A 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit southwestern Haiti on August 14, devastating the already fragile infrastructure in Grand'Anse, Nippes, and Sud Departments. Around 7,000 homes were destroyed, and nearly 5,000 buildings were damaged, including hospitals and schools.

Rescue work was hampered by damaged roads and bridges, and further efforts were halted by floods caused by Tropical Storm Grace. The latest reports register more than 2,200 dead and 12,200 injured.

Ida, the fifth-most-powerful hurricane to strike the US, wreaked havoc on the Louisiana coast, leaving widespread destruction in major cities like New Orleans. Extreme wind and rain, fallen trees and flooding damaged basic infrastructure, a million homes and businesses were left with no electricity, and more than 600,000 people lacked running water. The hurricane caused $50 billion in total damage.

More than 1,100 homes in North Korea were damaged, thousands of people evacuated, and farms and roads washed away after days of heavy rains and floods. Authorities expect a negative impact on food supplies due to the significant crops damage.

91 wildfires are now burning across the US triggering states of emergency and mass evacuations. This year, 37,803 fires have burned more than 3 million acres across the United States. During the same period in 2020, 32,059 fires burned a total of 2.1 million acres. Idaho is the state with the biggest number of large fires, however, Oregon has the most acres burned: 554,587 among its 11 fires.

Extreme heat is baking North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska all contain areas of extreme drought. North Dakota and Minnesota, in particular, are experiencing near-record lows in soil moisture, affecting crops.

The Caldor Fire continued to experience unprecedented growth due to extremely dry fuels pushed by the southwest winds in Northern California. Nearly 50,000 acres have been scorched, destroying dozens of homes.

More than 1,100 people were evacuated by sea from the tourist hotspot of Bodrum to escape Turkey's forest fires burning along the Mediterranean coast. In Greece, the fires have forced the evacuation of four villages. The fire was in a mountain forest 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Patras, Greece's third-largest city. Aided by strong winds, the fire raced down the slopes and threatened seaside villages.

Wildfires also ravaged forests and villages in the Kabyle region of Algeria, covering the mountainous area with thick clouds of smoke. At least 65 people died, including 25 soldiers who were part of the rescue efforts

Most of the wildfires around the world have been triggered by dry conditions, strong winds, and increased lighting strikes. Rather symbolic for a world that is also figuratively on fire as well.

Now to the other extreme of the thermometer, Colorado and Utah got covered in snow just after the hottest couple of months ever. This sudden drop to "winter-like" temperatures in August is far from normal.

Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Australia, and South Africa also reported unusually cold temperatures and heavy snow this winter.

All this and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for August 2021:

Heavy rain and flash floods on Wednesday wreaked havoc in Upper Kohistan district with the landslides blocking the Karakoram Highway at various points and floodwaters washing away many link roads, bridges and school buildings.

District education officer Sharafat Khan told reporters here that he had declared three days vacation in schools for the disposal of rubble and floodwaters.

The residents said the Karakoram Highway was blocked in Khushi area early morning by the heavy mudslides from mountains.

They said a landslide hit a passenger coach bound for Mansehra from Khushi area but four people travelling in it remained unhurt and came rushing out of it.

At least six people have died after flash flooding and tornadoes hit the north-east US, local media report.

Some people were trapped in the flooded basements of their homes, while one body was retrieved from a vehicle that was swept away.

The governors of New York and New Jersey declared a state of emergency, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called it a "historic weather event".

At least 8cm of rain fell in just one hour in New York's Central Park.

The US National Weather Service declared a flood emergency in New York City, Brooklyn and Queens, and issued tornado warnings for parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Heavy rainfall on Wednesday caused flooding in parts of central and eastern Spain. The provinces of Tarragona, Castellón and Toledo were particularly affected by the storms, while in Madrid the rising waters flooded homes and created significant traffic disruption.

On Thursday, parts of mainland Spain as well as the Balearic Islands were on the national weather agency Aemet's yellow alert level for rain and thunderstorms.

Train services were still affected on Thursday morning. At 8.30am, the railway company Renfe notified interruptions on the high-speed Madrid-Toledo line between the stations of La Sagra and Toledo, as well as additional disruptions on the Tarancón-Huete line (between Aranjuez and Cuenca) and the Teruel-Zaragoza line (at Cariñena).

In Catalonia, weather stations recorded rainfall of 77mm in just 30 minutes. The heavy rain triggered flash floods on city streets and damaged ground-floor properties in municipalities of the Montsià and Baix Ebre areas of Tarragona province. In the small coastal town of Alcanar (population 9,300), record rainfall of 167mm caused flash floods that dragged vehicles out to sea.

The National Weather Service in Riverton said on Wednesday that the majority of its climate sites recorded more moisture than a typical August this summer.

Most locations were also about one-half to one degree cooler than normal.

Greybull had its wettest August on record, according to the NWS in Riverton. Greybull saw 1.12 inches of precipitation. To put that in terms some Wyomingites may be more familiar with, Greybull saw the equivalent of about 14.56 inches of snow.

A gray wolf was spotted in Kern County earlier this year, the farthest south the species has traveled since being reintroduced in California after going extinct, wildlife officials said.

The collared gray wolf was captured on a trail camera drinking from a water trough on private property back on May 15, but officials received the footage last week, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement Saturday.

It is possible the wolf could be OR-93, a young male wolf that entered California from Oregon in January. The animal was spotted in San Luis Obispo County on April 5, when his collar stopped transmitting, they said.

Yes, there was snow falling on the Coquihalla and some BC Interior ski hills, but that does not mean summer is over.

It does mean things are cooling down a lot.

From a record heat wave in June that lead to one of the worst fire seasons on record, a cold front has a brought a drastically different climate to the region.

Lisa Erven, Environment Canada meteorologist, said the cool temperatures on the last day of August resulted in flurries in certain areas including Silver Star, Whistler and parts of the Okanagan Connector, but as the day progressed, things warmed up and the snow disappeared.

On August 31, Qingdao, Shandong was hit by continuous heavy rain.

Many places in the city were filled with deep water and cars were almost flooded to the windows.

At 11:20 am, the Qingdao Municipal Meteorological Observatory upgraded the rainstorm yellow warning to rainstorm orange warning.

At least five family members were killed by lightning in the northern Ugandan district of Alebtong, a police spokesperson said.

Jimmy Patrick Okema, police spokesperson for North Kyoga region, said in a statement that the incident happened on Wednesday.

"Lightning struck a house in which six people were sleeping, killing four people instantly, and another died later," Okema said.

He added that the deceased included three children aged between two and six.

In August last year, nine children were killed by lightning in the northwestern district of Arua.

Source: XINHUA

August is set to go down as the third cloudiest month on record for Southern England as forecasters predict heavy wind and rain will continue to lash parts of the nation into September.

Figures from the Met Office show Southern England experienced its third dullest August since records began, beaten only by 2008 and 1950, with the region receiving only 129 hours of sunshine this month compared to its usual average of 192.5 hours.

Meanwhile East Anglia also experienced the third cloudiest August on record with the area seeing just 127.2 hours of daylight compared to the average 195.7 hours usually seen during the month.

For the UK overall - August was the 12th dullest on record with 127.4 hours of sunshine - the figure is 78 per cent of the 163 hours of sun usually seen.