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Earth breaks heat and CO₂ records once again: ‘Our planet is trying to tell us something,’ officials say

June 11, 2024

Earth breaks heat and CO₂ records once again: ‘Our planet is trying to tell us something,’ officials say

Humanity is ignoring major planetary vital signs as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels soar to all-time highs and Earth records its 12th consecutive month of record-breaking heat, international climate officials warned this week.

At 60.63 degrees Fahrenheit, the global mean temperature in May was a record 2.73 degrees hotter than the preindustrial average against which warming is measured—marking an astonishing yearlong streak of heat that shows little signs of slowing down, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

“For the past year, every turn of the calendar has turned up the heat,” António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, said during a speech in New York on June 5. “Our planet is trying to tell us something. But we don’t seem to be listening. We’re shattering global temperature records and reaping the whirlwind. It’s climate crunch time. Now is the time to mobilize, act and deliver.”

According to the Copernicus service, May was also the 11th consecutive month of warming beyond 2.7 degrees, the Fahrenheit equivalent of the internationally agreed-upon limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius intended to reduce the worst effects of climate change.

Not only was it a warm month, but the global average temperature for the last 12 months—June 2023 through May—was the highest on record, at 2.93 F above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average.

Guterres said the world is warming so quickly and spewing such considerable CO₂ emissions that the 1.5 degree Celsius goal is “hanging by a thread.”

“The truth is, global emissions need to fall 9% every year until 2030 to keep the 1.5 degree limit alive, but they are heading in the wrong direction,” he told a crowd at the American Museum of Natural History. “We are playing Russian roulette with our planet, and we need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘Unliveable’: Delhi’s residents struggle to cope in record-breaking heat

June 9, 2024

‘Unliveable’: Delhi’s residents struggle to cope in record-breaking heat

Temperatures of more than 45C have left population of 29 million exhausted – but the poorest suffer most

As the water tanker drove into a crowded Delhi neighbourhood, a ruckus erupted. Dozens of residents ran frantically behind it, brandishing buckets, bottles and hoses, and jumped on top of it to get even a drip of what was stored inside. Temperatures that day had soared to 49C (120F), the hottest day on record – and in many places across India’s vast capital, home to more than 29 million people, water had run out.

Every morning, Tripti, a social health worker who lives in the impoverished enclave of Vivekanand Camp, is among those who has to stand under the blazing sun with buckets and pots, waiting desperately for the water tanker to arrive.

“People have to wait for two to three hours in the queue for just for the couple of buckets of water,” she said. “The increasing temperature has made it worse. As the heat is increasing, we need more water but the supply is in fact decreasing. We are suffering badly and heat is making it impossible to live.”

Mohammad Adil Khan inspects ACs at his rental shop in Delhi.

Delhi is no stranger to heat. Its summers always bring stiflingly hot temperatures and the rich confine themselves to their air-conditioned homes, while poor households gather beneath fans and cover themselves with wet rags.

The consensus among experts and residents is that the summer temperatures are now regularly rising far above the norm as India bears the brunt of the climate crisis. A heatwave has enveloped much of north India in May – this week temperatures consecutively rose above 45C…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Tree rings reveal summer 2023 was the hottest in 2 millennia

May 19, 2024

A photo taken in May 2024 shows three women shielding themselves from the scorching sun with a cloth in Mumbai, India. (Image credit: SOPA Images / Contributor via Getty Images)

Last year’s summer was the hottest in 2,000 years, ancient tree rings reveal.

Researchers already knew that 2023 was one for the books, with average temperatures soaring past anything recorded since 1850. But there are no measurements stretching further back than that date, and even the available data is patchy, according to a study published Tuesday (May 14) in the journal Nature. So, to determine whether 2023 was an exceptionally hot year relative to the millennia that preceded it, the study authors turned to records kept by nature.

Trees provide a snapshot of past climates, because they are sensitive to changes in rainfall and temperature. This information is crystalized in their growth rings, which grow wider in warm, wet years than they do in cold, dry years. The scientists examined available tree-ring data dating back to the height of the Roman Empire and concluded that 2023 really was a standout, even when accounting for natural variations in climate over time.

