It seems as though wild weather events have rarely been out of the headlines recently. It has been a bleak weekend in some parts of America after yet another fatal storm blasted its way through five US states.
read more
Persistent rainfall and flooding across the central US is being caused by an unusual condition in the jet stream that has meteorologists scratching their heads. Normally in midsummer, the jet stream rises to the north and becomes weaker, flowing over central Canada and occasionally dipping down into the US, bringing outbursts of summer thunderstorms with it. This year, however, it has been acting in an erratic manner. In June, it looped high into the arctic, bringing record temperatures to Alaska and Siberia and accelerating summer ice melt dramatically. Then it dropped further south than usual, the summer melt ended and became normal, but the central US began to experience a cooler and wetter summer. Until August 10, one loop of the stream was stationary over the US midwest.read more
100 years from now it will be gone – We reported that a tiny island nation is going under for the 3rd time, but now a much bigger country?Bangladesh?is set to drown as well, and 150 million people will lose their homes. If you live in a coastal city, Water World may be in YOUR future as well.
In the June 20th edition of the Independent, Johann Hari writes about touring the most crowded nation on earth, which will disappear under the ocean by the end of this century. He writes, “Bangladesh is a flat, low-lying land made of silt, squeezed in between the melting mountains of the Himalayas and the rising seas of the Bay of Bengal. As the world warms, the sea is swelling?and wiping Bangladesh off the map.”
read more