Category Archives: Extreme weather

One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years – study

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Human cost of climate crisis will hit harder and sooner than previously believed, research reveals

The human cost of the climate crisis will hit harder, wider and sooner than previously believed, according to a study that shows a billion people will either be displaced or forced to endure insufferable heat for every additional 1C rise in the global temperature.

In a worst-case scenario of accelerating emissions, areas currently home to a third of the world’s population will be as hot as the hottest parts of the Sahara within 50 years, the paper warns. Even in the most optimistic outlook, 1.2 billion people will fall outside the comfortable “climate niche” in which humans have thrived for at least 6,000 years.

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Tornadoes rip through US south leaving trail of devastation and killing dozens

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  • More than two dozen tornadoes reported in four states
  • Louisiana sheriff reports ‘extreme flooding’ seen rarely ‘if ever’

At least six people were killed after severe storms tore through a number of southern states late on Wednesday, adding to weeks of extreme weather that had already killed more than two dozen people and destroyed hundreds of homes.

Related: Tornadoes and storms hit US south as six killed in Mississippi

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Record rain triggered 2018 Kīlauea volcano eruptions, says study

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Research on events in Hawaii suggests climate crisis could increase eruptions around world

The spectacular eruptions of the Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii in 2018 were triggered by extreme rainfall in the preceding months, research suggests.

Scientists say the finding raises the possibility that climate breakdown, which is causing more extreme weather, could lead to an increase in eruptions around the world.

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Europe had hottest year on record in 2019, report shows

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Findings confirm 11 of the 12 warmest years in Europe occurred in past two decades

Europe had its hottest year on record last year, new data has confirmed, with periods of exceptional heat last February, June and July, and one of the wettest Novembers on record.

Previous records were broken by only a small margin, but the findings confirmed that 11 out of the 12 warmest years in Europe have occurred in the past two decades, according to the European State of the Climate 2019 report, published on Wednesday.

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Storms tear through US south, leaving at least 19 people dead

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Storms caused flooding, mudslides and power outages, killing 11 people in Mississippi and six people in Georgia

Severe weather has swept across the southern US, killing at least 19 people and damaging hundreds of homes from Louisiana into the Appalachian mountains.

Many spent part of the night sheltering in basements, closets and bathtubs as sirens wailed to warn of possible tornadoes.

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‘These houses are flattened’: tornadoes and storms hit US south – video report

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A tornado strike destroyed homes and left a trail of devastation across large parts of the US south on Sunday. In northern Louisiana, up to 300 homes and other buildings were damaged, and utility companies reported thousands of power outages. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency confirmed at least six deaths in the state from the severe weather

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High winds kill thousands of migrating birds in ‘disaster’ over Greece

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Swallows and swifts on their annual flight from Africa to Europe have been found dead across Greece

Thousands of swallows and swifts migrating from Africa to Europe have been left dead by high winds battering Greece, bird watchers say.

The birds have been found in the streets of Athens, on apartment balconies in the capital, in the north, on Aegean islands and around a lake close to the seaport of Nauplia in the Peloponnese.

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Climate emergency: global action is ‘way off track’ says UN head

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Deadly heatwaves, floods and rising hunger far greater threat to world than coronavirus, scientists say

The world is “way off track” in dealing with the climate emergency and time is fast running out, the UN secretary general has said.

António Guterres sounded the alarm at the launch of the UN’s assessment of the global climate in 2019. The report concludes it was a record-breaking year for heat, and there was rising hunger, displacement and loss of life owing to extreme temperatures and floods around the world.

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UK weather: third storm in a month to bring more misery in flooded areas

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Storm Jorge may bring 70mph winds on coast and downpours in Wales and northern England

People living in flooded areas are facing more misery as the third storm to hit the UK in a month takes hold over the weekend.

Storm Jorge is expected to batter coastal areas with winds of up to 70mph, while downpours of up to 80mm could fall on already flooded areas.

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Canary Islands sandstorm leaves tourists stranded – in pictures

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A sandstorm forced the closure of airports on Spain’s Canary Islands at the weekend. Scores of flights were cancelled after strong winds carrying red sand from the Sahara shrouded the tourist hotspot and the regional government declared a state of alert. The national weather service warned that winds of up to 120km/h were set to buffet the Canaries until Monday

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UK weather: flooded communities warned of more heavy rain

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75mph winds expected to bring more torrential downpours to one of wettest Februarys ever

A storm is expected to bring further bands of torrential rain to flood-hit communities as it sweeps across Britain.

