A firefighter was killed on Monday in the region of Evros in northeastern Greece during an operation to rescue dozens of children that were trapped in a school flooded by torrential rains.
The incident occurred as the fire service was called to a kindergarten and a primary school in the small town of Apalos, near Alexandroupolis.
The fire engine was swept away by the rushing waters and overturned. A 46-year-old firefighter lost his life n the accident.
The first nor'easter of 2021 is threatening a possible two feet of snow in New York City and other parts of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
The combination of heavy snow, gusty winds and coastal flooding was expected to make travel dangerous to impossible in much of the region Monday and could knock out power over a wide area.
"Make no mistake: this storm will bring heavy snowfall, and it will make travel dangerous in every neighborhood in our city," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in declaring a state of emergency until 6 a.m. Tuesday. "New Yorkers should stay home, keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles, and let our plows work to keep us all safe."
Severe weather including strong winds, hail and record rainfall affected parts of southern-central Chile from 29 January, in particular areas of Santiago Metropolitan, O'Higgins, Valparaíso, Maule, Araucanía and Bío Bío Regions.
Rainfall has triggered flooding and landslides in several areas. The capital Santiago saw as much rain in 24 hours as it would normally see on average during the 6 month period November to April. According to Chile's meteorological office, Dirección Meteorológica de Chile, as much as 31.4mm of rain fell in 24 hours on 29 January in Quinta Normal, Santiago, beating the previous daily record total of 22.4mm set in 1933. T
Elsewhere in the country, Requinoa (O'Higgins Region) recorded 70.3mm of rain, Pirque (Santiago Metropolitan Region) 49.3mm and Longavi (Maule Region) 47mm during the same period.
Kondwani Magombo Nyasa Times Mon, 01 Feb 2021 11:30 UTC
Lightning has struck four people dead and injured three others at Kasimu Trading Centre in the area of Senior Chief Chowe in Mangochi, police have confirmed.
Mangochi Police Deputy Public Relations Officer, Sub-Inspector Amina Tepani-Daudi said the incident occurred on Saturday evening in the wake of a heavy downpour.
Daudi said the seven were struck while they were closing their businesses due to heavy rains.
"The lightning struck all of them and they were rushed to Mangochi District Hospital where four were pronounced dead upon arrival," said Daudi, adding: "The other three victims escaped with minor wounds and were treated as outpatients."
14 Jan 2021 - This interview with Professor Plimer was in response to a Cardiff University study saying that melting icebergs in the Antarctic could actually trigger an ice age. Professor Plimer dismantles the alarmist rhetoric and exposes the hypocracy.
"What's going on is cycles," says Professor Plimer. "It's normal to have cycles.... we are getting towards the end of a warm period. The peak of the warmth was about 5,000 years ago and we are headed for the next inevitable - inevitable! - ice age."
At least 1 person has died, 5 are missing and over 7,000 are displaced after Tropical Cyclone Ana made landfall early on 31 January, 2021.
Tropical Cyclone Ana struck as many parts of the country are still recovering after Tropical Cyclone Yasa made landfall as a category 5 system on 17 December.
According to Fiji's National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), 7,612 people had evacuated their homes and were staying in 204 evacuation centres in the Northern, Eastern, Central and Western Divisions.
Power and water outages were affecting parts of the country. One person died by drowning, while 4 fishermen were reported missing at sea. Fiji Police said they are searching for a young child who was reported missing in Lautoka.
Status yellow snow and ice warning issued as motorists warned of road conditions
Snow has been forecast for the northern half of the country on Sunday as a new Met Éireann weather warning comes into effect.
A status yellow warning for snow and ice is in place for Connacht and counties Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Dublin, Carlow, Kildare, Laois, Longford, Louth, Wicklow, Offaly, Westmeath and Meath. The alert is valid until 6pm on Sunday.
Conditions are breezy and cold on Sunday morning, with widespread rain, sleet and snow. Possible accumulations of snow are predicted in the northern half of the country.
Comment: The weather system having an unusual impact Ireland's east coast:
A huge mass of sea foam covered parts of Ireland's east coast. Bad weather and high winds blew an especially large mass of it into the town of Bray, located south of Dublin.
Footage from the scene circulating online shows the town's seafront entirely covered with the wobbly blob on Saturday afternoon.
A few people braved the strong winds, taking a knee-deep stroll through the blob resembling a massive porridge spill.
The mix of sea water and dead organics covered Bray's beach completely, with some of the foam being blown deeper into the town.
On a former Cold War missile base perched high above the Golden Gate Bridge, in what is now the largest marine mammal hospital in the world, Frances Gulland still remembers the shock she felt when she first started working here as a veterinarian 26 years ago.
A male sea lion had washed ashore in severe pain. His hind flippers were swollen, his lymph nodes riddled with tumors. Cancer had taken over his kidneys and turned his spine to mush. First responders at the Marine Mammal Center told Gulland they saw this in sea lions all the time.
"Wildlife should not be getting cancer like this, that's crazy!" said Gulland, who was new to California. "How can that be?"
Now, after two decades of study, an all-star team of marine mammal pathologists, virology experts, chemists and geneticists say they've connected two surprising culprits: Herpes and toxic chemicals, like DDT and PCBs, that poisoned the California coast decades ago.
Mark Osborne and Matthew Fuhrman Yahoo! News Sun, 31 Jan 2021 15:05 UTC
Skier dies after being found buried upside down in snow at Mammoth Mountain
A skier has died after being found upside down in several feet of snow at Mammoth Mountain ski resort in California.
The man was found by guests of the resort buried head first at about noon on Thursday "in deep snow near the intersection of Redwing and Hully Gully," Mammoth Mountain said in a statement.
The Mammoth Mountain Ski Patrol arrived on the scene, where skiers had already begun digging out the man. The ski patrol started CPR immediately and used a defibrillator as the man did not have a pulse, the resort said.
The man was taken to Mammoth Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The victim was not identified by authorities, but San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV said he was a 52-year-old from Oceanside, California, about a half hour north of San Diego.
Comment: The weather system having an unusual impact Ireland's east coast: