“Seven bodies have been found in a region straddling the French-Italian border near Nice after torrential rains swept houses and roads away, officials in both countries said… It brings to nine the total number of people found dead…
“Officials in the Piedmont region reported a record 630mm (24.8 inches) of rain in just 24 hours in Sambughetto, near Switzerland – more than half its annual average rainfall…
“In France …up to 500mm of rain fell in less than 10 hours, a volume not seen since records began, the French prime minister, Jean Castex, said on Saturday.”
“Global warming is driving an unprecedented rise in sea temperatures including in the Mediterranean, according to a major new report published by the peer-reviewed Journal of Operational Oceanography.
“Data from the European Union’s (EU) Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) will increase concerns about the threat to the world’s seas and oceans from climate change.”
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-climate-responsible-sea-temperature.html
“The tripartite negotiations between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia concerning the controversial Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile river are still shrouded in uncertainty, instilling fear of drought into about 50 percent of the population, and thousands of Egyptian farmers whose livelihoods rely on cultivating only 3 percent of Egypt’s territories.
“As the Nile River supplies about 93 percent of Egypt’s annual renewable water resources, the construction of the dam imposes great threats to the nation…”
https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/15/92628/Drought-Fears-Grow-as-Nile-Talks-Run-On
“China’s Corn Imports Hit Record High and are Estimated to Touch 7 Million Metric Tonnes.
“The Chinese government increased its import estimates of corn for both 2019-20 and 2020-21. This might have been due to the tightening supply situation in the country.
“To elaborate, a typhoon hit the northeastern part of Chinese corn production. The said typhoon might reduce domestic production by 5-10 million tonnes…”
“Typhoons and floods destroyed thousands of homes in North Korea this summer, spurring Kim Jong Un to order the military and even Pyongyang’s elite party members to frantically rebuild dozens of villages nationwide.
“But many of the homes that Typhoons Maysak and Typhoon Haishen flooded in early September were actually newly-built only four years ago.. the country appears to be building new homes inside the same flood zones that were in a state of disaster last month.”
“Four people were reported missing, with one of them feared dead, as floods and landslides damaged houses and a bridge in Indonesia’s western province of West Java on Saturday (Oct 3) evening, according to disaster agency officials.
“Heavy downpours has caused a river to overflow, engulfing houses in the surrounding areas in the Cianjur district.”
“Sydney’s hottest area reached temperatures above 50 degrees across several locations on three separate days last summer… heat loggers placed at 120 locations around the local government area for heat research commissioned by Penrith City Council found that on that day the mercury rose to 52 degrees in the suburb of Berkshire Park, 51.5 in Agnes Banks, and 50.1 in Badgerys Creek.
“”There’s no more waiting, climate change is actually happening now,” Dr Sebastian Pfautsch, a senior lecturer in urban studies at the School of Social Sciences at WSU said.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-sydney-suburbs-that-hit-50c-last-summer-20201002-p561by.html
“Wildfires have destroyed up to 50 homes in New Zealand, authorities announced Monday, saying it was a miracle no one was hurt as “a wall of orange” razed most of a remote South Island village…
“New Zealand this year experienced its warmest winter on record, which the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) said was consistent with a long-term trend of rising temperatures linked to climate change.”
https://www.dailysabah.com/world/asia-pacific/wildfires-destroy-dozens-of-homes-in-new-zealand
“New footage has captured the incredible natural occurrence of a ‘fire tornado’ as firefighters continue to battle multiple blazes across Canterbury [New Zealand].
“A 1600-hectare fire still burning near the small Lake Ohau Village decimated the area earlier on Sunday after a major forest fire ripped through the Mackenzie Basin.”
“Brazilian tribes caught between burning wetlands and Covid-19:
“…this year’s fire season has broken records after an abnormally long drought and increasing levels of illegal deforestation… The number of blazes in the Pantanal has increased by 200 per cent since 2019, and an estimated one-fifth of the entire biome has been destroyed since the beginning of the year.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/04/brazilian-tribes-caught-burning-wetlands-covid-19/
“[Brazil’s] heatwave continues to break records and temperature approaches 50°C…
“It is in the Pantanal , where fires destroy large forest areas, that the heat will be greatest. In Corumbá, the day started with a minimum of 25°C, but the maximum can reach 48°C.”
“Storm Gamma is forecast to bring extremely heavy rain to portions of Mexico over the next several days.
“Flash flooding and mudslides remain a concern as Gamma makes landfall across the Yucatan today.”
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/weather/2020/10/03/tropical-storm-gamma-heavy-rain-flood-forecast.cnn
“Cuba has issued a hurricane watch as a storm system brews south of Jamaica, with forecasters expecting it to gain strength as it moves northwest towards the Gulf of Mexico.
“Potential Tropical Cyclone (PTC) 26 was located 90 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica, Sunday evening…”
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/04/weather/ptc-26-system-sunday-wrx/index.html
“Wildfires in California have burned more than 4 million acres (1.6 million hectares) in 2020, over twice the previous record for any year and an area larger than Connecticut, the state’s fire agency reported on Sunday.
“The most-populous U.S. state has suffered five of its six largest wildfires in history this year as heat waves and dry-lightning sieges coincided with drier conditions that climate scientists blame on global warming.”
“Fall foliage faltering under ‘extreme drought’ conditions…
“Over 75% of the West is under drought conditions. Over 80% of Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire are experiencing severe drought… While the drought may trigger more vibrant colors, the timing may be premature.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/03/weather/drought-hindering-fall-foliage-saturday/index.html
“Longer and hotter heatwaves driven by climate change are becoming an increasingly dangerous – and costly – menace, with sweltering cities often picking up the tab for everything from repairing melted roads to running more cooling centres.
“But a new way to cut the financial risks is emerging: heatwave insurance.”
[Derivatives could save the global economy from climate change. Who knew?]
https://uk.reuters.com/article/heatwave-insurance-climatechange-idUKL8N2GS56K
“The black volcanic sand of Khalaktyrsky beach – one of the gems of the Kamchatka peninsula… is littered with hundreds of dead sea animals, from deep-sea Giant Pacific octopuses, to seals, sea urchins, stars, crabs and fish.
“The Pacific Ocean waves, once favoured by local surfers and loved by tourists, now have a strong toxic smell; water colour has a clear yellow tinge.”
“The year 2020 is the hottest in the Antarctic Peninsula in the past three decades, a study by the University of Santiago de Chile out Friday found… Those temperatures are “more than 2 degrees Celsius over typical values,” climatologist Raul Cordero said in a statement released by the Chilean Antarctic Institute…
“He called that fact “alarming,” since it could indicate that the rapid rate of ocean warming observed in the area at the end of the 20th century is resuming.”
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-antarctic-peninsula-warmest-decades.html
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an ‘Economic’ thread.
