Global heating ‘doubled’ chance of extreme rain in Europe in September

Residents wade through flood water after the Nysa Klodzka River flooded the town of Lewin Brzeski in south-west Poland on 19 September. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

 
 

Planet-heating pollution doubled the chance of the extreme levels of rain that hammered central Europe in September, a study has found.

Researchers found global heating aggravated the four days of heavy rainfall that led to deadly floods in countries from Austria to Romania.

The rains were made at least 7% stronger by climate change, World Weather Attribution (WWA) found, which led to towns being hit with volumes of water that would have been half as likely to occur if humans had not heated the planet.

“The trend is clear,” said Bogdan Chojnicki, a climate scientist at Poznań University of Life Sciences, and co-author of the study. “If humans keep filling the atmosphere with fossil fuel emissions, the situation will be more severe.”

 

Storm Boris stalled over central Europe in mid-September and unleashed record-breaking amounts of rain upon Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The heavy rains turned calm streams into wild rivers, triggering floods that wrecked homes and killed two dozen people.

The researchers said measures to adapt had lowered the death toll compared with similar floods that hit the region in 1997 and 2002. They called for better flood defences, warning systems and disaster-response plans, and warned against continuing to rebuild in flood-prone regions.

“These floods indicate just how costly climate change is becoming,” said Maja Vahlberg, technical adviser at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, and co-author of the study. “Even with days of preparation, flood waters still devastated towns, destroyed thousands of homes and saw the European Union pledge €10bn in aid.”

Rapid attribution studies, which use established methods but are published before going through lengthy peer-review processes, examine how human influence affects extreme weather in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.

The scientists compared the rainfall recorded in central Europe over four days in September with amounts simulated for a world that is 1.3C cooler – the level of warming caused to date by burning fossil fuels and destroying nature. They attributed a “doubling in likelihood and a 7% increase in intensity” to human influence.

But the results are “conservative”, the scientists wrote, because the models do not explicitly model convection and so may underestimate rainfall. “We emphasise that the direction of change is very clear, but the rate is not.”

 

Physicists have shown that every degree celsius of warming allows the air to hold 7% more moisture, but whether it does so depends on the availability of water. The rains in central Europe were unleashed when cold air from the Arctic met warm, wet air from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

Warmer seas enhance the rainy part of the hydrological cycle, though the trend on parts of the land is towards drier conditions, said Miroslav Trnka, a climate scientist at the Global Change Research Institute, who was not involved in the study. When the conditions were right, he said, “you can have floods on steroids”.

Trnka compared the factors that result in extreme rainfall to playing the lottery. The increase in risk from global heating, he said, was like buying more lottery tickets, doing so over a longer period of time, and changing the rules so more combinations of numbers result in a win.

“If you bet long enough, you have a higher chance of a jackpot,” said Trnka.

The study found heavier four-day rainfall events would hit if the world heats 2C above preindustrial levels, with a further increase from today of about 5% in rainfall intensity and 50% in likelihood.

Other factors could increase this even more, such as the waviness of the jet stream, which some scientists suspect is increasingly trapping weather systems in one place as a result of global heating. A study published in Nature Scientific Reports on Monday projected that such blocking systems would increase under medium- and worst-case emissions scenarios.

Hayley Fowler, a climate scientist at Newcastle University, who was not involved in the study, said: “These large storms, cut off from the jet stream, are able to stagnate in one place and produce huge amounts of rainfall, fuelled by increased moisture and energy from oceans that are record-shatteringly hot.”

“These ‘blocked’ slow-moving storms are becoming more frequent and are projected to increase further with additional warming,” she added. “The question is not whether we need to adapt for more of these types of storm but can we.”

WWA described the week following Storm Boris as “hyperactive” because 12 disasters around the world triggered its criteria for analysis, more than in any week in the organisation’s history.

The study did not try to work out how much global heating had increased the destruction wreaked by the rains but the researchers said even minor increases in rainfall disproportionately increased damages.

