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☆ New Climate Early-Warning System Aims to Plug Weather Blind Spots Around the World
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Eric Niiler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt—The United Nations and the U.S. are working to expand the network of weather stations across sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia and the Caribbean and Pacific island regions to create a climate early-warning system that can better anticipate severe droughts, heat waves, tropical storms and floods. Less than half of the U.N.’s 193 member countries are covered by early-warning systems, and less-developed and island nations are contributing only 10% of the weather data that the World Meteorological Organization requires under international agreements.

☆ Climate woes bad and getting worse faster, UN weather report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Earth's warming weather and rising seas are getting worse and doing so faster than before, the World Meteorological Organization warned Sunday in a somber note as world leaders started gathering for international climate negotiations. "The latest State of the Global Climate report is a chronicle of climate chaos," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. "The melting (of ice) game we have lost and also the sea level rate," WMO chief Petteri Taalas told The Associated Press. The data on sea level and average temperatures are nothing compared to how climate change has hit people in extreme weather. The rate of warming the last 15 years is 67% faster than since 1971, the report said.

☆ COP27 climate summit: Here's what to watch
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Ella Nilsen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Given countries’ current promises, Earth’s temperature will climb to between 2.1 and 2.9 degrees Celsius by 2100. “No country has a right to be delinquent,” US Climate Envoy John Kerry told reporters in October. It is likely loss and damage will have space on the official COP27 agenda this year. And US officials often stress they want to also unlock private investments to help countries transition to renewables and deal with climate effects. Getty ImagesCOP27 is intended to hold countries’ feet to the fire on fossil fuel emissions and gin up new ambition on the climate crisis.

☆ Kenya drought: Hundreds of elephants, wildebeests and zebras reported dead
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Idris Mukhtar | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Hundreds of elephants, wildebeests, and zebras have died across Kenya amid the nation’s longest drought in decades. “The Kenya Wildlife Service Rangers, Community Scouts, and Research Teams counted the deaths of 205 elephants, 512 wildebeests, 381 common zebras, 51 buffalos, 49 Grevy’s zebras, and 12 giraffes in the past nine months,” a report released Friday by the country’s Ministry of Tourism said. An elephant keeper rests next to a month-old calf at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Samburu, Kenya on October 12, 2022. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images“The drought has caused mortality of wildlife, mostly herbivore species,” Malonza said. According to the ministry, Kenya had just 36,000 elephants left last year.

Countries from Spain and France to as far north as Norway and Sweden are experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures for this time of year. When the band of air is wavier than normal, it can move warm air northward or conversely cause polar air to reach farther south. Still, it’s clear that climate change is amplifying the consequences of jet stream anomalies, O’Reilly said. Across western and central Europe, unseasonably warm temperatures are expected to persist for the next two weeks. While it’s unusual, the anomalous warm spell fits within the bigger pattern of global warming, Pershing said.

☆ Europe warms more than any other continent in last 3 decades
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Gloria Dickie | Isla Binnie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Europe has warmed more than twice as much as the rest of the world over the past three decades and experienced the greatest temperature increase of any continent, according to a report by the World Meteorological Organization. The report on the state of the climate in Europe follows a summer of extremes. "Europe presents a live picture of a warming world and reminds us that even well prepared societies are not safe from impacts of extreme weather events," WMO secretary-general Petteri Taalas said in a statement. For example, fewer clouds over Europe during the summer has meant more sunlight and heat now reaches the continent, said Freja Vamborg, senior scientist with the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Some scientists have called Europe a "heatwave hotspot" as the number of heatwaves on the continent have increased faster than in other regions due to changes in atmospheric circulation.

☆ Factbox: COP26 a year later: Where do last year's climate pledges stand?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Nov 1 (Reuters) - A year ago at the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, countries, banks and business leaders announced a slew of climate plans and pledges. METHANE PLEDGETo date, 119 countries and blocs including the United States and the European Union have joined the COP26 pledge to slash methane emissions 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. And China could also give an update on its plan to begin monitoring methane emissions - a promise made under the U.S.-China agreement announced in Glasgow. The group now counts more than 550 members, including most of the world's leading banks, insurers and asset managers, with collective assets of more than $150 trillion. read more And last week, climate activists criticized GFANZ for dropping a requirement that its members sign onto a U.N. emissions reduction campaign.

