Californian climate scientists warn that 'hydroclimate whiplash', the rapid shift between intense rainfall and severe drought, is accelerating globally due to human-caused climate change. This phenomenon is amplifying the severity of natural disasters like floods, wildfires, landslides, and disease outbreaks. The study highlights the example of California, which experienced record-breaking rainfall followed by unseasonal dryness, leading to devastating wildfires.
Californian climate scientists have published one of the timeliest findings in history. Hydroclimate whiplash – a term for the phenomenon of savage seasonal swings between catastrophic rain and sapping drought – is increasing, fast.
Human-caused climate change has caused this whiplash to increase by 31 to 66 per cent globally. Rainfall volatility has accelerated, particularly in America, Europe and Australia, the authors wrote. “They aren’t particularly aesthetically nice places, but seeing them burnt to the ground is just horrible. It’s heart-wrenching. Because they’re so safe, and so familiar, and so boring. You’re not usually going to have“Nothing like this has ever happened before to a major metropolis, with movie stars having their houses destroyed. It’s got all the ingredients of an enormous, history-defining event.”, when lower temperatures and higher humidity normally give firefighters a strategic rest.
A pyrocumolonimbus cloud caused by a bushfire near Braidwood created a dramatic backdrop to Parliament House in Canberra in 2019.Our understanding of fire dynamics in the suburbs is lacking. But by studying flames in a lab-based wind tunnel, fire safety expert Dr Maryam Ghodrat at the University of NSW has been trying to plug the gaps.
CLIMATE CHANGE HYDROCLIMATE WHIPLASH EXTREME WEATHER WILDFIRE DROUGHT FLOOD
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