Why living downstream from a glacier has become a deadly liability

 

A mud-covered street in Nepal's Nuwakot district on August 26, 2026. A massive flood and landslide disaster on the Nepal-Tibet border has killed hundreds of people. Prakash Methema/AFP/Getty Images

by  By Laura Paddison

 

Living in the shadow of the world’s spectacular, ice-capped mountains has always carried dangers, but the devastating flood wave that carved a path of destruction on the Nepal-China border this week shows how life for the millions worldwide who live downstream of these peaks is becoming more unpredictable and more deadly.

It’s too soon to know what role climate change may have played in the catastrophic flooding, but what is clear is that mountains are changing fast as temperatures rise, melting glaciers and destabilizing slopes leading to complex, cascading disasters.

Nepal is a country of jagged, towering peaks with sheer slopes sweeping down to narrow valleys, cut through by powerful rivers. Its stunning landscape attracts hordes of tourists; it’s also treacherous.

Nestled in the rapidly warming Himalayas, the country has long been a hotspot for flooding and landslides. But what happened on Wednesday “was of significantly larger scale than what we have seen in the recent past,” said Prashant Baral, a cryosphere analyst at ICIMOD, a Nepali climate organization.

An enormous chunk of glacier around 2,000 feet wide sheared off Langtang Lirung mountain in northern Nepal, accompanied by landslide, according to satellite analysis. It sent a deadly mix of ice, water, rock, sediment and boulders the size of cars crashing 7,000 feet downward, causing such a powerful tremor, it was initially mistaken for an earthquake. 

 This torrent — described by some as “liquid concrete” — surged through narrow gorges, wiping out homes, buildings, power plants, bridges and roads. Hundreds have died; many hundreds more are missing. 

 

This event was remarkable in its ferocity, and it will take time to unravel the exact causes, but this kind of deadly flooding is precisely what scientists have warned would happen more frequently as humans heat the planet by burning fossil fuels.

“Whether this particular event can be tied to climate change or not, this is what we expect,” said Dan Shugar, a geologist at the University of Calgary in Canada. “This is what climate change looks like.”

The impacts will be felt well beyond Nepal.

High in the mountains, ice is king, but it’s disappearing fast. Up to half of the more than 200,000 mountain glaciers — vast, slow-moving rivers of ice that creep across the world’s peaks — are expected to disappear by the end of this century, even if ambitious climate goals are met. 

 

The rate of ice loss from glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, which includes Nepal, have doubled since 2000, according to recent ICIMOD research.

As glaciers shrink, they can become more unstable and “sudden failures can occur,” said Ella Gilbert, a climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey. 

Water forms under Nepal's Khumbu glacier as the ice melts. Glaciers in Hindu Kush Himalaya rare melting at increasingly rapid rates as the world warms. Alex Treadway/ICIMOD/Reuters

 

Ice also holds mountains together, in the form of permafrost, a mix of soil, rock, sediment and ice. “Think of the high mountains like this as shattered bedrock glued together by ice-filled joints,” said Richard Waller, a physical geographer at Keele University in England.

As temperatures rise, ice melts, permafrost thaws and the landscape shifts. Vast chunks of mountainside can destabilize and give way.

Glacial lakes, which form as glaciers melt, pose another hazard. They can become so full, they burst their banks, sending water and debris cascading down steep mountainsides. A glacial lake outburst was responsible for flooding in a similar area of Nepal in July last year, killing at least 11 people. 

 Then there’s rain, which is becoming more intense as the planet warms. Extreme precipitation is increasingly falling on mountains as rain not snow, increasing the risks of landslides and soil erosion. 

People walk on a suspension bridge to cross the flooded Trishuli River in Bhaise, Nuwakot, Nepal, on July 08, 2025. Ambir Tolang/NurPhoto/Getty Images

 

There are many glaciers “hanging above our heads, and anytime they can burst,” said Bishal Upreti, a geologist and president of the Nepal Centre for Disaster Management. When they do, it’s like a “tsunami from the sky,” he said.

Nepal may be particularly at risk, but this is a global problem. Any high mountain areas with glaciers and permafrost are at risk, from the European Alps to the Andes, Waller said.

In the US, the Medenhall Glacier perched above Alaska’s capital Juneau drains into the Suicide Basin lake which frequently bursts its banks, sending floodwater sweeping downstream toward the city, washing away homes.

