Aussies Feeling the Heat of Global Warming

Australia continues its warming trend and scientists know that this is due to anthropogenic climate change. Even though carbon emissions were flat for the third straight year, 2016 was still the hottest year on record. Sixteen of the 17 hottest years on record have occurred since the dawn of the new millennium. According to the World Meteorological Association, 2016 was 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer on average than temperatures for the preindustrial Earth. That is only .3 degrees Celsius below the upper threshold limit of 1.5-degree-Celsius. Extreme heat is not just a source of discomfort it can be deadly. The Australian Climate Council says that more people have been killed by heat in the last century than any other natural disaster.

Mother Nature Strikes Back: A Review of Extreme Weather in 2016

Extreme weather is a deadly corollary of climate change. A UN study found that between 1995 and 2015, 600,000 people died from natural disasters. Global warming is known to exacerbate the intensity of extreme weather events. We are already seeing clear evidence of climate change playing a role in a growing number of natural disasters. Thanks to advances in attribution science we can now see the role that climate change plays in driving a succession of increasingly severe extreme weather events.

Video - Remembering Haiyan and Working for Climate Justice

One year ago today, November 8, 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever to hit land, devastated the Philippines. Powerful winds and seven meter high storm surges killed as many as 7,300 people and forced a million families from their homes. A year later thousand of people are still homeless.

Graphics - East Coast Flooding: Miami and New York City

Video - Aeriel View of Balken Flooding

The Costs of Climate Change Induced Flooding

A growing number of climate change related events are coalescing to contribute to very costly flooding.
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The combination of thermal expansion, melting ice, and extreme precipitation are contributing to flooding which significantly increases the costs of climate change. Recent flooding in Central Europe accrued unprecedented costs and the UK in particular experienced some of the worst flooding in the Island nation's history. We have seen record setting downpours in Japan and recurrent widespread flooding in Australia. Last summer, we saw "Biblical flooding" in Colorado and most recently, the Balkans are suffering under a massive deluge. Even countries in the Middle East have been inundated by anomalous heavy precipitation in recent times.

Graphs - Global Cost of Flooding

Source:PNAS

Global Fire Map (May 1 - 10, 2014)

Here is a NASA map that show wild fires around the world for the first 10 days of May based on satellite data. Scientists indicate that climate change is increasing heat and drought thereby worsening wildfires. We are losing forests at an alarming rate, it is estimated that we have already lost half of the world's forests. Forests are known to provide a wealth of benefits including habit for a number of life forms, carbon sequestration, oxygen production and precipitation.

Infographic - Sea Level Rise

Video - Southern California's Firenadoes are Spawned by Climate Change Induced Drought

In Southern California, climate change induced drought is fueling strong winds which are fanning wildfires and spawning what is known as "firenadoes." Also known as fire whirls these spiraling column shaped vortexes of flames look like something out of an apocalyptic vision.

Climate Change Induced Wildfires Burn Out of Control in Southern California

One hundred and twenty five thousand people have been evacuated and businesses, schools and amusement parks have been shut down in Southern California due to the threat from wildfires. Many homes have been destroyed and millions of dollars of damage has been reported so far. The devastating spate of fires have also spawned what is being called "firenados", a surreal twister made of flame. The Fire Department is fighting the flames and has deployed water-bombers.

Local officials have indicated that there is a connection between California's wildfires and climate change. According to scientists, climate change has lengthening the fire season in California by several days per year. The Western wildfire season is now 78 days longer than it was in the mid-1980s. This year, due to worsening drought, the season effectively never stopped.

Wildfires in San Diego County, have forced the closure of schools, widespread evacuations and the devastation of approximately 10,000 acres which has prompted the governor to declare a state of emergency.

Triple digit temperatures are compounding the problem. The 102-degree reading in Oxnard, is the hottest temperature ever recorded in the month of May and just shy of the all time record for the area. Other areas in Southern California have also broken records.

The 400 acre Poinsettia Fire near Carlsbad has already claimed at least one victim and the Tomahawk fire that broke out on the Camp Pendleton Marine Base north of San Diego has destroyed more than 100 acres prompting evacuation of military housing and a naval weapons station.