“Almost everywhere in the world it is the case that a small increase in the rainfall leads to a similar order-of-magnitude increase in flooding,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute and co-author of the study. “But that leads to a much larger increase in the damages.”

 

( Artic Melting ) - ‘Never-ending’ UK rain made 10 times more likely by climate crisis, study says

 

A man wades through flood water in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, in November. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA

Winter downpours also made 20% wetter and will occur every three years without urgent carbon cuts, experts warn

The seemingly “never-ending” rain last autumn and winter in the UK and Ireland was made 10 times more likely and 20% wetter by human-caused global heating, a study has found.

More than a dozen storms battered the region in quick succession between October and March, which was the second-wettest such period in nearly two centuries of records. The downpour led to severe floods, at least 20 deaths, severe damage to homes and infrastructure, power blackouts, travel cancellations, and heavy losses of crops and livestock.

The level of rain caused by the storms would have occurred just once in 50 years without the climate crisis, but is now expected every five years owing to 1.2C of global heating reached in recent years. If fossil fuel burning is not rapidly cut and the global temperature reaches 2C in the next decade or two, such severe wet weather would occur every three years on average, the analysis showed.

 

The experts behind the study warned that work to protect the populations of the UK and Ireland was still “sorely lacking” and poor and vulnerable people were hardest hit. For example, dehumidifiers provided to dry out flooded homes were not used by some because of high energy costs, while others could not afford to replace losses of frozen food after storms cut power supplies.

The analysis, conducted by climate scientists working as part of the World Weather Attribution group, compared how likely and how intense the wet winter was in today’s heated world with how likely it would have been in a world without high levels of carbon emissions. Warmer air can hold more water vapour and therefore produce more rain. Hundreds of “attribution studies” have shown how global heating is already supercharging extreme weather such as heatwaves, wildfires, droughts and storms across the world.

“The seemingly never-ending rainfall this autumn and winter across the UK and Ireland had notable impacts,” said Dr Mark McCarthy, a climate scientist at the UK Met Office and part of the WWA team. “In the future we can expect further increases – that’s why it is so important for us to adapt to our changing climate and become more resilient.”

Dr Sarah Kew, a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and also part of the WWA team, said: “The UK and Ireland face a wetter, damper and mouldier future due to climate change. Until the world reduces emissions to net zero, the climate will continue to warm, and rainfall in the UK and Ireland will continue to get heavier.”

The study included storms Babet, Ciarán, Henk and Isha, which were among the most damaging. A separate analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit found that the losses of arable crops alone in the UK due to the heavy rain would cost farmers about £1.2bn, compared with average production over the last decade. Further losses would be suffered by vegetable growers.

Dr Ellie Murtagh, the UK climate adaptation lead at the British Red Cross, said: “We know flooding has a devastating impact on people’s lives. Its effects can be felt for months and years afterwards.”

She said the storms and flooding had caused weather-related home insurance claims in the UK to rise by over a third, reaching a record-breaking £573m worth of claims. One in seven people do not have insurance, with many saying they are unable to afford it.

UK ministers have been criticised for years over the failure to make adequate plans to protect people against the impacts of global heating. In July, the government’s most recent climate adaptation plan was condemned as “very weak” by experts.

“The level of implementation of adaptation interventions is still sorely lacking,” said Murtagh. “Independent assessments in both the UK and Ireland have highlighted the lack of progress.”

Dr Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-founder of WWA, said: “To put it bluntly, climate change is already making life shittier. Wetter winters are flooding farms, cancelling football matches, overflowing sewage systems and [making] groceries more expensive.

“Thankfully, we know the solutions. Replace oil, gas and coal with cleaner, cheaper renewable sources of energy; insulate homes, and restore nature. All this will make life cheaper and better for all, not more expensive.”

Thunderstorms, Wind and Climate Change - Houston Texas - USA

 

A damaged building in Houston on Friday, after severe storms the night before.Credit...David J. Phillip/Associated Press

 

 

By Raymond Zhong Nytimes

Scientists say storms like those that battered Houston could become more intense as the planet warms, though pinning down trends is still challenging.

