FREAK WEATHER 2003
ANNUAL SUMMARY OF EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS
Here is Rising Tide’s summary of extreme weather events for 2002. Summaries for 2001 and 2000 can be found on our website. It is always hard to say how much of any individual event is “natural” and how much is caused by human activities. In 2002, however, climatologists asserted with unprecedented confidence that climate change was a major factor in specific extreme weather events, in particular the European heatwave and the Australian drought.
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JANUARY
We entered the year with El Nino in full flow and severe droughts around the world; in Rajasthan state in Western India, which had lost 75 percent of its 2002 harvest; in Eritrea, where 10,000 children were severely malnourished; in Mauritania, where 420,000 were at risk of starvation; and in Cambodia, where more than 2 million people were affected by the worst drought in two decades.
Australia continued to suffer the worst drought on record. Scientists said that the drought was a direct product of climate change. Report download. In January the worst fires ever to hit the capital city of Canberra killed four people, destroyed 400 homes and forced thousands to evacuate under a state of emergency. Fires in Victoria state razed more than 40 homes and blackened over 1 million hectares of park and forest. Extreme heat in the state also helped to produce a new electricity demand record.
Drought continued in the west of North America. Western Canada's 2002 growing season was the worst in 25 years. Some areas, primarily in Alberta and Saskatchewan, experienced the worst growing season ever. The entire state of Nebraska was declared a disaster area by the US federal government, and the drought was also estimated to have had a $1.2 billion impact on Nebraska's economy.
Meanwhile the remnants of tropical cyclone Delfina left 300,000 and 100,000 people homeless in Malawi and Mozambique, respectively.
FEBRUARY
In Madagascar weeks of heavy rain led to food shortages and destroyed virtually all banana plantations. In the southern part of the country, below-normal rainfall led the government to declare a state of famine in five districts.
APRIL
Drought continued in many countries in Africa. Uganda suffered from widespread famine. Eritrea faced the worst crop failure in a decade.
Very heavy rainfall during the second half of April led to severe flooding in northeastern Argentina. 23 people were killed and 160,000 evacuated. A third of the province of Santa Fe was under water - the worst flooding in the province’s history.
MAY
There were more problems for Madagascar. Cyclone Manou hit central-eastern Madagascar on the 11th May causing over 70 deaths and leaving nearly 50,000 people without shelter. Estimates suggest that up to 95% of dwellings in the town of Vatomandry were destroyed.
During the period 1-10 May 384 tornadoes occurred in 19 central US states resulting in 42 deaths. This was a new record for this time of year.
Throughout May daily temperatures in Southern India were peaking at between 45 and 49 degrees centigrade (113 and 120F), as much as 10 degrees C above average, and setting new temperature records in some locations. The heatwave killed at least 1438 people mostly poor daily wage laborers, construction workers and rickshaw pullers.
In Sri Lanka a tropical storm led to the worst floods in fifty years, killed at least 266 people and left 350,000 people homeless.
JULY
At last rains came to the Sudan and Eritrea but they resulted in further crop damage and the worst flooding that the countries had seen in 40 and 70 years respectively. There was a resultant five-fold increase in acute diarrhea and a significant increase in malaria cases.
Southeastern China reported record-breaking temperatures and extended drought. Over 1 million hectares of arable land were destroyed, mostly in Hunan province where 2000 streams and rivers dried up. In Central and Eastern China unusually heavy rains affected 150 million people, killing 814 people and injuring 146,000 people. 2.1 million hectares of farmland were described as completely destroyed.
Record high monthly temperatures were recorded in many places in Europe. Rotating power cuts were instituted in Italy in order to relieve the demand of the air conditioning on the electrical grid. Traffic was halted on the Danube River between Vienna and the Slovakia border because of low water.
AUGUST
Parts of Nepal received their heaviest rains in 30 years killing 244 people. In Southern Pakistan the highest rainfall in a decade led to flooding affected 1,000,000 people and killing up to 300 people.
British Columbia, Canada, suffered its driest year since 1929 and its most active forest fire season in 10 years.
Europe continued to have exceptionally hot weather. Nationwide summer temperatures were the warmest on record in Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain with temperatures consistently 5°C warmer than average. The record for the highest maximum temperature in the UK was broken on 10 August when the mercury hit 38.5 °C at Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent. Portugal suffered its worst forest fire season in living memory. Many European countries anticipated their worst harvests since World War II. France expected to lose 20 percent of its grain harvests. Wheat harvests in Ukraine were down 80 percent from normal moving Ukraine from the world's fifth-largest exporter of wheat to a net importer of 3 million tons of grain.
Death rates across Western Europe rose dramatically during the heat wave. The figures for additional deaths compared with the same period in 2002 were:
France 14,802
Italy 4,879
Spain 4,230
Portugal 1,316
UK 2,045
Netherlands 1,400
SEPTEMBER
In Bihar, India, the Ganges reached its highest level since 1975. Four and a half million people were affected and 142 people killed.
In China two months of heavy rainfall caused the worst flooding along the Wei River in 20 years. 5,000 protesters attacked the government offices and seized relief supplies. The flooding affected an estimated 4.9 million people, and destroyed 46,000 homes. The Chinese government reported that across China as a whole flooding in 2003 killed 1,911 people and left 6.3 million people homeless.
OCTOBER
Patchaburi province in Thailand suffered the worst flooding in living memory affecting 200,000 people.
Rainfall records were broken across the western coastal US. Seattle received 90 mm (3.5 in) of rain in a single day. British Columbia received 470 mm (18.5 in) of rain in a six-day period causing the worst flooding in a century.
In Southern California, the most damaging wildfires in the history of the state began in late October and continued into the early days of November. Dry conditions resulting from several years of drought and strong winds fuelled fires that lead to total insured property losses of about US $2.04 billion. Large tracts of drought- weakened trees that had been killed by bark beetle infestations provided substantial fuel for the fires. The increase in bark beetle infestation is itself closely related to climate change more...
NOVEMBER
After experiencing devastating floods in mid-October, central Vietnam was hit again by heavy rainfall and flooding in mid-November. The two rounds of flooding and landslides, said to be the worst since 1964, caused an estimated US$35 million in damage, affected 340,000 people and killed 103 people.
DECEMBER
The World Meteorological Association declared that globally 2003 had been the third hottest year since world records began in 1856, following closely on the heels of 2002 and 1998. All of the 10 warmest years have occurred since 1990, including each year since 1997. Phil Jones of the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, said: "The summer over much of central Europe was the warmest ever recorded, not just in the instrumental record which goes back to 1781, but also in documentary-based extensions that go back to 1500."
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SOURCES
Most material comes from the excellent Climate Information Digest from the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction. The sources, which can be found in their monthly information digests, include disaster and refugee agencies and the main news agencies.
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