This year’s summer in Western Europe and the Euro-Mediterranean region has been remarkable in several aspects. Early summer heat during much of June affected western European countries (in particular, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, England, Portugal and Spain).
Our scientific analysis found that human-caused climate change made the record rainfall that fell over Houston during Hurricane Harvey roughly three times more likely and 15 percent more intense.
June 2017 was marked by high temperatures across Western Europe, with heatwaves triggering national heat-health plans and wildfires requiring evacuations in Portugal and Spain.
A quickly deteriorating food security outlook in Somalia triggered international humanitarian appeals in 2016. In this analysis we investigate the roles of climate change and El Niño in the observed very low precipitation using both climate models and observational data.
In Kenya, the distressing numbers associated with the ongoing drought continue to mount. As of February 2017, the drought has affected 23 of 47 counties. The cost of maize has risen by a third in the past year, while production of the staple crop has plunged.