 

Shattered windows and caved-in walls. Toppled power lines and trees. The severe storms that swept through Houston and the Gulf Coast on Thursday left all the destructive traces of a hurricane, yet they didn’t blow in from the tropics.

Violent clusters of thunderstorms cause extensive damage across the United States each year, not just through rain and flooding, but also through hail, tornadoes and walls of blasting wind. Here’s what to know about such storms, and how they might be changing in our warming climate.

 

Global warming creates conditions more favorable to severe storms.

As the planet warms, severe storms of all kinds are likely to deliver even bigger payloads of rain. The reason: Warmer air holds more moisture, which effectively increases a storm’s capacity to carry precipitation.

Because the air can hold more moisture, that also means there is more water vapor in the sky that can condense into liquid, forming clouds. The heat energy released into the atmosphere by this condensation is what feeds thunderstorms. In short, more condensation, stronger storms.

Warming might also increase the amount of instability in the atmosphere, which provides more energy to lift moist air rapidly skyward during storms.

 

Scientists are still trying to understand how this is playing out.

Just because the ingredients are in place for a powerful storm doesn’t mean a powerful storm always materializes. Plenty of other factors shape when and whether storms form, and how destructive they become, which means it’s not straightforward to determine how global warming might be affecting overall storm trends.

“Theoretically we understand very well what’s happening,” said Andreas F. Prein, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “But how this then translates into severe convective storms, and what we saw yesterday, is a little bit more questionable.”

There isn’t clear evidence, for instance, that tornadoes have become more frequent or intense in recent decades. They do, however, seem to be happening in more concentrated bursts.

Thunderstorms can also produce strong winds that fan out in straight lines rather than twisters. In a study published last year, Dr. Prein estimated that much larger areas of the central United States were now experiencing these straight-line gusts compared with the early 1980s.

 

 

(Antarctic Melting) - Disease and hunger soar in Latin America after floods and drought, study finds - theguardian.com

 

Flooding in Porto Alegre was caused by devastating torrents and has killed at least 95 people. Photograph: André Penner/AP

 

Hunger and disease are rising in Latin America after a year of record heat, floods and drought, a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has shown.

The continent, which is trapped between the freakishly hot Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, probably suffered tens of thousands of climate-related deaths in 2023, at least $21bn (£17bn) of economic damage and “the greatest calorific loss” of any region, the study found.

The climate chaos, caused by a combination of human-driven global heating and a natural El Niño effect, is continuing with devastating floods in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, which have killed at least 95 people and deluged swathes of farmland after the world’s hottest April in human history.

Global heat records have now been broken for 11 months in a row, causing death and destruction across many parts of the planet. Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced some of the worst effects.

In a summary of last year’s toll in this region, the WMO said disasters and climate change, along with socioeconomic shocks, are the main drivers of acute food insecurity, which affects 13.8 million people.

 

Acapulco in Mexico had a category 5 hurricane last year, the first ever to make landfall on the Pacific coast. Photograph: David Guzmán/EPA

 

As the climate warms, diseases are spreading across a greater area. The WMO noted that more than 3m cases of dengue fever were reported in the first seven months of 2023, breaking the previous annual record for the region. Uruguay experienced its first cases of chikungunya and Chile widened alerts about the Aedes aegypti mosquito vector.

There were an average of 36,695 heat-related excess deaths each year in the region in the first two decades of this century. Last year’s toll has not yet been calculated, but it is likely to exceed the average given the record temperatures and prolonged heatwaves in many areas.

Mexico had a record high of 51.4C on 29 August, and many areas sweltered in a prolonged heatwave. By the end of the year, 76% of Mexico was experiencing some degree of drought. In October Acapulco was hit by the first ever category 5 hurricane to make landfall on the Pacific coastline. Hurricane Otis killed at least 48 people, damaged 80% of the city’s hotels and left damages calculated at $12bn.