Forecasters have issued a yellow weather warning as the 75mph storm brings a fresh deluge of rain, up to 50mm (2in) in some places.

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What four years at sea taught me about our relationship to the ocean

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Oceans are central to the story of civilisation – so why do so many of us feel disconnected from them?

It was on day 11, I think, that I stopped getting out of bed at all. I had already let my hygiene standards slip to the point that a large knot was starting to form in my hair. Later my mother would have to cut it out with scissors. She didn’t mind. We were all in the same boat.

I was nine years old, and nearly two weeks into sailing across the Atlantic with my family. My father had sailed all his life, and introduced my mother to it; and they spent years preparing to sail around the world. Including my little sister, that made four of us aboard a 52ft yacht – our home for four years from 2000, in which time we got from Dorset to New Zealand.

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Severe flood warnings remain as Johnson’s response is criticised

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Labour says PM’s decision not to visit flood sites or call Cobra meeting is ‘a disgrace’

Severe flood warnings remain in place and rescue operations were continuing in stricken communities on Monday evening, as the government faced criticism for its response to what has been described as unprecedented flooding in parts of the country.

With thousands of properties flooded after a month’s worth of rain fell on parts of Britain over the weekend, and more than 200 flood warnings still in place, Labour said it was “a disgrace” that the prime minister was not visiting affected towns and villages and was resisting calls to convene the Cobra emergencies committee.

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Tropical Cyclone Damien brings heavy rain to Western Australia

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Elsewhere in the country rainfall offered relief from the bushfires, but caused flash flooding as well

Tropical Cyclone Damien made landfall in Western Australia over the weekend and lashed north-western parts of Australia with heavy rain and damaging winds. Unrelated to the cyclone, eastern Australia also recently had some substantial rainfall totals. While rain came as welcome relief after the severe bushfires, flash floods have now swept across the region.

Storm Hervé marked the end of unseasonable warmth across parts of France and Germany last week as the system brought a cooler airmass, strong winds, and fresh, heavy snowfall to the Alps. Prior to this, south-west Europe as a whole was experiencing exceptional heat, and temperatures rocketed to 29.6C in Valencia in Spain on Tuesday, setting a new all-time February record.

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How do storms and hurricanes get their names?

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World meteorological agencies decide when a storm gets a name and what to call it

In Europe storms are named as a joint enterprise between the UK’s Met Office, Ireland’s Met Éireann and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). The list is set in advance, runs in alphabetical order and usually alternates between names associated with male and female gender. In 2020, Ellen, Francis, Gerda and Hugh are to follow Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis in turn.

According to the Met Office, the decision for a storm to be named is “based on a combination of both the impact the weather may have, and the likelihood of those impacts occurring. A storm will be named when it has the potential to cause an amber or red weather warning.”

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Billions of locusts swarm through Kenya – in pictures

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Huge locust swarms in east Africa are the result of extreme weather swings and could prove catastrophic for a region still reeling from drought and deadly floods. Dense clouds of the ravenous insects have spread from Ethiopia and Somalia into Kenya, in the region’s worse infestation in decades

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Canada sends soldiers to Newfoundland to aid blizzard clear-up

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Province declares state of emergency as snow blocks roads and traps residents

Canadian soldiers have arrived in Newfoundland to help the province clear up after a massive blizzard over the weekend, as residents grow restless about restrictions on travel and closed businesses.

By Sunday night, nearly 200 soldiers had arrived after Dwight Ball, the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador province, requested federal help. The move underscored the immense challenges communities face in clearing snow that has blocked residents from leaving their houses and accessing their vehicles.

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‘Snowmageddon’: cleanup begins after record Newfoundland storm

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Blizzard dumps nearly 80cm of snow on Canadian city of St John’s as government says military reserves may be called up

Canada’s federal government will help Newfoundland on the Atlantic coast dig itself out in the wake of a massive winter blizzard that buried cars and left thousands without power.

The storm on Friday and Saturday dumped as much as 76.2cm (30 inches) of snow on St John’s, the capital of Newfoundland, and packed wind gusts as high as 130km/h (81mph). The snowfall was an all-time record for the day for St John’s international airport.

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Climate emergency: 2019 was second hottest year on record

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Last decade was also hottest yet in 150 years of measurements, say scientists

The year 2019 was the second hottest on record for the planet’s surface, according to latest research. The analyses reveal the scale of the climate crisis: both the past five years and the past decade are the hottest in 150 years.

The succession of records being broken year after year is “the drumbeat of the Anthropocene”, said one scientist, and is bringing increasingly severe storms, floods, droughts and wildfires.

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