Incredible photographs show California has ‘gone green’ after sustained heavy rainfall
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For the past month a series of atmospheric rivers have dumped 94 trillion litres of water on the Golden State.
William Gittins WillGitt Update: January 18th, 2023 19:38 EST
MAXAR TECHNOLOGYvia REUTERS
The state of California is experiencing a series of atmospheric rivers .. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/flooding-california-what-are-atmospheric-rivers-2023-01-16/ .. that have brought huge amounts of rain, and even snow, to the state in recent weeks. Weather trends in the Golden State are becoming more extreme and this period of intense rain comes while the region is technically still undergoing a period of drought.
Atmospheric rivers are streams of clouds in the sky that travel like rivers and can dump huge amounts of rain for a sustained period, increasing the risk of flooding and mudslides. These ‘rivers in the sky’ are fairly common and NASA estimates that there are typically about 11 on the planet at any one time.
Often this phenomenon can bring much-needed precipitation in areas that may not have consistent rain or snow, but the more powerful atmospheric rivers can overwhelm local flood defences. In the sky they look like a line of wispy clouds, but the a single formation can carry up to 15 times as much water as the entire Mississippi River, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .. https://cpo.noaa.gov/News/News-Article/ArtMID/6226/ArticleID/2438/Is-Climate-Change-Increasing-Weather-Whiplash .. estimates.
Farmers suffer as fluctuating weather both fries and floods
Throughout the state, California has seen almost daily deluges of rain for the past month. It is thought that more than 94 trillion litres of water has fallen on the state since Christmas Eve, and that is causing concern for the region’s many farmers.
California has been reeling from an extremely hot and dry summer that caused droughts and hurt farmers’ harvest significantly.
You may think that the recent spell of heavy rain would have helped, but rain that falls after a period of drought is less than ideal. The ground in some areas was so dry that the rainwater was unable to soak beyond the upper layer, simply running off into rivers and, eventually, the ocean.
The state has invested huge amounts into water management in recent decades, with huge reservoirs built to ensure a consistent supply of water. But these large-scale infrastructure efforts struggle to adapt to the rapidly changing California weather and are easily overwhelmed by intense rainfall.
Australia could swing from three years of La Niña to hot and dry El Niño in 2023
Bureau of Meteorology climate models indicate sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific may exceed El Niño thresholds by June
Scientists say there is a prospect Australia will move from three years of La Niña weather conditions to a hotter, drier El Niño this year. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images
Peter Hannam Wed 4 Jan 2023 01.00 AEDT Last modified on Thu 5 Jan 2023 17.39 AEDT
Australia could swing from three years of above-average rainfall to one of the hottest, driest El Niño periods on record, as models show an increasing likelihood the climate driver may form in the Pacific in 2023.
The latest climate models used by the Bureau of Meteorology – which will update its forecasts on Wednesday – indicate sea-surface temperatures may exceed El Niño thresholds in the key region of the equatorial Pacific by June.
“The Pacific must be quite charged with heat ready to have an El Niño,” Cai Wenju, a senior CSIRO climate scientist, told Guardian Australia. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we had an El Niño by the end of the year.”
Agus Santoso, a senior researcher at the University of New South Wales’s Climate Change Research Centre, agreed. “Definitely an El Niño is a prospect [for 2023]”, he said. “You could have a weak El Niño. A strong El Niño is a possibility but neutral conditions are also a possibility.”
People living on the east coast of Australia will be glad to see the end of the La Niña .. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/la-nina , which sees strong easterly winds cause the build-up of warm waters north and east of the country, supporting the formation of rain clouds and storms.
The current La Niña had been of “moderate” strength compared with the 2010-11 event and “is on the way towards decay” by autumn, Santoso said.
One factor in favour of an end to the string of La Niñas is that there are no recorded instances of four in a row, he said. While a La Niña event can be followed by an El Niño, the reverse combination is more common.
Both Santoso and Cai caution that having conditions tilting towards an El Niño does not guarantee one will develop.
They point to 2014, when models indicated an El Niño was very possible but one failed to develop. However, the following summer of 2015-16 produced one of the strongest El Niños on record.
La Niña years tend to be relatively cool at a global scale – and particularly so in Australia – as the Pacific absorbs relatively more warmth from the atmosphere.
