As fortes chuvas que atingiram o estado de Minas Gerais
na terça-feira (23) deixaram, até a última atualização, 46 mortos e 21
desaparecidos segundo informações do CBM-MG (Corpo de Bombeiros Militar
de Minas Gerais).
A grande tragédia resultou na destruição de grande parte dos municípios de Ubá, Juiz de Fora e Matias Barbosa. Em razão do forte temporal, as cidades entraram em estado de calamidade público e um plano de contingência precisou ser instaurado.
Imagens da Itatiaia cedidas à CNN Brasil
mostram como ficou Juiz de Fora no segundo dia após o forte temporal.
Algumas casas se encontram destruídas, com destelhamento. Escavadoras
estão retirando os escombros causados pelo deslizamento de terra.
Veja a seguir:
Buscas e identificação dos corpos
As buscas
feitas pelos Bombeiros e a Defesa Civil seguem intensas pelas pessoas
desaparecidas. Segundo o CBMMG (Corpo de Bombeiros Militar de Minas
Gerais), o trabalho não vai parar. “Vamos atuar dentro do protocolo,
respeitando os limites de segurança, mas empenhando as equipes, assim
como já fizemos na última madrugada”, afirma o tenente Henrique
Barcellos, em entrevista à Itatiaia.
Além disso, a Polícia Civil de Minas está realizando a identificação e a liberação dos corpos encontrados após o temporal. Até o momento há 46 mortos e 19 desaparecidos em Juiz de Fora, e 6 óbitos e 2 desaparecidos em Ubá.
Assistência e monitoramento
O governo de
Minas Gerais anunciou a antecipação de R$ 8 milhões para Ubá e R$ 38
milhões para Juiz de Fora, destinados a ações de recuperação e assistência às famílias. Foi decretado luto oficial de três dias em todo o estado.
A Defesa
Civil e o Inmet mantêm o alerta de "grande perigo" para a região devido à
saturação do solo, o que eleva o risco de novos deslizamentos de terra e
inundações, mesmo com chuvas de menor intensidade.
Em comunicado oficial nas redes sociais, a Prefeitura
de Juiz de Fora informou que já foram registrados ao menos 42 mortes,
20 desaparecidos, 20 soterramentos e 3 mil desabrigados. Até o
momento, são 584 milímetros de chuva acumulados no período, que tornam o
mês de fevereiro o mais chuvoso da história da cidade.
US Army Corp of Engineers vessels in the Mississippi River use pipes to
move dredged silt to hold back saltwater intrusion in 2023 (Credit:
Getty Images)
by Ekpali Saint
From The Gambia to the US, sea salt is increasingly seeping into the freshwaters people need for drinking and producing food.
Someone
turns on the tap for drinking water in New Orleans, but the water is
salty. In Bangladesh, farmers are forced to turn previously fertile land
into brackish ponds to raise shrimp. In The Gambia, a farmer watches
her crops wither and fail, doused in salt.
Around
the world, previously reliable coastal freshwater supplies are turning
to salt, invaded by seawater. This is the strange, slow-moving crisis of
saltwater intrusion, and it is increasingly affecting communities around the world.
Saltwater intrusion
refers to the inland movement of saline water – from the ocean or sea –
into freshwater aquifers. It is impacting low-lying countries like The
Gambia, Vietnam and Bangladesh most so far, but is a global problem,
including for the US. All continents except Antarctica are projected to
have coastal areas with at least 1km (0.6 miles) of inland saltwater intrusion by 2050.
Saltwater intrusion is a perfect example of a slow-onset climate crisis – Robert Young
This encroaching saltwater tends to
occur gradually over an extended period but presents a long-term
devastating impact on drinking water sources, rice farming and coastal
communities around the world, says Robert Young, a professor of coastal
geology at Western Carolina University in the US.
