by In sweltering Brazil, the worst floods ever killed dozens of people and paralyzed a city of about 4 million people. Voters and politicians in the world’s biggest election in India are collapsing in heat that hit as high as 115 degrees (46.3 degrees Celsius).
A brutal Asian heat wave has closed schools in the Philippines, killed people in Thailand and set records there and in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives and Myanmar. Record high temperatures – especially at night when it won’t cool down – have affected many parts of Africa. The floods destroyed Houston, and the United States as a whole had its own the second highest number of tornadoes for the month of April.
In a world getting used to wild weather swings, those environmental extremes seem to have been taken to a new level in the past few days and weeks. Some climate scientists say it’s hard for them to remember when so much of the world experienced extreme weather at the same time.
“Given that we’ve seen an unprecedented jump in global warming over the past 11 months, it’s not surprising that climate extremes are worsening so early in the year,” said University of Michigan Environment Dean Jonathan Overpeck. “If this record pace of warming continues, 2024 is likely to be a record year for climate disasters and human suffering.”
When the world is warmer, there is likely to be more extreme weather and climate events, including record heat and rainfall, scientists say. And climate change is also altering weather patterns, causing rain and warm systems to stall over areas and the jet stream to bend, said Alvaro Silva, a climate scientist at the World Meteorological Organization.
Adding to the stronger effects of human-caused climate change is a now-weakening El Nino — a natural warming of parts of the central Pacific that changes weather around the world — which came on the heels of a three-year La Nina, its cool counterpart, Silva said.
Scientists also showed 13 straight months of record warm oceans as a possible factor.
While several factors play a role in these extremes, “climate change is the most important,” Silva said.
The trouble is that the world has adapted to cities and built for 20th-century temperatures and rainfall, but climate change brings more heat and precipitation, said Andrew Dessler, a Texas A&M University climate scientist.
“We’re moving from a 20th century climate right now and we can’t handle these events,” Dessler said. “So they’re getting a little bit more extreme, but they’re getting beyond our ability to handle them.”
Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoechief scientist for the Nature Conservancy, that there are more extremes in more overlapping areas.
“Climate change is tipping the weather dice against us in every corner of the world,” Hayhoe said. “This means that not only the frequency and intensity of many extreme weather events is increasing, but also that the risk of compounding events is increasing.”
Just in the first five days of May, 70 countries or territories broke heat records, said climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, who tracks temperature records around the world.
Nandyala and Kadapa in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh set a record high of 115 degrees (46.3 Celsius), Herrera said.
Nitin Gadkari, a federal minister, collapsed during a campaign in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.
“The heat waves in India are the deadliest type of extreme weather events by far. At the same time, it is the extreme types that are increasing the most in a warming world,” climate scientist Friederike Otto said in a statement earlier this week.
This week in Southeast Asia, “the May night was the hottest ever,” Herrera posted on X (formerly Twitter). Parts of Thailand did not fall below 87.6 degrees (30.9 Celsius).
In late April, parts of northern Thailand hit 111 degrees (44 Celsius), while the town of Chauk in the hottest region of Myanmar hit 118.8 degrees (48.2 Celsius).
Many African nations are also facing scorching heat. Herrera said it hit 117.5 degrees (47.5 Celsius) in Kayes, Mali. Niger’s capital had its hottest May night and Burkina Faso’s capital had its hottest for any month. In Chad, in north central Africa, temperatures were expected to soar above 114 degrees (45.6 Celsius) all week.
The deadly heat wave felt across West Africa last month was linked to human-caused climate change, according to scientists at the World Weather Attribution group.
In Ciudad Altamirano in Mexico, the temperature was close to 115 degrees (46 Celsius), the hottest on record in Latin America, Herrera said. Bolivia had its hottest May Eve on record and Brazil’s hottest day in May.
Brazil’s record-breaking heat also kept a rainstorm from moving over the south of the country, which caused it to be deadly, according to Francisco Aquino, a climatologist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.
There was also a massive influx of moisture from the Amazon’s flying rivers or air currents that carry water vapor, Aquino explained. “These clouds came to rain very heavily,” he said.
The Southern State of Rio Grande do Sul is reeling from its worst flood ever, with at least 90 people dead, nearly 204,000 displaced and 388 municipalities affected, according to local authorities.
In Porto Alegre, a metropolitan area with over 4.4 million inhabitants, the waters took over the town centre, the international airport and several neighbourhoods. Authorities said it will take days to lower the water level.
Houston is still trying to dry out after days of heavy rain that required more than 600 people to be rescued from flooding across Texas, including 233 people in Houston. Just northeast of Houston, about 23 inches (58 centimeters) fell.
Meanwhile, April brought the heaviest rain on record to the United Arab Emirates, flooding parts of major highways in the desert kingdom and Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest hub for international travel.
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Borenstein and Naishadham reported from Washington, Arasu from Bengaluru, India, and Maisonnave from Brasilia, Brazil.
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Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbearsSuman Naishadham at @SumanNaishadham and Sibi Arasu at @sibi123
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