More on the astonishing heat in the Middle East:
“Baghdad surged to its highest temperature ever recorded Tuesday. Tuesday’s preliminary high of 125.2 degrees (51.8 Celsius) in Iraq’s capital city shatters its previous record of 123.8 degrees set on July 30, 2015, for any day of the year.
“On Wednesday, Baghdad followed up with a temperature of 124 degrees, its second-highest temperature on record. On Monday, it had reached 123 degrees…
“Weather records expert Maximiliano Herrera tweeted that a location about 30 miles east of Beirut registered Lebanon’s highest temperature on record Tuesday, 113.7 degrees (45.4 Celsius)
“…additional locations in Iraq and Saudi Arabia also set records.
“Herrera added that on Wednesday, Damascus, Syria’s capital city, tied its hottest temperature on record, hitting 114.8 degrees (46 Celsius).”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/07/29/baghdad-iraq-heat-record/
“…scorching temperatures are set to hit parts of Europe over the next few days.
“Spain has issued a weather warning and said a heatwave could start from Thursday with temperatures predicted to rise to over 40℃ in the south and some central regions, according to Spain’s public weather agency Aemet…
“In France, temperatures could reach up to 40ºC in the southwest from Thursday, according to the country’s weather agency.”
“The ultra-high ocean temperatures that have helped brew all the humidity around here and set off a record number of tropical storms also appear to be luring sharks to near-shore waters in the Northeastern United States…
“…it was a great white that attacked and killed Julie D. Holowach, 63, of New York City, on Monday.”
https://www.inquirer.com/news/shark-attack-maine-new-jersey-shore-long-island-20200729.html
“A weather pattern change this week will shift record heat to the West, keep the nation’s heartland strangely cool for mid-summer, and wring out rounds of locally heavy rain from the Plains to parts of the East…
“By later this week, this expansive dome of high pressure aloft will set up over the Desert Southwest, and push as far north as Canada’s Northwest Territories.”
“Nearly one-third of the fish in the Brazilian Amazon state of Amapa have such high levels of mercury caused by illegal mining that they are dangerous for human consumption, according to a new study…
“Water prices in NSW and Victoria’s southern Murray-Darling Basin surged last year as drought tightened its grip, prompting outcry from some farmers and irrigation industry representatives who accuse market investors who do not own land of predatory practices.
“The water market is worth an average of $1.5 billion but surged to $3.5 billion last year as supply dried up during the drought.”
“Many rivers originate in China and flow their way down into 18 different countries. Having this as an advantage, China is exploiting its resources to create an extensive dam infrastructure which will regulate where and how much water flows into its neighbouring countries.
“This benefit acts as a weapon to China.”
https://www.siasat.com/china-is-battle-ready-in-water-war-and-the-world-should-prepare-1933467/
“The massive floods which have ravaged China over the past two months have inflicted a heavy toll on the communist country in terms of damages to property and direct economic losses, with the vaunted Three Gorges Dam seemingly inadequate in reducing these effects and the death toll remaining suspiciously low.”
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3976456
“Torrential rain flooded more than 100 homes, dozens of vehicles and railroads in Daejeon [South Korea]…
“…killing at least two people in the country’s fifth-largest city…
“In Daejeon’s Munhwa-dong, Jung-gu, some 80 millimeters of rain fell in just one hour from about 4 a.m. on Thursday.”
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200730000571
“Landslides triggered by heavy rains killed nine more people in Nepal this week, raising the Himalayan nation’s death toll from floods and landslides to 160 since late May, a government official said on Wednesday…
“At least 58 are still missing and 87 injured, he said.”
“As Kasese district [Uganda] grapples with the huge aftermath of floods and landslides that ravaged the area thrice in May, cases of diarrhoea have been reported in some areas in the district…
“The incidence has been attributed to the breakdown of the water and sanitation systems, especially the boreholes and pit latrines, which were destroyed and washed away when the rivers flooded and overran the areas.”
https://www.newvision.co.ug/news/1523649/diarrhea-outbreak-worries-kasese
“The area encompassing Alaska’s capital city is on track to break summer rainfall records, a state weather expert said…
“The last summer to break records was 2014, when Juneau had 14 inches of rainfall, Moore said.”
https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2020/07/29/juneau-on-track-for-a-summer-rainfall-record/
“Wildfire smoke from fires raging in Siberia is spilling into Southcentral Alaska skies, creating a haze that is lingering over the region…
“Fires in Siberia and eastern Russia have released a record-breaking amount of carbon into the atmosphere as peat soils burn, according to NASA. With permafrost thawing and temperatures rising in the Arctic, fires have burned almost nonstop in the Arctic Circle since April.”
“In the closed Siberian city of Zheleznogorsk in the bankrupt factory contains about 180 tons of chlorsilane, which could trigger an environmental catastrophe, according to a Telegram channel state Duma Deputy Sergei Natarov…
“…chlorsilane… is a liquid that smokes in air and explodes when exposed to water.”
https://thesaxon.org/siberia-may-be-faced-with-a-terrible-natural-disaster/23349/
“Climate change hits back at Svalbard, coal mine flooded by melting glacier.
“After days with record heat at Svalbard, the penetration of water from the above melting glacier is now flooding Norway’s only operating coal mine that supplies the country’s only coal-power plant.”
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2020/07/coal-mine-flooded-melting-glacier
“[As well as a record day-time high in Longyearbyen], the overnight low temperature failed to fall below 62.2 degrees (16.8 Celsius) on the 25th, setting a record for the warmest low temperature…
“The ice cap in Svalbard has the highest surface mass loss of any Arctic ice sheet so far this summer and hit a record for surface snow and ice melt on July 25, when temperatures spiked…”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/07/29/arctic-climate-change-hastens/
“Common chemicals nicknamed ‘forever chemicals’ for their tendency to stick around in the environment for a disconcertingly long time have been detected in Arctic seawater…
“…researchers were able to detect 29 different PFAS coming in and going out of the Arctic Ocean…”
“It’s not the news you want to hear during a global health crisis.
“In a new theoretical study appearing in Nature Scientific Reports, a pair of statistical researchers have warned that rampant human consumption has sent us on a tailspin towards a rapid “catastrophic collapse” — which could happen in the next two to four decades.”
https://nypost.com/2020/07/29/humanity-likely-faces-rapid-catastrophic-collapse-study-warns/
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