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The obvious question facing communities today is how to adjust to extreme weather in ways that will cause the least amount of destruction. A number of communities have, in recent years, launched action plans to investigate their vulnerabilities and to brainstorm solutions. “Every community has its own Achilles heel,” says Cullen, author of a new book "The Weather of the Future".
Russian forest fires have been burning all summer long, with dozens killed and thousands of homes burned. One third of the grain crop has been burned or otherwise destroyed. The chief of Russian weather services says it is the hottest it's been since the eleventh century.
Estimates range that between one and twelve million hectares of carbon absorbing forests have been destroyed by fires.
Russia is not alone. There have been record temperatures in 17 countries this year. On May 26th, temperatures in Pakistan reached a suffocating 53.5 degrees Celsius. Since this spring-time anomaly temperatures have given way to flooding of unprecedented proportions. At least 1,600 Pakistanis have been killed, but well over 20 million have lost everything and are in danger of dying from starvation or disease.
With regards to extreme weather events Russia and Pakistan have been the worst effected. But all over the globe people have been experiencing weird and radical weather.
Author of the new book "The Weather of the Future", by Heidi Cullen, says "Extreme events are becoming more common." As climate change heats the world's average temperature, pockets of extreme weather events will become common place and the spin-off effects will be dramatic - from climate refugees, to devastated crops and damaged infrastructure.
This summer Canada has faced some extreme weather patterns:
- heat waves in Ontario and Quebec
- hundreds of wildfires in BC
- drought followed by floods in the Prairies
- hurricane Earl hitting Nova Scotia
Going forward, there is little doubt that Canada will experience more severe weather, says David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada. “In a warmer world, you connect the dots and you see clearly there are going to be threats.” But he emphasizes that there are parameters around what we should expect. “A lot of people think that we’ll have a totally different climate. It’s not going to be like typhoons in Saskatoon and sandstorms in St. John’s.” Rather, he says, “things that are rare will become more common. The kind of flood that you might expect every 20 years will occur maybe once every seven years. So it’s the frequency, the intensity, the duration” that will change.
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