Climate extremes

2020: The escalation of extreme rainfall events in Brazil

Paulo Hader February 22, 2021

Figure 1. A localized typical summer rainfall near the Serra do Mar in the region of Baixada Santista. Photo credit: Marcelo Fischer Gramani, with permission.

In summer 2020, extreme rainfall events dumped up to 320 mm of rain in a single day in the Baixada Santista metropolitan region, São Paulo state, breaking Brazil’s record for the biggest rainfall in a single event and demonstrating one of the greatest threats of climate change. The damage caused by the associated landslides led to dozens of fatalities and hundreds of homeless people, as well ...[Read More]

Climate Change: is Viticulture under threat?

Paolo Tarolli December 21, 2020

Figure 1 - Supercell reaching Soave hills, north-eastern Italy. (Photo credit: Elizabeth Zanella, Coffele Estate Wine Farm)

In the afternoon of August 29, 2020, an intense supercell, which is a thunderstorm characterized by the presence of a deep, persistently rotating updraft, affected the province of Verona in the north of Italy (Figure 1). It was not the first event of this kind; several other events, including tornado episodes, had already occurred during summer 2020. Here the video of the downburst recorded during ...[Read More]

Coping with ‘extremes’ – keep calm and fly…

Asimina Voskaki March 9, 2020

Tropical cyclones from above. Image credit: Wikilmages from Pixabay

When you read about climate extremes, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Probably not airport systems. However, you might have been affected at least once by delays, longer flights, or even flight cancellations due to low visibility, strong winds, convective activity which can lead to thunderstorms. Especially, if you reside in or have flown to or from the United Kingdom, the Netherl ...[Read More]