Low temperatures records have been tumbling across the planet of late, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere — North America, Europe, and Asia have each logged thousands of new cold records this winter, and now the situation looks set to intensify even further...
Latest GFS runs show a hemisphere-wide hyperborean invasion starting now and running all of next week, with brutal Arctic air masses occupying the majority of the mid-latitudes by Monday, Feb. 15.
The below graphic is the forecast for Wednesday, Feb. 17:
Chris Jewers Daily Mail Thu, 11 Feb 2021 18:07 UTC
Marco Malcangi wanted to take advantage of the recent snow fall and do some powder skiing, but found he was snowed in and needed to wade through five-foot snow to leave his home
An Italian man had to wade through five-feet high snow just to leave his house after large parts of central and northern Europe were blanketed.
Marco Malcangi said he wanted to take advantage of the recent snow fall and do some powder skiing.
But the 22-year-old got more than he bargained for as he was greeted with snow that was five feet deep where he was staying in Valle d'Aosta, in the Italian alps.
In a video shared by the Italian, only his head and shoulders are visible as he wades through the snow towards the camera, with his home in the background.
Wearing a large red ski jacket, goggles, mittens and a winter hat with a GoPro mounted on top, he is seen using his ski poles to help fight through the snow.
Yusuf Soykan Bal, Tezcan Ekizler Anadolu Agency Fri, 12 Feb 2021 12:32 UTC
16 people slightly injured due to waterspout in Izmir province
A number of people suffered injuries Thursday when a violent storm struck Izmir province in western Turkey, according to an official.
Yavuz Selim Kosger, the governor of Izmir province, said 16 people were slightly injured due to a waterspout in Cesme district.
Kosger said on social media that the Alacati neighborhood in Cesme as well as Urla district experienced strong rain, hail and a waterspout Thursday night.
The waterspout, which formed in the Alacati Port area, caused damage by overturning a crane and knocking over some vehicles.
Madhya Pradesh hardest-hit; figures show gross underestimation of crop losses due to floods
India has suffered a huge crop loss on 18.176 million hectares (mha) of land, roughly 8.5 per cent of the total gross cropped area due to floods from 2017-2019, according to data shared by the government in the Lok Sabha February 11, 2021.
Of this, 10.68 mha was affected in 2019 alone. In 2018 and 2017, 2.515 mha and 4.973 mha of cropped area was lost in India. The intensity of extreme floods has increased in the country, affecting newer areas that were not flood-prone earlier.
The flood-prone states of Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh saw extreme floods. They were also witnessed in Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan due to 'excess' or 'large excess' rainfall in these states, combined with extremely heavy rainfall in a short span of time.
Flooding has affected thousands of people in the departments of Beni and Santa Cruz in Bolivia since late January 2021. Disaster authorities report that over 35,000 families have now been affected by heavy rain and flooding across the country since the start of the year.
In a statement of 05 February 2021, Vice Minister of Civil Defence, Juan Carlos Calvimonte, said 9 people had died and 35,316 families affected across 7 departments as a result of flooding and severe weather since the start of the year. In addition, rains and flooding damaged 28,491 hectares of crops and 1,478 houses.
Severe flooding struck the city of Sucre in Chuquisaca Department on 04 January. Media reported at least 3 fatalities. Days later flooding affected thousands of families in Cochabamba on 14 January. One fatality was reported in Tiquipaya.
A pileup involving 100 vehicles has killed at least eight people, injured dozens more and brought traffic on a slippery Texas interstate to a complete stop.
The crash happened around 6 a.m. on Interstate 35 in Fort Worth, Texas, as drivers were dealing with pockets of inclement weather across the state, including freezing rain.
Multiple people were trapped in their vehicles, the Fort Worth Fire Department reported, and rescuers had trouble reaching them because of the ice on the road.
Video is courtesy of KXAS.
Comment: Another video shows the huge pileup occurring:
Only 10 of the 34 bodies recovered could be identified so far
Rescuers recovered two more bodies on Wednesday that took the death toll in the Chamoli flash flood to 34 till Wednesday evening.
Authorities also revised the number of missing people from 206 to 204 after two of them - workers of the Rishi Ganga project - were found safe at their residences on Wednesday.
Rescuers are still clearing the slush and boulders from the tunnel in NTPC's hydel power project in Tapovan where about 35 workers are trapped but have been unable to reach them.
Rescuers are now using drones for laser scanning of the tunnel to know the volume of slush inside and trace the location of the trapped workers. Dog squads have also been deployed inside the tunnel.
Out of the total 204 missing people, about 190 are workers working in the two damaged dam projects-- Rishi Ganga and the NTPC's Tapovan project.
Four people have died, 1 is still missing and over 60,000 people have been displaced after heavy rain caused flooding and landslides on the island of Java, Indonesia.
West Java Province
Disaster authorities in Indonesia report that heavy rainfall from 04 February 2021 caused flooding and landslides in 8 regencies / cities in West Java Province from 07 February. As of 10 February, 156,800 people were affected, 63,700 displaced and 39,100 buildings damaged.
Subang (62,070 affected, 38,453 displaced, 19,211 homes damaged) and Indramayu (39,631 affected, 11,997 displaced, 6,250 homes damaged) are the worst hit areas. Other affected areas include Sumendang, Bogor, Cirebon, Majalengka, Karawang and Bekasi City.
Majalengka recorded 214.2mm of rain in 24 hours to 08 February, according to figures from Indonesia's meteorological agency BMKG.
Vijay Pinjarkar Times of India Thu, 11 Feb 2021 13:09 UTC
Most deaths were caused by tiger (38) and leopard (32)attacks.
With 88 human deaths, Maharashtra witnessed the worst-ever human-animal conflict in 2020 indicating significant consequences for the economy, human health, safety and welfare, and ecosystem.
According to information received under RTI by activist Abhay Kolarkar, most human deaths were in leopard and tiger attacks.The details sought for calendar years 2017 to 2020, show that conflict almost doubled in the period.
In 2017, 54 humans were killed with the state paying Rs 4.32 crore as compensation. In 2020, the figure had risen to 88 humans for which the state government paid Rs 12.75 crore compensation.
These deaths include 32 in attacks by leopards and 38 in attacks by tigers. Most of the tiger attack cases were from Chandrapur district. In the same period, there is also a drastic increase in cattle kills from 5,961 in 2017 to 9,258 in 2020.
Comment: An earlier video report from January: Bolivia suffers devastating flooding in 7 provinces