Extreme Weather Displaces Far More People Than War — And It's Getting Worse

https://news.vice.com/article/extreme-weather-displaces-far-more-people-than-war-and-its-getting-worse

Experts warned on Thursday that governments need to prepare themselves for a growing and often overwhelming influx of migrants. The displaced won't be fleeing the horrors of the battlefield, they said, but environmental disasters, made more frequent and severe by climate change.

"Natural disasters displace three to 10 times more people than all conflicts and war in the world combined," said Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

In a recent report, NRC found that in 2013 floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters drove 22 million people out of their homes — three times the number of people displaced by war and twice as many as were displaced by extreme weather in the 1970s. The study also found that certain parts of the world were disproportionately affected by disasters: More than 80 percent of those displaced over the last five years lived in Asia.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of an even more dire future, with sea level rise imperiling coastal communities, more frequent, intense typhoons and hurricanes lashing storm-prone regions, and persistent drought disrupting agricultural production and framing-based livelihoods. While agreement among scientists is high that these events will lead to displacement, the IPCC says there's low confidence in quantitative projections because of the complex reasons for human migration.

One of the prominent debates on migration policy is whether or not international law should protect people displaced by environmental disasters.

Alfredo Zamudio, Director of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), a project of NRC, said repeated and prolonged displacement from environmental catastrophe can already be seen all over the world.

"With Typhoon Haiyan thousands of displaced families continue to live in temporary shelters in areas extremely vulnerable to seasonal typhoons and floods," Zamudio told VICE News. "Such people face an ever present risk of entering a cycle of becoming displaced again and again until longer-term, more stable solutions are put in place."

One of the prominent debates on migration policy is whether or not international law should protect people displaced by environmental disasters. Current law protects those displaced on the basis of race, religion, nationality, or because of their social status or political affiliation — not if they've fled from the devastating effects of environmental disasters.

But there has been a push by those like Walter Kalin, who worked on migration issues at the United Nations.

Videos Show Huge Tremors and Utter Devastation After Earthquake in Nepal

https://news.vice.com/article/videos-show-huge-tremors-and-utter-devastation-after-earthquake-in-nepal

Tens of thousands of people in Nepal are now homeless after a massive earthquake rocked the country today, flattening historic sections of Kathmandu and killing more than 1,300 people across four countries in the Himalayan region.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake leveled buildings mostly in the historic section of Kathmandu, including the landmark nine-story Dharahara Tower, which was reduced to rubble with many people still inside. The tower, built in 1832, is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city and one of the most prominent buildings destroyed by Saturday's earthquake. As many as 250 people are thought to have been inside when the quake hit, according to Al Jazeera.

Images of the aftermath posted on social media showed the extent of the destruction across Kathmandu and people attempting to dig through the rubble of collapsed buildings to rescue others. Soon after the quake struck, residents in the capital rushed out into open areas in streets where it was safer away from buildings. A photographer, Kashish Das Shrestha, described the scene in Kathmandu to the New York Times. "Everywhere there are people on the streets, people crying, people stuck in rubble, people trying to help," he said.

The quake hit between Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, and the city of Pokhara, but its shocks were felt as far away as the Pakistani city of Lahore and in New Delhi, India. Nepal sits atop the intersection of tectonic plates, making it susceptible to seismic activity, though the New York Times reported that Saturday's earthquake was the worst to hit the country in more than 80 years.

Nepalese officials confirmed to Reuters that more than 1,300 people were killed in the earthquake, including 36 in India, 12 in Tibet, and four others in Bangladesh. At least 1,341 were killed in Nepal alone, most of which were in the Kathmandu Valley. Officials expect the death toll to rise as more bodies are pulled from collapsed buildings.

Shortly after the earthquake hit, India began sending planes filled with relief supplies to Nepal, which is a poor country with limited resources to respond to this type of emergency disaster. Hospitals have quickly filled up and thousands are preparing to sleep outside tonight in makeshift tents. 

A local resident who lives near the epicenter of the quake described the aftermath to the AP. "Our village has been almost wiped out. Most of the houses are either buried by landslide or damaged by shaking," said Vim Tamang. "All the villagers have gathered in the open area. We don't know what to do. We are feeling helpless."

Despite the Deep Freeze on the US East Coast, This Winter Was the Hottest on Record

It may not make shivering Northeasterners feel any better, but their miserable winter wasn't shared by the rest of the planet.