Last year, the Swiss village of Blatten was completely buried after a glacier collapsed, sending millions of tons of ice and rock down mountainside. Scientists believe it may have been linked to thawing permafrost, causing rocks to tumble onto the glacier, destabilizing it. 

Houses submerged in water arriving on August 24, 2025 at Blatten, Switzerland. On May 28, millions of cubic meters of rock tumbled down from Kleiner Nesthorn mountain onto the Birch Glacier, sending rock, ice and mud crashing into the valley. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

 

Early warning is increasingly critical. Nepal’s warning systems likely saved many lives downstream, said Hannah Cloke, a professor of meteorology and climate change at the University of Reading in the UK. But high in the mountains “there is often very little time between the triggering event and the impact, making warnings exceptionally difficult,” she said.

One scientist estimated the Nepal-China flood wave roared down the first nearly 14 miles at a speed of 120 mph

 

It’s fiendishly difficult to know further in advance which of the country’s glaciers may be on course to collapse. Monitoring each of Nepal’s 3,000 glaciers closely would be “extremely challenging,” said ICIMOD’s Baral.

There is hope, however, in new satellite systems which could be a “game changer” for Nepal and other countries, Shugar said.

This could be a vital step as the planet’s majestic, icy mountains continue to draw people to them, putting them directly in the path of the increasingly deadly and unpredictable hazards they are likely to unleash as the world warms.

Climate crisis could be destabilising mountain areas like Nepal, experts warn. Unusual heat "this year" may have melted ice and thawed bonds that hold glaciers in place – leading to catastrophe

 

Nuwakot in Nepal. The UN’s scientific advisory body warned in 2023 that ice-bound landmasses would become more unstable. Photograph: Sanjit Pariyar/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

by  Jonathan Watts

 

The devastating flash flood that has ripped through the border communities of Nepal and Tibet has heightened fears that the climate crisis is destabilising the geology of mountain and polar regions, threatening millions of people.

Satellite imagery suggests a glacier collapse high in the Himalayas was the primary cause of the deadly torrent of mud, water and ice that tore along the Bhotekoshi River on Wednesday. It swept away buildings and roads and left at least 360 dead and 1,400 missing.

A magnitude 4.4 earthquake was initially blamed for the collapse. However, it is now thought to have been caused by the huge wall of ice that crashed down on to the north slope of Langtang Lirung, a 7,000-metre (23,000ft) mountain, the impact of which registered a magnitude of 5.2.

“Additional analysis of long-period seismic waves indicates that the seismic energy was instead generated by a glacial collapse and debris flow,” the US Geological Survey said.

The ice-rock avalanche pushed boulders and other debris into the Lhende Khola River, a tributary of the Bhotekoshi River. Water levels in rivers downstream rose by between 7 and 9 metres within 30 minutes, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, an intergovernmental scientific institution.

Scientists are still examining the precise mechanics of the Himalayan disaster, but many observe that glaciers and permafrost around the world are being weakened by global heating, caused by the burning of gas, oil and coal.

Flooding in the Bhotekoshi River has affected low-lying areas along the riverbanks and nearby homes in Nuwakot, Nepal. Photograph: Ap Tolang/Nexpher/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock

The detachment of a chunk of the glacier wall came amid unusual heat that was likely to have melted the ice that bound the splintered bedrock together.

Two days before the collapse, the ground temperature hit its highest point in the last two years, according to Dr Hamish Pritchard, a glaciologist with the British Antarctic Survey, whose team had sensors 6 miles (10km) away from the site.

“These high temperatures would have weakened the snowpack, filled crevasses with water and thawed the bonds between ice and rock that hold these glaciers in place,” he told the Science Media Centre.

A series of intense heatwaves has hit the region since early this year and affected countries around the world. Another factor here was the monsoon season, which saturated the soil and swelled rivers.

Disasters like this were foretold. In 2023 the UN’s top scientific advisory body warned that previously ice-bound landmasses – from permafrost tundra to mountain glaciers – would become increasingly unstable as temperatures rose.

“Every increment of warming will multiply and intensify future hazards from cryosphere regions,” observed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its sixth synthesis report. “Floods, landslides and freshwater shortages from glacier retreat and snow loss pose a serious threat to mountain regions across the world.”

Average global temperatures are nudging closer to 1.5C above preindustrial levels. Even faster warming is occurring in alpine and polar regions because the loss of snow and ice is removing the thermal insulation of the land.

