World Sees Rapid Upsurge In Extreme Weather: Report
Umer Jamshaid Published March 22, 2018 | 12:35 AM
Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Mar, 2018 ) :A world addled by climate change has seen a four-fold increase in major flooding events since 1980, and a doubling of significant storms, droughts and heat waves, Europe's national science academies jointly reported Wednesday.
In Europe, where precise data reaches back decades, the number of severe floods has jumped five fold since 1995, according to the report, which updates a 2013 assessment. "There has been, and continues to be, a significant increase in the frequency of extreme weather events," said Michael Norton, environmental programme director for the European Academies' Science Advisory Council.
"They underline the importance of avoiding greenhouse gases, which are fundamentally responsible for driving these changes," he told AFP. For impacts that cannot be avoided, he added, "this makes climate proofing all the more urgent." In the United States, the damage wrought by storms doubled, on average, from $10 billion in 1980 to $20 billion in 2015, adjusted for inflation, according to the report, based in part on data from insurance giant Munich Re's NatCatSERVICE.
The update also assessed new findings on possible changes in the Gulf Stream, powerful ocean currents running between the Arctic region and the Caribbean that warm the air in northwestern Europe and the US eastern seaboard.
The weakening of the Gulf Stream "is now a credible hypothesis," said Norton. "Some of the underlying drivers of extreme weather which were speculative four years ago are looking less speculative.
" - Climate 'hotspots' - The prospect of the Gulf Stream -- also known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) -- slowing, or even shutting down entirely, "must be taken as a serious possibility," he added.
Scientists have estimated that winters in Britain and much of western Europe would be several degrees Celsius colder under such a scenario. The study also examined recent disruptions of the polar Jet Stream, a band of west-to-east winds that circulate at bullet-train speed some 10 kilometres above Earth's surface at the upper boundary of the troposphere.
Recent research has linked severe winters in North America and Europe, as well some extreme summer weather, to Jet Stream fluctuations possibly driven by global warming in the Arctic, where temperatures have risen twice as fast as for the planet as a whole.
A 2016 study in Climatic Change forecast that, by mid-century, pockets of southern Europe will face at least one severe climate hazard every year of the scale now occurring only once every 100 years.
By 2100, according to these predictions, Europe's entire Mediterranean seaboard will be confronted annually with extreme droughts, coastal floods or heatwaves. And a few "hotspots" will be hit every year by two or more such formerly once-in-hundred-years hazards, which also include wildfires, river floods and windstorms.
Related Topics
Recent Stories
Tennis: ATP Barcelona Open results - 1st update
Swiatek's perfect 10 in Stuttgart as Vondrousova stuns Sabalenka
Arandu's roads closed due to flooding
Oil tanker catches fire in Islamabad’s Blue Area
Pakistan committed to ensure safety of foreign nationals: FO
Tennis: WTA Stuttgart results - 1st update
Four passengers injured as train hit an empty vehicle
Over- speeding bus crushed to death two bike riders
Turkey's Freedom Flotilla ready to set sail for Gaza
French teen dies from heart failure after knife attack near school
Iranians appear unfazed by Isfahan blasts
UAF celebrates Int'l Chinese Language Day
More Stories From World
-
Togo lawmakers approve contested political reform
5 hours ago -
NATO must choose 'whether we indeed are allies': Zelensky
5 hours ago -
US House to vote on Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan aid package
5 hours ago -
Calls for calm after reported Israeli strike on Iran
6 hours ago -
IMF calls on EU to deepen single market integration to boost growth
6 hours ago -
Second Ecuadoran mayor killed ahead of anti-crime referendum: police
6 hours ago
-
Oil, gas drilling blocked in Alaska wilds as Biden seeks green cred
7 hours ago -
Man sets self on fire outside Trump trial
7 hours ago -
Turkey's Freedom Flotilla ready to set sail for Gaza
8 hours ago -
French teen dies from heart failure after knife attack near school
8 hours ago -
Iranians appear unfazed by Isfahan blasts
8 hours ago -
Ecuador mayor killed ahead of anti-crime referendum: police
8 hours ago