“September was the hottest on record globally, the EU’s climate service has revealed, putting the world on course for 2020 being the warmest ever year.
“The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Wednesday that every month this year had ranked within the top four warmest of the month in question, while September had broken records overall.”
“Last month was Russia’s hottest September in more than a century of climate records, with some parts of the country seeing temperature anomalies of over 10 degrees Fahrenheit above average, according to the state weather service.
“Marina Makarova, from the Russian Hydrometeorology Center, told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency that almost every part of the country had experienced temperatures that were several degrees above average in September.”
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-hottest-september-ever-climate-change-1536703
“Russia’s Norilsk Nickel estimates the environmental cost of a huge fuel spill in the Arctic in May is 21.4 billion roubles ($273 million), far less than an assessment by the country’s environment watchdog, which has begun court action.
“The spill released 21,000 tonnes of diesel into rivers and subsoil near the city of Norilsk in Siberia.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-pollution-nornickel-idUSKBN26Q1QP
“A leak of toxic rocket fuel is the likely cause of a pollution catastrophe at one of Russia’s top surfing beaches, says a leading ecologist.
“…it has emerged that a landfill site under active 7,182ft Kozelsky volcano was used to bury rocket fuels as well as arsenic and mercury after the collapse of the USSR.”
“China Turning Russia’s Taiga Into a Desert, Enriching Moscow but Outraging Siberians:
“Since Vladimir Putin became president, Russia’s forests have declined in size by 45 million hectares, some 6 percent of the country’s total. The shrinking forest cover has been the result of the spread of uncontrolled forest fires (80 percent) as well as increased harvesting (20 percent), much of that for export.”
“Monday saw record-breaking temperatures for October 5 in four towns across Estonia.
“The four cities to record new all-time highs… were Tallinn, Pärnu, Tartu and Narva. The highest air temperature overall, 21.2C, was registered in the northwestern town of Haapsalu in the afternoon.”
https://news.err.ee/1143514/warm-weather-records-set-in-four-estonian-cities-on-monday
“The north-east of Scotland was hammered by “never-ending” downpours over the weekend…
“Mongour, Aberdeenshire, according to SEPA statistics, saw more than an average month’s rainfall in just 30 hours. And Craibstone recorded its wettest day ever, with 85.2mm of rain between 10am on Saturday and 10am on Sunday.”
“Belgian meteorologists have confirmed that the extreme weather seen on Monday evening North of Antwerp was a tornado, a relatively uncommon experience in Belgium.
“Several social media users on Monday evening reported seeing a tornado, with video evidence to prove it.”
“Some 2.2 million hectares of arable land, a quarter of Romania’s cultivated land, were ravaged by the extreme drought this year, agriculture minister Adrian Oros announced on Tuesday, October 6.
“Out of the total, one million hectares were cultivated with winter crops (wheat, barley), and another one million hectares had spring crops (sunflower, maize).”
https://www.romania-insider.com/drought-crop-distruction-oct-2020
“Corpses from cemeteries have been washing up on Mediterranean shores in France and Italy after flooding at the weekend. The bodies were apparently swept down the mountains by violent rains.
“A total of 12 deaths have been reported since Storm Alex started pounding France’s Alpes-Maritimes region and Italy’s north-western regions of Liguria and Piedmont on Friday.”
“The highest temperature ever for October [in Cyprus] was recorded at the Athalassa meteorological station on Tuesday, where the thermometer hit 38.5C, as the Met office said records were broken in July, August and September…
“On September 4, the highest temperature ever recorded in Cyprus, 46.2C, was measured in Athalassa, beating the previous record of 45.6C on August 1, 2010.”
https://cyprus-mail.com/2020/10/06/last-three-months-saw-hottest-days-on-record/
“The number of people hit by seasonal flooding in East Africa has increased more than five fold in four years, according to UN figures. Nearly six million people have been affected this year with 1.5 million of them forced from their homes.
“Parts of the region are recording the heaviest rains in a century.”
https://news.yahoo.com/flooding-hits-six-million-people-144800853.html
“India’s famous monsoon has come to an end, and for the second consecutive year, the country observed an “excess” rainy season. The rainfall average across the nation reached 109% of normal. This falls one percentage point shy of 2019’s historic season of 110% above normal…
“This makes the first time back-to-back rainy seasons [India] had this large of a rainfall surplus since the 1950s… However, the country’s population of over 1.3 billion still faces a long-term crisis as it heads toward outgrowing its water supply.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/06/weather/india-monsoon-ends-historic-rainfall/index.html
“…the annual flooding of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta from the upstream Mekong before reaching the sea no longer occurs.
