Scientists from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, have for the first time observed a rare natural phenomenon - glacial flooding in Greenland. More than 3 trillion litres of meltwater poured out of a lake in the eastern part of the island over several weeks. The study highlighted the "enormous and potentially dangerous forces" that meltwater can unleash. Catalina Lake in East Greenland holds three times the annual water consumption of the whole of Denmark. It dumped 3.4 cubic kilometres of meltwater into the Scoresby Sound fjord.

The downward trend in snowfall across the entire alpine range between 1920 and 2020 is notable, with an overall 34% decrease. These are the results of a study coordinated by Eurac Research and published in the scientific journal International Journal of Climatology on December 4. The analysis also took into account how altitude and climatological parameters such as temperature and total precipitation affect the picture. Seasonal data on snowfall and rainfall came from 46 locations scattered throughout the Alps.

Hurricanes and typhoons are estimated to cause a whopping $133 billion in damage in 2024. According to reinsurance company Munich Re, this year's storm season was the costliest since 2017. Economic losses were well above both the ten-year average ($89 billion) and the 30-year average ($63 billion). The main reason was the severe North Atlantic hurricane season, which caused a total of $110 billion in damage in North America alone, according to Munich Re. Helen alone caused more than $50 billion dollars worth of damage.

The heavy rains recorded this Wednesday in the province of Malaga have caused early in the afternoon the overflow of the Benamargosa river as it passes through the Malaga town of the same name, where the water has begun to enter some homes. The mayor of this municipality of about 1,600 inhabitants, Salvador Arcas (PSOE), has explained that the population has been recommended not to be in the street, and has contacted the Provincial Consortium of Firefighters to request assistance. Through its social networks, the City Council has warned that “there is much risk of a lot of water coming all at once and it can be fatal”, so it has asked the neighbors not to be in the street “and much less on the bridge, streams or Cuatro Vientos”.

You may have noticed that every year the leaves turn yellow and fall later and later. You didn't: a review of 64 studies from 1931 to 2010 in Asia, Europe and North America confirmed that rising global temperatures have delayed leaf fall in the Northern Hemisphere. Michael Lavelle, a senior lecturer in the Department of Landscape Management at Anglia Ruskin University, examined the causes and consequences of this trend in the pages of The Conversation.

Zurich-based catastrophe insurance data provider PERILS AG has published a preliminary estimate of industry losses from floods in Central Europe and Italy between September 14 and 20, 2024, estimating a total of €1.886 billion. As a reminder, the low-pressure system Boris (also known as Anette) caused prolonged heavy rainfall over a very large area in Central Europe in mid-September, leading to flooding in the Danube, Elbe, Oder and Vistula river basins. According to PERILS, most of the losses occurred in Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland, which accounted for about 95% of the industry's losses, followed by Italy and Slovakia.

People in the world's smallest countries, those that contribute the least to climate change, are the hardest hit, especially by flooding. And the situation is getting worse. These are the results of a study conducted by the University of Bristol and published Nov. 10 in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The research found that, on average, nearly one in five people among the inhabitants of small island developing states - about 8.5 million people in total - are currently affected by coastal and inland flooding. Three of these 57 countries, concentrated in the Pacific, Caribbean, Indian Ocean and South China Sea, namely the Bahamas, Guyana and Tuvalu, tripled that percentage to more than 60 percent of the population, according to the findings.

This year Azerbaijan is hosting the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-29). This is the largest international event in the country's history. About 80,000 foreign guests will arrive at COP29, which will be held from November 11 to 22 at the Baku Stadium, and more than 50 heads of state and government have confirmed their participation in this large-scale event. The main expectation from COP29 is to agree a fair and ambitious New Collective Quantitative Goal (NCQG) for climate finance.

The Mediterranean Sea temperature record since the beginning of modern observations was set in 2023, with the average surface temperature increasing by more than 1 degree Celsius in 25 years, there has been a gradual increase in temperature since 2013 in the southern Tyrrhenian Sea, spreading northwards, and warming of deeper layers, up to 800 meters. This is the conclusion reached by ENEA and INGV within the MACMAP project in collaboration with GNV, the ferry company of the MSC Group. This was reported on November 8 by the Italian publication AGI.

Intense rains hit Savona, the largest city in Liguria, a region in northern Italy, today. Waterlogging was recorded in Albenga, as well as in Tovo San Giacomo, Calice Ligure and Altara. Significant rainfall was recorded in the municipality of Quiliano: up to 56 mm of water fell in just one hour. West of Savona, up to 190 mm of rain fell overnight. In the neighborhood of Cerilese, severe flooding was reported along the Via Romana. “Due to the heavy rains, the river overflowed despite the system of bulkheads and protective barriers installed due to the yellow (not orange) warning,” said vice-mayor and councillor Luigi Giordano, who is monitoring the weather situation.

Severe winds and heavy rains from Hurricane Helen destroyed one-fifth of the cotton crop in Georgia, the second-largest cotton state in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's monthly crop production report (WASDE), Agriculture News reported Oct. 15. A preliminary damage report from the University of Georgia put cotton losses at $207-220 million. State officials said the storm's total damage to Georgia agriculture amounted to $6.46 billion ($625 billion). “Georgia and North Carolina accounted for the majority of the reduction,” the WASDE report said. The hurricane hit the states during harvest time. In addition, poultry farms closed during the rampage, which also took a significant economic toll.

In Turkey, a person was injured when lightning struck an airport. The portal HavaSosyalMedya writes about this. “Before the departure of the Rize-Artvin - Istanbul flight, lightning struck the airport when the plane door was about to close to allow the take-off process to begin. As a result of a lightning strike, the on-board operator of the aircraft lost consciousness and fell,” the report says. Due to ongoing lightning strikes, the airport has temporarily postponed aircraft takeoffs and landings and all operations on the runway. The injured man was hospitalized.