Weird cloud in Portugal looks like humongous wave
Portugal is in the middle of a heatwave with highs of 42C and the conditions are likely to have been the cause of the strange cloud. "This is a spectacular example of a roll cloud. It's a type of arcus (curved) cloud that can form near to a powerful thunderstorm," said Sarah Keith-Lucas from BBC Weather. "Cool moist air from over the ocean rolls in to meet the warm, dry air over land," added Sarah, explaining that the heat it can cause water in the air quickly to turn into tiny droplets which forms a cloud. "Due to air flowing in different directions above and below the cloud, it can form into the distinctive cigar shape - a long, thin cloud which is most common close to the coast."
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The Guardian
22 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘A war of the truth': Europe's heatwaves are failing to spur support for climate action
'It's just too much, isn't it?' says Julie, a retiree in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, about the 42C (107.6F) heat that her brother had seen scorch Spain last week. The former local government worker has felt summers get hotter over her lifetime and says she 'couldn't stand' such high heat herself. But like many who experienced Europe's first heatwave of the summer, Julie does not sound overly alarmed. She worries about climate breakdown for young people, but is not concerned about herself. She thinks more climate action would be nice, but does not know what can be done about it. She does not have much faith in the government. 'It's like everything else,' she says. 'I think it's all too little, too late.' As heatwaves engulfed large swathes of Europe and North America last week – the latest in a stream of deadly extremes made worse by fossil fuel pollution – green groups are frustrated that increasingly violent weather has not spurred the urgent support for climate action they had expected. Governments across the rich world continue to roll back policies to stop the planet from heating, while far-right parties that deny climate science lash out at environment rules even as disasters unfold. Their voters, while rarely climate deniers themselves, seem to tolerate their energetic attacks on environmental policy, if not support them. The views of someone like Julie – who declined to reveal her voting preference – sound similar to what is seen across the country, said Ed Hodgson, an analyst at the research group More in Common who has run focus groups on climate action. Polls taken over the second-last weekend of June show most people in the UK found the previous week of weather too hot; are worried it will get hotter; and hold the climate crisis at least partly responsible. But the nonprofit also found the share of people concerned about climate change has fallen over the last year, dipping from 68% to 60%. Support for the UK's target to hit net zero emissions by 2050 fell even further, plunging from 62% to 46%. 'The issue is really that there are so many other concerns now,' said Hodgson, citing the organisation's data tracking the top issues that people face each week. 'Three years ago you'd have the cost of living first, then the National Health Service, and then immigration and climate – those two would compete for third place. Now, when we do those polls, climate is near the bottom of the list.' The contradictions are visible in towns such as Stanford-le-Hope, where Julie lives, which is among the few already represented in parliament by the rightwing populist Reform UK. A YouGov poll last month found just over half of Reform voters wanted a heatwave in the coming weeks. The party, which has promised to scrap the net zero target and 'unlock Britain's vast oil and gas reserves', is projected to win eight of the 10 most flood-prone constituencies at the next general election, according to an analysis in May by the NGO Global Witness and Round Our Way, a campaign group. Far-right parties across mainland Europe have been even more vocal in using the heatwave to take aim at climate policy, even as blazing wildfires force thousands to flee their homes and doctors warn of widespread excess deaths. In Spain, where temperatures reached highs of 46C on Tuesday, the Vox leader, Santiago Abascal, mocked a government promise to regulate fear-based advertising by asking if they were also going to 'ban the propaganda of climate religion'. In Italy, which has limited outdoor work during the hottest parts of the day in most of the country, the Lega party MP Claudio Borghi said: 'Climate change has always existed, the causes are anything but clear, and the solutions are contrary to what … is correct.' Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion In Germany, the Alternative für Deutschland co-chair Alice Weidel shared a social media post from a climate sceptic that compared the heat on Tuesday to slightly hotter temperatures on the same day in 1952, as the country was 'clearing away the rubble of war'. The post took a swipe at the World Economic Forum, the German public broadcaster and the Green party. The biggest political row over the heat erupted in France, where the National Rally figurehead, Marine Le Pen, called for a 'major' air conditioning plan – one week after the party failed in its parliamentary push to halt new wind and solar projects. In an opinion article in Le Figaro on Thursday, the interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, a conservative, called to stop support for renewable energy and expand France's nuclear energy sector. The proposal earned rebukes from the ecology minister, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who described it as 'petty politics' that would write Algeria a check for oil, and the former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who called it an 'incomprehensible' misstep. 'As we endure several days of an unprecedented heatwave, we are witnessing a troubling resurgence of anti-science scepticism,' he said. Some far-right parties have focused their attention on old-school climate denial, while others have moved from questioning the science to aggressively campaigning against solutions. 'I don't think the extreme heat is being weaponised, but the efforts to limit it certainly are,' said Ciarán Cuffe, a co-chair of the European Green party and former Irish environment minister. He added that Le Pen's call for more air conditioning – which he said should be one solution among many – may even represent a shift in strategy. 'It's a recognition that these heatwaves are happening, and that they are extreme.' The paradox is that far-right parties bashing green rules are polling well above 20% in several European countries, even though the share of people who deny climate science is typically in single digits. In the UK, pollsters find just 6% of Reform voters list environmental policy as a reason for voting for the party, according to More in Common. That said, the level of threat perception among their voters is much higher than in other parties, said Hodgson. 'They see threats around them and think we need a strong response. So it makes sense for politicians to campaign around those moments.' Climate campaigners have argued that the far right's success in dominating the climate narrative is weakening support for action and providing centrist parties cover to scrap green policies, even if it has failed to create a widespread backlash against green policy. 'The far right has a strategy but everyone else doesn't,' said Luisa Neubauer, a German activist from Fridays for Future, which staged its first night-time protest against climate inaction outside the German economy ministry on Wednesday, as a result of the high heat. Too many people in power or with platforms 'have not yet understood that we're in a war of language – and a war of the truth – about the climate,' she added. 'And too few of us are actively standing in the way of that.'
