“In Abisko [northern Sweden], locals are seeing changes that they say are not visible to people farther south, such as treelines, which used to be much lower – each year, with temperatures rising, the line of trees moves up the mountain…
“For Tomas Kuhmunen, a Sami – an indigenous community that lives mostly in northern Sweden, Norway and Finland – things are getting harder every year for those who still live traditionally, herding reindeer.
“Warmer weather means more rain, which turns to ice, locking lichen into ground and leaving reindeer to starve. Kuhmunen says some families this year have corralled their reindeer and are feeding them by hand, even though they say It’s not good for the animals.
“For him, the future is uncertain. “When we ask our elders, [what] do you do when the winters are like this? [What] did you do? And our elders [say], we don’t know.””
“The winter of 2019-2020 was fundamentally different from anything experienced in the northern hemisphere over a century ago. With its record warmth and heavy rain, this winter was fundamentally different to those of only a decade ago.
“These are winters that we need to become familiar with and one that is already changing British wildlife.”
“Egypt suffered losses of over EGP 1 billion due to a wave of bad weather last week, which killed at least 20 people nationwide, a statement by the presidency read. The cabinet said in a Friday statement that Egypt had not seen such conditions for 35 to 40 years.
“Rainfall in the area was five times greater than the normal range, he added.”
“According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2020, Myanmar has had the highest weather-related losses in the past two decades, alongside Puerto Rico and Haiti.
“It is said that Myanmar is also one of the most vulnerable countries at risk of climate crisis.”
“The National Weather Service issued two rare tornado warnings for western Hawaii on Tuesday morning, the first tornado warnings for the state in over a decade.”
“By early Tuesday afternoon, the storm, which consisted of almost uninterrupted heavy rain for more than 36 hours on the North Shore, had left Hanalei and the rest of the west end of the island cut off by flooding that closed Kuhio Highway.”
“As winter ends and spring begins, a coast-to-coast storm with blizzard conditions, strong winds and heavy rains will barrel across the US Wednesday through Friday.
“The vast storm will “impact almost every state in the lower 48,” says CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen.”
This is the quietest news day for climate change/extreme weather that I can ever recall and it is apparently part of a trend, as I have noticed fewer stories for a while now. Seems like the fall out from the coronavirus is soaking up all our media bandwidth.
“The years 2017 and 2018 set records for minimum sea ice extent in Antarctica… Antarctic sea ice loss combines with Arctic sea ice loss to create unusual wind patterns in the Pacific Ocean that will suppress the upward movement of deep cold ocean water. This will trigger surface ocean warming, especially in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.
“Warming there is a well-known hallmark of the El Niño climate pattern that often brings intense rains to North and South America and droughts to Australia and other western Pacific countries. As that surface ocean water warms, it will also create more precipitation.”
“She describes the flood as a sea swallowing everything [Egypt]. “Houses are damaged, our families are dead, and we can’t find the bodies of others until now.
“We only escaped with our children. And when we reached the mountain, we stayed in the rain until 10 o’clock at night.””
“Drought conditions in Thailand stoked concerns of a supply shortage and lifted rice export prices to a more than 6-1/2 year high this week…
““Many rice mills are refusing to sell due to uncertainty over supply during this dry season,” a Bangkok-based rice trader said, echoing the concerns of others.”
“In 1896 Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius explored whether Earth’s temperatures were influenced by the presence of heat-absorbing gases in the atmosphere. He calculated that if carbon dioxide concentrations doubled, global temperatures would rise 5℃ – even more at the poles.
“Just over a century later, the world is on track to fulfilling Arrhenius’ prediction.”
“Dirty air is known to cause lung and heart damage and is responsible for at least 8m early deaths a year.
“This underlying health damage means respiratory infections, such as coronavirus, may well have a more serious impact on city dwellers and those exposed to toxic fumes, than on others.”
“As a result of the unusually warm weather this winter, seasonal rhythms have been thrown off kilter. As CBS News reported earlier this week, in places from Moscow to the U.S. bears have been seen coming out of hibernation early. Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo says its native black bears emerged in early March — almost a month earlier than usual.
