“HISTORIC HEAT IN MEXICO CITY 34.4C/94F Hottest day in all climatic history of the historic Tacubaya Observatory.
“The record was broken for the third time in a few weeks in one of the world oldest observatory (nearly 1 century and a half of data).”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1794178598901088555
“Dozens dead in blistering, weeks-long heat wave in Mexico.
“The extreme heat smothering much of Mexico has killed dozens of people across multiple states over recent weeks, the country’s health ministry said in a report published on Thursday, with hotter temperatures forecast for coming days.”
“Intense hail is recorded in Puebla and causes ice floods in the state.
“The weather in Mexico remains very changeable, because despite the extreme heat that has occurred over the last few days, this Friday, May 24, an intense hailstorm was recorded in Puebla that left columns and streams of ice on the streets of several municipalities of the entity.”
https://www.adn40.mx/mexico/granizada-en-puebla-deja-fuertes-corrientes-hielo-estado
“Drought, lack of water from Mexico shrinking Rio Grande in Zapata, Texas.
“Rocks and debris that would normally be beneath the Rio Grande jut out from what are now wide, green banks on both sides of this international river between Mexico and this rural part of South Texas… the town of Zapata worries it could soon run out of drinking water. Worse, they only have stored a day and a half of emergency water supplies.”
“Texas power demand breaks May record again as prices soar in heat wave.
“Power demand in Texas broke the record for the month of May for a second time this week on Friday as prices soared ahead of the U.S. Memorial Day long weekend with homes and businesses cranking up their air conditioners to escape a heat wave.”
“Tornado causes havoc in Texas as record-breaking heat wave looms.
“The city of Temple, northeast of Austin, declared a state of emergency and opened a shelter for displaced people after a twister caused widespread devastation. Cars were overturned, power lines destroyed and entire buildings toppled.”
“The warm eddy that has been developing in the Gulf of Mexico over the past few weeks is really becoming a major feature.
“This sequence of 4 images shows the latest sea surface temperature and its anomaly as well as the ocean heat content and its anomaly… the area-averaged OHC in the Gulf is the highest it’s been for this time of year.”
https://x.com/BMcNoldy/status/1793998893224734859
“NOAA issues highest-ever early forecast for the coming hurricane season.
““The forecast for named storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes is the highest NOAA has ever issued for the May outlook,” Rick Spinrad, the agency’s administrator, said in a news conference. “This season is looking to be an extraordinary one in a number of ways.””
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/noaa-hurriane-forecast-high-rcna153161
“Heavy snow falling on parts of the Prairies [Canada] may approach a long-standing record for the latest hefty snow this late in the year.
“Friday’s event could approach an all-time record for the most snow we’ve seen this late in the season. Regardless of precise totals, travel will be difficult for areas receiving this sloppy, wet snowfall.”
“A Giant Crater in Siberia Is Belching Up Russia’s Past.
“As the world warms, permafrost is thawing across two-thirds of Russia, threatening cities and towns that were constructed to house miners sent to dig up a subterranean trove of oil, gas, gold and diamonds. Even the roads are buckling, cracking and collapsing, as if in a slow-motion earthquake.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/23/opinion/russia-oil-mining-permafrost.html
“Incredible warmth in NORWAY, after the record high temperatures also records of spring warmest nights.
“Some important records of highest minimums: 19.7 [67.5F] Sunndalsøra; 17.9 Tafjord; 17.3 Voll; 16.2 Værnes: 16.2C.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1793947967184883951
“Super warm in Scandinavia and Baltic countries, max temperatures are approaching 30C [86F] with also warm nights and mins near 20C ! (much above July average).
“More records yesterday in NORWAY fjords: 24.0 Svinøy; 24.6 Ytterøyane; ESTONIA: 17.6 MIN. Ristna Warmest May night on record.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1794062160424743179
“Rescuers had never seen anything like mudslide that killed girl [UK]…
“…on Wednesday, heavy rain pounded the ground and a mudslide described as a “freak force of nature” took the life of ten-year-old Leah Harrison… “Everyone is shocked. We did not see or hear anything when it happened. There is not a problem with mudslides in the area and it is usually totally safe,” one employee said.”
“Thunderstorm and mudslide in Fouchécourt and Venisey [France]: “A flood which lasted 20 minutes”.
