Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Massive flooding after heavy rain in Gujarat, India leaves 28 dead, 24,000 evacuated (UPDATE)

Brijesh Doshi, Sharma Shivani
India Today
Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:22 UTC
Tapi river in full spate after water was released from the Ukai Dam following heavy rains in Surat.
© PTITapi river in full spate after water was released from the Ukai Dam following heavy rains in Surat.
At least 15 people died, while more than 23,000 were evacuated and over 300 rescued in different districts of Gujarat as heavy showers continued to lash the coastal state.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted a respite from the rain fury in the coming days as the deep depression hovering over the Saurashtra-Kachchh and north Gujarat regions is expected to move out of the affected areas by Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, to increase the pace of rescue and relief operations, the Gujarat government has sought six Indian Army columns-- one each in Dwarka, Anand, Vadodara, Kheda, Morbi, and Rajkot districts.

In addition, 14 NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) platoons and 22 of SDRF have already been deployed to support the disaster management efforts.

Earlier on Tuesday, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel convened a high-level meeting to review the relief and rescue operations.


Comment: Update August 29

The BBC reports:
At least 28 people have died and more than 24,000 have been relocated in the western Indian state of Gujarat since Sunday after heavy rains led to massive flooding.

Several rivers and reservoirs are overflowing as water levels have crossed the danger mark, officials said.

The Indian army and national disaster response teams are carrying out relief and rescue operations in the worst-hit areas.

The state is on high alert as the weather department has predicted heavy rains to continue over the next few days.



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Cloud Precipitation

Flood hits China's largest desert

Li Yan
ecns.cn
Wed, 28 Aug 2024 13:54 UTC
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Recently, China's largest desert, the Taklimakan Desert in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, experienced flooding, which sparked widespread discussions on social media.

A video surfaced online shows vehicles running on a waterlogged road through the Taklimakan Desert and a significant accumulation of water on both side of the highway.

Located in the center of the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang, the desert is surrounded by the Tianshan, Kunlun and Altun Mountains. It has an annual average precipitation of no more than 100 millimeters but an evaporation amount up to 3,000 millimeter..

But experts say it is not uncommon to see flooding in the desert.

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Cloud Precipitation

Farmers take massive hit following hailstorm in Connecticut

Kevin Gaiss
NBC News
Tue, 27 Aug 2024 13:28 UTC
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Farmers in the Wallingford and North Branford area were devastated by hail damage from Monday's storms, during the peak of the growing season as so many were starting or preparing to harvest.

At Cecarellis Harrison Hill Farm, workers were starting to process the last of this year's harvest. A small amount of tomatoes compared to their usual bounty.

"We got over here and this is what I saw," said William DellaCamera, owner of the farm as he toured us around acres and acres of devastated tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and corn.

The vast majority was hit hard by hail rolling through his region. He got stuck at the farm, indoors, as the storms passed overhead.

"The sun came out, a rainbow came out, there is no gold at the end of that rainbow, I can assure you of that," he said.

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Tornado2

Video shows waterspout over pond in Western Mountains of Maine


Yahoo! News
Thu, 22 Aug 2024 12:36 UTC
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The National Weather Service confirmed multiple reports of the waterspout, which formed over Ellis Pond in Roxbury, which is also known as Roxbury Pond.

WMTW - Portland ME

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Tornado2

Waterspout spotted over sea near Malta

Ana Tortell
Loving Malta
Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:18 UTC
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A waterspout was spotted over the sea in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq earlier this morning.

Footage sent to Lovin Malta shows the natural phenomenon appearing before the horizon. This comes as the island braces itself for a possible thunderstorm later today.

Waterspouts fall into two categories: fair weather waterspouts and tornadic waterspouts.

Tornadic waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water, or move from land to water. They have the same characteristics as a land tornado. They are associated with severe thunderstorms, and are often accompanied by high winds and seas, large hail, and frequent dangerous lightning.