On a brighter note crews have made substantial headway against the Bernardo Fire allowing people to go back to their homes. The Bernardo fire has burnt more than 1,500 acres. A total of 18,400 people were evacuated in and around San Marcos, north of San Diego. A total of 3 million people live in the area.

Visualizing Sea Level Rises from Climate Change

New websites are helping people to visualize sea level rises which is one of the most prominent features of global warming.

This issue is highlighted by recent research indicating that the melting glaciers in Antarctica have hit an irreversible tipping point.

Sea level rises have also been predicted by scientists all around the world including the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, most comprehensive scientific summary of climate change to date.

Video - Aftermath of the Gas Explosion at the Pensacola Jail in Florida

On April 30th, after days of torrential rain a gas explosion ripped through the Escambia County Central Booking Facility in Pensacola, Florida killing 2 people and injuring 183 others.

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Climate Change Induced Flooding may have Caused the Gas Explosion at the Pensacola Jail

Climate Change Induced Flooding may have Caused the Gas Explosion at the Pensacola Jail

Flooding may have caused the deadly natural gas explosion at the Escambia County Central Booking Facility in Pensacola, Florida. At this point 2 people are known to have been killed, 3 are missing and at least 180 others have been injured. The powerful blast which caused the building to partially collapse occurred just before midnight on April 30th.

Heavy Rains Link Climate Change and Landslides

The recent deadly landslide in Washington state has led a number of publications to explore the possible influence of climate change. A landslide, defined as the downward movement of slope under the influence of gravity, can be triggered by a number of changes including weaknesses in composition or structure of the rock or soil and high precipitation. Rainfall, particularly heavy rainfall is the causal element that connects climate change to landslides and it is the focus of this article.

Heavy Rains in Egypt Followed by Sandstorms

Heavy rains that started on the weekend of March 7 and 8 caused deadly traffic accidents, flooding, school and road closures as well as other disruptions in many parts of Egypt. Some of the worst hit areas include the Sinai, the adjacent Gulf of Suez, and Upper Egypt. In remote areas the weekend storms damaged mud-brick homes in oasis towns in Egypt’s desert Wadi Al-Gedid governorate, bad weather also descended on the Nile Delta area.

Egyptian authorities declared an emergency alert on Sunday in the town St. Catherine in St Sinai. Residents panicked as the area was hit by a flood after heavy rain. It is too early to know the full extent of the extent of the damage.

A total of 16 people are known to have been killed so far in weather-related accidents and heavy rains. This is not the first time that extreme weather has caused deaths in Egypt this year. Four hikers died while climbing mountains close to St. Catherine when they were stranded by a freak snowstorm in February.

Attribution Science and UK Storms and Flooding

While it is widely known that it is hard to assign individual extreme weather events to climate change, advances in attribution science including a new project will help us to zero in on the causes of specific storms. Improved attribution science including spatial resolution climate models will enable us to get a better grasp of how individual extreme weather events are linked to global warming.

UK Flooding and the Science of Climate Change

While it is widely understood that it is hard to ascribe individual weather events to climate change, there is strong evidence to suggest that the floods experienced in the UK at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014 are a taste of what weather will be like as the world warms.

A top Welsh climate scientist has warned that recent storms and floods in the UK offer a foretaste of global warming. Professor Neil Glasser, one of the founders of the Climate Change Consortium of Wales, has said that computer models indicate that extreme weather such as that experienced by the UK of late will happen more often.

Massive Flooding in the UK is Driving People to Accept the Veracity of Climate Change

Although weather related calamity has proven devastating to the UK, there may be an upside to the unprecedented flooding. Politicians and people who were previously disinterested in climate change in the UK are increasingly being forced to reckon with reality.

As explained in an Independent article by Yasmin Alibhai Brown, a Ugandan-born British journalist and author:

Petition in Support of UK Flood Victims & Against Fossil Fuel Subsidies

The ongoing flooding crisis has gone on for a couple of months now in the UK. This is a disaster that has already cost lives and incurred massive financial costs. Once the floods subside, it will take many months to cleanup. British citizens are coming together to demand that their government do a better job of preempting (mitigating) climate change so that the storms and floods do not get worse in the future. Here is a petition that seeks an end of fossil fuels and aid for flood victims.