“While this year will be memorable for many reasons, it is now more likely than not that 2020 will also be the warmest year for the Earth’s surface since reliable records began in the mid-1800s.
“This is all the more remarkable because it will lack any major El Niño event – a factor that has contributed to most prior record warm years.”
“Scientists have sounded the alarm over Arctic sea ice levels after researchers reported much of the region had not yet started to refreeze by late October, the latest date since records began.
“The delay in ice formation is blamed on a period of unusually warm weather in northern Russia.”
“Ice Loss Will Trigger Increased Warming in a Vicious Feedback Loop, Study Warns:
“…Ice loss from the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets is accelerating and already outstripping what scientists until recently believed to be the worst-case melt scenarios.”
https://www.sciencealert.com/ice-loss-alone-will-add-0-4c-extra-to-global-temperatures
“Scientists have found evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean – known as the “sleeping giants of the carbon cycle” – have started to be released over a large area of the continental slope off the East Siberian coast…
“High levels of the potent greenhouse gas have been detected down to a depth of 350 metres in the Laptev Sea near Russia, prompting concern among researchers that a new climate feedback loop may have been triggered…”
“Ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet has accelerated significantly over the past two decades, transforming the shape of the ice sheet edge and therefore coastal Greenland…
“These changes to the ice sheet could have far-reaching impacts on ecosystems and communities…”
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-coastal-greenland-reshaped-ice-sheet.html
“Canada needs to cooperate closely and urgently with Russia and other Arctic nations to deal with the rapidly thawing ground, says a former premier of the Canadian territory of Yukon.
““Permafrost functioned for thousand years like cement,” says Tony Penikett, now a senior associate at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue. “It was the stable underpinning…acting as the foundation of our homes, our refrigerators… It is no longer permanent.””
https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2020/10/26/thawing-permafrost-called-a-threat-to-the-world/
“New research led by Micaela Pedrazas has found that permafrost is mostly absent throughout the shallow seafloor along a coastal field site in northeastern Alaska. This means that carbon can be more easily released from coastline sources than previously predicted.
“The findings contradict the long-held belief that the solid permafrost extended offshore in Alaska…”
https://www.oceanographicmagazine.com/news/coastal-permafrost-climate-change/
“The geographic South Pole does not escape global warming… The temperature at the southernmost tip of the planet has been recorded uninterruptedly since 1957…
“A group of researchers has now analyzed the station’s meteorological data to verify that the average air temperature remained, even fell, until 1989. But since then it has not stopped rising.”
https://pledgetimes.com/warming-reaches-the-coldest-region-on-the-planet/
“A disruptive and dangerous ice storm is underway in Oklahoma, with ice storm warnings plastering the map and more than 300,000 people without power.
““Tree carnage” has been reported in Oklahoma City, where vegetation and power lines have been collapsing beneath the weight of the accreting rime.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/10/27/oklahoma-ice-storm-power/
“For the second year in a row, Jackson [Wyoming] has broken its all-time low temperature record for the month of October.
“The temperature at the weather station in Jackson fell to -9 on Monday morning, breaking the previous monthly record of -6 set on October 30, 2019…”
https://buckrail.com/coldest-temperature-on-record-for-the-month-of-october-in-jackson/
“The record low comes a day after an extraordinary record set on Monday [in Denver, Colorado]. The official high temperature in Denver was only 16 degrees.
“That was cold enough to not only break the record for the coldest maximum ever recorded on October 26, it was also the coldest maximum temperature ever recorded on any day in October in Denver.
“In other words, it had never stayed so cold in October before Monday.”
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/10/27/denver-cold-snap-continues-weather-record-shattered/
“A power company in southern California says its equipment may have sparked a fast-moving wildfire that has forced evacuation orders for around 100,000 people and seriously injured two firefighters.
“The Silverado fire sparked early in Orange county on Monday, quickly jumping a highway and exploding to 4,000 acres. The fire had doubled in size within two hours…”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/26/california-power-outages-high-winds-latest
“New management approaches and technology have allowed the U.S. Corn Belt to increase yields despite some changes in climate.
“However, soil sensitivity to drought has increased significantly…”
https://news.stanford.edu/2020/10/26/u-s-corn-crop-increasingly-sensitive-drought/
“Remains of 181 migrants were found in the Arizona desert through the end of September, 37 more than in all of last year and the most since 2013, according to the group Humane Borders.
