“Italian authorities have closed roads and ordered the evacuation of huts on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, following warnings that part of a glacier could collapse at any moment.
“A staggering 250,000 cubic meters (8.8 million cubic feet) of ice could break away from the Planpincieux glacier on the Grandes Jorasses mountain in the Mont Blanc massif, experts at the Valle d’Aosta regional government and the Fondazione Montagna Sicura (Safe Mountain Foundation) reported in an analysis published this week.”
“Britain is battling widespread flooding today after thunderstorms dumped a month’s worth of rain on London yesterday – and there’s no end in sight to the wet weather.
“The Environment Agency has issued 35 alerts and warnings over the torrential downpour and Brits are being urged to stay vigilant with heavy rain expected for the rest of the week.”
“Tropical Storm Karen drenched south-central Puerto Rico, causing a river to wash away a bridge and cutting off at least 15 families, the National Weather Service said late Tuesday.
“Even as Karen moves away from the US territory, it’ll bring heavy rainfall, strong thunderstorms and flooding threats through Wednesday, forecasters said.”
“Miami has a long history of responding to extreme weather. In 1992, the city faced 145 mph winds from Hurricane Andrew, which caused $27.3 billion in damages.
“Two years ago, it dealt with 3.9 feet of storm surge from Hurricane Irma. But Miami’s mayor, Francis X. Suarez, says the city has no means to protect itself from the kind of “super hurricanes” threatening the region.”
“Thousands of people in northern California woke up on Tuesday without electricity after the utility company Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to try to prevent wildfires amid windy, dry and hot conditions.
“PG&E cut electrical service to 24,000 customers in three counties in the Sierra Nevada foothills on Monday evening, saying power would remain off until weather conditions improve.”
“Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has launched a cantankerous and conspiratorial defense of his environmental record, blaming Emmanuel Macron and the “deceitful” media for hyping this year’s fires in the Amazon…
“About 17% of the Amazon has been destroyed over the last 50 years with some scientists fearing the rainforest could reach an irreversible tipping point if that rises to 20% or 25%.”
“More than 224,000 fires have ravaged the Amazon basin this year and 12 million hectares of forest have been destroyed. In Bolivia, more than 2 million hectares of woodland and savanna have been reduced to ashes in the past two months.
“The country has deployed more than 5,000 people to fight the flames, including firefighters, troops and volunteers.”
“…while the first snowfalls fall on the Urals mountain range, a completely different situation is taking place more to the east, where an exceptional heat wave is taking place.
“Thus, while the city of Yekaterinburg saw snow and a maximum temperature of only + 3 ° C, the city of Krasnoyarsk, located in southern Siberia north of Mongolia, was hit by a historic wave of heat…”
“Bats have been migrating earlier than usual this year due to inland drought and a lack of food in Queensland’s south-east, with red flying foxes covering Mount Isa’s sky as they relocate to their seasonal home in the town’s cemetery…
“It follows several reports of unusual bat sightings and mass die-offs across eastern Australia.”
“Wildfires that have been raging in Indonesia may hurt economic growth if the problem persists, Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Dody Budi Waluyo said.
““The impact of forest and land fires that cause smoke disruption, if prolonged, will certainly have an impact on economic and business activities,” Waluyo said via text message on Wednesday, without quantifying the effect.”
“Hyderabad [India] has received a record amount of rain this month – the most in over 100 years – according to KT Rama Rao,
“Telangana’s Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development… Heavy rain over Monday and Tuesday night left several areas of the city flooded.”
“Torrential rains battered Hyderabad and brought the city to a standstill, with the city witnessing over 120 mm of rainfall in some areas….
“A hospital in Lallaguda was inundated, the road between Lothkunta and Yapral caved in, trees fell and several low lying areas in the city were affected.”
“More than two million residents of Zimbabwe‘s capital and surrounding towns have been left without water after officials closed the city’s main treatment plant.
“The move has raised new fears about water-borne diseases after a recent cholera outbreak.”
“Climate change is devastating our seas and frozen regions as never before, a major new United Nations report warns.
“According to a UN panel of scientists, waters are rising, the ice is melting, and species are moving habitat due to human activities. And the loss of permanently frozen lands threatens to unleash even more carbon, hastening the decline.”
“…scientists are seeing ocean temperatures rise dangerously again. Earlier this month, scientists announced a heat wave ramping up in the Pacific. It’s the second-largest heat wave recorded in the Pacific Ocean.
