Category Archives: Extreme weather

‘My animals burned alive’: the man putting his life back together after Greece’s wildfires – video

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Shepherd Giannis Tsiboukas, 36, confronts  the ‘total destruction’ caused after a wildfire ravaged his land on the island of Evia in Greece. Tsiboukas lost more than 40 animals to the fire that destroyed more than 50,000 hectares. Peoples homes and livelihoods have been decimated. 

Hundreds of wildfires have torn through Greece this month on the heels of its most severe heatwave in decades, which left its forests tinder dry. Other Mediterranean countries – Turkey, Italy, Algeria and Spain among them – have suffered similar problems.

Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme weather events. 

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Florida issues tropical storm warning for Panhandle region as Fred approaches

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  • Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Grace to hit parts of the Caribbean
  • Fred’s maximum sustained winds at 40mph Sunday morning

Florida’s governor declared a state of emergency for the state’s Panhandle region as Tropical Storm Fred moved through the Gulf of Mexico early on Sunday and parts of the Caribbean were preparing for the impact from Tropical Storm Grace.

Fred was forecast to move across the Gulf before reaching the coast Monday night or Tuesday morning, forecasters said. They said people from Alabama to the central Florida Panhandle should monitor the system’s progress.

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Heavy rain triggers floods and landslides in Japan – video

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More than a million people have been urged to seek shelter as torrential rain triggered floods and landslides in western Japan, leaving at least one dead and two missing. Scientists say the climate crisis is intensifying the risk of heavy rain in Japan and elsewhere, because a warmer atmosphere holds more water

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Turkey floods kill 17 as country battles fresh disaster

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Heavy rains and mudslides in northern regions come after devastating wildfires ravaged the south of the country

Heavy rains have triggered severe floods and mudslides in northern Turkey, killing at least 17 people and forcing thousands to leave their homes and shelter in student dormitories.

Rescue efforts continued on Thursday after torrential rain hit the Black Sea coastal provinces of Bartin, Kastamonu, Sinop and Samsun.

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Algeria declares three days of mourning as wildfire death toll reaches 69

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Scores of fires blaze across 17 provinces as calls made for aid convoys and Morocco and France offer help

Algeria’s president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has declared three days of national mourning amid the death toll from raging wildfires in the north of the country rising to 69.

The state-run news agency APS said the rash of more than 50 fires which broke out on Tuesday had claimed four more lives, bringing the total to 69, including 28 soldiers deployed to help the emergency services.

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Oregon declares state of emergency as another ‘extreme heatwave’ looms

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Pacific north-west prepares for triple-digit temperatures just weeks after heat resulted in hundreds of deaths in region

The Oregon governor declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as the region prepared for triple-digit temperatures mere weeks after a deadly heatwave clobbered the Pacific north-west.

Kate Brown said: “Oregon is facing yet another extreme heatwave, and it is critical that every level of government has the resources they need to help keep Oregonians safe and healthy.”

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Wildfires in Algeria leave more than 40 dead including soldiers – video

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More than 40 people have died as wildfires sweep through parts of Algeria. Dozens of fires have hit the Kabyle region 60 miles (100km) east of Algiers with remote villages and limited access to water complicating  efforts to contain the blazes. The death toll includes 25 soldiers who were killed as they worked to rescue people in Bejaiea and Tizi Ouzou

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Wildfires in Algeria: dozens of civilians and soldiers reported dead

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Prime minister says request made for help internationally as forest blazes erupt in Kabyle region and elsewhere

More than 40 people, including 25 soldiers, have died in wildfires that erupted east of the Algerian capital, the country’s prime minister, Ayman Benabderrahmane, said.

Benabderrahmane also told state television that the government had asked for help from the international community and was in talks with partners to hire planes to extinguish fires. So far, 42 deaths have been reported.

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‘A sample of hell’: Rohingya forced to rebuild camps again after deadly floods

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At least 21,000 refugees displaced after heavy rain devastates Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, the latest in a series of disasters to hit the area

The process of rebuilding has begun once again for Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh after a week of heavy rains made thousands homeless.