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Sustainable Switch: Deadly heat wave hits Europe
This is an excerpt of the Sustainable Switch newsletter, where we make sense of companies and governments grappling with climate change, diversity, and human rights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here. Hello, A deadly heat wave has struck Europe and the Mediterranean basin, claiming a total of eight lives in Spain, France and Italy while thousands flee wildfires in Greece and Turkey. Four people died in Spain, two in France and two in Italy as an early summer heat wave continues to grip much of Europe this week, triggering health alerts and forest fires and forcing the closure of a nuclear reactor at a Swiss power plant. Spanish officials said a wildfire in Catalonia killed two people a day earlier, and authorities reported heat wave-linked deaths also in Extremadura and Cordoba. France's energy minister reported two deaths linked to the heat, with 300 others taken to hospital. Two men over the age of 60 died from the heat in separate incidents on the beach in the Italian island of Sardinia, ANSA news agency reported. Italy issued red alerts for 18 cities, while in Germany temperatures were forecast to peak at 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas, making it the hottest day of the year. Wildfires in Greece, Spain, Turkey and France Hundreds of firefighters battled a blaze on Crete Island on Thursday, which burnt swathes of forest and olive groves and forced the evacuation of over 1,000 people, officials said, underscoring the region's vulnerability to destructive wildfires. At least 230 firefighters, along with 46 engines and helicopters, were deployed to contain the conflagration, which broke out a day earlier near Ierapetra town on the southeastern coast of Greece's largest island. Over in Spain, a blaze in Torrefeta, a region in Catalonia, broke out in a farming area on Tuesday afternoon and killed two people, destroyed several farms, and affected an area stretching for around 40 km (25 miles), firefighters said. Meanwhile, firefighters battled wildfires in Turkey and France on Monday and more than 50,000 people were evacuated. Closing schools and nuclear reactors Swiss utility Axpo shut down one reactor unit at the Beznau nuclear power plant and halved output at another on Tuesday because of high river water temperature. In France, nearly 1,900 schools were closed, up from around 200 on Monday. The heat was set to peak in France on Tuesday at 40-41 C in some areas, weather forecaster Meteo France said. The top floor of the Eiffel Tower was closed, disappointing scores of visitors. Some Italian regions banned outdoor work during the hottest hours of the day as Italy issued heat wave red alerts for 17 cities, including Milan and Rome. What the scientists are saying Europe is heating up at twice the global average speed and is the world's fastest-warming continent, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service has said. "What is exceptional ... but not unprecedented is the time of year," said World Meteorological Organization spokesperson Clare Nullis. Europe was experiencing extreme heat episodes "which normally we would see later on in the summer," she said. Scientists say greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are a cause of climate change, with deforestation and industrial practices being other contributing factors. Last year was the planet's hottest on record. "We keep hearing about climate change. I think we're definitely feeling it now," said Omar Bah, a rental company worker in London, where temperatures hit 32 C. The Mediterranean Sea hit a record 30 C off Spain, six degrees above the seasonal average, Spanish weather forecaster AEMET said, as a high pressure system trapped hot air above Europe - a phenomenon known as a heat dome. ESG LENS The United States Senate passed a revised version of U.S. President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" that was more positive for wind power compared to an earlier version. In the Senate's final version, wind and solar projects will be able to use the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act's tax credits if they begin construction before 2026. A previous version was based on when the projects enter service. Shares in European renewable energy companies rose on Wednesday with shares of Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas jumping around 10%, while its German peer Nordex rose 2%. Vestas and other renewable energy stocks in Europe have been sensitive to the news around the bill this year. Click here for the full Reuters story on the bill's impact on renewables. Today's Sustainable Switch was edited by Emelia Sithole-Matarise Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also subscribe here.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
Low water levels on Danube disrupt shipping as heatwave hits Hungary
BUDAPEST, July 4 (Reuters) - Unusually low water levels on the Danube river in Hungary are affecting shipping, agriculture, and local ecosystems along Europe's second-longest river, which is a major transport route across the continent. Temperatures peaked at 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in Budapest this week as much of Europe baked in an early summer heatwave linked to the death of at least eight people. As a result of the low water levels, cargo ships must leave behind more than half of their cargo and can only operate at 30-40% capacity, Attila Bencsik, deputy president of the Hungarian Shipping Association, said. Shipping rates might increase by as much as 100% as a surcharge is added when a ship cannot sail fully loaded, he said. Such low water levels have been previously recorded on the Danube, but they usually happen in August, Attila Szegi, a deputy spokesman for the Hungarian General Directorate of Water Management, said. Szegi said that rain was expected in the Danube catchment area next week, which should lead to a slight rise in water levels and an improvement in the shipping situation. The Hungarian state meteorological institute HungaroMet said that rainfall in June was only 17% of the average for that month, making this June the driest since 1901. "June is one of the most rainy months of the year in our climate, and now we have this low water level," Gyorgy Matavovszki said, as he stopped with his kayak on a sandbank at Szob, a town north of Budapest. "It has its beauty because the water is clear, it is easy to paddle in it ..., but it is worrying." The Vistula river was at a record low in Warsaw, and the Rhine in Germany was also unusually low. Michał Sikora, a meteorologist and hydrologist at Poland's IMGW, said that the Vistula River reached a record low level of 19 centimetres (7.48 inches) on Friday, adding that it is expected to decline further in the coming days, possibly to below 15 centimetres.
