“North Queensland communities are bracing for more torrential rain, while the state’s southwest is baking in another summer heatwave.
“Water inundated backyards and lapped at doorsteps in Ayr, just south of Townsville, after an extraordinary deluge dumped 458mm of rain in just 24 hours on Monday… Rita Island, just south of Ayr, had even more rain, with more than 615mm falling since Monday morning, and 529mm in 24 hours to 9am Monday.”
“Homes in Canberra were expected to come under threat from a bushfire on Tuesday evening as an out-of-control blaze in the Orroral Valley – accidentally lit by a military helicopter – ran towards the southern edge of the city…
“The blaze was started in the Namadgi national park, a rugged mountainous area to Canberra’s south.”
“Much of Australia’s southeast faces severe to extreme heatwave conditions over coming days, bringing elevated bushfire danger and uncomfortable nights.
“A hot air mass that has delivered scorching temperatures across large parts of Western Australia is expected to move across the country ahead of an approaching cold front, the Bureau of Meteorology says.”
“The traditional way of life in island nations like Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Fiji, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands is deteriorating because of climate change.
“They’re experiencing warmer waters, coral bleaching, tidal flooding, erosion, changing weather patterns, and more brutal cyclones.”
“The death toll from last week’s heavy rains in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais has risen to 52 people, with 65 people reported injured and two more missing, the state civil defense agency said on Tuesday.
“Some 33,000 people have been displaced or evacuated from their homes, rescue workers said.”
“Price of chicken rises in Bolivia… [this] is related to the heat wave that caused the deaths of 24,000 broilers and laying hens between Saturday and Monday.
“Estimate losses worth $ us 100,000. In those three days the temperature fluctuated between 37 and 41º [106f.”
“The last six years were the six hottest on record in Mexico and climate change is to blame, according to the heads of the National Metrological Service (SMN) and the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change…
“SMN forecaster Reynaldo Pascual Ramírez told Milenio that temperatures have been rising in Mexico since 2005, with only one year – 2010 – bucking the trend.”
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/since-2014-mexico-has-seen-hottest-weather-in-the-last-70-years/
“Where’s winter? Most areas east of the Rockies, along with much of the West, have recorded above average temperatures since meteorological winter began on Dec. 1, according to the Midwestern Regional Climate Center.
“A ridge of high pressure has dominated the East for most of this winter. That high pressure is favorable for warmer-than-average temperatures.”
“Lake in Banff National Park goes from emerald to sapphire blue in 2 years… Shimmering mountain lakes will start to show new colours in coming years, new research suggests.
“A scientific duo has wrapped up seven years of measuring how lakes are changing due to glaciers melting. They’ve found that, as glaciers shrink, the lakes are changing colour — and rapidly.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/changing-colour-mountain-lakes-glaciers-1.5443155
“As the Arctic warms faster than any region on Earth, public attention has largely been focused on the rapid disappearance of Arctic sea ice.
“But major changes are also taking place on land, and one of the most striking is the thawing of vast swaths of permafrost that have underlain these polar regions for millennia.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-thawing-permafrost-is-beginning-to-transform-the-arctic
“It’s still only January, but spring is already making its presence felt in parts of the archipelago in southwest Finland. Brightly-hued yellow coltsfoot flowers (leskenlehti in Finnish) have been seen pushing their way through the soil in Utö, a small island in the southernmost part of the archipelago…
“…it could well be the first time that the blooms have made an appearance in the country as early as January.”
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/spring_flowers_in_southwest_finland_archipelago/11180207
“The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Jan. 21 the world needs to prepare for “millions” more climate change refugees and cited a U.N. ruling this month that such people deserved international protection.
“Behind each number lies a story of suffering.”
“These images [of Elephants] were taken by professional photographer Clint Ralph in the Savuti desert near Chobe National park [Botswana] while the area was undergoing the worst drought in living memory.
“The animals can be seen clamouring over each other trying to get some water from one of two remaining waterholes in the area.”
“Heavy rains that pounded for hours yesterday were felt in a number of the parts of Kigali city [Rwanda], one of the affected areas being Gisozi-Gakiriro area where the waters flooded the road connecting to the Nyarutarama-Kagugu road…
“Even long after it had subsided however, the flooding persisted in different parts of the city, causing paralysis.”
https://allafrica.com/stories/202001290011.html
“More than 2.6 million people living on Madagascar were affected by drought at the end of 2019, while recent flooding has left at least 31 people dead, according to emergency management agency BNGRC.
“Another 10,600 homes remain flooded a week after storms brought widespread flooding, while infrastructure was damaged in seven regions and critical cropland was inundated.”
“Though many researchers had thought that air originating in the Arctic couldn’t make it to the equator, Kennel and Yulaeva said their work suggests it does.”
https://phys.org/news/2020-01-links-sea-ice-retreat-tropical.html
“The days of Antarctica’s Pine Island glacier are numbered, but no one really knows what that number is. New models could help to shed some much-needed light on the matter.
“In the past four decades, this slow-moving monstrosity of ice has contributed more to sea level rise than any other glacier on Earth, and recently, scientists have noticed signs it might be accelerating and thinning unusually fast.”
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