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Cloud Lightning

Flood threat looms large in Odisha, India


India Today
Tue, 05 Aug 2014 15:19 UTC
Image
© Reuters
A villager looks over floodwaters in Odisha.
With heavy rains for the past three days claiming two lives and raising fear of flood in some rivers, Odisha government on Monday alerted 12 districts for any eventuality as more rain is likely to pound some areas due to a low pressure.

Collectors of 12 districts were asked to remain watchful and gear up to meet any eventuality in the event of possible flood, special reliefcommissioner (SRC) PK Mohapatra told reporters after the situation was reviewed at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

He said the districts where alert was sounded are Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Khurda, Cuttack, Boudh, Nayagarh and Keonjhar.

The chief minister stressed the need to evacuate people from low lying areas in time and make arrangements for free cooked food and relief, Mohapatra said, adding vulnerable points in river embankments would be kept under the vigil and steps taken for availability of drinking water and medicines.
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Cloud Lightning

Extremely powerful thunderstorms leave 5,000 households without electricity in western Sweden


thelocal.se
Tue, 05 Aug 2014 14:52 UTC
Image
© Johan Nilsson/ TT
The Turning Torso in Malmö, in Monday's storm
Around 5,000 households in western Sweden woke up on Tuesday morning without electricity after thunderstorms charged through the area on Monday.

Violent storms ripped through western Sweden on Monday, leaving thousands of homes in Värmland without electricity and many homes damaged.

The roof of one house in Kristinehamn was completely blown off. The weather has also seen train lines stopped after large trees have been uprooted and have fallen across the tracks.

The town of Karlstad saw at least 100 trees falling, reported the TT news agency.
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Cloud Lightning

Torrential rain causes havoc across South Eastern Norway


The Norway Post
Tue, 05 Aug 2014 13:55 UTC
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Torrential rain and freak storms caused havoc in large areas in South Eastern Norway Monday afternoon and evening. Several thousand homes in Hedmark were still without electricity Tuesday morning.

In several towns and villages floodwaters filled basements and blocked traffic, and trees were blown down across streets and highways. In several places hail the size of tennis balls damaged car windows.

There are no reports of injuries.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Sweden, the nation's largest forest fire in 40 years is still raging out of control north of Stockholm. A number of hamlets have been evacuated. One person has been found dead. The fire covers around 100 square kilometres.
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Cloud Lightning

One dead after flash floods rip through southern California


Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 05 Aug 2014 14:07 UTC
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Fatality: El Segundo resident Joo Hwan Lee, 48, died on Sunday after his white Toyota Prius (pictured above) was swept down stream in a flash flood in southern California
* Joo Hwan Lee of El Segundo, California died after his car was swept down stream in a flash flood in southern California on Sunday

* The areas of Mount Baldy and Forest Falls were hardest hit by the monsoon whether, which dumped 3-5 inches of rainfall

* On Monday, crews worked to clear roads and access the damage to more than 30 homes

Flash-flooding in southern California claimed the life of at least one person on Sunday, as extreme rainfall wiped out dozens of homes and left thousands stranded by impassable roads.

On Monday, the skies cleared and crews got to work clearing the roads and surveying and the damage done to some 30 homes in the Mount Baldy and Forest Falls area.

Downpours punctuated with thunder and lightning dumped nearly 5 inches on Mount Baldy and as much as 3 1/2 inches on Forest Falls some 50 miles away, the National Weather Service said.

The sole victim of the afternoon's rain storm was identified as 48-year-old Joo Hwan Lee of El Segundo, who died after his white Toyota Prius was swept down a swollen creek and became wedged among boulders and a log.

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Cloud Grey

Safety expert: New York skydiver's death caused by mini tornado


MyfoxNY.com
Tue, 05 Aug 2014 10:42 UTC
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© NYDailynews
A safety expert for a national skydiving association says a "mini tornado" caused the accident that killed a correction officer and injured his instructor during a tandem jump.

Gary Messina died in the accident Wednesday afternoon at Skydive Long Island in Calverton. His instructor, Christopher Scott, was critically injured.

Rich Winstock tells Newsday wind and dust churned into a funnel and made it impossible to control the parachute. Winstock is director of the United States Parachute Association and chairs its safety and training committee.

The FAA is investigating. It had no information Thursday about the accident's cause.

The National Weather Service said winds were in the 5- to 15-mph range at the time of the jump.

Messina would have turned 26 on Thursday.
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Cloud Precipitation

Another violent hailstorm hits the Altai region, Russia


englishrussia.com
Wed, 30 Jul 2014 08:59 UTC
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Another hailstorm abruptly started in the Altai region a day ago. Hundreds of cars and buildings suffered, even the walls of buildings got holes, as the hailstorm was accompanied by stormy weather with high wind speeds.

Here we have almost fifty photos of the hailstorm's aftermath and the posts from the discussions boards. Here is one:

"Those are Americans testing meteorological weapons. Soon you'll see this in Moscow. Every day." - said one person.

