On April 25, 2024, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa reported to Tanzania’s parliament that torrential rains linked to El Nino have resulted in the deaths of at least 155 people, with 236 others injured since January. The severe weather has also led to significant damage to infrastructure and affected over 200 000 people across the country.
Europe has experienced one of the most rapid temperature flips on record in April 2024 — moving from numerous record-breaking summer-like temperatures at the beginning of the month to record-breaking late April records and frost.
Record-breaking rainfall affecting China’s Guangdong Province since Friday, April 19, 2024, pushed water levels in the Bei River, a tributary of the Pearl River, to exceed 50-year highs, causing widespread floods in which at least 4 people died and 10 others went missing. The floods caused extensive damage, including the destruction of 36 houses and severe damage to 48 others, incurring direct economic losses of nearly 140.6 million yuan.
A powerful storm rolled over South Carolina on April 20, 2024, bringing strong winds, heavy rain, and golf to softball-sized hail. The storm system affected the larger areas of Lancaster and York counties but focused its most intense effects in northeast-central York County, causing significant structural damage and power outages.
The southern Chinese province of Guangdong faces severe flooding risks with the Bei River’s water levels predicted to peak at 37.3 m (122 feet) early on April 22, 2024. This event, deemed a ‘once-in-a-century’ occurrence, comes after the region experienced record-breaking rainfall, affecting millions of people.
Recent extreme weather conditions have led to significant casualties and destruction in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with a combined death toll of 141 as of April 18, 2024. Torrential rains and flash floods have devastated large areas, resulting in extensive damage to infrastructure and agriculture.
On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, the UAE was struck by an exceptional weather event, with record-breaking rainfall reaching up to 254.8 mm (10 inches) in Al Ain, surpassing the country’s annual average in less than 24 hours. The National Centre of Meteorology (NMC) issued a red alert as the rains caused significant flooding, traffic disruptions, and at least one death in Dubai. This severe weather follows similar impacts in neighboring Oman, where 19 fatalities were reported.
In March 2021, NASA ground controllers deployed the International Space Station’s (ISS) robotic arm to discard a cargo pallet (EP-9) containing obsolete nickel hydride batteries, following upgrades to lithium-ion units. This operation set a record for the heaviest item jettisoned from the ISS. While the entire pallet was expected to disintegrate before reaching Earth’s surface, a fragment of this hardware survived atmospheric re-entry and struck a residence in Naples, Florida, in March 2024.
A series of powerful eruptions took place at Ruang volcano in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province starting at 17:08 UTC on April 16, 2024 (01:08 LT, April 17). As a result, the Aviation Color Code was raised to Red, the Alert Level to 3 of 4, and local authorities started evacuating more than 800 people living on the island as a preventive measure. The last eruptive episode at this volcano was in September 2002 (VEI 4).
Catastrophic floods have submerged large areas of south-western Russia and north-western Kazakhstan since April 3, 2024. To date, floods have affected 15 641 homes and 27 993 garden plots in Russia, prompting widespread evacuations and the declaration of state emergencies in affected areas. Nearly 111 200 people were evacuated in Kazakhstan and approximately 5 500 homes were flooded.
