“As Phu Quoc Island experiences the worst flood in its history, officials point fingers at climate change and urbanization.
“On Friday morning, hundreds of local families were evacuated to schools, government offices and relatives’ houses after heavy downpours hit the island district in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang.
“Phu Quoc had already been battered by continuous heavy rains from August 2 to 5. The rainfall recorded in four days by the province’s Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting was 501.2 mm [nearly 20 inches], a record. Rainfall of 180mm a day is considered heavy.
“The island had 34 km of its roads submerged in 0.6 – 1.5 meters. Nearly 3,900 houses were flooded…
“Friday’s evacuation was the second of the week. On Tuesday, many families were forced to move to safer areas after many parts of the island were inundated… As of Friday afternoon, the rains hadn’t stopped, and heavy flooding has isolated many communes.”
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-s-largest-island-suffers-historic-flooding-3965228.html
“Raging floods across Myanmar have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes in recent weeks, officials said Thursday, as monsoon rains pummel the nation.
“”There are currently over 30,000 people (across the country) displaced by floods,”
…said director general of disaster management Ko Ko Naing.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-08-myanmar-tens-thousands-homes.html
“On August 8, Karnataka [India] received nearly five times the rainfall it normally does, adding to the severity of the ongoing floods in at least 12 districts that have killed 20 people by August 9, 2019.
“The rain has come at a time it normally does not. In some districts it has been multiple times more than the normal for this time of the year.”
“The Avalanche region in Nilgiris district has now recorded the wettest 24 hours ever to be seen in Tamil Nadu, according to Tamil Nadu Weatherman Pradeep John.
“On Friday morning, over a period of 24 hours, the area had recorded 911 millimetres of rain [nearly 36 inches]. This comes a day after heavy rainfall as well, as on Thursday, the area had recorded 820 millimetres of rain, breaking a 76-year-old record in the state.”
“The British government urged Zambia to declare a food emergency to allow donors to provide assistance after the worst drought in nearly four decades hit farm output and left millions of people facing hunger. A Southern Africa Development Community report last month forecast 2.3 million Zambians will be food insecure by March…”
“Drought has left more than a million people on the brink of starvation in northern Kenya. Communities of herders are competing for water and pasture in many of the affected areas.”
“The European summer heatwave which saw record-breaking temperatures across the continent may have killed 400 people in the Netherlands in a single week, official figures suggest.
“Dutch national statistics agency, CBS, said a total of 2,964 people died during the week commencing July 22.”
“Electric demand in Texas will reach record levels on Thursday as consumers crank up their air conditioners to escape a heat wave baking much of the state, according to projections by the state’s power grid operator. High temperatures in Houston, the biggest city in Texas, were expected to near 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) every day through Aug. 14…”
“Recent reports that July 2019 is the hottest month on record worldwide come as no surprise to meteorologists in Hawaii.
“Heat records have been falling statewide this summer, including Hilo. And it doesn’t appear that the sweltering streak is coming to an end.”
“A worker at a Tokyo Olympics construction site died on Thursday after being found unconscious while working outside, organisers said on Friday (Aug 9), with media saying heatstroke was suspected as the Japanese capital swelters through a deadly heatwave.
“Soaring temperatures have killed at least 57 people across Japan since late July, just a year before Tokyo hosts the 2020 Games…”
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/tokyo-swelters-through-deadly-heatwave
“We looked at tropical cyclones, which have already caused the biggest blackouts on Earth, with the months-long power failure in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria among the most serious.
“We found that as the climate warms it becomes ever more likely that these powerful cyclones would be followed by dangerous heat, and that such compound hazards would be expected every year if global warming reaches 4°C. During the emergency response to a tropical cyclone, keeping people cool would have to be as much a priority as providing clean drinking water.”
https://newint.org/features/2019/08/08/lethal-heat-has-taken-hold-global-south
“China’s weather bureau issued a red alert as super typhoon Lekima approaches Zhejiang province on the eastern coast, after forcing flight cancellations in Taiwan and shutting markets and businesses.
“The National Meteorological Centre said the typhoon, the strongest since 2014, was expected to hit the mainland in early on Saturday and then turn north.”
“Major inland cities are at risk of running out of water as the severe drought affects the Outback, with some left with limited time before their water runs out. Regional towns in New South Wales and southern Queensland are in danger of running out of water within the coming year.”
“Increasingly frequent marine heatwaves can lead to the almost instant death of corals, scientists working on the Great Barrier Reef have found.
“These episodes of unusually high water temperatures are – like heatwaves on land – associated with climate change.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49255642
“In July, Alexander Uss, governor of the vast Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk, said it was simply “pointless and maybe even harmful” to attempt to fight the wildfires…”
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-siberia-russia-wildfires/
“Two years ago, British Columbia suffered one of the worst wildfires in the Canadian province’s history, which consumed 1.2 million hectares and displaced 65,000 people.
“The 2017 blaze was so intense that scientists are using it to model the climate conditions that might be created in the fallout of nuclear war, according to a study published on Thursday in Science.”
“The extreme weather event that caused widespread melting across the Greenland ice sheet last week, sending temperatures soaring above the freezing mark at the highest point on the island, may have ended, but the melt season overall — which has about 35 to 40 days to go — is poised to set a new and more significant record.”
“A new UN climate report is highlighting the importance of sustainable agriculture and reforestation for stabilizing our climate, and just how vulnerable the global food web is to the increase in extreme weather events.”
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