Within just over 24 hours of forming in the Gulf of Mexico on Oct. 6, Hurricane Milton grew from a Category 1 hurricane to a Category 5, the most powerful class of storms. It was a jump in wind speeds of more than 153 kilometers per hour (95 miles per hour) in a day. This rapid intensification was likely fueled by climate change-linked warming of the Gulf waters, scientists say.

Milton’s explosive growth places it in a category of storms that didn’t exist before climate change put a thumb on the scale for hurricanes. “Extreme rapid intensification,” is the term meteorologists now use for storms that increase in wind speed by at least 56 km/h (35 mi/h) in a 24-hour period. Milton grew more than twice as quickly.

“This is a relatively newer term. We didn’t have a term for this before because we didn’t see storms extremely rapidly intensify just a couple decades ago,” Shel Winkley, a meteorologist and weather and climate engagement specialist with Climate Central, told Mongabay by phone.

Milton is the 40th Atlantic hurricane to meet the new designation since 1980.

The other unusual thing about Milton is where it formed. Typically, big hurricanes, like Katrina in 2005, form off the coast of Africa and gain energy as they move west across the Atlantic. But Milton was formed entirely within the Gulf, just two weeks after Hurricane Helene passed through the same body of water.

All hurricanes form over the ocean and are fueled by warm seawater. Hurricanes Helene and Milton both gained their energy from the abnormally high sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, which is 1.4º Celsius (2.5º Fahrenheit) above average for this time of year.

Scientists with Climate Central used climate modeling to determine that “those temperatures were made up to 400-800 times more likely by climate change.”

Likewise, the warm Gulf water also helped create the right conditions for the dozens of powerful tornadoes associated with Milton. Tornadoes are commonly associated with hurricanes; a combination of unstable air and spinning, or wind shear, can give rise to them. Hurricane tornadoes tend to be weak and short-lived, but the Milton tornadoes were large and remained on the ground long enough to kill at least six people.

“These warmer-than-average waters allow for a more unstable air mass and moisture to interact with the dynamics of the hurricane to create a more susceptible environment for tornadoes,” Winkley said.

The Gulf’s warmer-than-normal waters extend beyond just surface temperatures. Deeper water temperatures are also significantly elevated. So even after the upwelling that followed Helene, there was plenty of hot Gulf water to fuel Milton.

“The takeaway when you look at the climate change aspect of this is that there isn’t that mechanism to try to cool down the waters and keep these storms in check anymore,” Winkley said.

Banner image: Hurricane Milton as seen from space. Image courtesy of NOAA

The Philippines experienced an increase in “Christmas typhoons” and tropical cyclone-induced rainfall over the last couple of decades, according to the country’s latest climate report.

The report, to be published by the Philippine Climate Change Assessment (PhilCCA) Working Group 1 on Oct. 14, is patterned after the climate reports by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Faye Cruz, climate scientist and Manila Observatory regional climate systems laboratory head, said at a press briefing that one study the report examined tracked “Christmas typhoons,” named for their tendency to occur from December to February. The 2021 study found a 210% increase in Christmas typhoons nationwide since 2012. This trend is more pronounced in southern Philippines, which saw a 480% increase.

These tropical cyclones are still low in number, but have been increasing in recent years, Cruz said. 

The PhilCCA authors also said that tropical cyclone-induced rainfall in the Philippines saw significant increases since 2000, ranging from 16.9% to 19.3% per decade.

Climatologist Lourdes Tibig, lead author of two IPCC reports and climate adviser for the Manila-based Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, said the observed impacts featured in the assessment “are really attributable to human-induced climate change.”

Between 1951 and 2018, the Philippines also saw an average increase in temperature of 0.16° Celsius (0.29° Fahrenheit) per decade, the PhilCCA report shows.

John Manalo, a meteorologist from the Philippines’ state weather bureau, said urbanization and the urban heat island effect amplified the increase in temperature in the country. Long-term temperature data of the Manila metropolitan area between 1901 and 2018 showed “a significant increase in the number of warm nights and a decrease in the number of cool nights,” which is also the case with the rest of the country.

The report’s authors also highlighted the challenges they faced in gathering data. Sea level rise in the Philippines, based on satellite data from 1993 to 2015, is estimated at 5-7 millimeters (0.2-0.28 inches) per year over the Philippine Sea. However, climatologist Tibig said there’s no observation station for sea level rise in the country. 

“We have the fastest rate of sea level rise in this part of the world. [But] we really do not have enough information, data to diagnose or even to predict how this will happen,” said Jett Villarin, climate scientist and executive director of the Manila Observatory.

Tibig called on policymakers to prioritize funding for the weather bureau as there are only a few monitoring stations in the country, making it difficult for scientists to gather data.

