“Australia has endured its hottest day ever recorded, as hundreds of violent bushfires continue to rage across the country.
“Bureau of Meteorology data shows temperatures hit a startling new high of 40.9C on average on Tuesday – 0.6C higher than the record set in 2013 – with experts warning Wednesday would likely be even hotter.”
“Australia has endured its driest spring on record, setting the scene for a devastating bushfire season in which fierce blazes have swept across the country…
“Climate change has reduced Australian farms’ average annual profitability by 22%, or around $18,600 per farm, in the past two decades, according to the agriculture department…
“…changes in climate have reduced the revenue of Australian cropping farms by a total of $1.1bn a year.”
““We can’t keep going on the way we’re going,” says Douglas, who is manager of policy and research at the Central Land Council.
““Central Australian Aboriginal people are very resilient. They have evolved to cope with the harsh and variable desert climate, but there are limits.”
“2019 is a record year for dengue fever in Latin America. The mosquito-borne disease has surged across the continent, from Mexico down to Chile and Argentina, with nearly 3 million cases reported. That’s more than 20% higher than the previous record in 2015…
“Leah Katzelnick, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Berkeley who works on dengue in Nicaragua, says climate definitely plays a role.”
“Oklahoma, lying in the heart of Tornado Alley, is famous for its frequent twisters. But 2019 took the twisting tempests to another level. The Sooner State’s tornado count climbed to 146, including the swarm of 105 during May.
“This number eclipses the previous record of 145 tornadoes set in 1999.”
“It’s been warm, wild and wet across South Africa in 2019, and it has certainly felt like a year of extremes. We’ve seen tornados in KZN, tremors in Gauteng, and one of the hottest days ever recorded in the country.
“These are the most significant – if not alarming – weather records smashed in the past 12 months:”
“Despite the recent heavy rains in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal, an online survey conducted by the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union (Kwanalu) revealed that the province was experiencing its “worst drought in 100 years”.
“Kwanalu members from 81 farmers’ associations and commodity affiliates were asked to take part in the survey to assess and understand the extent of the effects of the drought on the industry.”
“10 people have been reported dead due to lightning in Malawi since the rainy season began in November, police and weather experts have described the situation as worrisome.”
“Reflecting on 2019, the one story that has stayed with me the longest, the one that I think about when I can’t sleep at night, is the arrival of Cyclone Idai on southern Africa’s east coast.
“The most powerful storm in Mozambique’s recorded history – before it was superseded by Cyclone Kenneth just a month later – devastated vast swathes of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.”
“Heavy rains on Tuesday brought businesses and transport to a standstill in Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam as the country’s meteorological agency issued the latest weather forecast alert…
“As Somalia withered from drought early this year, and her goats dropped dead from thirst, Maka Abdi Ali begged for rain. When the skies finally opened, nature was unmerciful.
“Unrelenting downpours in October turned to flash floods, destroying her meagre home and few remaining possessions…”
“Noting that an estimated 250,000 people have been affected by recent floods triggered by heavy rains in Djibouti, UNOCHA also stressed that an estimated 150,000 people, including migrants and refugees, are of particular concern as they are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.
“The Red Sea nation experienced heavy rains late last month, triggering flash floods and the eventual destruction of various infrastructures, homes and livelihoods across the country.”
“The Republic of Congo on Tuesday appealed for help after 150,000 people in the north of the country were hit by rains that flooded homes, destroyed fields and swept away cattle.
“President Denis Sassou Nguesso… blamed “climatic disruption” for the disaster.”
“A bill authored by [Russia‘s] Ministry of Natural Resources was in October this year hammered through parliament.
“It grants oil and gas companies expanded rights to explore resources both in internal and territorial waters and is aimed at lowering the financial burden of the oilmen engaging in the region.”
“Our planet is restless, and its poles are wandering. Of course, the geographic north pole is in the same place it always was, but its magnetic counterpart – indicated by the N on any compass – is roaming towards Siberia at record-breaking speeds that scientists don’t fully comprehend…
“Last month was the second warmest November in 140 years of recordkeeping, NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) reported in its November summary of global climate.
“The November warmth enhances the likelihood that 2019 will be the second warmest year in global records dating back to 1880.”
“After exchanging research teams and crewmembers, the greatest expedition to the Central Arctic of all time is now entering the next phase, during which urgently needed research into the Arctic climate system will be conducted.
“In the following paragraphs, the team from the first leg of the journey, which was dominated by thin sea ice, review the mission so far…”
“Numerous regions of rural Iceland, especially in the north, are still experiencing difficulties…
“As reported, the North was hit especially hard by the cyclone, as both hurricane-force winds and heavy snowfall led to avalanches, loss of mobile phone coverage, and most importantly a lack of electricity.”
“It seems hard to believe that drought was a serious threat earlier this year. There were calls for hosepipe bans, crops began to wither and many [UK] farmers had difficulty finding sufficient water for irrigation.
“However, since mid-September farmers have faced a battering from relentless rains.”
“Civil-war-torn Yemen faces vast challenges, from a struggling economy and collapsing health system to some of the world’s worst shortages of food, water and jobs.
