“The country [USA] is divided roughly in half between temperature extremes, with cold conditions and well below normal temperatures in the East, and record-setting, triple-digit heat in the Southwest.
“It will feel like summer out West and will feel like very early spring in the East…
“The heat in the Southwest could build to record high temperatures tomorrow into Thursday.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/06/weather/record-heat-west-cold-east-coast/index.html
“Sure, it’s been hot for most of Colorado lately. But one city in particular has been exceptionally warm… in Alamosa, located in the heart of southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley, they’ve had eight straight days of daily record highs.
“That streak was (barely) snapped on Monday, but not before more than a week’s worth of new daily records.”
https://www.denverpost.com/2020/05/05/colorado-alamosa-record-high-temperatures/
“April 2020 was the second-most active April for tornadoes on record in the U.S., with the National Weather Service logging 351 preliminary reports of tornadoes for the month.
“More than 150 tornadoes accompanied a violent outbreak that began Easter Sunday and ravaged parts of the South and Southeast as twisters touched down by the dozen.”
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/April-2020-was-the-second-most-active-such-month-15247778.php
“The heat does not give space to the entrance of autumn in Santiago [Chile] this week a new wave is looming with records that would enter the history of what was noted in meteorology during May.
“According to the report by the meteorologist Jaime Leyton, if the forecast is fulfilled, “it will be the one with the highest average record of heat waves that occurred in May in the last 50 years.””
https://www.meganoticias.cl/nacional/300708-ola-de-calor-historica-santiago-otono-el-tiempo.html
“Brazilian corn farmers hoping for relief from drought were disappointed by weaker than expected rains this week, while frost expected in the state of Parana could bring further losses, weather forecasters said on Tuesday.
“Much of the center-south of Brazil received below average rains in the past 30 days, a critical period for growing the country’s second annual crop of corn…”
“The Brazilian government of President Jair Bolsonaro has fired two IBAMA, environmental agency coordinators with a history of significantly reducing deforestation in indigenous territories (TIs) in the Xingu River basin in southern Pará state…
“The firings occurred despite a letter opposing the dismissal published by 16 IBAMA environmental inspectors on April 21.”
“A new study from the Amazon predicts the mysterious ‘ghost dogs’ of the Amazon rain forest may face new environmental threat, as deforestation is expected to reduce their natural habitat by 30 percent in 2027…
“…in some of the hardest hit areas, the short-eared dogs’ natural habitat–mainly the Amazonian rainforests in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador–could decline by as much as 60 percent.”
“In 2019, 18 new high-temperature records were established around the country, said the Fiji Climate report released by the Fiji Meteorological Service.
“Fiji continued to record above-average annual temperature and the decade 2010-2019 was the warmest on record.”
https://fijisun.com.fj/2020/05/06/18-record-high-temperatures-in-2019/
“A group of senior Australian scientists have warned in an international journal that logging native forests makes fire more severe and is likely to have exacerbated the country’s catastrophic summer bushfires…
“The paper says industry data showed that some 161m cubic metres of native forest was logged in the period from 1996 to 2018.”
“Australia could run out of locally made fresh milk unless supermarkets give urgent help to the ailing dairy industry.
“That’s federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud’s alarming warning as he pushes for an extension and potential expansion of a drought-linked temporary 10-cent milk levy.”
https://7news.com.au/politics/fed-govt-wants-better-deal-for-dairy-farms-c-1019208
“Northwestern provinces of Cambodia will face a heat wave this week, according to the new forecast shared by the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology…
“The temperature in those provinces will rise up to 40-41 degrees Celsius from May 8 to 10…”
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50720432/heatwave-predicted-for-cambodia/
“Three people were injured and hundreds left homeless as floods swept through several districts in the northern Samangan province [Afghanistan] on Monday, head of Natural Disaster and Managment Authority in the flood-affected province, Sibghatullah Sayad said Tuesday.”
Photos:
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-05/05/c_139032811_2.htm
“Thunderstorms drenched Israel on Tuesday in a rare springtime downpour, with hail and flooding recorded in the south.
“The storms raged from northern Israel to the Negev Desert in the south, and were expected to further raise the levels of the Sea of Galilee, which has already enjoyed a particularly rainy winter.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-battered-with-unseasonal-spring-thunderstorms-hail-flooding/
“Across drought-hit southern Africa, COVID-19 has spurred governments to dispatch water tankers, drill boreholes and repair taps – solutions experts and residents of thirsty slums and villages say must last long after the pandemic has passed.
““We’re calling for the government to do more because at the moment there are few boreholes,” Khulekani Ncube, Gongu village’s headman, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.”
“Somalia and the UN refugee agency said Tuesday they have airlifted vital humanitarian assistance to some 8,100 flood victims in three regional states in the past week.
“The UNHCR said the emergency kits that include jerry cans, soap, blankets, sleeping mats, kitchen sets and plastic sheets were airlifted to Baidoa, Bardheere and Qardho areas.”
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-05/06/c_139033038.htm
“The Mutual Moroccan Agricultural Insurance Company (MAMDA) has allocated MAD 200 million ($20.2 million) in favor of farmers affected by drought in Marrakech-Safi’s Rehamna region.
““The agricultural season was characterized by difficult climate conditions, which affected the grain product,” he added.”
“[Ireland’s] Potato crops urgently need significant rainfall after the driest and sunniest April on record, an agronomist has warned.
“Stuart Meredith, who works for potato firm Wilson’s Country, said growers had experienced an eight-month period of “absolute extremes”.”
“Last year was one of the worst on record for glacial decline in Iceland according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
“Warm, sunny weather caused Iceland’s glacier mass to fall by approximately 1.5m of water, which is the “highest [change in mass balance] ever measured” according to a study.”
“Residents of the eastern Arctic may have noticed some above-average temperatures during the month of April…
“At the top of Ellesmere Island…
“…Alert showed average monthly temperatures that were six degrees above normal for the month of April.”
https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/april-was-a-warm-one-in-the-eastern-arctic/
“Sea ice near the shore is crucial for dogsled travel for Arctic communities. But a new study shows that when temperatures crank up, it disappears faster – and it’s set to grow a lot worse by the end of the century.”
[understating the issue just a tad]
“…permafrost stores an enormous amount of carbon because it holds so much organic matter. But as the climate warms, some permafrost is starting to thaw.
““As that ground thaws, all of a sudden, microorganisms become active and they degrade that plant matter, that animal matter in the soil,” Kelly says. “And in that degradation process, it releases carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere.”
“That speeds up global warming, which could cause even more permafrost to thaw, accelerating the dangerous cycle.”
Read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here.
