extreme weather events

Australia records warmest winter caused by global heating and sunny conditions

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/01/australia-records-warmest-winter-caused-by-global-heating-and-sunny-conditions

NSW, Queensland and Tasmania experienced hottest winters with spring likely to deliver hotter than average temperatures too

Image of a kangaroo.
Image of a kangaroo.

Australia’s winter of 2023 was the warmest since official records began in 1910, with average daily temperatures 1.53C above the long-term average.

According to data from the Bureau of Meteorology released on Friday, the 2023 winter beat the previous record of 1.46C above the average set in 1996. Every winter since 2012 has been warmer than the 30-year average calculated from 1961 to 1990.

Global heating and weather conditions that delivered sunny days were behind the record, scientists said.

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Dr Andrew King, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne, said the winter warmth was “pretty consistent with the trend towards warming that we have already seen and expect to continue as we keep emitting greenhouse gases”.

King said the high-pressure systems that brought the extra warmth were “part of the story”, adding “we would not get the temperatures that we have seen this winter really happening without human-caused climate change”.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/01/australia-records-warmest-winter-caused-by-global-heating-and-sunny-conditions

Continue ReadingAustralia records warmest winter caused by global heating and sunny conditions

Hurricane Idalia could become 2023’s costliest climate disaster for the US

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/31/hurricane-idalia-cost-update-category-3-florida-georgia

Analysts estimate the category 3 storm has already racked up a preliminary cost of $9.36bn, straining the insurance industry

Hurricane Idalia could become the costliest climate disaster to hit the US this year, analysts say, with massive implications for insurance and risk management industries.

The category 3 storm that barreled into Florida’s west coast from the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, then carved a path of destruction and flooding through Georgia and the Carolinas, has a preliminary price tag of $9.36bn, based on early estimates, according to risk analysts at UBS.

It follows 15 previous “individual weather and climate disasters” recorded in the US already this year by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) as unprecedented heat, wildfires, storms and floods escalate.

Cumulatively, Noaa said that by the end of July, which Nasa said was Earth’s hottest month on record, the total estimated cost of the damage caused by the disasters was $39.7bn. That figure does not include the estimated $5.5bn cost to rebuild the town of Lahaina following devastating wildfires that razed the Hawaii island of Maui this month.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/31/hurricane-idalia-cost-update-category-3-florida-georgia

Continue ReadingHurricane Idalia could become 2023’s costliest climate disaster for the US

Climate crisis to create ‘acute’ challenges for Australia’s economy, incoming RBA governor says

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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/29/rba-governor-michele-bullock-climate-change-economy-challenges

Michele Bullock uses speech to detail how central bank is preparing for increased risk of extreme weather events

Global heating will present the Reserve Bank with “acute” challenges, including heightened uncertainty around how the climate will change and the resulting impacts on the economy and financial system, the incoming governor, Michele Bullock, has said.

Bullock, now deputy RBA governor before her elevation to the top post on 18 September, used her Sir Leslie Melville lecture at the Australian National University on Tuesday – after a brief disruption from protesters – to detail how the central bank was preparing for a warming world and the increased risk of extreme weather events.

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“Climate change and the actions taken in response will have broad-ranging implications for the economy, the financial system and society at large,” Bullock said, including affecting price stability, employment and stability of the financial system.

“The timing and intensity of effects are uncertain, and these could be severe and irreversible if tipping points are reached,” she said.

Bullock’s comments echo some of the issues raised in the federal government’s intergenerational report released last Thursday that found climate change posed “profound” risks. Threats ranged from billions of dollars in lost productivity as high temperatures inhibit safe work to decreased crop yields and more costly disasters.

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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/29/rba-governor-michele-bullock-climate-change-economy-challenges

Continue ReadingClimate crisis to create ‘acute’ challenges for Australia’s economy, incoming RBA governor says

Dramatic climate action needed to curtail ‘crazy’ extreme weather

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/28/dramatic-climate-action-needed-curtail-extreme-weather

Heatwaves, wildfires and floods are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’, leading climate scientists say

‘Crazy off-the-charts records’: has humanity finally broken the climate?

Canadian wildfire 2023
‘Crazy off-the-charts records’: has humanity finally broken the climate?Canadian wildfire 2023

The “crazy” extreme weather rampaging around the globe in 2023 will become the norm within a decade without dramatic climate action, the world’s leading climate scientists have said.

The heatwaves, wildfires and floods experienced today were just the “tip of the iceberg” compared with even worse effects to come, they said, with limitations in climate models leaving the world “flying partially blind” into the future.

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“We need to stop burning fossil fuels,” said Dr Friederike Otto at Imperial College London. “Now. Not some time when we’ve allowed companies to make all the money they possibly can.”

Prof Emily Shuckburgh at the University of Cambridge in the UK said: “Anyone in any way perpetuating the fossil fuel era is firmly on the wrong side of history.”

“Knowing that we will look back on today’s extreme events as mild relative to what lies in our future is truly mind-boggling,” said Prof Andrea Dutton at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US. “The speed at which we make this transition will define the future that we get.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/28/dramatic-climate-action-needed-curtail-extreme-weather

Continue ReadingDramatic climate action needed to curtail ‘crazy’ extreme weather

After America’s summer of extreme weather, ‘next year may well be worse’

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18 July 2021 California Wildfires. Image: Felton Davis

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/26/us-summer-extreme-heat-wildfires-climate-crisis

A freakish season of record temperatures, wildfire smoke and the destruction of Lahaina could soon become normal, climate experts say

It’s been a strange, cruel summer in the United States. From the dystopian orange skies above New York to the deadly immolation of a historic coastal town in Hawaii, the waning summer has been a stark demonstration of the escalating climate crisis – with experts warning that worse is to come.

A relentless barrage of extreme weather events, fueled by human-caused global heating, has swept the North American continent this summer, routinely placing a third of the US population under warnings of severe heat and unleashing floods, fire and smoke upon communities, with a record 15 separate disasters causing at least $1bn in damages so far this year.

The heat has been particularly withering in places like Phoenix, Arizona, which had a record 31 consecutive days at temperatures above 110F (43C), while an enormous heatwave across the central swath of the US this week caused schools to be closed in states such as Wisconsin, Colorado and Iowa and food banks to be shut in Nebraska.

While the aftermath of hurricanes continue to affect residents, such as those in Houston, Texas devastated by Hurricane Harvey (see image), research has found that the frequency and intensity of these latest storms have done little to shift public opinion about their connection with global warming. (Photo: Texas Military Department, Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0)
While the aftermath of hurricanes continue to affect residents, such as those in Houston, Texas devastated by Hurricane Harvey (above), research has found that the frequency and intensity of these latest storms have done little to shift public opinion about their connection with global warming. (Photo: Texas Military Department, Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0)

In Miami, which had a record 46 days in a row with a heat index above 100F (37C), there was no respite even in the nearby ocean, with a raging marine heatwave turning the seawater to a temperature more normally seen in hot tubs, raising fears that Florida’s coral reef will be turned to mush.

“It’s been a shocking summer,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. “We know most of this is happening because of long-term warming of the climate system so it’s not surprising, sadly, but you still get shocked by these extremes. Records are not just being broken, they are being shattered by wide margins.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/26/us-summer-extreme-heat-wildfires-climate-crisis

Continue ReadingAfter America’s summer of extreme weather, ‘next year may well be worse’