“‘Scary’ new data on the last ice age raises concerns about future sea levels. A new study shows an ancient ice sheet retreated at a startling 2,000 feet per day, shedding light on how quickly ice in Antarctica could melt and raise global sea levels in today’s warming world…
“The rapid retreat found on the Eurasian Ice Sheet far outpaces the fastest-moving glaciers studied in Antarctica, which have been measured to retreat as quickly as 160 feet per day. Once the ice retreats toward the land, it lifts from its grounding on the seafloor and begins to float, allowing it to flow faster and increase the contribution to sea level rise.
“…researchers say ice marching backward hundreds of feet in a day could trigger a collapse of modern-day glaciers sooner than previously thought. That could be devastating for global sea levels.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/04/05/antarctica-ice-melt/
“More records of high temperatures in the Antarctic Plateau: Dome C II rose to -26.9C [-16.4F] which is a new record for April, data starts in 1980 if we merge Dome C and CII series…
“The previous monthly maximum was -29.8 °C on April 2, 1996; In the nearby old Dome C AWS site instead, on April 24, 1991 -28.3 °C was recorded.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1643602182992715780
For interest: “This Is What Antarctica Looks Like Naked Beneath All The Ice.”
https://www.iflscience.com/this-is-what-antarctica-looks-like-naked-beneath-all-the-ice-68321
“Researchers correlate Arctic warming to extreme winter weather in midlatitude and its future.
“Study shows that melting Arctic ice may lead to unpredictable winter weather across the globe… while the “Warm Arctic-Cold Continent” pattern will continue as the climate continues to warm, Arctic warming will become a less reliable predictor of extreme winter weather in the future.”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230405112124.htm
“Bay of Fundy temperatures hit record high in 2022.
“Ocean temperatures measured in the Bay of Fundy were higher than normal last summer, and reached its highest on record at a station outside Saint Andrews, according to a long-term monitoring study which measures ocean temperatures at different depths.”
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/bay-fundy-temperatures-hit-record-174051196.html
“Spectacular contrasts in the United States today.
“Look at Nebraska: Freezing or just above freezing in most areas (Kearney 34F now) and 90F [32.2C] at Falls City in the SE corner of the State. January to July weather in 3 hours driving!”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1643328542615142404
“Washington DC , US capital with 80F/27C at 9:20pm in the evening on a April 5th. Absolutely exceptional, it would be a mid July evening. Temperature won’t probably drop below 70F/21C until dawn.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1643790316904800261
“Warming temperatures trigger earliest spring on record in parts of eastern US.
“Parts of central Texas and the Louisiana coast, southern Arkansas, southern Ohio, the D.C. area, New York City, and the New Jersey coastline all clocked their earliest spring on record, said Theresa Crimmins, director of the National Phenology Network…”
“Wildfires raging across Central Florida amid drought conditions.
“There were as many as 18 active wildfires across Volusia County on Wednesday. Firefighters from as far as the Florida Panhandle are assisting on the ground as the region is dealing with a lack of rain and moderate-to-severe drought conditions.”
https://www.fox35orlando.com/video/1203552
“Missouri tornado kills at least five as search effort continues.
“Residents who emerged to survey the damage found trees toppled on cars and and roofs ripped from homes. Search and rescue efforts continue. Millions of Americans from Texas to the Great Lakes region were under a tornado watch on Wednesday.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65194158
“Deadly and destructive Delaware tornado was state’s widest on record.
“The tornado that left one person dead and carved a 14-mile path of destruction through Bridgeville and Ellendale, Del., on Saturday was the state’s widest twister on record and one of its two strongest, the National Weather Service said in a damage survey released Monday.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/04/04/delaware-tornado-bridgeville-ef3-widest/
“Another Utah resort has set an all-time snowfall record as spring storms continue to bring feet of fresh powder to the state’s mountains.
“Snowbird hit 785 inches (and counting) at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, breaking the previous mark of 783 inches set in 2010-11. Resort officials said they began officially measuring snowfall totals in 1971.”
https://ksltv.com/537716/snowbird-breaks-all-time-snowfall-record/
“Mexico is with intense heat even at high elevations:
“The town of Pachuca de Soto, Hidalgo State, at 2400m of elevation, rose to 32.5C [90.5F] a new record high in April and 0.5C from its all time high.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1643424073068756992
“Peru is living a relentless heat wave under the influence of “coastal Nino” with ocean temperatures abnormally warm.
“Minimum temperatures are the highest since 1983, with min above 23C/25C [73.4F/77F] for days/weeks including Lima Callao Airport.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1643753269448298497
““Declaration of state of emergency for Argentina’s citrus is not of much help at all”…
“Argentina’s citrus export sector is facing strong headwinds due to the worst drought in 94 years, a heatwave, currency crises and 102.5% year-on-year inflation increase that has seen a doubling in prices of most consumer goods in February 2023.”