“When you look at the long sweep of history, you can see just how dramatic recent global warming is,” co-author Ulf Büntgen, a professor of environmental systems analysis at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., said in a statement. The data indicated that “2023 was an exceptionally hot year, and this trend will continue unless we reduce greenhouse gas emissions dramatically,” he said.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Orange Juice Prices Primed For Breakout After Forecast Warns Brazil Set For Worst Harvest In Decades

May 19, 2024

Orange Juice Prices Primed For Breakout After Forecast Warns Brazil Set For Worst Harvest In Decades

Breakfast lovers are in for another jolt as orange juice prices surge to near-record levels. A new report released on Friday indicates that Brazil, the leading global exporter of OJ, is facing its worst harvest in over three decades. This alarming development compounds existing issues in Florida’s citrus groves, which have been plagued by disease and are experiencing collapsing production levels to the lowest in decades.

Fundecitrus wrote in a note that Brazil will produce 232.4 million boxes—each weighing about 90 pounds—for the growing season this year. That’s a 24% collapse from a year earlier and the lowest production levels in 36 years.

“Excessive heat brought stress to orange trees during a crucial period of flowering and early fruit formation between September and November last year. Further hurting output is an increase in citrus greening, a disease that causes fruit to prematurely drop from trees,” Bloomberg wrote, commenting on the report.

The report sparked additional fears about a worsening global OJ shortage.

In markets, prices of concentrated OJ futures in New York surged as much as 5% on Friday, closing up about 3% to $394 and only 8% off the record high of $425.

Sliding production in Brazil could soon impact US retail prices at the supermarket, considering Florida has yet to stage a significant comeback in production.

In the last year, the US has ramped up imports of OJ from Brazil to mitigate losses in Florida.

Don’t worry. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has everything under control on the food inflation front, as the prices of OJ, coffee, eggs, and cocoa have hyperinflated.

Watch OJ futs in NY into the new week.

El Nino to last two more months; 2024 could be Malaysia’s hottest year — Nik Nazmi

May 5, 2024

El Nino to last two more months; 2024 could be Malaysia’s hottest year — Nik Nazmi

KOTA BHARU (May 2): The El Nino phenomenon hitting the country is expected to continue for the next two months, said Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad.

He said his ministry and the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) will monitor the weather transition.

According to him, forecasts indicate this year could be the country’s hottest year.

“The last time such hot weather struck the country was in 1998 in Perlis,” he told reporters after launching the Madani NRES adopted village in Kampung Aril, Melor, here on Thursday.

Nik Nazmi said Kelantan, Perlis and Kedah are experiencing higher temperatures than Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

He said based on the report he received, the transition should have started with rain expected to come, but Malaysians are to experience hotter days for another one to two months, with the Meteorological Department monitoring the situation.

“Besides that, we will also monitor and be vigilant about haze in the country and across borders as we observe signs of peat fires,” he said.

Nik Nazmi said his ministry will join forces with the Energy Transition and Water Transformation Ministry to monitor water levels, adding that they may need to conduct a cloud seeding exercise.

The matter is under the attention of Nadma, he said.

“The cost of cloud seeding is high and depends on weather factors. Therefore, I will discuss this matter with the state government,” he added.

Nik Nazmi also advised students to drink enough water and wear appropriate attire due to the hot weather.

Mass fish die-off in Vietnam as heatwave roasts Southeast Asia

May 5, 2024

Mass fish die-off in Vietnam as heatwave roasts Southeast Asia

DONG NAI, Vietnam: Hundreds of thousands of fish have died in a reservoir in southern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province, with locals and media reports suggesting a brutal heatwave and the lake’s management are to blame.

Like much of Southeast Asia – where schools have recently been forced to close early and electricity usage has surged – southern and central Vietnam have been scorched by devastating heat.

“All the fish in the Song May reservoir died for lack of water,” a local resident in Trang Bom district, who identified himself only as Nghia, told AFP.

“Our life has been turned upside down over the past 10 days because of the smell.”

Pictures show residents wading and boating through the 300ha Song May reservoir, with the water barely visible under a blanket of dead marine life.

According to media reports, the area has seen no rain for weeks and the water in the reservoir is too low for the creatures to survive.

Reservoir management had previously discharged water to try to save crops downstream, Nghia said.

“They then tried to renovate the reservoir, bringing in a pump to take the mud out so that the fish would have more space and water,” he said.

However, the efforts did not work and, shortly afterwards, many of the fish died, with local media reports suggesting as many as two hundred tonnes’ worth of fish may have perished.

Dead fish and the dried-up reservoir bed caused by renovation works and the ongoing hot weather conditions in southern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province on Apr 30, 2024. (Photo: AFP/STR)

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Impossible Heat Wave Era is Upon Us

April 29, 2024

At the end of March and into the early days of April, the Sahel region of Africa experienced an unprecedented heat wave. Extreme temperatures descended upon Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad. One city in Mali recorded a temperature of 48.5 degrees Celsius (over 119 degrees Fahrenheit). The heat wave was impossible.

