Continue readingConfirmed: Global floods, droughts worsening with warming
Tag: drought
Vast tracts of countryside transformed into barren wasteland, decimated crops and animal herds and children dying of starvation. The grim reality confronting drought-stricken east Africa is a frightening portent of what…Continue readingHorror of a hotter world on stark display in parched East Africa
More and more scientists are now admitting publicly that they are scared by the recent climate extremes, such as the floods in Pakistan and west Africa, the droughts and heatwaves in…Continue readingWhy scientists are using the word scary over the climate crisis
Severe to exceptional drought conditions remain common in the West, which has been battling its driest period in the past 1,200 years. But the drought is now far more widespread, with…Continue readingNearly 82% of the U.S. is facing troubling drought conditions
Human-driven climate change made the droughts that gripped large swaths of Europe, China and North America this year at least 20 times more likely, an international group of scientists has concluded.…Continue reading2022 droughts ‘virtually impossible without climate change’, study finds
It was the river that is said to have watered the biblical Garden of Eden and helped give birth to civilisation itself. The Tigris’s course through Iraq begins in the mountains…Continue readingCradle of civilisation dying
This summer, heat waves struck Europe, North Africa, the U.S. and Asia with temperatures reaching over 40°C in places—breaking many long-standing records. Images from the Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission show the scale…Continue readingImage: UK heat wave
At least 10 people died and 4 were missing after an extraordinary thunderstorm sparked major flooding in central Italy. Prime Minister Mario Draghi confirmed the toll, while saying it could change,…Continue reading‘Like a waterfall’: deadly Italian storms spark climate debate
A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the Horn of Africa, which is in the grip of its worst drought in at least four decades. More than 20 million people in Somalia,…Continue readingWhy East Africa’s Facing Its Worst Famine in Decades
Caption for figure above: Grid-cell specific rankings of 22-yr negative soil moisture anomalies (drought rank) in 2000–2021 compared to the driest 22-yr period in each previous drought event back to year…Continue readingMegadrought in the American south-west: a climate disaster unseen in 1,200 years
China recorded its highest temperatures and one of its lowest levels of rainfall in 61 years during a two-month summer heatwave. The average national temperature in August, 22.4˚C, was 1.2˚C higher…Continue readingChina reports ‘most severe’ heatwave and third driest summer on record
Unprecedented and societally disruptive extreme weather events, including heat waves, droughts, dust storms and torrential rains, will soon become a reality unless immediate, ambitious, and transboundary climate action is taken, warns…Continue readingWarming of up to 5°C in this century projected for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East
The UN describes Iraq as the fifth-most-vulnerable country to climate change. Temperatures have increased by 1.8˚C (3.2˚F) in three decades, well above the global average, and in the summers, the mercury…Continue readingClimate migrants flee Iraq’s parched rural south, but cities offer no refuge
Iraq is known in Arabic as the Land of the Two Rivers, but it has seen water levels on the once mighty Tigris and Euphrates plummet. The Euphrates, which passes through…Continue readingBoiling heat and no water: taps run dry in southern Iraq
47% of Europe is undergoing warning conditions, as moisture in the soil dries out and 17% of the region is on a state of alert as vegetation is affected. The current…Continue readingEurope facing its worst drought for 500 years
People in large parts of China have been experiencing two months of extreme heat. Hundreds of places have reported temperatures of more than 40°C (104°F), and many records have been broken.…Continue readingHeatwave in China is the most severe ever recorded in the world
Despite enviable earnings, shares of Three Gorges Renewables are down 15% this year and trade at 20 times forward earnings, half the level of a year ago. Strict policy mandates to…Continue readingDroughts push China towards coal power
The reputed home of the biblical Garden of Eden, Iraq’s swamplands have been battered by 3 years of drought and low rainfall, as well as reduced water flows along rivers and…Continue readingIraq’s Garden of Eden now ‘like a desert’
No longer having access to potable running water, the villagers of Ouled Essi Masseoud rely solely on sporadic supplies in public fountains and from private wells. “The fountains work just one…Continue readingDrought tightens its grip on Morocco
Europe’s most severe drought in decades is hitting homes, factories, farmers and freight across the continent, as experts warn drier winters and searing summers fuelled by global heating mean water shortages…Continue reading‘The new normal’: how Europe is being hit by a climate-driven drought crisis
