“Yemen faces a new catastrophe from torrential rain and flooding that have devastated the country for the past three months, the UN warned on Sunday.
“Flash floods have killed at least 148 people, left more than 300,000 homeless and destroyed property, crops and livestock…
“Dams have collapsed and the biggest, at Marib, overflowed, flooding shelters and washing away farms. There are now fears that Marib dam may burst because it has not been properly maintained.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1723576/middle-east
“Dozens of people were feared trapped in the debris of a five-story building that collapsed on Monday in Mahad, an industrial town in western India, with some reports saying about 60 to 70 people were still inside, while a local lawmaker said the figure was higher…
“Old, creaky structures and illegal constructions are prone to collapse, typically during torrential rain.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/24/world/asia/mahad-india-building-collapse.html
“Bihar is one of the poorest states in India. Its health infrastructure is stretched thin under the pressure of twin crises – the spread of Covid-19 and floods.”
Video:
“Millions have been forced to flee their homes in Bangladesh because of floods triggered by monsoon rains.
“The flooding, which has affected almost one-third of the country, shows no sign of abating due to continuous rain. Most of the country’s 16 rivers have overflowed…”
“Rainstorms and floods have wreaked havoc in Gansu, NW China, since Aug. 10, damaging 721 km of levees, of which 2.5 km gave way to floodwater.
“Over 1.2 million people have been affected. Zhouqu County, among the hardest hit by rain-triggered floods, on Wednesday activated a top-level emergency response for flood control and natural disaster relief.”
http://www.ecns.cn/hd/2020-08-24/detail-ifzzismq8705069.shtml
“Hong Kong’s hot nights and even hotter days bring higher risk of mortality for women and the elderly, new study finds. The findings come just weeks after the Observatory announced July was the city’s hottest month on record.
“Researchers attribute the increasing number of hot nights and very hot days to climate change, saying the numbers could rise…”
“Every year, as the mercury rises, we undergo a collective [psychological] transformation. Some of the symptoms are relatively minor – people are more likely to honk their horns when they’re stuck in traffic; the police usually notice a spike in disorderly behaviour; and we’re less likely to help strangers out.
“But others are more disconcerting.”
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200817-the-sinister-ways-heatwaves-warp-the-mind
“Typhoon Bavi could grow to be one of the strongest to hit Korea in years, packing strong winds that could damage or destroy vehicles and outdoor structures, the weather agency said Monday.
“According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the eighth typhoon of the year that formed off the east coast of Taiwan last week was around the northwestern coast of Okinawa, Japan, as of 4 p.m. Monday…”
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200824000753
“Australia’s east coast will battle through another day of wild winds… while Western Australia reels from a weekend of blistering 40C heat… Victoria recorded its wettest day in 20 years on Friday…
“…[meanwhile] Yampi Sound in Western Australia’s Kimberley region took out the August record for hottest maximum temperature, reaching a sweat-inducing 40.7 degrees on Saturday.”
“Australia’s Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the government had increased spending by $45 million to bolster fire-fighting resources.
“The report noted: “It is likely that we will see extreme fire conditions again when the risk factors combine in the right way. Extreme fires and fire seasons in NSW, Australia are likely to become more frequent.”
“Since the beginning of the year, more than 18,000 fires have destroyed a large part of Argentina’s Paraná Delta, a wetland home to unique biodiversity that provides oxygen and drinking water to millions of people and greatly mitigates the effects of climate change…
“The fires, the most widespread and prolonged at least since 2008, have already devastated some 1,000 square kilometres of territory…”
https://dialogochino.net/en/agriculture/36975-fires-ravage-argentinas-parana-river-delta/
“From the historic heat wave and wildfires in the West (USA), to the massive derecho that tore through the middle of the nation, to the record-breaking pace of this year’s hurricane season, the unprecedented and concurrent extreme conditions resemble the chaotic climate future scientists have been warning us about for decades…
“…only it’s happening right now.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-heat-wave-wildfires-hurricanes-derecho/
“The deadly California wildfires have burned over 1 million acres — and there’s no end in sight as thousands of firefighters struggle to contain the blazes and more emerge.
