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2022, the year of “extreme weather phenomena”

2022-12-31T09:21:52.175Z


IN PICTURES - Drought, high temperatures, storms, hurricanes, floods... the year 2022 was marked by many extreme natural disasters.


"

2022 was the year of extreme phenomena,

" says Fabio d'Andrea, CNRS research director at the Dynamic Meteorology Laboratory.

Hurricane Ian in the United States and Cuba, floods in Pakistan, heat waves in Western Europe... Many weather-related natural disasters have hit the planet on both sides this year .

The Permanent Observatory of Natural Disasters (Cat Nat) recorded 891 events in the world in 2022. A “

rather low

” figure, estimates Yorik Baunay, director of the Observatory, which has counted an average of one thousand events per year since 2012. However, “

if there were fewer events, they were more intense

”, observes the director.

On a scale of severity, "

they are a little higher than the average of the last ten years

".

Read alsoNatural disasters: “We are already facing the consequences of climate change”

These extreme disasters also caused more victims.

With 32,100 deaths in 2022, against 12,000 to 13,000 on average since 2012. But this parameter is "

variable

" since "

it only takes a big disaster in a developing country

", for the number of deaths to explode, explains Yorik Baunay .

This is the case this year with the floods that hit Pakistan.

Graph representing the number of natural disasters and victims in the world since 2001. Ubryrisk Consultants

In financial terms, the damage caused by these events has also increased, to the tune of $115 billion according to Swiss Re. The Swiss reinsurance giant says that 2022 is the second consecutive year in which total insured losses have exceeded the 100 billion dollars.

They follow the trend of the last ten years, marked by an average annual increase of 5% to 7%.

Record temperatures in Western Europe

This year, an early heat wave set in in Western Europe resulting in record temperatures.

According to the European climate change service Copernicus, the summer of 2022 was the hottest on record in this region of the world.

Temperatures easily reached 40°C on the Iberian Peninsula and in southwestern France.

The nights were also very warm with lows above 20°C.

A group of women cool off by dipping their feet in the fountain in Trafalgar Square, London, July 18, 2022. NIKLAS HALLE'N / AFP

This heat wave killed 14,108 people, all countries combined, and “

particularly in July

”, indicates Yorik Baunay.

In France, 2,816 people lost their lives during the three heat waves, according to Public Health France (SPF).

That is a relative excess mortality of +16.7%.

Over the period from June to September, SPF counts "

10,420 excess deaths from all causes (+ 6.1%)

".

Against 15,000 deaths during the heat wave of 2003.

A child cools off at a water fountain in the city center of Nîmes, in the south of France, on August 1, 2022. PASCAL GUYOT / AFP

To read on the subject:

  • The heat wave caused mortality to jump by 17% during the summer of 2022

  • The cities most threatened by the explosion in the number of heat wave days and nights

  • Power cuts, disrupted transport… How the heat wave affects our daily lives

A historic drought

As a result of extreme temperatures, drought has reached historic levels.

The reason ?

A rainfall deficit of 40% in France from the start of 2022. From April, the departments were forced one by one to restrict water as the water tables dried up.

A total of 46 departments presented “

red zones

” subject to significant restrictions.

We have a rainfall deficit of 88% compared to what would have been necessary

,” announced the Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu on August 1.

He also qualified the month of July as the driest month that France has known since the beginning of the surveys, in 1959.

An empty plastic bottle is pictured in the dry river "La Savoureuse" in Belfort, eastern France, on August 12, 2022. SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP

This drought and the virtual absence of rain favored the outbreak of fires.

The forests of Spain, Portugal, Morocco and France burned massively under the flames.

"

It's been a long time since we've seen fires of this size

," said Yorik Baunay, questioned.

Flames rise on a forest fire near Louchats, about 35 km from Landiras in Gironde, in the south-west of France, on July 18, 2022. PHILIPPE LOPEZ / POOL / AFP

In France, from La Teste-de-Buch to Landiras in the South-West, passing through the Monts d'Arrée in Finistère and as far as the Brocéliande forest in Morbihan.

A total of 72,000 hectares of forests went up in smoke this summer.

"

Six times more than the average of the last ten years

," recalled Emmanuel Macron in a speech on Friday, October 28.

The Saint-Michel-de-Braspart chapel surrounded by the scorched soil of the Mont d'Arrée in Saint-Rivoal, western France, on September 27, 2022. DAMIEN MEYER / AFP

To read on the subject:

  • A billion trees, Canadairs, PVs… Emmanuel Macron's plan to save the forest

  • Forest fires: the deadly summer

  • Fires: how to better protect the French forest

Deadly hailstones

Also in France, a violent hailstorm hit the Loire and Haute-Loire departments last July, causing heavy material damage.

