“Israel was hit with heavy rains this week, causing power outages and severe flooding throughout the country, a highly unusual occurrence for mid-June.
“Kibbutz Dorot in the south of the country recorded an all-time high rainfall for the month of June. The meteorological service measured 64 millimeters of rainfall in the Western Negev on Tuesday morning, topping the previous record in Israel of 50 millimeters of rainfall in a day during the month of June…”
““The situation is critical because of flash floods and landslides [in Manipur and Mizoram, India]. We are trying to rescue people and provide relief besides assessing the situation,” Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh said, adding that educational institutions in the valley were closed on Wednesday.”
“Many say they have not seen such heavy incessant rainfall in their lifetime. The rainfall records maintained at a private estate near Sakleshpur [India] over the past 152 years substantiate their claim.”
“Despite weakening and remaining over the open ocean through Thursday, [Hurricane] Bud will bring heavy rainfall to parts of Mexico… Rainfall amounts of 50-100 mm (2-4 inches) will be common with local amounts up to 200 mm (8 inches).”
“Some residents of Alaska are having to double check the calendar to make sure it’s still June after encountering cold temperatures and snow this week. Fairbanks saw its low temperature plunge to 36 degrees on Tuesday morning, which tied the city’s coldest reading so late in the season since 1960, according to Brian Brettschneider, an Alaska based climatologist.”
“”In 2017, Lake Tahoe’s low clarity was primarily the result of two extreme climatic and hydrologic events,” TERC Director Geoffrey Schladow, a professor of engineering at UC Davis, said in a statement. “The combination of arguably the most extreme drought period ending with the most extreme precipitation year produced the low clarity values seen.” …Researchers also cited warming temperatures as an ingredient in the low-clarity cocktail. According to the research center, 2017 summer temperatures were the warmest on record at Lake Tahoe — nearly 3 degrees warmer than in the previous three years.”
“The 416 Fire currently threatening homes and land in southwestern Colorado is now considered the fifth-largest wildfire in the state’s history. The wildfire, which initially ignited about 10 miles north of Durango on June 1, has ripped through 27,420 acres and is only 15 percent contained.”
“A historic hail storm hit southern El Paso County [Texas] in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Hail was found from quarter size up to nearly the size of a baseball.”
“In 1910, the [Montana Glacier National] park had over 100 glaciers but by 1966 only 35 remained. Today, rising temperatures are shrinking every glacier in the park. In 2015, 26 met the size criteria to be designated active glaciers.”
“Strong storms smacked eastern Pennsylvania Wednesday night, leaving six people wounded and causing significant damage to several buildings. The storm shredded homes, torn through several businesses and knocked down power lines and trees in Wilkes-Barre Township, Pennsylvania, the Luzerne County Emergency Management said.”
“Tour de France organisers might be forced into a few last minute route deviations in the coming weeks after the western Pyrénées were hit with heavy rain the caused flash floods which destroyed roads in the areas that the race is due to visit at the end of July.”
“In the past few weeks, Europe has experienced unusually wet, humid and dry conditions. While summer is just around the corner, countries like Spain and its Mediterranean neighbours have had lower temperatures than usual, while cooler nations like the UK saw temperatures reach record-breaking highs last month. According to the EU’s global monitoring site Copernicus, temperature and rainfall anomalies are expected to linger over the region.”
“Antarctica is shedding ice at an increasing rate, raising global sea levels and threatening coastal cities, according to a new international assessment published in the journal Nature.”
“With May 2018 ranking as the warmest such month on record in the continental U.S., beating out the Dust Bowl May of 1934, the country has extended a much longer heat streak. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the country has had its warmest 3-year, 4-year, and 5-year periods on record through May 2018.”
“Flash floods inundated downtown Baton Rouge streets, forcing some motorists to abandon their vehicles, and thousands lost power Tuesday evening (June 12) as heavy rains drenched south Louisiana…”
“It isn’t every day Churchill, Manitoba, is the warmest place in Canada, but that’s exactly what happened… A heat warning was in effect Monday when Churchill, also known as the “polar bear capital of the world,” …hit a high of 32.2 C. “[It] shattered the old record of 24.4 C, which was set in 1950,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Brad Vrolijk.”
“The flooding has become so intense that the town of Morlaix, located in northwestern Brittany, is still digging its way out after it was hit with an estimated month’s worth of rain in just 30 minutes last week.”
“Torrential rain continued to hit Switzerland for a second night running, this time focusing on the north-western canton of Jura. Villages in the area were flooded as the river Schuelte burst its banks.”
