Week ending Friday, February 4, 2022
New Ocean Normal
A study of the past 150 years of ocean observations reveals that the rising temperatures of the world’s seas, including extreme oceanic heat waves, “passed the point of no return” in 2014. The Monterey Bay Aquarium-sponsored study was published in the Journal PLOS Climate and warns that the increasing warmth is devastating the ecosystem. It documents how extreme sea-surface temperatures occurred just 2% of the time a century ago, but have been happening at least 50% of the time since 2014. Some hot spots experienced extreme temperatures 90% of the time, ravaging wildlife populations.
Earthquakes
People from Dallas to Kansas City were rocked by a moderate tremor in north-central Oklahoma.
• Earth movements were also felt across Indonesia’s Banda Sea to far northern Australia, and in South Asia’s Hindu Kush region, northeastern Egypt, Cyprus, Trinidad and Tobago, Southern California and Hawaii’s Big Island.
Record Flash
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that a single lightning flash in April 2020 across the southern United States is the new world record-holder. That “megaflash” on April 29 stretched 477 miles over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, beating the old record set in 2018 in Brazil. Both were observed with new satellite sensors that are able to more accurately measure the duration and length of lightning. WMO experts say even greater lightning extremes are likely to be discovered in the future. The U.N. agency warns that the record flashes were not isolated events, and occur during active and large-scale thunderstorms, making them more dangerous.
Costly Floods
Climate change will increase the financial costs of flooding across the United States by more than 25% by 2050, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change. Researchers from England’s University of Bristol used advanced modeling to determine that the annual cost of flood damage will increase from the current $32 billion to $40.6 billion in less than 30 years. “Climate change combined with shifting populations present a double whammy of flood risk danger, and the financial implications are staggering,” said lead author Oliver Wing.
Orca Prey
Killer whales, also known as orcas, have for the first time been observed killing and eating the much bigger blue whales — the largest animals ever known to exist. Writing in the journal Marine Mammal Science, scientists documented three separate attacks off the coast of western Australia between 2019 and 2021. Female-led pods of a dozen or more orcas were seen relentlessly pounding adult blue whales until eventually beginning to feed on them, dining first on their nutritious tongues. This also could be a return to a normal ecosystem behavior as blue whales recover from centuries of whaling.
Heat & Humidity
A new study finds that the combination of higher heat and humidity is responsible for the more frequent outbreaks of hazardous weather extremes. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers say that deadly floods, storms and rainfall events are related to how much moisture is in the atmosphere. Using a specialized scale called the equivalent potential temperature, or theta-e, they measured the amount of moisture “energy” in the atmosphere. Because the warming air now holds more moisture, the resulting stronger energy causes more powerful weather phenomena. This is creating more dangerous health and well-being impacts on humans and other living things.
Tropical Cyclone
Category-4 Cyclone Batsiri lashed the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Réunion while taking aim on Madagascar and the African mainland late in the week.
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