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Cloud Precipitation

Record-setting rain this year across the United States

Judson Jones
CNN
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 13:21 UTC
Mike Pollack searches for a drain in the yard of his flooded waterfront home a day after Hurricane Florence hit the area, on September 15, 2018 in Wilmington, North Carolina.
© Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Mike Pollack searches for a drain in the yard of his flooded waterfront home a day after Hurricane Florence hit the area, on September 15, 2018 in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Places like Washington, DC, have seen the most rain they have ever seen in a calendar year.

In fact, 78 cities across the United States are on track to have their wettest years on record. At least 16 of those have already broken their yearly records, according to data from NOAA Regional Climate Centers.

The continental United States as a whole is on pace to be the fifth wettest year on record and eight states are on track to have their wettest years on record.

Much of the Mid-Atlantic has observed 20 inches above what they get in an average year.

Comment: See also: Record rainfall! North Carolina city hits 100 inches of rain for 2018

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Cloud Precipitation

Hockey-ball-size hailstones smash Sydney, Australia

Jessica Dunne and Viki Gerova
Ten Daily
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 11:53 UTC
The size of the hail that just fell

The size of the hail that fell in Sydney
A series of extremely fast-moving storms have swept through Sydney, dumping hail and delaying flights at the airport.

UPDATE: The NSW SES has received more than 1400 calls for help since the storms began on Thursday afternoon.

Sydney metropolitan was the hardest hit area, Andrew Galvin from NSW SES told 10 Daily.

There have been about 350 requests for help in Hornsby in the city's Upper North Shore, while more than 270 calls have been received from Liverpool in the west.

"We have had huge demand on the telephones with a large number of calls," Galvin said.

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills mother, two daughters in Malawi

Archangel Nzangaya
Malawi 24
Thu, 20 Dec 2018 11:20 UTC
lightning
Lightning killed a woman and her two daughters aged 8 and 4 during thunderous rains on Monday in Mchinji district.

Confirming the development was Mchinji public relations officer, Lubrino Kaitano, who said the incident occurred on December 17, 2018, when the district experienced heavy rains associated with cloudburst.

Kaitano said at around six o'clock in the evening on Monday, the 34-year-old mother with her two daughters and a son were in the kitchen preparing food when they were hit by the lightning.

The publicist identified the woman as Clara Andrew Mbewe who died together with her two daughters; Judith and Enelesi Banda

Comment: Also within the last week lightning killed one individual in Kenya and a teenage girl in South Africa while in Odisha, India a bolt fatally hit 2 youths.

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Cloud Precipitation

Record rainfall! North Carolina city hits 100 inches of rain for 2018

Gareth McGrath and Allison Ballard
The Fayetteville Observer
Mon, 17 Dec 2018 08:27 UTC
woman with umbrella
© photos.com
It's a milestone the Port City probably didn't want to reach.

But Saturday morning, Wilmington surpassed 100 inches of rain for 2018.

"As of 9 a.m., Wilmington, NC, has measured 100″ of rain for 2018!" the National Weather Service's Wilmington office posted on its Facebook page Saturday morning.

The city, which measures its official rainfall at the Wilmington International Airport, averages 57.6 inches of rain a year -- a mark that was surpassed in August even before Hurricane Florence slammed into Southeastern North Carolina.

The previous record of 83.65 inches of rain that stood for over 140 years was broken on September 16th during Florence.

"It's a milestone not many cities in our area reach," said Victoria Olivia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington. "It's staggering. And it's a record we hope stands for another 140 years."

This is the third time a Southeastern U.S. city has ever broached the 100-inch mark, according to a Weather Channel meteorologist. According to the Weather Channel's Mike Seidel, Tallahassee recorded 104.18 inches in 1964 and New Orleans reached 102.37 inches in 1991.
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Tornado2

Extremely rare EF2 tornado rips through Seattle area, strongest to hit Washington state since 1986 - UPDATE


The Weather Network
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 02:07 UTC
seattle tornado damage
© TedLandk5/ Twitter
A powerful tornado tore through a Seattle-area town on Tuesday afternoon, damaging homes and vehicles along its path.

The twister touched down just before 2 p.m. local time, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), raking through the Puget Sound community of Port Orchard, about 13 miles west of Seattle.

Images of significant damage to homes and trees in the area quickly started appearing on social media as well as via local news agencies. There are no reports of any injuries at this time.

The NWS will send a survey team on Wednesday morning to asses the damage and classify the intensity of the storm. "Until we conduct a tornado survey tomorrow morning, we can not speculate on the strength of the tornado," the weather agency said via Twitter.


Comment:

UPDATE: On 20th Dec. AP reports:
An extremely rare tornado that touched down west of Seattle was the strongest to hit Washington state since 1986, the National Weather Service said Wednesday.

A Weather Service storm team surveyed the damage just south of Port Orchard, Washington, and rated the twister an Ef2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale with top wind speeds of up to 130 mph (210 kph). The scale rates an Ef2 as "significant."