The three-month stretch from December through February was the warmest on record, the US National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported this week. Average global temperatures were 0.79 degrees Celsius (1.42 Fahrenheit) above the 20th century average, the highest mark since record keeping began in 1880. February's average alone was 0.82 degrees Celsius (1.48 Fahrenheit) above the last century's benchmark, the second highest on record for the month.

While the heavy snowfalls on the US East Coast and even parts of the South got a lot of attention this winter, the American West, Europe, and most of Russia had a warmer-than-average winter. Parts of Siberia saw average temperatures five degrees Celsius (nine Fahrenheit) above normal.

"I had a meeting over in London — it was in mid-February — and people there were saying, 'Oh, what a nice, early spring,' " Donald Wuebbles, a University of Illinois atmospheric science professor and co-author of last year's National Climate Report, told VICE News.

The latest figures "are a nice indication that things are continuing to happen," Wuebbles said. But he added: "It's only one indicator of the many things happening in the Earth's climate system that we expect to continue."Scientists expect that the increasing global temperatures — up an average of about 0.8 degree Celsius (1.4 Fahrenheit) since 1880, and forecast to rise at least two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) by 2100 — will bring more extreme storms and droughts and an increase in global sea levels, with consequences falling disproportionately on the world's poor.

"We're seeing an ever-increasing tendency toward more severe weather," Wuebbles said. "We're getting more severe precipitation ... That's the real harm — that, and sea-level rise."

A long-awaited but weak El Nino, the periodic wave of Pacific Ocean warmth, finally emerged in February. That may bring some hope of rainfall to drought-wracked California, where officials announced new water restrictions this week after a disappointingly dry winter.

But a warmer ocean could also mean more intense tropical cyclones like the one that smashed into the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu this month. Scientists say they can't hang any specific storm on climate change — but warmer temperatures load the dice toward more extreme events.

And after global temperatures edged out a previous high to make 2014 the warmest year on record, the first two months of 2015 were also the warmest January-February period on the books. While the Great Lakes, northeastern Canada and the far northern Atlantic saw record lows, record highs stood out across the western US, the western Atlantic Ocean, and southwestern Pacific.

https://news.vice.com/article/despite-the-deep-freeze-on-the-us-east-coast-this-winter-was-the-hottest-on-record

It Was Warmer in Antarctica Than in New York City Last Week — and That's Not Even the Bad News

If you lived in the many parts of the United States and Europe last week and were in need of a reprieve from persistent, frigid temperatures, you would have found relief in the most unlikely of places.

Part of Antarctica hit a record high of 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit last Tuesday, the hottest ever reported, according to the climate monitor OGIMET.

By comparison, Washington DC was 46 degrees, New York City reached 45 degrees, and the temperature in London topped 50 degrees.

While scientists warn not to draw conclusions from a single weather event, the temperature record hues closely to more alarming, long-term trends in the southern continent.

Antarctica's floating ice shelves have recently decreased by as much as 18 percent in some spots over the last 18 years, says a new study, published in the journal Science. As the oceans have warmed, they've spurred more of the frozen mass to become water, researcher Fernando Paolo told VICE News.

"There is evidence that the amount of warm ocean water reaching the ice shelves has increased, so more warm water under these is causing the melt," Paolo, a PhD candidate with UC San Diego's Scripps Institute of Oceanography, told VICE News. "And there is a lag in the response time of the environment. So, even if conditions changed now, 20 years from now the environment will still be reacting this way."And the findings indicate that sea levels are certain to continue rising, Doug Martinson, a professor with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, told VICE News.

"You could stop global warming tomorrow but that doesn't matter from this perspective because there's already so much heat stored in the ocean, it'll keep coming up and melting the ice," Martinson, who was not involved in Paolo's study, told VICE News.

The study, which advanced previous research on Antarctica's ice mass, compiled 18 years of continuous data starting in 1994, and found that the bulk of melt occurred between 2003 and 2012, Paolo noted.

"We could see there was an acceleration of loss," Paolo said of the ice mass. "Another important thing we were able to see was that some of the ice shelves have a large fluctuation of gain and loss in volume over time. So, if you look at a shorter period, you won't see the trend."