“Meteorologists say that the rainfall will exceed 25 liters per sqm and can even reach 60-80 liters per sqm in the southwest and in the mountain area [of Romania].”
“The UkrAgroConsult agriculture consultancy on Tuesday cut its forecast for Ukraine’s 2018/19 crop year wheat and barley harvest and exports due to a severe drought across the country.”
“Heavy rain leading to flooding is expected over Cape Town, the Cape Winelands, western parts of the Overberg and West Coast District tomorrow into Friday.”
“The Western Cape dam levels have increased but the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs is warning that the drought is still far from over. The province’s biggest dam, Theewaterskloof is currently at 20.8%.”
“The air quality in Delhi today deteriorated beyond the “severe” level because of a ground-level dust storm in western India which increased coarser particles in the air, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data showed.”
“The air quality in Delhi today deteriorated beyond the “severe” level because of a ground-level dust storm in western India which increased coarser particles in the air, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data showed.”
“A torrent of record breaking rainfall in a short span of time, followed by a deficit is becoming normal. For instance, on June 12, Mizoram [India] received 107.7 mm of rainfall, which is 643 per cent more than the normal rainfall. Manipur, on the other hand, received 32.9 mm rainfall, which is 68 per cent more than the normal. This is when monsoon has not even been officially declared in the region.”
“The incessant torrential rains, accompanied by rushing downhill water, under the influence of a depression in the Bay have partially severed Chittagong’s [Bangladesh] road communication with the three hill districts, leaving hundreds of people marooned in different parts.”
“Fears drought conditions are taking hold in grain growing regions [of Australia] has prompted farmers to scale back their plantings. It has been so dry that the crops that have been sown have gone into soils parched by the driest autumn since 1902.”
“Coral reefs provide a first line of defence from flooding for coastal communities around the world, and a new study has calculated the huge costs of losing this valuable natural asset.”
“Météo France has placed 24 departments on continued orange alert for rain and flooding, mainly across the north and south west, as June becomes a record-breaking month for rainfall.
“In the past 12 hours, Météo France recorded 60-80mm of rain in the south Parisian region, and 30-50mm across the rest of the departments on alert.
“In Nantes, 56mm of rain was reported in just six hours, with 80mm expected in some nearby areas by today.
“One Parisian forecaster, François Jobard, said that 78mm of rain had fallen in 24 hours near the Paris-Montsouris station, and some Métro stations were experiencing flooding.”
“Lausanne and other parts of the Lake Geneva region were battered by heavy thunderstorms and a record downpour on Monday evening, causing flash flooding and disrupting several railway lines… The public broadcaster SFR Meteo said a record 41.1mm of rain fell in Lausanne in a ten-minute period at around 11pm. The previous ten-minute record was 36.1mm in Eschenz, canton Thurgau, in 2017.”
“After four consecutive poor rainy seasons that brought Somalia to the brink of famine, the country is now seeing near-record rainfall, and with it, flooding that has already displaced hundreds of thousands of people, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.”
“Large parts of China are expected to face torrential rain and thunderstorms until Thursday, with some regions at risk of flooding and landslides… China’s National Meteorological Center said the rain would hit regions like Yunnan and Tibet in the far west and then move east. Yunnan and Guangdong on the southeast coast were facing rainfall of 100-160 millimetres.”
“A record rainfall has caused unprecedented inundation in Chittagong [Bangladesh] city, causing immense suffering to the citizens and disrupting normal city life along with vehicular movement. According to the Patenga Met Office, 229.4 mm rainfall was recorded in the last 24 hours, till 3pm Monday.”
“”It’s the wettest first five months of the year [Lake Ohia, NZ] I’ve seen in the 26 years that I’ve been keeping records. It’s 181mm more than the previous record for those five months in 2003, and there’s still a lot of winter and spring to go yet.””
“Last night’s heavy rain fell on an already rain-soaked district [Gisborne, NZ]. Strong winds left city streets scattered with debris and multiple trees were down around town. This follows flooding over Queen’s Birthday weekend which impacted severely on Tolaga Bay after a million tonnes of forestry slash was washed into the waterways.”
“A strong storm struck Guadalajara, Jalisco [Mexico], yesterday producing flash flooding that affected several parts of the city, including the light rail system from which scores of people had to be rescued.”
“After a tunnel collapsed last month at Colombia’s largest hydroelectric dam project, heavy floods displaced hundreds and led authorities to evacuate thousands more. Since then, torrential downpours and a spate of landslides have caused water levels along the river to rise, putting up to 120,000 more people at risk should the Hidroituango dam breach.”
