UN sounds ‘Red Alert’ as world smashes heat records in 2023
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters Every major global climate record was broken last year and 2024 could be worse, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday, with its chief voicing particular concern about ocean heat and shrinking sea ice. The UN weather agency said in its annual State of the Global Climate report that average temperatures […]
Global water cycle “spinning out of balance”: UN meteorological agency
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters The World Meteorological Organization said on Thursday that the hydrological cycle was increasingly out of balance due to climate change and made a call for a fundamental policy shift towards better monitoring. An aerial view shows the Yangtze River that is approaching record-low water levels during a regional drought in Chongqing, China, on […]
Libya hunts for those to blame for thousands of flood deaths
Derna, Libya Reuters Libyan authorities demanded an investigation on Thursday into whether human failings were to blame for thousands of deaths in the worst natural disaster in the country’s modern history, as survivors searched for loved ones washed away by floods. A torrent unleashed by a powerful storm burst dams on Sunday night and hurtled […]
Extreme heatwaves to continue through August, WMO adviser says
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters Heatwaves are expected to persist in a large part of the world throughout August, an adviser on extreme heat said on Friday, following on from record temperatures in recent weeks. The World Meteorological Organization said earlier this week it expected temperatures in North America, Asia, North Africa and the Mediterranean to be […]
“More likely than not” world will soon see 1.5 degrees of warming – WMO
London, UKReuters For the first time ever, global temperatures are now more likely than not to breach 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming within the next five years, the World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday. This does not mean the world would cross the long-term warming threshold of 1.5 degrees above preindustrial levels set out in […]
Pace of rise in global sea level has doubled – UN climate report
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Global sea levels are rising at more than double the pace they did in the first decade of measurements in 1993-2002 and hit a new record high last year, the World Meteorological Organization said on Friday, warning that the trend would continue for millennia. Extreme glacier melt and record ocean heat levels – […]
World’s oceans at most acidic level in 26,000 years, climate report warns
Reuters The world’s oceans grew to their warmest and most acidic levels on record last year, the World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday, as United Nations officials warned that war in Ukraine threatened global climate commitments. Oceans saw the most striking extremes as the WMO detailed a range of turmoil wrought by climate change in […]
World could see 1.5 degrees of warming in next five years, WMO reports
London, UKReuters The world faces a 50 per cent chance of warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, if only briefly, by 2026, the World Meteorological Organization said on Monday. That does not mean the world would be crossing the long-term warming threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), which scientists have set […]
Climate change extremes spur UN plan to fund weather forecasting
Glasgow, UKReuters As climate change triggers deadly heatwaves, droughts and floods, three UN agencies on Wednesday will roll out funding plans to improve weather forecasting in vulnerable countries. The initiative, announced at the UN climate summit in Glasgow, aims to plug gaps in weather monitoring and data collection so developing countries can better prepare for […]
World “way off track” in halting warming, UN warns ahead of COP26
Geneva, Switzerland/Glasgow, UKReuters Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record last year and the world is “way off track” on climate goals, the UN weather agency said on Monday, showing the scale of the task facing governments scrambling to avert dangerous levels of warming. A report by the World Meteorological Organization showed that carbon dioxide levels […]