Air temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula — where the record high was documented last week — have been found to further affect ice melt there, Paolo said, so such steamy weather could certainly cause more reason for concern.

https://news.vice.com/article/it-was-warmer-in-antarctica-than-in-new-york-city-last-week-and-thats-not-even-the-bad-news

Footage Shows Wildfires Engulfing Siberian Towns

Amid high temperatures and strong winds, wildfires ripped across Siberia earlier this week and scientists suspect climate change may have helped fan the flames. 

The fires killed at least 26 people, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The BBC reports that thousands of others were displace by the flames. 

Temperatures hit 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday, according to AFP. Climate change increases the frequency of unusually hot, dry days, which boosts the risk of wildfires, Melissa Chipman, a University of Illinois ecologist, told VICE News. 

"It's not just, 'Is it going to get warmer; are there going to be more fires?' It's, 'Are there going to be more extreme days, extreme weeks, that are going to facilitate these fires?'" she said. "It seems like it was facilitated by anomalously warm and dry conditions during a season when you usually don't get them."Scenes of Russian motorists driving along highways engulfed by flames could become a more common fixture in the years ahead, said Chipman.

"The extreme conditions are really what facilitated the fire," she told VICE News. "As these extreme conditions become more likely in the future, then that's really what can facilitate the burning."

https://news.vice.com/article/footage-shows-wildfires-engulfing-siberian-towns

Brush Fire and Winds Create Tense Moments in Miami-Dade County

A tense evening in Miami-Dade County, Florida, as high winds and high temperatures create unstable conditions around a brush fire. The Grand Lake Fire started Sunday in West Kendall, a Miami suburb. The fire originally calmed overnight, but hot spots picked up again Monday, according to the Miami Herald. By Monday, the fire had grown to 1,000 acres, WTVJ reports.

Monday’s weather was not working in firefighters’ favor, with temperatures in the high-80s and low-90s, and winds gusting up to 26 mph at times, weather.com meteorologist Linda Lam said.

"Our worst enemy at this point are high winds," Miami-Dade Fire spokesman Arnold Piedrahita told WTVJ. "It can kick up this fire and flare up at any time now."

As many as 10 structures were threatened, including the Lincoln Marti Daycare, CBS Miami reports. The 25 students were moved to another school.  The Pit Bar-B-Q restaurant on SW 8th street were also told to leave the business as a precaution. Florida Forest Service said it was 50 percent contained.

http://www.weather.com/news/news/miami-dade-florida-brush-fire

Thursday Recap: Destructive Illinois Tornado Kills at Least Two; 15 Severe Weather Watches Issued

• NOAA's Storm Prediction Center relayed nearly 400 reports of severe weather Thursday and Thursday night, including nearly 200 reports of strong or damaging thunderstorm winds and more than 170 reports of large hail.

• SPC issued seven tornado watches and eight severe thunderstorm watches Thursday and Thursday night – by far the most so far in 2015.

• Late Thursday evening, the Illinois Office of Emergency Management said one person was killed in Fairdale, a small DeKalb County hamlet that took a direct hit. (The death toll rose to two on Friday.) Three people were injured in DeKalb County and four more in neighboring Ogle County, where a restaurant collapsed north of Rochelle. Rescue crews continue to sift through debris.

• A large, long-track tornado began near Ashton, Illinois, around 6:40 p.m. CDT Thursday. It crossed Interstate 39 several miles north of Rochelle, Illinois, shortly after 7 p.m. CDT. The tornado was broadcast live on The Weather Channel. Fairdale was hit shortly afterward. The parent storm continued to spawn a tornado – possibly the same tornado – all the way northeast into McHenry County in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago, where it was sighted near Marengo and Harvard before eventually weakening and dissipating as it approached the Wisconsin border.

• In North Carolina, lightning killed a man in the parking lot of a shopping center near Cary as strong to severe thunderstorms moved through Thursday evening.

• A tornado was spotted near Donahue, Iowa, at 5:17 p.m. CDT. Tornadoes were later spotted near DeWitt and Clinton, Iowa, from the same supercell thunderstorm. These communities are just north of Davenport, Iowa.

• A tornado was also sighted in Walbridge, Ohio, near Toledo, Thursday evening.