Or, it would have been impossible without the 1.2 degrees Celsius that humans have already baked into the global climate system. That’s the conclusion from scientists with World Weather Attribution, a group that makes rapid assessments of climate change’s influence on extreme weather events. They use various modeling and observational techniques to establish a “fingerprint” of warming on a given event; in this case, it simply wouldn’t have happened in a normal world.

Death tolls from heat waves often don’t become clear until months later, but there are early indications of its severity. One hospital in Mali’s capital Bamako recorded 102 deaths just between April 1st and April 4th. That same hospital recorded 130 deaths over all of April 2023. Many areas affected by the heat had power cuts at the same time, exacerbating the problem.

The otherwise-impossibility of these events is going to more or less become the norm. Most of World Weather Attribution’s results suggest increased odds, incrementally juiced temperatures, higher likelihood of that much rain, and so on. In virtually every event now (they do occasionally find that climate change had little influence), warming’s effect is clear and dramatic — but there is something viscerally different about events that would not have just been rare but literally could not have happened without the blanket of greenhouse gases humans have tucked around the planet.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Europe’s historic temperature shift, from summer to winter in just one day

April 26, 2024

Europe’s historic temperature shift, from summer to winter in just one day

Europe has experienced one of the most rapid temperature flips on record in April 2024 — moving from numerous record-breaking summer-like temperatures at the beginning of the month to record-breaking late April records and frost. Climatologist Maximiliano Herrera said Europe has never seen a month like that extreme.

Temperatures across Europe during the first two weeks of April were marked by numerous record-high temperatures, with summer-like temperatures bringing the feeling of upcoming summer and promoting early blooming in many plants. However, this was followed by an abrupt weather reversal in mid-April, bringing unusually cold temperatures, freezing rain, and snow.

“Europe, the crib of meteorology, is experiencing its most extreme month ever seen,” said weather historian and climatologist Maximiliano Herrera.

Slovenia has become a notable example of this sharp climatic shift. On April 16, following more than ten days of summer-like weather with highs exceeding 30 °C (86 °F), the country reported a drastic change. Temperatures fell to icy levels accompanied by wind, rain, and snow, causing not only agricultural concerns but also traffic disruptions and minor damage from weather conditions.

As we reported on April 21, the most significant temperature drop was recorded in Podčetrtek, a town in eastern Slovenia, where temperatures fell from 27.2°C (81.0 °F) on the afternoon of April 15 to just 1 °C (33.8 °F) by 15:00 LT the following day, marking a record decline of 26.2 °C (47.2 °F).

A similar rapid temperature shift was recorded across central Europe, severely affecting the region’s agriculture, particularly fruit trees and vineyards now vulnerable after early blooming.

Winemakers in France and other affected regions fought frost with anti-frost candles, evoking a familiar scene that we’ve seen repeating over the past several years. This sequence marks yet another year where early-season warmth promoted plant blooming, only to be followed by a destructive frost.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘So hot you can’t breathe’: Extreme heat hits the Philippines

April 25, 2024

‘So hot you can’t breathe’: Extreme heat hits the Philippines

The heat index was expected to reach the 'danger' level of 42 degrees Celsius or higher in at least 30 cities and municipalities of the Philippines — The heat index was expected to reach the ‘danger’ level of 42 degrees Celsius or higher in at least 30 cities and municipalities of the Philippines.

Extreme heat scorched the Philippines on Wednesday, forcing thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes and prompting warnings for people to limit the amount of time spent outdoors.

The months of March, April and May are typically the hottest and driest in the archipelago nation, but conditions this year have been exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon.

“It’s so hot you can’t breathe,” said Erlin Tumaron, 60, who works at a seaside resort in Cavite province, south of Manila, where the heat index reached 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.

“It’s surprising our pools are still empty. You would expect people to come and take a swim, but it seems they’re reluctant to leave their homes because of the heat.”

The heat index was expected to reach the “danger” level of 42C or higher in at least 30 cities and municipalities on Wednesday, the state weather forecaster said.

The heat index measures what a temperature feels like, taking into account humidity.

The Department of Education, which oversees more than 47,600 schools, said nearly 6,700 schools suspended in-person classes on Wednesday.

There was a 50 percent chance of the heat intensifying in the coming days, said Ana Solis, chief climatologist at the state weather forecaster.

“We need to limit the time we spend outdoors, drink plenty of water, bring umbrellas and hats when going outdoors,” Solis told AFP.

Solis said El Niño was the reason for the “extreme heat” affecting swaths of the country.