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"They have disturbed an ancient mummy in Altai, maybe they should put it back", says another. They really did.
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Map

Earthquake shakes central South Africa, one dead

Ed Cropley and Joe Brock
Reuters
Tue, 05 Aug 2014 13:52 UTC
Image
© Image courtesy and copyright @Noxy_Duma

A 5.3 magnitude earthquake hit central South Africa on Tuesday, killing at least one man and trapping some miners underground, according to emergency services.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the tremor was centred in Orkney, a town around 120 km (70 miles) southwest of Johannesburg, an area with a high concentration of deep gold mines.

"One of the buildings collapsed on a man believed to be in his 30s ... by the time paramedics arrived there was nothing they could do for him," Werner Vermaak, spokesman for emergency service provider ER24, told local television.

"I have since been alerted to mines in the local area where they have received reports of various miners trapped," Vermaak added, without giving any figures.

Officials at AngloGold Ashanti, Harmony Gold, Gold Fields and Sibanye Gold said they had felt the tremors in their headquarters but had so far received no reports of anything untoward in their mines.

The area around Johannesburg is not prone to seismic activity but it is home to some of the deepest gold mines in the world. The quake is the largest in the southern Africa region since a 7.0 tremor in Zimbabwe in 2006.

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Phoenix

One dead and thousands evacuated due to massive forest fire in central Sweden

Anna Molin
The Wall Street Journal
Tue, 05 Aug 2014 07:41 UTC
Image
© European Pressphoto Agency
A helicopter dumping water on the wildfire in the village of Rorbo near Sala, Sweden, Aug. 3. Firefighters believe it will burn for weeks or even months. It is classified as the worst forest fire in Sweden's modern history.
One man appears to have died in a massive forest fire raging in central Sweden, that has so far injured at least one person and prompted the evacuation of around a thousand people, authorities said on Tuesday.

The man in his 30s was found dead on a road north of Stabäck, Västmanland, an area affected by what is said to be Sweden's largest fire in over 40 years, police said. His body was badly burned and unidentifiable, but an identity card found on the body matched that of a man reported missing by relatives.

The fire was declared a national emergency on Monday night and currently engulfs an area of 15,000 hectares northwest of Sala, about 120 kilometers northwest of Stockholm.

Around 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, mostly in smaller isolated areas, and preparations have been made for a possible evacuation of Norberg, a town of some 4,500 people, according to information provided by the county of Västmanland.

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Fish

Third mass die-off of anchovies in three weeks, Santa Cruz, California

Calvin Men
San Jose Mercury News
Fri, 01 Aug 2014 07:17 UTC
Image
© Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group
Volunteer Ben Rodman of Santa Cruz cleans up some of the thousands of lifeless anchovies that have inundated the water at the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor in Santa Cruz, Calif., Friday, August 1, 2014 where a fish die-off occurred Wednesday night. A massive clean-up is taking place and volunteers are requested to help with the effort. Boaters say the decomposing fish will ruin the protective paint on the hulls of boats in the harbor.
Trudie Ransom caught more fish Thursday afternoon than she'd caught in her life, just not the kind she wanted.

Ransom was using a net to scoop some of the hundreds of thousands of lifeless anchovies from the water of the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor where a massive fish die-off Wednesday night prompted the closure of part of the harbor.

For Ransom, the owner of the SUP Shack Santa Cruz, the fish kill was bad for business.

"The sooner I can get this cleaned up, the sooner we can get into operation," she said.

The fish kill prompted harbor officials to close the boat launch ramp while crews and volunteers work to skim the fish from the water.

"It's kind of a natural occurrence that happens from time to time," said John Haynes, acting harbormaster. "With the sheer number of anchovies we had in the bay this year, we had an idea it might happen, but we did everything we could."

The die-off is the third in three weeks. On July 18, thousands of white croakers washed up on Manresa State Beach likely caused by a squid boat accidentally catching them in a net. On July 25, scores of dead anchovies washed onto the beach at Capitola near Esplanade Park.


Comment: See also: Unknown substance found in water off Capitola Beach, CA - thousands of fish dead

Huge school of anchovies swarms off La Jolla, California - attracting hundreds of thousands of seabirds

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Cloud Precipitation

2 more killed as flooding persists in Bulgaria

Richard Davies
floodlist.com
Mon, 04 Aug 2014 04:15 UTC
Image
© Bulgaria Ministry of Defence
Miziya floods from the air
More flooding struck in Bulgaria on Sunday 3 August. This comes after weeks of flooding which has affected wider areas of the Balkans, including Romania and Serbia.
Two people died and over 500 people were evacuated from the town of Miziya, Vratsa Province, north western Bulgaria, after floods struck there yesterday. The displaced are being housed in a local school or are staying with friends or relatives.

Image
© Bulgaria Ministry of Defence
The flooding came after the Skut River had burst its banks. Over 70 houses in the town have been completely destroyed and a further 500 damaged. Flooding also affected other villages in the area. Some reports claim that the floods are a result of two dams overflowing. It hasn't rained in the area since Thursday.

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