“Many of the ocean’s corals are still recovering from the damage they suffered under the 2014-17 heat wave, so the current one could be even more dangerous.”
“NASA says that on Sept. 18, Arctic sea ice reached the second lowest area on record after a summer with temperatures about 7 to 9 degrees above average.
“Satellites measured sea ice at 4.15 million square kilometers, or 1.60 million square miles, which actually tied the second lowest on record also set in 2016 and 2007…
“While temperatures are now expected to fall below freezing and sea ice could start reforming, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) says that there is a chance that shifting wind patterns or a late-season melt could reduce sea ice extent even further.”
“Fall officially arrived with the autumnal equinox at 3:50 a.m. EDT Monday morning, but finding the colder weather more typical of autumn may be a difficult task, according to the latest three-month outlook from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
“The CPC predicts that the entire country will have warmer than average temperatures from October through December. You read that correctly: No areas of the United States are forecast to have below average temperatures when averaged over that three-month period.”
““Yeah, we dried out pretty quick and soil started to dry out,” Brett Williams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said. “So we had a very, very warm and very, very dry … July and things got really bad in August.”
“Williams said this September is solidly on track to be the hottest ever in Austin [Texas]. This month has already set a new record when it comes to triple-digit days: We’ve had 17, so far. Before this year, September 2011 held the record with 14 triple-digit days.”
“As their country falls apart, a hardy team of scientists in Venezuela is determined to transcend the political and economic turmoil to record what happens as the country’s last glacier vanishes…
“Scientists say Venezuela will be the first country in South America to lose all its glaciers.”
“Just four years after a major marine heat wave killed nearly half of this coastline’s coral, federal researchers are predicting another round of hot water will cause some of the worst coral bleaching the region has ever experienced.
“”In 2015, we hit temperatures that we’ve never recorded ever in Hawaii,” said Jamison Gove, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “What is really important — or alarming, probably more appropriately — about this event is that we’ve been tracking above where we were at this time in 2015.””
“Large numbers of bats are being found severely emaciated or starved to death in Australia amid a prolonged drought that is crippling their food supply, according to wildlife carers and environment officials…
“Volunteer wildlife carer Ashley Fraser said Tuesday that parts of the picturesque Gold Coast, a popular tourist destination, were currently “littered” with hundreds of dead bats.”
“The Northern Indian Ocean has generated a new tropical cyclone. NASA provided an infrared look a recently formed Tropical Storm Hikaa, moving through the Arabian Sea…
“Hikaa will strengthen slightly before making landfall in Oman after a day or so.”
“The Somali Region has suffered from chronic drought for several years, with the worst stretch recorded in 2016, from which many households have yet to recover.
“This year the short rainy season known as the ‘belg’, which typically lasts from March to May, once again failed to provide much-anticipated ground water. The livestock have already started to die.”
“In Austria, researchers are drilling into mountain glaciers in the Alps in search of data about the Earth’s climate thousands of years ago…
“One scientist involved in the work, Andrea Fischer, told Reuters news agency that glaciers on the eastern edge of the Alps Mountains are especially sensitive to climate change. She said the glaciers have been shrinking, making the examination process urgent.”
“Tropical Storm Lorenzo has formed a few hundred miles southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands. It’s heading “generally westward” over the Atlantic at about 16 mph.
“While Lorenzo won’t be a threat to land this week, it is expected to strengthen quickly, becoming a hurricane by midweek and potentially a major hurricane by the weekend.”
“Historically, the purpose of a family office has been to preserve and grow the wealth of their owning [high net worth] families or individuals.
“Now, however, over half of them “consider climate change to represent the single greatest threat to the world”, according to a new study released on Tuesday by UBS, a Swiss bank.”
“Year after year, heat records keep getting broken.
“As we head into fall, we can look back and see that the summer of 2019, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, has just tied with the summer of 2016 for the hottest meteorological summer on record in the Northern Hemisphere.”
“Scientists from US space agency NASA compared different climate simulations of the initial phase of Venus, and the results showed habitable past of the Earth’s sister planet.
“The study presented last week at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC-DPS), showed that Venus contained water and maintained moderate temperatures for 2-3 billion years.”
“A damning new UN report published on Sunday warned the world was falling badly behind in the race to avert climate disaster as a result of runaway warming, with the five years ending 2019 set to be the hottest ever…
“The past four years were already the hottest since records began in 1850.”