“But more severe weather linked to climate change – and a shortage of funding to deal with it – is making life even harder.”
“Two emergency rescue teams from neighboring Chongqing Municipality have joined rescue operations after a coal mine flooding accident killed five in southwest China‘s Sichuan Province, leaving 13 others trapped underground.
“As of 4:00 p.m. Monday, one miner who was previously missing has been found dead, according to a briefing.”
“Firefighters warned on Tuesday they would not be able to contain some of the 100 fires still ablaze in the country [Australia] before conditions were expected to deteriorate later this week…
“With bushland tinder-box dry, authorities warned locals near existing blazes that fires could spread.”
“A “once in a lifetime” heatwave is set to sweep across Australia over the coming days, making almost the entire country “like a furnace” with temperatures on course to break records.
“Highs of over 50C are expected, with meteorologists warning the heat could break the country’s existing record of 50.7C measured at Oodnadatta, South Australia, in 1960.”
“There’s no end in sight to the drought in NSW, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, with no significant rainfall predicted until April. And when rain does finally arrive, the lake which supplies 80% of Sydney’s water is facing possible contamination from bushfire ash.”
We’ve seen a ridiculous amount of heat records fall in Hawaii this year:
“Temperatures in Kahului reached 86 degrees on Sunday, tying the record set on the same day in 2008, according to the National Weather Service. That followed a record-setting Saturday of 88 degrees, which broke the old record of 87 degrees, set in 2010.”
“Residents across the South will be waking up Tuesday morning to the damage that a series of deadly tornadoes left behind.
“The twisters that tore through parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are part of a larger storm system that is piling snow and ice across the Midwest and Eastern US.”
“In 2019, Americans saw rain, rain and more rain: The 12-month period ending in June took the crown as the wettest ever recorded in the contiguous U.S.
“But that was the fourth time the record had been broken in 2019 — the previous 12-month precipitation record had been set in May, which had broken the record set in April, which had broken the record set in February.”
““The new record high temperature was set at 10 A.M. this morning when 62 degrees was recorded,” wrote the Blue Hill weather observer [Mid-Atlantic and NE USA], “beating 61 degrees set just one [year] ago [in 2014].”
“Christmas 2015 had a high of 64 degrees, while Christmas Eve soared to 67.”
“”If we run out of oxygen it will mean habitat loss and biodiversity loss and a slippery slope down to slime and more jellyfish,” said IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme director Minna Epps.
“”It will also change the energy and the biochemical cycling in the oceans and we don’t know what these biological and chemical shifts in the oceans can actually do.””
“South-East Queensland [Australia] is having a scorcher with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) saying several records have been broken for the first month of summer.
“Brisbane had been expected to hit 39 degrees Celsius, but the CBD hit 41.2C at 1:40pm on Monday, equalling the city’s hottest December day on record originally set in 1981.
“Archerfield in Brisbane’s south-west matched the CBD with a top of 41.2C, setting a new December record for that suburb.
“West of Brisbane, Amberley hit 43.1C at 1:39pm, while it reached 43C in Laidley and 42C in Esk.”
“Australia‘s biggest city is facing a “public health emergency” over the bushfire smoke that has choked Sydney for weeks, leading doctors warned on Monday (Dec 16) after hospitals reported a dramatic spike in casualty department visits.
“Hundreds of climate change-fuelled bushfires have been raging across Australia for months…”
“Australia has a “massive adaptive program” ahead to prepare for future protracted bushfires and subsequent air pollution, a professor of pyrogeography and fire science has warned
“… He [urged] politicians to “tone down the ideology and start solving the problem using the skills Australians have”.”
“Three of those record highs have all occurred just within the last week, with Anchorage [Alaska] also seeing the warmest temperature ever recorded in December.
“Just this year, Anchorage, along with the state, has reached several new heights that point to a troubling future.”
“Wanda Batten a meteorologist with Environment Canada, says it’s been “absolutely crazy” with record temperatures almost across the island.
“A high of 14.4 degrees Celsius was recorded at St. John’s international airport marking the warmest December 15 since records were kept in 1874, toppling the previous record of 12.4 degrees, set in 1919.”
“A warm December storm doused southern Maine with record-setting rainfall Saturday, swelling rivers and flooding roads on the front end of a weather system that’s expected to generate high winds in the region Sunday.”
“With just over two weeks left in 2019, Grand Rapids has already set a new high water mark with regard to precipitation. “Combining annual rainfall and melted snowfall, Grand Rapids has received 48.81 inches of precipitation and counting.”
“2019 will be Malaga’s driest year since records began [Spain].
“Only 181.2 litres of rain per square metre has fallen this year, 344 litres per square metre less than average. Unless the dry spell is broken, 2019 will smash records for the year with the least rainfall in Malaga’s history.”
““The temperature [in Istanbul] is about 5 or 6 degrees above the long-term average levels. It is expected to be the same in the upcoming weeks.
“The much-needed rains have not arrived. If this trend continues in January, the situation will worsen. Then, we will face a water shortage in the next year,” he added.”
