How 2022 kept breaking new extreme weather records in ‘more volatile and unstable world’
From summer heat across the whole of the northern hemisphere to a cruel drought inflicting mass hunger in east Africa, 2022 felt almost unrelenting in extreme weather.
While hazards like hurricanes and wildfires happen naturally, climate breakdown is making them worse, scientists say.
And they agree that extreme weather events are going to become “more frequent in most locations across the world”, warned professor Tom Oliver, who specialises in ecology and evolutionary biology at Reading University.
But what is lesser known is “the way in which these events interact with each other and cause knock-on effects,” he said.
“Extreme weather is implicated in food shortages, mass human displacement and geopolitical conflict.
“These complex risk cascades are impossible to predict precisely but, as a general rule, we face a more volatile and unstable world as a result of accelerating climate change,” he added.
Here are just seven new records broken in 2022:
Fires broke out around England in the July heatwave
1. Record heat in UK left people and infrastructure struggling to cope
For the first time ever, temperatures soared to 40°C in the UK this summer, an event made ten times more likely by climate change, scientists said.
The extreme weather grounded flights, buckled trainlines and fuelled devastating blazes that destroyed homes.
The Met Office’s Mike Kendon said at the time that what stood out was “how much more widespread the heat was” than in previous heatwaves.
“Temperature records tend to get broken by modest amounts and by just a few stations, but the recent heat broke the national record by 1.6°C and across an extensive area of the country,” he said.
In Europe as a whole the average temperature was the highest on record for both August and summer period by “substantial margins” of 0.8°C for August and 0.4°C for summer, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Dead fish left on the dried-up bed of the river Tille in Lux, France, in August. Pic: AP
2. Europe’s drought worst in 500 years
All that heat fuelled Europe’s worst drought for some 500 years, according to preliminary analysis. The parched conditions shrivelled plants and rivers, leaving hordes of dead fish and failed crops.
The drought exacerbated the energy crisis by evaporating water from hydropower lakes and hindering cooling of nuclear power plants.
What made it so bad was the fact “most of Europe” was exposed to compounding heatwaves and dry weather, an EU researcher said.
In the second worst drought, 2018, dry and hot weather in central and northern Europe was partially offset by wet conditions in the south.
Pic: AP
3. Drought-triggered famine in east Africa
This year Somalia and Ethiopia suffered what is thought to be the worst drought in 40 years, fuelled by climate change.
It has driven people to hunger and the brink of famine, threatening the lives and livelihoods of 36 million people.
Catastrophic levels of hunger in drought-stricken Madagascar should be a “wake up call” to the current and severe danger of global heating, the World Food Programme warned in August, as the country teetered on the edge of the world’s first climate change-induced famine.
Hundreds of firefighters struggled to contain a blaze in the Gironde region of southwestern France in July
4. Europe wildfires – second highest on record, but pollution broke new boundaries
Fierce, scorching wildfires across Europe were fuelled by longer and hotter heatwaves and drought..
More land was torched than in any other year on record apart from 2017, when the Ophelia cyclone intensified an unseasonal October fire in Portugal.
But the amount of harmful pollution did reach a new record high, with the total emissions from the European Union and the UK from June to August 2022 thought to be the highest for these months since the summer of 2007.
Wildfire emissions are a significant source of atmospheric pollutants, which turn air dirty and harm human health.
“This year’s fire season was very intense in terms of burnt areas, but especially so in terms of [the] number of fires and fire danger levels,” Dr Jesús San-Miguel-Ayanz, from the European Commission’s Disaster Risk Management Unit, told Sky News.
Pic: AP
5. India and Pakistan heat ‘a sign of things to come’
As Pakistan and India sweltered in a spring heatwave, scientists warned record-breaking temperatures have been made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis.
It was a “sign of things to come,” they said as they published the study.
India endured its hottest March since records began over 120 years ago, and land surface temperatures in south Ahmedabad soared to 65°C in April.
The crippling heat compounded energy shortages, with a surge in demand leaving many without power. It also wiped out 50% of some crop yields.
When the mercury soared to 50.2°C in Nawabshah, a city in southern Pakistan, it was thought to be the highest temperature ever reliably measured in April for any location on Earth.
