Climate, in brief

Heavy rain forced people from their homes across the US Southwest on Sunday. [1]

In Pagosa Springs, Colorado, the San Juan River was forecast to crest above 20 feet. [1]

Its record is 17.8 feet, from a 1911 flood that wiped out most of the town. [1]

The county sheriff's office called it "a potentially catastrophic flood event". [1]

A forecaster said little rain is needed now "because of how saturated" the ground is. [3]

Bluff's mayor said last month: "It's the second flood that really gets you." [4]

So each new storm lands on towns still cleaning up from the last one. [1][4]

Federal disaster aid for New Mexico needs the state to pay a quarter of the cost. [4]

New Mexico's governor put the cost of rebuilding at up to $300 million. [4]

By sundown on Sunday the river at Pagosa Springs stood at about 14 feet. [1]

Whether it then passed the 1911 record overnight was not yet known. [1]

No injuries or deaths had been reported there by Sunday. [1]

The weather service expected the rain to keep falling through Monday. [1]

In Arizona and Colorado, new rain is falling on ground already soaked by an autumn of storms, so Pagosa Springs is flooding again days after it lifted its last evacuation order. [1][3]

A record from 1911 makes a forecast feel like a fact, but the 20-foot crest was a forecast, and the river stood at about 14 feet at sundown. [1]

They were ordered out again days after returning, and the highway into town was shut. [1]

What this round of floods will cost Arizona and Colorado.

No estimate has been given yet; for last month's floods New Mexico's governor put rebuilding at up to $300 million. [4]

Cyclone Murasu was heading for Andhra Pradesh, a state on India's east coast. [5]

It is the second cyclone to hit the state in less than a week. [5]

India's weather office expected landfall near the town of Ongole early on 3 November. [5]

Its winds were forecast at 100 to 120 kilometres an hour. [5]

The state sent 6 national and 7 state disaster teams to the coast. [5]

Two districts, NTR and Guntur, shut schools and colleges on Monday. [5]

Cyclone Arnab hit the same coast on 28 October and killed at least three people. [6]

Arnab damaged 79,000 acres of crops and cut power across Konaseema district. [6]

Extremely heavy rain was expected in places across six districts on Monday. [5]

Arnab reached 135 kilometres an hour at landfall, so Murasu is forecast to be weaker. [5][6]

How strong Murasu gets is still a forecast: it "may intensify", the weather office said. [5]

On India's east coast, Andhra Pradesh is bracing for its second cyclone in less than a week. [5]

Arnab damaged 79,000 acres of crops last week, and Murasu is due within days. [5][6]

How strong Cyclone Murasu will be when it reaches land.

India's weather office said it may intensify into a severe cyclonic storm before landfall early on 3 November. [5]

A UN report says Earth's ice faces lasting damage if warming goes past 1.5C. [7]

The frozen parts of Earth, its ice and snow, are called the cryosphere. [7]

80 scientists wrote it for the UN Environment Programme and an ice research group. [7]

The planet has warmed by 1.3C since before the industrial age. [7]

Today's policies lead to about 2.8C of warming, the report found. [7]

Then the Hindu Kush Himalayas would keep 41% of their glacier ice. [7]

Held to 1.5C, 83% would remain. [7]

The ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica melt about 6 times faster than in the 1990s. [7]

Those Himalayan glaciers supply water to nearly a quarter of humanity. [7]

Glaciologist James Kirkham says ice reacts fast to warming but takes centuries to recover. [7]

Rising seas from melting ice sheets threaten hundreds of millions of people, it says. [7]

It comes as diplomats gather in Turkey for COP31, this year's UN climate summit. [7]

Why one creek carries the rain of a whole valley

Rain falls across a whole valley and the mountains around it

Water runs downhill, and the slopes lead to the same low channel

That channel, a creek or a river, gathers the rain of all the land above it

So the river at a town carries rain that fell miles away

Soaked ground lets more of each storm run off into the channel

A river town is flooded by the rain on every slope above it, so a storm over mountains miles away can fill its streets.

Rain on the mountains above Pagosa Springs runs into the San Juan, and the river brings it to the town.

The Himalayan glaciers melt into rivers, and those rivers carry the mountains' water down to nearly a quarter of humanity.

Rock, soil and plants decide how much rain reaches the river, so two catchments of the same size can flood very differently.

Pagosa Springs, Farmington and Bluff sit on one river, so rain on Colorado's mountains reaches each town in turn.

How the carbon the UN ice report wants removed from the air would be taken out.

The report says warming should be brought back below 1C by 2150 by removing carbon; the account of it we read does not say how, or who would pay. [7]

A new study looked at Cyclone Idai, which flooded Mozambique in 2019. [8]

It asked why so many people were in the flood's path. [8]

Its authors work at Deltares, a research institute in Delft, the Netherlands, and at universities. [8]

They modelled the flood as it was, and in a world without changes since 1975. [8]

84% of the people exposed were due to climate and population change together. [8]

Population change alone explained 80%, and climate change alone 9%. [8]

More people now live where Idai's water spread. [8]

Climate change made the flood wider and deeper. [8]

Climate change's share fell unevenly between richer and poorer groups, the study found. [8]

Scientists call this attribution: comparing the real event with a world that did not change. [8]

One total for a whole area hides who carries the extra flooding, the authors write. [8]

BGE, Germany's nuclear waste agency, has cut its search to 5% of the country. [9]

The places still in the running lie in 11 of Germany's 16 states. [9]

The store would lie about 400 metres underground, in clay, granite or rock salt. [9]

Germany decided to quit nuclear power in 2011, and shut its last plant in 2023. [9]

Its waste sits in temporary stores, many at 19 old plants being taken apart. [9]

Finland has approved the world's first such store, after about 40 years of work. [9]

The search and the temporary stores cost about 1.4 billion euros a year. [9]

The finished store may cost about 14 billion euros, experts estimate. [9]

Engineers want about 100 metres of rock around it, as a natural barrier. [9]

Germany requires the store to stay safe for 1 million years, the agency says. [9]

Few towns are likely to want the store, so building trust is part of BGE's job. [9]

Germany aims to pick a site by 2050, and its minister wants to speed that up. [9]

Searching for a site and keeping waste in temporary stores costs about 1.4 billion euros a year. [9]

Where Germany's nuclear waste store will go.