• Thursday's first tornado was reported at 1:32 p.m. just north of Peoria, Illinois. The same storm prompted another report of a brief ropelike tornado near Rome, Illinois, a few minutes later.

http://www.weather.com/storms/tornado/news/tornado-severe-threat-chicago-illinois-missouri-indiana-ohio-april-9-2015

Vanuatu Residents Running Out of Food Amid Devastation of Cyclone Pam

Knowing that some citizens are running out of food and water, relief workers were desperately trying to reach some of Vanuatu's most remote and devastated islands days after Cyclone Pam ripped through the South Pacific nation.

The storm that killed at least 11 people cut off the southern Vanuatu island of Tanna from the rest of the world, severing communication lines, according to Reuters. Tanna suffered a direct hit from Pam, and the island of 29,000 people suffered major damage, the report added.

"Everyone in Tanna and other islands in the south, they really live subsistence lives, so they grow what they need for a short period. ... And the reality is that much of that would have been washed away by this storm," said Tom Perry, spokesman for CARE Australia. "That's a grave concern because we desperately need to get food to people soon."

Aid workers believe casualties on the island were minimal, as most residents sheltered in sturdy churches and public buildings, but with no connection to the outside world, the people are beginning to run out of necessary supplies, food and water. "Tropical Cyclone Pam left massive humanitarian needs across Vanuatu and we are doing our best to respond as quickly as we can," said Aurélia Balpe, regional head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

To the northwest, residents on the small island of Moso have grown even more desperate after running out of supplies. Some have been forced to drink salt water to stay alive due to Pam's desolation, BBC reported. A pilot who flew over the island said it appeared as if the landscape had been wiped out, similar to a massive bush fire, the report added.

Tens of thousands have been left homeless by the large cyclone, creating an urgent need for shelter, BBC also said. And even though Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila, suffered damage to an estimated 90 percent of its buildings, the destruction is far worse in the outlying islands, officials say.

http://www.weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/vanuatu-cyclone-pam-food-water-shortage

A Tropical Storm in April? It's Not Unheard Of

The Atlantic hurricane season officially stretches from June through November. However, one tropical storm this century flared up in the Atlantic basin in late April. On April 20, 2003, Tropical Storm Ana became the only tropical storm on record to form in the Atlantic basin in April.

That early in the calendar, "April Ana" didn't form from a tropical wave coming off west Africa. It formed as an area of low pressure aloft spinning near an old surface frontal boundary about 250 miles west of Bermuda. Eventually, thunderstorms began clustering near the surface low, warming and moistening the low-mid levels of the atmosphere sufficiently enough for the National Hurricane Center to classify the storm as Subtropical Storm Ana during the early-morning hours of April 20.

Based on microwave satellite imagery, it was estimated Ana became the first April Atlantic tropical storm of record later on April 20, when it exhibited enough consolidated thunderstorms near the center.

Dr. Rick Knabb, current director of the National Hurricane Center, goes into much greater detail on this process in the case of Hurricane Gustav in September 2002. But Ana was deadly, at least indirectly. Two people drowned after a boat capsized in high surf generated in part by Ana near Jupiter Inlet, Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center's final report.

While Ana remains the only April Atlantic tropical storm in records dating to 1851, an April 1992 subtropical storm was found in post-analysis by the National Hurricane Center.

Since it was not classified as such at the time, a later hurricane that year, Hurricane Andrew, got the "A" name in 1992.

http://www.weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/april-tropical-storm-ana-2003

Child swept away by floodwaters; severe weather smacks Mid-South

(CNN) -- As heavy rains raked the Mid-South on Thursday, authorities in Tennessee searched for a 6-year-old boy swept away by floodwaters.

Jeremy Heidt of Tennessee Emergency Management said a family of four was stuck in high water in Hickman County. When they got out of their vehicle, the rushing water swept the boy away, he said.

Three people died in Tennessee and Arkansas on Thursday in weather-related incidents.

In Lawrence County, a 72-year-old man died when he tried to drive across a flooded road and his car was swept downstream and submerged, the Tennessee Highway Patrol said.

In Jonesboro, Arkansas, a 74-year-old retired police officer was killed when a tree fell on his house, reported CNN affiliate WMC.

In Black Rock, Arkansas, a tree fell on a van and killed a woman inside, said Brandon Morris of the state emergency management agency.More bad weather is expected Friday in Memphis, with the National Weather Service predicting a 70% chance of precipitation and up to 2 inches of rain. There's a 60% chance in Birmingham, Alabama.

