“Two Canterbury towns [New Zealand] have recorded all-time record temperatures today, with others breaking January highs.
“According to NIWA, Cheviot and Akaroa reached all-time record high temperatures with 38 [100.4F] and 37.9 degrees [100.2F] Celcius respectively. Akaroa’s previous all-time high was 35.4 [95.7F], with Cheviot’s 37.8 [100.04F] degrees.”
“Sydney has endured its hottest Australia Day in 60 years as residents swelter through a summer heatwave… Sydney Airport recorded a temperature of 40.2C [104.4F] at 1pm…
“Elsewhere, parts of Queensland are also expected to swelter while a new wave of heat begins in Western Australia.”
“Archaeologists have used food scraps from the earliest Australians to discover the northern part of the country is experiencing its driest period for 65,000 years…
““It’s not so much that there’s less rainfall today, but the rainfall is coupled with more evaporation because we have warmer overall temperatures now,” Dr Florin said.”
“Abu Dhabi: The Arabian Gulf has been experiencing the longest recorded meteorological drought over the last two decades, with temperatures in the region being on the rise since 1998, a top climate expert said today.
“The general pattern of the climate in the region is warming. There is warming over the seas and sea surfaces, a rise in maximum temperatures and drying precipitation. In addition, there has been an increase in the number of Category 4 and 5 severe tropical cyclones, which is critical when we look at the economy,” warned Dr Said Alsarmi, meteorological expert…”
“Cyclone Eloise, which made landfall across southeastern Africa Saturday, has displaced thousands in the region and the death toll has increased to at least 12 on Monday, according to figures from authorities…
“Eloise is expected to move toward southwestern Botswana tomorrow, where it will cause heavy rain.
“More downpours are also expected in South Africa in the coming days.”
“Climate change hit poorest countries hardest in 2019: Heavy rain and storms exacerbated by climate change particularly affected East Africa, Asia and South America in 2019…
“More than 1,000 people lost their lives Idai in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi in March 2019, causing “catastrophic damage and a humanitarian crisis,” the authors wrote.”
https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-hit-poorest-countries-hardest-in-2019/a-56334708
“”The lion is Africa’s signature wild animal, yet fewer than 20,000 remain in the entire continent, down from an estimated 100,000 five decades ago,” says British photographer, George Logan.
““At the current rate of decline, lions will be extinct in the wild by the middle of this century.”“
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-55666165
“Forests remain a carbon sink, stashing away 7.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, but their ability to lock carbon is weakening.
“In the last 20 years alone, forests in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia, have turned into net carbon emitters, and the Amazon threatens to go the same way.”
“Brazil had a trying start to 2020, namely 100 cities across three states who were under a state of emergency due to extreme rainfall…
“Between Jan. 23 – 24, the city of Belo Horizonte saw 171 mm of rain [6.7 inches]. This amount obliterated the standing record set 110 years before.”
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/2020s-start-brazil-saw-devastating-110300774.html
“The rain that continues to fall in Santa Catarina caused on Sunday morning (24th) new floods and landslides in Florianópolis [Brazil]. Teams of Civil Defense and Fire Department are on the streets to check the occurrences.”
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t2J_IEdqrc
“Phoenix tied the record for the coldest afternoon temperature of 36 degrees on Monday at Sky Harbor International Airport…
“The only other day in Sky Harbor history that reached temperatures that low during the afternoon was on Dec. 6, 1998.”
https://ktar.com/story/3921185/phoenix-ties-record-for-coldest-afternoon-temperature/
“A tornado described as “large and extremely dangerous” by the National Weather Service (NWS) in Birmingham, Alabama, caused significant damage throughout Jefferson County and surrounding areas Monday night, including ripping through a hotel and tearing off part of the roof of a church…
“”Significant damage has been reported…” NWS Birmingham said.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/26/weather/alabama-tornado-tuesday/index.html
“The National Weather Service called it “historic” and “the big one… In the end, the winter storm that hit Lincoln and most of eastern Nebraska on Monday lived up to its billing.
“By 7 p.m., snowfall had already covered the tops of footlong rulers in some locations, with the Lincoln Airport recording 13 inches, an all-time January single-day record.”
“Thousands of England’s vital flood defences were in such a state of ruin last year they would fail to protect communities from extreme weather, an investigation has found.
“More than 3,400 of England’s “high consequence” flood assets, defined as those where there is a high risk to life and property if they fail, were judged by the Environment Agency to be in such a bad condition they were almost useless.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/24/england-vital-flood-defences-almost-useless
“Small increases in air pollution are linked to an increased risk of irreversible sight loss from age-related macular degeneration, a large UK study has found.
“Previous work had already found a link between dirty air and glaucoma and a link to cataracts is suspected. The scientists said the eyes have a particularly high flow of blood, potentially making them very vulnerable to the damage caused by tiny particles that are breathed in and then flow around the body.”
“A record snowfall that paralysed Madrid two weeks ago has taken a catastrophic toll on the Spanish capital’s trees, severely damaging up to 70 per cent of those in its main parks.
“The heaviest snow for 50 years, brought by Storm Filomena, caused at least €1.4 billion damage and prompted the government to declare the city a disaster zone last week.”
“Over the last 30 years, up to a quarter of all known bee species have fallen off international global records, despite a major increase in the number of such records available.
“Around 20,000 species of bee are known to science, but analysis of a detailed international data set suggests around 5,000 of these species have not been seen since 1990.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/bees-decline-global-species-loss-b1792205.html
“Gray whales are starving and dying off at an alarming rate along the Pacific Coast…
“Scientists are not exactly sure why the whales are dying, but in a newly released study, published in the journal Marine Ecology, researchers conclude it is likely a result of starvation due lack of prey, perhaps caused by warming Arctic waters where they feed.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gray-whales-starving-dying-pacific/
“Human activities might have shifted the movement of caribou in and near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge…
“A UC study published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution identified a shift in one herd’s movements after the 1970s that coincided with changes in herd size and climate, and the construction of new roads and other energy infrastructure.”
https://www.eurasiareview.com/25012021-shift-in-caribou-movements-may-be-tied-to-human-activity/
“Sun-Loving Bacteria May Be Accelerating Glacial Melting:
“Cyanobacteria—photosynthetic microbes that live in meltwater—are likely growing more abundant here [Greenland], thanks to warmer temperatures and decreased cloud cover.”
https://www.wired.com/story/sun-loving-bacteria-may-be-accelerating-glacial-melting/
“The melting of ice across the planet is accelerating at a record rate, with the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets speeding up the fastest, research has found.
“The rate of loss is now in line with the worst-case scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on the climate…”
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an ‘Economic’ thread.
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