An aerial view of damaged and inundated homes after Hurricane Ian tore through Lee County in Florida, U.S. Pic: ABC via Reuters
6. Counting the cost of Hurricane Ian
Hurricane Ian is this year’s most expensive catastrophe, with estimated preliminary insured losses of $50bn (£41.1bn).
The category 4 hurricane made landfall in western Florida in late September with extreme winds, torrential rain and storm surge.
Swiss Re Institute predicts it to be the second-costliest insured loss ever after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, more than 2012’s Superstorm Sandy that swamped New York and New Jersey.
The aftermath of Hurricane Ian brought an increase in reported infections of a rare flesh-eating bacteria.
Homes are surrounded by floodwaters in Sohbat Pur city, a district of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, Pic: AP
7. Violent flooding in Pakistan burst river banks and records
From mid-June to late August large areas of Pakistan suffered record-breaking monsoonal rainfall.
It inflicted flash floods and landslides, and saw overflowing rivers and glacial lakes. The flooding uprooted more than 32 million people, destroyed 1.7 million homes, and killed more than 1,700 people.
The south Asian nation received more than three times its usual rainfall in August, making it the wettest August since
1961.
Two southern provinces, Sindh and Balochistan, experienced their wettest August ever recorded, receiving seven and eight times their usual monthly totals respectively.
The multibillion dollar damages inflicted on the middle-income country, that has done relatively little to cause climate change, reignited the debate about who pays for climate disasters.
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There is much that is still not known about the US strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Reports are coming in about which sites were hit and what military elements were involved, as President Donald Trump hails the attack on social media.
Here’s what we know so far.
Follow latest: US bombers strike three Iranian nuclear sites
Which sites were hit?
America appears to have hit the three key locations in Iran’s nuclear programme.
They include Isfahan, the location of a significant research base, as well as uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow.
Natanz was believed to have been previously damaged in Israeli strikes after bombs disrupted power to the centrifuge hall, possibly destroying the machines indirectly.
However the facility at Fordow, which is buried around 80 metres below a mountain, had previously escaped major damage.
Details about the damage in the US strikes is not yet known, although Mr Trump said the three sites had been “obliterated”.
Read more:
Fordow: What we know about Iran’s secretive ‘nuclear mountain’
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Sky’s Mark Stone explains how Iran might respond to the US strike on Tehran’s nuclear sites.
What weapons were used in the attacks?
The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation, but a US official said B-2 heavy bombers were involved.
Fox News host Sean Hannity said he had spoken with the president and that six bunker buster bombs were used on the Fordow facility.
Bunker buster bombs are designed to explode twice. Once to breach the ground surface and again once the bomb has burrowed down to a certain depth.
A file picture of a GBU-57 bunker buster bomb, which was possibly used in the attack on Fordow. Pic: AP
Israel has some in its arsenal but does not have the much more powerful GBU-57, which can only be launched from the B-2 bomber and was believed to be the only bomb capable of breaching Fordow.
Hannity said 30 Tomahawk missiles fired by US submarines 400 miles away struck the Iranian nuclear sites of Natanz and Isfahan.
The US has carried out a “very successful attack” on three nuclear sites on Iran, President Donald Trump has said.
The strikes, which the US leader announced on social media, reportedly include a hit on the heavily-protected Fordow enrichment plant which is buried deep under a mountain.
The other sites hit were at Natanz and Isfahan. It brings the US into direct involvement in the war between Israel and Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the “bold decision” by Mr Trump, saying it would “change history”.
Iran has repeatedly denied that it is seeking a nuclear weapon and the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said in June that it has no proof of a “systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon”.
Follow latest: US bombers strike three Iranian nuclear sites
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Trump: Iran strikes ‘spectacular success’
Addressing the nation in the hours after the strikes, Mr Trump said that Iran must now make peace or “we will
go after” other targets in Iran.
Commenting on the operation, he said that the three Iranian sites had been “obliterated”.
“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight
days,” he said.
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Benjamin Netanyahu said Donald Trump and the US have acted with strength following strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In a posting on Truth Social earlier, Mr Trump said, “All planes are safely on their way home” and he congratulated “our great American Warriors”. He added: “Fordow is gone.”