Representatives from around the world will meet from Nov. 6-18 at the COP27 climate talks in Egypt to try to agree pledges to limit warming to below 2C above pre-industrial levels and ideally to 1.5C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Policies in place, without strengthening, will likely lead to a 2.8C rise in temperature by the end of the century, 0.1C higher than was estimated last year. Only a root-and-branch transformation of our economies and societies can save us from accelerating climate disaster," UNEP executive director Inger Andersen said. The gap between pledges and limiting warming to 2C is 15 GtCO2e a year and for 1.5C it is 23 GtCO2e a year. read moreOn Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organization said greenhouse gas concentrations climbed at above-average rates to new records last year.

These "conditional" pledges, if implemented fully, could reduce expected warming to a 2.4C rise, while unconditional pledges could lead to a 2.6C rise, the report said. "We still aren't anywhere near enough to cut greenhouse gas emissions (to the levels required)," UNEP executive director Inger Andersen told reporters at a briefing. The gap between pledges and limiting warming to 2C is 15 GtCO2e a year and for 1.5C it is 23 GtCO2e a year. According to a separate U.N. report earlier this week analysing the latest pledges submitted by countries, 2.5C of warming is likely by the end of the century. read moreOn Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organization said greenhouse gas concentrations climbed at above-average rates to records last year.

The amount of carbon dioxide and two other greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere hit record highs last year, the World Meteorological Organization said in a report published Wednesday. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the three main greenhouse gases responsible for trapping heat in the atmosphere and driving global warming. Measurements for carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in 2021 were all above pre-industrial levels, “before human activities started disrupting natural equilibrium of these gases in the atmosphere,” the WMO said. Concentrations of carbon dioxide, in particular, are closely monitored as an indicator of how humans are influencing Earth's climate. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.

☆ UN warns 'time is running out' as greenhouse gases surge
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Emma Farge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Hikes in the atmospheric concentration of all three greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - outstripped the average increase over the past decade, it showed, meaning they are now all at new record levels. Concentrations of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide rose by 2.5 parts per million to 415.7 - a level not seen since at least 3 million years ago when the Earth was much warmer. The jump in the potent, heat-trapping gas methane was the highest since records began in 1983, the report said. Greenhouse gases are responsible for warming the planet and triggering extreme weather events like heatwaves and intense rainfall. The WMO said scientists are investigating the reason for the exceptional hike in methane levels of 18 parts per billion to 1,908 last year following a similar increase in 2020.

☆ Beyond Catastrophe: A New Climate Reality Is Coming Into View
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | Photographs Devin Oktar Yalkin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +53 min

Beyond Catastrophe A New Climate Reality Is Coming Into View By David Wallace-WellsYou can never really see the future, only imagine it, then try to make sense of the new world when it arrives. (A United Nations report released this week ahead of the COP27 climate conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, confirmed that range.) A little lower is possible, with much more concerted action; a little higher, too, with slower action and bad climate luck. There were climate-change skeptics in some very conspicuous positions of global power. New emissions peaks are expected both this year and next, which means that more damage is being done to the future climate of the planet right now than at any previous point in history.

☆ Canada braces for ‘extreme event’ as storm Fiona nears after leaving path of destruction
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Phil-Helsel-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Phil Helsel | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Residents of Nova Scotia and other parts of Canada were bracing for hurricane-force winds and a potential historic storm surge as Hurricane Fiona approached Friday. “It is going to be certainly a historic extreme event for Eastern Canada,” said Bob Robichaud, warning preparedness meteorologist with the Canadian Hurricane Centre, at a briefing Friday. At 9 p.m. Halifax time, the storm was “accelerating quickly” toward Nova Scotia, Canada’s hurricane center said. Damage in Nova Scotia was estimated at almost $102 million, the CBC reported. In 2003 Canada was hit by Hurricane Juan, a Category 2 storm at landfall that ripped through Nova Scotia.

☆ Above-average hurricane season forecast with several major hurricanes
▼ + stars: | 2022-05-24 | by ( Jennifer Gray | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The official start to hurricane season is just a week away and forecasters are predicting another busy one. The CSU forecast called for 19 named storms, nine hurricanes and four major storms. However, during the announcement, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad recognized that the current hurricane cycle for the Atlantic is a busy one. “If you go back two years, the 2020 hurricane season broke records across the board and it’s the most active season on record with 30 named storms,” said Spinrad. “Yes, the loop current does look like 2005,” said Matthew Rosencrans, lead hurricane season outlook forecaster with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

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