Around half the country’s provinces are officially in drought.

‘It’s really hot here’

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Cities are often 10-15 °C hotter than their rural surroundings

April 24, 2024

A recent global study conducted by the Joint Research Centre looks at the difference between surface temperatures of urban areas and their neighbouring rural areas in summer.

Worldwide, more than half of the people live in cities, and the share of city dwellers is projected to grow further. Cities often suffer from ‘heat islands’, the phenomenon of temperatures being higher within cities than in neighbouring rural zones. This amplifies the effect of heatwaves in cities and increases the risk to human health.

Scientists at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre examined the difference between land surface temperatures in urban areas with a population over 50,000 people and in their rural surroundings in summer between 2003 and 2020.

Working with satellite data, scientists measured that surface temperatures in cities were sometimes up to 10-15°C higher than in their rural surroundings. The study also estimated that the temperature in extreme heat islands in cities around the world has risen on average by 1°C in since 2003.

The global scale of the study and high-resolution of the spatial analysis make it possible to compare cities in different climate zones and even different parts within megacities.

Hotspots and cooler areas within global megacities

Across global megacities, such as Tokyo, New York, Paris and London, the study observed a very high intra-city variability in temperature. Hotspots are often found in industrial areas, where waste heat, the use of dark construction material and absence of vegetation can result in very high land surface temperatures. For example, in Paris hotspots are found east of Saint-Denis and near Chevilly Larue, around large industrial complexes.

The study highlights that slums can also form hotspots of heat due to their chaotic, dense and unregulated urbanisation. Intense heat exposure, combined with poverty, poor housing conditions and reduced access to cooling options poses serious health threats to people.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

In Texas, the Heat Index Is Rising Faster Than the Temperature

March 28, 2024

In Texas, the Heat Index Is Rising Faster Than the Temperature

A new study of summer weather in Texas finds the heat index — an indicator of how hot it feels outside — is rising much faster than the temperature.

The reason, scientists say, is that warming is leading to a rise in humidity. Historically in Texas, the relative humidity would fall when the temperature rose, making it possible to cool off by sweating. But now Texas is seeing high heat and high humidity together. On hot, muggy days, the air is so saturated with water that sweat sticks to the skin rather than evaporating. As a result, the weather feels much warmer than a thermometer alone would suggest.

In 1979, physicist Robert Steadman developed the heat index to indicate how such weather actually feels. But Steadman did not calculate the index for the high levels of heat and humidity routinely seen today. In 2022, scientists at UC Berkeley recalculated the heat index to account for more extreme weather. And in 2023, Berkeley physicist David Romps applied the updated heat index to the summer heat in Texas.

He found that while Texas has warmed by around 3 degrees F (1.5 degrees C) on average since the preindustrial era, on some scorching summer days last year it felt up to 11 degrees F (6 degrees C) hotter than it would have without climate change. His study was published in Environmental Research Letters.

Romps wrote that, compared to the temperature, the heat index offers “a more accurate picture of the extent to which global warming has increased heat stress.”

Ramping Up Renewables Can’t Provide Enough Heat Energy in Winter

September 24, 2022

Ramping Up Renewables Can’t Provide Enough Heat Energy in Winter

We usually don’t think about the wonderful service fossil fuels provide in terms of being a store of heat energy for winter, the time when there is a greater need for heat energy. Figure 1 shows dramatically how, in the US, the residential usage of heating fuels spikes during the winter months.

Figure 1. US residential use of energy, based on EIA data. The category “Natural Gas, etc.” includes all fuels bought directly by households and burned. This is primarily natural gas, but also includes small amounts of propane and diesel burned as heating oil. Wood chips or other commercial wood purchased to be burned is also in this category.

Solar energy is most abundantly available in the May-June-July period, making it a poor candidate for fixing the problem of the need for winter heat.

Figure 2. California solar electricity production by month through June 30, 2022, based on EIA data. Amounts are for utility scale and small scale solar combined.

In some ways, the lack of availability of fuels for winter is a canary in the coal mine regarding future energy shortages. People have been concerned about oil shortages, but winter fuel shortages are, in many ways, just as bad. They can result in people “freezing in the dark.”

In this post, I will look at some of the issues involved.

[1] Batteries are suitable for fine-tuning the precise time during a 24-hour period solar electricity is used. They cannot be scaled up to store solar energy from summer to winter.

