This year is the first time since 1951 the Pacific sees no typhoons in the month of July. Typhoons have seen downward trend since 1951.
Global warming alarmists like to claim that tropical storms will intensify and become more frequent unless people stop using fossil fuels.
And recently these alarmists have had our attention steered to the Atlantic basin, where tropical storms this year have seen quite an active season thus far.
Another reason the focus has been on the Atlantic is because very little has been happening in terms of Pacific typhoons, and the alarmists don't want to talk about that.
In fact this July is the first July to have seen no typhoons formed in the Pacific at all since statistics on this began in 1951, according to the data from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
Normally between 3 to 4 typhoons form in the Pacific in July. Up to 8 have formed in the past, e.g. on 2017 and 1971. But this year July failed to see a single typhoon form - the first time this has occurred since 1951.
Drought
The two largest grain exporters on planet earth look in bad shape. Agricultural output in the Ukraine fell by 19% during the first half of 2020, compared to the same period last year. And Russia hasn't fared much better.
Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture Taras Vysotsky blamed unfavorable weather conditions for 2020's dire harvest — as a result, grain prices in the nation with big "agrarian superpower" ambitions are on the rise.
A record cold and rainy May in the center and west of Ukraine, and drought in the south destroyed much of the grain, reports ria.ru. Added to that are the persistent June rains to the west which seriously delayed the harvest efforts.
Russia is also battling drought — up to 60% of the harvest has been lost in the south, and prices are on the rise their, too.
Associate Professor of the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy Igor Abakumov said that the last drought was 10 years ago, and with the phenomenon occurring at intervals of 3-7 years, Russia was "over the limit of favorable years".
A few months ago, climate change was the most important thing in the world.
© Real Climate Science
That's according to Teagasc, which forecasts that total grain output this year will "drop from the normal 2.3 million tonnes to under 1.9 million tonnes".
Teagasc says that the drought has "severely affected crops in the eastern half of the country".
Straw yields are also predicted to reduce - by nearly 25%. Teagasc says that 1.6 million fewer (straw) bales will be available in the country this year.
The drought is also affecting livestock farmers, with grass growth severely affected in these areas.
Teagasc says that many of these farmers are already feeding some of their winter forage stocks - to supplement grazed grass and concentrates. Consequently, it says, there will likely be a higher demand for forages this autumn with knock-on effects for prices for feedstocks such as straw.
© SGGP
A pumping station in Tien Giang Province is dried up because of severe drought and saltwater intrusion in the dry season of 2019-2020.
A pumping station in Tien Giang Province is dried up because of severe drought and saltwater intrusion in the dry season of 2019-2020.
On June 20, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) cooperated with the People's Committee of Long An Province held a conference to summarize the results of the prevention of drought, water shortage, and saltwater intrusion in the dry season of 2019-2020 in the Mekong Delta and discuss solutions to develop sustainable agriculture.
The MARD said that saltwater intrusion in the dry season of 2019-2020 had some characteristics different from the rule of many years, such as it came three months earlier than the average of many years, and nearly one month earlier compared to that in the dry season of 2015-2016 - the worst saltwater intrusion in history; saltwater intrusion lasted 2-2.5 times longer than that in the dry season of 2015-2016; the salinity levels at Cua Tieu, Cua Dai, and Ham Luong estuaries had continuously maintained at the peak from February to May, they almost did not decline or declined insignificantly at low tides which is different from normal features of salinity, increasing at high tides and decreasing at low tides.
The reason for the increase in saline intrusion was a shortage of water from the upper Mekong River. In the dry season of 2019-2020, water to the Mekong Delta was much lower than that in recent years, thereby affecting ten out of 13 provinces in the region. The area affected by the salinity of 4 grams per liter was 1.68 million hectares, much higher than a total area of 50,376 hectares in 2016.
© NOAA/GOES16
Satellite imagery of the dust plume from the Sahara trekking across the Atlantic toward the Americas on June 18, 2020.
Satellite imagery of the dust plume from the Sahara trekking across the Atlantic toward the Americas on June 18, 2020.
© Babalola Ogunsua
An illustration of the atmospheric wave dynamics from convective processes and ionospheric responses.
An illustration of the atmospheric wave dynamics from convective processes and ionospheric responses.
However, the understanding of the equatorial ionospheric responses to thunderstorms remains a mystery due to the peculiarities in the dynamics of the ionosphere over this region.
A recently published study in Scientific Reports focuses on the Congo Basin, located in the equatorial region, where lightning and severe thunderstorms are considered to be the most active in the world.
Sources
© REUTERS/David W Cerny/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: One of the 'hunger stones' revealed by the low level of water in the Elbe River is seen in Decin, Czech Republic, August 29, 2018.
FILE PHOTO: One of the 'hunger stones' revealed by the low level of water in the Elbe River is seen in Decin, Czech Republic, August 29, 2018.
A map presented by the ministry showed that just 0.1 per cent of the Czech Republic had a normal level of water in the soil in mid-April while extreme drought was found in 75.4 per cent of the country.
Drought conditions have persisted since 2015, as temperatures rise and rainfall dwindles.
"We are facing an unprecedented drought period, both in its duration and its impact," Brabec said after scientists presented data showing the Czech Republic faced the worse drought in 500 years.
"Smaller rivers will dry out, there may be tens, perhaps hundreds of communities supplied by cisterns, because their sources may dry out," Brabec said.
Graphics: Both images were acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 / NASA
Severe drought is a rather a common occurrence in Chile, but the current one is setting a record-breaking longevity, entering its tenth year. The river flows and reservoirs running dry due to drought worsening, being at their historically low levels. Years of resource exploitation and lax legislation have resulted in most reservoirs in the central parts of the country running dry. Now, there are more than 400,000 families and nearly 1.5 million people approximately, whose water supply depends on tanker truck deliveries. Animals are dying due to lack of available water.
According to the paleoclimatologists who look for clues of past climate conditions in tree rings, the estimation is that no drought in Chile's modern meteorological record (since 1915) has lasted longer. They are estimating that the last 'megadrought' of this scale probably occurred in this region more than 1000 years ago, explained René D. Garreaud, a scientist at the University of Chile.
Comment: It's also worth noting that there is good evidence the Americas are subject to cyclical megadroughts during times of planetary cooling, as happens to be the case today: A warning from ancient tree rings: The Americas are prone to catastrophic, simultaneous droughts
Rainfall amounts lately have been very poor, actually on the extremely low values! Over the last 10 years (since 2010), precipitation in central Chile has been below normal each year by an average of 20-45 %. Around Santiago, the Chile's capital, the lack of rain has been particularly extreme. Only 10-20 % of normal rainfall has been recorded between 2014 and 2019. And in 2019, the greater Santiago area and in Valparaiso, rainfall was almost 80 % below the previous record low. In the northern region of Coquimbo, it was even down by 90 %. While drought is now entering its tenth year, the situation is worsening and is critical.
Comment: Elsewhere in South America there are ongoing droughts in Brazil and Argentina threatening crucial crop harvests.
Comment: Meanwhile across the Atlantic this year's cold and wet spring sinks US wheat acreage to its lowest levels since USDA records began in 1919, with corn and potatoes down too.