Australia should also be mentioned due to an exceptionally hot summer in 2018–
2019, affecting most of the country, with the most extreme anomalies occurring in
inland New South Wales. January was Australia’s hottest month on record, being
the mean temperature summer the highest on record by almost 1 °C. A record was
broken (46.6 °C) at Adelaide on January. The year 2019 was also notable due to
unusual dry conditions, in comparison with long-term means, that together with
high temperatures resulted in unfortunate visible impact illustrated by the Australia
fires with more than 10.7 million ha of burnt area.
Monsson flooding episodes in 2019 caused high losses either in human lives and
financial. India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar reported over 2 200 lives lost
during the season. Also, parts of southern China were affected in June causing 83
deaths and over US$2.5 billion in economic losses, as well as the Islamic Republic
of Iran in late March and early April 2019, with 76 deaths and severe economic
losses [4]. A large part of the central USA was affected by heavy rainfall in the
period July 2018 to June 2019, being the 12-month rainfall averaged over the
contiguous USA (962 mm) the highest on record.
Slow-moving tropical cyclones can cause heavy rain because of their duration of
influence, as occurred in 2019, at Beira, Mozambique on March with the tropical
cyclone Idai. It was moving slowly at landfall, near almost 10 km/h, with
satellite-estimated rainfall amounts in excess of 610 mm over much of central
Mozambique. Huge portions of the country were submerged for days and over
1,000 people died. Damage was estimated at US$2.2 billion, mostly in Mozambique, whose GDP is just US$12 billion.
On the other hand, most of the Horn of Africa countries experienced exceptional
dryness in March and April, with cumulative precipitation estimated to be about
80% below average. These conditions affected several cropping areas, with impacts
on planted zones and yields, namely due to fall armyworm infestations. About 22.2
million people (6.7 million in Ethiopia, 3.1 million in Kenya, 2.1 million in
Somalia, 4.5 million in South Sudan and 5.8 million in the Sudan) were estimated
to be severely food insecure by 2019 [9].
According to IPCC [2], the world is on course to exceed the temperature
thresholds of 1.5 °C or 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, as agreed under the Paris
Agreement. This could lead the economies to a stage with an increasing risk of
pervasive effects of climate change beyond what is of our knowledge. The risk of
climate change impacts depends on complex interactions between climate related
hazards, exposure and the adaptive capacity of human and natural systems, which
differs from one country to another. However, over those global average temperature, the impacts will likely appear on many areas of our everyday lives, as on
health, food and water security, human security, human subsistence and income,
companies functioning, infrastructure and biodiversity. Climate change has severe
implications for ecosystem services and can affect patterns of natural resource use
(e.g. more energy use to tackle more frequent and severe heatwaves), as well as the
distribution of resources across regions (e.g. Iberia will likely suffer from water
shortage exacerbation) and also within countries.
8
J. Seixas and F. Ferreira
2019, affecting most of the country, with the most extreme anomalies occurring in
inland New South Wales. January was Australia’s hottest month on record, being
the mean temperature summer the highest on record by almost 1 °C. A record was
broken (46.6 °C) at Adelaide on January. The year 2019 was also notable due to
unusual dry conditions, in comparison with long-term means, that together with
high temperatures resulted in unfortunate visible impact illustrated by the Australia
fires with more than 10.7 million ha of burnt area.
Monsson flooding episodes in 2019 caused high losses either in human lives and
financial. India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar reported over 2 200 lives lost
during the season. Also, parts of southern China were affected in June causing 83
deaths and over US$2.5 billion in economic losses, as well as the Islamic Republic
of Iran in late March and early April 2019, with 76 deaths and severe economic
losses [4]. A large part of the central USA was affected by heavy rainfall in the
period July 2018 to June 2019, being the 12-month rainfall averaged over the
contiguous USA (962 mm) the highest on record.
Slow-moving tropical cyclones can cause heavy rain because of their duration of
influence, as occurred in 2019, at Beira, Mozambique on March with the tropical
cyclone Idai. It was moving slowly at landfall, near almost 10 km/h, with
satellite-estimated rainfall amounts in excess of 610 mm over much of central
Mozambique. Huge portions of the country were submerged for days and over
1,000 people died. Damage was estimated at US$2.2 billion, mostly in Mozambique, whose GDP is just US$12 billion.
On the other hand, most of the Horn of Africa countries experienced exceptional
dryness in March and April, with cumulative precipitation estimated to be about
80% below average. These conditions affected several cropping areas, with impacts
on planted zones and yields, namely due to fall armyworm infestations. About 22.2
million people (6.7 million in Ethiopia, 3.1 million in Kenya, 2.1 million in
Somalia, 4.5 million in South Sudan and 5.8 million in the Sudan) were estimated
to be severely food insecure by 2019 [9].
According to IPCC [2], the world is on course to exceed the temperature
thresholds of 1.5 °C or 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, as agreed under the Paris
Agreement. This could lead the economies to a stage with an increasing risk of
pervasive effects of climate change beyond what is of our knowledge. The risk of
climate change impacts depends on complex interactions between climate related
hazards, exposure and the adaptive capacity of human and natural systems, which
differs from one country to another. However, over those global average temperature, the impacts will likely appear on many areas of our everyday lives, as on
health, food and water security, human security, human subsistence and income,
companies functioning, infrastructure and biodiversity. Climate change has severe
implications for ecosystem services and can affect patterns of natural resource use
(e.g. more energy use to tackle more frequent and severe heatwaves), as well as the
distribution of resources across regions (e.g. Iberia will likely suffer from water
shortage exacerbation) and also within countries.
8
J. Seixas and F. Ferreira