“Water entered homes and farms… A violent storm hit a very localized area around Jussey on Friday May 24 around 3 p.m. “In the space of 20 minutes, more than 26 millimeters of water fell. It really came suddenly!””
“Edremit [NW Turkey] was flooded, the roads turned into lakes! Shopkeepers watched the view with coffee.
“Heavy rain along with hail was effective in Edremit district of Balıkesir. As the main roads turned into lakes, tradesmen and citizens had a hard time.”
“The rain that started in Adana [SE Turkey] in the morning lasted for half an hour and paralyzed life.
“While children were swimming on the roads leading to the lake, citizens could not leave their homes… Some citizens could not leave their homes because the streets turned into a lake . Some citizens threw out the water entering their homes with a bucket.”
https://www.burduryenigun.com/adanada-cocuklar-gole-donen-yolda-yuzdu
“ENDLESS RECORD HEAT IN AFRICA – always 47C [116.6F] in Senegal, Niger, Mali, Chad, Libya. 46.5C in ALGERIA.
“Record heat also at high elevations: 39.1 Tamanrasset “the Sahara door” 1377mm asl: Hottest spring day on record. Insane MINIMUM 32.9C at Illizi 542m : monthly record destroyed.”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1794079285591806185
“Ivorian cocoa farmers ‘barely survive’ while chocolate company profits soar…
“…climate change-induced hotter temperatures and altered rainfall patterns have further affected cocoa harvests. “A few seasons ago, one hectare [2.5 acres] would yield about 600 kilos of cacao. Nowadays, it barely produces 300 kilos,” Akoua says.”
“Climate change may be fuelling a resurgence of piracy across Africa.
“In the churning waters off Nigeria, armed pirates in small skiffs speed towards a cargo ship. They clamber aboard, seizing control of the vessel and its valuable cargo. This isn’t a scene from a swashbuckling film; it’s a stark reality for seafarers in many parts of the world.”
“Africa’s cholera crisis worsens amid extreme weather events…
“Extreme weather events that have relentlessly hit parts of Africa in the last three years have caused crises of hunger and displacement. The storms, floods and drought also leave another deadly threat behind: some of the continent’s worst outbreaks of cholera.”
“Zambians, suffering from climate change-induced drought, lock kitchens, guard fields as theft, prostitution levels spike.
“Devastating levels of hunger following a protracted period of drought have pushed up crime rates in Zambia’s hitherto ‘crime-free’ rural areas. The social condition is unprecedented and a cause for concern, according to observers and victims.”
“Minister Urges Against Child Marriages Amid Drought Crisis in Zimbabwe.
“Families must not marry off young girls to cope with the effects of drought and climate change, stated Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister, Senator Monica Mutsvangwa.”
“The ongoing heatwave continued to bake major cities of Sindh [Pakistan] as maximum temperature surged to 51 degree Celsius [123.8F] mark on Friday.
“According to the Met Office, Mohenjo Daro was the hottest place in the country, where the maximum temperature was 51°C, followed by Jacobabad and Khairpur (50°C).”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1835518/temperature-crosses-510c-in-sindh-as-heatwave-continues
“Alert sounded as sweltering heatwave ravages parts of Rajasthan [India], toll 14…
“On Friday, a mother and son succumbed to the heat in Pali district, highlighting the dire conditions residents of the desert state are facing. This tragic news follows a record-breaking temperature of 49 degrees Celsius [120.2F] in Phalodi on Friday.”
“Rotten Bananas in a Scorching India Expose Climate’s Food Cost.
“India wastes more food than almost any other country partly because of spotty refrigeration. Climate change is making the problem worse… as much as 15% of fruits and vegetables are lost after harvesting, despite still-persistent malnutrition and hunger. The spoiled food comes down largely to poor infrastructure.”
“Farmers in India are weary of politicians’ lackluster response to their climate-driven water crisis.
“India’s 120 million farmers share fast-shrinking water resources as groundwater is pumped out faster than rain can replenish it… Drought-prone areas like Marathwada are at the sharp end of the shortage, making life unbearable for many.”