Dr Richard Waller, a senior lecturer in physical geography at Keele University, said: “The progressive loss of snow and glacier ice results in the surface being less reflective, so it absorbs more solar energy and heats up. In combination with atmospheric warming, this is leading to the melting of mountain permafrost.

“Think of the high mountains like this as shattered bedrock glued together by ice-filled joints. As the permafrost and the ice-filled joints melt, then there’s the potential for these types of catastrophic failure.”

A destroyed building in Devighat, Nuwakot. Photograph: Niranjan Shrestha/AP

The thaw is altering the shape, colour and solidity of the landscape, creating or expanding glacial meltwater lakes and, in the long term, threatening the origin of many rivers and the drinking supplies of populations downstream. In many parts of Asia, hundreds of millions of people depend on the rivers such as the Ganges and the Brahmaputra that descend from the glaciers.

Scientists have high confidence that glacier retreat is caused by human-driven global heating. This has caused glacier collapses from the Alps to the Andes. In the Langtang catchment area in Nepal, glacier loss rates have increased more than fourfold since 1964, a study has shown.

TImeline of how deadly Nepal and Tibet flash flood unfolded – explainer

 

This has contributed to a loss of life on multiple occasions. A smaller flood hit the Bhotekoshi River in July 2025 and in 2015, the Langtang Lirung mountain was hit by an earthquake-induced avalanche that destroyed Langtang village.

As emergency services look for bodies and humanitarian relief groups mobilise for survivors, others are asking where next. Waller said any high mountain areas with glaciers and permafrost could be vulnerable, including the European Alps, Caucasus, Himalayas, Andes and beyond.

As glacier weakening accelerates, Pritchard called for greater disaster preparedness. “More avalanches and more floods are inevitable, particularly as lakes grow in front of the retreating glaciers,” he said. “Early warning systems are urgently needed to protect the people living in these valleys.”

"Climate Change" - Nearly 1,400 missing, mostly tourists, after Nepal-Tibet flash flood kills at least 270

 

A drone view shows mud covering properties after the flash flood in Trishuli, Nepal. Photograph: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

 Nepal’s disaster authority said satellite data indicated a “snow-rock landslide” on the Nepal-China border may have caused the flood. Scientists say climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in the region.

For a prediction, read this 2016 article: 

 Entire villages swept away after glacial collapse triggers flood in mountainous region popular with trekkers and pilgrims

by  Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi, Sam Jones, Kate Lamb and agencies

Rescuers are searching for nearly 1,400 people, most of them tourists, who are missing after a catastrophic flash flood hit Nepal and Tibet, thundering down valleys, obliterating entire villages and killing at least 270 people.

Efforts to locate those missing – including hundreds of people from India, the US, UK, Australia and Canada – have been complicated by the destruction of dozens of bridges and almost 25 miles (40km) of roads in the mountainous region popular with trekkers and pilgrims.

Videos from Wednesday’s disaster showed a massive wall of water crashing down on the border as people tried to flee. Trucks were upended and houses, roads ⁠and power projects swept away in Nepal, while ​officials in Tibet said they feared “major casualties” after a mudslide hit a border crossing.

Deadly flash flood hit Nepal and China - cinemagraph

 

Rescue teams have found bodies hundreds of miles downstream from the disaster zone in the Chitwan district of Nepal, near the Tibetan border. Dozens of injured people have been transported to Kathmandu for advanced medical care. By Thursday morning, the Nepali army had rescued more than 100 people from flood-affected areas by helicopter.

David Fisher, the head of the Nepal delegation of the International Federation of the Red Cross, said entire villages and market areas had been wiped out.

In the affected areas, houses, trees and vehicles were submerged or buried in mudslides. Helicopters hovered overhead all day, helping to rescue survivors.

The power, volume and speed of the surging waters gave little time for anyone to flee.

People from the hard-hit areas of Nuwakot and Dhading were seen gathering outside a Nepali army training centre – the base for helicopter rescue operations – seeking information about missing family members.

Police were recording the names of the missing just outside the barracks gate. Mobile phone torches were their only source of light as the area remained without electricity due to damaged hydroelectric infrastructure.

The village of Soley, in Nuwakot, which had about 25 homes, was virtually wiped out, according to Nirajan Paudyal, a Kathmandu-based journalist whose parents and other relatives live there. Desperate for information, he travelled to the area on Thursday for news of his family.

 

“There is no update till now,” he said. “I fear there won’t be any update.”

