Our climate really IS getting stormier

Rainstorms really are getting worse. Examining how the UK's weather has changed, the Met Office concluded that heavy downpours were 17% more common in the decade from 2008 to 2017 than they had been between 1961 and 1990.

It also says that our climate is warming up, with hot spells lasting twice as long as they did between 1961 and 1990, and our hottest days nearly a degree warmer than they used to be, while our coldest days are more than a degree and a half milder than between 1961 and 1990. And the number of 'tropical nights' when the temperature never gets below 20 degC (68F) is going up too.

A stormier climate is precisely what scientists have been saying global warming would cause, and the United Nations is now calling for 'unprecedented' action across the world to slash carbon emissions to zero by 2050, and stop the temperature rising more than 1.5 degC above pre-industrial levels.

For more on how climate change affects storms, as well as the history of storms, the role they have played in religion, art, films and literature, plus the methods people have used to try to tame them, see my book Storm: Nature and Culture (Reaktion). https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Nature-Culture-John-Withington/dp/1780236611

Cold kills dozens in India

We tend to think of excessive heat as the main weather hazard in India, but every winter, people die of the cold.    This year the death toll is believed to have passed 170.

Most of the victims – at least 114 - have been in Uttar Pradesh, with others in Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand.    As usual, the old and the homeless are most at risk, with many of the dead found in parks or on the street.  

Last week, Delhi had its coldest day for 44 years.   Night shelters in the city are overcrowded, and those who cannot get in, have been lighting fires in the street to try to keep warm.

Meanwhile in the Ukraine, at least 37 people have perished from the cold.   (See also my blogs of 4 January, 2010 and 3 January, 2011.)

*Canadian review of new paperback edition of my book Disaster! - http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/51986

Indian cold + reminder

Every year, in India, hundreds of people die in summer from the extreme heat. Then in the winter, the poor and the homeless perish from the extreme cold. So far this winter, the toll is said to be at least two dozen.

Particularly badly hit have been Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, while in Delhi temperatures have gone down to almost -8C, and at Leh in Kashmir, the thermometer had dipped to -23. Homeless people have taken to gathering around street fires to keep warm, and night shelters for the poor are overflowing.

Last winter up to 100 people died from the cold, with most victims coming from Uttar Pradesh. (See my blog of Jan 4, 2010.)

*A reminder that I’m giving a free talk on London's Disasters at Shoe Lane Library, 1, Little New Street, London EC4A 3JR tomorrow (January 4) at 1230.