Should an El Niño develop, 2023 could turn out to be one of the hottest years in history, building as it would on the background rise of greenhouse gases and global heating.
“When the next El Niño comes, we are going to have much, much worse conditions in terms of heatwaves,” Cai said.
A typical El Niño might add about 0.1C to global mean temperatures but he warned the next one might top that “because there’s so much heat in the equatorial Pacific”.
The intensity and frequency of La Niña and El Niño were likely to increase in a hotter world, Santoso said. The processes that trigger such events were reinforced by the warming of the sea-surface temperatures, enhancing the coupling between atmosphere and ocean.
“We don’t know whether [the next dry spell] is going to be a long one or not,” Santoso said.
FLOODS -- Libya – Dozens Feared Dead After Storm Daniel Brings Flooding Rains
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11 September, 2023 by Richard Davies in Africa, News
Dozens of people are feared dead after Storm Daniel brought torrential rain to parts of Libya from 09 to 10 September 2023.
Floods in Tripoli, Libya, September 2023. Photo: Tripoli Security Directorate
“At least 150 people were killed as a result of flooding and torrential rains left by storm Daniel in Derna, the Jabal al Akhdar region and the suburbs of Al-Marj,” Mohamed Massoud, a spokesman for the Benghazi-based administration in Libya, told AFP.
“This is besides the massive material damage that struck public and private properties,” he added.
Many of the fatalities occurred in the city of Bayda (also known as Al-Bayda or Elbeida), capital of the Jabal al Akhdar district, and in the towns of Susa (also Soussa or Sousse) and Shahhat. The heavy rain also flooded several neighbourhoods in the capital, Tripoli. No injuries or fatalities were reported however.
The UN announced that it is closely following the emergency.
Japan – Floods Impact Chiba, Fukushima and Ibaraki After Record Rain 11 September, 2023 by Richard Davies in Asia, News Record rains in Japan have led to significant flooding, causing the loss of at least three lives and over 2,000 homes damaged, according to authorities. The persistent rainfall, attributed to the remnants of tropical storm Yun-yeung, has been impacting the central and eastern parts of Japan since 08 September 2023. http://floodlist.com/asia/japan-floods-september-2023
Greece to seek EU aid after deadly floods A resident tries to remove the mud from his house, in the village of Sotirio, near Larissa, after storm 'Daniel' swept across central Greece. Photo: AAP via EPA/HATZIPOLITIS NICOLAOS Agence France-Presse 12 September 2023 12:54pm Twitter: @NeosKosmos The Greek government said Monday that it would seek emergency funding from the European Union to address the damage floods caused to one of the country’s main agricultural regions last week. https://neoskosmos.com/en/2023/09/12/news/greece-says-to-seek-eu-aid-after-deadly-floods/
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After slew of disasters, Greeks wonder what is happening to their democracy
Floods, wildfires and a deadly train collision this year have raised questions about the competence of state authorities and central government. Security forces help save lives during flood
The 521st Marines Battalion joined the fight to save lives after flooding in Marathea, Greece [John Psaropoulos/Al Jazeera]
By John Psaropoulos Published On 11 Sep 202311 Sep 2023
Karditsa, Greece – I came across Matoula Tzela as she threw shrink-wrapped bricks of exercise books onto the pavement outside her stationery shop in the village of Palamas.
Muddy floodwater had risen almost a metre inside her shop,
“We’re living with climate change now. Things are going to get worse. People need to be able to live, work and invest in their locality. Otherwise, they should tell us this area is uninhabitable and we should leave.”
To the southwest of Palamas, the stench was beginning to rise from what had been the village’s sheep pens. Bloated carcasses drifted across a brown lake towards the ring road.
[...]
“I’ve never cried, but yesterday I cried,” said Valantis Mesdanitis, a volunteer from Karditsa, who saw a friend’s post on social media calling for help and joined the effort. What he saw shocked him.
“We saw people floating inside their homes through the windows… we didn’t count how many, but… I believe we’re going to have a high death toll,” he told Al Jazeera.
“In Koskina, where we rescued lots of people, we saw the claw marks on the windows of people who tried to get out of their homes.”
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