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HotSpots H2O: As Famine Looms in East Africa, Humanitarian Groups Call for Urgent Action

Circle of Blue

The landscape of Kulaley Village in northern Kenya lays barren after a drought in 2011. In 2011, two failed rainy seasons thrust the Horn of Africa into the worst famine of the twenty-first century. The La Niña weather pattern, driven by normal cooling cycles in the eastern Pacific, has always caused dry spells in East Africa.

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Can the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant Avoid a Major Disaster?

Union of Concerned Scientists

Depending on the nature and extent of the damage, the plant could experience one or more core meltdowns or spent nuclear fuel pool fires, which could trigger a radiological release rivaling that of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident or even the larger release from the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

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What is happening in the Atlantic Ocean to the AMOC?

Real Climate

A recent study by Qasmi 2023 has combined observations and models to isolate the drivers and concludes for the ‘cold blob’ region: “Consistent with the observations, an anthropogenic cooling is diagnosed by the method over the last decades (1951–2021) compared to the preindustrial period.” 2011; Garzoli et al.

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2022 updates to the temperature records

Real Climate

and La Niña events (2011, 2018, 2021, 2022 etc.) impart a slight cooling. Consequently, a line drawn from an El Niño year to a subsequent La Niña year will almost always show a cooling – a fact well known to the climate disinformers (though they are not so quick to show the uncertainties in such cherry picks!).

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Tornadoes and More: What Spring Can Bring to the Power Grid 

Union of Concerned Scientists

The rail infrastructure to transport coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming–the country’s primary coal source –was proven to be vulnerable to extreme floods in the spring of 2011 , and even more extreme floods in the spring of 2019.

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Climate Change Threatens Already Poor Air Quality in California’s Central Valley

Union of Concerned Scientists

For example, they may need to choose between cooling down with their windows open at night or breathing polluted air, as residents often don’t have air conditioners or the economic capacity to pay for higher electricity bills.

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Four Months into Danger Season, Here’s the Tally of Extreme Heat, Floods, Fire Weather Events

Union of Concerned Scientists

For example, in July 2022, Tulsa, OK saw 20 days with maximum temperatures above 100°F, and the next higher number of such days, 26, occurred in 2011. Nonetheless, the frequency of alerts this year can give us a sense of how frequently conditions have crossed the threshold of being potentially harmful to human health and lives.