Page 3 - Weather

Nearly 250 mn children missed school in 2024 due to extreme weather: Unicef

At least 242 million children in 85 countries had their schooling interrupted last year because of heatwaves, cyclones, flooding and other extreme weather, the United Nations Children's Fund said in a new report Friday. UNICEF said it amounted to one in seven school-going children across the world being kept out of class at some point in 2024 because of climate hazards. The report also outlined how some countries saw hundreds of their schools destroyed by weather, with low-income nations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa hit especially hard. But other regions weren't spared the extreme weather, as torrential rains and floods in Italy near the end of the year disrupted school for more than 900,000 children. Thousands had their classes halted after catastrophic flooding in Spain. While southern Europe dealt with deadly floods and Asia and Africa had flooding and cyclones, heatwaves were the predominant climate hazard shuttering schools last year, UNICEF said, as the earth recorded its .

Improving capabilities: IMD must remain at the forefront of innovation

As India's weather-tracking department recently turned 150, its importance cannot be overstated. Weather forecasting plays a crucial role in daily operations across various sectors

PM Modi to launch Mission Mausam on Jan 14 to make India more weather-ready

Climate-smart India: Mission Mausam has been designed to ensure better preparedness for future climatic challenges with a budget of Rs 2,000 crore over two years

Govt plans framework for weather advisory units for farmers shut last year

The government wants to establish a solid framework to continue the work of district agrometeorological units (DAMUs) which until now had been operating in an ad-hoc manner, Ministry of Earth Sciences secretary M Ravichandran has said. PTI reported in August last year that the government plans to revive the network of DAMUs, which provided detailed block-level weather-related information to lakhs of farmers in the country until the India Meteorological Department (IMD) directed their closure earlier this month following instructions from Niti Aayog. "As part of the pilot project, the Earth Sciences Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry provided weather information to farmers. Agricultural meteorologists in DAMUs analyze how weather conditions will affect crops. Their primary role is to offer advice to farmers. The system functioned well, but it should not remain ad-hoc; it needs to be made permanent," Ravichandran told PTI. He said the government wants to establish a solid framework

Delhi's air quality worsens, AQI remains in 'poor' category for 3rd day

Earlier in the week, on Monday, the capital saw a temporary improvement in air quality, with levels shifting to the "moderate" category after heavy rainfall over the weekend

IMD says 2024 warmest year in India since 1901; China also heating up

The annual mean temperature in 2024 was 25.75 degrees Celsius, 0.65 degrees above the long-period average, making it the highest recorded since 1901

Climate change led to 41 additional days of extreme heat in 2024: Report

The world experienced an average of 41 more days of extreme heat in 2024 due to climate change, a new report said on Friday. According to the European climate agency Copernicus, 2024 is set to end as the warmest year on record and the first year with a global average temperature 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. A yearly review report by two groups of climate scientists -- World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central -- said the world saw an average of 41 more days of dangerous heat in 2024. Small island developing states were hit the hardest, with their people experiencing over 130 additional hot days. The scientists identified 219 extreme weather events in 2024 and studied 29 of them. They found that climate change contributed to at least 3,700 deaths and displaced millions in 26 extreme weather events. "It is likely the total number of people killed in extreme weather events intensified by climate change this year is in the tens or hundreds of thousands,"

Severe cold wave hits India: North freezes, Delhi chokes on 'severe' AQI

India shivers under a cold wave as freezing temperatures grip the north, while Delhi's air quality worsens to 'severe', prompting Grap Stage IV restrictions

Warmer than normal winters likely, Nov 2024 among warmest since 1901: IMD

"In the core cold there is lower to higher probability of both higher maximum and minimum temperatures in the next three months," IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said

Renewables expansion threatened by poor weather data: Industry leaders

As it strives to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy, India will need to increase the share of renewables in its coal-heavy energy basket, but it is already facing constraints

News updates: 27 dead amid heavy rain in Andhra, Telangana; 140 trains cancelled

News updates: Catch all the latest news developments related to the floods in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana here

IMD weather forecast: Light rain in Delhi, Noida; orange alert in 5 states

The weather department issued an orange alert in multiple states. Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh may experience heavy downpours in the coming days

India recorded July as warmest month ever for nighttime temperatures: IMD

IMD weather update: The record heat was accompanied by 'exceptionally heavy rainfall' in various states, including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Kerala, which led to significant flooding last month

June warmest on record, 12th month over 1.5 degrees C limit: EU agency

With millions of people across five continents experiencing scorching heat last month, the European Union's climate agency, Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), confirmed on Monday that June was the warmest on record. It also marked the 12th consecutive month of global temperatures reaching or breaking the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold. According to C3S ERA5 data, every month since June last year has been the warmest such month on record. In January, the world completed an entire year with the mean surface air temperature exceeding the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold. June was the 12th consecutive month with monthly average temperatures above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial average. At the 2015 UN climate talks in Paris, world leaders committed to limiting the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. However, a permanent breach of the 1.5-degree Celsius limit specified in the Paris Agreement .

Hurricane Beryl makes landfall in Mexico's top tourist destinations

Hurricane Beryl, the first of the 2024 Atlantic season, was at one point a Category 5 storm, making it the earliest Category 5 storm on record

Bihar witnesses another bridge collapse, 10th incident in over 15 days

Another instance of bridge collapse came to the fore in Bihar on Thursday, making it the 10th such incident to have been reported from the state in just over a fortnight, an official said. The latest incident was reported from Saran which witnessed two more bridge collapses in the last 24 hours, District Magistrate Aman Samir said. No casualty was reported after the structure, built 15 years ago by local authorities, collapsed this morning, he said. The small bridge over the Gandaki river was situated in the Baneyapur block and used to connect several villages in Saran with the neighbouring Siwan district. The small bridge was constructed 15 years ago. I am going to the spot. Several other officials of the district administration have already reached there. The exact cause of the bridge collapse is yet to be ascertained but desilting work was recently undertaken," the district magistrate told PTI. On Wednesday, the Saran district witnessed the collapse of two small bridges - one i

Beryl 'extremely dangerous' as it gains strength in Caribbean region

People in a broad swathe of the Eastern Caribbean boarded up shops, stocked up on food and filled their cars with fuel as the storm approached

Heavy rain in Delhi not due of cloudburst, something close to it: IMD

The torrential rain that brought Delhi to its knees last week was not a result of a cloudburst, the India Meteorological Department clarified on Monday. Addressing a press conference, IMD chief Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said the Safdarjung Observatory, the city's primary weather station, recorded 91 mm rainfall between 5 am and 6 am on June 28. Similarly, the Lodhi Road weather station logged 64 mm from 5 am to 6 am and 89 mm from 6 am to 7 am. "These do not warrant to be declared as cloudbursts, but it was very close to a cloudburst," Mohapatra said. Explaining the reason behind the extreme weather event, the IMD had earlier said multiple large-scale monsoonal weather systems created conditions for mesoscale convective activity over Delhi NCR, resulting in intense thunderstorms and heavy rainfall during the early hours of June 28. This activity was supported by thermodynamic instability in the atmosphere, which is favourable for thunderstorms. The Safdarjung Observatory recorded 228.

'Extremely dangerous' hurricane Beryl's aggression threatens Caribbean

Most computer models keep Beryl away from US offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, but there is an outside chance the storm may threaten the region later this week

IMD weather today: Intense heatwave in North, rainfall alert in other areas

In some parts of Maharashtra, IMD anticipates heavy rainfall. Additionally, it predicts heat waves in numerous North Indian regions. The IMD says that Delhi will get some relief on Wednesday