“The Atlantic Ocean has reached its hottest temperature in 2,900 years, according to a new study. The research, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that recent Atlantic warming has been “unparalleled” in the past three millennia.
“A team of scientists, from universities in the US and Canada, looked at the Atlantic’s “multidecadal sea surface temperature variability” (AMV) – long-duration, naturally-occurring, warm and cool phases that can last up to 40 years at a time, and swing about 1F between extremes.
“As the report notes, AMV “strongly influences the Northern Hemisphere’s climate, including the Arctic”. Since the mid-Nineties, we have been in a warm phase.”
“The Arctic is unravelling. And it’s happening faster than anyone could have imagined just a few decades ago. Northern Siberia and the Canadian Arctic are now warming three times faster than the rest of the world.
“In the past decade, Arctic temperatures have increased by nearly 1C.”
“There was no ice on the water, says captain of tall ship Sedov about Arctic voyage.
“We had at least expected some minor pieces,” says Mikhail Novikov as his 100 years old sailing ship exits the Northern Sea Route… The voyage would have been unthinkable only few years ago. But this year’s unprecedented low levels of sea-ice has made sailing on the route smooth and easy.”
“The icy landscape of the Arctic as we imagine it will no longer exist in just a few decades, researchers returning from a major expedition to the frozen north have warned.
““This world is threatened. We really saw how the ice is disappearing,” said Markus Rex, leader of the largest-ever Arctic expedition, at a press conference Monday.”
“Avocado-farming worsens Portugal’s drought:
Like many Britons in Portugal, Richard Alan moved to the sun-drenched southern Algarve region to retire. He bought a farm, married the love of his life and grew a vegetable garden. Then he started running out of water.
“He, and some environmentalists, blame an avocado production boom in recent years for mopping up already scarce water as a drought linked to climate change blights the area.”
“Days after Europe’s climate body’s announcement of the “hottest September on the planet,” Turkish officials declared new high-temperature records of last month in 93 sites of the country...
““Due to warmer weather beyond the season normal last month, we saw record-breaking changes in temperatures,” said Ahmet Duran Şahin from Istanbul Technical University to the state-run Anadolu Agency.”
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/hottest-september-records-break-in-93-sites-of-turkey-159083
“Mount Kilimanjaro fire: What is at risk for the local ecosystem?
“Fires are becoming more frequent on Africa’s highest mountain. With the latest blaze threatening wide-reaching consequences, DW looks at what is at stake for local wildlife.”
https://www.dw.com/en/mount-kilimanjaro-fire-what-is-at-risk-for-the-local-ecosystem/a-55253805
“In recent months, unpredictable, intense floods have washed across parts of Rwanda, Kenya, Somalia, Burundi, Ethiopia, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti and Tanzania, ruining homes and livelihoods…
“As the world battles a pandemic, large swaths of the African continent have been —literally — submerged by floods.”
https://www.voanews.com/africa/widespread-floods-devastate-large-sections-east-africa
“The warning by the Pakistan Meteorological Department of a heatwave hitting Karachi in October is extraordinary.
“No one would have thought that the temperature scale would be hitting 40 Celsius or above at the tail end of the year, but this an indication of what is to come; unpredictable weather patterns and harsher, longer seasons.”
https://nation.com.pk/14-Oct-2020/changing-patterns
“A house has collapsed in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad in Telangana state amid record rains and heavy flooding, killing at least eight people, police said.
“The house was in a hilly area of the city where the soil had loosened due to more than 25 centimetres (9.8 inches) of rain falling in the past 24 hours, said the city’s police commissioner Anjani Kumar.”
“At least one extreme disaster occurred every month over the last five months affecting lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh and killing about 300 people…
“In 15 hours from 6:00pm on the day, Rangpur city received 433mm rainfall, the highest rainfall recorded since the Met Office began keeping record in 1947.”
https://www.newagebd.net/article/118816/bangladesh-struggles-with-train-of-natural-disasters
“Day-long heavy rain on Sunday caused unprecedented flash floods which wreaked havoc in the capital of Cambodia…
“…this is the first time that Phnom Penh has seen floods cause such an impact, which he said was caused by unusually high rainfall.”