“Winter in Israel means rain, but this past weekend the country’s North was dealing with much more than a slight drizzle.
“Storms in the North have caused severe flooding in the streets, with one pedestrian confirmed killed and others seriously injured due to the weather, Srugim reported.”
“Thousands of people continue to be displaced in eastern and western Uganda due to heavy rains that are also wreaking havoc across the East African region.
“More than 30 people in Uganda have died in the past two weeks as result of flooding and landslides and the government says tens of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes.”
“24 people were killed by a landslide at the Ndiyo gold mine, located 40 kilometres from the town of Watsa in the northeastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo…
“…the incident took place on Saturday afternoon when the torrential rains that have been pouring over the area for weeks softened the terrain so much that it started to crumble.”
“In South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, no one can remember the last proper downpour. Some say it was five years ago, others six…
“Southern Africa is grappling with one of the worst droughts in decades—the outcome of years of absent or erratic rainfall, and temperatures that have reached record highs.”
“”It has been an extremely busy year for CAMS regarding the monitoring of wildfires,” says CAMS senior scientist Mark Parrington. “Throughout the year we have been closely watching the intensity of the fires and the smoke they emit all around the world and have experienced at times some quite exceptional fire activity…
“More than 100 wildfires have been ignited in the Arctic circle during the course of 2019, burning carbon reserves that then contribute to further warming of the atmosphere…”
“An extra two days of international climate talks failed to produce agreement on carbon markets or any enhancements to countries’ promises to cut greenhouse gases next year…
“Instead, delegates from 200 nations endorsed a declaration to help poor countries that are suffering the effects of climate change, but they didn’t come up with any money to pay for that help.”
“Bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland have emitted a massive pulse of CO2 into the atmosphere since August that is equivalent to almost half of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, Guardian Australia can reveal.
“Analysis by Nasa shows the NSW fires have emitted about 195m tonnes of CO2 since 1 August, with Queensland’s fires adding a further 55m tonnes over the same period.
“In 2018, Australia’s entire greenhouse gas footprint was 532m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.”
“Nearly the entire Australian continent could see temperatures of more than 37 degrees next week as a ‘heat dome’ parks itself over the country.
“Meteorologists have blamed a ‘dome of heat parked over southern Australia’ for a long-lasting pattern of very dry and hot weather which will last through next week and the following weekend.”
“For 72 days, but who is counting, residents of the New South Wales town of Tenterfield have been told to boil their drinking water.
“Straight from the tap it reeks of bushfire smoke and heavy doses of chlorine. The community’s filtration system, built in 1932, cannot cope effectively with turbidity levels in the Tenterfield dam that have recently been measured at 60 times the World Health Organisation’s limits.”
“A storm has dumped 128mm [around five inches] of rain on the Gold Coast in just over an hour – a one-in-50-year event, the weather bureau says.
“Rain bucketed down about 1pm on Friday as the severe storm cell hovered over Southport for 90 minutes, while flash flooding closed roads and sporting fields.”
“Indonesia‘s little-known glaciers are melting so fast they could disappear in a decade, a new study says, underscoring the imminent threat posed by climate change to ice sheets in tropical countries…
“This summer, Iceland mourned the passing of Okjokull, its first glacier lost to climate change, amid warnings that some 400 others on the subarctic island risk the same fate.”
“In Harbin, Heilongjiang province, the highest temperature will be 0 C; in previous mid-December periods, the city’s record was just－9.5 C, the forecast said. Meanwhile, temperatures in North China will reach as high as 10 C on Friday…
“China has been very sensitive to climate change, a green paper jointly released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the meteorological administration last month said.”
“A deepening drought in southern Africa is resulting in unprecedented food shortages, leaving millions of people hungry. …
““We are seeing people going two to three days without food, entire herds of livestock wiped out by drought and small-scale farmers with no means to earn money to tide them over a lean season.”
“Namibia‘s dam water levels have almost halved from already low levels as the worst drought in more than 100 years pushes the desert nation closer to famine.
“Dams nationwide were at 19.3% of capacity compared to 35.6% this time last year, water utility Namwater said…”
“Famine threatens the lives of up to 5.5 million people in South Sudan, where droughts and flooding have destroyed crops and livestock, compounding “intense political instability”, the United Nations warned on Thursday…
“Nearly 1 million people are directly affected by the floods and the waters have not receded in many places.”
“A spokeswoman for Murcia Regional Government has today said it can “not do more” for Los Alcazares, in Spain, which has twice been flooded out in recent months.
“Ana Martinez Vidal, stressed this that the autonomous community has taken all possible measures to alleviate the effects of the DANA storm in the Mar Menor municpalities.”
“Much of Iceland is digging out following a potent blizzard that brought winds topping 100 mph and yards of snow to some areas… As many as 20,000 people are without power as temperatures tumble into the teens and 20s, with a few communities isolated.
“The storm was so severe that it prompted the Icelandic Met Office to issue an unprecedented “red alert.””
“…glaciers and snow patches are rapidly declining around the world, due to human-driven climate change.
