“We’ve got this injection of heat energy into the Pacific. When we get more energy in the oceans and the atmosphere, we can get stronger storms, diversions of weather systems that can cause droughts in one place and huge downpours in another place.”
Across many parts of Asia, sweltering temperatures and record rainfall are causing heat stroke and flash floods.
At least 40 people have died in South Korea since torrential rains began Thursday, including 13 who were trapped in their vehicles in a flooded underpass. Another 34 are injured and nine are still missing nationwide according to the Interior Ministry.
“We must accept climate change is happening, and deal with it,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Monday, adding the country had to completely change its approach as extreme weather becomes more common.
Neighboring Japan’s weather agency on Tuesday issued heatstroke alerts for 23 out of its 47 prefectures Tuesday, including the capital Tokyo, where temperatures reached 99.5 degrees.
At least 73 people were rushed to the hospital for suspected heat strokes, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported, with Tokyo Fire Department issuing its third “ambulance shortage alert” of the month.
Over a dozen rivers have overflowed in the northern Akita prefecture as of Monday, affecting hundreds of homes, according to the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.
In India, flash floods in the Assam state killed at least eight people, officials were quoted by Reuters as saying on Tuesday, displacing over 100,000 people after a river broke through its banks following heavy rains.
Meanwhile, a “lengthy & dangerous” heatwave is expected to continue Tuesday in the Southwest and south-central parts of the U.S., the National Weather Service said Tuesday.
“A stormy couple of days are on tap from the Midwest to the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys,” it added, with up to 10 inches of rainfall expected in Hawaii’s Big Island due to the approaching Tropical Storm Calvin.
Claudio Lavanga, Arata Yamamoto, Riley Zhang, Andy Eckardt, Associated Press and Reuters contributed.
