Climate and extreme weather report -21 June, 2019

Drone Captures Hundreds of Thirsty Cows Around Water Truck in Drought-Stricken Australia

Recently, farmer Amber Lea’s photos of her cattle in the state of New South Wales in Australia caught the eyes of the world. This is a place where water is often scarce and in high demand. It’s the home of the country’s biggest metropolis, Sydney, and also a main location for Australian industry and ranching. The state has had its driest year, measured spring-to-spring in 160 years!

https://www.theepochtimes.com/drone-captures-hundreds-of-thirsty-cows-around-water-truck-in-drought-stricken-australia_2929141.html

Tamil Nadu water crisis: Dead fish wash up, taps go dry as Chennai faces severe shortage

Dead fish were seen lying on the peripheries of the dried up Selva Chinthamani Lake due to the severe heatwave and lack of rainfall in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore. Tamil Nadu is reeling under an acute water crisis for the past several months after Chennai's Porur Lake, which is considered one of the main sources of water, reached its lowest level.

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/tamil-nadu-water-crisis-dead-fish-wash-up-taps-go-dry-chennai-water-shortage-1553152-2019-06-21?fbclid=IwAR1thHsgMCtKMHEFYFCaORTyl0jN_0zyItWUvEVRzCSFn8JTAjBI3zjE
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Chennai, India, is almost out of water. Satellite images show its nearly bone-dry reservoirs

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/20/world/chennai-satellite-images-reservoirs-water-crisis-trnd/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1g_c-Pdnpq55xQi3nC_94MnG1c3569RCW6atFHn5d37M4w0dOzi5Zm36o

Frantic Desperation As Water Crisis Worsens: Woman Stabbed By Neighbour Over Water Dispute In Tamil Nadu

A woman gets stabbed with a knife by a neighbour over a water dispute. No, this is not the imagery of the dystopian situation that awaits us in future. Instead, it is very much the reality of our times.

In Chennai, a 28-year-old woman was stabbed by a man in her apartment on June 13. Mohan went down his house to switch on the motor as there was no water in his house. There he met his neighbour Ramakrishnan. Mohan and Ramakrishnan got into an argument over the same. Mohan’s wife Subhashini too came down asking for the motor to be switched on. Ramakrishnan refused and in a fit of anger ran towards his house to get a knife. He then stabbed her with the knife and was then shifted to hospital.

Acute water shortage, combined with the ever-soaring temperature has been a matter of grave concern for the people of Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu government recently sought for a Rs 5,398 crore financial assistance from the Centre to carry out various drinking water and drought mitigation programmes.

https://thelogicalindian.com/awareness/tamil-nadu-water-crisis/?fbclid=IwAR2iem-dUfQ1Eoxp82HPmAFb_n4mn8Zjj9I8hvMyAysACf08SvI4_ZJyEoE

Spy satellites reveal extent of Himalayan glacier loss

Scientists compared photographs taken by a US reconnaissance programme with recent spacecraft observations and found that melting in the region has doubled over the last 40 years.

The study shows that since 2000, glaciers heights have been shrinking by an average of 0.5m per year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48696023?fbclid=IwAR3Fe7KpIUcnjZIaniOA_dDV4xPkj6BzcABAdN6mAg9NAWOu2Ou1

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Drought watch: More than 44% of India now suffers
India has witnessed the second driest pre-monsoon season in the last 65 years

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/drought-watch-more-than-44-of-india-now-suffers-65127?fbclid=IwAR1C6iqbgA6RsKs0C9iF1oShR3XHMaSLQ67Vs46EyKIgc3QFWDQlHhifTWo

HIGH TEMPERATURES IN BERING STRAIT

Sam Carana, via Faccebook

Sea surface temperatures in the Bering Sea were as high as 18.9°C or 66.02°F on June 19, 2019.

The high temperatures in the image are partly due to warm water from rivers flowing into the sea, further speeding up the rise of the already high sea temperatures. Water temperatures in the Yukon Delta are particularly high for the time of year.

Bru Pearce, via Facebook


This is what the climate emergency looks like. An area twice the size of Europe experiencing 20 to 30 C with vast rivers of very warm water all draining into the shallow waters of the Laptev Sea and the Arctic Ocean, destroying the remaining ice and defrosting frozen organic material on the seabed to release carbon dioxide and methane. Several feed back loops acting on each-other to accelerate the process. Less ice results in more heat being absorbed, leads to more greenhouse gasses, warms the air, defrosts more tundra, more warm water in the rivers and so on in an escalating spiral.


Temperatures of 35-40 Celsius expected to grip Europe next week

Summer will officially start on Friday, and Europe is facing rising temperatures along with it.


Thunderstorms will hit the continent this weekend, but next week, Europeans will be sweltering as temperatures reach between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius in most of France and Italy, potentially reaching 40 degrees in northern Spain.


A hot air mass rising from North Africa will cause temperatures to soar.