Other areas of Central and South America endured unusually fierce heat and prolonged drought. The Panama Canal had 41% less rainfall than normal, causing difficulties for one of the most important conduits of world trade.

Brazil, the biggest country in Latin America, experienced record winter heat in excess of 41C and severe droughts in the Amazon rainforest, where the Rio Negro recorded its lowest level in more than 120 years of observations, fires raged around Manaus and more than 100 baiji river dolphins died in the hot, shallow, polluted waters of Lake Tefé.

The south of Brazil has repeatedly suffered deadly flooding. At least 65 people died in São Paulo in February 2023 after torrential rains and landslides. Another 48 were killed and 20,000 displaced in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in September after 300mm of rain fell in 24 hours and now the same southern state is deluged once again. Streets have turned to rivers in Porto Alegre, the capital, forcing the international airport to close while the football pitch of the Arena do Grêmio resembles a lake.

 

 In Lake Tefé, Brazil, river dolphins died in hot, shallow and polluted waters. Photograph: Bruno Kelly/Reuters

 

Last year, floods also took lives, disrupted business or ruined crops in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru and Bolivia.

Combined with drought, this has hurt agricultural production in one of the world’s most important food production regions. Wheat production in Argentina fell 30% below the five-year average, and a similar loss is expected in the harvest of the grain in the Brazilian state of Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul. Some of these losses have been offset by record maize production in other parts of Brazil, but food prices are rising. Overall, Latin America has suffered significant calorific losses, the report said. In countries that are also experiencing political and economic problems, such as Venezuela, Haiti and parts of Colombia, this is creating a food crisis.

The costs in human lives, lost food production and economic damage are expected to rise for as long as humans continue to burn gas, oil, coal and trees, which emit heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

“Sadly, this is probably only the beginning,” said Prof José Marengo, the lead author of the WMO report and director of the Brazil National Center for Monitoring and Early Warning of Natural Disasters. “Extreme events are becoming more frequent and the period of return is becoming shorter.”

 

 

 

(Antarctic Melting) - Temporais no RS deixam 100 mortos e 128 desaparecidos - Tragédia no Rio Grande do Sul deixa clara a necessidade de discutir como mitigar e se adaptar às mudanças climáticas

 

 Antarctic Melts

SITUAÇÃO NO RS APÓS AS CHUVAS 05/05/2024

• 66 mortes
• 101 desaparecidos
• 155 feridos
• 707.190 pessoas afetadas
• 15.192 desabrigados
• 80.573 desalojados
• 418 mil imóveis sem energia
• 1 milhão de imóveis sem água

Estado, que tem sofrido ora com tempestades e ora com estiagens, precisa de ajuda emergencial, mas também para ações preventivas

Por Míriam Leitão

02/05/2024 10h58  Atualizado há um dia

Uma visão aérea mostra áreas inundadas na cidade de Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul: Mais de 10 pessoas morreram em enchentes causadas por chuvas torrenciais — Foto: Gustavo Ghisleni / AFP

O Rio Grande do Sul tem sofrido de forma contundente com os extremos climáticos. Neste momento são as chuvas, mas como me lembrou o próprio governador Eduardo Leite, numa conversa recente, nos últimos anos o estado foi vítima de três estiagens que levaram a uma queda da produção de grãos de 40%. E aí depois vieram as tempestades, em setembro passado, que agora se repetem em um cenário de ainda maior gravidade.

Governo do Rio Grande do Sul declara estado de calamidade pública: Decreto foi publicado na noite de quarta-feira, no Diário Oficial, e permanecerá em vigor por 180 dias

Dez mortos pelas chuvas no RS: cenário é de piora e 'gravidade extrema' para os próximos dias, apontam meteorologistas

Quando se fala em mudanças climáticas, há dois pontos importantes: mitigação e adaptação. A adaptação é exatamente esse esforço de encontrar formas de proteger a população, diante da perspectiva de desastres climáticos. E essa é uma tarefa de todos, da defesa civil de todo o Brasil, dos planejadores urbanos, dos administradores, é um trabalho coletivo que tem que ser feito, não pode mais ser adiado.

