The biggest floods in Queensland, Australia, in half a century are turning into a windfall for U.S. coal mining companies anticipating record profits and the highest exports in 15 years. Shipments from the U.S. are poised to rise 8.8 percent this year to about 86.5 million tons, the most since 1996, the Energy Department in [...]
Signal: Queensland floods 2010/2011
Global warming fueling La Niña’s floods and cyclones
Tropical Cyclone Yasi has been, according to Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, the “most severe, most catastrophic storm that has ever hit our coast”. I asked Dr Andrew Ash, who is director of the CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship, if perhaps it didn’t just used to be really wet and windy before the drought and maybe we’d [...]
WMO: High number of extreme weather events in 2010
The year 2010 ranked as the warmest year on record, together with 2005 and 1998, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Data received by the WMO show no statistically significant difference between global temperatures in 2010, 2005 and 1998. In 2010, global average temperature was 0.53°C (0.95°F) above the 1961-90 mean. This value is 0.01°C [...]
Floods around the world driven by record warming: ABC News
The pictures today from around the world of dramatic rooftop rescues from raging waters, makes it seem as though natural disasters are becoming an everyday occurrence. But they’re not all that natural; climate scientists say man-made global warming is the sudden force behind the forces of nature. In the mountains of southeast Brazil, more than [...]
Warming of oceans driving flooding/drought extremes in Australia
Climate change has likely intensified the monsoon rains that have triggered record floods in Australia’s Queensland state, scientists said on Wednesday, with several months of heavy rain and storms still to come. “I think people will end up concluding that at least some of the intensity of the monsoon in Queensland can be attributed to [...]
“Tsunami” like flood hits Queensland
Deadly floodwaters that have cut a swath across northeast Australia seeped onto the streets of the nation’s third-largest city Wednesday, forcing people to flee both suburbs and skyscrapers. City Mayor Campbell Newman said almost 20,000 homes in low-lying areas of the city of about 2 million were expected to be swamped by the time the [...]
Australian floods driven by strongest Southern Oscillation on record
A major La Niña event continues to affect the Pacific Basin. Long-range forecast models surveyed by the Bureau suggest that the La Niña is likely to persist into the southern hemisphere autumn. All climate indicators of ENSO remain beyond La Niña thresholds. The tropical Pacific Ocean remains much cooler than average for this time of [...]