Almost 600 foreigners were among 826 people missing in Nepal, police and tourism ⁠officials said. Among those unaccounted were 177 from India, 63 from the US, 34 from Australia, 33 from Britain and 25 from Canada.

Chinese state media said at least 558 were missing on the Tibet side of the border, of whom at least 260 were foreign nationals.

Police in Nepal said 270 ⁠bodies had been recovered by Thursday afternoon local time, while Chinese state media reported three dead on the Tibet side of the border.

Many of the victims were on a pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar, a high-altitude site in ‌Tibet revered by Hindus and Buddhists among others.

Early reports from Nepali ​officials suggested an earthquake could have caused the lower part of a glacier to collapse and trigger ‌the floods. But the US Geological Survey later said what was initially reported ‌as a 4.4-magnitude earthquake was a seismic shock generated by glacial rock and ice collapsing and the flow of debris. “No earthquake had occurred,” it said.

amaged section of highway in Nepal after the flash flood. Photograph: Subaas Shrestha/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
 

An initial study of Planet Labs satellite imagery indicated a landslide of ice and rock triggered the debris-laden flood in the Lhende River, about 12 miles (20km) north-east of the Nepal-China Rasuwagadhi border crossing, Nepal’s national disaster authority said. Experts say the risk of such events is compounded by the extreme topography of the Himalayas.

People shared harrowing stories of how they managed to survive. “I started running. Then a wall of water came thundering down as if it was an earthquake,” said Bibek Kumal, a labourer who was working downstream from the worst-hit Rasuwa district, near Nepal’s Himalayan border with China’s Tibet.

From his hospital bed, Kumal said the torrent swept him downstream amid mud and debris but he survived by clinging to a mango tree. “Had there been no mango tree, I would ‌have been washed away to death,” he said.

Keshav Prasad Baral, a 68-year-old survivor who was being treated at a small hospital, said: “It was a huge gush of mud coming straight towards us. As it got closer, it kept rising higher and higher.

“I tried to grab my wife’s hand and take ⁠her to the terrace. But she was swept away by the mud. Four or five hours later, a helicopter came to rescue me. My wife is still somewhere beneath the mud. She’s gone.”

 

Nepali soldiers carrying a survivor of the flash flood. Photograph: Nepal Army/EPA

 

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said UN teams and partners were mobilising supplies and personnel to support communities affected by the disaster. The US government said it would provide $500,000 in emergency assistance.

Tibet government officials deployed nearly 800 emergency workers and 150 vehicles as well as sniffer dogs and speed boats to help the rescue efforts, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.

The Chinese premier, Li Qiang, travelled to the affected area on the China-Nepal border on Thursday to oversee search efforts there.

 

The tour company Himalayan Glacier said 47 people, including two children, were missing from one of its groups in Nepal. Among them were 15 Australians, 10 Canadians, nine Nepalis, eight Americans, two Britons, two Singaporeans and one Russian-American dual citizen, its managing director, Sanket Pandey, said.

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said his thoughts were with those concerned about their loved ones, and that getting information about the status of missing people remained difficult.

With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

UK swelters in third heatwave of the year as western Europe counts cost of hottest-ever June. Britain expands heat alerts while estimates suggest June’s death toll could surpass 20,000 across continent

People shield themselves from the sun at the Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace in London. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/Sopa Images/Shutterstock

 

by  Pippa Neill and Ajit Niranjan

The UK is sweltering through the peak of its third heatwave of the year as countries around Europe struggle to recover from an early onslaught of baking summer heat.

Punishing temperatures pushed higher by fossil fuel pollution have broken records across the continent in recent weeks. Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record, scientists confirmed on Thursday, accompanied by high global ocean temperatures that could cause “mass-mortality events” for some species.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Thursday expanded amber heat health alerts to cover all regions of England except the north-east, meaning significant impacts are likely across health and social care services owing to the high temperatures.

 

The UK Met Office said high temperatures would remain through much of next week, which could make the heatwave one of the longest lasting since the 1976 heatwave that killed 250 people. On Thursday temperatures surpassed 35C (95F) in Surrey, falling short of the provisional high of 37.7C recorded at Lingwood, Strumpshaw Hill, in Norfolk on 26 June.

The Met Office said Thursday was the eighth day this year where temperatures had surpassed 34C, breaking the previous records from 2020 and 1976 by one day.

Friederike Otto, a professor of climate science at Imperial College London, said the climate crisis was making every heatwave hotter, with events such as this month’s heatwave more likely to occur.