“Temperatures in France set to plummet: protect your plants.
“…the dramatic shift could cause the loss of agricultural produce for farmers across the country – with up to 30% of blooming fruit trees being destroyed by the change.”
“Harsh wintry spell in Europe for the 4th year in a row in early April.
April records low in Spain: -4.5C Vitoria; -6.6C Burgos. Up to -7C [19.4F] at low elevations in Poland and -4.9C in Italy (colder tomorrow). Also, 100% of Austrian stations below 0C in April for the first time since 2003.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1643638300534620161
“While most of Europe is freezing, an exceptional warm spell is giving a tropical night in the area of the Black Sea.
“Temperatures rose above 31C [87.8F] in Turkey and near dawn are still hovering 26C in the Northern coast with strong fohn: temperatures much above a typical July night.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1643418349458554880
“The northern part of the Balearic island of Menorca was hit by a small tornado [or ‘cap de fiblo’] generated by a strong hailstorm…
“The rare event was observed from different points of the coast according to local reports… In October 2018, Menorca experienced the most destructive ‘cap de fiblo’ in living memory. It …caused numerous material damages and left a large part of the island without any electricity supply for two days.”
“Madeira registers the hottest march ever..
“The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere reveals this Tuesday, April 4, that the Autonomous Region of Madeira recorded the “hottest ever” March and almost the driest month ever.”
https://www.madeiraislandnews.com/2023/04/madeira-registers-the-hottest-ever-march.html
“Amid Heatwave, Power Collapses in Abuja [Nigeria]…
“The power supply in Abuja has become extremely erratic amid the current heatwave being experienced across the country. Legit gathered that most parts of the city centre and satellite towns in Abuja hardly get 2 hours of power supply in a day.”
“Summer heat doesn’t leave neither South America nor Southern Africa. Today harsh heat in South Africa: 40.4 [104.7F] Vioolsdrif; 38.7 Vredendal; 38.5 Koingnaas; 37.7 Lamberts Bay.
“RECORD: Botswana had its hottest April day on records with 38.4C [101F] at Tubu and more heat is expected tomorrow.”
https://twitter.com/extremetemps/status/1643661249492799488
“For Uganda’s Vanishing Glaciers, Time Is Running Out.
“A trek through tropical forest, mud fields, and scree reveals the last remnants of the once-sprawling ice fields in Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains. Their loss has profound implications for local communities, uniquely adapted species, and scientists studying the climate record.”
https://e360.yale.edu/features/rwenzoris-mount-stanley-africa-glaciers-climate-change
“Drying wetlands and drought threaten water supplies in Kenya’s Kiambu County.
“Prolonged drought in Kenya has caused a water crisis, threatening local livelihoods and biodiversity; one of the badly affected areas is Kiambu County, a region normally known for its high agricultural productivity.”
“In southern Ethiopia, drought kills livestock amid fears of what comes next.
“After three years of failed rains, the animals in the southern Ethiopian village of Kura Kalicha are dying. Dozens of decomposing cattle carcasses lie on the parched earth, their flesh picked over by scavengers. Jilo Wile, a local government official, fears the villagers will be next to succumb to the drought.”
“At least 21 people including six children have died in Somalia’s flash flooding over the last week, according to the U.N. humanitarian agency.
“Nearly 100,000 people have been affected by the heavy rains and flash floods that hit the previously drought-stricken area in the Bardhere district of the Gedo region of southern Somalia, according to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.”
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/21-dead-somalias-flash-floods-agency-98378631
“1 killed, 10 injured as flash floods wreak havoc in Takhar [Afghanistan].
“Heavy rains-induced flooding killed at least one person and injured 10 others and inundated large swathes of farmland in northern Takhar province…”
https://pajhwok.com/2023/04/05/1-killed-10-injured-as-flash-floods-wreak-havoc-in-takhar/
“Heavy rains, hailstorms destroyed wheat worth Rs23bn [Pakistan]…
“The Punjab agriculture authorities estimate that 5 to 6pc of wheat crop worth Rs23bn has been damaged due to recent heavy rains and hailstorms in many districts of the province… leading to the lodging (falling of plants to the ground) of around 50pc of the standing crops. Farmers, however, estimate the lodging ratio up to 70pc.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1745900/heavy-rains-hailstorms-destroyed-wheat-worth-rs23bn
“Seven tourists were killed and 13 others injured in a major avalanche in India’s northeastern state of Sikkim, local police said Tuesday…
“Some of the survivors were in critical condition and rescue operations are ongoing, senior police official Tenzing Loden Lepcha told CNN… Lepcha told CNN that avalanches were unusual at this time of year, and blamed unseasonal rain and snow in the area.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/04/asia/india-avalanche-sikkim-intl/index.html
“Glacial Melt is Dispossessing Nepal’s Indigenous Communities.