Os últimos anos no Rio Grande do Sul foram difíceis, o que demanda uma atenção extra com o estado. Do ponto de vista da economia, o Rio Grande do Sul tem feito um trabalho muito bom. O governador Eduardo Leite, vêm colocando em ordem as contas públicas, mas as tragédias climáticas frequentes impõem um desafio extra não só pelo lado da economia, mas pelo humano. Os relatos são dramáticos, há quem perdeu em menos de um ano, por conta da chuva, duas vezes tudo o que tinha em casa.

O Rio Grande do Sul precisa de ajuda do governo federal para apoiar tanto o resgate dos moradores em risco, quanto as ações preventivas, afinal como todos sabemos os efeitos das mudanças climáticas devem se agravar.

Chuvas no RS: número de mortos após tempestades chega a 56 

 

Chuvas no RS: número de mortos sobe para 83; são 111 desaparecidos

 

Sobe para 85 o número de mortos após enchentes que atingem o RS 

Chuvas no RS: estado tem 95 pessoas mortas e 131 desaparecidas

Tempestade deixa 2.000 mortos, 10.000 desaparecidos e cria “cidade fantasma” na Líbia

 

 

Número de mortos por tempestade na Líbia sobe para 5.200. 

 

Tempestade Daniel cruzou o Mediterrâneo e causou enchentes na Líbia Reuters 

 

Hamdi AlkhshaliMostafa SalemKareem El Damanhouryda CNN

 

Cerca de 2.000 pessoas morreram e 10.000 estão desaparecidas após as chuvas provocadas pela tempestade Daniel causarem o rompimento de duas barragens no nordeste da Líbia, fazendo com que a água fluísse para áreas já inundadas.

“O número de mortos é enorme e cerca de 10.000 estão desaparecidos”, disse Tamer Ramadan, chefe da delegação da Federação Internacional das Sociedades da Cruz Vermelha e do Crescente Vermelho (FICV) na Líbia, durante uma conferência de imprensa em Genebra, nesta terça-feira (12).

Cerca de 6.000 pessoas estão desaparecidas só na cidade de Derna, disse Othman Abduljalil, ministro da Saúde do governo apoiado pelo parlamento oriental da Líbia, à TV Almasar da Líbia.

 

Abduljalil, ministro da Saúde do governo apoiado pelo parlamento oriental da Líbia, visitou Derna, a cidade mais atingida do país, na segunda-feira (12), descrevendo partes dela como uma “cidade fantasma”.

“A situação [em Derna] era catastrófica. Os corpos continuam espalhados em muitos lugares”, disse Abduljalil à TV Almasar da Líbia.

“Há famílias ainda presas dentro de suas casas e há vítimas sob os escombros. Presumo que as pessoas tenham sido arrastadas para o mar e amanhã (terça-feira) de manhã encontraremos muitas delas”, disse ele.

Derna é apenas uma área afetada pelas inundações que varreram várias cidades no nordeste do país, na costa do Mar Mediterrâneo.

A chuva é o resultado de um sistema muito forte de baixa pressão que provocou inundações catastróficas na Grécia na semana passada e deslocou-se para o Mediterrâneo antes de se transformar num ciclone tropical conhecido como Medicane (do inglês, furacão do Mediterrâneo). O sistema climático é semelhante às tempestades tropicais e furacões no Atlântico ou aos tufões no Pacífico.

Anteriormente, a Cruz Vermelha da Líbia estimou que mais de 300 pessoas morreram em Derna, de acordo com uma publicação nas redes sociais.

Ahmed Mismari, porta-voz do Exército Nacional da Líbia (LNA), baseado no leste, disse que duas barragens ruíram sob a pressão das inundações.