“The loss of these important environments is increasing the odds of heat stress and hyperthermia in mountain goats, according to a study published on Wednesday in PLOS One.”
“Worsening booms and busts could mean that it is harder and harder to make a consistent living in the Atlantic Canadian fishery as well.
“But if the experience in the Atlantic fishery in the United States is concerning, what’s happening in the northern Pacific is downright frightening. And we’re not talking about a 16 per cent drop, either.”
“…many caribou herds are in decline as the warming climate changes much of the landscape they depend on.
“Inedible shrubs are rapidly encroaching on the tundra, and more frequent forest fires and disease are destroying the trees that provide caribou with lichen for food.”
“For tens of thousands of years, permafrost has kept 1,460 to 1,600 gigatons (a gigaton is a billion metric tons) of organic matter trapped in the soil. That’s more than double the amount of carbon currently in the atmosphere…
“Though the permafrost has been thawing in recent years, the carbon it releases is usually taken up by plant life growing in the summer, so the Arctic has not been a contributor to climate change — until now, that is.”
“This decade people around the world woke up to a grim reality: Climate change is here, it’s happening now, and it could very easily get much, much worse.
“These 10 years were punctuated by a series of deadly, dramatic, devastating events.”
“Ecosystems, the fabric of life on which we all depend, are declining rapidly because of human actions…
“Over the last 50 years, nature’s capacity to support us has plummeted. Air and water quality are reducing, soils are depleting, crops are short of pollinators, and coasts are less protected from storms.”
“Australia could experience its hottest day on record next week as a hot air mass building in Western Australia makes its way east…
“”We will potentially see the hottest day on record across all of Australia…
“”It is not out of the realms of possibility that we could break our highest ever recorded temperature of 50.7C at Oodnadatta, which is in South Australia.””
“Thousands of baby grey-headed flying foxes have been abandoned by their mothers in the latest example of wildlife devastation caused by Australia’s severe drought and bushfires, which disrupted the bats’ ability to produce milk for their offspring.
“A threatened species, the grey-headed flying fox is one of the world’s largest bats…”
“Diwali is long gone and the peak crop burning season is over. But severe pollution is back in Delhi [India].
“With the national capital recording ‘severe’ category pollution again this week, experts have suggested that Delhi needs a less reactionary and more consistent and dynamic response system to battle the toxic winter smog.”
“The word we want is “biblical” – a number of KZN floods [South Africa] have surfaced this week, and the amount of rain that’s hit the province is scarcely believable…
“Part of the M4 highway has been closed off after Umhlanga.. Entire streets have been washed away…”
“Aid workers in Angola are appealing for help in the country’s south, where they say climate change is causing a crisis for up to 2.3 million people. Paolo Balladelli of the United Nations said that’s how many people were affected at the height of this year’s drought.
““Temperatures in 2019 were the highest in 45 years and drought is driving increasing hunger and malnutrition, especially in Cunene, Huíla, Bié and Namibe provinces,” Balladelli said.”
“The government says Poland has one of the worst rates of water scarcity in Europe: witness the last two years of drought, which cut crop yields and even left some towns out of water.
“Other European countries also fared badly this summer, with farming hit in France, Belgium and Lithuania, according to the European Drought Observatory, part of the European Commission.”
“The hottest day on record in the UK, on 25 July this year, caused the deaths of more than 200 additional people than usual, according to official figures…
“The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said more people died on 25 July than any other day in the three months from July to September this year as the thermometer hit a record-breaking 38.7C (102F).”
“Crescent, Iowa — Frogs, carp and bugs thrived all summer in murky floodwaters where Gene Walter should have planted corn and soybeans.
“Last year’s ruined crop spilled from metal storage bins that burst nine months ago when the Missouri River surged through two levees near his southwest Iowa farm.”
“Near-record high water levels on the Great Lakes could increase the threat of coastal erosion and lakeshore flooding this winter.
“The average water level for the lakes during November was within half a foot of record levels on Lake Superior as well as Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Lake Erie and Lake Ontario were just over half a foot below their record level for this time of year.”
“”Alaska is built for the cold. Anchorage set a December record high on Monday, and schools were closed. Why?
“Fifty degrees turned roads into skating rinks,” Thoman said, referring to the 51-degree high temperature the NWS recorded in Anchorage on, Monday, Dec. 9, a mark that broke the old record of 48 that was set in 1992 and tied in 1999 and 2005.”
“This has become the new norm across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Late winters and sudden thawing have turned roads into slush and made rivers and sloughs, which are necessary for travel, less safe because they take longer to freeze…
“There have been reports of little to no sea ice on the Bering Sea coast, which means less protection for coastal villages when winter storms pop up.”
“The Arctic is warming, and its sea ice is melting, prompting fevered dreams of ever-easier access, and a renewed jockeying among Arctic nations for status, profit and ownership…
“…covetous eyes gaze upon the Northwest Passage, more so as Arctic ice retreats; establishing authority over the Passage proffers the prospect of establishing control over access, and there is no consensus as to where that authority lies.”
“The results are bad news for efforts to tackle climate change now. The research implies today’s warming will lead to a more rapid decline in Arctic sea ice than most models suggest…
“The work also goes some way to explaining why the rapid loss of Arctic sea ice seen in recent years – 2012 saw summer ice diminish to its lowest extent ever – is at the more extreme end of what climate models expected.”
“Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Kazim Hosein [Trinidad] says his team is on the ground and responding to flood victims throughout the county.
“Hosein said the Municipal Emergency Operations Centre of the ministry has been partially activated following reports of flooding, mainly in south Trinidad.”
Heavy rains in Bogota, Colombia turn the city into a temporary ‘Venice’. “The Fire Department of Bogotá, as well as the Police and the District Mobility Secretariat are attending the emergency.”
“In a day in which once again the temperature exceeded 35 °, at dawn today more than 33 thousand users do not have electricity service in the City of Buenos Aires [Argentina] and the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.
“In the early hours of yesterday, a time of low demand, the peak had reached 40,000 homes.”
“Soaring temperatures in November have seen a growing demand for at-home air conditioning units, as Kiwis look to stay cool in unseasonably sweltering weather.
“With NIWA recently revealing November 2019 to be New Zealand‘s hottest November on record (since records began in 1909), it is unsurprising that people are looking for effective ways to cool their homes.”
“The Arctic region took a beating in 2019, with near-record-warm air and ocean temperatures resulting in widespread melting of the Greenland ice sheet, low sea-ice extents and shifts in the distribution of commercially valuable marine species, according to NOAA’s 14th-annual Arctic Report Card released Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco.
“The report also found that as the Arctic warms, permafrost regions might already be a net source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, a feedback that could exacerbate overall global warming.”
“Summer heatwaves and year-round melting of glaciers mean the rate of [Greenland‘s] ice loss is following the “high-end climate warming scenario” produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“There has been a seven-fold increase in ice loss since the 1990s, according to the most comprehensive study to date of ice loss on the world’s largest island.”
“…Inga is troubled: His reindeer [in Arctic Sweden] are hungry, and he can do little about it. Climate change is altering weather patterns here and affecting the herd’s food supply.
““If we don’t find better areas for them where they can graze and find food, then the reindeers will starve to death,” he said.”
“What a destructive, deadly, wet and expensive decade it’s been.
“This year marks the fourth consecutive Atlantic hurricane season with above-average activity, and wraps up a decade that saw some of the most devastating hurricanes to hit the United States in recorded history.”
“The National Meterological Service [Argentina] reported Tuesday that the high temperatures, which exceed 35 degrees, will continue in the center and north of Buenos Aires, the center and east of Córdoba, the south of Entre Ríos, the northeast of La Pampa, the south of Santa Fe and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires.
“Tuesday in the City of Buenos Aires and its surroundings began with temperatures that reached 37 degrees [99f]…”
“The heavy downpour that affected the capital of São Paulo [Brazil] on Tuesday, December 10th, caused the flooding of streams and rivers, trees crashing and increased traffic jams.
“In Itaquera, in the eastern zone of São Paulo, the Verde river overflowed as a result of the heavy rainfall that affected the neighborhood.”
“Mines across South Africa shut down on Tuesday after flash flooding triggered the most severe power blackouts in more than a decade…
“Heavy rains across parts of South Africa have submerged entire neighborhoods, leading to evacuations and aggravating problems at state-owned utility Eskom, which has been struggling to keep the lights on since 2008.”
“Hopes have been dashed that the recent widespread rain across South Africa’s summer rainfall region would put an end to widespread water-constrained and drought conditions…
“In recent weeks, many parts of the country’s summer rainfall region had been hit by a combination of both extreme heat and heavy and often destructive downpours.”
“A photographer has taken incredible pictures of the ancient Himba tribe as they live through one of the worst droughts in Namibia‘s history.
“Stu McKenzie spent a week with the indigenous tribe shooting a selection of remarkable images to illustrate how the tribe is coping with the water shortage.”
“Kenya’s farmers are grubbing up their coffee bushes to plant other crops as low prices and climate change drive small growers to the brink of collapse…
“…rising temperatures are scorching plants, making them susceptible to diseases such as coffee leaf rust.”
“India’s economic losses linked to extreme weather events were to the tune of $37,808 million for 2018. This was an almost three-fold rise over losses suffered in 2017.
“It also pointed out that temperatures in India were spiraling and that, since 2004, India has experienced 11 of its 15 warmest recorded years.”
“A climatic phenomenon of near-record intensity has contributed to two extremes on opposite sides of the Indian Ocean — torrential rain in East Africa and exceptionally dry conditions fuelling bushfires in Australia.
“The bushfire season began much earlier than usual in eastern Australia and has been one of the most devastating on record, based on the area burnt.”
“In its latest quarterly update, ABARES reports the total volume of [Australia‘s] agricultural production is forecast to fall for a third-consecutive year, which hasn’t happened for more than 60 years…
“…crop production is down and the sheep and cattle herds are continuing to fall as producers run out of pasture, feed and water in NSW and Queensland.”
