Currently in Toronto — February 17th, 2023
The weather, currently.
An icy start to your Friday... at least in some areas. The freezing rain and ice pellets this evening will change over to some snow early tomorrow morning. That means colder air will move in, freezing any and all wet surfaces. Your wake-up temperature will be near -4°C, feeling like -12°C with the wind chill. The light snow will change to flurries by late morning, and then a gradual clearing trend begins. You will need to bundle up, along with the kids as they head to school, as the high is -4°C, feeling like -13°C for the day. It will be breezy too, with a northerly wind 20-40km/h.
Friday night: mainly clear with a low of -11°C, and a windchill of -17°C. This will be the coldest it has been in almost two weeks.
What you need to know, currently.
La Niña is causing the multi-year drought in Central South America, according to a study released Thursday.
Climate change is, of course, also playing a role, as it’s worsening some of the dry spell’s impacts. However, the climate condition La Niña—or the cooling of the central Pacific waters, which results in changing weather patterns worldwide—has gone on longer than usual this time, and is exacerbating the drought.
Since 2019, the dry spell has been devastating the region. Last year was Central Argentina’s driest year since 1960; Uruguay declared an agricultural emergency in October; water supplies and transportation suffered; and vulnerable farmers and residents are facing the brunt of the climate disaster. The last four months of 2022 received only 44 percent of the average precipitation—the lowest rainfall in 35 years.
Water and heat stress is resulting in widespread crop failures across the region’s farm belts as well. For example, crop health in Argentina is reportedly the worst it’s been in 40 years, as it saw a 61 percent decrease in grain and oilseed revenue between January 2022 and January 2023.
It will likely take months, if not longer, for the region to recover, depending on El Niño’s arrival.
—Aarohi Sheth
What you can do, currently.
Be part of the solution, join Wren with over 10K+ members that have raised over $4.5M+ for projects that support carbon removal, climate policy, and conservation. New users get 20 native trees planted for free on us, using our personal referral link here.