““This past month was the wettest May on record and has resulted in a significant increase in levels within the water conservation areas south of Lake Okeechobee,” said South Florida Water Management District Chief Engineer John Mi
“Dating back to May 1st, a “bullseye” of total rainfall sits over northern and eastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, far northern Indiana, and southern Lower Michigan. Totals of at least 7.5″ have been seen in all of those areas since May 1st. There are isolated locations within that geographical area that have seen well over 10″ of rain! Parts of southwest Michigan, the Chicago metro area and southeast Wisconsin have seen roughly two times as much rain since May 1st as normal.”
“The Yellowknife airport [North West Territories, Canada] reported 15 millimetres of rain by noon on Monday. That’s nearly half the rainfall expected for the city for the entire month of June and broke a rainfall record for June 11.”
“A Glasgow hospital unit was left under water after flash flooding struck on Saturday evening – while patients underwent treatment. Staff in the Renal Dialysis Unit at Stobhill hospital had to contend with six inches of water that brought down ceiling tiles after collecting on the roof.”
“Global average yields of common crops such as soy beans and lentils are set to decrease as a result of increased temperatures and water shortages, it is claimed. This could in turn have a knock-on effect on public health as key ingredients of a healthy diet become scarcer, warn researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.”
“A sunken ghost village at an artificial lake on Crete Island re-emerged in recent months as a symbol of the drought nightmare Greece could face in the coming years.”
“The plan is a response to [Israel’s] latest drought, which began five years ago. The Sea of Galilee is currently at 213.46 meters, or 689 feet, below sea level, which brings it to half a meter below the lower red line, a serious danger level. If it reaches the black line, at 214.87 meters, or 705 feet below sea level, the Sea of Galilee could face irreversible ecological damage.”
“A severe tropical storm is moving along Japan’s Pacific coast, bringing heavy rains and strong winds to central and eastern Japan… Weather officials are warning of landsides, flooding and high waves.”
“Hurricane Bud, now swirling off the west coast of Mexico, is forecast to strengthen into a Category-2 hurricane and impact both Mexico and the Southwest U.S. over the next few days.”
“Eleven large wildfires are burning in the U.S., with most of them centered in the Southwest. The largest, the 416 fire in Durango, Colorado, has grown to almost 17,000 acres. Over the weekend, parts of Colorado were approaching record heat with windy conditions providing a perfect set-up for wildfire growth.”
“Several Cass County [Michigan] families are trying are trying to bring peace back to their family member’s final resting places. The relentless heavy rain there caused some of the tombstones and graves to actually come out of the ground.”
“The UN chief painted a picture of fish stocks being crippled by overfishing, vast coastal dead zones from pollution and untreated waste being discharged into the sea. “And, to compound these issues, we have the growing impacts of climate change,” he asserted. Ocean acidification is disrupting the marine food chain and record-level ocean temperatures are killing coral reefs and creating fiercer, more frequent storms.”
“The U.S. sizzled with record warmth” in May, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). May warmed to a record average 65.4 degrees in the Lower 48 states, breaking the high of 64.7 set in 1934, according to federal weather figures.
“May was 5.2 degrees above the 20th century’s average for the month.
“Weather stations in the nation broke or tied nearly 8,600 daily heat records in May, the NOAA reported. It hit 100 in Minneapolis on May 28, the earliest the city has seen triple digits.
“”The warmth was coast-to-coast,” said climate scientist Jake Crouch at NOAA’s Centers for Environmental Information…
“”The United Kingdom, Germany and other places also set May heat records, but overall global figures for the month are still being tabulated, Crouch said.
“It was especially warm at night in the U.S. during May. The overnight low temperature averaged 52.5 degrees nationwide. That broke the record by 2 degrees which “is unheard of” at this time of year, he said.””
“Environment Canada has confirmed that last month was both the driest and warmest May on record for the Sunshine Coast.”
“Tait says a large piece of ice recently broke off the toe of the Llewellyn Glacier, at the south end of Atlin Lake, in B.C. He figures the piece was about a kilometre, or a kilometre and a half, long.”
Meanwhile on the East coast: “An unusually late frost is affecting blueberry crops across the province, with some farmers estimating 50 per cent of their fields were frozen and won’t produce fruit. Temperatures were at record-breaking lows in New Brunswick on Monday morning, causing irreparable damage to blueberry plants, many just starting to bloom.”
And while some parts of central and NW North America have been unusually dry – in some cases record-breakingly dry – parts of the east and south were absolutely inundated: “From Key West to Pensacola, Florida averaged 9.23 inches of rain in May, topping the 2009 record of 8.91 inches in measurements that have been logged since 1895.”