CNN meteorologist Sherri Pugh said severe weather could last until Saturday in the South and Great Plains, with heavy rain, hail, damaging wind and flash flooding possible. Isolated tornadoes are possible, too.

In parts of Nebraska, people were cleaning up from the hailstorms that struck on Tuesday.

As expected, bargain hunters flocked to Woodhouse Family Auto in Blair to buy some of the 4,300 cars damaged by hail, reported CNN affiliate KPTM. The hail smashed car windshields and dented the bodies. Dealership officials estimated the damage at $162 million.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/05/us/severe-weather/index.html#em3

Tropical Cyclone Pam

Tropical Cyclone Pam Pummels Pacific Islands

By Jack Gilbert

March 14, 2015

Cyclone Pam slammed into the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu Friday night, causing massive devastation and killing at least six people so far, according to UNICEF.

The Category 5 storm is the most destructive to hit the region in years and "could potentially be one of the worst in Pacific history," said New Zealand UNICEF Executive Director Vivien Maidaborn in a statement. Shortly after the storm made landfall, the Australian Red Cross issued an emergency appeal to provide humanitarian assistance to the residents of Vanatu. The aid group reported "unbelievable destruction" in Port Vila, saying on Twitter that most of the houses in the capital have been damaged or destroyed and tens of thousands of people are now homeless. Exact estimates of the damage are slow to surface outside of the capital because communications and power have been cut throughout most of the country. Other reports indicate that dozens are feared dead and entire villages have been swept away by the storm.

"Unfortunately, the more that comes out, the worse it looks," Sune Gudnitz, a spokesman for U.N. aid agency OCHA told CNN. "I should say it's really a case of the worst-case scenario for the country and for the people."

Gusts of winds as high as 200 miles-per-hour blew in late Friday night and toppled buildings and trees. Driving around the island of Efate, which is home to the capital, aid worker Chloe Morrison said "Port Vila looks like looks like an absolute bomb has hit it," according to CNN.

The storm also hit nearby Pacific island countries of Tuvalu and Kiribati, causing massive flooding and destroying homes.

https://news.vice.com/article/tropical-cyclone-pam-pummels-pacific-islands

Asking if Cyclone Pam Was Caused by Climate Change Is the Wrong Question, Say Scientists

Asking if Cyclone Pam Was Caused by Climate Change Is the Wrong Question, Say Scientists

By Laura Dattaro

March 17, 2015 

When Cyclone Pam ripped through the South Pacific on Saturday morning, it not only left behind a trail of destruction on the 83-island nation of Vanuatu. In the storm's wake, political leaders around the world have used the event as an opportunity to highlight the need to address climate change and help poor, low-lying nations to adapt to rising seas and more severe weather extremes.

Vanuatu's president Baldwin Lonsdale wasted little time in identifying the culprit behind his country's acute humanitarian disaster, which has left at least 24 people dead and left some islands without freshwater supplies.

"We see the level of sea rise. … The cyclone seasons, the warm, the rain, all this is affected," Lonsdale said. "Yes, climate change is contributing to this.”

Wind speeds during the cyclone reached 186 miles per hour, earning Pam a Category 5 classification — the highest level.

The exact impact of climate change on cyclones in the South Pacific remains uncertain. But scientists say that warming ocean temperatures are likely boosting storm intensity.

"We've really altered the atmosphere, we've altered the radiative balance, I'm sure we've altered these storms," Andrew Dessler, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University, told VICE News. "Is it one mile per hour faster winds or 30 mile per hour faster winds? At present, that's not available.""An individual event is more difficult to ascribe or attribute to climate change, but when you step back and look at the how the probability of these events is changing, that's a much stronger argument," James Kossin, a tropical cyclone specialist with NOAA, told VICE News. "These events are consistent with what we expect with climate change, and the probability of this type of event will likely increase."

https://news.vice.com/article/asking-if-cyclone-pam-was-caused-by-climate-change-is-the-wrong-question-say-scientists

Can't we wish this winter weather away?

By Mariano Castillo, CNN

Updated 10:02 PM ET, Tue February 17, 2015

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/17/us/winter-weather/index.html

Less than two months into the year, the winter storms could cost the nation $1 billion to $2 billion, according to Planalytics, a weather research firm for businesses.

