Category Archives: Extreme weather

World’s poorest bear brunt of climate crisis: 10 underreported emergencies

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Care International report highlights ‘deep injustice’ neglected by world’s media, as extreme weather along with Covid wipes out decades of progress

From Afghanistan to Ethiopia, about 235 million people worldwide needed assistance in 2021. But while some crises received global attention, others are lesser known.

Humanitarian organisation Care International has published its annual report of the 10 countries that had the least attention in online articles in five languages around the world in 2021, despite each having at least 1 million people affected by conflict or climate disasters.

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At least 22 stranded tourists dead at Pakistan hill station after heavy snowfall – video

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At least 22 tourists died in freezing temperatures after being stranded in their vehicles in northern Pakistan, where thousands had flocked to enjoy the snow. 

Some 1,000 vehicles are still stranded in Murree, 40 miles north-east of the capital Islamabad. 

'The local people are delivering blankets and food. Now we are only allowing vehicles carrying blankets and food towards Murree,' Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Pakistan's interior minister, said.

Army platoons and paramilitary forces have been deployed to help the civil administration in rescue operations, he said.

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At least 22 dead as heavy snow traps vehicles in Pakistan resort

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Thousands affected at popular destination of Murree with eight of those killed from same family

At least 22 people have died after heavy snow trapped them in their vehicles as tens of thousands of visitors thronged Pakistan’s hill town of Murree, officials have said.

Atiq Ahmed, an Islamabad police officer, said eight of the 22 fatalities were from the family of fellow Islamabad police officer Naveed Iqbal, who also died. All 16 died of hypothermia, officials said.

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Filipinos count cost of climate crisis as typhoons get ever more destructive

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The Philippines adds little to global emissions but faces some of its worst effects in extreme weather. Climate justice is needed

A few days before Christmas, Super-typhoon Rai – known locally as Odette – ravaged the Philippines. The morning after the onslaught, on my way back to Iloilo City from San Jose, Antique, I could see the ocean still boiling; houses blown away and great trees knocked down, making roads impassable. The sights were terrifying.

Lost lives continue to climb two weeks on. Vast numbers of buildings were destroyed – from houses to schools; food crops lost to flooding. At first, I did not know what to feel – anger, helplessness? Later, I knew what I wanted: climate justice.

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Colorado wildfire: up to 1,000 buildings destroyed as Biden declares disaster

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At least seven reported injured while cause of the blaze remains under investigation

Up to 1,000 buildings may have been destroyed in the record wildfire that swept through a Colorado area abutting the Rocky Mountains, as Joe Biden declared the situation a disaster and experts warned that the climate crisis and suburban expansion contributed to the devastation.

After declaring that it was a miracle, based on the latest information, that no one was killed in the fire that roared with little notice through Boulder county on Thursday, officials said that more than 500 and as many as 1,000 homes and businesses may have been razed.

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24C in Spain, 15C in the Alps: oddly warm end to 2021 in parts of Europe

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Records broken in Bilbao and Segovia, and avalanche warnings in Alps where it is too warm even for fake snow

Spain registered record-breaking temperatures this week and areas of the Italian Alps are forecast to reach up to 15C above the seasonal average in the coming days as much of Europe experiences an anomalously warm start to the new year.

In Bilbao, northern Spain, temperatures hit 24.7C, a high not seen since record-keeping began in 1947. In Segovia, near Madrid, 22.7C was recorded, the highest since 1920, and nearby Avila reached 20.2C, its highest since 1983.

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A seed for all seasons: can ancient methods future-proof food security in the Andes?

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In Peru’s remote villages, farmers have used diverse crops to survive unpredictable weather for millennia. Now they are using this knowledge to adapt to the climate crisis

In a pastoral scene that has changed little in centuries, farmers wearing red woollen ponchos gather on a December morning in a semicircle to drink chicha, made from fermented maize, and mutter an invocation to Pachamama – Mother Earth – before sprinkling the dregs on the Andean soil.

Singing in Quechua, the language spread along the vast length of the Andes by the Incas, they hill the soil around plants in the numerous small plots terraced into a patchwork up and down the Peruvian mountainside.

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Typhoon Rai: more than 3m people directly affected in Philippines

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Some areas still cut off a week after disaster, with power outages and shortages of food and clean water

More than 3 million people have been directly affected by the devastation wreaked by Typhoon Rai, which caused widespread power outages and water shortages, and has left some areas completely cut off from relief teams even a week after the disaster.

Rai first hit the Philippines last Thursday, and has been described by the Red Cross as one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in December in five decades. The true scale of the destruction is still unknown because of the extensive communication cuts, and damage to roads, ports and airports.

