In 2024, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 393 natural hazard-related disasters. These events caused 16,753 fatalities and affected 167.2 million people. Economic losses totaled US$241.95 billion. The year 2024 was marked by extreme temperature events in Asia that caused thousands of deaths, severe droughts in Africa affecting over 25 …
volcanic eruptions in the Caribbean island of Montserrat not only affect its surroundings, but poses a serious threat to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Scientists have found that whenever the disastrous tropical eruption takes place, Edinburgh suffers its worst winter storms. Alistair Dawson, an earth scientist at the Coventry University …
A tornado in Bangladesh killed at least 25 people and injured about 5,000 people on October 12. The tornado that lasted for about 30 minutes blew away tin roofs, trees and electricity poles near Tongi, an industrial town near the capital Dhaka. Most of the people died from being hit …
Fierce storms and rains have affected Guatemala's coffee cultivation. The vice-president of the National Coffee Association, William Strixrud said that two weeks of incessant rains had damaged about 200,000 bags of an estimated 3.3 million bags for the 1997-98 harvest. "The effects are irreversible. The rains have destroyed the mature …
do plants flourish after a storm or do they simply look fresher and greener because they have taken a shower? Since this look of plants cannot be achieved with a sprinkler, the implication is that something more dramatic happens during thunderstorms. Botanists now offer scientific evidence to support this assertion …
EL NINO, the reversal of ocean currents across the Pacific that periodically disrupts the world's weather, has won another round of its cat-and-mouse game with climate modellers by sneaking up largely unseen. In the past two months, waters in most of the tropical Pacific have warmed dramatically, by up to …
Bangladesh took another blow from its yearly tryst with storms when a devastating tornado ripped through its northern regions on May 14 killing around 1,000 people. The tornado, with a wind- speed of200 km per hour, lasted 20 minutes and left a trail of destruction in Tangail district. It blew …
For the Bangladeshis it was yet another stormy encounter with the rain gods in the last week of March. Rain storms With wind speeds of nearly 70 km an hour struck Dhaka and four other neighbouring districts, causing immense damage to houses and crops. In the calamity, four people also …
The Doha climate conference stretched beyond deadline but ended in what can best be described a nail-biting finish. This was the 18th conference of parties (COP) to the climate convention, which meets once a year to push for action to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which are so intertwined with economic …
