Blog note. Jesus indicated that ‘fearful sights’ (various natural disasters) would occur leading up to the time known as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation (a combined seven year period of great destruction on earth). Although these types of things have occurred in the past for centuries and thousands of years, they could be identified as the ‘season of the times’ due to the ferociousness of these events. They would be occurring in greater intensity, severity, frequency, size, duration, scope … just like the pains that a woman experiences in labor the farther along she is in the labor process. We are in the ‘season of the times’ that comes just before the seven (7) year Tribulation/Great Tribulation period

… And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:11).

… And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)

… Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken; (Luke 21:26)

… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2 Timothy 3:1)

Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for as the age of grace comes to a close. These verses are several of many such prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This list can go on. Most studied Eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like a woman having labor pains, growing in intensity, frequency, size, duration and scope.

East Africa reels from deadly floods in extreme weather. Five (5) countries getting hammered. Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Sudan, Somalia. “Worse is yet to come.” Harvests and livestock destroyed. Disease outbreaks and starvation now feared. 30 (6×5) dead in Kenya. Almost 50 (5) dead in Tanzania.

Nick Perry. AFP•October 31, 2019

Nairobi (AFP) – A powerful climate phenomenon in the Indian Ocean stronger than any seen in years is unleashing destructive rains and flooding across East Africa — and scientists say worse could be coming.

Violent downpours in October have displaced tens of thousands in Somalia, submerged whole towns in South Sudan and killed dozens in flash floods and landslides in Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Rising waters have wiped out livestock and destroyed harvests in swathes of the region still reeling from severe drought. Close to a million people in South Sudan alone are affected, with growing fears of disease outbreaks and starvation.

“This is a disaster… People are left with nothing,” South Sudan’s humanitarian affairs minister, Hussein Mar Nyuot, said Wednesday after the government declared a state of emergency.

The extreme weather is blamed on the Indian Ocean Dipole — a climate system defined by the difference in sea surface temperature between western and eastern areas of the ocean.

At the moment, the ocean around East Africa is far warmer than usual, resulting in higher evaporation and moist air flowing inwards over the continent as rain: the hallmarks of a “positive” dipole.

But scientists say the strength of this dipole is of a magnitude not seen in years, perhaps even decades.

These waters around East Africa are about two degrees warmer than those of the eastern Indian Ocean near Australia — an imbalance well beyond the norm.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said the dipole was the strongest since it began recording these fluctuations in 2001. Other datasets suggested a similar event in 1997, BoM added.

“It’s much stronger than records have shown from previous times,” Red Cross climate advisor and meteorologist Maurine Ambani told AFP.

“This one is definitely significant.”

– Not normal –

This supercharged dipole has delivered a deluge far beyond anything normal during the “short rains” that shower the region every October.

In South Sudan, medics were forced to use rowboats to manoeuvre around an inundated hospital in Pibor, the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said.

In Maban, a child on oxygen support died when water flooded a generator, MSF said in a statement. There are fears of cholera and other waterborne diseases breaking out.

In Somalia, the town of Beledweyne was completely submerged, trapping residents on rooftops and in trees. At least 200,000 had been forced to flee, some by donkey and makeshift rafts, Save the Children said Thursday.

Some parts of northern Kenya — where the UN humanitarian agency said Wednesday at least 30 had died — received a year’s worth of rain in a matter of weeks, triggering powerful mudslides.

A landslide over the border in southern Ethiopia killed 22 people this month following 10 hours of pounding rain.

And in Tanzania, officials say 45 people have died in flash flooding this month. Though further to the south than other disaster zones, the above-average rainfall was also likely stoked by the dipole, Abubakr Salih Babiker, a climate scientist at the Nairobi-based Intergovernmental Authority on Development Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) told AFP.

– Worse to come –

Ambani said the super dipole would crescendo in November — likely spelling more misery for the region.

“It could get worse,” she said, adding that the system would shift south in coming weeks.

More bad news is already on the way for Somalia, with a tropical cyclone forecast to bear down on the semi-autonomous regions of Puntland and Somaliland in just days.

ICPAC said above-average rainfall was expected to persist until December. The positive dipole, it said, was “likely” responsible.

The last major positive dipole was in 2006, when more than 300 people were killed in region-wide flooding caused by unseasonal rains.

Conversely, a “negative” dipole — defined by cooler waters in the western Indian Ocean and warmer temperatures in the east — brought a devastating drought to East Africa in 2016.

Parts of Australia are currently enduring a severe drought.

Ambani said as ocean temperatures rise because of climate change, Indian Ocean dipoles could become more frequent and severe.