“Four people died in ‘unbearable’ heat while travelling by train in northern India, which has been in the grip of a heatwave for two weeks, officials and passengers said Tuesday.
“The four died Monday while travelling from Agra — the city of the Taj Mahal — to Coimbatore in the country’s south…
“”Shortly after we left Agra, the heat became unbearable and some people started complaining of breathing problems and uneasiness,” a passenger was quoted as saying by News18 television.
“”Before we could get some help, they collapsed.””
https://www.france24.com/en/20190611-four-passengers-die-unbearable-heat-indian-train
“On Monday, it shattered all records at Nowgaon in Chattarpur district when it touched 49 degrees Celsius.”
“Even as most parts of north India reel under an intense heat wave, the upper reaches of Kashmir Valley recently received fresh snowfall – quite uncharacteristic for this time of the year…
“There has been incessant rainfall in many parts of the state for several days in the 48 hours leading up to Tuesday.”
https://zeenews.india.com/india/heatwave-in-plains-snowfall-in-jammu-and-kashmir-2210908.html
“Hundreds of Indian villages have been evacuated as a historic drought forces families to abandon their homes in search of water. The country has seen extremely high temperatures in recent weeks.
“On Monday the capital, Delhi, saw its highest ever June temperature of 48C. In Rajasthan, the city of Churu recently experienced highs of 50.8C, making it the hottest place on the planet.”
“Tropical Cyclone Vayu could become the strongest cyclone to strike northwestern India in decades. It comes one month after powerful Tropical Cyclone Fani slammed into India’s northeastern coastline.
“On Wednesday, Tropical Cyclone Vayu will pass about 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Mumbai before making landfall in Gujarat state on India’s western coast on Thursday.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/11/world/cyclone-vayu-india/index.html
“Sharing the findings of the Everest region drilling project ‘EverDrill (2016-2019)’, lead scientist from the UK-based University of Leeds Duncan Quincey said more than half of the ablation area of Khumbu glacier contained warm ice.
““We found that 56 per cent of the ablation area of Khumbu glacier comprised warm ice,and even the coldest ice is only 3.3°C lower than the melting point,” he told THT.”
“A man died in Kuwait yesterday as the country reels from a heatwave. The man, who died because of a heatstroke, was found with his tools next to his body… Kuwait on Saturday recorded the highest temperatures in the world; reaching 52.2 degrees Celsius in the shadows and 63 degrees Celsius under direct sunlight…
“The heatwave is expected to continue well into the summer season, which officially kicks off on June 21.”
“Summer has come suddenly in many parts of the country [Italy], with temperatures shooting into the early 30s in recent days after a cool, wet spring.
“The mercury is set to climb even higher on Thursday and Friday, with forecasters predicting 36C in Rome, 37C in Florence, up to 38C in parts of Puglia and as high as 42C in inland Sicily.”
https://www.thelocal.it/20190612/italy-heatwave-temperatures-40-degrees
“There are signs record-setting heat waves are beginning anew this Northern Hemisphere summer – signalling, perhaps, that these exceptional and widespread heat spells are now the norm.
“Just in the past few days, blistering, abnormal heat has afflicted several parts of the Northern Hemisphere…
“Heat spread unusually far north, even up into the northern reaches of Scandinavia. Mika Rantanen, a meteorologist at the University of Helsinki, tweeted last Friday that “[t]here are no known cases in Finland’s climate history when it has been hotter than now so early in the summer.””
“Record high temperatures have been shattered in the West to start this week, and more records will fall along portions of the Pacific coast into the middle of this week…
“San Bernardino, California, sizzled at 102, 104 and 109 F from Sunday through Tuesday, respectively, while the mercury registered 105, 107 and 109 in Ontario, California, from Sunday through Tuesday, respectively.”
“There are several wildfires burning in Arizona as the wildfire season in the West begins in earnest.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-arizona-large-wildfires.html
“Torrential downpours have flooded huge swaths of the Midwest and the Southeast since last week.
“Rain over the weekend triggered flash floods in several states, including Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Florida. In some states, more than a month’s worth of rain fell in a day. Beyond flash floods, rivers rising more slowly in places like Iowa have threatened drinking water.”
https://www.vox.com/2019/6/11/18659676/flood-midwest-nebraska-iowa-forecast
“Corn planting has been at an all-time low percentage for the last four reports and remains behind schedule in 15 of the 18 states monitored. Soybean planting is behind in 16 of the 18 key soybean-producing states, according to the report. So far, just 60% of soybean planting has taken place…
“And Indiana farmer Don Lamb wrote on his blog, “The geographical area of this challenge is huge. Every farmer is affected, of course, but with every farmer there are multiple relationships that will suffer financial consequences. The amount of seed, pesticides, fuel, fertilizer, and services that are NOT going to be sold is staggering.””
“Like her parents, and their parents before them, 60-year-old Betarco lives from subsistence farming — growing beans, rice, corn and wheat. However in recent years, the land hasn’t yielded enough to subsist on.
“”I don’t know how many more years I’ll be able to stay living here on this land, in these conditions — whether I’m going to starve to death,” Betarco told DW. “Because that’s what this land might have in store for us: death.”
“Australia on Wednesday cut its wheat production forecast for the 2019/20 harvest by more than 11% as an unrelenting drought across the country’s east coast threatens crops for a third year in a row…
“That would be 14% below the 10-year average of 24.7 tonnes, and mean a third straight year of lower-than-average production – crippling growers and exporting companies, and providing a hurdle to an economy that is already threatening to stall.”
“At least 16 people have died in heavy rain and flooding that struck southern China over the past week. Twelve others remain missing in the region, the Xinhua News Agency also reported Tuesday.
“The storms are far from over – heavy rain was expected to continue for another day, the regional meteorological bureau said. Emergency supplies, including bamboo mats and cotton quilts, were being delivered to the affected areas in southern China.”
https://weather.com/news/news/2019-06-11-south-china-flood-storms-guangxi-zhuang
“Arctic sinkholes are appearing across the Canadian High Arctic as permafrost — ice expected to be frozen year-round — thaws and collapses due to climate change, according to research published Monday.
“Researchers found maximum thaw depths had already exceeded what they had expected to occur by 2090, according to the report published in Geophysical Research Letters journal.
“At one site, Mould Bay, the level of thawing was 240% higher than historic norms.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/11/americas/thermokarst-arctic-climate-change-intl-hnk/index.html
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