NOAA agrees with EU’s Copernicus that September was the hottest on record; this in spite of a La Nina:
“Boosted by human-caused climate change global temperatures averaged 60.75 degrees (15.97 Celsius) last month… That’s 1.75 degrees (0.97 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average.”
“Thousands of people in northern California were without power on Thursday amid an autumn heatwave that brought another round of extreme wildfire danger.
“The utility company Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) began shutting off power on Wednesday evening to about 50,000 customers – about 100,000 people – in portions of 24 counties…”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/15/california-power-cuts-heatwave-pg-and-e
“Phoenix has hit 100 degrees on record-breaking half of the days in 2020.
“The unrelenting and unprecedented heat that scorched Phoenix all summer, setting countless records, has carried over into the fall. Now it has set another blistering milestone: the most 100-degree days ever observed in a calendar year.
On Wednesday, the mercury in Phoenix climbed to at least 100 degrees for the 144th time in 2020.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/10/14/phoenix-record-heat-100-degrees/
“A Colorado wildfire, fueled by high winds, grew by more than 22,000 acres Wednesday to become the largest in state history.
“The Cameron Peak Fire burning in the mountains west of Fort Collins had grown to 158,300 acres by Wednesday evening, making it the largest wildfire in state history…”
“Wildfires show how climate change is transforming national parks. Drier landscapes, warmer weather, and intensifying fires may change America’s beloved landscapes forever.”
“As boreal forest wildfires increase in severity and frequency, new patterns of post-fire recovery are emerging.
“Research led by Jill Johnstone and colleagues at the U.S. National Science Foundation-supported Bonanza Creek Long-term Ecological Research site found that recent wildfires led to changes in tree species dominance that are persisting through post-fire succession in Alaska’s boreal forests.”
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-wildfires-forest-interior-alaska.html
“Small, controlled fires have long been a seasonal occurrence in Bolivia…
“[But] fires this year have escaped and burned unchecked in several ecosystems, including the Pantanal wetlands in the eastern part of the country; the dry Chiquitano forest in the southeast; and Beni savanna and Amazon rainforest areas in the north.”
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147408/fierce-fires-in-bolivia
“The Atlantic hurricane season this year has been a doozy, with 25 named storms forming at a breakneck record pace and lashing broad swaths of the U.S. coastline. But the Pacific Ocean, normally busier than the Atlantic and featuring stronger storms, has been uncharacteristically tepid…
“Part of the reason behind that is a developing La Niña pattern.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/10/14/pacific-hurricane-typhoon-season-quiet/
“Vietnamese rescuers on Thursday recovered the bodies of all 13 soldiers from the site of two deadly landslides, three days after the disaster near a remote hydropower dam…
“Intense rains since early October have caused floods and mudslides that have killed at least 49 people in central Vietnam, while more heavy rainfall is expected until early next week on several fronts.”
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/vietnam-rescuers-13-bodies-two-125758066.html
“Floodwaters following heavy rains have risen to “an alarming level” in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, a disaster management official said Wednesday, creating a rank soup as it mixed with weeks of garbage left uncollected during a sanitation worker strike, residents said.
“A tropical storm that caused flash flooding in 19 of Cambodia’s 25 provinces has led to the evacuation of more than 10,000 people…”
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/brew-10142020174415.html
“Heavy rains caused by Tropical Storm Nangka have inundated many provinces in the eastern and southern regions of Thailand, forcing many schools to close.
“Around 920 houses in Trang province were flooded by overflowing rivers and two houses damaged by landslides.”
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2002179/storm-nangka-brings-flood-misery
“In one of the worst spells of downpour spanning over a few days in this city and other parts of Telangana [India], 50 people died… The flood situation in neighbouring Karnataka worsened on Thursday with several areas in the northern parts of the state inundated due to torrential rains and release of water from major dams.
“In Telangana [India], officials said that for the first time after 1916, such a big spell of rain was recorded…”
“Heavy rain claimed at least 27 lives in separate incidents in various parts of Western Maharashtra [India] since Wednesday, an official from Divisional Commissionerate in Pune said on Thursday.
“Torrential rainfall in most parts of Western Maharashtra resulted in flood-like situations in many districts as dams and small reservoirs were filled to the brim.”
“At least 12 people have been killed in flash floods caused by ongoing heavy rains in Tanzania’s business capital Dar es Salaam, police said on Thursday.
“…the victims died after they were swept away by floods. Two children from the same family were among the victims.”
https://africa.cgtn.com/2020/10/15/12-killed-by-flash-floods-in-tanzanias-business-capital-police/
“The head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warns Sudan’s fragile political stability could be at risk if the desperate needs of hundreds of thousands of flood victims are not urgently addressed…
“…children comprise about half of the flood victims and are particularly vulnerable…”
“The next rainy season in East Africa is forecast to fail, jeopardizing food security for millions of people…
“The timing could not be worse. The region is more precarious than ever — destabilized by COVID-19 and the worst devastation from locusts in half a century.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02698-3
“Firefighters are beginning a fifth day Thursday trying to contain a forest fire in a conservation area on Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest peak…
“…dry conditions, strong winds, and the location of the fire are hampering efforts to bring it under control.”
https://www.voanews.com/africa/firefighters-continue-battling-mount-kilimanjaro-fire
“The olive trees have become drought-stricken, after a season in which the temperatures rose sharply, reaching “unprecedented” degrees in the southern countryside of Qunaitra [Syria]…
“The heatwave caused olive fruits to wither and dry while they are still in the flowering stage, according to some farmers interviewed by Enab Baladi.”
“French authorities have caught a black Canadian wolf that escaped from a wildlife park during heavy flooding in southern France more than a week ago but six others remain on the run…
“At least six people died and more than a dozen are believed still missing after the worst flooding to hit southeastern France for more than a century…”
“The UK had its wettest day on record after Storm Alex hit earlier this month, with enough rain falling to more than fill Loch Ness, the Met Office has said.
“Data from the national weather service shows Saturday 3 October, the day after the storm, was the wettest day in records dating back to 1891.”
“Solastalgia means a feeling of homesickness without ever leaving home – and for Inuit in Canada’s north it describes the psychological impact of the climate crisis…
“Around the world, environmentally sensitive areas from Australia to the Amazon are being transformed by a warming climate. While climate change may be abstract in some places, here in the Arctic it is concrete, and becoming unsettlingly familiar.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/15/arctic-solastalgia-climate-crisis-inuit-indigenous
“Methane emissions have jumped so far this year even as oil and gas production has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The report from Kayrros, which analyzes methane leaks through satellite imagery, found visible methane emissions jumped 32 percent in the first eight months of 2020 when compared with the same period in 2019.”
“Increasingly I am feeling overwhelmed and unsure about how I can best live my life in the face of the catastrophe that is now upon us.
“I’m anxious about the enormity of the scale of what needs to be done, afraid of what might be waiting in my inbox.
“Something inside me feels like it has snapped, as if some essential thread of hope has failed.
“The knowing that sometimes things can’t be saved, that the planet is dying, that we couldn’t get it together in time to save the irreplaceable.
“It feels as though we have reached the point in human history when all the trees in the global common are finally gone, our connection to the wisdom of our ancestors lost forever.”
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here. I’ll be back over the weekend with an ‘Economic’ thread.
