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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital

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Scientists have said climate change combined with the emergence this year of the El Nino weather pattern, which warms surface waters in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean, have fuelled recent record-breaking temperatures.

“The unprecedented temperatures for the time of year observed in September – following a record summer – have broken records by an extraordinary amount. This extreme month has pushed 2023 into the dubious honor of first place – on track to be the warmest year and around 1.4C above pre-industrial average temperatures”, Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of Copernicus, a European Commission climate change data and analysis service said in a statement.

The global temperature for January-September is also 1.4C higher than the pre-industrial average (from the years 1850 to 1900), the institute added, as climate change pushes global temperatures to new records and short-term weather patterns also drive temperature movements.

“What is especially worrying is that the warming El Nino event is still developing, and so we can expect these record-breaking temperatures to continue for months, with cascading impacts on our environment and society,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, referring to the climate phenomenon that drives extreme heat.

Additionally, private forecaster AccuWeather expects severe weather and tornadoes across the Gulf Coast during the winter due to El Nino. “February can be an active and intense month,” AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist and veteran forecaster Paul Pastelok said.

There is a more than a 95% chance that the El Nino weather pattern will continue through the Northern Hemisphere winter from January-March 2024, as per a U.S. government forecaster.

1.  2023 on track to become hottest year on record, says EU climate service

This year is on track to become the hottest on record, with the global mean temperature to date this year 0.52 degrees Celsius higher than average, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said. This comes as private forecaster AccuWeather said that a strengthening El Nino will make the upcoming winter substantially colder in some regions of the United States.

An area affected after a glacial lake burst its banks and triggered flash floods in Sikkim, India. India Army/Handout via REUTERS 

2.  Explainer: Deadly Himalayan lake flooding in India likely caused by avalanche

A Himalayan glacial lake in India probably burst its banks this week after chunks of ice fell into it in an apparent avalanche following heavy rains, triggering deadly flash floods in a small mountain state, experts told Reuters. At least 40 people have died and nearly 100 remain missing as heavy rains and water gushing out of Lhonak Lake unleashed flash floods on Wednesday in the Teesta river in Sikkim state, which borders Nepal, Bhutan and China.

3. Typhoon Koinu brushes past Taiwan with lashing rain; one dead

Typhoon Koinu brushed past southern Taiwan, killing one person, injuring 304 and causing localized damage, as lashing rains and strong winds forced millions of people in a swathe of cities to miss work and school.

4. Residents in rural Australia evacuate homes as floods follow fires

Residents of towns in the Australian state of Victoria were warned it was still unsafe to return home, as flash floods followed bushfires that also forced people to flee. People in several towns along the Macalister River in the southeastern state were told to evacuate late on Wednesday after waters rose to dangerously high levels.

5. Thousands evacuated on Spain’s Tenerife as summer wildfire re-ignites

More than 3,000 people on the Spanish island of Tenerife evacuated their homes as a wildfire sparked by high temperatures and strong winds raged in a forested area already ravaged by fire in August.

As the world demands more and more clean, drinkable water in the decades ahead, Waterise – a Norway-based firm – claims to have come up with an alternative to the energy-intensive typical method of desalination. Click here or on the image for the video.

At least 40 people were killed and nearly 100 were missing after heavy rains caused a Himalayan glacial lake in northeast India to burst its banks, the worst such disaster in the region in more than 50 years.

Lhonak Lake in Sikkim state overflowed on Wednesday, causing major flooding that authorities said had impacted the lives of 22,000 people. It is the latest deadly weather event in South Asia’s mountains being blamed on climate change.

$9.3 billion

The United Nations’ Green Climate Fund has pulled in $9.3 billion in pledges from 25 countries to help vulnerable countries cope with climate change, the fund’s facilitator said.

With global temperatures rising, world leaders have been looking to boost support for climate action amid mounting criticism over a lack of urgency to respond to risks.

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