“In much of the eastern United States, spring “leaf out” — the season’s first blossoming of several plant species — has sprung more than 20 days early. In parts of the Southeast, this year’s spring bloom is the earliest in the 39-year record, according to the National Phenology Network, an organization that studies the impact of climate on nature’s cycles.”
“Last year was one of the worst in recent times for both flooding and drought in England, a study has found….
“Having both very wet and very dry weather is unusual but is likely to become more common… People may begin to experience both water shortages and flooding, putting infrastructure under unprecedented strain.”
“Clusters of white tarpaulin tents dot the green forest slopes of Zimbabwe’s northeastern town of Chimanimani, home to hundreds of people who have been displaced since Cyclone Idai struck these mountainous highlands on March 15 and 16 last year.”
“While the entire Iran is struggling to cope with the outbreak of coronavirus, five southern provinces have braced themselves for another uninvited guest – the swarms of locusts some of which consists of two billion hungry insects.”
“Heavy rain and hailstorm pummelled Delhi on Saturday, creating a new record of precipitation in March….
“The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative data for Delhi, has recorded 101.9 mm of rainfall in March so far, the highest ever in Delhi.”
“Floods submerged 316 homes located in two villages in Mount Ijen area, Bondowoso District, East Java Province [Indonesia], on Saturday, according to the Bondowoso Disaster Mitigation Office…
“The current floods were worse than the floods that had hit the area on January 29, 2020, he noted.”
“The devastating impact of Australia’s drought has been revealed in a striking collection of aerial photographs…
“Despite the recent deluge causing dam levels to rise by 40%, the pictures are a stark reminder that more needs to be done to bring the country’s land back to its once-flourishing landscape.”
“Figures produced by the BOM showed sea surface temperatures in the marine park in February were hotter than in any month since 1900 — and hotter even than during the record bleaching events of 2016 and 2017.”
“Cherry blossoms began blooming in the Tokyo area on March 14, the earliest date since record-keeping began in 1953…
““The flowers began opening up earlier than usual because of not only the record warm winter between December and February, but also because of the higher-than-normal temperatures in March,” said an official with the JMA’s Tokyo Regional Headquarters.”
“The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Advisory for the island of Maui until 7:30 p.m. HST. Forecasters with the NWS say radar at 4:32 p.m. showed heavy showers with rain rates up to 3 inches per hour over portions of windward west and east Maui and upcountry. Additional, heavy showers are expected during the afternoon.”
“About 150 people have been killed or are missing following record-breaking heavy rains, landslides and flooding in three Brazilian states this year.
“Scientists say global heating is contributing to more “extreme rainfall” events in the country, and warned that such disasters could become “the new normal”.”
“An unusually powerful storm has slammed into the Middle East, unleashing torrential rain, destructive winds and towering walls of dust.
“This storm is occurring at the same time as Egypt, Israel and other nations in the region are confronted by the growing threat from the coronavirus crisis.”
“Cyclone Idai – and then Cyclone Kenneth, which hit just six weeks later – destroyed 700,000 hectares of maize, beans, rice and other produce. In February more floods hit Sofala, the central province worst affected by Idai, swamping more fields.
“The International Organization for Migration said in December nearly 100,000 people were still displaced in Mozambique.”
“…as the area experiences increasingly intense droughts and flash flooding linked to climate change…
“…the Tonga and others living near the Zambezi River, along the border with Zambia, are looking to the lessons of the past and switching back to homes on stilts.”
“Four children and a woman were killed and several people suffered injuries in rain-related incidents in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [Pakistan] on Thursday with heavy downpour and snowfall damaging crops in southern districts.
“The officials say the death toll from the ongoing rains in the province has reached 46.”
“More than 300,000 hectares of honey-producing habitat was burned in Gippsland in south-east Victoria during the summer bushfires, while more than 5 million hectares of forest – most of which was potential honey habitat – was destroyed in NSW.
“The latter’s South Coast forests are especially productive for beekeepers.”
“Researchers found that between 1900 and 2009, 56 percent of glacier area in the Cascade Range [NW USA] disappeared. In a 60-year period, spring snowpack in the state has been reduced by 30 percent.”