"Saltwater
intrusion is a perfect example of a slow-onset climate crisis," he
says. Too often, we focus on big events like storms, and don't pay
attention to other changes happening more slowly, he says. "We prepare
for the wrong disasters, [but slow-onset climate effects] are the ones
that can really impact the future of coastal communities, especially in
the developing world.
Saltwater
intrusion into drinking water is not just unpleasant. Studies have
found that populations drinking saline water are at greater risk of
adverse health outcomes including high blood pressure and health issues in pregnancy.
The intrusion often happens at the boundary
or interface between saltwater and freshwater. The position of the salt
depends on the balance between sea level and the water levels on land,
says Holly Michael, a coastal hydrogeologist at the University of
Delaware in the US. "Any process that tips that balance one way or the
other is going to cause that salt front to move inland," she says.
This process is being worsened by climate change leading to rising temperatures, decreases in rainfall and a global increase in sea levels, says Michael.
In some places, including the US, the excessive extraction of groundwater
for demands such as domestic, agricultural and industrial has also
contributed significantly to saltwater intrusion, letting underground
saltwater intrude into soil and rivers.
Trouble for farmers
But it's coastal farmers in some of the world's poorest countries who are already the most impacted by saltwater intrusion.
Nurse
Senneh was a child when she started growing rice with her parents in
Sankandi, a small mangrove-rich village of about 600 people in The Gambia.
Her parents taught her that rice seedlings thrive in water, so the
crops should only be cultivated during the wet season, when plenty of
rain supports irrigation.
The
practise had worked for the family for generations: "My father was not
wealthy," says Senneh, now 59. "He did hard labour to take care of the
family, but during the rainy season we had a bumper harvest to take care
of the family."
I had to leave because of the saltwater intrusion. Now, the entire rice field affected is left uncultivated – Nurse Senneh
Senneh
began rice cultivation on her own in 1987, soon after she got married.
Bumper harvests from her field, she says, helped feed her family, but
started to dwindle when saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean began to creep into her one-hectare (2.5-acre) rice field some four years ago.
The situation was completely unfamiliar to Senneh. She began seeing stunted growth and lower yields in her rice crops and, despite efforts to limit the impacts, had to move her cultivation elsewhere.
Saltwater intrusion can leave previously fertile land barren and useless for growing crops (Credit: Lena Nian/ BBC)
The Gambia River is almost at sea level and seriously affected by saltwater intrusion, carrying saline water up to 250km (155 miles) inland,
where it empties in tributaries commonly used for rice production, says
Yaffa. At the same time, he adds, rising temperatures have caused the
country's annual rainfall to decrease by about 30% since the 1970s, slowing groundwater recharge and making soils yet more salty.
"Now
we have less rainfall and less freshwater coming from rainfall," Yaffa
says. Instead, "we have more brackish water pushing its way upstream
from the Atlantic Ocean that empties in the Gambia River."
Pushing back
Between
2009 and 2023, The Gambia saw a 42% reduction in the areas used for
rice cultivation and a 26% drop in production due to saltwater
intrusion, according to a 2024 impact assessment
for The Gambia's National Environment Agency. These changes are
concentrated in the traditional rice-growing sector, which provides a
living for thousands of people in the country. This new reality
threatens food security in a country where 91% of the extremely poor are farmers.
Senneh is not a passive farmer. Once she started noticing the problem,
she constructed a makeshift dike, which involved filling bags with mud
and burying them in the ground to prevent saltwater from advancing
further into her farm. Despite trying three times, however, she says the
solution never worked.
She eventually abandoned the farm. "I
had to leave because of the saltwater intrusion," says Senneh. "Now, the
entire rice field affected is left uncultivated."
Senneh
now cultivates on a small piece of land she owns nearby, but says she
gets less than a third of what she used to and that her seven children
no longer eat well. "I feel very bad because my family often ate to
their satisfaction but not anymore. This alone is a burden," she says.
Senneh now buys a bag of imported rice for 2,200 Gambian dalasis
(£23/$30). "I never thought there would be a time I would buy rice," she
says. "It is very hard on me."
