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The core winter season of 2022/23 was the second warmest on record, after the winter of 2019/20, when temperatures were 3.32 C above average. Chartbook: Europe winter temperaturesTemperature records display a clear warming trend for the last four decades, and clusters of warmer-than-normal or colder-than-normal years have been common in the long-term record. From a prudent planning perspective, Europe must prepare for next winter to be colder, putting more stress on gas supplies and prices. Related columns:- With winter almost over, Europe’s gas stocks are at seasonal record high (March 3, 2023)- Europe faces more high gas prices next winter (January 20, 2023)- Crisis over? Europe’s gas stocks at seasonal record high (January 17, 2023)- Europe should thank mild autumn for averting gas crisis this winter (December 16, 2023)John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst.

☆ Fed’s reluctance to go green will cost the Earth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Ben Winck | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

WASHINGTON, March 7 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Central banks don’t think they can do much about the environment. The U.S. Federal Reserve has done even less, arguing it should not tackle climate change without an explicit order from Congress. In a 2021 survey by Invesco, 63% of responding central banks said addressing climate change fell within their mandate. Central banks aren’t best equipped to lead the green transition, anyway. There’s also a valid concern that focusing on climate change could water down the Fed’s mission to fight inflation.

Turkey’s two main fault zones — the East Anatolian and the North Anatolian — make it one of the most seismically active regions in the world. Magnitudes of major earthquakes since 1900 Map showing the East Anatolian and North Anatolian fault zones in Turkey. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake at 4:17 a.m. local time, and the unusually large 7.5-magnitude aftershock nine hours later, both were in the East Anatolian Fault Zone. The East Anatolian zone encompasses the area where there is movement of the Anatolian Plate relative to the Arabian Plate to the southeast. The North Anatolian zone is where there is movement of the Anatolian Plate and the Eurasian Plate to the north.

☆ Fact Check-Eight cooler years cannot be extrapolated to draw conclusions on long-term global warming
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

SHORT TERM FLUCTUATIONSGlobal surface temperatures are heavily influenced by annual Pacific Ocean patterns known as El Nino and La Nina, and collectively as ENSO (El Niño–Southern Oscillation). A large El Nino event followed by a La Nina can “lead to a temporary ‘pause’ in global temperatures over timescales of a decade or so”, Hausfather said. This is “what we are now seeing after the 2015/2016 super El Nino event”. Whenever there is a trend with variability like global temperatures, “you can isolate cherry-picked intervals and claim that something has paused or accelerated, but this is not appropriate”, Colose said. Temperature data for the past eight years do not reflect long-term trends, experts say, and longer-term data clearly show a continuing rise in overall global temperatures.

The United States experienced 18 extreme weather events last year that each caused at least $1 billion in damages, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Weather and climate disasters across the country resulted in more than $165 billion in damages in 2022, making it the third-costliest year on record, NOAA officials said. Despite a slow start to last year's hurricane season, three storms resulted in at least $1 billion in damages: Hurricane Fiona, Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole. Hurricane Ian, which slammed into southwestern Florida in late September and caused widespread destruction, resulted in nearly $113 billion in damages, the report found. NOAA’s findings offer a glimpse of the major toll that extreme weather events are already having and the country’s vulnerability to climate disasters in the future.

☆ Watch How Arctic Air Blanketed the U.S. Last Week
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Aatish Bhatia | Margot Sanger-Katz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Air temperature ⭠ Warmer air Colder air ⭢ Freezing +80°F +60°F +40°F +20°F 0 -20°F Source: NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction Note: The map depicts air temperatures two meters above ground. It shows a detailed simulation of air temperatures that was created by blending high-resolution weather forecast models with recent observations from satellites and over 30,000 weather stations. The polar vortex spins in a counter-clockwise direction, creating the path of cold air that traveled south, then east, and finally north again. It became “pretty breezy” as the freezing air shifted east, said Caleb Grunzke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s office in Chanhassen, Minn. As the cold air traveled down the central part of the country, its path was deflected by the Rocky Mountains.

☆ Overboard cruise passenger spent hours in Gulf of Mexico before he was rescued
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-26 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Dennis-Romero-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Dennis Romero | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A man who went overboard during a holiday cruise in the Gulf of Mexico was rescued after several hours in the water off New Orleans, authorities said Friday. He was rescued about 20 miles south of Louisiana's Southwest Pass, where the Mississippi River meets the coast, U.S. Coast Guard officials said. "It makes it more miraculous that we were able to find him conscious and treading water," Graves said. Coast Guard rescue crews pulled the man to safety six hours after receiving a 2:30 p.m. Thursday report of a passenger overboard, Graves said. The water was warm, he said, but the the trio was beset by signs of hypothermia when they were rescued by Coast Guard crews Oct. 9.

☆ Tsunami of 2004 Fast Facts
▼ + stars: | 2013-08-23 | by ( Cnn Editorial Research | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Here is some background information about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. On December 26, 2004, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 9.1 struck the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Material losses in the Indian Ocean region were $10 billion. The December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was caused by slippage of about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) of the boundary between the India and Burma plates off the west coast of northern Sumatra. The aftershocks were distributed along the plate boundary from the epicenter to near Andaman Island.

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