"Locations from Madrid to Paris, Belgium, Frankfurt and Berlin can expect a multi-day heat wave, with daily temperatures near or above 32 C," Accuweather wrote on Thursday.

https://www.euronews.com/2019/06/20/temperatures-of-35-40-celsius-expected-to-grip-europe-next-week?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2_7GRjinW3bz1kZy-mI0KgD4n07g7FuIwBp6pVFID1K6BWC1TtiztIA5Y#Echobox=1561053536

Europe Awaits Record-Smashing June Heat Wave

A vicious heat wave next week could produce all-time highs at multiple European cities. This heat wave—which will be unusually strong for so early in the summer—will gin up some of the hottest June temperatures ever recorded in western and northern Europe.


The European and GFS forecast models are in strong agreement on the development of a blocking ridge of high pressure from near Greenland into western Europe. The setup is related to a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) that has prevailed since late April and that could intensify next week. Often a blocking high over Greenland leads to cooler, cloudier conditions in western Europe, but in this case an upper-level trough is positioned over the eastern Atlantic, west of France. The Greenland high will arc around and to the north of the trough and into western Europe. This topsy-turvy pattern, known as a rex block, can last for a number of days.


https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Europe-Awaits-Record-Smashing-June-
Heat-Wave?cm_ven=cat6-widget&fbclid=IwAR0HcmFN9tQ4QpCSjUG3JMQifSLcfLT0cqDReE0oucDOja
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Fatal Wet bulb Temperatures Reached at Pakistan-India Border

Paul Beckwith

Analyzing data from the Meteologix website for India suggests that present extremely hot temperatures combined with high humidities exceed the 35 C (95F) wetbulb temperature threshold of human survivability (even sitting naked in the shade, in a gale, covered in sweat, your survive 6-8 hours at most). It doesn’t matter how healthy, fit, and strong you are; the physics is fatal. Luckily, the worst conditions seen on the Pakistan-India border (mostly in Pakistan) are for a few hours, and not the full day, but death rates in this region must be huge (and are currently unreported).

San Fracciso soars to 12 degrees as record heatwave roasts California and the West Coast

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/06/11/san-francisco-soars-degrees-record-heat-wave-torches-california-west-coast/?fbclid=IwAR1zZbyoxYHmfvWJWoUXfWQ1pJ-ryi3bLPkXAcxd2z05aK_bq8XYho0Fab8&noredirect=on&utm_term=.b4cb61df7e23

The Corn ‘Train Wreck’ May Be Worse Than Forecast, U.S. Farmers Warn

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-14/corn-train-wreck-may-be-worse-than-forecast-u-s-farmers-warn?fbclid=IwAR2Hnu0DjjG1KLpjhXn-N5Nls7yPu8iT9mW-5wkUCC2VuUvDWWmsLwx_McE


Declassified spy images show Earth’s ‘Third Pole’ is melting fast

Accelerating ice melt in the Himalayas may imperil up to a billion people in South Asia who rely on glacier runoff for drinking water and more.

According to a study published today in the journal Science Advances, rising temperatures in the Himalayas have melted nearly 30 percent of the region’s total ice mass since 1975. Once nicknamed Earth’s ‘Third Pole’ for its impressive cache of snow and ice, the Himalayas may now have a bleak future ahead. Four decades of satellite data, including recently declassified Cold War-era spy film, suggest these glaciers are currently rece

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/himalayan-glaciers-melting?utm_source=FBPAGE&utm_medium=social&utm_term=20190620&utm_content=2415683785&utm_campaign=NOVA+Next&linkId=69287608&fbclid=IwAR0pkDxLGg7ejYJ3l-7_JhIZEH2wiNKZ4hJ7i47FilqAvKQLYJG8Kn2Jbmo



The Chukchi, East Siberian, and the Laptev Sea.- 06 20 2019

Harold Hensell, via Facebook


https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?p=arctic&l=VIIRS_SNPP_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor%28hidden%29%
2CMODIS_Aqua_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor%28hidden%29%2CMODIS_Terra_CorrectedReflectance_TrueColor%2CGraticule%2CReference_Labels%2CReference_Features%28hidden%29%2CCoastlines&t=2019-06-20-T00%3A00%3A00Z&z=3&v=-2069299.2750000001%2C723763.2%
2C1076428.7249999998%2C2063155.2

After years of war and drought, Iraq's bumper crop is burning

Since the harvest began in April, crop fires have raged across Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh and Salahuddin provinces while the government, battered by years of war and corruption, has few resources to counter a new hit-and-run insurgency.


The government in Baghdad is playing down the crisis, saying very few fires have been started deliberately and only a fraction of the country’s farmland has been affected.