Only 5% of the country is still being studied, and the target for choosing a site is 2050. [9]

National Grid, the power network company, agreed to buy 29.5 hectares on Teesside, England. [10]

It plans to build Britain's biggest electricity substation there. [10]

The substation could feed a huge planned AI data centre next door. [10]

The data centre's plans cover nearly 500,000 square metres. [10]

The land belongs to Teesworks, a local partnership of public bodies and private firms. [10]

Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen said the site could get up to 3.2 gigawatts. [10]

Houchen said "the biggest problem is getting enough power to the site quickly". [10]

Britain's government last week called data centres as basic as railways and power lines. [10]

Data centre plans face protests, from Auchtertool near Edinburgh to Brick Lane in London. [10]

Balfour Beatty, a building firm, is reported to be in line to build it. [10]

A substation of up to 3.2 gigawatts lets the area compete for data centres, its mayor said. [10]

France has begun selling diesel from its emergency stocks, and pump prices fell. [11]

In mid-October France's government released 10 million barrels of diesel from those stocks. [11]

That diesel was bought before the war in the Middle East. [11]

It is sold at 0.28 euros a litre, against 1.1 euros on average in mid-October. [11]

French diesel averaged 2.37 euros a litre on Saturday; TotalEnergies' Access stations charged 2.15. [11]

Leclerc, a supermarket chain, cut 21 cents a litre at about 742 stations. [11]

TotalEnergies, a French oil company, cut prices before the stored diesel was even delivered. [11]

TotalEnergies says it passes the stocks on "at their historic cost": the price first paid. [11]

Leclerc says its price still moves with the market; only the 21-cent cut is fixed. [11]

Cooperative U, another supermarket chain, said it would cut 21 cents a litre too. [11]

A US-backed group of firms proposed a $4.4 billion gas project in Pakistan. [12]

It covers imports of liquefied natural gas, storage, a pipeline and sales. [12]

Pakistan has no storage for this gas today. [12]

So its supply depends entirely on shipments and on world prices. [12]

Phase one is a terminal at Port Qasim with four tanks, costing $1.7 billion. [12]

Phase two is a 1,100km pipeline to carry the gas up the country. [12]

An earlier group, Lucky Group with QatarEnergy, dropped a similar plan, citing policy changes. [12]

The port lies outside the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's key energy shipping routes. [12]

No investor has made a binding commitment yet. [12]

It reportedly has the port's consent, and has applied for a licence from the gas regulator. [12]

US agencies may help pay for the project, through planning money, loans and export guarantees. [12]

Whether Pakistan's US-backed gas hub will be built.

No investor has made a binding commitment, and the final cost waits on construction contracts. [12]

Adipec, a yearly oil and gas show in Abu Dhabi, runs from 2 to 5 November. [13]

Organisers expect a record 2,260 exhibiting companies and over 239,000 visitors. [13]

More than 40 government ministers are due to attend. [13]

Asia is sending its largest group yet: 353 companies. [13]

Before the war, nearly 90% of oil shipped through the Strait of Hormuz went to Asia. [13]

China alone took 38%, US government figures show. [13]

Asian buyers can talk supply security with Gulf producers there, after this year's shipping disruption. [13]

In a show survey, 81% of energy bosses expect AI to need more power than forecast. [13]

The deal totals are the organisers' own count: $53 billion at last year's show. [13]

The UAE's energy minister meets ministers from Germany, Turkey and Egypt on energy security. [13]

Asian buyers, sending a record 353 companies to Adipec, get to talk supply security with them after the Hormuz disruption. [13]

Dewa, Dubai's state power and water utility, signed a deal with China's Shanghai Electric. [14]

The two will look for energy and water projects abroad together. [14]

Projects could include solar, wind, batteries, water plants and green hydrogen. [14]

Dewa set up its overseas arm, Dewa International, in June. [14]

The pair already built the fourth phase of Dubai's huge solar park together. [14]

Dewa expects world spending on energy and water to pass $20 trillion by 2035. [14]

The deal names no projects, money or dates yet. [14]

What Dewa and Shanghai Electric will actually build together.

Their agreement names no projects, investment or dates. [14]

Xiaomi, a Chinese phone maker that also makes electric cars, delivered over 50,000 in October. [15]

That was its best month this year. [15]

It had passed 30,000 in August and 40,000 in September. [15]

It has delivered about 336,000 cars in the first ten months. [15]

Its goal for 2026 is 550,000 cars. [15]

That puts it at about 61% of its yearly goal, with two months left. [15]

These are Xiaomi's own figures, reported by the company on Sunday. [15]

Xiaomi delivered more than 50,000 electric cars in October, its best month of the year.

Peterbilt, a US lorry maker, added its electric lorries to a shared public buying contract. [16]

The contract is with Sourcewell, a government agency that runs tenders for public bodies. [16]

More than 50,000 public, school and charity bodies in the US and Canada can use it. [16]

The contract now runs until July 2028. [16]

Prices and terms for Peterbilt's whole range are agreed in advance. [16]

Public buyers must usually invite open bids, so spending taxpayers' money stays fair. [16]

A council can then buy an electric lorry without a long tender of its own. [16]