“The first day of fall will feel more like summer in the East [USA], and the hot weather conditions will persist in the South through much of the week ahead, potentially breaking record highs.
“Temperatures will range from the upper 80s in the Northeast to the lower 90s in the South for the first day of fall on Monday.”
“National Weather Service meteorologist Vince Godon said that Grand Forks and surrounding areas ‘really got slammed’ including golf-ball sized hail along the Canadian border from Pembina, North Dakota, to Roseau, Minnesota.
“The weather service says Goodrich, in north-central North Dakota, received 7.8 inches of rain in 24 hours.”
“It takes just seconds here to be overwhelmed by the stench of death.
“More than two weeks after Hurricane Dorian wiped out entire neighborhoods, East Grand Bahama still looks like a war zone. The carnage is so widespread that even police officers can’t bear to see it.”
“Hundreds of people held a funeral and paid respects to a Swiss glacier that is disappearing as temperatures climb.
“Pizol glacier in the Glarus Alps, eastern Switzerland, stands at an altitude of about 2,700 meters, and has lost 80-90% of its volume since 2006, leaving behind 26,000 square meters of ice — less than four football fields…”
“Hundreds of fish have washed up on the shores of a lake after drought caused a drop in the water level.
The phenomenon is blamed on high temperatures and a lack of rainfall. UN studies show Greece is one of the main countries under threat of desertification due to climate change.”
“Hundreds of domestic flights in Japan were canceled because of Typhoon Tapah, and the storm caused similar disruptions in South Korea as it moved to make landfall Sunday.
“Airlines operating in Japan called off more than 420 domestic flights as of 2 p.m. Sunday due to the typhoon, the national broadcaster NHK reported. More than 390 flights have been canceled in South Korea as 4 p.m. local time, Yonhap reported.”
“Weather officials say the heaviest rainfall in half a century has hit Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture, as severe tropical storm Tapah moves through the region.
“Hourly rainfall of 80 millimeters [3.15 inches] was recorded on Sunday evening in the city, which is an island on the Sea of Japan. City officials say they’ve received reports of flooding from residents, but they are unable to grasp the situation in detail.”
“As world leaders meet in New York from Monday to discuss the global challenge of climate change, thousands of kilometres away people in Cambodia are grappling with dramatic changes to the country’s ecosystem, including the lowest water levels in the crucially-important Mekong River ever recorded.”
“What was once considered an “extreme” Queensland bushfire season should now be expected every year, firefighters say.
“Queensland has endured an early-season bushfire emergency this month after hot and dry conditions and strong winds fuelled dozens of blazes, which destroyed 17 homes mostly in the state’s south.”
“The blob is back — and no, we aren’t talking about the cult classic horror movie. Although this blob can be quite horrific, especially for our marine life.
“As The Weather Network’s Kelly Sonnenburg describes, the blob is a warmer-than-normal area of water located in the Pacific Ocean just off the west coast of North America and it can be linked to influencing our weather pattern across North America.”
“Surface meltwater draining through the ice and beneath Antarctic glaciers is causing sudden and rapid accelerations in their flow towards the sea, according to new research.
“This is the first time scientists have found that melting on the surface impacts the flow of glaciers in Antarctica.”
“Climate change is accelerating, with carbon dioxide levels increasing, sea levels rising and ice sheets melting faster than ever, experts have warned.
“The warning from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) forms part of a “united in science” review for a UN climate action summit at which countries are being urged to increase their ambition to tackle emissions.”
“Day Zero is pending in at least a dozen Australian country towns stretching from the northern state of Queensland – known for its sprawling banana plantations and tropical heatwaves – to the state of New South Wales, whose capital Sydney is the country’s most populous city.
“Successive droughts and the extra water needed to fight intense bushfires have caused an unprecedented shortage, with these regions now facing the prospect of the taps running out within a matter of months.”
“Melbourne has sweated through with its warmest night in September in almost 20 years in the midst of wild winds that have caused airport chaos.
“The temperature stayed at 20C or above on Thursday night and Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport was hit with severe wind gusts forcing one plane from the US to make an emergency landing.”
“Abby Frazier, a geographer at the East West Center specializing in drought research, recently explored the financial cost of a record-breaking drought that lasted from 2007 to 2014 [Hawaii].
“That episode of abnormal dryness was exceptional both in its duration and severity. Frazier characterized the 7 year drought as unprecedented in 100 years of data.”
