A freak, climate change-induced October blizzard blindsided hundreds of hikers near the eastern face of Mount Everest. The storm hit Friday night, dumping over three feet of snow.
So far, 350 hikers have been rescued, but over 200 were still stranded as of Monday morning, according to Chinese state media. Rescue teams, villagers, and possibly a few yetis have been working nonstop to dig people out and get them to safety in Qudang, a town located approximately 30 miles from Everest’s Tibetan base camp.
Early October is typically prime time for Everest. Monsoon season is over, so it’s reasonably dry, and it’s just before winter, so temperatures are relatively tame. Things were a little different this time around. A convective snowstorm came tearing through the eastern slope.
Freak October Blizzard Forces Mass Rescue of Mount Everest Climbers
Convective storms can happen anywhere in the world, but usually occur during the summer. There are essentially thunderstorms, the kind that drop buckets of rain and produce window-rattling thunderclaps. A hurricane, for example, would be considered a severe version of a convective storm.
Survivors described snow crushing tents and wind chills that made people think hypothermia was going to set in at any moment. Some said that they were too afraid to sleep. The Guardian reports that a guide admitted he’d never seen an October storm like this.
That’s likely because the Himalayas are experiencing the direct effects of climate change. Warming temperatures are shifting participation patterns in the region. October has been a dry month for centuries.
Now that climate change has extended the length of summer through September and into October, it’s now a wet month. It’s the Himalayas, so it’s still going to be cold. All that extra precipitation gets turned into snow on the way down.
Mount Everest was once considered dangerous due to its extreme altitude. Now, it’s risky because the weather has lost its darn mind. And the weather has gone out of control because we humans have still not gotten our act together to stop or at least slow climate change, even though we have had plenty of time to figure it out.
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