Rice is a crucial food source for subsistence farmers in The Gambia, and while the country actually imports the majority of its rice,
buying this is unfamiliar to many. It is also unaffordable, says Yaffa,
in country where the average monthly salary is less than 5,000 Gambian
dalasis (£51/$69).
Women in Khulna, Bangladesh, carry water from a distant freshwater
source after local drinking water was impacted by saltwater intrusion
and other issues (Credit: Getty Images)
But people are also fighting back against this encroaching saltwater.
Florida, for example, has installed
salinity control structures, which help separate fresh water and
saltwater. "What Florida did was put tide gates on canals, so that
prevents saltwater from coming back up," says Michael. "They open the
gates during low tide, and then that allows the water to drain off."
Similarly, Vietnam – where a severe drought in 2016 worsened by El Niño pushed saltwater 90km (56 miles) inland – has built multimillion-dollar sluice gates to protect the Mekong Delta, its rice basket, against saltwater intrusion. These projects, however, have often been plagued by failures.
Another engineering solution in Florida is wastewater injection,
says Michael, where wastewater is collected, treated and released into
the river. "This helps to push back saltwater in the groundwater. It
raises the water levels on land and kind of replaces the water that was
extracted."
China and the Netherlands
have also adopted the wastewater treatment approach. In China's Yingli
Town for example, treated rainwater are directly used on farmlands as
irrigation water.
In The Gambia,
Yaffa says, a dike was constructed back in 1994 to prevent saltwater
from intruding into rice fields. "The dike was a good solution," he
says. "[But it] is in a bad shape now and needs a lot of repairs."
A
supraglacial stream flowing over the ice in Greenland. Patches of clean
ice are intermixed with ice darkened by glacier ice algae.Credit... Jenine McCutcheon/University of Waterlooby Sachi Kitajima Mulkey
On snow it’s
green or red. On ice it’s a brownish gray. And it’s melting the frozen
mass that encases Greenland faster and faster.
As a warming
climate eats away at the ice that covers most of the world’s largest
island, algae blooms are speeding up that process, according to two new
studies. Greenland is shedding hundreds of billions of tons of ice every
year and raising sea levels as it does.
Wind picks up
phosphorus-laden dust from Greenland’s rocky ground and blows it onto
the ice, where it feeds algae blooms. Other nutrients are already
trapped in layers of the ice and are released as they melt.
These
dark patches of algae block the ice’s ability to reflect the sun’s
heat, speeding up melting. And as the landscape thaws, more nutrients
are released from newly exposed ground and the depths of the ice in a
feedback loop that ensures the slimy spread will continue to grow.
If the ice sheet on Greenland were to disappear entirely, a possibility that some studies have suggested, sea levels could rise by a staggering 23 feet, submerging coastal cities around the world.
A
close-up view of glacier ice algae collecting in a pool of meltwater
sitting on the ice surface. The field is about six inches.Credit... Jenine McCutcheon/University of Waterloo
The
Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet and the
floating sea ice that surrounds Greenland is also vanishing, opening up maritime access and prompting world leaders to consider the possible military vulnerabilities and economic opportunities. President Trump has said he wants to control Greenland, which is a territory of Denmark.
There
are ample mineral, oil and gas resources thought to be increasingly
accessible beneath Greenland’s vanishing ice, adding to its appeal.
Mining and drilling would release other particles, like industrial soot,
that could darken the ice and hasten melting.
“There
are lots of different factors that contribute to the melting of the ice
sheet, and this project was trying to pick those apart,” said Jenine
McCutcheon, an assistant professor at the University of Waterloo and
lead author of one of the studies, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology on Jan. 13.
Algae
is responsible for some 13 percent of the melt runoff in southwest
Greenland, according to Dr. McCutcheon. The area is one of the most
quickly melting and home to a well-documented dark zone. Dr.
McCutcheon’s 2021 research
in the region showed it was made of algae blooms fed by phosphorus in
dust. Her new research shows this dust is likely coming from the
relatively narrow band of exposed ground around the edge of Greenland,
blown inland by the wind.
Scott
Hotaling, an assistant professor at Utah State University who has
studied algae on snow and was not affiliated with the studies, called
the finding fascinating.
The physics
of dust and algae on glaciers are often studied separately, but the new
paper combined data on both in a meaningful way, he said. The study also
found that microscopic traces of algae are carried through the air,
giving scientists one of the first clues to how these blooms colonize
new patches of ice in the first place.
Another study
published Jan. 28 in the journal Nature Communications shows that these
windblown nutrients have likely become embedded into each layer of ice
and snow as it freezes and builds up over time. The researchers found
that phosphorus and nitrogen are liberated as the frozen landscape melts
during Arctic summers, providing another food source to algae.
“This
is exciting because we know very little about what controls algal
growth on ice surfaces,” said Beatriz Olivas, a postdoctoral researcher
at Aarhus University in Denmark who led the study. The researchers were
surprised to find that even extremely small amounts of nutrients, found
deep in the ice, were enough to sustain algae growth.
The
two papers indicate a “double whammy,” said Liane Benning, a
biogeochemist at the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Germany and
senior author of both papers.
“This
is a consequence of melt,” she said. “The more it melts, the more they
bloom. But they are not a cause of warming. Really we should just change
our habits and not burn so many fossil fuels.”
It’s
likely that there’s algae all around the Greenland ice sheet, mostly in
the circumference where the nutrients have been able to penetrate
inland, Dr. Benning said. Each year, as the ice continues to melt and
release nutrients, she expects the algae to encroach farther.
It’s
too soon to be able to gauge the full consequences of such algae
blooms, said Tyler Jones, an assistant research professor at the
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado,
who was not involved with the studies.
“We
need to know how quickly the darkening of the ice sheet might expand,
and how to factor that into what to expect for sea level rise,” he said.
“But this is an active area of study, and we just don’t have enough
information yet to say for sure.”
Enquanto grandes projetos tecnológicos prometem capturar carbono com máquinas complexas e custos elevados, um sistema natural já faz esse trabalho há milhões de anos, de forma contínua, silenciosa e acessível.
Árvores absorvem dióxido de carbono da atmosfera, incorporam esse carbono em sua própria estrutura, liberam oxigênio e ainda ajudam a regular a temperatura local. Estudos indicam que florestas e áreas verdes podem contribuir significativamente para a redução de gases de efeito estufa quando preservadas e manejadas corretamente.
Além disso, uma árvore não atua sozinha. Ela protege o solo contra erosão, favorece a infiltração da água, sustenta ecossistemas inteiros e cria microclimas mais frescos, especialmente em áreas urbanas. Tudo isso sem demandar energia externa, manutenção industrial ou cadeias produtivas complexas.
Isso não significa que tecnologia e inovação não sejam importantes. Elas são.
Mas para quem busca soluções climáticas de alto impacto e baixo custo, a natureza continua sendo uma aliada central, muitas vezes subestimada no debate público.
Talvez o desafio não seja inventar algo completamente novo,
mas reconhecer, proteger e ampliar aquilo que já funciona há muito tempo.
Às vezes, a resposta mais avançada não é a mais complexa, é a mais viva.
It’s hard to stay
cool. A tennis fan stands in front of a mist sprayer during the
Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne. Photograph: Mast Irham/EPA
Soaring temperatures, heat at altitude and hot summer nights combine to
create one of south-eastern Australia’s ‘most significant’ heatwaves
Heatwaves and hot days during an Australian
summer may seem unremarkable. Days spent at the beach, sunburn and
mosquitoes are part of the national psyche, along with outback pubs
serving crisp lager as relief from searing afternoon heat.
But
when the opal mining town of Andamooka (population 262) in the far
north of South Australia reached 50 degrees on Thursday, it was only the
eighth time in recorded history anywhere in Australia.
It
was also the highest temperature recorded so far in what meteorologists
have dubbed a “dome of heat” that began with exceptional temperatures
in the west and moved into south-eastern Australia, where it still
lingers. With no cold front to clear it out, the heat had “nowhere to go” – trapped by a blocking high in the Tasman and remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Luana in Western Australia.
It’s difficult to compare one heatwave with another – this one came hot
on the heels of one earlier in January, which scientists say was made five times more likely
by global heating. During that event the fires that ignited across
Victoria burnt 435,000 hectares of land (1.1m acres), and killed
thousands of flying foxes in the worst mass fauna mortality event since the Black Summer of 2019–20.
But Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Dr Simon Grainger says
the latest heatwave is worse. For south-east Australia, it is among “the
most significant we’ve ever seen”, he says, for its intensity,
duration, temperatures and for the length of time the heat has remained
above certain thresholds – comparable to January 2009 and January 1939.
Temperature records tumble
About
50 weather stations – mostly scattered across western New South Wales,
western Victoria and eastern South Australia – have recorded their
highest temperatures, Grainger says.
Victoria
set a state all-time record of 48.9C on Tuesday in the Mallee towns of
Hopetoun and Walpeup. On the same day, just over the border, the village
of Pooncarie hit 49.7C, equalling the second highest temperature
recorded in NSW.
Ski fields hotter than 30C
In
Australia’s alps, where an average January day might be expected to
reach 18C, temperatures climbed above 30C for the first time.
On
28 January, the ski town of Falls Creek recorded 30.5C, and Perisher
Valley in NSW reached 30.8C – records for both places. “Those are pretty
remarkable temperatures,” Grainger says.
In
comparison, on the same day, Melbourne was 23.6C, and Sydney 28.5C, he
says. “We were seeing higher temperatures 1,700 metres above sea level
than we were [experiencing] down in Melbourne and Sydney at sea level.”
It’s one way to cool down: South Australians took to the coast for some respite. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Shutterstock
Hot summer nights hard to bear
Not
surprisingly, during such events, the spotlight falls on record
breaking heat recorded during the day. But overnight temperatures can be
even more damaging.
On Monday in Adelaide,
people craving relief after the mercury hit 44.7C – the city’s hottest
day since 2019 – had to sweat through their hottest night since records
began, with temperatures dipping to only 34.1C – about 18C above average
– before quickly rising back above 40.
Dozens
of inland towns and cities across South Australia, Victoria and NSW
have faced five days or more above 40C. In some places, such as Albury
in NSW, the heat might last for a week.
Graeme McCrabb, from the western NSW town of Menindee where temperatures reached 49.1C on Tuesday, says the heat left everyone ducking for cover. “They get off the streets, get inside and in front of air con.”
Towns
including Maree in South Australia, and Wilcannia and White cliffs in
NSW, sweated through three consecutive days of at least 48C, Grainger
says. “For New South Wales, that’s never been seen before.”
Such
prolonged heat “becomes really hard to bear, because people’s reserves
just get worn down,” says A/ Prof Mark Putland, the director of
emergency medicine at Royal Melbourne hospital.
“People’s houses just heat up. It gets difficult when it doesn’t cool down at night and people don’t get any relief.”
Bushfires continue across Victoria as the state experiences some of its hottest weather on record. Photograph: Michael Currie/EPA
Hospital admissions soar
Extreme heat is the most common cause
of weather-related hospitalisations in Australia, killing more people
than all other natural hazards combined. Stifling conditions, and
sleep-less nights can be a deadly combination.
“Even
while you’re asleep, extreme overnight heat can be dangerous,” warns Dr
Caroline McElnay, Victoria’s chief health officer. “When temperatures
stay high overnight, your body can struggle to cool down, increasing the
risk of heat stress or more dangerous heatstroke.”
