The US space agency Nasa and the European ESA both take thousands of satellite images of the world. Both have now sent out pictures of some of the areas that are hardest hit by extreme weather. The pictures were taken at different times and show how big the changes are. Violent floods hit Pakistan in July and worsened in August. A third of the country was flooded. The picture shows a large area in the center of the country.Nasa Floods in Pakistan Pakistan has been hit by extreme monsoon rains in August. It has led to the biggest flood in the country in a decade. Around a third of the country has been flooded. NASA’s photos were taken on 4 and 28 August and show how a large area along the Indus River has been submerged in just over three weeks. Gudpur in Pakistan Maxar Technologies via AP A sea of mud The village of Gudpur is one of the villages in Pakistan that has been affected. Pictures show how there is now just a sea of mud where there were fields just a few weeks ago. 150 bridges and 3,500 kilometers of road have been destroyed by the flood. 700,000 livestock have died. Thousands of km² of crops have been lost. The Rhine near Cologne in 2021 and 2022ESA 500-year drought The drought in Europe this summer is probably the worst in 500 years, according to the European Commission. A record area has been scorched by forest fires. The large rivers such as the Rhine, Loire and Danube have such low water levels that river traffic has major problems. The picture shows the Rhine near Cologne. Sandbanks are visible where the water flowed last year. At the same time, you can see how brown the landscapes are this year, compared to last year. Poyang Lake in China on July 10 and August 27 this yearNasa China’s largest lake evaporates The heat wave in southern China in July and August is the most intense ever recorded in the country. With the heat, there has also been a prolonged drought. Poyang Lake is usually China’s largest freshwater lake. Usually it varies greatly in size. It has little water in the winter and then it fills up during the summer, writes Nasa. This summer it has not been replenished, but has instead evaporated away. Poyang Lake is on average 3,500 square kilometers in the high season. Now it has been reduced to a size of 737 square kilometers. Yangtze and Jialing near Chongqing in 2021 and 2022ESA The heat wave of all time Experts say, according to NTB, that the heat wave may be the most extreme ever recorded on the globe. At around 30 percent of the 600 weather stations along the Yangtze River. The water level is around half of the average for the past five years, writes AFP. You have to go back to the 19th century to find water levels in the Yangtze as low as this year. This causes problems for freight traffic and leads to reduced power production. The picture shows the Yangtze and Jialing meet at Chongqing. Lake Powell at five-year intervalsNasa Water level has never been lower The southwestern part of the United States is in a very long drought that has lasted for over 20 years. According to the BBC, the drought is the worst in 1,200 years. The result is that there is extremely little water in the large water reservoirs in the west of the United States. The second largest reservoir, Lake Powell, is now less than a quarter full. Since Lake Powell was built in the 1960s, there has never been so little water.
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