“Como consequência, três pontes foram destruídas. A água corrente levou bairros inteiros, acabando por depositá-los no mar”, disse ele.

O chefe da autoridade de Emergência e Ambulâncias da Líbia, Osama Aly, disse à CNN que após o rompimento da barragem “toda a água foi direcionada para uma área perto de Derna, que é uma área costeira montanhosa”.

As casas nos vales foram arrastadas por fortes correntes lamacentas que transportavam veículos e detritos, acrescentou. As linhas telefônicas na cidade também caíram, complicando os esforços de resgate, disse Aly, com os trabalhadores impossibilitados de entrar em Derna devido à forte destruição.

Aly disse que as autoridades não previram a escala do desastre.

“As condições meteorológicas não foram bem estudadas, os níveis da água do mar e das chuvas [não foram estudados], as velocidades do vento, não houve evacuação de famílias que poderiam estar no caminho da tempestade e nos vales”, disse Aly.

“A Líbia não estava preparada para uma catástrofe como esta. Nunca testemunhou esse nível de catástrofe antes. Admitimos que houve deficiências, embora esta seja a primeira vez que enfrentamos esse nível de catástrofe”, disse Aly ao canal Al Hurra anteriormente.

Mismari, porta-voz do LNA, disse que as inundações afetaram várias cidades, incluindo Al-Bayda, Al-Marj, Tobruk, Takenis, Al-Bayada e Battah, bem como a costa oriental até Benghazi.

 

‘Inundações sem precedentes’

A Líbia, um país de seis milhões de habitantes, está dividida entre facções em conflito desde 2014, após a revolta de 2011 apoiada pela Otan contra Muammar Gadhafi.

O chefe do governo apoiado pelo parlamento oriental da Líbia, Osama Hamad, descreveu a situação como “catastrófica e sem precedentes”, de acordo com um relatório da organização de notícias estatal Agência de Notícias da Líbia (LANA).

Imagens compartilhadas nas redes sociais mostraram carros submersos, prédios desabados e torrentes de água correndo pelas ruas.

Hospitais na cidade oriental de Bayda foram evacuados após graves inundações causadas por chuvas causadas por uma forte tempestade, conforme mostraram vídeos compartilhados pelo Centro Médico de Bayda no Facebook.

“As Nações Unidas na Líbia acompanham de perto a emergência causada pelas condições meteorológicas severas na região oriental do país”, disse a Missão de Apoio das Nações Unidas na Líbia numa publicação no X, anteriormente chamado de Twitter.

Vários países enviaram as suas condolências e ofereceram ajuda à Líbia enquanto as equipas de resgate lutam para encontrar sobreviventes sob os escombros e escombros.

Aviões turcos que entregam ajuda humanitária chegaram à Líbia, segundo a Autoridade de Gestão de Emergências da Turquia (AFAD) nesta terça-feira (12).

O presidente turco, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, disse que o país enviaria 168 equipes de busca e resgate e ajuda humanitária para Benghazi, segundo a agência de notícias estatal Anadoulu Agency na terça-feira.

A Embaixada dos EUA na Líbia disse no X, que estava em “contato próximo com as Nações Unidas e com as autoridades na Líbia para determinar a rapidez com que podemos levar a assistência onde é mais necessária”.

O presidente dos Emirados Árabes Unidos, Zayed Al Nahyan, ordenou o envio de ajuda e equipes de busca e resgate, ao mesmo tempo que oferece suas condolências às pessoas afetadas pela catástrofe, informou a agência de notícias estatal.

 

Ciclone do RS: nove moradores de Muçum estão desaparecidos, diz governo

 

Destroços de casas atingidas por enchente após passagem de ciclone extratropical, em Muçum (RS) — Foto: REUTERS/Diego Vara

 

Sobe para 46 o número de desaparecidos

https://g1.globo.com/rs/rio-grande-do-sul/noticia/2023/09/08/temporal-no-rs-sobe-para-o-numero-de-desaparecidos.ghtml 

Nove moradores de Muçum, na Região Central do estado, estão desaparecidos após a passagem do ciclone extratropical e as intensas chuvas que atingiram o RS no início da semana. O levantamento foi publicado pela Defesa Civil estadual, na noite de quarta-feira (6).

