UN weather agency issues 'red alert' on climate change after record heat, ice-melt increases in 2023
The U.N. weather agency is sounding a โred alertโ about global warming, citing record-smashing increases last year in greenhouse gases, land and water temperatures and melting of glaciers and sea ice.
UN agency cites worrying warming trend as COP28 summit grapples with curbing climate change
The U.N. weather agency is reporting that glaciers shrank more than ever from 2011 and 2020 and the Antarctic ice sheet lost 75 percent more compared to the previous ten years, as it released its latest stark report about the fallout on the planet from climate change.
UN weather agency says 2023 is the hottest year on record, warns of further climate extremes ahead
The U.N. weather agency says 2023 is all but certain to be the hottest year on record, and warning of worrying trends that suggest increasing floods, wildfires, glacier melt, and heat waves in the future.
July has been so blistering hot, scientists already calculate that it's the warmest month on record
July has been so hot so far that scientists calculate that this month will be the globally hottest on record and likely the warmest human civilization has seen, even though there are several days left to sweat through.
UN agency: 2M killed, $4.3 trillion in damages from extreme weather over past half-century
The U.N. weather agency reported Monday that nearly 12,000 extreme weather, climate and water-related events over much of the past half-century around the globe have killed more than 2 million people and caused economic damage of $4.3 trillion.
Flirting with climate danger: UN forecasts 2 in 3 chance of briefly hitting key heat limit soon
The United Nations' weather agency says there's a two-out-of-three chance that the world will reach the internationally accepted global temperature threshold for limiting the worst effects of climate change sometime in the next five years.
World Meteorological Organization ends use of Greek alphabet to name hurricanes
Nine Greek alphabet letters were used to name tropical storms and/or hurricanes in 2020. The organization has created a supplemental list of names with the standard alphabet that can be used when the yearly list is exhausted. Hurricane names retired by the World Meteorological Organization (Copyright 2021 by WSLS 10 - All rights reserved.) Leah is the new name on the 2020 list, to be used in lieu of Laura in 2026. As the Greek alphabet will not be used again, there are no replacements for Eta and Iota.
Bye Alpha, Eta: Greek alphabet ditched for hurricane names
(NOAA via AP)With named storms coming earlier and more often in warmer waters, the Atlantic hurricane season is going through some changes with meteorologists ditching the Greek alphabet during busy years. The Greek alphabet had only been used twice in 2005 and nine times last year in a record-shattering hurricane season. AdMeanwhile, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration is recalculating just what constitutes an average hurricane season. STARTING EARLIERMIT hurricane researcher Kerry Emanuel said โthis whole idea of hurricane season should be revisited." So a warming world means the new normal is busy hurricane seasons just like the last 30 years.
UN calls on humanity to end 'war on nature,' go carbon-free
โThere is at least a one-in-five chance of it temporarily exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2024,โ WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said. The Paris climate accord set a goal of not exceeding 1.5-degree (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming since pre-industrial times. --Death Valley, California, hit 129.9 degrees (54.4 degrees Celsius), the hottest the world has seen in 80 years. --Record wildfires struck California and Colorado in the western United States, following a major fire season and record heat in Australia. --The Arctic had record wildfires and a prolonged heat wave culminating in a 100-degree mark (38 degrees Celsius) in Siberia in June.
UN agency laments summer's 'deep wound' to Earth's ice cover
GENEVA The United Nations weather agency says this summer will go down for leaving a deep wound in the cryosphere -- the planets frozen parts -- amid a heat wave in the Arctic, shrinking sea ice and the collapse of a leading Canadian ice shelf. The weather agency said in a statement that many new temperature records have been set in recent months, including in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk. The town, located in Siberia above the Arctic Circle line, reached 38 degrees Celsius (100 F) on June 20. She noted a heat wave across the Arctic, r ecord-breaking wildfires in Siberia, nearly record-low sea ice extent, and the collapse of one of the last fully intact Canadian ice shelves. The WMO is preparing to release on Sept. 9 a report on the impact of climate change on the cryosphere.
Meteorologists seek to confirm 130-degree Death Valley temp
DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. An automated measuring system in California's Death Valley reported a temperature of 130 degrees (54.4 degrees Celsius) amid a blistering heat wave on Sunday, a reading that would be among the highest ever recorded globally if it is confirmed. If verified, this will be the hottest temperature officially verified since July of 1913, also at Death Valley. As this is an extreme temperature event, the recorded temperature will need to undergo a formal review," the statement said. That temperature was 131 degrees (55 Celsius) recorded in Kebili, Tunisia, on July 7, 1931, and it also is disputed. Death Valley, an austere landscape in the desert of southeastern California, includes Badwater Basin, which at 282 feet (85.9 meters) below sea level is the lowest point in North America.
UN evaluates reports of record Arctic heat in Siberia
In this handout photo provided by Olga Burtseva, children play in the Krugloe lake outside Verkhoyansk, the Sakha Republic, about 4660 kilometers (2900 miles) northeast of Moscow, Russia, Sunday, June 21, 2020. A Siberian town that endures the world's widest temperature range has recorded a new high amid a hear wave that is contributing to severe forest fires. Russia's meteorological service said the thermometer hit 38 Celsius (100.4 F) on Saturday in Verkhoyansk, in the Sakha Republic about 4660 kilometers (2900 miles) northeast of Moscow. (Olga Burtseva via AP)GENEVA The U.N. weather agency is investigating media reports suggesting a new record high temperature of over 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Arctic Circle amid a heatwave and prolonged wildfires in eastern Siberia. The World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday that its looking to verify the temperature reading on Saturday in the Russian town of Verkoyansk with Roshydromet, the Russian federal service for hydro-meteorological and environmental monitoring.
In an especially active hurricane season, could we run out of names?
After all the years of recorded named storms, one has to wonder: What happens when we run out of names? โThe World Meteorological Organization came up with a six-year rotating list of names for hurricanes,โ Gross said. Now we arrive at our initial question: What happens when we run out of names? So, letโs say we have a storm named Walter. The first and last instance in which the Greek alphabet was needed was in 2005, during the busiest hurricane season on record, when there were 28 named storms.