Logo of the investment firm, DeltaTerra Capital. Graphic: DeltaTerra Capital

“Big Short” investor David Burt’s new bet: Global warming will bust the housing market – “You end up with a very scary looking situation”

By Geoff Dembicki 1 November 2019 (Vice) – In 2007, almost no one would admit what became obvious in hindsight: The housing market was on the brink of collapse and would take a good chunk of the U.S. economy along with it. Lenders were getting rich, giving home loans to people who couldn’t afford them, investment banks […]

Satellite view of of Category 4 Typhoon Bualoi in the West Pacific on 22 October 2019. A 2.5-minute rapid scan Himawari8 Infrared images captures the rapid clearing of the eye. Video: SSEC / CIMSS

NASA finds Typhoon Bualoi rapidly intensified

By Rob Gutro 21 October 2019 (NASA) – Typhoon Bualoi rapidly intensified over 24 hours and quickly developed an eye and powerful thunderstorms. On 21 October 2019, the eye of Typhoon Bualoi was just over 50 miles from the island of Saipan when NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite passed overhead. Saipan is the largest island of […]

Map of Zimbabwe showing the Acute Food Insecurity Phase for June 2019 to September 2019 and October 2019 to January 2020. Graphic: FEWS NET

“It’s a nightmare”: Zimbabwe struggles with hyperinflation – Extreme poverty surges to 34 percent as 1 million more added to poor bracket – “People should brace for worse”

By Alois Vinga 18 October 2019 (New Zimbabwe) – Extreme poverty in Zimbabwe has risen to 34 percent, with 1 million more citizens now added to the existing 4.7 million, World Bank (WB) said in a recent Poverty and Equity brief. The global lender said there has been a significant growth in the country’s poverty […]

Trump refers to a map, modified using a Sharpie, while talking to reporters following a briefing from officials about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House on 4 September 2019. Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Top Commerce Department aides orchestrated NOAA’s Hurricane Dorian statement attacking NOAA meteorologists for contradicting Trump

By Jason Samenow and Andrew Freedman 10 October 2019 (The Washington Post) – A letter sent Thursday from the chair of the House Science Committee to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross reveals that it was the Commerce Department, not the leadership of its National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that drafted a controversial NOAA statement on 6 […]

Satellite view of Super Typhoon Hagibis as a Category 5-equivalent storm on 7 October 2019. Photo: NOAA / RAMMB

Deadly Typhoon Hagibis packed devastating punch in Japan with record rainfall totals – 2,667 bags of Fukushima waste leaked

By Andrew Freedman 14 October 2019 (The Washington Post) – Typhoon Hagibis proved to be extraordinarily devastating for northern Japan when it struck this weekend, unleashing more than three feet of rain in just 24 hours in some locations, causing widespread flash flooding as well as river flooding. The storm has killed at least 58, according […]

The community center in Altha, Florida after Hurricane Michael, shown on 12 February 2019 (top) and 11 September 2019 (bottom). Photo: Tallahassee Democrat

Hurricane Michael survivors hanging on one year later – Thousands of Panhandle residents still live in tents, trailers, and hotel rooms – “Collectively we’ve forgotten them”

By Nada Hassanein 12 October 2019 SNEADS, Florida (Tallahassee Democrat) – Rodney and Tonya Hewett remember gazing outside the window of their farmhouse during Hurricane Michael. They saw their pool fence flying in the forceful winds, the wooden poles like swords. A deer that tried to run for safety went airborne. The Hewetts have been […]

Satellite view of Super Typhoon Hagibis, 9 October 2019. Photo: Sam Lillo

Super Typhoon Hagibis threatens Tokyo — Massive typhoon could make direct hit on world’s largest metro area

By Bob Henson 9 October 2019 (Weather Underground) – The most intense Northwest Pacific storm of 2019, Super Typhoon Hagibis, is heading toward a potential encounter with the world’s largest metropolitan area, Tokyo. After a slight weakening in Tuesday (from peak winds of 160 to 155 mph), Hagibis was back at Category 5 strength on Wednesday, with […]

Aerial view of damaged mangroves from a 2019 monitoring trip in the Gulf of Carpentaria. A cascade of impacts including rising sea levels, heatwaves and back-to-back tropical cyclones has created 400km of dead and badly damaged mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria. A cascade of impacts including rising sea levels, heatwaves and back-to-back tropical cyclones has created 400km of dead and badly damaged mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Photo: Norman Duke

Shocked scientists find 400 km of dead and damaged mangroves in Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria – “We are getting these compounding effects that we just didn’t expect”

By Graham Readfearn 3 October 2019 (The Guardian) – A cascade of impacts including rising sea levels, heatwaves and back-to-back tropical cyclones has created 400 kilometers [249 miles] of dead and badly damaged mangroves in the Gulf of Carpentaria, a scientific monitoring trip has discovered. Prof Norman Duke, of James Cook University, spent 10 days […]

Greg Wood, a Fairfax County, Virginia firefighter supporting USAID, sits in the dining tent of the camp set up on the tarmac at the Marsh Harbour Airport on 25 September 2019. The outfit has been on the ground since the hurricane, providing support to the Bahamian government. Photo: Andrew West / The USA Today Network-Florida

Bahamas struggles to right itself a month after Category 5 Hurricane Dorian brutalized islands – “Our very existence as a country of many low-lying islands and over 2,400 cays is under grave threat”

By Amy Bennett Williams 1 October 2019 NASSAU, Bahamas (Fort Myers News-Press) – Stooped and heavily laden, Keri Pierre trudged slowly uphill under blazing Bahamian sunshine. She was running out of time. As the days of her free temporary stay at Paradise Island’s Sunrise Beach Club dwindled, Pierre mounted an increasingly frantic search through Nassau for […]

72-hour rainfall totals from Tropical Storm Imelda compared with Hurricane Claudette in 1979, Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, and Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Imelda covered an area as large as Claudette and bigger than Allison but fell short of Harvey. Graphic: Jesse Ferrell / WeatherMatrix

Imelda rainfall is now 7 times more likely than 30 years ago – Climate change is making flooding more frequent in southeast Texas

By Jeff Berardelli 22 September 2019 (CBS News) – Over 36 inches of rain fell in just 36 hours in parts of coastal Texas this week. Astronomical rain rates of 6 inches per hour were observed generating the equivalent of a month’s worth of rain in 60 minutes. Imelda’s immense rainfall is both amazing and […]

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