking tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars of plant losses,” he said.”
“Western Victoria [Australia] copped the brunt of the overnight rain, which dumped 69mm on Stawell – including 48mm in just one hour – in the town’s highest one-day total on record… a mini tornado caused more than $1 million of damage at Lake Purrumbete Holiday Park in the state’s west, according to The Warrnambool Standard…
“”I have never seen anything like it,” he said.”
“Human activity has probably had an impact on the world’s risk of drought since the start of the 20th century, according to a new study, which also predicts that droughts related to climate change will get much worse.
“This could come at a great cost. Each drought costs the United States about $9.5 billion, according to government statistics. It is the second most costly weather disaster, behind tropical cyclones. Droughts can drive up the cost of food, threaten drinking water, increase the risk of wildfires, cause mass migrations and even hurt people’s health.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/01/health/drought-human-caused-scn/index.html
I must admit that, futile though it is, this made me happy. In part, I suppose, because it is vindication of sorts for those of us who have been deeply concerned about the climate for a while now.
https://earther.gizmodo.com/in-world-first-uk-declares-climate-change-emergency-1834456788
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