“…in one late summer in the 1990s, for the first time in memory, Fuchhme dried up to a worrisome extent. A team of inhabitants trudged up the gully above the village to investigate what had happened to their only source of water, only to find that the glacier had retreated off the sheer headwall, causing an acute water shortage.”
https://thediplomat.com/2023/04/glacial-melt-is-dispossessing-nepals-indigenous-communities/
“Cambodia’s water shortages blamed on extended dry spell…
“Cambodian authorities have told businesses to cut down on water usage and asked farmers not to plant a second rice crop amid a chronic water shortage in Phnom Penh which has been blamed on an extended dry spell. Residents have also been told to stock up on clean drinking water…”
https://www.ucanews.com/news/cambodias-water-shortages-blamed-on-extended-dry-spell/100898
“Strong winds stoke wildfires in South Korea for 3rd day.
“South Korean firefighters are struggling to contain the wildfire in South Chungcheong Province as it continues to rage for the third day due to strong winds in the area… The fire, which broke out on Sunday following a dry weather warning in the region, still continues despite the deployment of some 1,800 firefighters and 19 fire choppers…”
“‘More rats than they have seen’ – Cyclone-damaged areas face rodent plague [NZ]…
“Weeks on from Cyclone Gabrielle, some North Island communities still face road closures, abandoned homes, slips and a long recovery. In Piha, that has also meant more rats. Pest Free Piha operations manager Peter Hosking said it had become a real issue.”
“December’s methane numbers just came out and we have yet another new all-time record high for December’s methane at 1924.99 ppb.
“The global annual mean rate of surface methane stayed the same at 160.1 ppb, after falling slightly for 3 months from a high of 160.9 ppb.”
https://twitter.com/EliotJacobson/status/1643675893267824640
“The March, 2023 numbers just came in and CO₂ hit an all-time high at 421.00 ppm.
“You might remember last year the climate casino had a bet with 421.00 as the over/under and CO₂ maxed out at 420.99. Folks who bet the over lost a lot of fake dollars. Well, we’re there now.”
https://twitter.com/EliotJacobson/status/1643676853440499712
You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back tomorrow with an “Economic” thread.
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Ahhh, lets bring on those methane and CO2 numbers! Pump up the volume, bring that heat on! Lets see what the human body is made of.
Looks like another “unprecedented” year for heat.
Lets hear it, “faster than expected” “climate overshoot,” “climate collapse”, “sixth mass extinction.” Ok whatever says most people.
Sorry for the snarkiness, my fear is done wore out, lets have a little sarcastic humor instead!! Rip that bandaid off! Lets do this! you got this!
I guess thats what your left with when you watch the world go up in flames, along with financial portfolios $$$$$. Pick your poison, dying of heat, pollution, starvation, eh whatever.
I just finished reading Limits to Growth. A very chilling/sobering read if anyone is looking for some nightime reading. They got it soo right in……1972.
“Sorry for the snarkiness, my fear is done wore out, lets have a little sarcastic humor instead!! Rip that bandaid off! Lets do this! you got this!”
No problem, EMJ! All emotional responses valid and understandable in these unprecedented times.
Fun comment, and dead-on.
Riddle me this- guess what was never taught, even in the most expensive, self-honoring Ivy League universities and colleges back in the 70s?
You got it, Limits to Growth. The evidence was laid bare, but no one wanted to discuss it, even in the environmentalist mini-fervor of the times. An ad with a tearful Italian-American posing as an Indian for corporate front groups was the extent of any official presentation of LtG-related topics.
Sarcastic humor is exactly the response we should employ to counteract all the corporatist bullshit piled up over the last 50 years. My favorite expression for our times: Shit’s toast, fam.
Yes yes … disasters anytime, anywhere.
The 72 Club of Rome report…
I remember it well and with me a number of ‘ smart’ biologists, physicists and economists, you name it!
Matter of turning a disaster scenario into a ‘ sustainability’ culture and ideology et voila the money flowed in…. some became ministers and others entrepreneurs in ‘ sustainability’ projects and grants…. because who doesn’t want to avert disaster…. 🙂
The Club of Rome as a ‘ manageable’ revenue model!
…Hello Panopticon
I must tell you that the combination of economics, energy, climate and natural resources you serve up every week is very interesting.
