Southerly winds carry Saharan dust over Athens in April.
Photographer: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Era of Super-Wild Weather Is Already Here
Extreme floods, wildfires, droughts and heat have become more widespread and more volatile than any time since record keeping began.
Wildfires in Canada that burned continuously for over a year. Floods that brought Dubai to a standstill. Deadly heat blanketing the streets of New Delhi. The first half of 2024 has laid bare the catastrophic extremes that now characterize the rapidly changing climate on every continent.
This week, millions of people along the eastern seaboard of the US — the country’s most populated coastal region — will swelter under a heat dome. Temperatures in Manhattan’s Central Park are set to reach 95F (35C) by Friday. At the southern end of the coast, meanwhile, Florida is in its second week of battling torrential rainfall so intense near Sarasota that it has odds of occurring just once in 500 to 1,000 years. Damages could top $1 billion.