“Switzerland’s glaciers have lost a tenth of their volume in the past five years alone — a melting rate unmatched during observations stretching back more than a century, a study showed Tuesday.
“Measurements on 20 Swiss glaciers have shown that melt rates this year have reached “record levels”, according to the annual study on the state of the glaciers, published by the Cryospheric Commission at the Swiss Academy of Sciences.
“The study, released amid growing global alarm over climate change, found that intense heatwaves over the summer in Switzerland had dashed hopes that an exceptionally snow-filled winter would limit the glacier melt this year.”
https://www.thelocal.ch/20191015/swiss-glaciers-shrink-10-percent-in-five-years-study
“The body of a middle-aged gas retailer, identified as Kingsley Ejike, has been discovered along the flood plain in Magodo, Lagos State.
“The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the torrential rain that started on Friday till the late hours of Saturday has submerged some houses and cut off some roads within the community on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.”
punchng.com/magodo-residents-body-found-after-weekend-rains-in-lagos/
““The current drought in Angola has exposed the devastating impact of commercial cattle farming on communities in Gambos.
“”Traditional cattle farmers have lost their best grazing land and now watch helplessly as their children and families go to bed on empty stomachs,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for Southern Africa.”
“The climate crisis is driving alarming levels of hunger in the world, undermining food security in the world’s most vulnerable regions, according to this year’s global hunger index…
“Rates are categorised as “alarming” in Chad, Madagascar, Yemen and Zambia. Nine countries have worse scores today than in 2010 – the Central African Republic, Madagascar, Venezuela, Yemen, Jordan, Malaysia, Mauritania, Lebanon and Oman.”
“Firefighters in Lebanon were struggling on Tuesday to contain massive wildfires raging in several areas across Mount Lebanon.
“Director-general of Civil Defense Raymond Khattar described the wildfires raging in Chouf, Aley and Metn as the worst fires to hit Lebanon in decades.”
“Last December Sydney was hit with the worst hailstorm in 20 years and experts warned more were on the way.
“‘We’re likely to see storms that bring large hailstones, tornadoes, heavy rain, localised flash flooding and damaging winds,’ NSW SES Deputy Commissioner Rob McNeill told the Sydney Morning Herald.”
“In Australia, the only thing as certain as drought is the subsequent calls by politicians to build new dams. Right on cue, the prime minister announced a $1bn commitment for new dams on Sunday.
“But if new dams can solve Australia’s water problems, why didn’t the government build more dams last time? Or the time before that? It may seem obvious, but building new dams doesn’t make it rain…”
“An evacuation center in Tokyo turned away two homeless people as a deadly typhoon approached on the weekend, prompting widespread criticism and a promise from the prime minister on Tuesday that it would not happen again.
“Staff at the evacuation center at a school in Taito Ward refused to let the two in on Saturday because they did not have addresses in the area…”
“Rescuers on Tuesday raced against the clock to save people still missing after a catastrophic typhoon killed at least 69 people and paralyzed numerous areas over the weekend.
“At least 10 were unaccounted for as of Tuesday afternoon, after Typhoon Hagibis brought record-breaking rainfall to huge swaths of the country…”
Hawaii’s record-breaking heatwave has been going on since May:
“The hot streak continued for Kahului as the town recorded four consecutive days of record-matching or recordbreaking temperatures. The four-day streak included Friday’s record of 94 degrees…”
https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2019/10/no-letup-in-heat-records-for-kahului/
“Power lines are suspected to have been involved in a major wildfire that led to evacuation orders for 100,000 people and was blamed for two deaths in Los Angeles County last week, authorities said Monday.
“The Saddleridge Fire ignited in a 50- by 70-foot area beneath a high voltage transmission tower on Thursday…”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/power-lines-may-be-fault-raging-fire-near-los-angeles-n1066106
“Hopi farmers have sustained themselves and their crops by diligently reading their arid Mesa surroundings.
This summer, however, their millenia-old forecasting techniques failed them and not for the first time in recent years…”
“A new study that looked at glacier loss over all Peruvian mountain ranges reports a reduction of almost 30 percent in the area covered by glaciers between 2000 and 2016.
“Tropical glaciers exist around the equator at altitudes higher than 13,000 feet (4,000 meters), and Peru is home to 92% percent of all areas covered by glaciers in the tropics.”
https://earthsky.org/earth/disappearing-peruvian-glaciers
“Tropical Depression Fifteen formed on Monday near the western coast of Africa in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean, a region where tropical cyclone formation is very rare this time of year.
“This tropical depression was over 200 miles southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands as of Tuesday morning, moving northwestward in the general direction of those islands.”
“The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Union, has announced record temperatures for September on a global level, making it the fourth month in a row to be close to or breaking a temperature record.
“The last four months have been exceptionally warm on a global level. June 2019 was the warmest June on record, July the warmest month ever recorded in this data set, and August 2019 settling for the second warmest August.”
https://theecologist.org/2019/oct/15/record-temperatures-reveal-long-term-heating
Read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here.
