By Paul Homewood
h/t Paul Kolk
Naturally the lazy journalist blames it on global warming!
The heaviest snow melt in decades has burst rivers across Siberia and north Kazakhstan, flooding cities and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.
At least eight people have died and hundreds of livestock have drowned in an area the size of western Europe.
A state of emergency has been declared in 10 of Kazakhstan’s 17 regions and Russian officials have evacuated the city of Orsk after a dam burst.
In a video addressing the nation on Saturday evening, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the Kazakh president, described the floods as the worst in 80 years.
“A natural disaster occurred, the likes of which had not been seen for many years,” he said.
Rising temperatures linked to global warming have melted snow more quickly than usual in mountainous areas and on the steppe, sending tonnes of water downstream.
Several towns in north Kazakhstan first raised the alarm last week as swollen rivers burst and dams failed. This week, the city of Aktobe, near Russia, flooded.
Scientists have warned that global warming is melting snow in frozen regions faster than rivers can cope and that shorter winter seasons mean that there is more rain.
The winter seasons in the Tien Shan Mountains on the Kazakhstan-China border are now estimated to be two or three weeks shorter than a few years ago.
I note that the Telegraph has banned comments on this article, no doubt knowing the drubbing they would get! They might ask what caused those floods 80 years ago.
The dopey reporter has not worked out that a shorter winter season would mean less snow. Regardless when it actually melts, and this always happens suddenly in spring, a lot of snow equates to a lot of floodwater.
Meanwhile back in the real world, winter snow extent in Eurasia has been steady or growing since the 1960s, and this winter it was close to average. Too much snow is the problem, not too much melting.
https://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/chart_seasonal.php?ui_set=eurasia&ui_season=4
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Paul Homewood
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