Annual average sea-ice extent in the Southern Ocean, 1979-2019. Sea ice extent in Antarctica has plunged since 2014. Data: Parkinson, 2019 / Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Graphic: The Guardian

“Precipitous” fall in Antarctic sea ice since 2014 revealed – “The rapid decline has caught us by surprise and changes the picture completely”

By Damian Carrington 1 July 2019 (The Guardian) – The vast expanse of sea ice around Antarctica has suffered a “precipitous” fall since 2014, satellite data shows, and fell at a faster rate than seen in the Arctic. The plunge in the average annual extent means Antarctica lost as much sea ice in four years […]

Mannubai Chamariya at the check dam construction site in Sangvi village in Madhya Pradesh. Photo: Aarefa Johari / Quartz India

An investigation into how India dismantled its main defence against drought – “By shifting the focus to farm irrigation, the government is taking water conservation efforts back by 20 years”

By Aarefa Johari and Nithya Subramanian 1 July 2019 (Quartz) – At the height of the June summer in Madhya Pradesh, Mannubai Chamariya heaved boulders from the banks of a dry stream to a site where other workers arranged them in a tiled wall, filling the gaps with cement. The work was arduous but Chamariya […]

Spatial patterns of linear trends of the JJA DSL from four precipitation datasets for the period 1988–2013. Graphic: Jiang, et al., 2019 / Nature Climate Change

A longer dry season in the Congo Rainforest – “Dry season length is one of the most crucial climate limitations for sustaining rainforest”

By Kathryn Hansen 3 July 2019 (NASA) – It is the “rain” in the term “rainforest” that makes possible the diverse ecosystem teeming with plants and animals. That doesn’t mean a rainforest is always wet: tropical rainforests are known for having distinct wet and dry seasons. But new research shows that the summer dry season in the […]

Workers carry the last bucketful of water from a small pond in the dried-out Puzhal reservoir on the outskirts of the Indian city of Chennai. Photo: Arun Sankar/ AFP / Getty Images

UN expert: World faces “climate apartheid” risk, 120 more million in poverty – “Even if current targets are met, tens of millions will be impoverished, leading to widespread displacement and hunger”

25 June 2019 (UN News) – Climate change “threatens to undo the last 50 years” of development, global health and poverty reduction, a United Nations expert said on Tuesday, citing the risk of a new era of “climate apartheid” where the rich buy their way out of rising heat and hunger. “Even if current targets […]

The jet stream wanders around Alaska, trapping a record-breaking heatwave over Anchorage, 3 July 2019. Graphic: The Weather Channel

Alaska could see all-time temperature record today in “unbelievable” heat wave – “It’s not just the magnitude of the heat, it’s how long it will last”

By John Bacon 4 July 2019 (USA TODAY) – Alaska’s biggest city won’t be marking the nation’s 243rd birthday with fireworks displays as Anchorage struggles with dry conditions, wildfires and what could become the hottest day on record. The city’s all-time high temperature record of 85 degrees dates back 50 years. It could fall today, with a […]

Map showing the anomalies in temperature (°C) estimated from ERA5 during the 5-day period of 25-29 June 2019. Graphic: ECMWF / Copernicus Climate Change Service

June 2019 hottest ever recorded on Earth – “Temperature records haven’t just been broken. They have been obliterated.”

By Conrad Duncan 2 July 2019 (The Independent) – Last month was the hottest June ever recorded, the EU’s satellite agency has announced. Data provided by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the EU, showed that the global-average temperature for June 2019 was […]

Floodwaters inundate a farm on Tuesday, 2 July 2019 in Ripley, Tennessee. Officials say water from the bulging Mississippi River has flooded thousands of acres of farmland in west Tennessee. Photo: Adrian Sainz / AP Photo

River flooding in Tennessee ruins cotton, soybean crops – “It’s been devastating”

By Adrian Sainz 2 July 2019 RIPLEY, Tennessee (AP) – Wearing wading boots and a wide-brimmed hat, Derrick Currie casts his green fishing line into a pool of brown water along a rural Tennessee road. In a couple of minutes, he reels in his flapping bounty: A nice-sized catfish that he puts in a cooler […]

Aerial view of flooding in Kingfisher, Oklahoma on 21 May 2019. Photo: Bloomberg

Wettest weather in 124 years has U.S. farmers speeding crops – “It’s hard to imagine that climate change did not rest a heavy thumb on the scale”

By Denitsa Tsekova and Brian K. Sullivan 1 July 2019 (Bloomberg) – After suffering through the wettest 12 months since at least 1895, U.S. farmers have plans to adapt next year to what some forecasters say may be an increasingly soggy new normal for the nation’s midsection. The plans include bigger and faster tractors to […]

Residents get water from a community well in Chennai after reservoirs for the city ran dry in June 2019. The bustling capital of Tamil Nadu state usually receives 825 million litres of water a day, but authorities are currently only able to supply 60 percent of that. With temperatures regularly hitting 40 degrees Celsius, reservoirs have run dry and other water sources are dwindling each day. Photo: Arun Sankar / AFP

Why India’s Chennai has run out of water

By Nityanand Jayaraman 1 July 2019 (BBC News) – As I write this, it has rained in Chennai – the first real welcome shower, but one that lasted only 30 minutes. But, still, that has been enough to flood the streets and stall traffic. The irony is that Chennai’s vulnerability to floods and its water […]

Aerial view of people cooling off at a lake in Haltern am See, western Germany, on 26 June 2019. Temperatures in Gemany reached as high as 38.6°C that day, setting a new all-time German heat record for June that had stood since 1947. That record was beaten again on Sunday, 30 June 2019, with a 39.6°C reading at river Saale. Photo: Ina Fassbender / AFP / Getty Images

European heat wave shifts east, all-time heat records tumble in Germany – “For all practical purposes, the heat wave is caused by human-made global warming”

By Dr. Jeff Masters 1 July 2019 (Weather Underground) – More than 30 locations in Central Europe—including towns and cities in Denmark, France, Germany, and Poland—set all-time heat records on Sunday as the continent’s historic June heat wave of 2019 shifted eastward. Three nations set all-time heat records for the month of June on Sunday: […]

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