“The city of Trinidad, in the department of Beni [Bolivia], has endured a heat wave for more than three days, temperatures reached a record 39.5 degrees Celsius and the thermal sensation reached 43 degrees on Tuesday…
“Due to the intense fires that are registered around Trinidad, the smoke covered almost the entire city and in some cases the scheduled flights had to be suspended, as a precaution.”
“Owners pulled boats from the water and hauled them away on trailers, while shopkeepers put plywood over windows and doors as Tropical Storm Lorena bore down on Mexico’s resort-studded Los Cabos area, predicted to arrive Friday at hurricane force.”
“[Harvey] was an event of biblical proportions. The kind that, in previous decades, would be expected only once every millennium.
“But Harvey was soon followed by equally catastrophic storms named Irma, Maria, Florence, Dorian and now Imelda is disintegrating over southeast Texas, leaving behind a little-too-familiar deluge as a parting gift.”
“Humberto hit Bermuda with 130 mph winds, parts of Texas are treading water after three feet of rain, and Jerry became a hurricane. …
“Humberto hit Bermuda with winds up to 132 mph, people in parts of Texas are treading water after the remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda dumped three feet of rainfall…”
“Jerry strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane Friday and was packing sustained winds of 105 mph in the Atlantic as it headed in the direction of the northern Leeward Islands, forecasters said.”
“[Alaska’s] wildfire seasons with more than 1 million acres burned (black patches the size of Rhode Island) have increased by 50% since 1990… People in the village of Northway felt the sting of -30F air about 40 days each year before 1960. In the last 10 years, Northway residents have experienced less than one month per year of such days.
“Since 2014, thermometers from Ketchikan to Utqiagvik have recorded from five to 30 times more record highs than record lows.”
“Large Typhoon Tapah will likely bring strong winds and heavy rain to extensive areas of the Japanese archipelago over the three-day weekend, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.”
“More than 580,000 people have been impacted and at least 28 have died in floods caused by heavy rains over the past two weeks in Laos’ southern provinces, according to estimates revised during a cabinet meeting this week.
“The death toll figure was reported by the Vientiane Times Thursday.”
“With no relief in sight from a noxious layer of smoke and ash that has engulfed parts of South-east Asia, Indonesia accused the nation’s timber and plantation industries of failing to prevent the emergence of wildfires…
“Indonesian authorities have named more than 200 companies including oil palm, pulp producers and individual farmers as responsible for starting the fires and sealed their land holdings.”
“Tropical Storm Imelda weakened to a tropical depression but could still shower the Houston area with the most rainfall it has seen from one storm since Hurricane Harvey as early as Wednesday, raising prospects of heavy flooding…
“Imelda formed over the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday afternoon and made landfall near Freeport, the National Hurricane Center said.
“The storm was dumping rain over southeastern Texas and is expected to keep doing so for a couple of days as it moves inland.
“”Many of the forecast models are suggesting 6 to 10 inches of rain with isolated higher amounts across the region,” CNN meteorologist Judson Jones said. “If the forecast holds, the amount of rain to fall would be the highest storm total rainfall since Hurricane Harvey in 2017.””
“Hurricane Humberto continues to strengthen and has become a major hurricane as it moves away from the United States toward Bermuda.
“With maximum sustained wind speeds of up to 115 mph — and gusts up to 125 mph — Tuesday evening, the large Category 3 storm is forecast to pass dangerously close Wednesday night to Bermuda.”
“Farmers in South Dakota, many still recovering from historic spring flooding, were hit with another record-shattering flood this week.
“Although it is too soon to determine the full extent of damage, the flooding could prevent farmers from harvesting thousands of acres of corn, soy and other crops. It also has destroyed miles of county roads and bridges and threatens livestock across the region.”
“Longstanding weather records wilted in Monday’s heat. Environment Canada confirmed 13 communities broke their all time daily-heat records in Saskatchewan, including both Melfort and Prince Albert, which saw previous benchmarks eliminated by two degrees.”
“Kivalina and a few other native coastal Alaskan villages face the impact of the warming Arctic, which has resulted in the loss of sea ice that buffers the island’s shorelines from storm surges and coastal erosion.
“The residents of Kivalina hope they can stay on their ancestral lands and preserve their culture, rather than dispersing due to their island being swallowed by the rising waters of the ocean.”
“Far from being barren places, glaciers represent more than 10% of our landmass and are teeming with biodiversity.
