Trees burn at night during a forest fire near Maials, west of Tarragona, Spain, 27 June 2019 Photo: Albert Gea / REUTERS

France, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic set June heat records, worst still to come – Spain battles worst Catalonia wildfire in 20 years

By Ian Livingston 26 June 2019 (The Washington Post) – A ferocious heat wave has overtaken parts of Europe. A number of records have already been broken, and there are several days of extreme heat to go. As the heat wave escalates toward its peak late this week, temperatures have already neared or surpassed 100 degrees (37.8 degrees Celsius) […]

Heat forecast for Europe on 25 June 2019. The most widespread anomalous heat, with temperatures more than 12°C (22°F) above average (pink colors), are predicted on Wednesday and Thursday. Graphic: The Weather Company

Dangerous June heat wave envelops Western Europe – Germany sizzles in record June heat

By Dr. Jeff Masters 25 June 2019 (Weather Underground) – A ferociously hot airmass from the Sahara Desert has moved northward into Western Europe and will bring a dangerous heat wave unprecedented for June for the remainder of the week. All-time national heat records for June are likely to fall in multiple countries, and some […]

Indians stand in queues to fill vessels with drinking water from a water tanker in Chennai, capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Wednesday, 19 June 2019. Millions of people are turning to water tank trucks in the state as house and hotel taps run dry in an acute water shortage caused by drying lakes and depleted groundwater. Some private companies have asked employees to work from home and several restaurants are closing early and even considering stopping lunch meals if the water scarcity aggravates. Photo: R. Parthibhan / AP Photo

Life in India’s first city that’s almost out of water – “I’m scared for my daughter”

By Divya Karthikeyan and Swati Gupta 22 June 2019 Chennai, India (CNN) – As Manjula Sridhar went into the operation theater of a maternity ward in Chennai, the capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, her mother began arguing with the doctor over a water shortage that threatened to delay the delivery. Cradling her little girl, […]

Surface temperature anomaly forecast for Europe, 22 June 2019. Graphic: weathermodels.com

Europe braces for scorching heatwave with temperatures “unprecedented for the month of June”

22 June 2019 (AFP) – Forecasters say Europeans will feel sizzling heat next week with temperatures soaring as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in an “unprecedented” June heatwave hitting much of Western Europe. From Great Britain to Belgium to Greece, a wave of hot air coming from the Maghreb in North Africa […]

Maps indicating the number of high monthly temperature records set per decade during the period 2070–2099. a–d, Number of years with at least one month during the year setting a high monthly temperature record (RCP8.5 (a), RCP2.6 (b)), and total number of months setting high temperature records (RCP8.5 (c), RCP2.6 (d)). Multi-model means. Graphic: Power and Delage, 2019 / Nature Climate Change

Most of the world faces record-high temperatures every year without serious climate action

By Brandon Specktor 17 June 2019 (Live Science) – When I say, “how about that heat wave,” perhaps you think of the western United States, where temperatures last week soared above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius), smashing dozens of historical heat records from Oregon to Arizona. Or maybe you think of India — where intense heat […]

This forecast for 6 June 2019 shows the temperature anomaly (difference from normal) in India. Red shades show areas where the temperature is hotter than normal. Graphic: WeatherBell Analytics

Indian villages lie empty as drought forces thousands to flee – Sick and elderly left to fend for themselves – No water left in 35 major dams

By Sam Relph 11 June 2019 DELHI (The Guardian) – Hundreds of Indian villages have been evacuated as a historic drought forces families to abandon their homes in search of water. The country has seen extremely high temperatures in recent weeks. On Monday the capital, Delhi, saw its highest ever June temperature of 48C. In Rajasthan, […]

One-in-30-year heat-related mortality that is avoidable by stabilizing future warming at the 1.5° and 2°C Paris Agreement thresholds rather than 3°C. The point estimates show the mean 1-in-30-year mortality level across 101 plausible exposure-response relationships, whereas the error bars show the 95% eCI accounting for uncertainties from internal climate variability and the exposure-response relationship. All estimates assume constant population. Confidence intervals that do not include 0 (dotted line on each panel) indicate a statistically significant number of avoidable deaths. The size of each bubble on the central map is proportional to the square root of the city’s population in July 2016. The color of each bubble indicates the city’s projected population change between 2015 and 2040. Graphic: Lo, et al., 2019 / Science Advances

Adjusting carbon emissions to the Paris climate commitments would prevent thousands of heat-related deaths per city – “Compelling evidence for the heat-related health benefits of limiting global warming to 1.5°C”

5 June 2019 (University of Bristol) – Thousands of annual heat-related deaths could be potentially avoided in major US cities if global temperatures are limited to the Paris Climate Goals compared with current climate commitments, a new study led by the University of Bristol has found. The research, published today in the journal Science Advances, is […]

Simultaneous heatwaves caused by anthropogenic climate change – “If in future more and more key agricultural regions and densely populated areas are affected by simultaneous heatwaves, this would have severe consequences”

By Peter Rüegg 9 April 2019 (ETH) – Without the climate change caused by human activity, simultaneous heatwaves would not have hit such a large area as they did last summer. This is the conclusion of researchers at ETH Zurich based on observational and model data. Many people will remember last summer – not only […]

Abnormal high temperatures in Alaska disrupt isolated communities, upset subsistence hunting patterns, and cause deaths – “It’s hard to characterize this anomaly, it’s just pretty darn remarkable for that part of the world”

By Tim Lydon 29 May 2019 (Hakai Magazine) – Alaska in March is supposed to be cold. Along the north and west coasts, the ocean should be frozen farther than the eye can see. In the state’s interior, rivers should be locked in ice so thick that they double as roads for snowmobiles and trucks. […]

Exponential growth in impacts from abrupt climate change

By Nick Humphrey 2 May 2019 (Patreon) – I get asked a lot about what the future holds. I discussed the projections of global average temperature and sea level rise in an upcoming interview on Radio Ecoshock (will be posted next week). However, while trying to write an article on this, I found myself frustrated […]

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