On social networks, many Internet users have published impressive images of these bad weather, with devastating hailstones.

In August, Corsica was the victim of violent storms, killing five people, including two at sea. A 62-year-old fisherman and a kayaker in her sixties lost their lives there.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin described this event as a natural disaster, due to its exceptional violence.

Gérald Darmanin walks past a damaged car as he visits the campsite in Sagone, Corsica, where a tree fell on a bungalow during the storms, killing one person, August 18, 2022. EMMANUEL DUNAND / POOL / AFP

Yorik Baunay evokes a "

record year for France

" in this area.

The size of hailstones that can reach nine centimeters in diameter, unprecedented.

This caused "

damage to homes, vehicles...

" whose losses would amount to "

five billion euros

".

To read on the subject:

  • Corsica bereaved by storms of unusual suddenness

  • Storms in Corsica: how to explain this episode of exceptional violence

  • With these enthusiasts who chase the storms

Hurricane Ian

On the other side of the Atlantic, Hurricane Ian devastated Cuba, the Cayman Islands and the southeastern United States at the end of September.

Rated category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, this storm caused heavy damage to property and humans, mainly in the densely populated US states of Florida and the Carolinas.

It alone generated about half of the insured losses, for an estimated amount between 50 and 65 billion dollars.

Fort Myers Beach after Hurricane Ian hit on October 4, 2022, Florida, USA.

WIN MCNAMEE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

As for the human losses, 148 people lost their lives there on 1 November and millions of people found themselves without electricity and forced to take refuge.

Although it was voted the 22nd deadliest hurricane in the country's history according to the National Weather Service, Hurricane Ian was less devastating than Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people in 2005.

A police vehicle drives down a street flooded by rain from Hurricane Ian, September 30, 2022, in Charleston, South Carolina.

SCOTT OLSON / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

To read on the subject:

  • In Cuba, Hurricane Ian only completed an already moribund power grid

  • Between extremely powerful winds and torrential rains, Hurricane Ian leaves a devastated America

  • Washington offers $2 million to Cuba after Hurricane Ian

Floods in Pakistan

Started in June at the onset of the monsoon - the season of which runs from June to September - the floods in Pakistan intensified in August.

They killed more than 1,700 people and affected 33 million people.

The province of Sind, located in the south of the country, was the most affected with more than 300 dead.

"

Each year, the monsoon causes an average of between 2,000 and 3,000 deaths on the Asian continent

", informs Yorik Baunay.

Usually, India and Bangladesh are the victims of such floods this season, he adds.

Residents wade through flood waters following heavy monsoon rains in the Kandiaro region of Sindh province on September 2, 2022. ASIF HASSAN / AFP

A man and young boy use a satellite dish to move children through a flooded area after heavy monsoon rains in Balochistan province, Pakistan on August 26, 2022. FIDA HUSSAIN / AFP

If these torrential rains turned into a natural disaster, it is because of “

the development of the soil by men

”, explains the director of Cat Nat.

Indeed, “

they build houses in the beds of the rivers, that does not forgive, especially in a developing country such as Pakistan

”.

To read on the subject:

  • Pakistan plagued by catastrophic floods

  • Pakistan promises IMF to continue reforms after devastating floods

  • Floods in Pakistan threaten food supply in Afghanistan, says UN

“Taste of the 2050s”

Christophe Cassou, CNRS researcher and main author of the IPCC report, does not say he is "

surprised

", but "

impressed

" by the seriousness of these extreme natural disasters.

According to him, these events were "

perfectly foreseen by the IPCC reports of the 1900s and 2000s

".

The year 2022 is "

emblematic of human influence on the climate

" and of global warming.

But it is only a "

taste of the 2050s

".

The greater the human influence, the greater the frequency and severity of disasters.

Floods in Pakistan will increase in the coming years due to an "

intensification of the water cycle

".

The dryness of the soil will also worsen due to “

an increase in the evaporation of water from the earth,

observes Fabio d'Andrea.

It will dry out through the transpiration of the plants

”.

Read alsoA mixed success for COP27 which reduces the impact of fossil fuels

Faced with this overexposure to climate risks, “

the poorest countries are the most vulnerable

,” denounces Christophe Cassou.

They are the ones who emit the least greenhouse gases, but those who suffer the heaviest consequences

”.

This was one of the challenges of COP27: to reduce this “

double penalty

” by promising financial aid to developing countries.

The minimum of promises has been put on the table,

assures the researcher.

But will they be respected?

»

Source: lefigaro

All tech articles on 2022-12-31

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