“They are spawning and breeding places not just for the familiar species like whales, arctic hares and foxes, polar bears, seals and muskoxen but also for bacteria, fungi and algae that have a vital role in the planet’s biodiversity.”
“The Arctic had never been hotter in recorded history. Ice was gone from the Bering Sea months early, and on the tundra I knew so well from years on a dogsled, the uncanny warmth also left its mark. Here, a lake gone, drained in a matter of days after the permafrost holding one bank loosened under the sun.
“There, spruces leaning in ashy gray clusters, killed as their roots pulled free of soil that had lost its lining of ice.”
“Spanish police say they have found the body of a missing Dutchman, raising the death toll in last week’s storms and flooding in southeastern Spain to seven.
“The Civil Guard in the southeastern province of Alicante said the body was found Tuesday in a canal after he was swept away in the floods.”
“A typhoon, formed in waters 630 kilometers southeast of Japan, is moving northwest and could strike the Korean Peninsula. The Korea Meteorological Administration said Wednesday Typhoon Peipah is moving at 36 kilometers per hour…
“The KMA expects Peipah to strengthen over the next 24 hours as it passes through “warm” waters of 28 degrees Celsius and higher.”
“A before-and-after video captured in New South Wales, Australia, shows the devastating impacts of a prolonged drought that has gripped the region in recent years.”
“Farmers struggling to cope with the drought are desperate for rain, but in northern New South Wales they have instead been hit by a severe hailstorm, which has wiped out a number of crops.”
“Victorians have been told to brace for a horror fire season with the state government warning this summer could be as bad as last year, which saw record temperatures.
“Ferocious fires have already raged in unexpected areas of Queensland and New South Wales, prompting early planning for Victoria’s fire season.”
“New research suggests that the greenhouse gases we’re putting into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels will heat the planet more quickly than we assumed.
“By 2100 mean temperatures could rise 6.5 to 7.0 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels if carbon emissions continue unabated, according to two separate models from leading research centers in France.”
“The Northern Hemisphere just had its hottest summer on record since 1880, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data released Monday.
“NOAA found the average global surface temperature taken by thousands of thermometers, buoys and other sensors on land and sea tied with that of 2016 for the top spot, with a temperature anomaly of 2.03 degrees (1.13 Celsius) above the 20th-century average.”
“A late-summer heat wave that is expected to see temperatures reach 30 Celsius in Manitoba is not likely to set any daytime records. However, lingering heat through the overnight hours almost certainly will go into the record books.
“”One thing that’s unusual with this late-season warmth is how humid it is,” said Brad Vrolijk, a forecaster with Environment Canada.”
“A record high temperature of 94 degrees was documented in Kahului on Sunday, Sept. 15, breaking the old record of 92 degrees set for the same day in 1977 according to data compiled by the National Weather Service…
“Over the course of the last 29 days, there was only one day when temperatures did not tie or break old records in Hawaiʻi…”
“With high temperatures eclipsing 90 degrees every day so far this month, and above average temperatures expected to continue, the Baton Rouge area will very likely set its hottest September on record.
“In addition to weeks of above average temperatures, Metro Airport has only recorded rain on one day in September. This as the region heads into the historically driest time of the year.”
“Torrential rain in Norway has caused a river to burst its banks and sweep away more than 100 sheep, Norwegian police have said.
“Heavy rain on Monday (16 September) lashed the country’s western area, causing the river Surna to overflow. More than 100 sheep are presumed dead after being carried away by the water.”
“The Zimbabwean government has declared a state of disaster in all urban and rural areas following a drought that has cut crop output by more than half, the Civil Protection Unit said in the Government Gazette.
“The drought has affected more than 5.7 million people, according to aid agencies…”
“Zambia, Africa’s second-biggest copper producer, may double power tariffs as the government seeks more costly imports to offset a shortfall from its drought-stricken hydropower dams.
“The southern African nation has an electricity deficit of more than 700 megawatts, about a quarter of total capacity, and wants to buy 300 megawatts from South Africa, Energy Minister Matthew Nkhuwa told reporters in Lusaka, the capital.”
““There is evidence that extreme weather events in South Africa are increasing, with heatwave conditions found to be more likely, dry spell durations lengthening slightly and rainfall intensity increasing.
““Climate zones across the country are already shifting, ecosystems and landscapes are being degraded, veld fires are becoming more frequent, and overused natural terrestrial and marine systems are under stress.””