“There was heavy rain a few weeks ago, and water had filled up canals and then reached the fields… But soon a scorching sun replaced the rains and water dropped, leaving the field dry and cracked once again.”
“A three-year-old girl died after she was swept away by floods triggered by heavy rains in Lao Cai Province [Vietnam] early Tuesday…
“The provincial meteorological station has confirmed the downpour to be the heaviest October rain in 63 years, measuring at 400 mm in nine hours. Rainfall of 180 mm in 24 hours is considered heavy.”
“Floods hit low lying areas of the city and several districts in the west coast of Sabah [Indonesia] following heavy overnight downpours.
“In the outlying areas of the city, dozens of cars parked in low lying spots were partially submerged while many offices and schools saw a low attendance.”
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/10/06/floods-wreak-havoc-in-sabah
“A bushfire that destroyed most of a village in New Zealand’s South Island has sparked a fierce debate between high-country farmers and conservationists, as those affected struggle to understand the unusually fierce nature of the blaze…
“…about 50 of the village’s 70 homes were destroyed, as was 4,600 hectares of land, of which 1,900 are conservation estate.”
“After a week of high temperatures and low air humidity, the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) for Brazil has issued a warning of “great danger” due to a heat wave in much of the Midwest, part of the North and Southeast .
“According to Inmet, there is a risk of death from hyperthermia…”
“Rainforests are highly sensitive to changes in rainfall and moisture levels, and fires and prolonged droughts can result in areas losing trees and shifting to a savannah-like mix of woodland and grassland. In the Amazon, such changes were… thought to be many decades away.
“New research shows that this tipping point could be much closer than previously thought. As much as 40% of the existing Amazon rainforest is now at a point where it could exist as a savannah instead of as rainforest.”
“Hurricane Delta rapidly intensified on Tuesday, becoming a category 4 storm with 140mph winds, on course to hammer south-eastern Mexico and the US Gulf coast.
“Delta is the earliest 25th named storm to form in the Atlantic, beating the old record of 15 November 2005, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/06/hurricane-delta-category-2-mexico-us-gulf-coast
“Phoenix has had five consecutive days of 105 degrees or greater in October, a new record for the month.”
https://ktar.com/story/3608663/fall-in-phoenix-not-yet-as-daily-heat-record-eclipsed-at-105-degrees/
“Two decades into a severe drought on the Navajo reservation, the open range around Maybelle Sloan’s sheep farm stretches out in a brown expanse of earth and sagebrush…
“The summer monsoon rains have failed again in Arizona…“
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-climate-change-usa-navajo-widerimage-idUKKBN26Q1ZI
“California’s extraordinary year of wildfires has spawned another new milestone – the first “gigafire”, a blaze spanning 1m acres, in modern history.
“On Monday, the August complex fire in northern California expanded beyond 1m acres, elevating it from a mere “megafire” to a new classification, “gigafire”, never used before in a contemporary setting in the state.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/06/california-wildfires-gigafire-first
“New world record smashes previous record, 232 waterspouts over the Great Lakes:
“From September 28 – October 4th, 232 waterspouts/funnels were sighted over the Great Lakes, according to International Centre for Waterspout Research. This is the world record for the highest recorded number of waterspouts over the Great Lakes during a 7-day period… This smashes the previous record of 88 waterspouts, that took place from August 16-18, 2020.”
“…a landslide-generated tsunami is likely within 20 years and could happen at any time. If a landslide occurs, the resulting tsunami in Barry Arm [Alaska] could produce waves that are hundreds of feet high.
“Other, more distant bays—such as the more heavily populated Passage Canal (about 30 miles/50 kilometers away)—could see 30-foot (9-meter) waves.”
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147345/the-specter-of-a-mega-tsunami-in-alaska
“Bleak views of melting Antarctic ice, from above and below – Two troubling recent studies clarify projections of sea-level rise:
“The observed changes to these glaciers are worrisome enough, but the authors are especially troubled by signs that the decline is speeding up. Lhermitte and his co-authors posit that the types of damage they documented are signs that “these ice shelves are already preconditioned for further disintegration.”
“The region may have passed a tipping point…”
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here. I’ll be back with an ‘Economic’ round-up tomorrow.
““Phoenix has had five consecutive days of 105 degrees or greater in October, a new record for the month.””
… and today is the 7th.
Wow! Hope you have good air-conditioning and a tonne of cold drinks, Lou!