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‘All I can think about is the children’s future’: drought devastates Kenya

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Nomads’ herds are dying along with rare wildlife as the longest dry spell in memory edges pastoralists ever nearer starvation

Dahabley smells of rotting flesh. Bodies of starved cows lie in various stages of decomposition, after being dragged to the outskirts of the village in Wajir county, north-east Kenya. They are added to on a near-daily basis and fester in the heat amid multiplying flies.

North-east Kenya is well used to spells of drought, but it is experiencing the worst in living memory. As the region’s short rainy season, which starts in October, draws to an end, parts of Wajir have only seen small showers and other areas have had no rain at all for more than a year.

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Aerial footage shows extent of tornado damage in Kentucky – video

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Drone footage has captured the devastation after a series of deadly tornadoes struck Kentucky on Friday. The US president, Joe Biden, declared a major federal disaster in the state, with officials saying the death toll could exceed 100 in Kentucky alone. 

The governor, Andy Beshear, said the tornadoes were the most destructive in the state’s history. One tornado that tore through four states over four hours of nighttime devastation is believed to be the longest distance for a tornado in US history. In Mayfield, a community of about 10,000 in the south-western corner of Kentucky, large twisters also destroyed fire and police stations

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US tornadoes: up to 100 people feared dead after historic storms – video report

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What could prove to be the longest tornado in US history has left a trail of destruction from Arkansas to Kentucky, part of a vast storm front that is feared to have killed at least 100 people in southern and central states of the US.

A candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, and an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, were just two of the buildings destroyed in Friday night’s storm, which was all the more unusual because it came in December, when colder weather normally limits tornadoes


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Kentucky tornadoes: up to 100 feared dead in historic US storms

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Dozens remain unaccounted for after tornado left a trail of destruction from Arkansas to Kentucky

Dozens remained unaccounted for on Sunday as rescuers worked overnight searching for survivors after what could be the longest tornado in US history left a trail of destruction from Arkansas to Kentucky, part of a vast storm front that it is feared may have killed at least 100 people.

Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said the path of devastation was about 227 miles (365km) long, which, if confirmed, would surpass the 218-mile Tri-State tornado in 1925, which killed at least 695 people and destroyed 15,000 homes across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.

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At least 70 dead as tornadoes rip across central and southern US states

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Kentucky was hardest hit as four tornadoes, including a massive storm, devastated a town and collapsed a factory building

Seven central and southern US states were picking up the pieces Saturday after a series of powerful tornadoes intensified by severe storms ripped across the region, leaving an estimated 70 to 100 people dead.

Kentucky was hardest hit as four tornadoes, including a massive storm, devastated Mayfield, a small town 134 miles (215 km) north-west of Nashville, Tennessee. A candle factory partially collapsed when the tornado struck on Friday evening.

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Drone footage shows collapsed Illinois warehouse after tornadoes sweep US – video

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An Amazon warehouse near Edwardsville, Illinois, about 25 miles (40km) north-east of St Louis, was destroyed in extreme weather conditions on Friday night. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were hurt by the roof collapse, but emergency services called it a 'mass casualty incident' on Facebook. One official told KTVI-TV that as many as 100 people may have been in the building, working the night shift, at the time of the collapse.

Up to 100 people are feared to have been killed after a devastating outbreak of tornadoes ripped through Kentucky and other US states on Friday night and early Saturday morning

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Arkansas tornado: two dead after nursing home ‘pretty much destroyed’

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Five seriously injured, says county judge in Arkansas, as rescue workers in Illinois attend site of roof collapse at Amazon warehouse

At least two people were killed when a tornado ripped through an Arkansas nursing home, while a roof collapsed at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois, reportedly causing many injuries.

Craighead county judge Marvin Day said the tornado struck the Monette Manor nursing home in north-east Arkansas at about 8.15pm, trapping 20 people inside as the building collapsed. About 90 minutes later the building had been cleared and everyone initially believed to have been inside had been accounted for, but Day said crews still must search the debris for possible additional victims.

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‘We have to use a boat to commute’: coastal Ghana hit by climate crisis

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As the sea claims more of the west African shoreline, those left homeless by floods are losing hope that the government will act

Waves have taken the landscape John Afedzie knew so well. “The waters came closer in the last few months, but now they have destroyed parts of schools and homes. The waves have taken the whole of the village. One needs to use a boat to commute now because of the rising sea levels,” he says.

Afedzie lives in Keta, one of Ghana’s coastal towns, where a month ago high tide brought seawater flooding into 1,027 houses, according to the government, leaving him among about 3,000 people made homeless overnight.

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Severe weather warning for UK as Storm Barra set to arrive on Tuesday

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Met Office issues wind warnings in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and snow warnings in Scotland

The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for most of the UK ahead of the arrival of Storm Barra on Tuesday, as thousands of homes remain without power more than a week after Storm Arwen.

Yellow wind weather warnings are in place across England, Wales and Northern Ireland for Tuesday, with yellow snow warnings in place in southern and western Scotland.

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