Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Norway, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia, Denmark, Finland, Korea, Japan.
A powerful storm has brought destruction to Norway, causing landslides and leaving an entire town stranded, as meteorologists warned of the strongest rainfall in a quarter of a century.
The storm – named Storm Hans – has killed two people, ripped off roofs and caused widespread disruption across northern Europe in a summer that started with wildfires across much of the region.
The Norwegian meteorological institute issued a red danger warning – the highest level of risk – on Tuesday for extremely heavy rainfall across parts of southern Norway. “In many places, the event will be among the strongest in the last 25 years,” it warned.
On the east coast, north of Oslo, in parts of western Norway and the southern part of Trøndelag, as much as 80-100mm of rain in 24 hours was forecast.
Rescue workers tackled extreme weather on Monday in Slovenia, Austria and Croatia, with record floods, hundreds of landslides and at least seven deaths.
The storms have forced the evacuation of villages and caused major damage, with emergency crews braced to respond to landslides and potential dam bursts.
Most of the deaths recorded so far have been in Slovenia, where the extreme weather was reported to have killed at least six people by Monday.
They included two Dutch men believed to have been struck by lightning and four Slovenians thought to have been caught up in the flooding.
The natural disaster is the worst that Slovenia has seen since it gained independence in 1991. Prime Minister Robert Golob said the estimated damage ran at some €500 million ($548.3 million), and urged the European Union and NATO to provide help.
Experts say the conditions are partly fueled by climate change, which is linked to an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
SEOUL — The extreme weather sweeping across Asia has claimed more victims, with South Korea and Japan reporting deaths from the sweltering heat and authorities in both countries issuing alerts this week.
Extreme heat waves and typhoons have wreaked havoc this summer. In China, Typhoon Doksuri hit Beijing this week, killing 11 and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate.
Coming on the heels of Doksuri, Typhoon Khanun has been churning through Japan’s southernmost Okinawa prefecture, unleashing powerful winds and heavy rain on Wednesday and triggering more alerts.
Scientists have warned that extreme weather events have become more frequent and damaging as a result of global warming.
On Tuesday, the South Korean government raised the heat alert to its highest level for the first time since 2019. Temperatures in parts of South Korea topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) this week, although it feels hotter because of high humidity.
Yes, yes, yes. But aside from that, everything is fine.
Sorry, but a generalized “reduce greenhouse gases” should no longer be the response to interviewers’ questions about “what should we do?” At the minimum they should be able to rattle off a few specific examples, whether personal or legislative.