“The four seasons in Germany have been shifting over the last decades due to climate change, resulting in shorter winters and earlier summers, phenological data of plant growth analysed by the German Meteorological Service (DWD) has shown…
“Germany has seen weather patterns in recent years that widely deviated from the 1961-1990 international reference period.”
“There are more than 100 small fires on average in the region each year. What made the one in 2015 so destructive was a record-breaking heatwave, explains Marcelino Núñez of the Spanish Meteorological Agency…
“It was the longest ever recorded in Spain, lasting 26 days compared to the average, of one week.”
“The month of February in Portugal was characterised as “extremely hot and dry”, and was the warmest since 1931, with an average air temperature of 12.43º Celsius.”
“Researcher from Rutgers University in New Jersey found that four times as many people could end up being impacted by heat stress than are today [by 2100].
“Heat stress harms human and animal health, agriculture, the economy and the environment.”
“Climate variability and extreme weather events are proving to be a major cause of concern leading to displacement of people and a recent rise in global hunger
“…due to loss or damage to food crops and livestock, according to World Meteorological Organization.”
“The year 2020 is shaping up to be one of the most pivotal and transformational in recent history, not just because of the devastating impact of coronavirus but because of the momentous changes related to climate change and the environment.”
“The polar ice caps are melting six times faster than in the 1990s, according to the most complete analysis to date.
“The ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica is tracking the worst-case climate warming scenario set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientists say.”
“Ninety years ago there were no satellites to detect changes in Greenland’s coastal glaciers
“…but a new study combining historical photos with evidence from ocean sediments suggests climate change was already at work in the 1930s and led to a major collapse of the one of Greenland’s largest coastal glaciers.”
“Bears across the world are emerging from hibernation as much as a month early after an abnormally warm winter.
“Wildlife experts, zoologists and park rangers have noted unusually early stirrings in Russia, Canada, the US and Scandinavia, raising fears that climate change may be damaging sleep cycles and disrupting the food chain.”
“At least eight people have been killed and 24 others were injured in rain and snow-related incidents across the province [Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan] on Wednesday.
“The latest casualties mean that the death toll from the ongoing spell of heavy rain and snow has climbed up to 35.”
“It’s hard to believe that it has already been a year since a powerful mid-latitude cyclone exploded with record strength over the plains of eastern Colorado.
“The storm produced blizzard conditions for more than 10 hours and left some places with a foot or more of snow. It even caused problems in the air with a passenger jet experiencing severe turbulence and a near mid-air stall about 100 miles east of Denver.”
“The World Meteorological Organisation today published a definitive climate report card showing concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to rise, and the last five years were the warmest on record.”
I’m very struck by how slow the climate-related news has been these past few days. I am wondering if news agencies are so busy reporting on the coronavirus that extreme weather events etc. are going unreported.
Read the previous climate thread here and visit my Patreon page here.
“February 2020 was the second hottest February on record for the entire globe, reveals a new report released by the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme Copernicus’s Climate Change Service. Moreover, the report also confirmed that past winter—from December 2019 to February 2020—was also the warmest winter Europe has ever experienced.
“According to the report, the global mean temperature for February 2020 was just 0.1°C cooler than February 2016, which is the hottest February ever recorded on planet Earth. The previous month was also 0.1°C warmer than February 2017, which has now become the third warmest February of all time.”
“Both the Arctic and Antarctica saw below mean sea ice cover in the last month compared to the 1981-2010 average, the European Union’s climate change body said Tuesday.
“”In the Arctic, the sea ice extent was 6% below the 1981-2010 average…In Antarctica, sea ice extent was 14% below the 1981-2010 average,” the Copernicus Climate Change Service said in its monthly sea ice cover study.”
“Climate change is causing trees and plants to take root in normally barren areas around the world – including the Arctic Circle, according to a new study.
“UK scientists found warmer and wetter weather makes more greenery grow on savannas and tundras, which collectively make up 40 per cent of the world’s land.”
“The temperature maps distributed by the Russian Meteorological Service this week show a warmer Russia than ever before. The winter of 2019-2020 was the mildest since record-keeping started 130 years ago.
“Practically the whole vast country had average temperatures up to 8 degrees higher than normal.”
“Many communities in the Northwest Territories [Canada] are worried about the impacts climate change is having on their cemeteries.
“”Due to climate change and the melting of the permafrost, our cemetery in Dettah is currently at its end of life,” said Jason Snaggs, chief executive officer for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.”
“More than 65 flood warnings and 198 alerts are in place across the UK as heavy rain is forecast to drench areas that were badly affected by last month’s storms…
“In Hereford, flood barriers are being erected on the River Wye to protect the city, only three weeks after it hit a record high of 6.11m – more than two meters higher than the level which begins to flood the area.”
“Large ecosystems like the Amazon rainforest could collapse in less than 50 years once a crucial tipping point is reached, a new study has claimed.
“Researchers have argued some natural environments are collapsing at a “significantly faster rate” than previously thought and could transform into “alternative ecosystems” when put under stress.”
“A white female giraffe, thought to the last of its kind in the world, has been killed by poachers, conservationists in Kenya have announced.
“The mother her and calf were found in a “skeletal state”, and were thought to have died at least four months ago, Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy said in a statement.”
“According to recent Mekong River Commission (MRC) studies, the frequency and severity of droughts across the Mekong basin has increased over the past few decades.
“The upper reaches of the Mekong are witnessing an unprecedented spectacle when the water level is at its lowest in history, even though it is the rainy season.”
“Marianne McCarthy lives with her family on Bulloo Downs homestead in Thargomindah [Queensland, Australia]. They are among many residents isolated by floodwaters after the area received record-breaking rain.
“The mail is expected to be delayed for weeks, which could impact deliveries for Easter.”
“February brought above average rainfall for Whanganui [NZ] and the hottest temperature since records began. However, the rain provided little respite with soils continuing to dry out.”
“The United Nations’ weather and climate agency is out with its annual State of the Climate report, and it says “the tell-tale physical signs of climate change” are everywhere. The report documents unprecedented heat waves, fires and floods over the past year, and warns that there is likely more to come.
“In the report, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) cited the historic fires in Australia and the Amazon, record-shattering heat waves in Europe, and soaring levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In a statement released with the report, the leader of the United Nations calls climate change “the defining challenge of our time” and said “time is fast running out for us to avert the worst impacts of climate disruption.”“
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Another eerily quiet day on the climate front:
“The winter of 2019-2020 was fundamentally different from anything experienced in the northern hemisphere over a century ago. With its record warmth and heavy rain, this winter was fundamentally different to those of only a decade ago.
“Analysis of 40 years of Dublin’s temperature records shows extreme temperature events have increased by up to 20 per cent in just eight years. 
“Egypt suffered losses of over EGP 1 billion due to a wave of bad weather last week, which killed at least 20 people nationwide, a statement by the presidency read. The cabinet said in a Friday statement that Egypt had not seen such conditions for 35 to 40 years.
“According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2020, Myanmar has had the highest weather-related losses in the past two decades, alongside Puerto Rico and Haiti. 
“The National Weather Service issued two rare tornado warnings for western Hawaii on Tuesday morning, the first tornado warnings for the state in over a decade.”
“Despite the critical role that the Amazon rainforest plays in storing carbon, governments in the area continue to approve road building projects…
“As winter ends and spring begins, a coast-to-coast storm with blizzard conditions, strong winds and heavy rains will barrel across the US Wednesday through Friday. 
This is the quietest news day for climate change/extreme weather that I can ever recall and it is apparently part of a trend, as I have noticed fewer stories for a while now. Seems like the fall out from the coronavirus is soaking up all our media bandwidth.
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“In 1896 Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius explored whether Earth’s temperatures were influenced by the presence of heat-absorbing gases in the atmosphere. He calculated that if carbon dioxide concentrations doubled, global temperatures would rise 5℃ – even more at the poles.
“Dirty air is known to cause lung and heart damage and is responsible for at least 8m early deaths a year. 
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“The United Nations’ weather and climate agency is out with its annual State of the Climate report, and it says “the tell-tale physical signs of climate change” are everywhere. The report documents unprecedented heat waves, fires and floods over the past year, and warns that there is likely more to come.