Drought

Climate change responsible for spring and winter within weeks

Turkey experienced its third hottest year in 2020, yet now Istanbul and a host of other cities are blanketed with snow. We asked experts to explain the science to us.

Climate change bares its many faces in Turkey

A ‘false spring’ has tricked trees into blossoming, while low water levels at dams may be fertile breeding grounds for mosquito-borne diseases.

Wildfires and droughts devastate South American biodiversities

Unprecedented wildfires and droughts are wreaking havoc in South America, especially in the region between Paraguay, Parana and Uruguay rivers.

Heavy rain douses Australia's east coast bushfires

There are still 33 fires burning in Australia's New South Wales state, but they are all at the lowest warning level of "advice" and mostly in southeastern areas where the rains are headed.

Record 45 million need urgent food aid in southern Africa - UN

Low growth, rising population, drought and floods have contributed to worsening food insecurity in the region.

Rain to bring relief, risks to fire-stricken Australia

Forecasts of rain expected to bring some respite but risk of landslides and water pollution grows, officials say. Meanwhile, a top climatologist says Australia could become so dry that its residents could become "climate refugees."

Australia offers drought ravaged farmers up to $688 million in cheap loans

There will be no interest payable over the first two years of the loan, the government said. Farmers across Australia's east coast have been battling drought conditions for more than three years.

The parched lands of Gujarat bring climate change into stark view in India

One of India's most unique and fragile ecological systems is buckling under the pressure of climate change forcing people to abandon centuries-old traditions.

Drought-hit Australian towns prepare for 'unimaginable' water crisis

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says the drought is being driven, in part, by warmer sea-surface temperatures impacting rainfall patterns. Air temperatures have also warmed over the past century, increasing the ferocity of droughts and fires.

More than 113 million people suffer 'acute hunger' globally, UN says

Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Syria among the eight nations accounting for two-thirds of the total number of people worldwide exposed to the risk of famine, report says.

Nearly one million drought-hit Kenyans at risk of starvation

While hunger-related deaths and health complications are on the rise, the government is unable to avert the crisis and aid organisations are asking for help.

2018 was Earth's 'fourth hottest year' on record

Twenty warmest years "all in the last 22," scientists say in a UN report, with weather extremes in 2018 including wildfires in California and Greece, drought in South Africa and floods in Kerala, India.