O número de mortes registradas na cidade foi atualizado, após revisão. Dos 15 óbitos registrados inicialmente, o total foi atualizado para 14. A cidade é a que mais registra mortes após a passagem do ciclone.

Nesta quarta-feira (6), os corpos das vítimas de Muçum e das de Roca Sales foram levados ao Departamento Médico Legal de Porto Alegre, para a identificação.

 

Os nomes dos desaparecidos não foram divulgados pela Defesa Civil. Além da estatística estadual, prefeituras também têm contabilizado relatos de pessoas que não haviam sido encontradas por parentes. Em Estrela, no Vale do Taquari, a prefeitura divulgou nesta quarta uma lista com mais de 30 nomes de pessoas consideradas desaparecidas.

No total, são 37 mortes. Veja abaixo por cidades:

• Cruzeiro do Sul - 3
• Encantado - 1
• Estrela - 2
• Ibiraiaras - 2
• Lajeado - 3
• Mato Castelo - 1
• Muçum - 14
• Passo Fundo - 1
• Roca Sales - 9
• Santa Tereza - 1

 

Com pouco mais de 4,6 mil habitantes, Muçum sofreu de forma severa com os impactos da chuva. Vias foram tomadas pela água que inundou o município. De acordo com as autoridades, mais de 85% da cidade foi atingida pela enchente, incluindo residências, escolas, estabelecimentos comerciais, o hospital e o cemitério. 

 As mortes registradas no Rio Grande do Sul já superam a maior tragédia natural das últimas quatro décadas no estado, quando 16 pessoas morreram em junho. 

 

Floods, Fires and Torrential Rains Further Bedevil Europe

The extreme weather across the continent this summer has destroyed huge amounts of land, forced many to evacuate, and in some cases caused deaths.

Dropping water over a fire in Apesia, southern Cyprus, on Monday.Credit...Philippos Christou/Associated Press

By Emma Bubola Aug. 8, 2023 

Floods, fires and heavy rains have landed more blows across Europe this week, with the authorities on the continent scrambling to respond to the extreme weather that has become increasingly common in the past few years. 

The most recent events have destroyed large amounts of land, left dozens of people injured, forced thousands to evacuate and, in some cases, caused deaths, and they come on the heels of scorching temperatures that have engulfed much of Southern Europe this summer. 

Climate change has made extreme heat a fixture of the warmer months in Europe, but experts say that the continent has failed to significantly adapt to the hotter conditions. Governments in many countries are now struggling to address the devastating effects. 

“The extreme weather conditions across Europe continue to be of concern,” Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “The EU is showing solidarity with all those in need.”

Deadly Floods in Slovenia Heavy rains in recent days have led rivers to overflow across Slovenia in what the authorities there said was the worst natural disaster since the country’s independence in 1991. 

At least six people have died, according to the Slovenian news agency STA, and thousands have been forced to flee their homes to escape the floods. Several countries have tried to help, with France and Germany sending equipment such as prefabricated bridges, and even Ukraine, in the middle of a war with Russia, promising to send a helicopter. A flooded area in the northern Slovenian town of Crna na Koroskem on Sunday.

Entire villages have been left underwater, and huge rivers of mud have filled roads and sports fields and flowed below collapsed bridges, with cars stuck in the debris of landslides caused by the flooding. Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, said she would travel to Slovenia on Wednesday. Floods have also been reported in Austria, Slovenia’s northern neighbor, killing at least one person, according to the Austrian chancellor, Karl Nehammer.