In today’s world, batteries can be used to delay the use of solar electricity for at most a few hours. In exceptional situations, perhaps the holding period can be increased to a few days.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Intense heat and flooding are wreaking havoc on power and water systems as climate change batters America’s aging infrastructure

September 17, 2022

Intense heat and flooding are wreaking havoc on power and water systems as climate change batters America’s aging infrastructure

The 1960s and 1970s were a golden age of infrastructure development in the U.S., with the expansion of the interstate system and widespread construction of new water treatment, wastewater and flood control systems reflecting national priorities in public health and national defense. But infrastructure requires maintenance, and, eventually, it has to be replaced.

That hasn’t been happening in many parts of the country. Increasingly, extreme heat and storms are putting roads, bridges, water systems and other infrastructure under stress.

Two recent examples – an intense heat wave that pushed California’s power grid to its limits in September 2022, and the failure of the water system in Jackson, Mississippi, amid flooding in August – show how a growing maintenance backlog and increasing climate change are turning the 2020s and 2030s into a golden age of infrastructure failure.

I am a civil engineer whose work focuses on the impacts of climate change on infrastructure. Often, low-income communities and communities of color like Jackson see the least investment in infrastructure replacements and repairs.

Crumbling bridge and water systems

The United States is consistently falling short on funding infrastructure maintenance. A report by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker’s Volcker Alliance in 2019 estimated the U.S. has a US$1 trillion backlog of needed repairs.

Over 220,000 bridges across the country – about 33% of the total – require rehabilitation or replacement.

A water main break now occurs somewhere in the U.S. every two minutes, and an estimated 6 million gallons of treated water are lost each day. This is happening at the same time the western United States is implementing water restrictions amid the driest 20-year span in 1,200 years. Similarly, drinking water distribution in the United States relies on over 2 million miles of pipes that have limited life spans.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

UK Met Office Issues First Red Warning for Extreme Heat

July 16, 2022

People walk past Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament in London, on July 15, 2022. (Dominic Lipinski/PA Media)

UK Met Office Issues First Red Warning for Extreme Heat

The UK’s Met Office has issued its first ever red warning for extreme heat, as it warned of a “potentially very serious situation” in parts of England that could pose a risk to life.

During the ongoing heatwave that is set to peak on Tuesday, the Met Office said, there is an 80 percent chance of the mercury topping the UK’s record temperature of 38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in 2019, and there is a 50 percent chance of temperatures reaching 40C somewhere in the UK.

The red warning, the first of its kind ever issued, covers an area from London up to Manchester and then up to the Vale of York, said Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge, adding: “This is potentially a very serious situation.”

Penny Endersby, Met Office chief executive, said in a sombre video shared online: “The extreme heat that we’re forecasting right now is absolutely unprecedented.”

“Stay out of the sun, keep your home cool, think about adjusting your plans for the warning period,” she said.

‘National Emergency’

The UK Health Security Agency has increased its heat health warning from level three to level four, which indicates the situation amounts to a “national emergency.”

Level four is reached “when a heatwave is so severe and/or prolonged that its effects extend outside the health and social care system… At this level, illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups,” it said.

England’s chief medical officer, Professor Sir Chris Whitty, asked people on Twitter to look out for each other.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

European Power Prices Spike As Heat Dome Strains Grid

June 22, 2022

European Power Prices Spike As Heat Dome Strains Grid

European day-ahead power prices continue to soar for the third day due to an early-season heat wave driving up cooling demand, lack of renewable energy generation, declining nuclear power, and soaring natural gas costs.

Large swaths of Europe over the weekend experienced temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). The hottest temperatures were from Spain to Germany to France.

Bloomberg notes power grids were under stress as wind generation in Germany and Italy plunged, forcing the need to increase the capacity of fossil fuel power generators to make up for the lost power. This placed a bid under electricity prices as the cost to generate power soars because of tightening supplies due to declining Russian flows.

“Already high gas prices, combined with low wind output will require less efficient, higher cost gas plants to fire up, pushing up prices,” BloombergNEF’s Andreas Gandolfo said.

Day-ahead power prices in France traded at 383.14 euros ($404.08) a megawatt-hour, up more than 64% from last week.

Besides tight fossil fuel supplies and a lack of renewable power from Germany and Italy, half of France’s 56 nuclear reactors are offline. France was the biggest net exporter of power last year, supplying many European countries.

French nuclear power is needed when renewable energy is lacking. Also, Brussels’ drive for net-zero carbon emissions and weening off Russian fossil fuels has made the energy crisis on the continent worse.

To avert a more profound crisis, German Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Sunday that the country is increasing coal generation to increase power output.

The decision comes just days after Russian gas company Gazprom announced that it was reducing supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for “technical reasons.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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