“A tornado swept through the north-eastern Chinese province of Liaoning on Wednesday (July 3), killing six and injuring 190, the state broadcaster said, amid a series of “extreme” weather events that government forecasters have linked to climate change.
“The tornado damaged nearly 3,600 homes and affected more than 9,900 residents in Kaiyuan, a city of around half a million people, according to China Central Television.
“Footage posted by CCTV on its official Weibo account shows dozens of flattened buildings in an economic development zone in Kaiyuan…
“The country’s weather bureau on Tuesday said that climate change could cause more extreme weather events, following floods, drought and extreme high temperatures in some regions this year.
“It said rainfall had broken records in some areas and that as many as 40 weather stations registered their hottest temperatures ever this year.
“The northern Chinese province of Hebei issued an extreme heat “red alert” on Thursday, with temperatures set to soar beyond 40 deg C in its major cities and putting the area’s corn crop at risk, the local government said.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/5459008/tornado-northeast-china/
“The northwest of China is suffering a strong heat wave where they have reached 48 degrees Celsius.
“Two workers were rescued after suffering a heat stroke inside a sewer in the city of Jian.”
“According to the national standard on the division of seasons in China, it marks that Lhasa entered summer on June 23, the first time since the city’s meteorological data was first collected in 1981. Cold drinks and fans have become popular products, a rare scene in Lhasa. Tibet had seen high temperatures and little rainfall since the beginning of June…
“On June 24, six observatories in the region registered record-high temperatures…”
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-07/04/c_138198894.htm
“…researchers found that the limits of survivability would be exceeded in a few locations in India’s Chota Nagpur Plateau, in the northeast of the country, and Bangladesh.
“And they would come close to being exceeded in most of South Asia, including the fertile Ganges River valley, India’s northeast and eastern coast, northern Sri Lanka, and the Indus Valley of Pakistan.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/03/asia/india-heat-wave-survival-hnk-intl/index.html
“Iraq is in a fragile state. The country is trying to rebuild itself after thirty years of near constant war. But a new crisis has emerged that could undermine its recovery – Iraq is running out of water.
“Iraq gets the vast majority of its water from two rivers; the Euphrates and the Tigris… It’s hard to imagine Iraq existing without these rivers. But today, they are in peril.”
https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/7/3/20681084/iraq-water-rivers-crisis-drought-isis-war
“Greece’s summer heats continues. Temperatures reach 41 degrees Celsius. Heavily affected by the heat are Northern Greece, Thrace and Thessalia, the BNR reports.
“Authorities constantly inform about precautions against high temperatures. A lot of water, light food, no alcohol, and a trip in the late evening hours, doctors recommend.”
https://www.novinite.com/articles/198308/In+Greece%3A+Record-Breaking+Heats+and+Road+Traffic
“Around 180 sheep were killed after slipping off a steep Alpine cliff edge, said German authorities – linking the deaths to the heatwave gripping much of Europe.
“An official in Germany’s southern state of Bavaria said the accident happened on Sunday when around 300 sheep struggled on a trail with soil completely dried out in the recent hot weather.”
“Lithuania declared an emergency on Wednesday as a severe drought hit the Baltic EU state, threatening to slash this year’s harvest by up to half. Apart from jeopardising crops, scant rainfall has also drastically reduced water levels in some rivers, threatening fish stocks and shipping activities.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-07-lithuania-declares-emergency-drought-farmers.html
“Jamaica did not experience the normal “May rains” this year, and is currently going through a period of drought which is affecting everyone, especially those who farm or sell in markets for a living.
“Some vendors and farmers in the Coronation Market in downtown Kingston shared with the Jamica Observer just how the dry season has been affecting them.”
“At least five people were killed and three are missing in Haiti after a torrential downpour buffeted the capital of Port-au-Prince, the country’s civil protection agency said on Wednesday (Jul 3)…
“”There are unstable weather conditions prevailing in the Caribbean basin, and rain and thunderstorm activity could hit the country over the next two days,” Haiti’s civil protection agency said.”
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/at-least-five-dead-following-haiti-downpour-11689322
“We’re only two and a half weeks into summer, and a common theme of South Florida small talk is “it’s never been this hot.” Tuesday afternoon’s record-breaking 98 degrees reading beat a 1998 high of 95 in Miami, according to the National Weather Service. And we’ve been a few degrees above average for weeks now.
“Is this our new normal?”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather-news/article232242377.html
“Think Alaska is always cold and snowy? Think again. Most of the nation’s biggest state is forecast to bake under record-breaking heat over the next few days, with Anchorage poised to reach its hottest temperature ever recorded…
“In general, high temperatures across the state will be as much as 20 degrees above normal for early July, according to AccuWeather.”
“The Arctic is on fire. Dozens of wildfires of an unprecedented intensity have been burning across the Arctic circle for the past few weeks, releasing as much CO2 in just one month as Sweden’s total annual emissions.
“Fires in the region are not unknown but the scale of the blazes, predominantly in boreal peatlands across Siberia, is surprising.”
“The torrential rains battering southwest Japan were triggered by a body of warm, humid air sweeping up from the south and smashing into a seasonal rain front extending over central Kyushu and into the Pacific Ocean, according to experts…
“…the JMA forecasts that it will continue to rain at least until July 6, indicating that the total amount of rainfall may exceed that of the July 2018 disaster.”
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190704/p2a/00m/0na/012000c
“Waimate and Oamaru [New Zealand] have just recorded their driest-ever June, while Timaru was not far off.
“Monthly climate summaries from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research (Niwa) reveal from June 1 to 30, only 1mm of rain fell in Waimate and Oamaru which is the driest June in both locations since records began in 1898 and and 1941 respectively.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/113981290/driest-june-on-record-for-waimate-oamaru
“This week we learned that there has been a “precipitous” fall in Antarctic sea ice since 2014. That won’t increase sea levels, but it’s still bad because white ice reflects more of the sun’s heat back away from Earth than dark water. As the ice melts, more heat will be absorbed, which will melt more ice.
“This vicious feedback is known as the “albedo effect”.”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/03/on-reflection-albedo-effect-word-of-the-week
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