It’s
still too early to know the full extent of the health affects, but
heat-related admissions to emergency departments in Adelaide have
tripled compared with January 2025, based on preliminary data.
In Melbourne, authorities issued air quality alerts warning people to stay indoors after smoke from fires burning in the Otways had drifted into the city.
Play continues at the tennis
Amid dire forecasts and heat health warnings, some of the country’s biggest sporting events carried on.
The
Australian Open tennis went ahead, despite raised eyebrows, under
extreme heat protocols. On the worst days, play on the outer courts was
suspended and thousands of fans stayed away,
which could cost the tournament an estimated $1m in lower-than-expected
ticket, food and beverage revenue. Some are wondering how long it can
remain feasible to hold the event outdoors in January as global heating
continues to intensify.
Other events have made more substantial changes. The Tour Down Under
cycling had been scheduled to traverse its most demanding stage at
Willunga Hill, south of Adelaide, as the city was forecast to hit 42C,
but the extreme heat and fires prompted organisers to make a last minute change to the route.
Meteorologists
expect the heatwave to finally clear the country on Sunday, just as a
new month begins. But hotter-than-average days and nights are likely to
continue into autumn, according to the latest long-range forecast.
With additional reporting by Melissa Davey and Lisa Cox
The sun rises over
the Malle town of Ouyen, Victoria, where the temperature is expected to
peak at 49C on Tuesday. Fire danger is extreme across both Victoria and
South Australia as the climate crisis increases severe weather events. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian
Ouyen and Mildura in northern Victoria forecast to break state’s all-time maximum on Tuesday, as weather warnings issued
A day of record-breaking heat looms for Victoria, with temperatures forecast to hit 49C in the Mallee and Melbourne facing its hottest day since Black Saturday 2009.
It
was 26.1C as the sun rose on Tuesday over the small Victorian town of
Ouyen, the Mallee town of 1,170 people whose forecast high of 49C would
break the state’s temperature record of 48.8C set in Hopetoun on Black
Saturday in 2009.
The
area has not recorded a drop of rainfall all January, and only 13.6mm
in December. The fire danger rating on Tuesday was extreme.
Victoria
faced both heat and fire emergencies, Country Fire Authority chief
officer, Jason Heffernan, said. Tuesday was “not a day for complacency”,
he said, urging people to restrict any unnecessary travel.
With six major fires burning across the state,
the high to extreme fire conditions would increase the risk of fire
spread. Authorities were particularly concerned about the Carlisle River
fire in the Otways, which may pose a serious threat to homes,
properties and lives. A statewide total fire ban was in place.
Fire danger was extreme across much of South Australia,
including the eastern Eyre peninsula, mid north, Mount Lofty ranges,
Yorke Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, Riverland, Murraylands and across the
south-east. Total fire bans were in place for those districts.
Heffernan told the ABC it would be a challenging day for not only firefighters, but for Victorians generally.
Four zones around the Carlisle River fire have been asked to evacuate immediately. Heffernan said the biggest bushfire danger would come in the afternoon on Tuesday.
“We
do expect that fire will run today under the conditions, those hot
northerly winds, but it’s the change that’s going to come through about
5pm with some really punchy winds, that is likely to do most of the
damage and drive that fire further into the Otways,” he said.
“Today
is a day not to be complacent. Whilst we are focus on the Walwa and the
Carlisle River fire, to be frank, the state is very, very dry. Any fire
that takes hold will be a challenge for community.”
He said communities should take care to look after the elderly, young and infirm amid the heatwave.
January
and all-time records were expected to tumble in parts of eastern South
Australia and across Victoria on Tuesday, with temperatures approaching
50C across inland areas, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Ouyen and Mildura in north-west Victoria were forecast to reach 49C.
Ouyen
got close to the record just two weeks ago, peaking at 47.5C on
Thursday 8 January. Tuesday is the fifth day in a row that temperatures
there will exceed 40C – and another four days over 40C are expected to
follow, totalling a possible nine full days of extreme 40C+
temperatures.