The city of Boston reports that it has spent more than $30 million on snow removal alone.

At least six deaths have been blamed on the latest winter storms.

A New York City woman was found dead in a New Hampshire hiking area on Monday, according to the state's fish and game department.

The woman, 32-year-old Kate Matrosova, appeared to have died of exposure to the extreme cold, the agency said.

Over the weekend, a man in Boston died after suffering a heart attack while shoveling snow, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said.

Authorities in the Northeast are looking at two additional deaths as possible weather-related cases.

In North Carolina, where 100 out of 115 school districts were closed Tuesday, there was one weather-related death, Gov. Pat McCrory said.

A 19-year-old woman lost control of her vehicle and crashed in the northeastern part of the state, the governor said. "Do not go out on the roads if you don't need to go out on the roads, because it's still very dangerous," McCrory said.

Frozen Hudson River

At least 23 people died across U.S. this week due to winter weather

At least 23 people died across U.S. this week due to winter weather

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/20/us/winter-weather-deaths/index.html

By Ralph Ellis, CNN

Updated 9:13 PM ET, Fri February 20, 2015

CNN)At least 23 people have died this week in the United States due to winter weather, CNN has confirmed. A majority of the deaths --18 -- occurred in Tennessee.

Three of those people died in a fire in Knox County, Tennessee emergency management officials said. Family members said a man, woman and their adult son died in the fire, according to CNN affiliate WATE. Firefighters said they had difficulty reaching them because the second level of the house collapsed onto the lower level, WATE reported.

Other people in Tennessee died from hypothermia and in auto accidents, WATE said, and a dialysis patient died after he was unable to get treatment because of weather.

More than 2,700 people are without power as more severe cold, freezing rain and snow are predicted for the next few days, Tennessee officials said.

Dangerously cold conditions continue to grip a large part of the Eastern United States, CNN meteorologists said, with more than 125 million Americans under a wind chill warning or advisory. Wind chills will go as low as 40 below zero in some places.

Snow, sleet, and freezing rain will spread over the mid-South and into the mid-Atlantic over the next couple of days. Ice storm warnings are in effect for Nashville, where heavy ice accumulation could again cause widespread power outages.

Winter storm warnings again cover much of Kentucky, which saw as much as 15 inches from the last storm. More heavy snow is predicted for Louisville and Cincinnati. The storm will spread up the East Coast this weekend.

Dog, Ajax, prancing through streets in Kentucky on February 16.

Australia Is Facing an Intense Mosquito Season Due to Erratic Weather

Australia Is Facing an Intense Mosquito Season

February 08, 2013

By Emma Do 

Erratic weather patterns in Australia have caused a boom in mosquito populations, and it's a problem that extends past just being frustrating at barbecues. The increase has driven a rise in bloodsucker-borne diseases, some of which are pretty terrible.

New South Wales has already experienced a dramatic spike in Ross River disease, a virus spread by mosquitoes that causes skin rashes, prolonged joint swelling, fatigue, and muscle ache. Meanwhile, Brisbane recently took on its biggest mosquito reduction measure in 15 years, proof that officials are taking the threat seriously.

A warmer than average spring in NSW last year is believed to be the main factor behind the rise. The mosquito monitoring program reported an earlier start to the mosquito season in 2014, finding sizeable populations in October, a month earlier than usual. While not all mosquitoes carry disease, the longer the season is, the higher the chance of mosquitoes picking them up.

Last week, Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Bureau of Meteorology released a report basically stating that Australia would be hardest hit by climate change by the end of the 21st century. Along with the usual predictions for devastating weather events and temperature rises, scientists believe prolonged mosquito seasons will make these kinds of viruses even more prevalent. However, climate change effects on mosquitoes are about as predictable as tropical cyclones. Stephen explains the overall conditions could be drier, which may have a reverse effect. "The drier conditions may reduce mosquito numbers in certain areas," he said. "But funny enough, the Saltmarsh mosquito prefers drier conditions so we may see an increase in those. All we can say is that we expect to see change."

In Queensland, Brisbane residents are experiencing an intense mosquito season. Since major storms and heavy rainfall in November last year, the city council has sprayed 4400 hectares of public land in an effort to reduce virus-carrying saltmarsh mosquitoes. Mike Muller, medical entomologist for Brisbane City Council told VICE that numbers are exceptionally high at the moment. "In early November we had the first really big tide of the season and that was enough to hatch dormant eggs in marshes that could have been there for months," he said. "They're the worst pests because they're so mobile. They can travel up to five kilometers.”