The chest-high waters that flowed through parts of Cox’s Bazar have exposed the vulnerability of the area’s unplanned settlements, which have to be repeatedly repaired and rebuilt after flooding, cyclones and fires.

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Extreme heat cooks mussels in their shells on Canada coast – video

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More than 1bn marine animals along Canada’s Pacific coast are likely to have died in this year’s heatwave, highlighting the vulnerability of ecosystems unaccustomed to extreme temperatures. Christopher Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, walks along the shore of Porteau Cove Provincial Park in British Columbia. The crunch heard in the video is the shells of dead mussels underfoot that perished during low tide as temperatures spiked across the region

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Climate crisis: what one month of extreme weather looks like – video

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In the last month, devastating weather extremes have hit regions across the world. From flash floods in Belgium to deadly temperatures in the US, from wildfires in Siberia to landslides in India, it has been an unprecedented period of chaotic weather. Climate scientists have long predicted that human-caused climate disruption would lead to more flooding, heatwaves, droughts, storms and other forms of extreme weather, but even they have been shocked by the scale of these scenes


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At least six Rohingya refugees killed as floods hit camps in Bangladesh

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Shelters swept away as activists say people stuck in Cox’s Bazar are highly vulnerable to the ‘rapidly changing climate’

At least six Rohingya refugees were killed by landslides or drowned in flooding after rain inundated refugee camps in Bangladesh over recent days, deepening the despair among those living there.

Knee-deep waters coursed through the camps, battering fragile shelters made of bamboo and tarpaulin and making at least 5,000 people homeless, according to the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR).

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New Zealand rated best place to survive global societal collapse

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Study citing ‘perilous state’ of industrial civilisation ranks temperate islands top for resilience

New Zealand, Iceland, the UK, Tasmania and Ireland are the places best suited to survive a global collapse of society, according to a study.

The researchers said human civilisation was “in a perilous state” due to the highly interconnected and energy-intensive society that had developed and the environmental damage this had caused.

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Violent hailstorm smashes windscreens and halts traffic in northern Italy – video

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A violent hailstorm in northern Italy brought part of the highway between Milan and Naples to a brief standstill on Monday. Hundreds of cars were damaged as the hail battered their windscreens, forcing drivers to pull up by the roadside, and causing authorities to close some of the route for a short time. A number of people were hurt, mainly by glass shards from cracked windscreens. No one is believed to have been seriously injured

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‘Record-shattering’ heat becoming much more likely, says climate study

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More heatwaves even worse than those seen recently in north-west of America forecast in research

“Record-shattering” heatwaves, even worse than the one that recently hit north-west America, are set to become much more likely in future, according to research. The study is a stark new warning on the rapidly escalating risks the climate emergency poses to lives.

The shocking temperature extremes suffered in the Pacific north-west and in Australia 2019-2020 were “exactly what we are talking about”, said the scientists. But they said the world had yet to see anything close to the worst impacts possible, even under the global heating that had already happened.

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‘There’s nothing left in Lytton’: the Canadian village destroyed by wildfire – picture essay

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The fire that devastated Lytton is still burning – and First Nation residents say the lack of help from the British Columbia government has been ‘sickening’

Vince Abbott had an afternoon of fishing planned – he was going angling for spring salmon in the nearby river – when he heard shouts of panic and felt a searing heat.

After three punishing days of record-breaking temperatures in the Canadian village of Lytton earlier this month, Abbott was accustomed to the discomfort of the dry, sometimes overpowering, summer heat. But this felt different.

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‘We need a lot of help’: Germans sift through debris after devastating floods

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Trucks, diggers and volunteers try to clear mud and ruined belongings from wrecked homes and businesses

A brown line one and a half metres high on the kitchen wall marks where the waters reached when Christian Ulrich’s house was inundated. The electrician stands amid the mud-splattered walls and his voice breaks as he recalls how he had barely enough time after the warning came to reach the cellar to get food and water and send his mother up the stairs. He had just managed to let in the neighbours who had banged on the door for help, when there was an “almighty crash – like an explosion” as a huge wave of water rolled in from the back and front of the house, so strong it pushed out the front door and many of the windows.

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