Extreme weather news and discussion

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France, Britain hit by record winds of Storm Ciaran
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20231 ... orm-ciaran

Storm Ciaran battered northern France with record winds of nearly 200 km per hour killing a lorry driver as southern England remained on high alert Thursday and rail operators in several countries warned of traffic disruptions.

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As Extreme Weather Increasingly Threatens U.S. Crops, Study Finds Taxpayers Pay the Price
Brittney J. Miller
November 2, 2023

Introduction:

(Investigate Midwest) Crop insurance payouts surpassed $118 billion between 2001 and 2022 nationally for damage caused by extreme weather like drought, heat and floods. The report, released this week by the advocacy organization Environmental Working Group, points to climate change’s increasing impacts to agriculture.

The findings follow a tumultuous growing season, wrought with extreme drought ravaging the Midwest and much of the surrounding Mississippi River basin. Dry conditions are often bookended by increased precipitation and flooding — a trend the basin may see more of due to climate change. As harvests draw to a close, many farmers will look to the federal government for support.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees the federal crop insurance program, a public-private partnership that offers farmers financial protection against crop losses or revenue declines. Farmers pay premiums to get insured, of which taxpayers subsidize around two-thirds on average. Producers are then paid indemnities to recoup their losses.

Causes of crop loss include disease, drops in crop prices and adverse weather conditions. Over the last two decades, the top five weather-related causes of crop loss were drought, excess moisture and precipitation, hail, heat and freeze, found EWG report author and Midwest director Anne Schechinger, who is also an agricultural economist.

“These payments have already increased over time, in part due to climate change,” Schechinger said. “And we know that the climate crisis is going to lead to larger payments in the future.”

Another point made in the article is that insurance may discourage farmers from adapting to climate change.

Read more here: https://investigatemidwest.org/2023/11 ... he-price/

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Future Floods: Global Warming Intensifies Heavy Rain – Even More Than Expected
November 27, 2023

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) “Our study confirms that the intensity and frequency of heavy rainfall extremes are increasing exponentially with every increment of global warming,” explains Max Kotz, lead-author of the study published in the Journal of Climate. These changes follow the physical theory of the classic Clausius-Clapeyron relation of 1834, which established that warmer air can hold more water vapour. ”State-of-the-art climate models vary on how strongly extreme rainfall scales with global warming and that they underestimate it compared to historical observations.”

“Climate impacts on society have been calculated using climate models. Now our findings suggest that these impacts could be much worse than we thought. Extreme rainfall will be heavier and more frequent. Society needs to be prepared for this,” says PIK (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) department head and author of the study Anders Levermann. Changes in the frequency and intensity of daily rainfall extremes over land can impact social welfare, the economy and social stability, given their link to flooding but also ground-water availability, which can cause considerable loss of life and financial losses.

Stronger increases of extremes across tropical regions

The researchers at PIK analysed the intensity and frequency of daily precipitation extremes over land in 21 state-of-the-art climate simulations (CMIP-6) and compared the changes projected by CMIP-6 models to those observed historically. The method they applied draws on pattern-filtering techniques, allowing them to separate which changes in the climate system are forced by human emissions, and which are not.

While most land-areas exhibit increases in both the intensity and frequency of extremes, stronger increases are typically found across tropical regions, according to the study. Significant changes most often occur across the tropics and high-latitudes, like in Southeast Asia or Northern Canada. The fact that these changes follow the Clausius-Clapeyron relation underpins the fact that thermodynamics, i.e. temperature and not dynamics, i.e. winds, dominate the global change of extreme rainfall events. “The good news is that this makes it easier to predict the future of extreme rainfall. The bad news is: It will get worse, if we keep pushing up global temperatures by emitting greenhouse gases,” Anders Levermann adds.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1009135

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UK weather: Temperatures plunge to -12C as snow disrupts travel

1 hour ago

Temperatures have fallen below freezing in parts of the UK, with 15cm of snow causing serious travel disruption.

Yellow weather warnings for snow and ice are in effect for the north west of England, the Midlands, the south, and parts of Wales and Scotland.

Drivers in Cumbria told the BBC they had been in stop-start traffic with no food or water for up to 19 hours.

Meanwhile, the mercury has dropped to -12C (10.4F) in Scotland.

A "major incident" has been declared in Cumbria after heavy snowfall, with police urging people not to travel on Sunday unless necessary.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67604834

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