There are at least 2,000 dead and thousands missing after a strong low-pressure system named Storm Daniel passed over Libya today. Storm Daniel has wreaked havoc across the Mediterranean, with heavy rainfall in Istanbul, Bulgaria, and the Thessaly Plain (agricultural land) in Greece for a couple of weeks.
After the storm destroyed a quarter of Greece’s agricultural land, it moved back into the Mediterranean, intensified, and became Medicane Daniel.
CNN appears to be the only news outlet reporting on the crisis in Libya. “The remains of the storm are affecting northern Libya and will slowly head east toward northern Egypt. Rainfall for the next two days could reach 50mm – this region averages less than 10mm across the whole of September.”
CNN reports on Libya’s Prime Minister:
“Osama Hamad said in press statements that residential neighborhoods disappeared after the torrents swept them into the sea along with thousands of their residents, and the situation is catastrophic and unprecedented in Libya,” LANA reported.
CNN has not been able to independently verify the number of deaths, and Hamad did not give a source for the number of dead and missing.
Footage shared on social media shows submerged cars, collapsed buildings and torrents of water rushing through streets.
Hamad called on medical personnel and medical assistants to go to the badly affected city of Derna in eastern Libya to provide assistance immediately.
Video out of Derna shows catastrophic damage as rainfall reportedly broke through two dams, and water surged through the city, collapsing buildings and leaving no trace of blocks of neighborhood apartment buildings. A Mass Mortality event has likely occurred. These floods swept through at night when many were asleep.
One tweet shares the Copernicus Sentinel 3 Satellite images that show a rotational sandstorm in the medicane. Truly, remarkable.
Overall warming of up to 5°C in this century projected for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East
A new report prepared by an international group of scientists and published in the authoritative journal Reviews of Geophysics, identifies the EMME* as a climate change hot spot, and concludes that the region is warming almost two times faster than the global average, and more rapidly than other inhabited parts of the world. For the remainder of the century, projections based on a business-as-usual pathway indicate an overall warming of up to 5°C or more, being strongest in the summer, and associated with unprecedented heatwaves that can be societally disruptive. Further, the region will experience rainfall shortages that compromise water and food security. Virtually all socio-economic sectors are expected to be critically affected, with potentially devastating impacts on the health and livelihoods of the 400 million people of the EMME, with worldwide implications.
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n addition to the average increase in temperatures, the researchers call attention to the emergence of extreme weather events with potentially disruptive societal impacts. These include the strongly increasing severity and duration of heatwaves, droughts and dust storms, and torrential rains which are expected to trigger flash floods. The assessment also comprises a discussion of atmospheric pollution and land-use change in the region, considering urbanization, desertification and forest fires, and includes recommendations for possible climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
"Business-as-usual pathways for the future," meaning projections assuming no immediate, ambitious climate action to avert the current climate trajectories, "imply a northward expansion of arid climate zones at the expense of the more temperate regions," explains Dr George Zittis of the Cyprus Institute, first author of the study. As a result, mountainous climate zones with snow will diminish during this century. The combination of reduced rainfall and strong warming will contribute to severe droughts. The sea level in the EMME is projected to rise at a pace similar to global estimates, though many countries are unprepared for the advancing seas. "This would imply severe challenges for coastal infrastructure and agriculture, and can lead to the salinization of costal aquifers, including the densely populated and cultivated Nile Delta," warns Zittis.