As winter in the north approaches we are roughly halfway to solstice/midwinter. The Sun's angle to the earth is moving south and we are seeing a burst of late cyclone activity in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.
The ENSO oscilation remains in a strong La Nina position and seems likely to remain so for the forseeable future. Forecast models tend to predict a return to neutral ENSO but they have done so for some time now & the cause (Antarctic ice melt) may not go away.
Higher air temperatures globally increase the capacity of the atmosphere to hold water and the consequence is more #ExtrremeWeather rain events causing flooding - recently in West Pacific, Central America, South America, & Indian subcontinent. (see recent 16 day forecasts below)
Europe's drought which has not yet broken stands out as an exception to this and at Africa's latest forecast is close to climate normal after a year of floods and persistent drought in the east.
Looking forward we can also see that the southern hemisphere will return to the front line of wrt to extreme flooding risk. However because of the far lower population the human impact will be considerably lesser.
A frozen 16-day snapshot tells us little however about the climate except to say that generally speaking at this point in time there is a lot of atmospheric water about still - and extreme weather events (esp flooding) are increasingly likely everywhere.
The remainder of this thread will (as with previous climate update threads have) consist of PWAT forecasts and satellite imagery for different parts of the world. [Earlier thread late 2021]
We will begin in Central America and move Westwards following the flow of atmospheric water along the equator. Central America has been experiencing multiple extreme weather events since September with Hurricanes Fiona, Ian & Julia and now #TSKarl.
Moving across the Pacific a dangerous situation is rapidly developing once again in the West Pacific fueled in part by the extreme convective activity over Central and the Amazon associated with #HurricaneJulia.
Four disturbance's of interest have been designated by the JTWC over the West Pacific three of which currently threaten populated areas in model forecasts.
There is a similar setup here to that in Central America with cold arctic air moving south and potentially protecting China, Japan and Korea from any risk of a landfalling cyclone. But the Phillipines, Taiwan, Southern China and Vietnam remain in the line of fire.
Here's a current satelite loop (24h) over China
Australia and NZ have both experienced significant winter flooding with abnormally high sea surface temperatures, as summer progresses the threat of even more #ExtremeWeather events caused by atmospheric rivers will be high. Here we see several such events in the forecast.
And here is the current satellite situation on the left south of Australia there is astrong atmospheric river curling around a southern - Antarctic storm - a potentially nasty combination.
Moving back up to the tropical belt, the Indian Ocean is receiving a lot of incoming atmospheric water from the current buildup in the Western Pacific.
Meanwhile the models suggest at present that this could result in a late Bay of Bengal Hurricane.
Whilst at present East Africa is relatively clear of precipitation, the moisture flowing east will impact here also in coming days.
Here we can see how the movement south of the equatorial tropical belt is increasing outflows from the Great Central African forest. The burst coming through also brings more forecast rain to East Africa including to drought stricken Somalia.
Exactly how much probably depends a lot on whether the cyclone in the Bay of Bengal eventuates - but current 10-16 day forecasts from GFS, KMA and AccessG suggest an inch or more is possible over the Coastal Horn of Africa region.
West Africa's current satellite presentation.
& southern Africa.
Eurasia - from Europe to the Pacific - Earth's largest land mass is relatively free of atmospheric water activity already.
It is also relatively free of snow cover still - except in the East.
But that is about to change.
Europe's drought [which is much milder than droughts elsewhere] has been gradually breaking from the East and as previously observed, forecast rainfall for the coming fortnight remains below climate norms. But a stormy North Atlantic may soon fix this.
We can see this in the PWAT plot and the areas most drought affected are expected to receive much of the anticipated rain in the forecast period.
What rain is forecast over the coming 16 days is expected to only produce snow in the far north - and it should go someway further in addressing the drought situation in France, Spain and southern UK.
Here's a macro view of the stormy North Atlantic the dominant feature of which is an atmospheric river being produced by the recent hurricane activity in central America.
And here is the stormy forecast over the coming fortnight.
Mercifully no more hurricane's are predicted within the forecast window.
North America is currently experiencing an unusually large arctic blast, seemingly occasioned by the expulsion by the Acrtic of some hot air that had been located over Siberia and the Northern Pacific - and this is helping suppress/elimate any threat posed by #TSKarl.