“Thousands of people have rallied in Sydney to protest against inaction on the climate crisis, after months of bushfires and hazardous smoke in New South Wales and Queensland.
“On Tuesday, the level of dangerous PM2.5 particles in Sydney’s air was as high as 10 times normal, and fires have burnt through nearly 3 million hectares of land across NSW and Queensland this season.”
“Extremely low sea ice in the Bering Sea. Heavy rainfall in the mid-Atlantic United States. Wildfires in northeast Australia.
“Examinations of these and 16 other extreme weather events that occurred in 2018 found that all but one were made more likely due to human-caused climate change…”
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Weekday updates on both climate change and the global economy. Stay current with what’s happening around the world with a quick scan of top news.
“Australia has endured its hottest day ever recorded, as hundreds of violent bushfires continue to rage across the country.
“Australia has endured its driest spring on record, setting the scene for a devastating bushfire season in which fierce blazes have swept across the country… 
“Climate change has reduced Australian farms’ average annual profitability by 22%, or around $18,600 per farm, in the past two decades, according to the agriculture department… 
““We can’t keep going on the way we’re going,” says Douglas, who is manager of policy and research at the Central Land Council.
“2019 is a record year for dengue fever in Latin America. The mosquito-borne disease has surged across the continent, from Mexico down to Chile and Argentina, with nearly 3 million cases reported. That’s more than 20% higher than the previous record in 2015…
“Oklahoma, lying in the heart of Tornado Alley, is famous for its frequent twisters. But 2019 took the twisting tempests to another level. The Sooner State’s tornado count climbed to 146, including the swarm of 105 during May. 
“It’s been warm, wild and wet across South Africa in 2019, and it has certainly felt like a year of extremes. We’ve seen tornados in KZN, tremors in Gauteng, and one of the hottest days ever recorded in the country. 
“Despite the recent heavy rains in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal, an online survey conducted by the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union (Kwanalu) revealed that the province was experiencing its “worst drought in 100 years”. 
“Reflecting on 2019, the one story that has stayed with me the longest, the one that I think about when I can’t sleep at night, is the arrival of Cyclone Idai on southern Africa’s east coast. 
“Heavy rains on Tuesday brought businesses and transport to a standstill in Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam as the country’s meteorological agency issued the latest weather forecast alert…
“As Somalia withered from drought early this year, and her goats dropped dead from thirst, Maka Abdi Ali begged for rain. When the skies finally opened, nature was unmerciful. 
“Noting that an estimated 250,000 people have been affected by recent floods triggered by heavy rains in Djibouti, UNOCHA also stressed that an estimated 150,000 people, including migrants and refugees, are of particular concern as they are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.
“The Republic of Congo on Tuesday appealed for help after 150,000 people in the north of the country were hit by rains that flooded homes, destroyed fields and swept away cattle. 
“A bill authored by [Russia‘s] Ministry of Natural Resources was in October this year hammered through parliament. 
“Our planet is restless, and its poles are wandering. Of course, the geographic north pole is in the same place it always was, but its magnetic counterpart – indicated by the N on any compass – is roaming towards Siberia at record-breaking speeds that scientists don’t fully comprehend… 
“Stores of methane and CO2 in the world’s seas are in a strange, icy state, and the waters are warming, creating a ticking carbon time bomb.”
“Last month was the second warmest November in 140 years of recordkeeping, NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) reported in its November summary of global climate. 
“After exchanging research teams and crewmembers, the greatest expedition to the Central Arctic of all time is now entering the next phase, during which urgently needed research into the Arctic climate system will be conducted. 
“Numerous regions of rural Iceland, especially in the north, are still experiencing difficulties… 
“It seems hard to believe that drought was a serious threat earlier this year. There were calls for hosepipe bans, crops began to wither and many [UK] farmers had difficulty finding sufficient water for irrigation. 
“The year 2019 is, at this point, the warmest one since 1900, when measurements started to be made in Romania… 
“Authorities in Rwanda have begun demolishing homes in the capital Kigali which they say are threatened by “climate dangers”… 
“Civil-war-torn Yemen faces vast challenges, from a struggling economy and collapsing health system to some of the world’s worst shortages of food, water and jobs. 
“Two emergency rescue teams from neighboring Chongqing Municipality have joined rescue operations after a coal mine flooding accident killed five in southwest China‘s Sichuan Province, leaving 13 others trapped underground. 
“Firefighters warned on Tuesday they would not be able to contain some of the 100 fires still ablaze in the country [Australia] before conditions were expected to deteriorate later this week… 
“A “once in a lifetime” heatwave is set to sweep across Australia over the coming days, making almost the entire country “like a furnace” with temperatures on course to break records. 
We’ve seen a ridiculous amount of heat records fall in Hawaii this year: 
“Residents across the South will be waking up Tuesday morning to the damage that a series of deadly tornadoes left behind. 
“In 2019, Americans saw rain, rain and more rain: The 12-month period ending in June took the crown as the wettest ever recorded in the contiguous U.S. 
