Villagers in Maharashtra state climb on a water truck to attach hoses for their daily water supply during India’s crippling drought of 2019. Photo: Al Jazeera

Inside India’s water crisis: Living with drought and dry taps – “There is no rainfall, so the land is of no use. We can’t grow anything.”

MAHARASHTRA, 27 July 2019 (Al Jazeera) – This year, large parts of India have seen the worst drought in decades. The monsoon, which usually provides some relief, was weeks late and when it finally arrived, it was once again deficient, with less rainfall than expected. Despite India’s economic growth in recent years, it remains one […]

Wildfire at about 64°N in the Mirninsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, 22 July 2019. Photo: Copernicus Sentinel-2 / Pierre Markuse

More than 100 Arctic wildfires burn in worst-ever fire season – Smoke plumes from huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia, and Alaska visible from space – “These are some of the biggest fires on the planet, with a few appearing to be larger than 100,000 hectares”

By Edward Helmore 26 July 2019 (The Guardian) – The Arctic is suffering its worst wildfire season on record, with huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia, and Alaska producing plumes of smoke that can be seen from space. The Arctic region has recorded its hottest June ever. Since the start of that month, more than 100 wildfires have […]

A bird sits on a straw bale on a field in Frankfurt, Germany, as the sun rises on Thursday, 25 July 2019 during Europe's record-breaking heatwave. Photo: Michael Probst / AP Photo

The full scoop on Europe’s historic onslaught of heat – At least five nations had highest temperatures on record – Hottest day ever observed at hundreds of locations

By Bob Henson 26 July 2019 (Weather Underground) – Temperatures on Friday soared above 40°C (104°F) in Germany for an unprecedented third day in a row—and that’s just one in a mind-boggling swarm of all-time heat records set across western and northern Europe this week. At least five nations saw their highest temperatures on record, […]

Scatterplot showing key bumblebee flight performance indicator of endurance, distance flown in meters (A) for both the control (red circle) and pesticide‐treated (blue triangle) groups. Graphic: Kenna, et al., 2019 / Ecology and Evolution

Pesticide exposure causes bumblebee flight to fall short – “The negative effects of pesticide exposure on flight endurance have the potential to reduce the area that colonies can forage for food”

By Hayley Dunning 30 April 2019 (Imperial College London) – Bees exposed to a neonicotinoid pesticide fly only a third of the distance that unexposed bees are able to achieve. Flight behaviour is crucial for determining how bees forage, so reduced flight performance from pesticide exposure could lead to colonies going hungry and pollination services […]

Remote sensing imagery of discolored water and algal blooms in the Florida Bay and the Florida Keys region between 1992 and 2013 showing connectivity of the mainland and the lower Florida Keys, all outlined in red. (a) Landsat true color image on 29 May 1992 shows turbid water in western Florida Bay and discolored, black water in central Florida Bay that extends southward to the lower Florida Keys; (b) AVHRR reflectance image on 12 March 1996 shows high turbidity from the Shark River Slough plume extending beyond the lower Florida Keys towards Dry Tortugas; (c, d) VIIRS chlorophyll a anomaly images show phytoplankton blooms off Shark River Slough reaching the lower Florida Keys that were partially composed of the cyanobacterium, Synechococcus, on (c) 24 November 2013 and (d) 27 January 2014. Graphic: Lapointe, et al., 2019 / Marine Biology

Nutrient loading lowers resistance to thermal stress in Florida Keys corals – “These data make clear that this is not an ‘either temperature or nutrients’ situation, but rather a ‘both/and’ combination of multiple stressors”

By Gisele Galoustian 15 July 2019 (FAU) – Coral reefs are considered one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet and are dying at alarming rates around the world. Scientists attribute coral bleaching and ultimately massive coral death to a number of environmental stressors, in particular, warming water temperatures due to climate change. A […]

A woman walks past a window reflecting a thermometer showing a temperature of 41 degrees Celsius on 25 July 2019, in Paris, as a new heatwave hits the French capital. Photo: Dominique Faget / AFP / Getty Images

All-time heat records melt in Europe – Paris warmer than Singapore at 42.6°C (108.7°F) – National records broken on Wednesday fell again on Thursday – “‘If you’d have said five years ago we’d see temperature records fall this frequently, I wouldn’t have believed you”

By William Wilkes and Megan Durisin 24 July 2019 (Bloomberg) – Europe’s latest summer heatwave broke heat records just weeks after the continent had its hottest ever June, fueling concern that a shifting climate is triggering more extreme weather. Germany probably set a new all-time temperature record of 42.6 degrees Celsius (108.7 Fahrenheit) in the […]

A member of the Cloud Appreciation Society spies a prime example of Cirrus, nature’s most ethereal cloud, on the Lundy, England expedition. Photo: Phil Noble / Reuters

A cloudspotters’ guide to climate change – “The moment you saw the calculations it was shocking, because until then, it was kind of a thought experiment”

By Mari Saito 25 July 2019 LUNDY ISLAND, ENGLAND (Reuters) – A path of trampled grass leads up the hill to St. Helen’s, the only church on Lundy Island. Near its doors, a stray lamb nibbles on tufts of tall weeds. From a Gothic tower topped with the English flag, the coastline of Devon is […]

A herd of wild buffalo wade through floodwaters at Kaziranga National Park in the India's northeast state of Assam, 24 July 2019. Photo: Biju BORO / AFP Photo

Rare rhinos among more than 200 animals killed by devastating India floods

GUWAHATI, 24 July 2019 (AFP) – Devastating floods have killed more than 200 wild animals—including 17 threatened one-horned rhinos—in one of India’s best-known national parks, officials said Wednesday. Forty percent of Kaziranga National Park in Assam has been left under water following 10 days of torrential rains that have also killed more than 71 people […]

Difference between future and current climate for London and an example of a similar current counterpart, Barcelona. Graphic: Bastin, et al., 2019 / PLOS ONE

By 2050, many cities will have weather like they’ve never seen – “The fate of major tropical cities remains uncertain as many will experience unprecedented climate conditions”

By Stephen Leahy 10 July 2019 (National Geographic) – Climate forecast for 2050: New York City winters will have the weather of today’s Virginia Beach, damp and cold London will be hot and dry like Barcelona, wet Seattle will be like drier San Francisco, and Washington D.C. will be more like today’s Nashville but with […]

Smoke rises from the Swan Lake Fire, southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, on 18 June 2019. Photo: Alaska DNR

It is probably too late to stop dangerous global warming – “The hard truth is that we are not on track”

By Sam Arie 17 July 2019 (Financial Times) – Few things should make you as optimistic — or as pessimistic — as the rise of renewable energy. Optimism comes from a new sense of urgency as the UK, Germany, and Spain set record highs for use of wind and solar power, and record lows for […]

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