Of course it makes you a kind of Pinball Wizzard,but at least it does justice to the complexity that I really miss in OFW for example.
By the way, the cold spell in France wasn’t too bad 🙂 Even here at 1000 metres only some light frost in the morning. I ls also no reports of frost damage anywhere….
More interesting and worrying today was the report from the Anses
“…. Contaminated drinking water in ‘one in two samples’
Drinking water contaminated by a pesticide banned since 2020
In a report published today, Anses, the French national health security agency, states that “one in two samples” taken across France shows the presence of residues of chlorothalonil. This is a pesticide marketed by agrochemical giant Syngenta that has been banned in France since 2020.
Every three years, the hydrological laboratory of the French national health security agency carries out campaigns to measure the presence in drinking water of chemical compounds that are rarely or not at all looked for in regular controls. This latest report analyses the presence of more than 157 pesticides and pesticide breakdown compounds (i.e. compounds derived from the breakdown of phytopharmaceutical products), 54 explosives residues (mainly from World War I armament sites) and a solvent (1,4-dioxane).
This is a research campaign across France in which more than 136,000 results were collected through samples of spring/river water or treated water. By banning chlorothalonil in 2019, the European Union classified it as a category 1B carcinogen (with “probable” carcinogenic potential for humans).
The results and conclusions of this study are politically sensitive: last February, the Anses announced plans to ban the main uses of S-metolachlor, “one of the most widely used active substances for weed control in France”, mainly in maize, sunflower and soybean cultivation. In recent days, however, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau has asked the agency to reverse this decision, as the herbicide is still authorised in the European Union. The ministry fears an uneven European economic playing field…..”
Add these kinds of reports to the PFas studies, the studies on drugs in river and wastewater etc etc and the tragic concclusion is surely that we are rapidly working in all kinds of ways to make our natural habitat very threatening’ to the health of humans, the fish, insects etc in the near future
https://www.lefigaro.fr/sciences/l-eau-potable-contaminee-par-un-pesticide-interdit-depuis-2020-20230406
Thank you, Zip. I have never been called a pinball wizard before. 😂
I do try to follow as many strands of our limits to growth story as I can but I only touch on pollution and other ecological damage occasionally or tangentially, so thank you for the heads up re the contaminated drinking water.
Glad to hear the frost has not been too disastrous in France. It is a double whammy these days with premature warmth persuading plants and trees to bloom only for late cold snaps to ambush them. I found a very interesting article listing the many ways vignerons can protect their crops from frost with associated costs:
https://www.lejournaldumedoc.fr/gel-proteger-la-vigne-a-quel-prix/
Zip, I think that it is worse than your post implies:
Of course, the fact of these chemicals in water is terrible. The problem is, that just like the Netherlands recent attempt to control nitrogen contamination from farms, controlling the herbicides and other chemicals make farming harder. If the agricultural community in a given country must meet standards that reduce production, and then AGW effects also reduce production, and given that there are already food shortages world wide because of the increasingly untenable population/land ratio, the question becomes rather different.
Rather than asking, “How much should we spend to prevent these cancers?” the question becomes, “How many should starve so that we can prevent these cancers?”
PIntada
Your answer and ‘ problem statement’ suggests that there would be a world master plan ‘food for all’.
It is an argument often cited within the question statement ‘ how can we feed 9 billion people and in what way?
However, that plan does not exist at all, just as there is no plan on how to deal with our fertile farmland in a ‘ sustainable’ (terrible word) manner without depleting it. Even the Dutch ‘ nitrogen problem is full of fallacy and lack of… yes what actually? Repaying the RABObank’s huge loans to agrarians?
Food and hunger are issues that unfortunately fall under the same strategies and speculative war and profit models we use to attack ‘our’ entire world. There seems to be a real ‘ grain war’ going on. I am convinced it is true. After all, the difference between ‘energy and food’ is negligible.
If you ever have time, the book ‘ Hunger’ by Argentinian Martin Caparros…. is an impressive book.
https://www.bnr.nl/nieuws/internationaal/10479883/rusland-stort-50-miljoen-mensen-in-hongersnood
“For Uganda’s Vanishing Glaciers, Time Is Running Out.
Several great photos.
Thanks, Lou. I am a chronic skim-reader, so often miss details like this.
New and old construction is being destroyed right and left by either flooding or droughts. In our third phase of our housing development they already have had a storm water blowout. Now we have 2 atmospheric rivers coming through this week fun times as infrastructure collapse.
Yikes – hope your development gets through those unscathed, Heather!
There is a scale for atmospheric rivers now, apparently:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/06/scientists-devise-scale-rank-intensity-atmospheric-rivers