Huge floods due to heavy rain linked to the much warmer Mediterranean sea temperatures have now killed over 250 people in Spain (Valencia), with the death toll likely to be much higher as they go building by building to look for bodies.
People are very angry and they are now blaming Governments for not acting fast enough.
Having seen some video, I’m not entirely sure what could have been done. The first responders were being surprised by the flooding.
The criticism I have read is the forecasters didn’t predict soon enough and warnings weren’t issued soon enough, not so much that responders didn’t get to flooded residences/vehicles soon enough.
An additional problem is that a lot of the building in those areas was not done with flood risk in mind.
So when you get a massive downpour many areas become death traps.
And in Spain, you have regional (Conservative) vs national (Socialist) powers vying for political power so you do not get a unified response on the ground when you need one in a true emergency.
There are still roughly 2000+ people missing, so I assume the amount of dead will rise by a lot over the next couple of weeks because they have to go building by building (while still dealing with current downpours which makes things very difficult).
What a joke of a COP
Had not heard of this initiative before. Questionable merit?
My actuarial org (IfoA) has released their report on the economic impacts of climate change.
Makes for grim reading.
Just look at why olive oil prices skyrocketed and why beef prices in North America have been shooting up.
Actuaries - harbingers of doom. Unfortunately, experiencing some pain now to avoid much worse pain later doesn’t get politicians elected. Much like the Californian wildfire crisis with all the controlled burning that experts said needed to happen years ago but people didn’t want it.
Given that the warming trajectory is now 2.5C to 2.9C (vs 1.5C) we are going to see a lot of this:
Not a surprise, but…
Europe is experiencing one the worst ever recorded heat waves over the last few weeks.
Seeing temperatures in the 42C to 47C range in Spain, France, Italy, Greece. This is +2C over average temperatures.
There are also wildfires springing up in so many places because its dry and hot.
They should stop reporting on this, then it wouldn’t be a problem. [/red]
Can’t believe the temperatures even here in London. When we lived here 35 years ago I don’t remember a single evening where it was warm enough to sit out after 8 pm. Most night are warm now.
Eh. It’s just a phase. Go back at Christmas.
Was in Palm Desert last weekend courtesy of my brother-in-law and his Hotel Points.
110+ each day. Pool was 90+. Stayed under a cabana when not in the pool. Hot there, too.
Doesn’t Europe have rakes?
If you stop checking the temperature, you won’t have a problem with record heat. [/red]