““The new record high temperature was set at 10 A.M. this morning when 62 degrees was recorded,” wrote the Blue Hill weather observer [Mid-Atlantic and NE USA], “beating 61 degrees set just one [year] ago [in 2014].” 
“”If we run out of oxygen it will mean habitat loss and biodiversity loss and a slippery slope down to slime and more jellyfish,” said IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme director Minna Epps. 
“South-East Queensland [Australia] is having a scorcher with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) saying several records have been broken for the first month of summer.
“Australia‘s biggest city is facing a “public health emergency” over the bushfire smoke that has choked Sydney for weeks, leading doctors warned on Monday (Dec 16) after hospitals reported a dramatic spike in casualty department visits. 
“Australia has a “massive adaptive program” ahead to prepare for future protracted bushfires and subsequent air pollution, a professor of pyrogeography and fire science has warned
“Three of those record highs have all occurred just within the last week, with Anchorage [Alaska] also seeing the warmest temperature ever recorded in December. 
“Wanda Batten a meteorologist with Environment Canada, says it’s been “absolutely crazy” with record temperatures almost across the island. 
“A warm December storm doused southern Maine with record-setting rainfall Saturday, swelling rivers and flooding roads on the front end of a weather system that’s expected to generate high winds in the region Sunday.”
“Talk with farmers in Mexico and they will tell you they’re already feeling the brunt of climate change. 
“2019 will be Malaga’s driest year since records began [Spain]. 
“Flood alerts remain across four regions of southwest France after severe weather claimed three lives. 
“This time of the year is usually when forecasters are predicting whether or not there will be a White Christmas. 
“The average temperature [in Moscow] this December is + 0.6 C°, which is more than five degrees higher than the climatic norm, Meteovesti reports. 
““The temperature [in Istanbul] is about 5 or 6 degrees above the long-term average levels. It is expected to be the same in the upcoming weeks. 
“Winter in Israel means rain, but this past weekend the country’s North was dealing with much more than a slight drizzle. 
“Thousands of people continue to be displaced in eastern and western Uganda due to heavy rains that are also wreaking havoc across the East African region. 
“24 people were killed by a landslide at the Ndiyo gold mine, located 40 kilometres from the town of Watsa in the northeastern Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo… 
“In South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, no one can remember the last proper downpour. Some say it was five years ago, others six…
“”It has been an extremely busy year for CAMS regarding the monitoring of wildfires,” says CAMS senior scientist Mark Parrington. “Throughout the year we have been closely watching the intensity of the fires and the smoke they emit all around the world and have experienced at times some quite exceptional fire activity…
“An extra two days of international climate talks failed to produce agreement on carbon markets or any enhancements to countries’ promises to cut greenhouse gases next year…
“Bushfires in New South Wales and Queensland have emitted a massive pulse of CO2 into the atmosphere since August that is equivalent to almost half of Australia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, Guardian Australia can reveal.
“Nearly the entire Australian continent could see temperatures of more than 37 degrees next week as a ‘heat dome’ parks itself over the country. 
“For 72 days, but who is counting, residents of the New South Wales town of Tenterfield have been told to boil their drinking water.
“A storm has dumped 128mm [around five inches] of rain on the Gold Coast in just over an hour – a one-in-50-year event, the weather bureau says.
“Scary footage has been obtained of the supercell which tore a path of destruction through the Gympie [Australia] region earlier this afternoon…
“Indonesia‘s little-known glaciers are melting so fast they could disappear in a decade, a new study says, underscoring the imminent threat posed by climate change to ice sheets in tropical countries… 
“In Harbin, Heilongjiang province, the highest temperature will be 0 C; in previous mid-December periods, the city’s record was just
“A deepening drought in southern Africa is resulting in unprecedented food shortages, leaving millions of people hungry. … 
“Zambia risks having to switch off power production completely at the Kariba hydropower dam for the first time…
“Namibia‘s dam water levels have almost halved from already low levels as the worst drought in more than 100 years pushes the desert nation closer to famine. 
“Famine threatens the lives of up to 5.5 million people in South Sudan, where droughts and flooding have destroyed crops and livestock, compounding “intense political instability”, the United Nations warned on Thursday… 
“A spokeswoman for Murcia Regional Government has today said it can “not do more” for Los Alcazares, in Spain, which has twice been flooded out in recent months. 
“Much of Iceland is digging out following a potent blizzard that brought winds topping 100 mph and yards of snow to some areas… As many as 20,000 people are without power as temperatures tumble into the teens and 20s, with a few communities isolated.
“…glaciers and snow patches are rapidly declining around the world, due to human-driven climate change. 
“Worsening booms and busts could mean that it is harder and harder to make a consistent living in the Atlantic Canadian fishery as well.
“…many caribou herds are in decline as the warming climate changes much of the landscape they depend on. 
“For tens of thousands of years, permafrost has kept 1,460 to 1,600 gigatons (a gigaton is a billion metric tons) of organic matter trapped in the soil. That’s more than double the amount of carbon currently in the atmosphere…
“This decade people around the world woke up to a grim reality: Climate change is here, it’s happening now, and it could very easily get much, much worse.
