Swiss glaciers melted at an above-average rate in 2024 as a blistering hot summer thawed through abundant snowfall, monitoring body GLAMOS said on Tuesday. Earlier this year, glaciologists had celebrated heavy winter and spring snow dumps in the Alps, hoping this would signal a halt to years of hefty declines or even a reversal of losses. A drone view of crevasses on Morteratsch Glacier amid climate change, in Pontresina, Switzerland, September 3, 2024. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse But with average August temperatures a few degrees above freezing even at the 3,571 meter high Jungfraujoch station perched above the Aletsch Glacier, scientists measured record ice losses across the country that month. Overall, GLAMOS said Swiss glaciers lost 2.5% of their volume this year which was abo...
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Nearly 1,500 academics, researchers and scientists specializing in Antarctica gathered in southern Chile for the 11th Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research conference this week to share the most cutting-edge research from the vast white continent. Nearly every aspect of science, from geology to biology and glaciology to arts, was covered but a major undercurrent ran through the conference. Antarctica is changing, faster than expected. Extreme weather events in the ice-covered continent were no longer hypothetical presentations, but first-hand accounts from researchers about heavy rainfall, intense heat waves and sudden Foehn (strong dry winds) events at research stations that led to mass melting, giant glacier break-offs and dangerous weather conditions with global implications...
Read MoreIt’s been a wild week of weather in many parts of the United States, from heat waves to snowstorms to flash floods. Here’s a look at some of the weather events: Midwest sizzles under heat wave Millions of people in the Midwest have been enduring dangerous heat and humidity. An emergency medicine physician treating Minnesota State Fair-goers for heat illnesses saw firefighters cut rings off two people’s swollen fingers Monday in hot weather that combined with humidity made it feel well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celsius). Soaring late summer temperatures also prompted some Midwestern schools to let out early or cancel sports practices. The National Weather Service issued heat warnings or advisories across Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Illinois, Kansas, Mi...
Read MoreMonday beats record set on Sunday, according to Copernicus Monday was the hottest day ever globally, beating a record set the day before, as countries around the world from Japan to Bolivia to the United States continue to feel the heat, according to the European climate change service. Provisional satellite data published by Copernicus on Wednesday shows that Monday was 0.06 degrees Celsius (0.1 degree Fahrenheit) hotter than Sunday. Climate scientists say it’s plausible that this is the warmest it has been in 120,000 years because of human-caused climate change. While scientists cannot be certain that Monday was the very hottest day throughout that period, average temperatures have not been this high since long before humans developed agriculture. But it’s a difficult de...
Read MoreA heat wave across southern Europe forced authorities in Greece to close the Acropolis Wednesday for several hours and two firefighters died while putting out a fire in the Basilicata region in southern Italy, Italian authorities said. Italy added Palermo, Sicily, to the list of 13 cities in the country with a severe heat warning. Elderly people in the city of Verona were urged to stay indoors, while sprinklers were set up to cool passersby. Greece’s Culture Ministry ordered the closure of the Acropolis — the country’s biggest cultural attraction — from midday for five hours. Tourists hoping to visit the Parthenon temple atop the Acropolis queued early in the morning to beat the worst of the heat, while the Red Cross handed chilled bottled water and information fliers to thos...
Read MoreRussians were braving some of the hottest weather seen in more than a century on Thursday with Moscow breaking a 1917 record and cities across the world's biggest country sizzling in temperatures well above 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit). In Moscow, where temperatures can fall to minus 40 degrees Celsius in the legendary Russian winter, the mercury rose to 32.7 degrees Celsius on July 3, breaking the 1917 record for that day by half a degree, the FOBOS weather centre said. Records were broken from Russia's Pacific coast and the wilds of Siberia to the European parts of Russia, FOBOS said. A man lies near a fountain in a park during hot weather in Moscow, Russia July 2, 2024. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina The hot weather triggered soaring demand for air conditioners and fans,...
Read MoreThe world just experienced its hottest April on record, extending an 11-month streak in which every month set a temperature record, the European Union's climate change monitoring service said on Wednesday. Each month since June 2023 has ranked as the planet's hottest on record, compared with the corresponding month in previous years, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a monthly bulletin. People walk as water is sprayed by a system to alleviate the high temperatures caused by a heat wave, at the Gerardo Barrios square, in San Salvador, El Salvador, March 27, 2024. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas Including April, the world's average temperature was the highest on record for a 12-month period - 1.61 degrees Celsius above the average in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period. S...
Read MoreThe world just experienced its warmest March on record, capping a 10-month streak in which every month set a new temperature record, the European Union's climate change monitoring service said on Tuesday. Each of the last 10 months ranked as the world's hottest on record, compared with the corresponding month in previous years, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said in a monthly bulletin. The 12 months ending with March also ranked as the planet's hottest ever recorded 12-month period, C3S said. From April 2023 to March 2024, the global average temperature was 1.58 degrees Celsius above the average in the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period. File Photo: A woman protects herself from the sun with an umbrella during a heatwave in the centre of Sao Paulo, Brazil March 15,...
Read MoreThe world likely notched its warmest February on record, as spring-like conditions caused flowers to bloom early from Japan to Mexico, left ski slopes bald of snow in Europe and pushed temperatures to 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 C) in Texas. While data has not been finalised, three scientists told Reuters that February is on track to have the highest global average temperature ever recorded for that month, thanks to climate change and the warming in the Eastern Pacific Ocean known as El Nino. FILE PHOTO: Graciela Perez blows a hand fan amid a heat wave with temperatures rising towards 35 degrees Celsius (95F), in Buenos Aires, Argentina February 7, 2024. REUTERS/Mariana Nedelcu If confirmed, that would be the ninth consecutive monthly temperature record to be broken, according to ...
Read MoreSome U.S. residents will be going from wearing Bermuda shorts to snow pants in less than 24 hours, forecasters said on Monday, as a heat wave in the central Plains and South gives way to weather more typical for this time of year. Temperatures on Monday in states like Nebraska and Iowa were in the mid-70s Fahrenheit (low 20s Celsius), some 40 degrees F (22 degrees C) above averages for this time of year, while cities in the South, such as Dallas, Texas, sizzled in the mid-90s F (mid-30s C). A drone view shows ice formations near the Mackinac Bridge, which spans the Straits of Mackinac between Lakes Michigan and Huron in Mackinaw City, Michigan, U.S. February 25, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio This week's heat wave follows other unusual weather across the U.S. this winter - from "atm...
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