“The heat we have seen this summer is only possible because of the 1.4C of climate change we have to date, due to the burning of fossil fuels,” she said.

Otto said it was misleading to use the term “new normal” when describing this year’s scorching summer heat. “The climate we have today is not stable and continues to warm as long as we continue to burn fossil fuels. As a result, what is ‘normal’ keeps shifting and we’re likely to see much hotter heatwaves like this one in the years to come.”

 Many countries across Europe are still reckoning with the fallout from the last heatwave. On Thursday, Belgium’s public science institute said its June heat was “exceptionally deadly”, with 1,747 excess deaths, while the Robert Koch Institute reported 5,120 heat-related deaths in Germany this summer. Early academic estimates suggest the death toll across the continent could be higher than 20,000.

A firefighter sprays water on spectators watching the sixth stage of the Tour de France between Pau and Gavarnie-Gèdre in the French Pyrenees. Photograph: Loïc Venance/AFP/Getty Images

In France, where a nuclear reactor reportedly shut down in high heat on Thursday, scientists said the transformation of homes from “thermal kettles” into decent housing was a public health imperative.

France’s high council on climate, an independent body responsible for evaluating government climate action, urged policymakers to improve housing stock and make the creation of shaded green spaces an integral part of urban regeneration. In hospitals, care homes and schools, it recommended installing shutters, shade structures, ceiling fans, cooling systems, and fixed air-conditioning units.

The annual report, which is in its eighth edition, found France was not ready for the dangerous consequences of climate breakdown and said current policies were insufficient to avoid a sharp increase in risk.

A boy rests inside the Roman theatre in Arles, France. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock

The scientists lamented the slowdown in climate action and called for a consolidated plan to phase out fossil fuels. “The cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of the transition,” the authors wrote, “which makes unilateral decarbonisation by major economies a rational choice that brings considerable welfare gains for societies”.

The NHS in England has said it is facing a “summer onslaught”, with the heatwave and the World Cup to blame. Average A&E attendances exceeded 80,000 for the first time ever in June, a new daily attendance record.

The NHS national medical director, Prof Frankie Swords, said the figures showed that summer was putting the NHS under just as much pressure as winter. South Central ambulance service NHS foundation trust said during the June heatwave there was a 118% increase in the number of times 999 emergency call takers directed members of the public to collect a nearby defibrillator for someone in suspected cardiac arrest.

More than 1,000 schools across the UK were either closed or partially closed during the June heatwave, and some schools have taken similar measures this week as they struggled to cope in poorly insulated buildings.

 

Water companies have reported increased demand, with a hosepipe ban already in force for South East Water customers in parts of Kent. Hosepipe restrictions are also being introduced for about 1 million Southern Water customers across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight from Friday.

Supermarkets across the UK have struggled to keep their fridge and freezer units running in the extreme heat, with many shoppers finding empty shelves at their local store and a hastily erected sign apologising for the inconvenience.

Rupert Ashby, the chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation, said the trade association heard from a number of members who had encountered problems, and shops with older fridge-freezer units were being worst affected.

In older models, the refrigeration cycle components that pump out hot air are typically stored outside the building and are designed to work in ambient temperature. In an extreme heat event they do not work as efficiently, as they cannot pump the heat away.

 

Signs on blinds covering fridges in the chilled food aisle of a Sainsbury’s supermarket in England. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

 

 

 “These systems just weren’t designed to deal with this type of temperature because, historically, we rarely had it,” Ashby said. “But a major supermarket chain is probably looking at hundreds of millions of pounds to replace all its older units because they have so many.”

Phil Pluck, the chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, said 50% of cold warehouses in the UK were more than 20 years old with old refrigeration systems, and the hot weather had massively increased energy usage and pressure on the system.

“As an industry, we are finding ourselves under more and more pressure,” he said. “I think we’ve got to admit that our climate is now clearly in crisis, and one of the things that will have to change will be our access to food via retail outlets. It will look different.”

He said open fridge-freezers in supermarkets would become less common, and standard practice would shift to using Perspex doors to keep heat out. Some supermarkets have installed pull-down blinds on their fridge units to help keep food cool.

 Additional reporting Jessica Murray

'Hotter and hotter and hotter' - Europe's new climate in seven charts

 

Outdoor workers can be particularly vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat, such as that seen in the UK and Europe last month

by

Mark Poynting,Climate reporter,

Becky Dale,Senior data journalist, BBC Verify

 

 

We might only be a few days into July, but two record-breaking summer heatwaves have already provided the UK and Europe with a snapshot of their new climate.