In five minutes Tuesday afternoon, the twister's 1.4 mile-path (2.3 kilometers) tore roofs off homes, shattered windows and toppled large fir trees, but no injuries have been reported.


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House

Homes shake after mysterious 'cannonball-like' booms in New Gloucester, Maine

Clay Gordon and Lydia Libby
News Center Maine
Sun, 16 Dec 2018 13:45 UTC
Booms in New Gloucester, ME
© WCSH-TV
A bizarre sound that shook homes in the New Gloucester area had the town buzzing Sunday morning.

Carrie Madura said, "I thought something exploded."

"It sounded like sonic boom almost kind of like a cannonball maybe," Jennifer Everest said. "I couldn't quite figure it out there were no flashes of light along with it or anything so I was really confused."

Capt. Scott Doyle said, "It was very bizarre that's for sure."

People were wondering what was the sound echoing in the Pineland Valley area?

"We would adequately respond to that as it is a typical explosion and as we got into that new neighborhood we weren't finding anything we go back to the station and get dispatch back out again," Doyle said.

It happened three more times over a three hour period Saturday night, and if you did hear it, you are not alone.

Comment: Just 4 days before, a bright meteor fireball was seen in the sky over Maine

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Snowflake Cold

Thousands of rare 'ice flowers' bloom on Russian lake


RT
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 10:35 UTC
ice flowers
© VK / Timofey Shutov
Spring is normally the season for buds to bloom but before Christmas thousands of extremely rare ice 'flowers' exploded onto the landscape of a Russian national park. Sadly, no sooner had they blossomed, and they were gone.

The thousands of crystalline blossoms bloomed on Valdai Lake in northwestern Russia on Tuesday and, thankfully, visitors had their cameras on hand to capture the rare sight in all its majesty.

The phenomenon was caused by a sudden temperature drop, the director of the Valdai National Park, Nikolai Sokolov, explained.

For context, this is how Valdai Lake usually looks during winter.
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Seismograph

Intense earthquake swarm in Mt. Herðubreið continues, strong quake in Bárðarbunga, Iceland


Iceland Magazine
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 15:56 UTC
Herðubreið A solitary extinct volcano which towers over the surrounding highland desert.
© Ólafur Már
Herðubreið A solitary extinct volcano which towers over the surrounding highland desert.
An intense earthquake swarm in Mt. Herðubreið in the NE Central Highlands shows no sign of slowing down. Nearly two hundred quakes have been detected just south of the volcano since the swarm began shortly after nine yesterday morning. At quarter to seven yesterday evening the Herðubreið swarm was joined by a 3.4 magnitude quake in the central caldera of the Bárðarbunga system.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office located the epicenter of the 3.4 magnitude Bárðarbunga quake at a depth of only 800 m (o.5 mi) in the NE part of the caldera. A second 3.6 magnitude quake was detected in the same area on Monday morning.
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Attention

Incredible pictures capture moment Mount Etna erupts sending lava and huge columns of gas into night sky

James Wood
Daily Mail
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 15:34 UTC
The 700,000-year-old volcano is a huge 24 miles wide and is virtually active constantly.

The 700,000-year-old volcano is a huge 24 miles wide and is virtually active constantly.
Mount Etna in Sicily roared back into spectacular volcanic action early this morning, sending up plumes of ash and spewing lava into the air.

Dramatic images show the moment molten lava began to trickle down the side of Europe's most famous volcano which is a whopping 700,000-years-old and 24 miles wide.

A huge column of gas could also be seen over the Italian volcano, which is located in the city of Catania, between both Messina and Catania.

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Attention

20 volcanoes across Indonesia currently showing above normal activity


The Jakarta Post
Wed, 19 Dec 2018 15:02 UTC
Mount Agung as seen from Karangasem
© Agence France -Presse/Sonny Tumbelaka
Mount Agung as seen from Karangasem on the resort island of Bali on Sept. 24, 2017.
The Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center (PVMBG) has noted that there are 20 volcanoes with above normal levels of activity across the country.

"One of them has the status of awas [danger], two are on siaga [watch] and the remaining 17 mountains are on waspada [caution]. The awas is Mount Sinabung [North Sumatra], and the siaga are Mount Agung [Bali] and Mount Soputan [North Sulawesi]," said Kristianto, PVMBG's head of the western region volcanic mitigation subsector, as quoted by tempo.co.

Kristianto said a number of volcanoes were popular tourist destinations during the Christmas and New Year holiday period. The PVMBG has coordinated with the respective tourist area managers, he added.

"For Mount Tangkubanparahu [West Java], Dieng [Central Java], Papandayan [West Java], Gede [West Java] and Bromo [East Java], we have given the direction to remain cautious and coordinate with us at the PVMBG or with the Volcano Observation Post, which is on stand-by to provide information," Kristianto said.
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