A large dust cloud has travelled from the Sahara and blanketed parts of the Caribbean in a weather event not seen for 50 years. Dubbed the 'Godzilla dust cloud', it has limited visibility and lowered air quality throughout the region. The mass of dusty air is known as the Saharan Air Layer and forms over the Sahara desert before typically moving across the North Atlantic in the northern hemisphere’s late spring to early autumn
Continue reading...Category Archives: Extreme weather
Climate crisis: alarm at record-breaking heatwave in Siberia
Unusually high temperatures in region linked to wildfires, oil spill and moth swarms
A prolonged heatwave in Siberia is “undoubtedly alarming”, climate scientists have said. The freak temperatures have been linked to wildfires, a huge oil spill and a plague of tree-eating moths.
On a global scale, the Siberian heat is helping push the world towards its hottest year on record in 2020, despite a temporary dip in carbon emissions owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...‘The water will come back’: why Kenya’s struggle against flooding is far from over
Record-breaking rainfall has devastated communities – and with thousands displaced and more rain predicted the picture is bleak
Using a short piece of nylon line with a hook at one end and a long thin stick on the other, a mechanic and a nightclub doorman have only caught one small fish all day.
“I’ve never been a fisherman before,” says Erick Ochieng on the edge of a flooded creek in the port city of Kisumu on the banks of Lake Victoria. “I used to work as a bouncer but nightclubs have closed. Sometimes my family sleeps without eating.”
Continue reading...‘Make noise and don’t panic’: India tries to ward off locust invasion
Delhi braces for swarm while farmers in badly-hit north play loud music and honk car horns to try to prevent decimation of fields
Residents of Delhi are bracing themselves for a possible invasion of locusts, which have been ravaging areas in the north of the country.
A change in wind direction could save the city, but Dr K L Gurjar, deputy director of the Locust Warning Organisation, has warned residents to be prepared to “make a lot of loud noise so that instead of settling, they keep flying and fly past the city. And don’t panic”.
Continue reading...Super-cyclone Amphan kills up to 20 in India and Bangladesh
Strong winds tore down electricity pylons, walls and buildings, with full scale of damage still being estimated
The most powerful cyclone to hit Bangladesh and eastern India in more than 20 years tore down homes, carried cars down flooded streets and claimed the lives of up to 20 people.
Authorities began surveying the damage Thursday after millions spent a sleepless night which saw 165km/h (102mph) winds carrying away trees, electricity pylons, walls and roofs, and transformer stations exploding.
Continue reading...Super-cyclone Amphan batters India and Bangladesh – video
The Bay of Bengal’s fiercest storm this century, super-cyclone Amphan, has slammed into the coast of eastern India and Bangladesh, bringing heavy gales and the threat of deadly storm surges and flooding. Over 2 million people have been evacuated from their homes
Continue reading...Super cyclone Amphan: evacuations in India and Bangladesh slowed by virus
Thousands of migrant workers left jobless by Covid-19 pandemic are still on the roads, and evacuations have been hampered by distancing rules
The Bay of Bengal’s fiercest storm this century – super cyclone Amphan – was bearing down on millions of people in eastern India and Bangladesh on Wednesday, with forecasts of a potentially devastating and deadly storm surge.
Authorities have scrambled to stage mass evacuations away from the path of Super Cyclone Amphan, which is only the second “super cyclone” to form in the north-eastern Indian Ocean since records began.
Continue reading...Potentially fatal bouts of heat and humidity on the rise, study finds
Scientists identify thousands of extreme events, suggesting stark warnings about global heating are already coming to pass
Intolerable bouts of extreme humidity and heat which could threaten human survival are on the rise across the world, suggesting that worst-case scenario warnings about the consequences of global heating are already occurring, a new study has revealed.
Related: One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years – study
Continue reading...One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years – study
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.
Continue reading...Tornadoes rip through US south leaving trail of devastation and killing dozens
- 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
Continue reading...Record rain triggered 2018 Kīlauea volcano eruptions, says study
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.
Continue reading...Europe had hottest year on record in 2019, report shows
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.
Continue reading...Storms tear through US south, leaving at least 19 people dead
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.
Continue reading...‘These houses are flattened’: tornadoes and storms hit US south – video report
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
Continue reading...High winds kill thousands of migrating birds in ‘disaster’ over Greece
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.
Continue reading...Climate emergency: global action is ‘way off track’ says UN head
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.
Continue reading...UK weather: third storm in a month to bring more misery in flooded areas
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.
Continue reading...Killer heat: how a warming land is changing Australia forever
Australia is heating faster than the global average, and extreme heat days are on the rise. Doctors say there’s clear evidence that it’s killing people prematurely
Continue reading...Canary Islands sandstorm leaves tourists stranded – in pictures
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
Continue reading...UK weather: flooded communities warned of more heavy rain
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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