In its State of the Climate report for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) for 2021, the WMO said ecosystems, food and water, human health and welfare were all taking a…Continue readingBattered by climate change, Latin America must brace for worse
Wildfires and heatwaves wreaking havoc across swathes of the globe show humanity facing “collective suicide”, the UN secretary general has warned. António Guterres told ministers from 40 countries meeting to discuss…Continue readingHumanity faces ‘collective suicide’
Kenya’s remote Marsabit County, in the far north near the border with Ethiopia, is the land of pastoralists. The region has been dubbed the “Cradle of Mankind” – Kenya has more…Continue reading‘Everything is dry’- The droughts putting Kenya’s herding cultures at risk
No organism on Earth is known to live as long as the Great Basin bristlecone pine. The oldest documented tree, a well-hidden specimen nicknamed “Methuselah,” after the long-lived biblical patriarch, was…Continue readingScientists rush to save 1,000-year-old trees on the brink of death
Italy is facing an unusually early heatwave and a lack of rainfall, particularly in the northern agricultural Po valley, which has been hit by its worst drought in decades. The drought…Continue readingItaly declares state of emergency in five regions over drought
Most rain on the Iberian peninsula (most of Spain and Portugal, as well as a small area of Southern France, Andorra, and Gibraltar) falls in winter as wet, low-pressure systems blow…Continue readingSpain and Portugal suffering driest climate for 1,200 years
When the U.S. Forest Service started an intentional fire in the Santa Fe National Forest in early April, the aim was to reduce the risk of a destructive blaze. But the…Continue readingForest Service says it failed to account for climate change in New Mexico blaze
In a study just released in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, Dr. Armineh Barkhordarian confirms that this systematic warming pool is not the result of natural climatic variations—but of human…Continue readingSystematic warming pool discovered in the Pacific due to human activities
Niger is on the frontline of the climate crisis. Increasingly erratic rainfall and longer dry seasons mean that many parts of the country have not had a good harvest in a…Continue readingNiger is in the eye of the climate crisis – and children are starving
Firefighters in Spain and Germany are struggling to contain wildfires amid a heatwave in Western Europe, unusual for this time of year. The worst damage in Spain has been in the…Continue readingSpain, Germany battle wildfires amid unusual heatwave in Europe
In just more than two decades, the continent has experienced its five hottest summers since 1500. 2021: Hottest ever Last year was Europe’s hottest summer on record. Greece endured what Prime…Continue readingEurope’s five hottest summers since 1500
The historic drought in the western United States is about to get worse. Much of the West is already experiencing severe to exceptional drought, but scorching summer temperatures will dry out…Continue readingThese maps illustrate the seriousness of the western drought in the U.S.
Iraq temporarily closed Baghdad airport Monday as choking clouds of dust blanketed the capital, the latest crippling sandstorm in a country that has warned climate change poses an “existential threat”. It…Continue readingIraq swept by tenth sandstorm in weeks
Almost the whole of Portugal was in severe drought at the end of May. The month of May was the hottest in the southern European country for the last 92 years.…Continue reading97% of Portugal in severe drought
Basra, Iraq – Southern Iraq was once known as the “black land” – the vast swaths of palm trees blocking out everything else, and providing food, shelter, and shade. But the…Continue readingClimate change ravages Iraq as palm trees make way for desert
The summer monsoon, which typically arrives in June and continues till September, is life and livelihood. More than 75% of India’s annual rainfall occurs during this period. Monsoon rains are critical…Continue readingIn India, waiting for the monsoon
Sandstorms across the Middle East have delayed flights, closed schools and hospitalised thousands—a phenomenon experts say could worsen as climate change warps regional weather patterns. The Middle East has always been…Continue readingMideast sandstorms snarl traffic, close schools, harm health
Jacobabad in Pakistan’s arid Sindh province is in the grip of the latest heatwave to hit South Asia—peaking at 51˚C (124˚F). Canals in the city—a vital source of irrigation for nearby…Continue readingExtreme temperatures compound poverty in Pakistan’s hottest city
Pakistan is in the grip of a blistering heatwave, with parts of the nation already scorched by temperatures of nearly 50˚C (122˚F) as officials warn of acute water shortages and a…Continue readingPakistan city hits nearly 50˚C (122˚F) as blistering heatwave grips nation
Humanity is “at a crossroads” when it comes to managing drought and accelerating mitigation must be done “urgently, using every tool we can,” says a new report from the United Nations…Continue readingWorld ‘at a crossroads’ in management of droughts, up 29% in a generation and worsening, reports the UN
