“To no surprise, sea ice extent in the Arctic has once again been running well below normal and close to the 2012 extent, which is currently the year in which the record low annual minimum extent was set.
“Due to recent atmospheric pattern changes, the rate of sea ice loss has steadily slowed compared to what it was earlier in the summer and spring. However, based on the latest data, NSIDC scientists currently project that 2019 will end up as the second lowest sea ice extent minimum on record in the Arctic.
“In terms of sea ice thickness, the Arctic sea ice thickness is about 50 percent of what it was at this time of year back in 1980.”
“The Wahlenberg glacier in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago is calving icebergs at an increasing rate because of warming ocean waters, according to the international director of the Norwegian Polar Institute.
“Kim Holmén, who has lived in Svalbard for three decades, describes the changes he has seen as “profound, large and rapid”.”
https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2019/0905/1073997-arctic-sea-ice/
“Climate change is heating Russia at a faster rate than the rest of the world, the country’s environment ministry has said in a draft report of environmental data for 2018…
“…climate change will bring epidemics, drought and mass hunger to Russia if left unchecked.
“Melting permafrost in the Russian Arctic could release radioactive substances, the ministry has warned, while Siberian forests are increasingly prone to fires and the Far East to flash floods.”
“After an unprecedented summer drought drained reservoirs and wells across Alaska, hundreds of people face immediate water shortages — and lingering questions about the future…
“In Chignik Lagoon, village administrators are assessing long-term options after local aquifers ran dry last month… In Seldovia, local officials estimate the community reservoir holds only 16 days’ worth of water.”
“Hurricane Dorian continues to pound the southeastern coast of the US, slamming Charleston, South Carolina, with torrential rain and storm surge.”
Video:
“The official death toll from Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas has hit 20 and is likely to rise further, the country’s prime minister has said, as he warned of “generational devastation” in the archipelago’s northern region.
“At a press conference late on Wednesday Hubert Minnis also said he was aware of reports of looting on the Abaco Islands, a northern band of islands in the Bahamas hardest hit by Dorian…”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/04/hurricane-dorian-bahamas-death-toll-devastation
“Wildfires raging in Bolivia’s forests and grasslands since May have destroyed 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres), officials said Wednesday, amid an US$11 million effort by the government to contain them.
“Environmentalists blame laws enacted under leftist President Evo Morales, who has encouraged the burning of forest and pasture land to expand agricultural production, while the government attributes the blazes to dry weather and winds.”
“Water, or the lack of it, is the only thing that matters in several rural Australian towns at the moment as the drought drags on and rivers dry up.
“In parts of southern Queensland, people are skipping showers and a brewery has even canned water to be trucked in by charities while residents wait for authorities to act. In New South Wales today, drought-stricken farmers protested on the banks of the Murray River…”
“If you thought today was warm, you’re right.
“Bundaberg [Queensland] came within a degree of recording its hottest ever September day. The temperature on Thursday at Bundaberg Airport edged over 33 degrees at 12.30pm.”
https://www.bundabergnow.com/2019/09/05/bundaberg-nudges-september-heat-record/
Yet, just a little to the north (one wonders if this has to do with the sudden stratospheric warming down under):
“Yesterday was the coldest September morning on record for Cairns Airport when the mercury fell to 10.8C.”
“A man believed to be the driver of a truck submerged in a flooded underpass was found dead
“….record rainfall fell in large concentrations on the northern part of Mie Prefecture, central Japan, over the afternoon of Sept. 4 to the morning of Sept. 5.”
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190905/p2a/00m/0na/011000c
“A powerful typhoon was barrelling towards southern Japanese islands on Thursday (Sept 5), with forecasters warning of high waves, strong winds and torrential rains in the region.
“As Typhoon Lingling was closing in on the island of Miyako, 80 flights and 157 ferry services were cancelled, according to the Okinawa Times newspaper.”
Record rainfall causes five fatalities in Mumbai, India:
“Releasing the rainfall data of September 4, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Disaster Control said the city [of Mumbai in India] recorded 127.9 mm (season’s total – 2,263.2 mm), the eastern suburbs got 173.4 mm (3,006.3 mm) and the western suburbs notched 186.0 mm (2,765.1 mm).”
“”That’s it, time to go!”
“As a rising swell of muddy water creeps towards his house in Niger’s capital Niamey, Mamoudou Barkire is finally leaving. Deadly floods have swamped several parts of the city and the rest of the country, forcing thousands to flee as it demolished homes and turned streets into rivers.”
https://phys.org/news/2019-09-niger-deadly-city-streets-swamped.html
“This year’s summer was the second hottest in Hungary since the beginning of temperature measurements in 1901… This summer was much hotter than usual, with average daily temperatures of 22.3 degrees Celsius, more than two degrees above the 1981-2010 average…
“In Hungary, the hottest month of the year is usually July, but this year, interestingly, June and August proved to be more than one degree warmer than July.”
https://hungarytoday.hu/2019-second-hottest-summer-recorded-in-hungary/
“I’ve been a meteorologist at CNN since 1999. And for a long time I didn’t think that global warming gasses would overwhelm the earth enough to change its climate.
“As a skeptic, I didn’t deny climate change existed. I was questioning the data behind the science. One big number ultimately changed my mind.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/04/weather/climate-change-skeptic/index.html
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