“The rise in migrant deaths comes during a year of intense heat and little precipitation for Arizona…”
“Storm Zeta has strengthened into a hurricane as it churned towards beach resorts on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, which it is expected to rake with strong winds and heavy rain before making possible landfall in the US later this week.
“Zeta – the earliest ever 27th named storm of the Atlantic season – was centered about 90 miles (145km) south-east of Cozumel island on Monday afternoon…”
“Scientists are working to improve the forecasting of heavy rains in Panama following several events over the past decade that caused substantial flooding and damage…
“December 2010 was the wettest month on record in Panama… This event, locally called La Purísima, produced more rainfall than any previously observed heavy-rain event in the Panama Canal Watershed… In late November 2016, another heavy-rain event struck Panama, wreaking havoc.”
https://eos.org/science-updates/torrential-rains-and-poor-forecasts-sink-panamas-infrastructure
“Forest fires that have blazed across Paraguay in recent weeks are likely to have been, in part, started by criminal groups seeking to clear space for more marijuana plantations.
“Paraguay declared a state of emergency earlier this month as forest fires choked much of the country.”
https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/paraguay-forest-fires-marijuana/
“Londoners may be experiencing the wettest month for more than 150 years, the Met Office has said.
“With one of the wettest Octobers to date scourging the capital, the record for the most rainfall it has seen in any calendar month could also be broken.”
https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/18825613.londoners-experiencing-wettest-month-record/
“Despite winter looming, Cyprus is still bathing in summer-like weather as maximum temperatures on Monday reached a whopping 36 degrees Celsius, 10 degrees higher than average for the season.
“This month is well on its way to becoming the hottest October on record.. Cyprus had already witnessed its hottest July and August on record.”
https://www.financialmirror.com/2020/10/26/cyprus-still-feeling-the-summer-heat/
“Floods, droughts, hotter weather and a desert locust invasion — the impacts of climate change are hitting Africa hard, and worse is ahead for the region’s food supplies, economy and health, the U.N. climate agency said…
“Warming temperatures are slashing crop yields. Agriculture is the backbone of Africa’s economy… African countries are generally low-income and ill-equipped to respond to this and other consequences of climate change…”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-un-africa-idUSKBN27B1LJ
“The cost of water in Kathonzweni, Makueni [Kenya], has risen seven-fold this month as vendors took advantage of low levels at the drought-stricken Matinga Dam which serves the town and its environs.
“A spot check shows a 20-litre jerrican of water now retails at Sh30, up from the usual Sh4 when the dam is full.”
“Chinese scientists have reported success with the country’s first experiment with covering a glacier to slow the pace of its melting. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences covered 500 square metres (5,380 sq ft) of the Dagu Glacier on the Tibetan Plateau…
“Two months later, the covered areas were found to be one metre thicker than parts directly exposed to the sun.”
“Typhoon Molave made landfall just south of the Vietnamese resort city Da Nang on Wednesday, lashing the coast with powerful rains and winds, and inflicting further misery on an area still reeling from widespread deadly flooding.
“Molave hit as the equivalent of a Category 2 Atlantic hurricane, packing sustained winds of 165 kilometers per hour (103 miles per hour).”
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/28/asia/vietnam-typhoon-molave-intl-hnk/index.html
“Floods and landslides killed two people in four sub-districts in Pangandaran district, West Java province, on Tuesday, according to the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB).
“”Floods and landslides occurred due to a high rainfall intensity and an unstable soil structure,” Raditya Jati, the agency’s head of Data, Information and Disaster Communication Center. said on Tuesday.”
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-10/27/c_139470932.htm
“Severe thunderstorms, destructive winds and record rainfall have hit parts of New South Wales and Queensland…
“Dangerous storms forecast for south-east Queensland as NSW braces for more wild weather.” [Video]
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here and visit my Patreon page here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an ‘economic’ thread.
Hottest hots, coldest colds, worst than worst case, no refreeze in the Arctic, oh, and the methane bomb has been lit. Oh, but blankets on glaciers help them refreeze! Good to get some hopium in there 🙂
Climate Chaos, faster than expected ™! Thanks for another great price.
Thank you! JP