The Weather

Is not the same climate I used to see when I was kid...
In Belgium the climate became more moderate and warmer, with less snow in winter and unpredictable summers (sometimes very hot (+30*C) and dry, sometimes very cold (-20*C) and wet. And this summer was in between, with very hot dry periods and very cool wet periods. It confuses plants, some started to bloom again last week (2nd time after spring), while the auttum should start soon... We also got more extreme rainshowers and heavy wind during summer.

The big flood in eastern Belgium of a few years ago, where whole villages and small cities east of Liege were surprised with extreme flashfloods and partly were wiped away is a result of that. Half of the city of Pepinster (9000 inhabitants) was destroyed or so damaged that it had to be taken down and 5 people died, and that is only one of the many villages affected. And it was not the only region in the south of Belgium that was affected, it was the worst, most of southern belgium was affected and many saller floods were also doing a lot of damage. I worked for the Belgian Railroad (Infrabel) at that time as consultant, and 95% of the railroads in Wallonia (the southern half of Belgium) were so damaged that they needed to be rebuild totally, which took months.

And just over the border in Germany it's was the same as the extreme heavy rains that caused that flashflood were also there. There were more such ig rainstorms, but not with that severe result. But the center of my village Wodecq (near Tournai) was also flooded after a heavy rainstorm a few weeks ago.

This is Pepinster one week after the floodings, whole blocks boarding the normally small Vesder river were wiped away...
pepinster 1 week after.jpg
 
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Yes, very sad.

Seeing this one can feel more anxious about the climate, since this a scene that repeats in various distant parts of the globe...

For completness, some links/search from the disaster where I mention in my last thread: https://www.google.com/search?clien...kGHXkJA28QtKgLegQIDxAB&biw=1920&bih=927&dpr=1
and
https://www.google.com/search?q=RS+...IAoAIAmAMAiAYBkgcAoAeOAg&sclient=gws-wiz-serp
This last one is for the city wiped out by the (flash) flooding, Muçum... 3 times for a year :dead:

And this region had severe dry climate some time before these extreme rain time (from the last La Niña).

Meanwhile, the extreme dry climate even for Amazonas (Amazônia included, and a lot of the Brazil regions):
https://www.google.com/search?q=sec...YHpgDAIgGAZIHAzIuOKAHqiI&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

This university, along with others, point the grown of the extreme events (measured in Brazil, in this case):
https://www.ufsm.br/2023/10/19/ench...o-e-estimula-o-preparo-para-novas-ocorrencias
Even not understanding Portuguese, the first image here shows the extreme events rising.
 
Where I am is the CONUS cold record (old forge NY) -53C. Weather now is a few days of -20C in the winter and wet , rainy 30C
tropical all summer. NO more snow or cold , but no real heat. Just had 1 day over 35C. Actually , kind of pleasant weather.
Strange ...... ??
PS - most of the US has been over 40C ALL summer with tropical humidity , from Pennsylvania south.

OS