Here's a current view. As the dry air moves out over the Atlantic incoming atmospheric river activity from the Pacific is expected to produce a stormy fortnight.
Whilst snow will fall over Canada and the rockies unsually persistent high temperatures are forecast to prevent it from settling through to the end of the month.
This animation shows North America's forecast midday temperature anomaly over the next 16 days, which is what is preventing any snow from settling - it shows anomalies of 40 degrees F over Greenland and 28 degrees over the arctic sea.
And to complete the circuit of the globe, South America which has been expelling a huge amount of atmospheric water southwards as a result of the burst of convective activity related to #HurricaneJulia.
Here we can see that that the intense convection over the Amazon can be expected to continue, and increasingly its outgoing atmospheric water flows appear to be headed towards Southern Africa.
To conclude here is a full set of 16-day rainfall forecasts in roughly reverse order to the discussion.
16 Day Rainfall forecasts as at 12 October 2022 1. South America 2. Central America 3. North America 4. North Atlantic
16 Day Rainfall forecasts as at 12 October 2022 1. Europe 2. Eurasia 3. Africa 4. India
16 Day Rainfall forecasts as at 12 October 2022 1. China 2. Japan 3. Middle East 4. Ausralia and NZ
16 Day Rainfall forecasts as at 12 October 2022 1. West Pacific 2. North Pacific 3. East Pacific 4. South Indian Ocean
The first speaker in this star studded panel here is sober clear and damning.
“… featuring Mustafa Barghouti, Mads Gilbert, Ilan Pappe, and Ingrid Fiskaa – discusses and critically explores three key areas: the present moment where Gaza remains under constant genocidal attack from Israel; the so-called “legitimacy” of the rules-based order (including but not limited to international law) that’s supposed to prevent or stop such violence; and the future of rebuilding Gaza in a way that actually honours the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the Palestinian people.”
The panel is moderated by Paul Salvatori, senior producer and presenter at TRT World.
As Christmas and the New Year approach, reflection, both self and outward looking are part of the zeitgeist for the faithful throughout the world.
As it stands this Christmas in Bethlehem will be the “second Christmas during an ongoing Genocide”. Placed in quote marks here because it seems hard to reconcile with reality.
How can this still be continuing?
How is it that the @Statedept even now - 15 months after October 7th and more recently the defeat of both Hezbollah and Assad - is still mostly saying “Israel has a right to defend itself. As massacres of 50-80 Gaza civilians - predominantly women and children - continue to occur on a daily basis.
Could there at least be a Christmas and New Years Truce? A brief silencing of the guns, a break from the endless massacre of innocents via fire-from-the-sky, as if Gaza were now Mordor.
It is certainly already nearly as desolate.
Someone needs to ask Bibi Netanyahu who is unusually and nearly singularly responsibility for all of this. WHEN AND HOW DOES THIS END?
There is a new chapter on the story of Mosab Hassan Yousef.
This is the original production of this. But he will soon be known far better than he was when Chris Cuomo brought his story to life here back in December 2023 at the outset of the war, in the wake of January 7th.
Hamas Founder's Son Turned Israeli Spy - Mosab Hassan Yousef, "The Green... youtu.be/llJxz1pAlQQ?si… via @YouTube
“Hamas’s Aspiration is global”
“The Muslim Brotherhood is Here in the United States.”
For clarification Mosab Hassan is unquestionably completely genuine and in is views, and like me he is a pacifist when it comes to saving human life from conflict. And this as he articulates very very clearly remains his view.
And for this reason - notwithstanding the fact that this latest broadcast is extremely triggering, and will likely soon become very controversial, is also very important.
The target of this messaging is Americans. Not me.
And probably not you, even though a large portion of my followers are in the U.S.
“The Neighbours & friends of Syria, and international solidarity movements, and all people of good consciousness need to develop a counter strategy to the ongoing U.S-Israel War Drumming - that is now clearly moving U.S. towards a 2003 repeat of the 2nd Gulf War.”