Wildfires in Cyprus, Italy and Portugal Hundreds of firefighters were continuing to battle rural wildfires in Portugal on Tuesday. The blazes have prompted the evacuation of more than a thousand locals and tourists, and several firefighters have been injured while tackling the flames. The risk of fire in the past few days was at the highest level in large parts of the country, with strong winds and temperatures above 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Portugal has struggled with wildfires various times in recent years. Blazes killed more than 60 people in 2017.

A tractor cleaning up land during a wildfire in Aljezur, Portugal, on Monday.Credit...Pedro Nunes/Reuters 

Elsewhere, the European Union has sent firefighting planes to assist with efforts to tackle wildfires burning on Cyprus in recent days; Greece, which has also been plagued by wildfires this summer, has sent liquid flame retardant to the island to help. Israel has also provided aid, including firefighting planes, a crew of four pilots and ground crews. Jordan and Lebanon also sent support. Hundreds of people have also been evacuated on the Italian island of Sardinia, a popular tourism destination, after fires burned across large areas in recent days. 

Torrents in Norway and Sweden Heavy rains have been recorded in the two Nordic countries this month, causing the derailment of a train on Monday that left three people injured in eastern Sweden. The police said that the deluge had undermined the embankment where the accident occurred, causing it to collapse. More downpours were expected in both countries in the coming days. 

The Swedish meteorological and hydrological institute said that the amounts of rain that have fallen were unusually high for August in many locations. “Quite a few places have received more rain in one day than you normally get in the entire month of August,” said Ida Dahlstrom, a meteorologist with the Swedish meteorological institute. She added that the city of Lund, in Southern Sweden, had not received so much rain in one day for more than 160 years. 

The institute issued red alerts — the highest level of flood warning — for some areas of Sweden on Monday night and said that copious amounts of rain forecast in the south of the country could send water in streams and ditches to extremely high levels. The stormy weather has heralded not only heavy rain but also uncharacteristically high temperatures, with the town of Haparanda, in northern Sweden, reaching a balmy 86 on Tuesday, its highest temperature for August since 1969.

A stream overflowed its banks on Tuesday in Gran, Norway. Credit...Stian Lysberg Solum/NTB Scanpix, via Associated Press Christina Anderson contributed reporting. Emma Bubola is a reporter based in London. More about Emma Bubola - Nytimes.com

Nigeria floods: 'Overwhelming' disaster leaves more than 600 people dead

By Ishaq Khalid & Elsa Maishman

BBC News, Abuja & London

Recent flooding in Nigeria has become an "overwhelming" disaster, and many states were not properly prepared for them despite warnings, the minister for disaster management has said.

More than 600 people have died in the worst flooding the West African nation has seen in a decade.

Some 1.3 million people have been displaced, and more than 200,000 homes have been destroyed.

Flooding is expected to continue until the end of November.

Nigeria is used to seasonal flooding, but this year has been significantly worse than usual.

The government has said unusually heavy rains and climate change are to blame.

 The emergency release of excess water from dams both in Nigeria and in neighbouring Cameroon was another key factor causing devastating flooding.

Experts also say poor planning and infrastructure have exacerbated the damage.

Since the flooding began in early summer, large swathes of farmland have been destroyed.

There are concerns about increased spread of disease, and food and fuel supplies have also been disrupted.

In a press conference on Sunday, Nigeria's minister for humanitarian affairs and disaster management, Sadiya Umar Farouk, called on local authorities to evacuate people living in the most high-risk areas.

Authorities are already providing food and other support to those affected, she said.

She added that despite ''concerted efforts'' and early warnings, many state governments "did not prepare" for the flooding.

The disaster has affected 27 of Nigeria's 36 states.

Part of the problem is that people return to their homes on flood plains each year after the water levels subside.

Many do not have the means to relocate.

Nigeria's economy has been battered in the past year, with inflation at an all-time high and many communities struggling to cope.

The World Food Programme and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said last month that Nigeria was among six countries facing a high risk of catastrophic levels of hunger.

Nigeria's meteorological agency has warned that the flooding could continue until the end of November in some states in the south of the country, including Anambra, Delta, Rivers, Cross River and Bayelsa.