“Over the past month, the annual slash-and-burn efforts to create agricultural land across Indonesia’s Sumatra and Borneo islands have led to nearly 1,000 wildfires that are generating thick clouds of smoke and haze now blanketing parts of Southeast Asia.
“Most of the blazes are illegal fires set to clear land for palm oil and pulpwood industries.”
“A gas explosion has sparked a fire at a Russian lab that houses viruses ranging from smallpox to Ebola, authorities have said…
“The blast took place during repairs to a fifth-floor sanitary inspection room at the State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology – usually known as Vector – in Koltsovo, in the Novosibirsk region of Siberia, the centre said on Monday.”
“Thousands of flammable lakes are popping up all over Alaska and Siberia. That’s because rising global temperatures are creating these thermokarst lakes as well as the perfect storm for our changing climate.”
“Latest data released by a US institution, the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), sounds afresh alarm bells for the Artic and climate change. It adds further evidence corroborating an earlier hypothesis that predicts a catastrophic release of methane in the coming decades due to thawing Arctic permafrost.
“In a central Arctic location, a research site in the US state of Alaska, record-breaking level in methane concentration was recorded for this year. The sudden jump sent waves of uneasiness through social networks.”
“Approximately 3.9 million square kilometres of the Arctic Ocean are covered by sea ice this month, only the second time the annual minimum has dropped below four million square kilometres since satellite measurements began in 1979, the researchers said in a news release on Friday…
“…even with Arctic fall air temperatures below zero, heat stored in the water could continue to melt sea-ice from beneath for several weeks.”
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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.
“Italian authorities have closed roads and ordered the evacuation of huts on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, following warnings that part of a glacier could collapse at any moment.
“Thunderstorms swept western Greece on Tuesday causing flooding, power outages and claiming the lives of two people struck by lightning. 
“Spain’s Costa Blanca is facing a devastating plague of mosquitoes following the country’s worst flooding in a century. 
“Britain is battling widespread flooding today after thunderstorms dumped a month’s worth of rain on London yesterday – and there’s no end in sight to the wet weather. 
“Tropical Storm Karen drenched south-central Puerto Rico, causing a river to wash away a bridge and cutting off at least 15 families, the National Weather Service said late Tuesday. 
“Miami has a long history of responding to extreme weather. In 1992, the city faced 145 mph winds from Hurricane Andrew, which caused $27.3 billion in damages. 
“A new record 24 hour rainfall amount has been set for the state of Michigan. 
“Thousands of people in northern California woke up on Tuesday without electricity after the utility company Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to try to prevent wildfires amid windy, dry and hot conditions. 
“Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has launched a cantankerous and conspiratorial defense of his environmental record, blaming Emmanuel Macron and the “deceitful” media for hyping this year’s fires in the Amazon… 
“More than 224,000 fires have ravaged the Amazon basin this year and 12 million hectares of forest have been destroyed. In Bolivia, more than 2 million hectares of woodland and savanna have been reduced to ashes in the past two months. 
“…while the first snowfalls fall on the Urals mountain range, a completely different situation is taking place more to the east, where an exceptional heat wave is taking place. 
“Bats have been migrating earlier than usual this year due to inland drought and a lack of food in Queensland’s south-east, with red flying foxes covering Mount Isa’s sky as they relocate to their seasonal home in the town’s cemetery… 
“Wildfires that have been raging in Indonesia may hurt economic growth if the problem persists, Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Dody Budi Waluyo said. 
“Hyderabad [India] has received a record amount of rain this month – the most in over 100 years – according to KT Rama Rao, 
“Torrential rains battered Hyderabad and brought the city to a standstill, with the city witnessing over 120 mm of rainfall in some areas…. 
“More than two million residents of Zimbabwe‘s capital and surrounding towns have been left without water after officials closed the city’s main treatment plant. 
“Climate change is devastating our seas and frozen regions as never before, a major new United Nations report warns. 
“…scientists are seeing ocean temperatures rise dangerously again. Earlier this month, scientists announced a heat wave ramping up in the Pacific. It’s the second-largest heat wave recorded in the Pacific Ocean. 
“NASA says that on Sept. 18, Arctic sea ice reached the second lowest area on record after a summer with temperatures about 7 to 9 degrees above average.
“Fall officially arrived with the autumnal equinox at 3:50 a.m. EDT Monday morning, but finding the colder weather more typical of autumn may be a difficult task, according to the latest three-month outlook from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
““Yeah, we dried out pretty quick and soil started to dry out,” Brett Williams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said. “So we had a very, very warm and very, very dry … July and things got really bad in August.”
