Rotting food waste produces up to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, about five times the total from the entire aviation industry, the UN Environment Programme warned this week. More than one billion meals are left uneaten every day, with about 60 per cent of the discarded food coming from households. The climate impact comes mostly from methane released when food decomposes in landfills; food waste alone accounts for up to 14 per cent of global methane emissions. The Food Waste Breakthrough launched at COP30 aims to halve food waste by 2030.
Heavy rain flooded roads in parts of Mogadishu on Monday, disrupting transport, business activity and access to schools in the Somali capital. The downpour came at the start of the Deyr rains, the October-to-December season that in bad years brings some of the country's worst flooding. The FAO has warned of an elevated risk of riverine and flash flooding along the Juba and Shabelle rivers, made worse by a positive Indian Ocean Dipole. Modelling by the Danish Refugee Council suggests between 408,000 and 1.8 million people could be displaced through December.
Hurricane Isaias killed two people with falling trees in Florida and Alabama after making landfall near Destin, Florida, on the night of Oct 9 as a Category 2 storm with 105 mph winds. The storm had briefly reached Category 3 strength with 120 mph winds a day earlier, prompting evacuations across the northern Gulf Coast and states of emergency in Florida and Alabama. Hundreds of thousands of customers lost power, and crews reported downed trees on houses, blocked roads and damaged beach communities. Isaias weakened to a post-tropical cyclone but kept bringing flash flood and tornado risks to the southeast.
Hurricane Isaias came ashore on the Florida Panhandle as a Category 2 storm and weakened to a post-tropical cyclone by Saturday, yet officials warn that flooding remains the main danger. The storm tied the record for the latest first hurricane of an Atlantic season, a mark set in 1905, and it brought winds, storm surge and heavy rain to parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. At least two deaths have been linked to the storm, and thousands of customers lost power. Pensacola's airport closed to commercial flights before landfall. Forecasters expect the remnants to drift north and east, dumping more rain on already soaked ground.
NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum on September 12, covering 4.60 million square kilometres. That ties 2008, 2010 and 2025 for the tenth-lowest minimum in the satellite record, which began in 1978. Every summer from 2007 through 2026 ranks among the 20 lowest. In the Antarctic, sea ice likely reached its maximum on September 14 at 17.59 million square kilometres, which would be the third-lowest maximum on record. Scientists say increased cloud cover has slowed the recent decline, but ice levels remain far below the 1980s.
The 2026 El Nino has set a record for ocean warmth in the central equatorial Pacific, and forecasters expect it to strengthen further. On September 21 the daily sea-surface temperature anomaly in the key monitoring region reached about 3.1C above the 1991-2020 average, above the previous record of 3.02C set in November 2015. NOAA gives a greater than 90 per cent chance of a very strong El Nino through the coming winter, and a 75 per cent chance that the October-to-December period exceeds every event in its records going back to 1950. Carbon Brief notes the 2026 event is on track to smash the all-time record, with models showing it still strengthening as the year ends.
Antarctic sea ice reached 16.73 million square kilometres on October 1, the lowest extent for that date in the satellite record, and the area on October 5 was 1.77 million square kilometres below the 1981 to 2010 average. Antarctic ice usually peaks in late September or early October, and NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center will confirm the 2026 maximum. In the Arctic, sea ice reached its annual minimum last month.
Indonesia's worst fire season in more than a decade is continuing into October, with peatland and agricultural fires blanketing Borneo and Sumatra in smoke. Satellite monitoring has recorded more than 23,000 fire hotspots this year, and the national weather agency BMKG says fire activity has already passed 2015 levels. More than 170,000 respiratory cases have been reported and about 12.5 million people have been exposed to polluted air, with haze reaching Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. Forecasters expect dry conditions to last into November, so the smoke could worsen before the monsoon arrives.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service reported on October 2 that summer 2026 was the hottest ever recorded in Western Europe. The average temperature reached 21.7C, which is 2.5C above the 1991-2020 average and higher than the previous record set in 2003. Across the whole continent it was the third warmest summer on record. A record 52% of Europe faced very intense heat stress at the end of the season. River flows hit lows that slowed commercial navigation, and crop yields fell.
Switzerland's glaciers lost 5.5% of their ice volume in 2026, the second-biggest yearly drop on record, according to the GLAMOS monitoring network. A winter with too little snow and record summer temperatures drove the melt. Average ice thickness fell by 2.5 to 4 metres, and some glacier tongues shrank by up to 10 metres. The Allalin, Clariden, Rhone and Aletsch glaciers recorded their biggest melts ever. Over the past five years, Swiss glaciers have lost almost a fifth of their ice. Switzerland feeds the Rhine, Rhone, Po and Danube rivers, so the losses affect water supplies, farming and hydropower.