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Extreme weather is striking all over the world, illustrating how vulnerable swathes of humanity are to natural disasters.
Some events – like wildfires sweeping the western US – are seasonal, while others came as a total surprise.
China and Western Europe were both hit by devastating floods in the past week, with a death toll beyond 100. In wooded areas of Canada, the US, and Russia, vast swathes of land are ablaze.
(Bernd Lauter/AFP/Getty Images/USDA Forest Service/REUTERS/Roman Kutukov/Twitter/The Paper)
Lethal flooding hit China
At least 16 people were dead in extreme flooding in the city of Zhengzhou, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Video showed people trapped in a flooded subway car, and Reuters reported a flooded subway line was where 12 of those people died. Photos also show roads completely flooded.
7月20日晚，郑州暴雨地铁5号线一车厢多人被困，水位淹过肩膀。根据郑州地铁晚上发布的消息，受持续暴雨影响，郑州地铁全线网车站已暂停运营服务，消防人员正在救援。 pic.twitter.com/wCiz7TGhki
— The Paper 澎湃新闻 (@thepapercn) July 20, 2021
Western Europe flooded
At the same time, Germany, Belgium, and Austria were dealing with the aftermath of devastating flooding that collapsed houses and turned roads into rivers.
The death toll as of Wednesday was more than 200 following flooding more severe than any to hit for decades.
The UK and Ireland are also experiencing heatwaves. In the UK, the weather office issued its first-ever extreme heat warning.
(Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images)
Oregon is battling a huge fire
Oregon is battling a fire so big that it can be seen from space and is creating its own weather.
The Bootleg Fire in the south of the state is the US’s biggest wildfire so far this year, and has burned more than 340,000 acres, The New York Times reported.
VIDEO: More than 2,100 US firefighters in southern Oregon continue to fight the massive Bootleg Fire pic.twitter.com/9av5xlyal0
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 20, 2021
Canada fighting fire too
Nearly 300 fires were burning across the province of British Columbia on Tuesday, and evacuation orders affected around 5,700 people, CBC reported.
There were also fires in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario, according to Global News. Canada recently had its hottest-ever day, in a heatwave so severe it caused hundreds of deaths and boiled shellfish in their shells.
— Sarah Mayer (@sarahmayer) July 20, 2021
Siberia is also ablaze
Forest fires have burned through 3.7 million acres of land in the north-east of Siberia, Russia, The Guardian reported.
Smoke has covered cities and towns, and forced the airport to close.
Firefighters from the Russian Defence Ministry took to the sky to battle forest fires ravaging the Yakutia region in Siberia earlier today: https://t.co/XmbyW86Tiu pic.twitter.com/tcINOMYZaG
— AccuWeather (@accuweather) July 15, 2021
One person living in an affected village told The Guardian: “Emergency workers have come and villagers are also fighting the fires but they can’t put them out, they can’t stop them. Everything is on fire.”
It is difficult to directly attribute individual weather events to the climate crisis. But experts are clear that longterm shifts in climate, caused by human activity, are making such events more frequent and severe .
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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