Why Is It So Cold?

November 19, 2014

by Arielle Pardes

Assistant Editor

http://www.vice.com/read/people-are-freezing-to-death-and-its-your-fault-119

The northeast corner of the United States is currently going through a real-life version of the movie Frozen, except not uplifting: Homes are iced over, enormous snow walls have  trapped people inside Walmarts, and the region is experiencing what the  Weather Channel called "one of the longest sub-freezing spells on record for the month of November." It's so cold outside that people are dying—as of today, one in  New Hampshire, one in  Michigan, and at least  five in New York.

And it doesn't appear to be relenting, either.  Washington DC announced a weather emergency yesterday in anticipation of even colder temperatures. In Buffalo, which set an all-time, nationwide record for snowfall in a 24-hour period this month, people are posting photos of their doors sealed shut by snow. Casper, Wyoming, broke a record with a temperature of minus 27 degrees on Wednesday.

So why is all this happening? I asked Dr. Jin-Ho Yoon, a climate scientist at the Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, what was causing all of the extreme cold weather. He said climate change might be to blame for at least some of it.

The big question here is whether this extreme weather is manmade, and Yoon said that it's hard to say for sure. Since there's so much variability in the climate, there's no way to definitively say which weather events are the result of human interference and which are the result of wholly natural causes. And, Yoon adds, there hasn't been enough scientific research about extreme cold fronts to make a strong argument about their possible connect to climate change.

"There are two potential causes: One is that the reduction of the Arctic sea ice can amplify the polar vortex," he said. In other words, as the sea ice melts, freezing-cold air escapes from the Arctic and travels elsewhere. Yoon co-authored a  recent study on the subject that pointed out that many of these cold spells tend to happen just after sea levels drop in the Arctic.

When you look at the  forecast on NOAA—the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—it actually looks as though the northeastern United States is poised to be warmer than average this winter.

Vice is an innovative and new-aged news broadcasting company. This article really shocked me because they're saying climate change is not yet for sure all caused by humans and the increase of human activity contributing to global warming and climate change is still not for sure. I definitely disagree with this article because there has been sufficient research and scientific data regarding the impacts which humans have on the climate and quality of air. Vice, you've let me down.

How Climate Change Will Be a Disaster for Australia

How Climate Change Will Be a Disaster for Australia

January 30, 2015

by Denham Sadler

http://www.vice.com/read/climate-change-is-screwing-australia-hardest-of-all

This week Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology released what they're calling their most comprehensive projections to date on how climate change will effect Australia by the end of the 21st century. Unsurprisingly it's not light reading. Australia is to be hit harder by climate change than any other country, and the CSIRO is "confident" that temperatures will increase, sea levels will rise, oceans will become more acidic, and snow depths will decline.

The most worrying aspect of the report is the prediction that temperatures in Australia could increase by more than five degrees Celsius by 2090, the highest predicted rise of any countries.

Compounding this are two reports there will be "more occurrences of devastating weather events," as well as "more frequent swings of opposite extremes from one year to the next." Dr. Wenju Cai, the chief writer of the report, says will all have "profound socioeconomic consequences.”

He predicts that extreme El Nino and La Nina events—which are often associated with bushfires, droughts, and flooding in Australia—will happen once every 13 years rather than the current rate of once of every 23 years. (One example of a La Nina event is the 2011 the Queensland floods that killed 38 people and cost the economy an estimated $30 billion.) "It's a double whammy," Dr. Cai says. "It may be droughts one year, and then the next year there's no relief because there'll be flooding and extreme rain.”

But with a change this big, it needs to happen at a massive level. "We have to have national policies, such as carbon pricing systems of some type, a renewable energy target and we need a continuity of policies," he says.

Steffen says that despite the seemingly disastrous nature of these reports for Australia, there is widespread acknowledgement that action must be taken, and many are already starting to act. We just better hope it's in time.

Californian Drought, Four Years Strong

California Likely Headed Into Fourth Year Of Drought As State Suffers One Of Driest Januarys On Record

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES, Feb 1 (Reuters) - California has experienced one of the driest Januarys on record, and the lack of rain during a time of year when the weather is usually wet indicates the state is likely headed for a fourth straight year of drought, officials said.