“As their country falls apart, a hardy team of scientists in Venezuela is determined to transcend the political and economic turmoil to record what happens as the country’s last glacier vanishes… 
“Just four years after a major marine heat wave killed nearly half of this coastline’s coral, federal researchers are predicting another round of hot water will cause some of the worst coral bleaching the region has ever experienced.
“Large numbers of bats are being found severely emaciated or starved to death in Australia amid a prolonged drought that is crippling their food supply, according to wildlife carers and environment officials… 
“A powerful typhoon has battered parts of South Korea, injuring dozens of people and knocking out power to about 27,000 houses. 
“The Northern Indian Ocean has generated a new tropical cyclone. NASA provided an infrared look a recently formed Tropical Storm Hikaa, moving through the Arabian Sea… 
“The Somali Region has suffered from chronic drought for several years, with the worst stretch recorded in 2016, from which many households have yet to recover. 
“In Austria, researchers are drilling into mountain glaciers in the Alps in search of data about the Earth’s climate thousands of years ago… 
“Tropical Storm Lorenzo has formed a few hundred miles southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands. It’s heading “generally westward” over the Atlantic at about 16 mph. 
“Historically, the purpose of a family office has been to preserve and grow the wealth of their owning [high net worth] families or individuals. 
“Year after year, heat records keep getting broken. 
“Scientists from US space agency NASA compared different climate simulations of the initial phase of Venus, and the results showed habitable past of the Earth’s sister planet. 
“A damning new UN report published on Sunday warned the world was falling badly behind in the race to avert climate disaster as a result of runaway warming, with the five years ending 2019 set to be the hottest ever…
“The first day of fall will feel more like summer in the East [USA], and the hot weather conditions will persist in the South through much of the week ahead, potentially breaking record highs. 
“National Weather Service meteorologist Vince Godon said that Grand Forks and surrounding areas ‘really got slammed’ including golf-ball sized hail along the Canadian border from Pembina, North Dakota, to Roseau, Minnesota. 
“It takes just seconds here to be overwhelmed by the stench of death. 
“Hundreds of people held a funeral and paid respects to a Swiss glacier that is disappearing as temperatures climb. 
“Hundreds of fish have washed up on the shores of a lake after drought caused a drop in the water level. 
“A depression off the Gujarat coast has deepened into a Cyclonic Storm (named ‘Hikka’) early on Monday morning. 
“Hundreds of domestic flights in Japan were canceled because of Typhoon Tapah, and the storm caused similar disruptions in South Korea as it moved to make landfall Sunday. 
“Weather officials say the heaviest rainfall in half a century has hit Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture, as severe tropical storm Tapah moves through the region. 
“As world leaders meet in New York from Monday to discuss the global challenge of climate change, thousands of kilometres away people in Cambodia are grappling with dramatic changes to the country’s ecosystem, including the lowest water levels in the crucially-important Mekong River ever recorded.”
“A trembling farmer [Queensland, Australia] has choked back tears while describing the devastation the drought has had on his land and livestock. 
“What was once considered an “extreme” Queensland bushfire season should now be expected every year, firefighters say. 
“Surface meltwater draining through the ice and beneath Antarctic glaciers is causing sudden and rapid accelerations in their flow towards the sea, according to new research. 
“Climate change is accelerating, with carbon dioxide levels increasing, sea levels rising and ice sheets melting faster than ever, experts have warned.
“Day Zero is pending in at least a dozen Australian country towns stretching from the northern state of Queensland – known for its sprawling banana plantations and tropical heatwaves – to the state of New South Wales, whose capital Sydney is the country’s most populous city.
“After a long drought and warm winter for much of the country, meteorologists are predicting a hotter, drier, longer summer
“Melbourne has sweated through with its warmest night in September in almost 20 years in the midst of wild winds that have caused airport chaos. 
“Abby Frazier, a geographer at the East West Center specializing in drought research, recently explored the financial cost of a record-breaking drought that lasted from 2007 to 2014 [Hawaii]. 
“The city of Trinidad, in the department of Beni [Bolivia], has endured a heat wave for more than three days, temperatures reached a record 39.5 degrees Celsius and the thermal sensation reached 43 degrees on Tuesday… 
“[Harvey] was an event of biblical proportions. The kind that, in previous decades, would be expected only once every millennium. 
