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© Josiah PughNational Guard troops respond in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Laura was Earth’s most expensive tropical cyclone of 2020, with $18.2 billion in damage.
The combined economic losses (insured and uninsured) from all 416 weather and earthquake disasters cataloged by Aon in 2020 was $268 billion (2020 USD). Most of the 2020 total, by far, came from weather-related disasters ($258 billion), 29% above the 2001-2020 inflation-adjusted average. Those numbers make 2020 the fifth costliest year on record for weather-related disasters.
The year was the most expensive ever for severe weather (including severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hail), with $63 billion in damage (previous record: $53 billion in 2011). More than 80% of the severe weather damage occurred in the U.S. in 2020, including the costliest severe weather outbreak in world history, according to Aon: an August 2020 event that featured a violent derecho in the U.S. midwest that caused $11 billion of the $12.6 billion in damage of the outbreak, the balance caused by tornadoes, hail, and other severe thunderstorms.
Insured damage from wildfires in 2020 was $12 billion - the third highest on record, behind only 2017 and 2018. The year 2020 marked the third time in the past four years that global insured losses from wildfires exceeded $10 billion - a threshold never crossed prior to 2017. Remarkably, wildfire has caused more than $70 billion in insured losses since 2000, 75% of that in the past five years alone.
The three siblings were reportedly sleeping at 2 AM during a heavy downpour on 7 February 2021.
The deceased whose name was not mentioned was a senior four female student at Syiki high school in this village.
Ruzindana Ladislas,the Executive Secretary of the Musasa sector said that apart from striking the siblings, several other properties were destroyed.
© Peter GerckeA Deutsche Bahn employee clears snow on a platform at the main station in Magdeburg, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 7, 2021.
The German Weather Service DWD urged people to stay at home and authorities brought homeless people into warm shelters amid the sub-zero temperatures.
National train operator Deutsche Bahn said main train routes between Hamburg and Hannover, Berlin and the west were canceled as snowdrifts piled up on the tracks and power lines. Some train connections in the east were also canceled, though most of the snow came down in the northwest.
12 inches of snow
Police in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia said early Sunday they had counted 222 accidents due to the bad weather conditions since Saturday afternoon. They said two people among the 28 were severely injured.
© Vincent Jannink ANPSnow ploughs in action on the A1 motorway on Sunday morning.
The snow and strong winds are expected to continue for most of the day, but it could be well into evening before it stops in the north, weather forecasters say.
The transport ministry's roads authority has sprayed 17 million kilos of salt on the roads since Saturday evening in an effort to keep them clear. Nevertheless, there have been a string of accidents due to the difficult conditions and the slip road between the A15 and the A4 was closed for a time after a lorry jack-knifed.
Many are comparing this winter to the 'big freeze' of 2010, but there seems to be more snowfall so far than that famously cold, but rather dry winter.
The country's five commercial ski centres are all currently closed as part of the Scottish lockdown and that currently looks set to be the case for the rest of February at least.
The bridge that connects Tekwane South , eNtokozweni and KaNyamazane just collapse due to this heavy rainfall outside Nelspruit.
As heavy rains continue to wreak havoc in different parts of Mpumalanga, the cooperative governance (CoGTA) department has said it fears the death toll due to the floods may rise.
The persistent rain has caused damage and flooding since tropical storm Eloise spilled over to South Africa from Mozambique.
Areas including Mbombela, Bushbuckridge, and Nkomazi were severely affected.
At least eight people died due to the heavy rains on Saturday, and CoGTA spokesperson George Mthethwa said they fear the number of fatalities could rise.
It has been a dynamic pattern establishing across Europe this week, with a persistent upper-level High over the Arctic region and northern Europe. But to the south, an atmospheric river is dragging storm systems from the Atlantic into the southern parts of Europe.
One of these systems has deepened across southwestern Europe this weekend and turned the jet stream into south-southwesterly directions. This means the flow comes directly from the Saharan desert and it normally raises the potential to receive Saharan Dust particles across the European continent.
This time, the result is the significant advection of Saharan Dust into the Mediterranean region and into central Europe. Including the Alps and areas further north where reports of orange snow and skies are coming from the public.
Snowfall in Shimla was the highest in the last 30 years, the meteorological centre said.
Heavy snowfall, however, has led to the disruption of transport and power supply in parts of the state, especially Shimla district. Kufri and Shimla received nearly two feet of snow on Thursday while Shillaro and Khadrala received 55 and 49 cm each.
PWD officials said that three national highways, one state highway and 461 link roads in the state are currently blocked with snow. The primary roads of Shimla, including the circular road and the bypass road, were cleared of snow on Friday, but authorities have warned motorists to drive with precautions due to a layer of black ice on the road, which is slippery and accident-prone.
© File/AFPAuthorities in Jordan have recovered the bodies of three people who went missing after their vehicle was swept away in a flash flood early Friday
The Public Security Directorate said the brother of one of those missing died during the search near the town of Ruwaished, some 300 kilometers (190 miles) east of the capital, Amman.
Jordan often experiences flash flooding this time of year as heavy seasonal rains send torrents of water through its desert valleys.
Source: AP
Comment: It is becoming more apparent that erratic seasons, extreme weather patterns and natural disasters are increasing, which is not a consequence of "human-caused climate change" (formerly known as man-made 'global warming') as parroted relentlessly by the MSM, but part of a natural cycle.
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