Category Archives: Extreme weather

Thousands of lightning strikes trigger fresh wildfires in western Canada

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At least 90 active blazes in British Columbia in what PM says is one of the country’s most intense seasons on record

Fresh wildfires have broken out in western Canada and forests continued to ⁠burn in Ontario as the country ⁠battled what the prime ​minister, Mark Carney, called one of the most intense wildfire seasons on record.

Nearly 34,000 lightning strikes over the past week led to a series of fires ⁠and evacuation orders in southern British Columbia. There were 25 evacuation orders and 90 active wildfires in the province as of Friday morning, and authorities said warming ⁠and drying conditions could cause them to grow.

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Record heat sends online retail sales to five-year high in Great Britain

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Soaring temperatures fuel demand for air conditioners and outdoor goods, helping retailers beat expectations in June

Online sales reached their highest share of retail spending in five years last month as record heat fuelled demand for air conditioners, outdoor products and clothing.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the volume of retail sales in Great Britain rose 1% month on month in June, beating analysts’ expectations of a 0.3% decline, helped by hot weather and World Cup spending.

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Tropical Storm Bertha expected to weaken as it moves toward US

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Storm warnings stretch from Florida to Louisiana as Bertha brings heavy rain, flooding risk and possible tornadoes

Tropical Storm Bertha strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday but was expected to weaken this week as it chugs closer to the US, potentially bringing coastal flooding and heavy rain from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana.

Those areas along the northern Gulf coast were under a tropical storm warning through Wednesday and could see rain and flooding into Thursday morning, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. New Orleans also was under a tropical storm warning.

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Five family members found dead after flash flood in Utah canyon, police say

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Victims were Provo’s fire captain, his wife and their three sons, who were hiking in Bicknell amid heavy rains

Five family members who had set out for a day of hiking were killed after a flash flood swept through canyons of southern Utah on Friday, law enforcement officials said.

The victims were a captain in the Provo fire department, his wife and their sons, according to fire officials. A daughter who was not on the trip survived.

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Flash flood warnings strike north-east US amid wildfire smoke from Canada

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Poor air quality from wildfires continues to plague New York City as several neighborhoods hit by thunderstorms

Saturday is delivering a double dose of dangerous weather across the north-eastern US, with smoky skies from Canadian wildfires giving way to severe thunderstorms that have already triggered a flash flood warning as torrential rain pounds parts of the region.

After a brief break on Friday, smoke from the wildfires moved back into New York City and surrounding communities on Saturday, sending air quality back into unhealthy levels.

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Berry tough: Ribena seeks to make hardier blackcurrants to beat extreme weather

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£200,000 investment comes after harvests in Britain hit by wet winter, spring frost and hail, then heatwaves

The owner of Ribena is to invest £200,000 in helping blackcurrant bushes withstand stress after extreme weather put a squeeze on this year’s UK harvest.

That harvest is now under way in the berry’s main growing regions including East Anglia, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Kent and Scotland. It is expected to be about 10% below the average of 10,000 tonnes, as the climate crisis drives extreme weather across Britain and elsewhere.

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How global heating supercharged floods in West Africa, displacing thousands

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Adaptation to frightening new normal and reducing emissions further and faster is critical, scientists warn

Dozens of people drowned, hundreds had to be rescued and thousands were displaced when floods struck the coasts of west Africa last month.

Now scientists have concluded that the rains that caused the floods were supercharged by climate breakdown. Global heating, they say, turned what should have been a routine weather event into a climate catastrophe.

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Bastille Day celebrations in France tempered by fear of more wildfires

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Firework displays cancelled as Paris military parade asserts ‘France’s rearmament … and Europe’s strategic awakening’

Emmanuel Macron has presided over his final Bastille Day parade in Paris amid a searing heatwave and wildfires that forced authorities around the country to cancel traditional firework displays and balls celebrating France’s national day.

The French president was joined for the annual military procession and flypast by his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the British ‌prime minister, Keir Starmer, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and two dozen other national leaders.

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More than 200 people at summer camp airlifted to safety as Missouri faces flooding

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Another 20 people were rescued from a campground after a building collapsed due to heavy rain and flooding

Heavy rainfall and widespread flooding battered parts of Missouri on Friday, forcing the helicopter evacuations of more than 200 children and staff from a summer camp and the rescues of about 20 people who had moved to safety on a campground building that then collapsed.

With nearby roads washed away and more rain in the forecast, the children were trapped at Camp Taum Sauk in the small south-eastern community of Lesterville, according Sgt Eddie Young of the state’s highway patrol. The army national guard used Black Hawk helicopters to fly them to a nearby elementary school and reunite them with their families, he said.

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‘The worst possible combination’: what has caused Spain’s deadly wildfires?

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Blaze made worse by heat, strong wind and plentiful dry vegetation amid hollowing out of rural population

As firefighters struggle to quell the flames ravaging southern Spain and doctors treat the injured, a horrific picture of the fallout is emerging.

At least 12 people died in a fast-spreading inferno that ripped through Almería on Thursday, many trapped in cars as they sought to escape a blaze that scorched 3,800 hectares (9,390 acres). Overwhelmed authorities say eight people have been injured and 23 cannot be accounted for.