The town of Ouyen early on Tuesday morning. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian
For many in Victoria the heatwave would be
difficult to fathom, senior meteorologist Jonathan How said. Anything
above 48C was extremely rare for the state.
Maximum
temperatures of 45C were forecast for Melbourne, up to 20 degrees above
average, and the hottest day for the city since Black Saturday saw
temperatures reach 46.4C. Play would continue at the Australian Open,
following extreme heat protocols.
On Monday, the heatwave saw Adelaide
reach 44.7C just after 5pm, the city’s hottest day since 2019, and as
high as 46.5C in the northern suburb of Elizabeth. Ceduna on the Eyre
Peninsula hit a scorching 49.5C, the town’s highest temperature recorded
in 84 years of data. There was little relief overnight, with Adelaide
waking to 35C at 6am.
Victoria’s
chief health officer, Dr Caroline McElnay, said prolonged heat,
together with high overnight temperatures, posed an increased risk of heat-related illness.
“Heat‑related illness can come on quickly, so it’s important to know the warning signs,” McElnay said.
“The
telltale symptoms include heavy sweating, dizziness, nausea, headache,
pale or clammy skin, or feeling unusually weak or confused. If someone
shows signs of heatstroke, such as very high body temperature, red hot
skin, confusion or loss of consciousness, call Triple Zero (000)
immediately.”
The City of Melbourne was ready
to provide “cool kits” containing cooling towels, water, handheld fans
and rehydration solution to vulnerable people.
A
cool change was forecast to bring some relief for coastal areas of
South Australia and Victoria, reaching Adelaide just after lunch on
Tuesday and Melbourne by about 8-9pm in the evening.
But for inland areas across Victoria, SA and New South Wales, the severe-to-extreme heat, with temperatures in the mid-to-high 40s, was expected to persist into next weekend.
Dubbo,
NSW also recorded a January record, reaching 46.1C at the airport on
Monday. More records could be broken on Wednesday as the heat moved into
inland and western NSW and north-east Victoria.
The heat tomorrow “will very much take centre stage across inland parts of New South Wales”, How said.
Australia’s
energy market operator said the power grid was prepared with sufficient
generation to meet increased demand due to the heat. Network company
Powercor urged households to prepare by charging phones and other
devices, in case of localised outages due to the bushfires or extreme
weather.
It was Australia’s second major
heatwave for January, and came off the back of one early in January,
which analysts said was made five times more likely due to global heating.
Hotter-than-average
days and nights were expected to continue until April for much of the
country, according to the latest long-range forecast. Sea surface
temperatures would remain warmer than average globally, including around
Australia.
As an elite
cross-country skier who grew up in Alaska, Gus Schumacher is used to
training and racing in biting cold and driving snowstorms. But in recent
years, Mr. Schumacher, who is preparing to compete in several events at
the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics next month in Italy, has been skiing
through wet, mushy snow surrounded by barren hillsides.
“It’s
entirely man-made snow and kind of brown on the sides,” Mr. Schumacher
said about some of his recent competitions. “It’s not the nicest way to
ski.”
After a warm and dry early
winter in the Italian Alps, local officials now say this year’s outdoor
venues have enough machine-made snow to last for the 19 days of
competition.
But Olympic organizers
say holding a winter sports extravaganza every four years is becoming
less certain, and will require more flexibility to pull off, thanks to a
warming planet.
“By
the middle of the century, we will probably have around 10 to 12
countries to have a cold enough climate to host Olympic snow sports,”
said Karl Stoss, chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s
Future Host Commission, which decides which cities get the games.
By
2050, of the 93 cities deemed suitable to handle the logistics of
holding both the Olympics and Paralympics, just four would be able to
host the events without snow-making, according to a study published
Wednesday. Those cities are Niseko, Japan; Terskol, Russia; and Val
d’Isère and Courchevel in France.