A prolonged drought could portend further economic and environmental setbacks for the nation's most populous state, which has already lost both crops and jobs to the dry weather.

The state's driest January on record was in 1984, when the 30-day average precipitation in the state reached 0.33 of an inch (0.84 cm), under one method used to gauge rainfall statewide, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Mathews.

With the official measurement of this January's rainfall coming within a few days, it is shaping up to be the fourth driest January on record in the state, Mathews said.

The low rainfall combined with warmer-than-average temperatures have resulted in a meager snow pack, the California Department of Water Resources said in a statement.

Northern California's Lake Oroville, which is the State Water Project's principal reservoir with a capacity of 3.5 million acre feet (432,000 hectare meters), stands at about 60 percent of the average for this date, officials said.

Sacramento recorded only 0.01 of an inch (0.03 cm) of rain in January, the lowest since record-keeping began in 1877, the Sacramento office of the Weather Service said on Facebook. Stockton and Modesto also set records for the month, it said.

This drought not only effects Californians and surrounding states, but also the rest of the United States. This is because Californian crops being diminished due to lack of water, resulting in a loss of agricultural economic growth, or even balance. California is home to many types of produce items which are sold throughout the country. Without water and adequate soil for crops to grow, people are losing jobs and the Californian economy is weakening.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/01/california-drought_n_6589316.html?utm_hp_ref=extreme-weather

Floods and Displacement in Mozambique

As Waters Recede, Devastation and Displacement in Mozambique after Worst Floods in 44 Years

Three weeks have passed since relentless rainfall unleashed the worst flooding in Mozambique's Licungo River basin since 1971. Since the Government of Mozambique declared a red alert on January 12, an estimated 157,000 people have been affected, the vast majority of whom are in Zambezia province.

"Forty-four years have passed here without this level of flooding," says Gilbeiro Ononade, emergency coordinator for Concern Worldwide in Mozambique. "That is why they built their houses on the river, where they could easily fish and plant their crops in fertile soil. They lost everything--food, clothes, houses.”

This year, the floods happened instantly and without warning, due to rains in Mozambique, as well as further upstream in Malawi, where rivers swelled and came barreling into Mozambique on the way to the Indian Ocean. "In some areas, the water was 12 meters above the normal level," says Ononade.

The floods wreaked havoc on infrastructure along the Licungo River. The destruction to roads and bridges left 70 percent of the province completely unreachable by land, making delivering relief items extremely difficult. Concern Worldwide, which has worked in Mozambique since 1987, has teams traveling by helicopter, boat, and truck to reach communities across Zambezia

More rains are also expected in the coming weeks, which has made many apprehensive to rebuild for fear they would lose yet another home to the floods. Even after the rains stop, the choice for families about where to settle is difficult: return to the land they have always called home or settle on higher ground where they will be safe from future 

floods?

Lordes Fernando, 42, and two of her three children, Lavinha (right), 10, and Lavinho (left), 2, sit on the ground where they have been sleeping after floods destroyed their home.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/crystal-wells/as-waters-recede-devastat_b_6618332.html?utm_hp_ref=extreme-weather

The Midwest and Northeast dig out from latest winter storm and record snowfall

Bean Town set a new record for snowiest seven-day period in the city's history with 40.2 inches, the National Weather Service reported. Boston's average annual snowfall is 47 inches. The city has already gotten more than that over the last two weeks.

Authorities say at least 10 people across the region have died because of the storm. 

In Weymouth, Massachusetts, on Monday, a 57-year old pedestrian died after she was struck by a snowplow. The accident occurred at a condominium complex, and the incident is under investigation.

Two people died in car accidents in Nebraska as a result of slippery roads Sunday. The deaths occurred in Saunders and Lancaster counties, authorities said. In Ohio, Toledo Police Officer Michael Greenwood died while shoveling snow at home Sunday, a police spokesman said.

The six other deaths are one in Michigan, two in New York, two in Wisconsin and one in Pennsylvania.

Some parts of Chicago reached over 19 inches due to the storm. Many schools and businesses were closed from the record-setting storm which has been recorded to be the fifth biggest storm in Chicago's’ history since we’ve taken record. 

More snow in Boston has fallen in seven days than in any other week on record.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/03/us/weather/index.html