Extreme Weather is Sweeping the Globe, From Brazil to Houston and Asia.

In Asia, an intense heat wave killed people in Thailand, forced the closure Weather of schools in the Philippines, set records in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, and Myanmar. Many parts of Africa have experienced record temperatures, particularly at night when there is no chance of cooling down. Houston has been completely inundated, and the US has just had the second-highest number of tornadoes ever recorded for April.

Although extreme weather variations are nothing new to the world, the past few days and weeks have brought these environmental extremes to a new level. According to some climate scientists, it’s hard for them to recall that such extreme weather occurred simultaneously over such a large portion of the planet.

Scientists predict that as the planet warms, there will likely be more extreme weather events, such as record-breaking heat waves and precipitation. Climate expert Alvaro Silva of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says that climate change is also changing weather patterns, blocking warm, rainy systems over some areas and changing the way the jet stream meanders.

According to Mr. Silva, the lessening of El Nino—a natural warming of certain regions of the central Pacific that alters global weather patterns—followed three years of La Nina, its cold counterpart, and intensified the effects of human-caused climate change.