“Climate
change is altering the geography of where the Winter Olympics and
Paralympics can be held,” said Daniel Scott, an author of the study in
the journal Current Issues in Tourism
and professor of geography and environmental management at the
University of Waterloo in Ontario. “We see a shrinking and contraction
of climate reliable locations.”
Athletes
who compete in the Paralympics, which is held a few weeks later at the
same location, are the most affected by a warming climate, according to
the new study. That’s because warmer temperatures affect the snow
surface and can create more difficult and potentially unsafe conditions
for the four outdoor Paralympic events: downhill skiing, snowboarding,
cross-country skiing and biathlon.
Since
1992, any city wanting to host the Winter Olympics must also bid to
host the Paralympic Games. That schedule requires a longer window of
cold temperatures, lasting from early February to mid-March
“Because
there is a one-bid, one-city partnership, it basically means you are
only as climate resilient as you are for the Paralympics,” Dr. Scott
said.
A
snow cannon fired artificial snow toward the site of Olympic snowboard
and freestyle skiing events in Livigno, Italy, this month.Credit...Yara Nardi/Yara Nardi, via Reuters
Across
the entire southern Alpine region, the average depth of winter snowfall
has declined by more than 25 percent since 1980, according to a 2024
study of a century of snowfall records published in the International Journal of Climatology.
Lack
of snow forced cancellation of seven of the first eight World Cup
downhill skiing and snowboard competitions during the 2022-23 season,
followed by 26 World Cup events in the 2023-24 season, according to the
new study by Dr. Scott and colleagues.
Some
coaches and athletes attribute higher crash and injury rates to warm
temperatures and poor snow conditions at the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia.
A 2022 survey of winter athletes and coaches from 20 countries found 90
percent worried that climate change was negatively affecting their
sport.
Previous
Winter Olympic venues such as Grenoble, France; Chamonix, France;
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany; and Sochi, Russia, would not be
suitable as future host cities by 2050, according to a previous study by
Dr. Scott. Projected snowfall would not be enough to make up for daily
melting, and the finish line of the downhill ski run at each venue would
not freeze overnight, making it unsafe, the study found.
A
second group of previous host cities — Vancouver, Canada; Palisades
Tahoe, Calif; Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina; and Oslo — would be
“climatically risky.”
In their new
findings, Dr. Scott and colleagues found that the 2030 winter games
scheduled for several cities in the French Alps should have reliable
conditions for both the Olympics and Paralympics. But for the following
Games, scheduled for Salt Lake City, the risk of marginal snowfall and
snow surface conditions is higher for the later Paralympics
The
ski resorts of Park City and Deer Valley, Utah, which will host several
events at the 2034 games, opened several weeks late last month and have
experienced one of the worst early-season snowfalls in over 30 years.
The entire Rocky Mountain region had its warmest year in 2025 since
record-keeping began in 1895, while Utah eclipsed its 20th century
average by 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
Because
of increasing global temperatures, I.O.C. officials are considering
shifting events a month earlier, starting the Olympics in January and
the Paralympics in February, according to Mr. Stoss.
Organizers
are also discussing the possibility of having the two competitions at
the same time in different locations to increase the likelihood of cold
weather for all competitors.
Snow-making
at ski resorts is common in North America, but has faced opposition by
some environmental and conservation groups in Europe who say it drains
local water supplies and can damage sensitive ecosystems.
As
competitors and coaches prepare for the upcoming Olympics, the reality
of warmer winters is beginning to sink in. Chris Hecker, a wax
technician for the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team, said natural snow is
becoming a rarity at elite races. His job is to wax the base of
cross-country skis taking into account increasingly variable snow
conditions.
“I always prefer
artificial snow because it’s fast,” Mr. Hecker said. “That being said,
natural snow always makes the surrounding scenes look a lot nicer when
you’re skiing.”
.svg.webp)
.svg.png)
.svgjh.png)
.svgnm.png)
.svgjh.png)
.svgnm.png)