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Fast-spreading wildfire kills at least 12 in southern Spain

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Twenty-three people missing and four Britons thought to be among those who died trying to flee Almería blaze

At least 12 people have been killed and 23 are unaccounted for after one of Spain’s deadliest wildfires broke out in the south-eastern province of Almería as the country endures its second heatwave of the summer.

The regional government of Andalucía said the victims, four of whom are believed to be British, had died while trying to escape the flames near the village of Bédar in the municipality of Los Gallardos.

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Historic El Nino able to supercharge extreme weather looks increasingly likely – researchers

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Models show overwhelming chance that this year’s El Niño to rank among largest going back to 1950

El Niño is strengthening and the risks of a historic event with the power to supercharge extreme weather around the world are rising, according to the latest analysis from the US National Weather Service.

Models show there is now an 81% chance that a very strong El Niño “that would rank among the largest El Niño events in the historical record going back to 1950” will develop before the end of this year, forecasters said in an advisory released Thursday. There is almost near certainty – a 97% probability – that the conditions will persist through spring 2027.

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Severe storms in China bring tornadoes and landslides that have killed 15 people

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping calls for ‘all out’ rescue effort as death toll rises and 16 people ⁠remain buried after a ⁠landslide in the country’s west

The death toll from devastating storms in parts of China rose to 15 on Tuesday, with hundreds more injured and tens of thousands evacuated, state media reported, as the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, urged “all out” efforts to rescue people affected by the weather.

Thunderstorms and gale-force winds killed at least 11 people and injured 331 in the central province of Hubei, where “severe convective weather” hit cities, while tornadoes were reported elsewhere late Monday, state news agency Xinhua said.

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Extreme high temperatures double young people’s risk of mental health admissions, Australian research shows

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Exclusive University of Sydney study finds heat-related hospital admissions to increase by 6% to 7.7% by the end of the century

Extreme high temperatures in warmer months double the risk of young people being admitted to hospital for a mental health condition, according to research.

The analysis, which looked at 720,000 New South Wales hospital admissions of young people aged up to 24, suggested the climate crisis would aggravate the already declining mental health of young people.

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Three children dead after boat capsizes during storm in Wisconsin

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Officials rescued seven other people after a sudden storm led to a boat sinking on Geneva Lake

Three children died after a boat capsized on Wisconsin’s Geneva Lake during inclement weather on the eve of the US’s semiquincentennial celebrations, and seven other people had to be rescued by emergency responders, according to officials.

A recreational motor boat with 10 passengers, including four children, sank on Friday afternoon as the boat “attempted to navigate to safety as weather conditions deteriorated” amid an intense, sudden storm, the city of Lake Geneva police department said in a statement.

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Côte d’Ivoire floods kill 59 as west Africa endures torrential rains

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Authorities say rainy season getting deadlier, with Ghana reporting 13 dead and floods hitting Benin, Togo and Nigeria

Floods in Côte d’Ivoire have killed 59 people since May, the communication minister told a cabinet meeting in Abidjan.

There are fears the toll could further rise as rescue teams continue to search for victims during the rainy season, which runs from May until July, the minister, Amadou Coulibaly, added.

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Europe heatwave shows need to reject climate denial ‘lies’, says EU green chief

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Teresa Ribera blames ‘ideologically driven’ falsehoods, driven by those with vested interests in fossil fuels, for attacks on green policy

The heatwave wreaking chaos across Europe is a “dramatic warning” to reject climate naysayers, a European Commission vice-president says.

Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for a clean, just and competitive transition, lambasted those who listened to the “vested interests” of the fossil fuel industry rather than scientists and their own citizens.

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Extreme heat continues in central and eastern Europe with temperatures of 38C expected – Europe live

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Germany, Czechia, Poland and Hungary reached record temperatures of more than 40C on Sunday

Good morning, or dzień dobry, from Warsaw, Poland as the heatwave that affected much of the continent last week continues to impact central and eastern Europe.

It’s 9am local time and already 32C. I have seen two people cycling home with large fans, trying to get back before the heat hits the fan again. None of this is normal.

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Heatwave and high humidity to blast much of US: ‘impactful to anyone’

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Forecasters expect days of high temperatures in central and eastern US before Fourth of July and World Cup festivities

A long and dangerous heatwave will blast a large swath of the central and eastern United States for the upcoming week, the National Weather Service (NWS) said on Sunday – with temperatures rising ahead of the Fourth of July holiday and feeling even hotter because of high humidity also arriving.

Already parts of the US, especially Phoenix and central Texas, and much of the south-west were experiencing temperatures of about 100F (38C) on Sunday, while the NWS warned of severe wildfire conditions developing across much of the west as new fires popped up across the region.

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Four people have died from flash floods in Kentucky, governor says

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Floods caused by thunderstorms that have dumped inches of rain on Kentucky and Indiana, with more possible

Andy Beshear, the Kentucky governor, says four people have died as a result of flash floods from thunderstorms that have brought as much as 7in (18cm) of rain to the state.

Beshear confirmed the four deaths in a social media post, noting three people were from Madison county and one was from Jackson county. “Please join Britainy and me as we pray for their families during this difficult time,” Beshear said.

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