Extreme weather – Warns of torrential rain:

In late June, a powerful heat wave hit the United States. In California, over 50 degrees Celsius was recorded. In Las Vegas, dust and smoke from forest fires threw a brown mist over the valley.

Nearly 200 people have been confirmed dead after the extreme heat that ravaged. 116 deaths have been reported in Oregon and 78 in Washington, according to The Guardian.

The same heat wave hit Canada, where 500 people are believed to have lost their lives in the heat. In addition, the extreme temperatures led to a number of forest fires.

In mid-July, torrential rains led to heavy flooding in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. In an area near Liege in Belgium, 271 millimeters of rain were measured in 48 hours, which is more than twice as much as what normally falls throughout July.

More than 200 people died in the flood disaster.

Now a heat wave is ravaging southern Europe. On Tuesday, it was measured 47.1 degrees in Thessaloniki in Greece, which is almost a European record. The heat record is 48 degrees and was measured in Athens in 1977.

It is also extremely hot in Turkey, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, he writes CNN.

The Turkish news agency Anadolu writes that so far eight people have been confirmed dead as a result of forest fires in Muğla and Antalya.

The Red Cross warns

In a press release, the Red Cross writes that they have volunteers in Greece, Turkey and Italy. They assist with evacuation and food deliveries.

The Red Cross fears that the scale will exceed capacity in the near future.

– The deadly consequences of heat waves in Europe have made heat preparedness a priority for the Red Cross movement in recent years, and Greece’s Red Cross has had a special focus on fire preparedness after the major fires in 2018, says climate analyst Cathrine Tranberg Hårsaker in the Red Cross in the press release.

The Red Cross fears that continued high greenhouse gas emissions and an escalating climate crisis will lead to contingency measures not being able to keep up with ever larger and more dramatic forest fires and heat waves around the Mediterranean.

– A world that is three degrees warmer will overwhelm the emergency preparedness mechanisms that exist today. The greater the global temperature increase, the more lives will be lost to natural disasters, says Tranberg Hårsaker.

Two months of rain in two days

Fear of famine

It is not just Europe and America that have been hit by extreme weather this summer.

In mid-July, extreme rainfall led to extensive flooding in China’s Henan province. Over 300 people lost their lives. In India, more than 150 people died in floods after unusual monsoon rains.

In the northeast of Russia, firefighters have fought against forest fires that have spread over an area of ​​over 5,000 square kilometers, writes NTB.

The area is more than twice as large as Luxembourg. In parts of Siberia, the summer must have been the driest in 150 years.

South of Madagascar continues the worst drought that has hit the island in 40 years. Parts of agriculture have collapsed, and the UN fears that hundreds of thousands of people could face a famine.

–

«Combination of events»

Director Kikki Kleiven at the Bjerknes Center for Climate Research explains that there have been many coincident extreme weather events around the world this summer.

– What characterizes them is that they are combinations of several events, which come on top of each other. The heat wave in the United States came on top of a long period of drought, and the extreme rainfall in Germany came on top of a long period of precipitation. We call this composite events – events that occur simultaneously or in close order, which may not individually be extreme, but they become complex. The term has become more and more relevant because such incidents can be difficult to handle and because they can increase with increasing global warming.

This summer, there have been several headlines about the extreme weather that has ravaged the world. But according to the climate researcher, this is nothing new.

Kleiven says the new thing is that it happens more often and stronger than before. The last decade has been marked by extreme weather and five of the most extreme years since 1910 have been 2012, 2015, 2016, 2016 and 2020.

«Atmospheric rivers»

Extreme weather has also left its mark in Norway. Kleiven states that the number of days with extreme precipitation in Norway has increased 29-30 percent since 1900.

Again, extreme weather comes on top of the precipitation we already have, which has increased by 20 percent in just 50 years.

– We often have a long humid autumn, and then there is extreme precipitation in addition, says the climate researcher.

An example is the rain flood that hit Western Norway in October 2014. The Hardanger municipality Odda was particularly affected.

The climate needs nuclear power

The great flood in 2014 was due to a so-called “atmospheric river” – rivers that are high up in the clouds. These are long narrow corridors in the atmosphere that transport moisture.

When an atmospheric river moves towards land, the moist air masses are lifted upwards and the result is heavy rainfall, Kleiven explains. There is a lot of research into whether a warmer climate means that atmospheric rivers become more common and much more intense.

– The low pressures in 2021 are different than in those that were formed when I was born in 1969 – they bring with them more moisture. We see a new pattern of more frequent and intense weather events that have unfolded around the world as the earth warms.

–

– Stands in the middle of it

For example, Eastern Norway and Southern Norway must adjust to increased rainfall and what we call torrential floods as a result of torrential rain as the summers become warmer in the future, Kleiven claims.

– It will be more extreme here in Norway as well, she says.

– How can we stop this development?

– The recipe is to demand cuts in greenhouse gas emissions now, especially CO2. We can not state that what happened in Germany is due to man-made climate change. It is a single event. But it is this type of disaster that is characteristic of a globally warmer world.

The climate researcher is clear that we must talk about risk – and take action.

– We are in the middle of climate change. The earth has become 1.2 degrees warmer. Where people live, they must live safely. As a climate researcher, we talk about climate risk and climate vulnerability. I do not think Norway is more vulnerable. But in the world as a whole, we are more vulnerable.

– Can we reduce this vulnerability? Do we have good enough alert systems? They did not have that in Germany. There are a number of factors that come into play.

– We can not turn this around

– Must live with the water

Kleiven believes we must be prepared for more extreme weather in the future – and thus also adapt, for example, the infrastructure.

– We can expect significantly more precipitation, and must learn to live with the water. Not only in cities but also in rural areas. The infrastructure is exposed. If one road breaks, the area becomes completely isolated.

Asphalt is unable to absorb water, so it just cascades on in full force. One move that China has taken is to build cities that act as sponges, and in Copenhagen they are upgrading park facilities.

The intention is to replace solid concrete with porous materials on the sidewalks, several park areas, separate flood basins and reservoirs that will prevent the water from accumulating on the ground without anywhere to go.

At the same time, Norway is at the very top Notre Dame Gain Index, which ranks which countries are most resilient to climate change. China is in 62nd place.

– If five houses on Odda are smoked, we will rebuild it. We have a low degree of vulnerability, at the same time as we are exposed. But then it can cost us a lot if we do not start, for example, flood protection and mapping of landslide areas, Kleiven believes.

–

Related posts:

Protest flares up in Hong Kong for the first time since corona outbreak | NOW

Justice Amir Farooq ordered to cease the motion towards the personal firm

Direct - War in Ukraine: the IAEA wants a nuclear safety zone around the Zaporizhia power plant

Russian Lieutenant General Andrey Sichev Removed from Command in Bakhmut Area: Analysis and Updates

Share this:

• Facebook
• X

Related