Hot on the heels of May's heat, June saw temperature records not only broken but smashed in what the UN's weather agency called an "extraordinary" event across the continent.

And after a brief period of respite, another heatwave is on the way.

If this feels unusual, that is because it is. But it is also exactly what scientists predicted in our warmer world, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels releasing heat-trapping greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.

"Human-induced climate change has made events like this more likely and more intense," said Prof Stephen Belcher, chief scientist at the UK Met Office.

 The intensity of these heatwaves is evident from how far temperatures were above normal in May and June averaged across the UK, marked here in red.

 

 

While the June heat was strongest in southern England and south Wales, few areas escaped the warmth.

 

 

Temperatures peaked at 37.7C in Lingwood, Norfolk, according to provisional figures. It was one of several stations to surpass the UK's previous June high of 35.6C, set in 1957 and tied in 1976.

"To see temperatures like this in the UK in June is sobering," said Belcher.

Not every weather station has data as far back as the famous summer of 1976, but even some of the longest-running stations saw their previous records broken by 2C or more.

"We normally expect the records broken by small amounts – tenths, maybe up to a degree or so," said Ed Hawkins, professor of climate science at the University of Reading.

"So to have it shattered by such a large amount is noticeable and extraordinary, and of course this comes after a similar event in May."

 

June's heatwave may have felt particularly oppressive because it brought a double whammy of high temperatures and humidity. High humidity means it is harder for our bodies to cool down by sweating.

It also stayed very warm even after the Sun had set, making it difficult to sleep. Our bodies rely on cooler nighttime temperatures to recover from the heat of the day.

In Cardiff, temperatures did not drop below 23.5C on the night of Wednesday 24 June into Thursday – the warmest June night ever recorded around the UK.

Most of England and Wales experienced at least one tropical night in June, where temperatures do not fall below 20C. Historically, these have been very rare in the UK.

"We would definitely expect to see more and more tropical nights, as global temperatures keep rising," said Hawkins.

The same "heat dome" that brought extraordinary heat to the UK in June also saw records tumble across Europe.

The German weather service, Deutscher Wetterdienst, named it "a heatwave for the history books". The French weather agency, Météo-France, described it as "exceptional" and "historic".

More than a dozen countries across western, central and eastern Europe broke their June temperature record – with gaps of up to two or three degrees between old and new highs.

Some countries faced temperatures above 40C and set a new record for any time of year - even though June is typically cooler than July.

 

 France and Spain also recorded their hottest June days in terms of a national average, although higher temperatures had been reached before at individual weather stations.

"Compared to historical measurements, this was obviously very unusual," said Sonia Seneviratne, professor at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

The Alpine nation reached 39C, surpassing the previous June record by more than 2C.

"[But] I would say as a climate scientist, I was not that surprised to see this happen... when you know that we have a warming climate," she added.

Global temperatures have been rising over the past century due to humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases, but local or regional geography shapes the speed at which different places are warming.

And as Europe is warming particularly quickly, it is more exposed to frequent and stronger spells of extreme heat.

 

Europe's rapid warming is partly the result of the melting of bright snow and ice, and a drop in the number of tiny polluting particles in the air. This means that less of the Sun's energy is reflected back into space, leaving more energy to heat the Earth's surface.

Some scientists also argue that the warming climate may be changing atmospheric circulation patterns around Europe in a way that brings more of the high-pressure systems that can lead to heatwaves, although this is not certain.

Europe's seas are exceptionally warm this summer too. Marine heatwaves conditions around the UK's coast have strengthened partly because of last week's record-breaking air temperatures.

But as water takes longer to cool down than the air, sea heat can be longer-lasting. This can help to intensify future heatwaves on land by reducing the cooling effect from sea breezes.

Scientists are certain that climate change has already made warm spells like the June heatwave significantly hotter than the same weather systems of the past.

"The only way to explain [such strong heatwaves] is to taking into account this [long-term] warming," said Seneviratne

"When you have a high-pressure system, this heatwave will tend to be much hotter [now]. This is very well understood."

 

And scientists warn that as average temperatures continue to rise, hot spells of the future will be able to reach even higher temperatures.

Only a few decades ago, the UK reaching 30C in June was a relatively rare event. Now it has become the norm.