The relentless dry spell that is withering the American West is steadily warping normal life. Major reservoirs have baked down to record lows and are still dropping, threatening the ability to…Continue readingFacing a new climate reality, Southern California lawns could wither
In the Horn of Africa as a whole, in an area stretching from northern Kenya to Somalia and swaths of Ethiopia, up to 20 million people could go hungry this year…Continue readingHorn of Africa ravaged by worst drought in four decades
As a punishing, record-breaking drought enters its 13th year, Chile has announced an unprecedented plan to ration water for the capital of Santiago, a city of nearly 6 million. The plan…Continue readingChile announces unprecedented plan to ration water as drought enters 13th year
The study examined four possible scenarios for future carbon emissions, and found increased risk of El Niño events in all four. This means El Niño events and associated climate extremes are…Continue readingIncreasing frequency of El Niño events expected by 2040
The Amazon is approaching a tipping point, data shows, after which the rainforest would be lost with “profound” implications for the global climate and biodiversity. Novel statistical analysis shows that more…Continue readingAmazon rainforest tipping point is looming
Hundreds of residents in the US state of Florida were evacuated from their homes after a rash of wildfires that ignited dead vegetation swept through the area. Dry conditions in Florida…Continue readingFlorida wildfires force hundreds to evacuate their homes
Although Africa has contributed relatively little to the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, the continent has suffered some of the world’s heaviest impacts of climate change. This will only get worse, according…Continue readingAfrica, already suffering from warming, will see worse
The American West’s megadrought deepened so much last year that it is now the driest in at least 1,200 years and is a worst-case climate change scenario playing out live. A…Continue readingUS west megadrought worsens to driest in at least 1,200 years
The drought and heatwaves that seared eastern Australia in the lead-up to the 2019-20 black summer bushfires killed as much as 60% of the trees in some areas that escaped the…Continue readingDrought and heatwaves in Australia cause widespread tree death
Where civilization emerged between the Tigris and Euphrates, climate change is poisoning the land and emptying the villages.Continue readingAcross Iraq’s south, there is a sense of an ending
Global warming has pushed what would’ve been a moderate drought in southwestern North America into megadrought territory. 2000–2018 was the driest 19 year period since the late 1500s. Climate model trends…Continue readingLarge contribution from anthropogenic warming to an emerging North American megadrought
Across the region, the price of historic dryness is being measured in lost crops, a slowdown in mining, surging transportation costs and shortages of energy in a region heavily dependent on…Continue readingIn South America, the climate future has arrived.
Unusually powerful sandstorms have left at least six people dead in Sao Paulo in recent weeks, local media said, as southeastern Brazil grapples with severe drought. Scenes of huge orange dust…Continue readingExtreme drought in Brazil triggers fatal sand storms
Climate change is amplifying war, civil unrest, displacement, poverty, hunger and water scarcity in Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria and Mali. Noor Ahmad Akhundzadah, a professor of hydrology at Kabul University: “Now there…Continue readingWar and Warming
The southern Murray-Darling Basin occupies the southern half of NSW and northern Victoria. It receives most of its water from rain in the cooler months that fills dams, with any overflow…Continue readingThe Murrumbidgee River’s wet season height has dropped by 30% since the 1990s, and the outlook is bleak
The Paraná River, one of the main commercial waterways in South America, has reached its lowest level in nearly 80 years due to a prolonged drought in Brazil that scientists attribute…Continue readingDrought hits South America river, threatening vast ecosystem
The Andes mountain range is facing historically low snowfall this year during a decade-long drought that scientists link to global warming. “Here we are seeing a process of long-term decrease in precipitation,…Continue reading‘Mega-drought’ leaves many Andes mountains without snow cover
The world is facing unprecedented levels of drought.Continue readingThe current drought is worldwide. Here’s how different places are fighting it.
The intensity of the fires in California and Oregon is “not something you used to see” so early in the season.Continue readingAmerican west stuck in cycle of ‘heat, drought and fire’
“In the past, we may have had one fire in the summer that was notable. Now 50% of our fires are notable—and what I mean by notable is something that really, really exceeded…Continue readingDrought-hit ‘tinderbox’ California braces for fires in months ahead