Despite such challenges, the authors said they were glad there were more research papers to feature in this year’s report compared to the last assessment, released in 2016. Villarin said they hope more local climate studies will be done in the coming years. 

Banner image: Super typhoon Haiyan ripped through the Philippines in 2013, killing thousands of people. Image by UNHCR/ R. Rocamora via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Wildfires have scorched millions of hectares of forest across South America so far this year. From Bolivia to Brazil, Peru to Argentina, the continent has been gripped by one of its worst fire seasons in decades, with deforestation and drought fueling the flames.

“The Amazon is not burning because it wants to burn, it is being set on fire. One of the most important biomes on the planet is being destroyed,” Patricia Gualinga, an Indigenous Kichwa leader from Ecuador, said at Climate Week in New York on Oct. 4.

With the rainy season still several weeks away, the situation may still worsen.

Bolivia has been hit the hardest, with more than 7 million hectares (17 million acres) of forest and natural vegetation scorched by late September. This makes 2024 Bolivia’s worst year for fires on record. The government declared a national disaster on Sept. 30. There were three times more fires in Bolivia this year than in previous years, devastating biodiversity and Indigenous territories.

Brazil, home to 60% of the Amazon, also faces extreme fire activity. NASA satellite data show widespread hotspotswhich indicate a high likelihood of fire, across the country, worsened by severe drought. Water levels in the Madeira and Negro rivers, major Amazon tributaries, are at historic lows.

In the Brazilian Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland that also straddles Bolivia and Paraguay, more than 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) burned by October, marking one of the most destructive fire seasons in recent history. Jaguars (Panthera onca), capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), brocket deer (Mazama gouazoubira) and red caimans (Caiman yacare) were reported injured or killed, with some suffering from burns and respiratory damage from the smoke.

Peru has also declared a state of emergency in six regions as fires spread across the country. By late September, the fires had killed 20 people, injured more than 160, and burned more than 12,300 hectares (30,400 acres) of natural vegetation. Meanwhile, Colombia reported 44,000 hectares (109,000 acres) destroyed by fires in September alone.

Environmental experts warn that the Amazon may be approaching a point of no return, as deforestation and forest degradation have already affected around 25% of the forest.

“The forests are drying out, making them more vulnerable to fires,” Marlene Quintanilla, the research director at Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN) Bolivia told Mongabay Latam. The fires, she added, are transforming the rainforest into a fire-prone landscape, with irreversible damage looming.

Paraguay and Argentina are also grappling with wildfires in the Chaco savanna, the second-largest forest in South America after the Amazon. More than 181,000 hectares (447,000 acres) of forest burned in Paraguay, while Argentina’s Córdoba province declared an environmental emergency after 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) were consumed by flames.

Banner image: A firefighter in Brazil’s Pantanal wetland combating flames at night in September 2024. Image courtesy of Álvaro Rezende/Mato Grosso do Sul state government.

What’s new: A recent study reveals that the icy Antarctic Peninsula, the northernmost part of mainland Antarctica, has experienced a nearly twelve-fold increase in plant cover over the last 35 years. The greening, driven primarily by the spread of mosses, has accelerated notably since 2016, researchers found.

“The landscape is still almost entirely dominated by snow, ice and rock, with only a tiny fraction colonised by plant life,” Thomas Roland, study co-author at the University of Exeter, U.K., said in a statement. “But that tiny fraction has grown dramatically — showing that even this vast and isolated ‘wilderness’ is being affected by anthropogenic climate change.”

What the study says:

• Scientists analyzed satellite images of the Antarctic Peninsula taken between 1986 and 2021. They found that while plant cover was less than 1 square kilometer (0.4 square miles) in 1986, it rose to nearly 12 km2 (4.6 mi2) in 2021.
• The rate of greening on the peninsula is also accelerating. Between 2016 and 2021, plant cover expanded by 0.424 km2 (0.16 mi2) per year, which is 45% higher than the growth rate from 1986-2004, and 37% higher than the rate from 2004-2016.
• The greening has mostly come from the expansion of mosses. These mosses help build up soil in the otherwise soil-poor lands of Antarctica, which can then serve as a foundation for other plants to colonize.

What this means:

Previous studies have found that Antarctica is warming twice as fast as the global average. As the climate continues to warm, authors of the new study predict that the extent of greening will increase. This greening, however, isn’t good news. The increase in plant life, and the consequent soil formation, could potentially create fertile grounds for nonnative and invasive species, threatening the native, highly specialized animals and plants of Antarctica, researchers say.

“The sensitivity of the Antarctic Peninsula’s vegetation to climate change is now clear and, under future anthropogenic warming, we could see fundamental changes to the biology and landscape of this iconic and vulnerable region,” Roland said in the statement.