He also threatened further strikes on Iran unless it doesn’t “stop immediately”, adding: “Now is the time for peace.”
It is not yet clear if the UK was directly involved in the attack.
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‘Iranians have to repond’
Read more:
Analysis: If Israel breaks Iran it will end up owning the chaos
Fordow: What we know about Iran’s secretive ‘nuclear mountain’
Among the sites hit was Fordow, a secretive nuclear facility buried around 80 metres below a mountain and one of two key uranium enrichment plants in Iran.
“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” Mr Trump said. “Fordow is gone.”
There had been a lot of discussion in recent days about possible American involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict, and much centred around the US possibly being best placed to destroy Fordow.
Meanwhile, Natanz and Isfahan were the other two sites hit in the US attack.
Natanz is the other major uranium enrichment plant in Iran and was believed to have possibly already suffered extensive damage in Israel’s strikes earlier this week.
Isfahan features a large nuclear technology centre and enriched uranium is also stored there, diplomats say.
Map showing the Fordow enrichment plant
US media reported that six ‘bunker buster’ bombs were used to strike Fordow.
Mr Trump said no further strikes were planned and that he hoped diplomacy would now take over.
It’s not yet known what Iran’s response will be – particularly as the government was already struggling to repel Israel.
However a commentator on Iranian state TV said every US citizen or military in the region was now a legitimate target.
World
Like George W Bush did in Iraq, if Israel breaks Iran it will end up owning the chaos that could ensue
Israelis are good at tactics, poor at strategic vision, it has been observed.
Their campaign against Iran may be a case in point.
Short termism is understandable in a region that is so unpredictable. Why make elaborate plans if they are generally undone by unexpected events? It is a mindset that is familiar to anyone who has lived or worked there.
And it informs policy-making. The Israeli offensive in Gaza is no exception. The Israeli government has never been clear how it will end or what happens the day after that in what remains of the coastal strip. Pressed privately, even senior advisers will admit they simply do not know.
It may seem unfair to call a military operation against Iran that literally took decades of planning short-termist or purely tactical. There was clearly a strategy of astonishing sophistication behind a devastating campaign that has dismantled so much of the enemy’s capability.
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How close is Iran to producing a nuclear weapon?
But is there a strategic vision beyond that? That is what worries Israel’s allies.
It’s not as if we’ve not been here before, time and time again. From Libya to Afghanistan and all points in between we have seen the chaos and carnage that follows governments being changed.
Hundreds of thousands have died. Vast swathes of territory remain mired in turmoil or instability.
Which is where a famous warning sign to American shoppers in the 80s and 90s comes in.
Ahead of the disastrous invasion that would tear Iraq apart, America’s defence secretary, Colin Powell, is said to have warned US president George W Bush of the “Pottery Barn rule”.
The Pottery Barn was an American furnishings store. Signs among its wares told clumsy customers: “You break it, you own it.”
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Iran and Israel exchange attacks
Bush did not listen to Powell hard enough. His administration would end up breaking Iraq and owning the aftermath in a bloody debacle lasting years.
Israel is not invading Iran, but it is bombing it back to the 80s, or even the 70s, because it is calling for the fall of the government that came to power at the end of that decade.
Iran’s leadership is proving resilient so far but we are just a week in. It is a country of 90 million, already riven with social and political discontent. Its system of government is based on factional competition, in which paranoia, suspicion and intense rivalries are the order of the day.
Read more:
Putin says ‘Ukraine is ours’ and threatens nuclear strike
Air India warned by watchdog over pilot scheduling breaches
After half a century of authoritarian theocratic rule there are no opposition groups ready to replace the ayatollahs. There may be a powerful sense of social cohesion and a patriotic resentment of outside interference, for plenty of good historic reasons.
But if that is not enough to keep the country together then chaos could ensue. One of the biggest and most consequential nations in the region could descend into violent instability.
That will have been on Israel’s watch. If it breaks Iran it will own it even more than America owned the disaster in Iraq.
Iran and Israel are, after all, in the same neighbourhood.
Has Israel thought through the consequences? What is the strategic vision beyond victory?
And if America joins in, as Donald Trump is threatening, is it prepared to share that legacy?
At the very least, is his administration asking its allies whether they have a plan for what could come next?
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