“The frequency of coastal flooding from high tides has doubled in the US in just 30 years, with communities near shorelines warned that the next two years are set to be punctuated by particularly severe inundations, as ocean levels continue to rise amid serious global climate change concerns.”
Tropical storms are slowing due to climate change – “A storm that sits still over one place for an extended period of time brings that much more wind and rain to that area. “Nothing good can come of a slower storm,” said Kossin.”
“It’s only the first week of summer, yet a heatwave is already set to hit Greece as of today, where temperatures will rise as high as 40 degrees Celsius.”
“In Bouake, Ivory Coast’s second city, the regular water supply trickled to a halt three months ago – a shortage that officials blame on a drought inflicted by global warming.”
“Rising average temperatures and increase in the number of heat wave events will adversely impact human health and crop yields across Pakistan, say researchers who participated in what they described as the first country-specific heat wave trajectory study.”
“Mumbai: If there is extremely heavy rainfall this weekend as forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), it might set a record for the highest 24-hour June rainfall in recent years.”
“Torrential rain has flooded some townships in northern Shan State [Myanmar], sources said… Locals said almost no flood was occurred in the village before and the flood is occurred due to deforestation.”
“Phuket Governor Norraphat Plodthong says, “The rainfall on June 5 reached 147 millilitres, we think even more in Kamala. After the inspection, locals in Kamala all say that they have never seen flooding like this anytime during the past 20 years. “We have declared parts of Kamala a disaster area”.”
“In a bizarre incident, a Chinese woman has been spotted cooking fish on the hood of a car because the country is experiencing an intense heat wave, with mercury soaring to 40-degree Celsius. The incident took place in the city of Binzhou, located in eastern China’s Shandong province.”
“Central Europe has been hard hit from a severe flooding season that shows no signs of stopping.
“Poland has seen massive flood destruction in Warsaw, Sandomierz, Nowy Sacz, and other villages in the Southern region following severe storms on Sunday. According to Poland’s TVN Meteo, local mayor Grzegorz Sikorski said that it only took several hours of heavy rain to flood homes. He added that two bridges were destroyed and that the heavy rains caused a landslide.
“France’s Brittany region was hit by a devastating storm on Sunday and Monday. According to Stéven Tual, Meteo Bretagne meteorologist, between three weeks and a month’s worth of rain fell in 30 minutes. The Jarlot river reached its peak level since measurements began in 2014.
“The same rain-pour rates were prevalent along Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, especially in the city of Varna. Two villages in the Varna Province were also hit with a tornado, causing mass destruction. No one was reported injured.
“Professor Richard Betts of University of Exeter, who co-conducted a recent study of river flood risk in Europe under global warming, told The Guardian, “Our results give the clearest picture yet of climate change increasing the risk of flooding…even at just 1.5 degrees C global warming.””
“The Finnish capital Helsinki has had no rain for 30 days, a record-breaking dry spell for the Kaisaniemi weather station… “There’s no end in sight to the dry spell,” said Yle meteorologist Matti Huutonen.”
“Ice around Svalbard, a Norwegian island that sits between the Greenland Sea to the west and Barents Sea to the east, has receded rapidly over the past few weeks. Zack Labe, a PhD candidate at University of California, Irvine, told Earther the current ice coverage “is even less the average September minimum.””
“If you managed to get a glimpse of Great Falls on Monday after the near constant rainfall in the area, you would have been treated to a scene of utter violence. The Potomac River “boiled, churned, and even exploded into the air” on Monday afternoon, the Washington Post reported.”
“This year’s wildfire season could rival last year’s, which was one of the most devastating on record, said Vicki Christiansen, interim chief of the U.S. Forest Service.”
“At least four people including two minors were killed and 17 injured in the wake of a fierce dust storm that hit Lahore, Pakistan on Tuesday, rescue sources informed Geo News.”
“India is reeling under a sustained water crisis that shows no signs of abating. Excessive demand coupled with mismanaged water resources, erratic weather patterns and climate change have led to a sad state of affairs.”
“Macau and Hong Kong are likely to see significant rainfall in the next 48 hours and there is likely to be significant travel disruption across the region.” [Macau and Hong Kong will welcome this, I imagine, after their drought and record-breaking heatwave].
“Winter is meant to be cold, but Melburnians [Australia] could be forgiven for finding it hard to get out of bed so far this season. The city has recorded its coldest start to June since 1982, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.”
“The effects of a catastrophic storm that hit Tasmania last month are still being felt by residents whose homes, businesses and roads were torn apart. More than $45 million worth of damage was done when a record breaking 100mm of rain was dumped on the greater Hobart region in a single day last month.”
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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.