“Six killed as torrential rains batter Sri Lanka
“COLOMBO: Six people were killed in rain-related incidents in Sri Lanka as heavy monsoon showers battered the island nation on Friday. The torrential rains also damaged some 1,346 homes and hampered train services in the country, officials said.”
https://www.ptinews.com/story/international/6-killed-as-torrential-rains-batter-sri-lanka/1527472
“Severe Cyclone Remal heads for Bengal coast, Odisha braces for impact.
“Cyclone Remal Latest News: A red alert has been sounded in West Bengal’s coastal districts ahead of the arrival of severe cyclonic storm Remal on Sunday. The cyclone will bring with it extremely heavy rainfall and strong winds and is likely to impact Odisha too.”
“Climate crisis threatens half of world’s mangrove ecosystems…
“Many things threaten mangroves, including deforestation, development, pollution, and dam construction. However, this risk is growing because of rising sea-levels and the increased frequencies of severe storms. Ultimately, due to the climate crisis.”
https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2024/05/23/mangrove-climate-crisis/
“Today, 26 stations in China broke the record for the highest temperature in late May, and 5 of them broke the May record.
“China’s heat wave will move to the south tomorrow, with temperatures in the Yangtze River Basin rising significantly.”
https://x.com/yangyubin1998/status/1793991417825825155
“A massive landslide has struck Papua New Guinea’s highlands, local officials and aid groups said, with dozens believed to have been killed [hundreds, they think now]…
““Authorities say the scale of the landslide is ‘massive’, but they still cannot confirm the death toll,” said Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington… This year has seen intense rainfall and flooding. In March, at least 23 people were killed by a landslide in a nearby province.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/24/dozens-feared-dead-after-landslide-hits-papua-new-guinea
“‘I’ve seen things no one should go through’: the overwhelming scale of loss in Brazil’s floods…
“In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities are struggling to find shelter for half a million displaced people as a health crisis looms… The region has seen floods before, but nothing like these, residents say.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/may/24/brazil-floods
“Huge contrasts in SOUTH AMERICA. While the Patagonia is having months well below average temperature, the unprecedented heat continues in the tropics.
“Some areas of Brazil this month stand at over +5C above average (exceptional for the tropics) with temperatures still at 38C [100.4F].”
https://x.com/extremetemps/status/1793599774320419235
“May 2024 is set to become the 12th consecutive month to break the monthly global temperature record...
““With half the month of data in, it is very likely (>95 percent chance) that May 2024 will be the warmest May on record, extending the streak of record-breaking months to 12 in a row,” Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist working with Berkeley Earth, told ThePrint.”
“Last summer’s temperature rise could be worse than we thought.
“The 19th century, used as a baseline for global heating, may have been a quarter of a degree cooler than previously believed… In an area including the whole of Europe, most of North America and Asia the average temperature last summer was 2.07C hotter than between 1850 and 1900… But it may be that even that measurement may be too optimistic.”
“The global clean water crisis looms large: Study finds water quality is underrepresented in assessments…
“Water quality—despite being crucial for safe water use—remains an underrepresented component of water scarcity assessments. “Previous assessments still predominantly focus on water quantity aspects only,” explains Jones. “Yet, the safe use of water also depends on the quality.””
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-global-crisis-looms-large-quality.html
“The surge in hydroelectric dams is driving massive biodiversity loss…
“…growing demand for renewable energy means there are at least 3,500 hydropower dams under different stages of development around the world, which, when complete, will nearly double the number of large dams on Earth. There are already over a million river barriers in Europe alone…”
“Tracking toward a greenhouse atmosphere and acid oceans.
“…we reaffirm the message that the biodiversity that makes our world so fascinating, beautiful and functional is vanishing unnoticed at an unprecedented rate. These estimates reveal an exceptionally rapid loss of biodiversity over the last few centuries, indicating that a sixth mass extinction is already under way.”
https://johnmenadue.com/tracking-toward-a-greenhouse-atmosphere-and-acid-oceans/
“Parasite-led sea urchin die-off threatens global coral reefs, study finds.
“The deadly urchin epidemic, if left unattended, will pose a major threat to corals across the oceans, the researchers warned. “This is a growing ecological crisis, threatening the stability of coral reefs on an unprecedented scale,” said TAU researcher Omri Bronstein.”