“Hundreds of fires were started by lightning, Cal Fire spokesman Steve Kaufmann said. There were approximately 12,000 lightning strikes that started 585 fires in the state over the past week.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/23/us/california-wildfires-sunday/index.html
“A late-August monsoon triggered flash flooding, waterlogged roadways and opened at least three sinkholes on Sunday night in St. George, Utah — an astounding display of “the power of Mother Nature,” Gov. Gary Herbert said…
“Several underpasses and roads also flooded, leading to a number of stalled cars and closed roads in low lying areas.”
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/08/24/st-george-utah-flooding-sinkholes/5629575002/
“It was another day of thunderstorms for the region, as powerful storms rolled through, leaving damage in their wake. One of the harder hit areas was in Wakefield, Massachusetts, where many residents were without power Sunday night…
““It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen, the wind was crazy,” said resident Kathy Barber.”
“The corn crop in the U.S. Midwest deteriorated the most in 8 years with hot weather adding to woes from drought and the Aug. 10 derecho windstorm that swept through the top-growing state of Iowa…
““Drought conditions continue to expand across the region as widespread rains have not yet materialized,” Justin Glisan, Iowa state climatologist, said in a report.”
“Tropical Storm Marco has made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River but it is Tropical Storm Laura that has Louisiana and Texas residents bracing for what could be the strongest storm since 2005’s Hurricane Rita — still ranked as the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico…
“Tropical Storm Laura is gaining strength.”
“At least 12 people have been killed as two storms tore through the Caribbean on Sunday.
“Hurricane Marco and Tropical Storm Laura brought high winds and rough seas leaving at least nine people dead in Haiti and another three in the Dominican Republic. Heavy rains have also battered Cuba and the US territory of Puerto Rico.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53884709
“Veneto governor Luca Zaia has signed a ‘state of crisis’ order after the north Italian city of Verona was hit by a sudden storm on the evening of 23 August.
“Witnesses spoke of streets flooded with “rivers of hailstones” in the city centre, with the storm knocking down more than 500 trees.”
https://www.wantedinmilan.com/news/italy-verona-flooded-in-river-of-hailstones.html
“Turkish rescue workers recovered two more bodies Monday after severe weekend floods swept along Turkey’s Black Sea coast…
…raising the death toll to eight, officials said.
“At least eight other people were reported missing.”
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200825/p2g/00m/0in/031000c
“Songbirds in tropical rainforests curtail their reproduction to help them survive droughts, according to a study Monday…
“With more record hot spells gripping parts of the planet and biodiversity threatened by human encroachment on habitats, a crucial question is whether species can adapt to these ever-harsher conditions.”
https://phys.org/news/2020-08-tropical-songbirds-survive-drought.html
“The world’s tropical regions are home to the widest range of plants and animals, but research from The University of Queensland reveals that climate change is pushing species away, and fast.
“UQ ARC Future Fellow Dr. Tatsuya Amano led an international team that reviewed more than 1.3 million records of waterbird species, and found temperature increase is drastically affecting species abundance in the tropics.”
https://phys.org/news/2020-08-species-tropics-climate.html
“Ice is melting at a surprisingly fast rate underneath the Shirase Glacier Tongue in East Antarctica due to the continuing influx of warm seawater into the Lützow-Holm Bay…
“”Our data suggests that the ice directly beneath the Shirase Glacier Tongue is melting at a rate of seven to 16 meters (23 – 52 feet) per year,” says Assistant Professor Daisuke Hirano of Hokkaido University…”
“Melting and refreezing of ice around the globe is an annual natural phenomenon, but owing to the gradual rise in global average temperature, the cycle is no longer marked by just the seasonal variability. Over the last few decades, the accelerated irreversible melting has been a prime indicator of global warming…
“Underlining this growing threat, a recent study has estimated that the planet Earth, in whole, lost a staggering 28 trillion tonnes (Gigatonnes) of ice between 1994 and 2017.”
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