“Ecosystems, the fabric of life on which we all depend, are declining rapidly because of human actions… 
“Australia could experience its hottest day on record next week as a hot air mass building in Western Australia makes its way east…
“The remote Kakadu town of Jabiru broke its December heat record four days in a row, as a heatwave continues to roll across the Top End. 
“Thousands of baby grey-headed flying foxes have been abandoned by their mothers in the latest example of wildlife devastation caused by Australia’s severe drought and bushfires, which disrupted the bats’ ability to produce milk for their offspring.
“Brisbane has copped a badly needed drenching from a a wild storm that triggered flash flooding and left thousands of homes without power… 
“Diwali is long gone and the peak crop burning season is over. But severe pollution is back in Delhi [India]. 
“The word we want is “biblical” – a number of KZN floods [South Africa] have surfaced this week, and the amount of rain that’s hit the province is scarcely believable… 
“Aid workers in Angola are appealing for help in the country’s south, where they say climate change is causing a crisis for up to 2.3 million people. Paolo Balladelli of the United Nations said that’s how many people were affected at the height of this year’s drought. 
“The government says Poland has one of the worst rates of water scarcity in Europe: witness the last two years of drought, which cut crop yields and even left some towns out of water. 
“The hottest day on record in the UK, on 25 July this year, caused the deaths of more than 200 additional people than usual, according to official figures… 
“Crescent, Iowa — Frogs, carp and bugs thrived all summer in murky floodwaters where Gene Walter should have planted corn and soybeans. 
“Near-record high water levels on the Great Lakes could increase the threat of coastal erosion and lakeshore flooding this winter. 
“”Alaska is built for the cold. Anchorage set a December record high on Monday, and schools were closed. Why? 
“This has become the new norm across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Late winters and sudden thawing have turned roads into slush and made rivers and sloughs, which are necessary for travel, less safe because they take longer to freeze… 
“The Arctic is warming, and its sea ice is melting, prompting fevered dreams of ever-easier access, and a renewed jockeying among Arctic nations for status, profit and ownership… 
“The results are bad news for efforts to tackle climate change now. The research implies today’s warming will lead to a more rapid decline in Arctic sea ice than most models suggest… 
“Satellite sleuthing reveals that Greenland summers now are warm enough to create 27 percent more lakes than 20 years ago, and at higher elevations… 
“Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Kazim Hosein [Trinidad] says his team is on the ground and responding to flood victims throughout the county. 
Heavy rains in Bogota, Colombia turn the city into a temporary ‘Venice’. “The Fire Department of Bogotá, as well as the Police and the District Mobility Secretariat are attending the emergency.” 
“In a day in which once again the temperature exceeded 35 °, at dawn today more than 33 thousand users do not have electricity service in the City of Buenos Aires [Argentina] and the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. 
“Soaring temperatures in November have seen a growing demand for at-home air conditioning units, as Kiwis look to stay cool in unseasonably sweltering weather.
“The Arctic region took a beating in 2019, with near-record-warm air and ocean temperatures resulting in widespread melting of the Greenland ice sheet, low sea-ice extents and shifts in the distribution of commercially valuable marine species, according to NOAA’s 14th-annual Arctic Report Card released Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco.
“…Inga is troubled: His reindeer [in Arctic Sweden] are hungry, and he can do little about it. Climate change is altering weather patterns here and affecting the herd’s food supply.
“What a destructive, deadly, wet and expensive decade it’s been. 
“The National Meterological Service [Argentina] reported Tuesday that the high temperatures, which exceed 35 degrees, will continue in the center and north of Buenos Aires, the center and east of Córdoba, the south of Entre Ríos, the northeast of La Pampa, the south of Santa Fe and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. 
“The heavy downpour that affected the capital of São Paulo [Brazil] on Tuesday, December 10th, caused the flooding of streams and rivers, trees crashing and increased traffic jams. 
“Mines across South Africa shut down on Tuesday after flash flooding triggered the most severe power blackouts in more than a decade… 
“Hopes have been dashed that the recent widespread rain across South Africa’s summer rainfall region would put an end to widespread water-constrained and drought conditions… 
“A photographer has taken incredible pictures of the ancient Himba tribe as they live through one of the worst droughts in Namibia‘s history. 
“Kenya’s farmers are grubbing up their coffee bushes to plant other crops as low prices and climate change drive small growers to the brink of collapse… 
“India’s economic losses linked to extreme weather events were to the tune of $37,808 million for 2018. This was an almost three-fold rise over losses suffered in 2017. 
“A climatic phenomenon of near-record intensity has contributed to two extremes on opposite sides of the Indian Ocean — torrential rain in East Africa and exceptionally dry conditions fuelling bushfires in Australia. 
“Perth [Australia] is set to be blasted by another record heatwave, with four 40C [104f] days in a row kicking off from tomorrow. 
“Thousands of people have rallied in Sydney to protest against inaction on the climate crisis, after months of bushfires and hazardous smoke in New South Wales and Queensland.
“Extremely low sea ice in the Bering Sea. Heavy rainfall in the mid-Atlantic United States. Wildfires in northeast Australia.