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50772451/flash-flood-chaos-in-the-capital/
“Heavy rains since early October have caused deadly floods and landslides in several provinces in central Vietnam and displaced thousands of people in western Cambodia, officials and state media said.
“The floods are expected to worsen over the coming days, with tropical storm Nangka forecast to dump more rain as it makes landfall in Vietnam on Wednesday.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/13/asia/vietnam-cambodia-nangka-intl-hnk/index.html
“The southern Chinese province of Hainan has suspended a number of ferry and train services and canceled some flights as the 16th typhoon of the year barrels toward land.
“The Hainan provincial government issued the second-highest emergency alert for typhoon Nangka at 10 a.m. Tuesday as it was expected to make landfall in the coastal region between Wenchang and Lingshui in Hainan Tuesday evening.”
http://www.china.org.cn/china/2020-10/14/content_76804584.htm
“At least 1,000 residents from six districts in Garut regency, West Java [Indonesia], have been displaced by flash floods and landslides due to torrential rainfall in the region since Sunday…
“According to local officials, the flood waters in Pamengpeuk reached up to 80 centimeters high.”
“Hundreds evacuated in Metro Cebu [Philippines] amid heavy downpour and floods… Nonstop rains which started early Tuesday night submerged low lying areas mostly in Mandaue and Cebu cities…
“Cebu City Risk Reduction Management Office OIC Ramil Ayuman said they are collating data on the overwhelming number of reported floods in several areas in the city.”
“NSW and Victorian residents are going to have to brace for sweltering summer weather with more intense heat waves forecast.
“The Australian Bureau of Meteorology released its severe weather outlook for the rest of October until April on Monday.”
https://au.news.yahoo.com/australia-summer-forecast-intense-heatwaves-more-cyclones-093559031.html
“Thousands of fish are feared dead in rivers in the south-west of the Australian state of Victoria after once-in-50-year flooding, local media reported Tuesday.
“Last week, rivers in the Shipwreck Coast region swelled to record levels after some areas received a month’s worth of rain in 48 hours.”
“High number of fatal Australian shark attacks prompts concern hunting grounds are shifting.
“More Australians have been killed in unprovoked shark attacks this year than in any year since 1934.”
“Half the corals on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have died over the past 25 years, scientists said Wednesday, warning that climate change is irreversibly destroying the World Heritage-listed underwater ecosystem.
“A study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Journal found an alarming rate of decline across all sizes of corals since the mid-1990s.”
“California’s siege of wildfires has significantly quieted but forecasters warned on Tuesday that a fall heatwave could bring back critical fire weather conditions this week.
“Fire weather watches will go into effect in much of northern California early on Wednesday due to high pressure producing hot and dry conditions with gusty offshore winds, the National Weather Service said.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/13/california-fires-heat-weather
“800 Years Ago, Old Faithful Went Quiet. Soon, It Might Happen Again…
“”Climate models project increasingly severe droughts and large fires by mid-century leading to a major transformation of Yellowstone’s ecosystems,” the team writes.”
“Four people are dead in the aftermath of Hurricane Delta as remnants of the storm brought widespread rain to the US mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Monday…
“Hurricane Delta was the 25th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/12/weather/hurricane-delta-monday/index.html
“With oceans absorbing more than 90 percent of global warming, marine heatwaves are becoming hotter and larger and are lasting longer.
“Scientists say the trend has major ecological consequences, from altering fish and plant populations to forcing whales into hazardous waters.”
https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-waters-warm-ocean-heatwaves-are-growing-more-severe
“Experts warn that climate change will make the world a more inhospitable place to live, and we may be further along in that journey than we realized, a new report from the UN has revealed.
“The frequency of natural disasters over the past two decades is almost double that of the 1980-1999 period… with extreme weather events driven by climate change accounting for a large portion…”
https://newatlas.com/environment/climate-change-natural-disasters-un-report/
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an ‘Economic’ thread.