“The media's role in a democratic society in general is to provide the public with an informed basis upon which they can exercise their democratic rights to lobby, and express their views on what should happen to their elected representatives. And nothing changes during wartime.
When measured by this standard I would conclude that the media both here in New Zealand and everywhere else in the Western World – with the exception of the Internet – has failed spectacularly to do its job.”
The desire of Genocide -Pro clueless highly paid American pundits to misrepresent current historical events as they unfold in real time in the global real-Politik is far from surprising, but this take from Bill Kristol is about as daft as it is possible to be.
Syria’s HTS & Türkiye led coup which has toppled Assad cane out of the blue. It was not an American-Israeli plot but rather a deftly delivered victory for justice that will have the effect of heading off the U.S. clash with Iran that the genocidal maniac who remains in Power in Israel, for now anyway, had planned.
This will not now be the next chapter in the story of Middle Eastern turmoil. Instead we will now see a flourishing of Middle Eastern led political reform that may finally rid the region of the power designs of the Western Powers “Great Game” who will soon become irrelevant in the region.
Thread….
I shall not bother to decide Kristol’s incoherent burbling except to remark that he is missing the real story here.
Arab’s just liberated Arabs in Arabia - as ought to be the case. Whether this was the clear intent of the actions and actors whose planning led up to this moment of clarity in geopolitical history is unclear, but the result is clear.
Syrians are now free. And western powers have been rendered irrelevant except to the extent that they are able to render assistance to the new Free Arab State of Syria in coming months and years. /2
The shear speed with which the events unfolded in Syria was and remains breathtaking. As if perhaps divinely directed.
Even Netanyahu’s response - to bomb Damascus- whilst monstrous in both it’s paranoia and execution is positive, in that it has now ruled Israel completely out of the process of rebuilding Syria which will soon commence.
Netanyahu openly proclaimed his messianic ambition in New York to a Nearly empty UNGA assembly meeting hall, his vision of a greater Israel that included Syria. And no doubt he remains enthralled to these ideas. But by bombing Damascus he just ruled himself out as a partner for peace in the region. /3
If you listen/watch you will doubtless come to the conclusion that nobody knows for sure:
1. What exactly has happened in Syria, who backed who…
2. nor what the end game in this HTS launched renewed Civil War in Syria will look like.
3. But there are a lot of interesting theories.
Domino effect? Assad's allies stretched thin as Syrian rebels pounce • F... youtu.be/ZZN1nek4aTg?si… via @YouTube
From my perspective a useful rubric to analyse this is who benefits from this.
The penultimate French speaker - before the American who closed (presumably with a conventional foggy bottom perspective - I.E pro Israel when asked by Picard who is responsible gave I think the clearest answer.
“Ask the Americans” then pointed out that this development comes hot on top of the ceasefire in Lebanon which is far from secure.
The debate is exactly that and all speakers are experts in different aspects of the Syrian Question and the players. Which include.
- the rebel group whose lightning speed taking of Aleppo HTS/formerly Al Nusra over the last 4 days initiated this new crisis currently in the north of Syria but which HTS and other anti Assad forces in Syria appear to be intent on heading to Damascus to displace Assad.
Note: As you can see here (map) Damascus is just north of due east of the Israel-Lebanon border south east of Beirut & very close to Israel. (Check out the 1967 war & Angolan Heights to find out why)
The war crimes attorney, French, based in Lyon, who lodged the first war crimes complaint against Netanyahu was Giles Devers.
He recently died.
The complaint was based on the #GreatMarchOfReturn IDF operations during which 223 Palestinians were shot
The protests:
30 March 2018 – 27 December 2019
(1 year, 8 months, 3 weeks and 6 days)
…. peaceful. Young people gathered on the border and threw stones at snipers on defensive mounds above the protest area. A varying number of protestors were shot each day. including medics and members of the media.
The protests reached their zenith when Trump was present in Jerusalem for the opening of a U.S. embassy there during his first term as President.
Forensic evidence was collected for the prosecution case by a team from Gaza’s Ministry of Health - and supervised by my colleague, Kiwi Journalist Julie Webb Pullman.
And this evidence and formed the substance of the first complaint laid by Advocat Giles Devers of “War Crimes” against Israel’s Govt and the IDF.