“Bird flu detected in beef tissue for first time, USDA says, but beef is safe to eat…
“Bird flu has been confirmed in dairy cattle herds in nine states, has been found in milk and has prompted the slaughter of millions of chickens and turkeys. But finding it in beef is a new development for the outbreak, which began in 2022.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bird-flu-detected-beef-tissue-first-time-h5n1/
“A second human case of bird flu in America is raising alarm…
“Although there is no evidence yet of human-to-human transmission, America’s public health authorities are on high alert. Half of the national pandemic stockpile of h5n1 vaccine is being made ready to deploy.”
You can read the previous “Climate” thread here. I’ll be back on Monday with an “Economic” thread.
If you found value in this content, please help me continue this work by becoming a patron of my work via Patreon. And if you are already a subscriber or have donated – thank you!
The temperature records are really bad even before summer, the news about bird flu is worse..just more reasons we will be saying so long quite soon..
It’s been unsettling watching the bird flu story unfold both in the news and in person. A pandemic has gradually ratcheted up from a remote possibility to a very real one. Islay is renowned for its enormous variety of bird life and has not gone untouched:
https://www.birdguides.com/news/bird-flu-confirmed-in-islays-barnacle-geese/
Yeah, scary stuff. Both Mexico and India are roasting under relentless heat-domes, and it’s not even June! I can’t even get my head around the floods in Brazil…
Oh well, the rohddies are blooming!
As they are here, Jerry. I appreciate these things more as I get older.
As people drop dead from the heat like baby monkeys in Mexico, not to worry. Our data will be safe in huge air-conditioned warehouses from which the sweltering masses will be (as in “are being”) barred entry.
Since the eighties, when the Reagan/Bush duopoly announced the new world order (a phrase they borrowed from Hitler, despite the AIPAC’s rabid backing of their candidacy, accusing those against the enormous increases in “Defense” spending they initiated as Anti-Semitic), Bush assured their backers the government would ensure capital went “to the right people”, those being themselves and their already well-heeled supporters (who his son referred to as “the haves and the have mores”, (since Greed was now somehow a virtue)), the thrust of the entire capitalist enterprise has been to funnel ever larger flows of capital to those haves to insure they, as promised, have more.
The Green New Deal is part & parcel of this dynamic, as you can see from EV’s, where the wealthiest people use the power of the taxing authority to siphon Treasury funds into their own bank accounts to pay for their luxury vehicles, leaving the maintenance and upkeep of the roads they fly over in their spiffy techno-wonders to be paid for by the poor slobs still lame enough to be using the renewable bio-fuel of gasoline, now adulterated with its admixture of environmentally disastrous ethanol, mixed in so as to Decrease their mileage and Increase industry profits.
Like vaccine producers preparing their products, not to stop the spread of bird flu, (as what good would that do to their all-important bottom lines?), but to be ready when Washington declares an emergency, and the torrent of dollars starts to flow their way.
Naomi Klein called it disaster capitalism, and it works exactly as she explained. So the repercussions from climate change aren’t the catastrophe the rest of us look upon them as, they are an enormous profit windfall, the gift that keeps on giving, even unto the demise of Life itself (Corporations are not living beings, yet All Power rests in their hands) …. And, at least here in the US, we give it our full approbation.
USA! USA!, fuck tomorrow, seize today.
Nice rant, Rob. 😆
I always think of Naomi Klein’s memorable phrase when I’m reading about cat bonds. There seems no limit to the absurd ways in which the financial system can be predatory and opportunistic in its quest for short-term gain.
“Catastrophe Bonds Use Models Underestimating Climate Risks, Investors Say… The risk models that helped drive one of the most lucrative bets of 2023 are increasingly being tested by smaller weather shocks fueled by climate change.
“Catastrophe bonds and other insurance-linked securities, which powered last year’s highest-returning hedge fund strategy, are built on calculations that can underestimate a new breed of risk…”
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2024/05/13/773888.htm
“There are already over a million river barriers in Europe alone…”
Good grief! Wow. Humans! Aghhhhh.
And I agree, Rob. TPTB can’t wait to unleash their “safe and effective” bird flu vaccines.
