“At least 12 people are dead and 300 injured after a pair of tornadoes ripped apart homes and other buildings in southern and eastern China Friday night.
“Local government officials said eight people died in the city of Wuhan, famous as ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic, The Associated Press reported.
“”I’ve grown up in Wuhan and I’ve never seen anything like it,” one resident of the city posted on China’s Weibo app, according to Reuters. “There’s been so much extreme weather recently.””
https://weather.com/news/news/2021-05-15-china-tornadoes-damage-wuhan-shengze
“Heavy rains pounded parts of Japan’s southwestern main island of Kyushu from the night of May 16 to May 17, prompting landslide warnings and evacuation orders…
“According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), 90.5 millimeters [3.6 inches] of rain per hour fell on the town of Yamato, Kumamoto Prefecture, up to 6 a.m. on May 17 — a record high for the month of May. In the 24 hours up to 10 a.m. on the same day, the town was soaked with a total of 240.5 mm [9.5 inches] of rain, another May record.”
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210517/p2a/00m/0na/007000c
“Tauranga [NZ] City Council: Streams that supply water to city at lowest levels on record…
“The streams that supply water to Tauranga are at the lowest levels the local council has ever seen – and it’s pleading with residents to use it wisely. Restrictions that would have normally been lifted after summer are still in place in mid-May.”
“AP PHOTOS: ‘Amazon Venice’ scrambles to stay above floods.
“Anama, home to 14,000 people on a tributary of the Solimoes River that flows toward capital Manaus, is just one municipality of dozens in Amazonas state that has seen life upended by unusual rainfall.”
“An Ecosystem in Crisis: Environmental Degradation in Venezuela.
“Venezuela’s biodiverse environment, from its share of the Amazon rainforest to its lakes and coastline, has suffered increasing levels of pollution and degradation in recent years. Venezuela’s reliance on extractive practices including mining and its ageing oil industry is one of the main drivers of the degradation of its environment.”
“The California Wildfire Season Is Ramping Up…
“…the blaze now called the Palisades Fire grew over the weekend to consume over 1,325 acres in western Lost Angeles County by Sunday afternoon, with zero containment as of 1:30 p.m. PT.”
“Many Texas trees still suffering from February’s winter storm won’t make it, arborists say… If you haven’t noticed, some of Central Texas’ trees aren’t looking so good.
“Live oaks with leaves sprouting from the branches and trunk. Ash trees with a sporadic green on only half of the canopy. Loquat, fig and citrus trees with growth at the base of the tree and nowhere else.”
“‘Worst day’: Severe drought crisis deepens along Oregon-California border.
“The water crisis along the California-Oregon border went from dire to catastrophic this week as federal regulators shut off irrigation water to farmers from a critical reservoir and said they would not send extra water to dying salmon downstream or to the half-dozen wildlife refuges that harbor millions of migrating birds each year.”
“Summer-like heat may shatter temperature records on the Prairies.
“All three Prairie provinces will be approaching 30°C for the first time in 2021 on Monday… The incoming heat adds concerns about the ongoing drought conditions the region is experiencing.”
“Wildfire burns along Red River [Manitoba] during tinder-dry weekend…
“As of Sunday afternoon, the fire was still burning, sending thick black smoke into the sky. Fire crews are still determining the cause and size of the fire.”
“Rainy May one of the UK’s wettest ever after last year’s scorching record breaker…
“This May is officially a washout, with Wales having already had its average rainfall this month, while UK temperatures overall have been around 3C below average… More heavy rain is expected to make this one of the UK’s wettest on record.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/rainy-one-wettest-ever-after-24121464
“Climate crisis: Spain records hottest year in 2020.
“Spain marked its hottest year in recorded history last year, according to Spain’s environment ministry on Friday… Seven of the 10 hottest years in Spain took place over the last decade, according to the government document.”
https://www.thelocal.es/20210515/climate-crisis-spain-records-hottest-year-in-2020/
“Turkey’s April precipitation rate down by 50 percent, officials warns for drought…
““There was 90 percent decline in rainfalls in the Southeastern Anatolia region and some 76 percent decline in Eastern Anatolia in April,” said a report published by Water Policy Association.”
“Scores feared dead as floods wreak havoc [Kenya]… property worth millions of shillings destroyed in Machakos and Nairobi counties following heavy rains.
“The heaviest death toll was recorded in Machakos where six people were swept away by raging waters in three separate incidents on Thursday night.”
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/national/article/2001412908/scores-feared-dead-as-floods-wreak-havoc
“Sri Lanka: Heavy shower, flooding leaves 4 killed, more than 42,000 harmed.
“On Saturday, May. 15 Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Center stated in its most recent weather report that four persons as a minimum lost their lives and more than 42,000 others had been harmed by days of robust winds and heavy showers which hit the nation because of the formation of a super cyclone in the Bay of Bengal.”
“Cyclone Tauktae: Covid-battered India braces for storm… India’s western state of Gujarat is braced for cyclone Tauktae, reported to be the strongest storm to hit the region since 1998.
“At least six were killed and thousands evacuated in the last two days amid heavy rains accompanying the storm.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57139989
“Covid threat and drought combine to put India’s tea harvest at risk… India is the world’s second-largest tea producer after China, and competes with countries such as Kenya and Sri Lanka in the export market.
“Producers warn that, if not brought under control, the outbreaks could ruin the harvest season and push prices higher.”
https://www.ft.com/content/585c8ad7-e1c2-4c88-9087-16d877a1c185
“Downpour-triggered flooding submerges 14 villages in West Aceh [Indonesia]…
“Banda Aceh, Aceh (ANTARA) – Flooding caused by unremitting heavy rainfall and the overflowing of several rivers submerged 14 villages in West Aceh District, Aceh Province, the Aceh Disaster Mitigation Office (BPBA) stated.”
https://en.antaranews.com/news/174578/downpour-triggered-flooding-submerges-14-villages-in-west-aceh
“Jakarta ranked world’s most environmentally vulnerable city.
“The Big Durian has been ranked as the world’s most environmentally vulnerable metropolitan, as climate change, pollution, heatwaves, earthquakes and flooding are key threats to the capital’s residents and businesses.”
“It’s near winter in the Antarctic Peninsula yet the temperatures have been unusually mild.
“Many stations like Esperanza and Marambio have had Tmaxes between +3c [37.4F and +10c [50F] in the past 10 days and in the last 24 hours even Tmins were above freezing – temperatures more typical of summer.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1393872572979322882
“Siberian wildfire season kicks off early and northwestern Russia is 20 degrees hotter than normal…
“After the last few years, marked by extremely warm weather in Siberia and north central Russia and with an unprecedented number of wildfires even within the Arctic Circle, the scientific community is looking very closely at what is happening in the region.”
“Why we need to talk about climate migrants… Unfortunately, time is almost up…
“When an estimated 600 million people are faced with life-threatening heatwaves, subsequent food and water shortages, potential for renewed conflicts due to the weaponization (and/or monetization) of strategic resources and greater social fragmentation…
“…the only way to survive is to head for cooler, resource-abundant and still thriving parts of the world.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1859261
You can read the previous ‘Climate’ thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an ‘Economic’ thread.
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