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, […]

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, […]

Erosion in Akiak, Alaska swallowed 75 to 100 feet of Kuskokwim River banks along the village on 20 May 2019. Photo: Ivan Ivan / City of Akiak / KYUK News

Alaska is melting and it’s likely to accelerate global heating – “Every year there’s a new temperature record, it’s getting worse and worse and you feel like a broken record saying it”

By Oliver Milman 14 June 2019 (The Guardian) – A city in western Alaska has lost a huge stretch of riverbank to erosion that may turn it into an island, amid renewed warnings from scientists over the havoc triggered by the accelerating melting of the state’s ice and permafrost. Residents of the small city of […]

Buenos Aires in darkness after a massive power outage struck South America on 16 June 2019. Photo: Lucas Rodriguez

50 million people lose electricity during “unprecedented” South America blackout – “The funny part is that we don’t have electricity, but we have internet in our phones”

By Eliott C. McLaughlin 16 June 2019 (CNN) – A “massive failure” in an electrical interconnection system left Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay completely without power, a utility distributor said Sunday. Parts of Chile and southern Brazil are experiencing outages as well, said Edesur, the Buenos Aires-based company. The company later posted an updated statement removing […]

Tug boats idle along the shores of the Mississippi River as they wait to push barges north, on 7 June 2019. Photo: Daniel Acker / Bloomberg

Hundreds of barges stalled as record floods hinder Midwest supplies – “Very long duration flooding on the Mississippi River can really start to wear on people”

By Brian K Sullivan , Shruti Singh, and Mario Parker 8 June 2019 (Bloomberg) – Hundreds of barges are stalled on the Mississippi River, clogging the main circulatory system for a farm-belt economy battered by a relentless, record-setting string of snow, rainstorms and flooding. Railways and highways have been closed as well, keeping needed supplies […]

“Day Zero” in India looming for millions

By Dr. Jeff Masters 6 June 2019 (Weather Underground) – In early 2018, a three-year drought pushed Cape Town, South Africa, within weeks of experiencing “Day Zero”—the day when the city would run out of water and the taps be shut off. Fortunately, extreme water conservation efforts and the arrival of timely rains pushed “Day […]

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. […]

Aerial view of flooded homes in Arkansas, 2 June 2019. Photo: Brian Emfinger / Twitter

“Horrible scenes” in central, southern U.S. as more rain threatens areas swamped by record floods – “You have to just make a decision because you’re going to lose everything”

By Doyle Rice 4 June 2019 (USA TODAY) – More unwelcome rain is forecast this week in much of the central and southern USA, falling upon areas already swamped by record-breaking floods. “Many locations from the central and southern Plains into the Mississippi Valley and Ohio Valley could see 1 to 3 inches of rain in the […]

A farm field is flooded by waters from the Missouri River, in Bellevue, Nebraska, on 29 May 2019. Photo: Nati Harnik / AP

Flooded farms in the U.S. Midwest can’t plant crops – Corn and soybean acres not planted at record high – “The frequency of these disasters, I can’t say we’ve experienced anything like this since I’ve been working in agriculture”

By Michael J. Coren 30 May 2019 (Quartz) – The angst on farmer Twitter is palpable. Across the Midwest, torrential rains have soaked the fields, leaving the sodden soil unsuitable for planting millions of acres with corn, soybeans, and other crops, presaging a terrible harvest. Seeds are usually in the ground this time of year. […]

Historic flooding on the Arkansas River in Oklahoma and Arkansas – “This is the culmination of a flood that is now in its fourth week”

By Dr. Jeff Masters 28 May 2019 (Weather Underground) – Torrential rains in Oklahoma over the past two weeks have brought the Arkansas River in western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma to its highest water level ever recorded. Near the Oklahoma border at Fort Smith, Arkansas (population 300,000), the river rose to two feet above its previous […]

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