Meanwhile floods and landslides are taking a toll. I would hate to die in a landslide. What a way to go. 😬
I myself have a vision or premonition of being engulfed by a blinding blizzard of total whiteness very eerily serene and beautiful but yet starkly frightening Since this will not occur in where I live at the moment I have at least one more move or trip in the mix
Does seem unlikely in Florida, Vince, surrounded, as you are, by all that warm water.
Google tells me that The Great Blizzard of 1899 brought three inches to the Panhandle but I don’t think we can qualify that as a blinding blizzard of total whiteness.
Bird flu has finally arrived in Australia’s mainland…
Australia has forever maintained high levels of “biosecurity”, up until the 1980s, visitors to Australia were often shocked at being whole-body sprayed on landing at the airport, and have to walk through a shoe bath. Only continent to remain Foot & Mouth Disease Free.. also shipping ports have beehives & ant-catcher boxes everywhere (sentinels for any nasty bee diseases, and for nasty tropical ant species that can decimate landscapes). I guess we should feel grateful we lasted this long.
There go our chicken-egg exports etc…
Which reminds me of my last attendance at a pub trivia night… a question nobody could answer,
the Simon & Garfunkel song “Mother and Child Reunion” ?
Apparently, the song was composed while they were eating Chinese Take-Away, of a
Chicken and Egg dish…
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2024-05-24/bird-flu-outbreak-spreads-to-second-victorian-farm/103887556
“There go our chicken-egg exports etc…”
Rain, my own chickens were seriously unimpressed when the government imposed a months-long mandatory housing order on all domestic birds to prevent interaction with wildfowl in 2022. I’m not entirely sure why the order was rescinded, tbh.
That’s a great song, btw. For those who haven’t heard it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0BUsDf0dxY
It occurred to me that we are seeing first-hand the reason why the galaxy isn’t teeming with civilizations like ours.
We are monsters, plain and simple, and our civilization is suicidal.
Crazy greedy monkeys burning toxic gunk they dug up from the ground are self-terminating. You couldn’t populate a galaxy with that shit if you tried.
Jerry, Paul Chefurka wrote this very good article about Fermi’s Paradox. He basically thinks we all slip on the same banana-skin:
“The Fermi paradox is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilization and humanity’s lack of contact with, or evidence for, such civilizations…
“Burning carbon and using the released energy of combustion is easy and obvious. It will be done fairly early in the life of the presumed intelligent species, well before they accumulate enough scientific knowledge to detect the long-term planetary danger of the carbon dioxide exhaust gases. In our case we have been doing it for over a million years, but figured out the problem of global warming less than a hundred years ago.
“By the time the danger is realized, the species will be carbon-dependent – locked into the burning of carbon for energy – trapped in a vicious spiral of thermodynamically-driven self-organization, energy-dependent maintenance of existing physical and social structures, increasing energy dependence, increasing CO₂ production – and increasing planetary heating from the “greenhouse effect”.”
http://www.paulchefurka.ca/Fermi.html
Thanks Pan,
I have enormous respect for Paul, I remember reading his work all the way back in my “peak-oil” days.
I was reminded of a little “screenplay” I wrote years ago when I was tickled with a peculiar idea.
What if galactic entities regarded our entire civilization the way many wealthy, industrialized, and yes, entitled westerners regard all those other shit-holes, erm, excuse me, I mean “failed states” out there:
GALACTIC ENTITY #1: Hey, do you remember that party we went to the other millennia? The one way out on that spiral?
GALACTIC ENTITY #2: Groan! Please, don’t remind me…
ENTITY #1: Anyway, I just went by there and one of the little hot rocks has technology!
ENTITY #2: No way!
ENTITY #1: Yes way! The whole thing is covered with it!
ENTITY #2: Well! You certainly don’t see that every eon, who is it?
ENTITY #1: Dunno, as far as I can tell it’s a clever little species of hairless ape.
ENTITY #2: Gross! Are they going to make it?
ENTITY #1: No. They’ve already burned most of their carbon. Sad, don’t you think?
ENTITY #2: Hell no! How stupid do you need to be to make your own hot rock uninhabitable? Good riddance, if you ask me.
ENTITY #1: Yeah, I guess you’re right…
We are hard to pigeonhole. Are we stupid? Too smart for our own good (h/t Craig Dilworth)? Or just fulfilling our collective thermodynamic and biological destiny?
I guess there is some truth in all of them, depending on how you look at it.