 

The long-term warming trend across the UK and Europe does not mean that the next heatwave will be hotter than the last, nor that next summer will necessarily be hotter than this one.

But scientists warn that UK and European summers will inevitably keep getting warmer on average as carbon emissions continue to heat up the planet.

"Our heatwaves will get hotter and hotter and hotter until we get to global net zero greenhouse gas emissions [and] we stabilise the climate," said Hawkins.

Fortes chuvas: veja fotos do segundo dia após tragédia em Juiz de Fora (MG). Até o momento há 46 mortos e 19 desaparecidos na cidade; município está em estado de calamidade pública

by Yasmin Silvestre

 

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.

De acordo com os Bombeiros, ambas as cidades contabilizam mais de 3500 famílias desabrigadas e desalojadas após a situação de calamidade. Ao todo, 208 pessoas foram retiradas com vidas dos escombros causados pelas enchentes.

 

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.

 

 

 

Flooding in southern Asia leaves 600 dead

Search and rescue operations are ongoing across Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, with hundreds still missing

 by Jessica Rawnsley

 

Torrential rains have triggered floods and landslides across parts of southern Asia, killing about 600 people.

Monsoon rain exacerbated by tropical storms caused some of the region's worst flooding in years, with millions affected in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Intense rainfall began on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday. "During the flood, everything was gone," a resident of Bireuen in Sumatra's Aceh province told Reuters news agency. "I wanted to save my clothes, but my house came down."

With hundreds still missing, the death toll is likely to rise. Thousands remain stranded, some awaiting rescue on rooftops.

 

As of Saturday more than 300 people had died in Indonesia and 160 in Thailand. There were also several deaths reported in Malaysia.

In Sri Lanka, which has been battered by Cyclone Ditwah, more than 130 people are dead and some 170 missing, officials said.

In Indonesia hundreds are still missing after heavy rains wreaked havoc on the island of Sumatra

An exceptionally rare tropical cyclone, named Cyclone Senyar, caused catastrophic landslides and flooding in Indonesia, with homes swept away and thousands of buildings submerged.

Indonesia's disaster agency said on Saturday that nearly 300 people were still missing after flooding devastated Sumatra.

"The current was very fast, in a matter of seconds it reached the streets, entered the houses," a resident in Aceh Province, Arini Amalia, told the BBC.

She and her grandmother raced to a relative's house on higher terrain. On returning the following day to retrieve some belongings, she said the flood had completely swallowed the house: "It's already sunk."

After waters rapidly rose in West Sumatra and submerged his home, Meri Osman said he was "swept away by the current" and clung onto a clothesline until he was rescued.

The bad weather has hampered rescue operations, and while tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, hundreds are still stranded, the Indonesian disaster agency said.

Tens of thousands of people have taken refuge in shelters in Thailand

In Thailand's southern Songkhla province, water rose 3m (10ft) and at least 145 people died in one of the worst floods in a decade.

Across the 10 provinces hit by flooding, more than 160 people have been killed, the government said on Saturday. More than 3.8 million people have been affected.

The city of Hat Yai experienced 335mm of rainfall in a single day, the heaviest in 300 years. As waters receded, officials recorded a sharp rise in the death toll.

At one hospital in Hat Yai, employees were forced to move bodies to refrigerated trucks after the morgue became overwhelmed, news agency AFP reported.

"We were stuck in the water for seven days and no agency came to help," Hat Yai resident Thanita Khiawhom told BBC Thai.

The government has promised relief measures, including compensation of up to two million baht ($62,000) for households that lost family members. 

Sri Lanka's government has declared a state of emergency and appealed for international assistance

In neighbouring Malaysia, the death toll is far lower, but the damage is just as devastating.

Flooding has wreaked havoc and left parts of northern Perlis state under water, with two people dead and tens of thousands forced into shelters.

Sri Lanka is also grappling with one of its worst weather disasters in recent years, and the government has declared a state of emergency.

More than 15,000 homes have been destroyed and some 78,000 people forced into temporary shelters, officials said. They added that about a third of the country was without electricity or running water.

Meteorologists have said the extreme weather in South East Asia may have been caused by the interaction of Typhoon Koto in the Philippines and the rare formation of Cyclone Senyar in the Malacca Strait.

The region's annual monsoon season, typically between June and September, often brings heavy rain.

Climate change has altered storm patterns, including the intensity and duration of the season, resulting in heavier rainfall, flash flooding and stronger winds.