New Delhi: The year 2024 is about to end, but extreme weather conditions Due to which nature’s wrath has been seen in almost every part of the world and it is not going to end soon.
Like the last few years, in 2024 too the world saw many examples of extreme situations climate The changes are accompanied by rising temperatures, wildfires and severe drought in areas such as southern Europe, North America and parts of Australia.
Coastal cities are at risk, with their lands being submerged and devastated by storm surges, making it difficult for people in low-lying areas such as the Pacific Islands and Southeast Asia to deal with flooding and displacement. Also, in India, we saw several red alerts by weather departments for cyclonic storms.
Irregular rainfall patterns and extreme weather conditions affected farmers as well as the agricultural sector and food production.
Here’s a look at some of the climate-related achievements through 2024.
hottest year on record
July 2024 was the hottest month ever recorded across the world, with the highest temperatures ever recorded. Well, here was another stark reminder of how anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are exacerbating the effects of climate change.
According to NASA reports, the hottest day in the entire history was recorded on July 22. This year, July 21 and July 23 also remained above the previous daily records. Unfortunately, this daily record was set in July 2023.
The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service also reported that July 2024 was the second warmest month globally, behind July 2023 by only 0.04 degrees Celsius. Given the small differences between datasets, these variations fall within the statistical margin of error used to calculate global temperatures. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) combines data from six international sources, including ERA5 and NOAA’s GlobalTemp, for its climate assessments.
Wildfires in Canada and the Western US
In the year 2024, wildfires were reported in both Canada and the United States. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center National Fire Summary report indicates that in 2024, 5,686 fires were recorded across the country with a total area of ​​5,378,075 hectares (hectares).
The CIFFC compared the number of total fires and area burned to last year’s record (5,475 fires; 17,347,637 hectares) and the 10-year average (5,736 fires; 3,512,889 hectares), the Canadian National Fire Database (CNFDB) said.
In terms of area burned, this year is on track to become the fourth highest record, previously recorded in 1994 (5,042,102 hectares), according to the National Area Burned Composite (NBAC) database. This is subject to change as fire management agencies continue to estimate and update calculations of burned areas. Meanwhile, 51,758 massive fires have burned a total of 8,135,876 acres in the United States, according to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).
Atlantic hurricane season
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is coming to an end and has been active overall. There have been 18 named tropical storms, of which 11 reached hurricane strength and five became major hurricanes – category three and above. The list is: Alberto, Joyce, Beryl, Kirk, Chris, Leslie, Debbie, MiltonErnesto, Nadine, Francine, Oscar, Gordon, Patty, Helen, Rafael, Isaac and Sara.
Of all the hurricanes in 2024, the most impactful in achieving Category 4 hurricane status was Hurricane Helene, which struck in September and caused severe flooding and wind damage throughout the Southeast US, ultimately causing more than 150 deaths – Hurricane The deadliest figure after Katrina.
Hurricane Milton was exactly one such. Milton formed in the Gulf in early October. Milton entered the record books with peak winds of 90 mph (145 km/h) within 24 hours, one of the most extreme examples of wind intensity ever recorded.
Milton achieved Category 5 status for only a brief period before falling to Category 3 hurricane intensity and making landfall on the west coast of Florida. The destruction it caused was widespread, including a violent storm that spawned 46 tornadoes.
Milton was one of a total of seven hurricanes that formed in the Atlantic after September 25, thus setting a new record for the number of hurricanes that formed during that span.
The final storm of the season was Tropical Storm Sarah. Although it did not develop into a hurricane, Sara became a slow-moving system near Central America, causing severe flooding. More than 3 feet (about 1 meter) of rain fell on the northern coast of Honduras.
The storm affected Southeast Asian countries
This year a disgusting face of South East Asian countries was seen climatic conditions When the storm hit the land and caused havoc for all the citizens.
Yagi was one of the deadliest hurricanes to hit September 2024 and the second most powerful hurricane globally after Hurricane Beryl (Atlantic Ocean). It has caused severe damage throughout Southeast Asia, affecting the Philippines, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and especially Vietnam.
The second was Typhoon Shansha which brought heavy rains and strong winds to Japan. Meanwhile, Typhoon Bebinka, which hit Shanghai, had maximum wind speeds of 151 kilometers per hour (94 mph) near its eye and reached a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.
Cyclones are affecting citizens across continents
2024 is coming to an end soon but not cyclones, as Cyclone Chido hit Mayotte, France later this year. In this way many other cyclones hit different countries including India.
Cyclones are caused by atmospheric disturbances around a low pressure area that is distinguished by rapid and often destructive air circulation. Cyclones are usually accompanied by strong storms and inclement weather. The air rotates inward in an anti-clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and in a clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere.
Remal was the worst cyclone to hit India in the last 12 months. With wind speed up to 100 km/hr, it hit the coast near Kultali on May 26, 2024 and had a diameter of 103 kilometers at that time.
According to the internationally accepted Saffir–Simpson classification, it corresponds to a tropical storm cyclone.
Other cyclones that hit India were Cyclones Asna, Dana and Fengal.
Floods: from Nigeria to Afghanistan
Another impact of climate change is floods and this is not an unheard of phenomenon. Afghanistan is one of those countries which has been a victim of floods. According to a June 2024 UNICEF report, the floods killed about 350 people – including at least a dozen children. More than 7,800 homes were damaged or destroyed and more than 5,000 families were displaced.
The second country is the Sahel, a West African country that has had an unusually active monsoon, causing major flooding in many parts of the Sahel, including Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.
113,619 hectares of crop land were flooded in Mali. In Nigeria, 204,803 hectares were affected. Chad ≈ 1 million displaced and 40,000 refugees affected. Mali ≈ 26,000 displaced. Nigeria ≈ 366,000 displaced and Cameroon ≈ 50,000 refugees affected.
The second is Europe, where extreme rainfall in mid-September affected a large area of ​​the central country. Rainfall totals of more than 400 mm fell over five days in northern Austria, eastern Czechia and south-western Poland, far exceeding previous records in many places. More than 150 casualties were reported as a result of flash floods in Spain.
Incessant heavy rains have caused floods in southern Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state, leaving large parts of the city under water. Porto Alegre And many surrounding areas. Economic losses were reported to be several billion US dollars.
Landslides in Wayanad and severe floods in Assam have caused widespread destruction, displacing thousands of residents. Heavy rains caused landslides in Wayanad, while Assam faced swollen rivers, causing widespread damage, loss of life and disruption of essential services.
The economic burden of climate change continues to grow in 2024, and nations are busy grappling with the financial burden of recovery and adaptation.
Developing countries have always faced the problems of poverty and ugly political life; It’s just that with the impacts of climate change, achieving development goals is much more complex. Pressure on the world’s health care systems is increasing as climate zones change, heat-related illnesses and diseases such as malaria are becoming waterborne or vector-borne.
In 1992, for the first time, the world came up with a treaty to take action towards climate change, which is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was the first international treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions and prevent climate change, coming into force in 1994 and ratified by 197 countries. And still struggling to find a better solution. In the last more than 30 years, the world adopted many ways to save the environment, but now due to the fast pace of development, the need for dozens of new technologies and the increasing population, forests are being converted into habitat. Greatly restricts the success of treaties.
However, there is an urgent call for the international community to work together to take urgent action on climate: if humans really want to reduce these devastating impacts, they need to reduce carbon emissions, switch to renewable energy, and implement adaptive Will have to speed up. Measures that will keep both people and the planet safe for decades to come.