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Cloud Lightning

School principal killed in lightning strike in Nepal


MyRepublica
Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:09 UTC
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One person has died in a lightning strike in Salyan district. The deceased has been identified as Dal Bahadur Karki, 56, a resident of Laxmipur Satkhola, Kalimati Rural Municipality-1.

Karki was struck by lightning when he went to a shed near his house on Monday evening. He was seriously injured and rushed to the District Hospital Salyan for treatment. Unfortunately, the doctor declared him dead.

Karki was also the principal of the Kali Devi Secondary School.
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Cloud Lightning

Best of the Web: Unexpected rainfall event starts in the Sahara desert: A rare weather phenomenon

Andrej Flis
Severe Weather Europe
Tue, 27 Aug 2024 12:17 UTC
Average monthly precipitation ecmwf for north-hemisphere
A unique rainfall event is about to unfold across the Sahara desert, otherwise known as the driest place on Earth. The amount of rainfall might not seem large by normal standards, but a large part of the Sahara will get well over 500% of normal monthly rainfall in August and September.

It's not very often that the Sahara desert experiences these rainfall events. They are very rare, less than once per decade on average, but they are usually a sign that something is perhaps changing in the Earth's weather system, indicating an unusual state of the Atmosphere.

The driest place on Earth

Sahara is called the driest place on Earth because it receives little to no yearly precipitation. It is the world's largest and hottest desert, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. It covers over 9.2 million square kilometers (3.6 million square miles).

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Killer whales attack another sailboat off Spain, prompting complex rescue that injures crewmember

Emily Mae Czachor
CBS News
Mon, 26 Aug 2024 13:35 UTC
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Killer whale.
Orcas slammed into a sailboat off the coast of northwestern Spain on Sunday, damaging its rudder and prompting a complicated rescue operation that left one crew member seriously injured, officials said, marking the latest incident of the predators attacking a vessel in the region.

It wasn't known exactly how many orcas — also known as killer whales — were involved in the attack near O Roncudo along the rocky cliffs of the Spanish province of Galicia. Spain's maritime rescue service said two people on board the boat, called the Amidala, sent out a mayday at around 4 p.m. GMT to the dispatch center in Cape Finisterre, an area also marked by rocky shores and, at the time, rough seas.

The man and woman who crewed the Amidala haven't been identified by name, but the rescue service described them as Belgian nationals. Their boat sailed under the Finnish flag.

Comment: Other cetaceans also seem to becoming quite aggressive of late, see:

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Cloud Precipitation

Torrential rain floods streets of Sochi, Russia - nearly 5 inches of rainfall overnight


The Moscow Times
Tue, 27 Aug 2024 12:39 UTC
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Heavy rain overnight Monday triggered partial flooding in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi and its surrounding areas, local authorities said.

Sochi Mayor Andrey Proshunin said the Khostinsky district, located on the foothills of the western Caucasus mountains, received around 12.5 centimeters (4.9 inches) of rain between Monday night and Tuesday morning.

"After midnight, the water level in the Khosta River reached dangerous levels, and the basement of a hospital was flooded," the mayor said, referring to one of the rivers that flows through the district.

Proshunin said emergency responders pumped water overnight to clear the worst-hit areas.

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Boat

Nigeria floods kill dozens amid mounting fears over rainy season - death toll reaches 49 (UPDATE)


Al Jazeera
Fri, 23 Aug 2024 10:57 UTC
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Flooding in northern Nigeria has killed at least 30 people and devastated huge amounts of farmland. Jigawa state is especially hard hit.


Comment: Update August 27

Anadolu Ajansı reports:
The death toll in Nigeria due to devastating floods since Aug. 16 has risen to 49, with at least 470 people injured, the country's emergency management agency said Monday.

A flood dashboard by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) updated on Monday showed that the northern states of Jigawa, Adamawa and Taraba were hit hard by the flood after days of intense rainfall.

A total of 43,519 people have been displaced by the flood, according to the agency.
Further details in these earlier reports for the month:

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