Carbon dioxide-fueled greening isn’t just threatening Antarctica, the world’s largest desert, but also drylands across the planet, Mongabay previously reported.

Banner image of greening in the Antarctic Peninsula courtesy of Dan Charman.

Nigeria’s anti-corruption body is partnering with the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) to address wildlife trafficking.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and EIA signed a memorandum of understanding Sept. 20, which will allow the two bodies to work together and develop a strategy to combat environmental crime.

“The EIA will be of assistance to the ICPC in the area of capacity, expertise knowledge sharing as the ICPC focus more on the enforcement of relevant laws and investigation of illegal wildlife trade and other environmental crimes,” the ICPC said in an email statement to Mongabay.

Justin Gosling, EIA’s securing criminal justice program lead, told Mongabay that EIA has been working in Nigeria for the last five years, as it “is widely recognized that Nigeria is a significant hub for wildlife trafficking.”

EIA previously released an “Out of Africa” report that showed how Nigeria has become a key country in the packing, sale and export of large amounts of ivory and pangolin scales heading to Vietnamese and Chinese buyers. Between 2015 and 2020, Nigeria was implicated in more than 30 tons of ivory and 167 tons of pangolin scales seized globally, “the equivalent of at least 4,400 elephants and 167,000 pangolins,” the report noted.

The ICPC statement said the reason why Nigeria has become a “regional hotspot for wildlife trafficking and other transnational crime” is that “enforcement is weak due to lack of high-level strategic response.”

The agency added that an assessment by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime showed that Nigeria is being used as a “consolidation point for various forms of illegal trade in wildlife and forest products,” especially for pangolin, ivory and rosewood sourced in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

To address this issue, “the ICPC is giving priority to enforcement, disruption of criminal networks and investigating acts of corruption amongst officers and actors in the chain of illegal wildlife trade and other relevant crimes,” the agency said.

Gosling added that it is important to address public sector corruption, as criminals explore opportunities like bribing public officials throughout the trafficking network.

“Although Nigeria has significant challenges … I think we’re seeing really good signs,” Gosling said. EIA has previously worked with Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate wildlife crime, which Gosling said is a demonstration of the government’s commitment to the problem.

Among the activities EIA has facilitated in Africa are training investigators, raising awareness among judges and prosecutors that environmental crime is a serious form of organized crime and sharing information with enforcement agencies.

Gosling said EIA is hopeful that their joint efforts will force wildlife trafficking networks to be destabilized, making it difficult for criminals to operate as they do now.

Banner image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Nepal is grappling with the aftermath of record floods that killed at least 246 people, including 32 children. The late September floods also displaced more than 10,000 households across the nation’s capital, Kathmandu, and surrounding districts, and caused widespread damage to infrastructure.

The unprecedented rainfall on Sept. 28 was the heaviest ever recorded in Kathmandu, according to Nepal’s Hydrology and Meteorology Department.

Rescue teams continue to search for the missing as people work to restore their communities and reestablish essential services. “Across the country, people are busy clearing debris from floods and landslides while major highways remain disrupted,” Manjeet Dhakal, the Kathmandu-based South Asia director at Climate Analytics, told Mongabay in an email.

Torrential monsoon rains of more than 200 millimeters (8 inches) triggered landslides and caused rivers, including the Saptakoshi, Nepal’s largest, to burst their banks at levels not seen in more than 50 years.

Initial assessments of the damage put the cost at 13.4 billion rupees ($100 million).

More than 40 bridges were either fully or partially destroyed. Nearly 100 schools were shut down and 95,000 hectares (235,000 acres) of farmland, an area roughly 10 times the size of Paris, was ruined.

Eleven hydropower plants were severely damaged, raising further concerns over the country’s fragile energy infrastructure and overreliance on hydropower. For Dhakal, this presents an opportunity to invest in energy diversification via other renewable sources.

Nepal is responsible for just 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions but is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change impacts.

Roughly 10% of Nepal’s urban population live in informal settlements on riverbanks. They’re often hit the hardest by the floods, many working-class families lose their jobs and belongings in these climate-related events.

More than 1.9 million Nepalese citizens, or 7% of the total population, are considered highly vulnerable to climate change, according to a 2010 assessment.

“Every degree of global warming is projected to cause an exponential increase in extreme daily rainfall,” Dhakal said, raising concerns about the nation’s poor urban planning, which he said likely exacerbated the impact of the floods.

“Nepal must invest in early warning systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, and sustainable urban and rural planning. At the domestic level, political will is essential for both immediate responses and long-term recovery,” he added.

Banner image: The Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Nepal on Sept. 28 following the nation’s heaviest rainfall in over 50 years. Image courtesy of UNICEF Nepal/Laxmi Prasad Ngakhusi.