“Humberto hit Bermuda with 130 mph winds, parts of Texas are treading water after three feet of rain, and Jerry became a hurricane. … 
“[Alaska’s] wildfire seasons with more than 1 million acres burned (black patches the size of Rhode Island) have increased by 50% since 1990… People in the village of Northway felt the sting of -30F air about 40 days each year before 1960. In the last 10 years, Northway residents have experienced less than one month per year of such days.
“Temperatures here [Greenland] have risen more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet because the Arctic 
“More than 580,000 people have been impacted and at least 28 have died in floods caused by heavy rains over the past two weeks in Laos’ southern provinces, according to estimates revised during a cabinet meeting this week. 
“With no relief in sight from a noxious layer of smoke and ash that has engulfed parts of South-east Asia, Indonesia accused the nation’s timber and plantation industries of failing to prevent the emergence of wildfires… 
“Tropical Storm Imelda weakened to a tropical depression but could still shower the Houston area with the most rainfall it has seen from one storm since Hurricane Harvey as early as Wednesday, raising prospects of heavy flooding…
“”Many of the forecast models are suggesting 6 to 10 inches of rain with isolated higher amounts across the region,” CNN meteorologist Judson Jones said. “If the forecast holds, the amount of rain to fall would be the highest storm total rainfall since Hurricane Harvey in 2017.””
“Hurricane Humberto continues to strengthen and has become a major hurricane as it moves away from the United States toward Bermuda. 
“Farmers in South Dakota, many still recovering from historic spring flooding, were hit with another record-shattering flood this week. 
“Kivalina and a few other native coastal Alaskan villages face the impact of the warming Arctic, which has resulted in the loss of sea ice that buffers the island’s shorelines from storm surges and coastal erosion. 
“Far from being barren places, glaciers represent more than 10% of our landmass and are teeming with biodiversity. 
“The Arctic had never been hotter in recorded history. Ice was gone from the Bering Sea months early, and on the tundra I knew so well from years on a dogsled, the uncanny warmth also left its mark. Here, a lake gone, drained in a matter of days after the permafrost holding one bank loosened under the sun. 
“A strong storm in northern Germany forced rail operator Deutsche Bahn to cancel many trains in the region. 
“Spanish police say they have found the body of a missing Dutchman, raising the death toll in last week’s storms and flooding in southeastern Spain to seven. 
“Nalgonda district in Telangana [India] has broken its 119 years rain record with registering 200.8mm [around 8 inches] of rainfall in six hours. 
“Farmers struggling to cope with the drought are desperate for rain, but in northern New South Wales they have instead been hit by a severe hailstorm, which has wiped out a number of crops.”
“The Northern Hemisphere just had its hottest summer on record since 1880, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data released Monday.
“A late-summer heat wave that is expected to see temperatures reach 30 Celsius in Manitoba is not likely to set any daytime records. However, lingering heat through the overnight hours almost certainly will go into the record books. 
“A record high temperature of 94 degrees was documented in Kahului on Sunday, Sept. 15, breaking the old record of 92 degrees set for the same day in 1977 according to data compiled by the National Weather Service… 
“With high temperatures eclipsing 90 degrees every day so far this month, and above average temperatures expected to continue, the Baton Rouge area will very likely set its hottest September on record. 
“Torrential rain in Norway has caused a river to burst its banks and sweep away more than 100 sheep, Norwegian police have said. 
“In photos: Storm wreaks havoc across eastern Spain.
“Zambia, Africa’s second-biggest copper producer, may double power tariffs as the government seeks more costly imports to offset a shortfall from its drought-stricken hydropower dams. 
““There is evidence that extreme weather events in South Africa are increasing, with heatwave conditions found to be more likely, dry spell durations lengthening slightly and rainfall intensity increasing. 
“Australia’s biggest tea producer is reeling from two consecutive seasons of frost and drought, hampering its production in north Queensland… 
“A gas explosion has sparked a fire at a Russian lab that houses viruses ranging from smallpox to Ebola, authorities have said… 
“Thousands of flammable lakes are popping up all over Alaska and Siberia. That’s because rising global temperatures are creating these thermokarst lakes as well as the perfect storm for our changing climate.”
“Approximately 3.9 million square kilometres of the Arctic Ocean are covered by sea ice this month, only the second time the annual minimum has dropped below four million square kilometres since satellite measurements began in 1979, the researchers said in a news release on Friday… 