“A powerful typhoon barrelled through Japan’s Tokyo region early on Monday with record-breaking winds, killing one woman and leaving more than 900,000 homes without power.
“Typhoon Faxai – the 15th of the season – made landfall in the city of Chiba, east of Tokyo, shortly before dawn, whipping up 129 mph gusts of wind that were reportedly the strongest ever recorded in the area.
“Media footage catalogued extensive damage, including flooded streets, uprooted trees and branches, fallen signposts and twisted rooftops.”
“A powerful typhoon has passed over the Korean peninsula, leaving five people dead…
“The storm flooded 460 sq km (178 sq miles) of farmland, the official KCNA news agency said, in a country already suffering food shortages.
“Typhoon Lingling earlier killed three people in South Korea.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-49621405
“Australia is battling over 100 wildfires across two states, with authorities warning that the severe blazes are an “omen” of a brutal fire season to come. In Queensland, 57 wildfires were burning as of Sunday…
“In around 130 years of records, Queensland has never seen fires this severe this early in spring.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/09/australia/australia-wildfires-omen-intl-hnk-scli/index.html
“Across the Macquarie Valley, in the western region of New South Wales, water is fast running out. Three years ago, the Macquarie Marshes were flourishing…
“But a lot can change without any rain. The bone-dry marshes are a stark reminder of the reality of the water crisis in NSW.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-08/macquarie-marshes-dry-up-as-water-supply-dwindles/11477928
“Over 289,644 people [in Namibia] are food insecure and need immediate food assistance.
“This number is expected to rise during the course of the 2019/2020 consumption period, according to the Namibian Vulnerability Assessment Committee report released Wednesday.”
“On Sunday, September 8, a bus connecting Casablanca and Rissani, a town in Errachidia Province [Morocco], fell off the Oued Damchan bridge. The accident was caused by floods, according to MAP.
“The death toll was believed to be 6, but this morning, September 8, rescue teams uncovered two more bodies.”
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/09/282154/errachidia-floods-death-toll/
“Record heatwaves in June and July caused the deaths of 1,435 people in France this year, according to the country’s health minister.
“Speaking on French radio, Agnès Buzyn said half of those who died were aged over 75.
“But Ms Buzyn said, thanks to preventative measures, the rate was 10 times lower than the same period in 2003 when a deadly heatwave hit Europe.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49628275
“…thanks to the Saharan heat plumes due next weekend, temperatures could hit 26C – that’s warmer than Hawaii. Forecasters believe the months up to November [in the UK] could be so warm that it will make 2019 one of the top three hottest years on record.”
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/saharan-plume-indian-summer-uk-16883667
“A massive storm surge in the Bahamas killed about 220 dogs and 50 cats in an animal shelter during Hurricane Dorian, according to staffers at the shelter.
“Felicia Telfort, the shelter supervisor at the Humane Society of Grand Bahama, says she and five co-workers did everything possible to save the animals. They were looking after 300 dogs and about 100 cats when the storm hit.”
“Storm Dorian has smashed into the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, toppling trees and cutting power for more than 450,000 people.
“Now a post-tropical cyclone, Dorian hit Halifax on Saturday with winds of 100mph (160km/h) and is due to cross into Newfoundland. The Canadian government said the military would help recovery efforts.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49624138
“The summer that will never end continued across Alabama on Sunday, and two cities had record high temperatures. Mobile hit 99 degrees on Sunday, which broke the record of 97 set in 1980…
“More hot and humid weather is on tap for the entire work week, with high temperatures expected stay in the 90s — and mid- to upper 90s for many locations.”
https://www.al.com/news/2019/09/record-highs-for-two-alabama-cities-on-sunday.html
“Mother Nature gave residents in the western half of Washington state quite a light show on Saturday night. A large storm system brought a truly mind-boggling number of lightning strikes into the region during the evening hours.
“According to the National Weather Service office in Seattle, the region saw more than 2,000 “cloud to ground lightning strikes” during a five-hour period ending at 11:00 p.m. PT.”
https://mashable.com/article/lightning-storm-washington-2200-strikes/?europe=true
“Norway’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard got a new island of about 10 square kilometers, public broadcaster NRK reported Saturday. The island has been considered to be a peninsula for decades, but glacier melting during summer revealed something else, the report said.
“”In the new pictures, a blue strip of sea appeared where the glacier has withdrawn,” Anders Skoglund, topographer from the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromso, told NRK.”
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-09/08/c_138374227.htm
“Fires burn off vegetation, stripping away an insulating layer that helps maintain permafrost – ground that is normally frozen.
“This makes it more likely that the permafrost could thaw and release even more CO2. Permafrost thaws discharge not just CO2, but also the more powerful greenhouse gas, methane. The potential positive feedback doesn’t end there…”
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