But officials in Iraq’s breadbasket province Nineveh warned that if the fires spread to storage sites, a quarter of this year’s bumper harvest could be at risk, potentially ending Iraq’s dream of self-sufficiency after years of disruption due to drought and Islamic State rule.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-wheat-fires-insight/after-years-of-war-and-drought-iraqs-bumper-crop-is-burning-idUKKCN1TL08T

Nicholas Humphrey

This is just America (historic flooding)...don't forget about the Canadian Prairies (extreme drought), Central and Western Europe (drought and flood), East Africa (drought with flooding in Mozambique from two historic amd catastrophic tropical cyclones), Australia (drought...except for that titanic Queensland flood in February), China (historic drought in the north, historic floods to the South), India (blazing heat and drought), Central and South America (drought or flood, depending on the country). I'm sure I'm missing spots. All those areas are facing or have faced crop devastation in just the past 6-12 months

NZ gets another fail mark on climate action

A new assessment of New Zealand’s climate policies once again ranks this country’s performance as “insufficient” for keeping warming at 2deg, let alone the 1.5deg scientists say is critical to maintaining a relatively stable climate and which the Government says is its goal.


http://carbonnews.co.nz/story.asp?storyID=16564&fbclid=IwAR3j3mmaoEXZ172m_onJIV-Y38RManV4ePVNSAilZozblhFWlD1dEYROt0E 

U.S. Forests Are Being Clear-Cut to Supply Biomass Energy Industry, Report Finds

https://e360.yale.edu/digest/u-s-forests-are-being-devastated-to-supply-biomass-energy-industry-report-finds?fbclid=IwAR2-_qyJ__BgbOqW3voIeDkFDWUaEWefCMCRugYtCykU7TbMtdFzw-Er7ec

EU destroys 700,000 hectares of rainforest for biofuels

https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/petitions/908/eu-destroys-700000-hectares-of-rainforest-for-biofuels?t=358&fbclid=IwAR2FaidNxohksYyL8uWmtEfB_5vaAC4nbNB-kgYByUFdNV8GhXRcolNNwCM

Lake Michigan flooding and disappearing beaches due to near-record water levels

https://abc57.com/news/lakeshore-flooding-and-disappearing-beaches?fbclid=IwAR00Uf4lepB1Par6zJEb4gKV5mzSu9BVFpk5K4dTinJm_xk8QPfrrd86
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Found, Inside Dead Sperm Whale: 100 Plastic Cups, 4 Plastic Bottles, 25 Plastic Bags, 2 Flip-Flops

https://www.livescience.com/64139-sperm-whale-full-of-plastic.html?fbclid=IwAR28PwYa9BCNSKg2c-PfsYwUUe77qPlCSoYX0G4RV2sNVxECdF4xqCibS5o

NSW region set for RoundUp aerial spraying

https://tottnews.com/2019/06/09/nsw-region-roundup-aerial-spraying/?fbclid=IwAR3xBHMgIIYjWGY9DxuyAFvAAogIcuNMBeninugF7vFoDSkhP3EX3Dz
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Can we grasp what is happening? More than two gigatonnes (two billion tonnes) of ice melted in Greenland in just one day as temperatures climb way above normal

https://www.thebigwobble.org/2019/06/can-we-grasp-what-is-happening-more.html?spref=fb&fbclid=IwAR05rsH8yzapJrAB8dnHRSojqeaiJi7yAvfPU5H-LSZfk3xvaoJtCkqP9EI

9,000 people forced to leave home as wildfires spread in northern Alberta

https://globalnews.ca/news/5402497/alberta-wildfire-tuesday-june-18/?fbclid=IwAR2ceRHBc9QL_6IPfsVU2AyiurE-tcUieroZWDuvLqcN15YAP6KGmeiu410

Flooding and Heavy Rains In Southeast 

China Submerges Massive Farmlands

China is tragically hit by heavy rains and flooding this week which left 
approximately 4 million hectares of farmlands submerged in water. The Chinese 
Ministry of Emergency Management reports that as of late, there are about 61 
people who have been killed and nearly 400,000 have been evacuated from 
their homes due to increasing water levels in certain areas.


According to Al Jazeera News, the flooding is centered on the Southern and 
Central regions of China with Fujian and Guangdong provinces among those 
that have been massively debilitated by the catastrophes. Despite early 
estimates of the death toll, the government fears that there could be more 
people who have been killed from drowning.


https://en.businesstimes.cn/articles/113879/20190618/flooding-

heavy-rains-southeast-china-submerges-massive-farmlands.htm?fbclid=IwAR0H_LRJj9NeRfKfdRyNZQpNJrOGRNWBnpGDy8_yOKBj_lMbhgFMPmZJIXg



How climate change is thawing the 'glue that holds the northern landscape together'

The warming of the North is causing major changes to the very ground underfoot


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/the-national-permafrost-thaw-inuvik-tuktoyaktuk-1.5179842?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar&fbclid=IwAR1VqS7OabwpH2vpPyJ5-j296Wyqsx4BJYDPfxI7jjdx8r3l3VNRa2VyW_8