Climate change exposes millions of Hajj pilgrims to deadly heat for increasingly longer parts of the year

Temperatures in #SaudiArabia are rising earlier in the year and reaching more dangerous extremes, making the pilgrimage increasingly hazardous not only in the summer months, where in 2024 more than 1300 pilgrims lost their lives when #Hajj started in mid-June temperatures reached 51°C, but even during the spring months.

In a super-rapid study researchers from World #WeatherAttribution show that for pilgrims who spend 20–30 hours outdoors, often walking in dense crowds, the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke is becoming far more severe earlier in the year, with temperatures now reaching heights in May that were only seen in June to August in the 1960s and 1970s, due to human-induced #ClimateChange.

https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-exposes-millions-of-hajj-pilgrims-to-deadly-heat-for-increasingly-longer-parts-of-the-year/

#ClimateCrisis
#ExtremWeather

Record-shattering March temperatures in Western North America virtually impossible without climate change

The #heatwave poses a significant public health threat, particularly given its timing early in the season. The persistent #HeatDome is creating stable atmospheric conditions, suppressing cloud formation and precipitation, while allowing temperatures to climb, thus expected to cause persistent #heat. #ExtremeHeat is the leading cause of weather-related fatalities in the US. Limited overnight cooling and the lack of air-conditioning is expected to add to the heat stress, particularly for vulnerable populations in these parts who are not acclimatised to the heat, including tourists from cooler countries (CNN, 17 March 2026). This heat dome is breaking records for this time of the year, and is in some ways comparable to the persistent system that caused the 2021 Pacific Northwest (PNW) Heatwave. The PNW event occurred later in the year, in June, with temperatures of up to 48.9℃ (120℉) causing hundreds of fatalities (BBC, 17 March 2026).

https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/record-shattering-march-temperatures-in-western-north-america-virtually-impossible-without-climate-change/

#ClimateScience
#WeatherAttribution
#ClimateCrisis

Conflict, poverty and water management issues exposing vulnerable communities in #Africa

The rainy season from July to Sept. 2024 was marked by extremely heavy and sometimes unprecedented rainfall in large parts of the #Sahel region, leading to catastrophic #flooding in #Sudan in Aug. and in #Nigeria, #Niger, #Chad and #Cameroon in Sept. In total more than 2000 people lost their lives and millions were displaced.

https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/conflict-poverty-and-water-management-issues-exposing-vulnerable-communities-in-africa-to-extreme-floods-that-are-now-common-events-because-of-climate-change/

#WeatherAttribution
#Extremweather
#ClimateCrisis

World Weather Attribution

#ClimateChange and high exposure increased costs and disruption to lives and livelihoods from #flooding associated with exceptionally heavy rainfall in Central #Europe

"As the event is by far the heaviest ever recorded, the exact return time is difficult to estimate based on only about 100 years of observed data. We use a 100 year return-time for the rest of the analysis..."

https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-and-high-exposure-increased-costs-and-disruption-to-lives-and-livelihoods-from-flooding-associated-with-exceptionally-heavy-rainfall-in-central-europe/

#WeatherAttribution
#ExtremeWeather
#ClimateCatastrophe

Climate change key driver of extreme drought in water scarce Sicily and Sardinia

#Sicily and #Sardinia, the two largest Italian islands, important centres of #agriculture and #tourism have suffered from exceptionally low rainfall and very high temperatures over the last 12 months, culminating in extreme #drought conditions from May 2024 onwards.

https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-change-key-driver-of-extreme-drought-in-water-scarce-sicily-and-sardinia/

#WeatherAttribution
#ClimateCrisis, man made
#Italy

Why is #ClimateChange causing ‘record-shattering’ extreme heat?

Amid the disaster, temperatures in #Lytton was smashing the previous record for the country by 4.6C.
Climate scientists studying the #heatwave were left stunned by the record-shattering temperatures.
“Within our knowledge, this [heatwave] is basically impossible,” the late pioneering #ExtremeWeather scientist, Dr Jan van Oldenborgh, told a press conference at the time...

https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-why-is-climate-change-causing-record-shattering-extreme-heat/

#WeatherAttribution
#ClimateCrisis

Rapid weather attribution: Deadly Mediterranean #heatwave in July 2024 would not have occurred without human induced climate change, scientists find.
#climatecrisis #WeatherAttribution

https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/deadly-mediterranean-heatwave-would-not-have-occurred-without-human-induced-climate-change/

Klimaungerechtigkeit von Friederike Otto | ISBN 978-3-8437-3022-8

Ein sehr wichtiges Buch - ein sehr unbequemes Buch! Aber sind nicht die unbequemen Bücher oft die wichtigsten?

#FriederikeOtto #weatherattribution #extremwetter #klimakrise

Vielleicht was für eure nächste Bücherliste?

@fuzzyleapfrog
@astrodicticum

https://www.lehmanns.de/shop/sozialwissenschaften/62438090-9783843730228-klimaungerechtigkeit

Wenn 125 Milliardär*innen soviel Treibhausgase emittieren wie ganz Frankreich, kann man dann ihrem persönlichen Verhalten über die #WeatherAttribution Todesopfer der Erderhitzung zuordnen? Wäre das dann zumindest fahrlässige Tötung?

Ein entsprechender Prozess würde einmal für eine ordentliche Diskursverschiebung sorgen.

cc @tuxom @jensbest @ralphjanik