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Record number of 220 wildfires recorded in one day for Portugal


Fire Fighter Nation
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 11:58 UTC
FIREMAN
Portugal is fighting to put out a spate of wildfires after the southern European country hit a year high of outbreaks for a single day on Friday, authorities say.

Portugal's Civil Protection Agency, which coordinates its firefighting efforts, said Saturday that it recorded a record for this year of 220 separate wildfires on Friday.

Over 2,500 firefighters supported by over 800 vehicles and 15 air units were still mobilized on Saturday morning to combat the flames.

Portugal has been hard hit by wildfires, including one that killed 64 people in June, during a summer marked by high temperatures and a lack of rain.

Wildfires in Portugal this year have accounted for more than one-third of the burnt forest in the entire 28-country European Union.


Source: Associated Press.
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Arrow Down

Firefighters rescue man who fell into 10-foot deep sinkhole in Philadelphia


wdel.com
Sun, 13 Aug 2017 11:44 UTC
Eugene Clarke, a Strawberry Mansion block captain, was rescued after he fell down a sinkhole late Saturday night. Clarke's wife took a photo of him before firefighters pulled him out.

Eugene Clarke, a Strawberry Mansion block captain, was rescued after he fell down a sinkhole late Saturday night. Clarke's wife took a photo of him before firefighters pulled him out.
A man had to be rescued by fire department personnel after falling into a 10-foot sinkhole in Philadelphia.

Officials said the 58-year-old man was walking in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood in northwest Philadelphia at about 11 p.m. Saturday.

They said he stepped off a curb between two parked cars and fell into the newly formed sinkhole that was about two feet wide and 10 feet deep.

He was rescued by firefighters and was taken to Temple University Hospital for treatment of injuries said not to be life-threatening.


Source: Associated Press
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Cloud Precipitation

Flash floods triggered by torrential rains kill 11 in northern Iran


Press TV
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 04:52 UTC
A file photo of floodwaters in northeastern Iran

A file photo of floodwaters in northeastern Iran
Heavy downpours have caused flooding in northeastern and western Iran, killing 11 people and leaving two others missing.

Torrential rains have been battering the Iranian provinces of Khorasan Razavi, Golestan, North Khorasan, and Semnan in the country's general northeastern area, and Ilam Province in its west over the past days, causing rivers to overflow their banks.

Morteza Salimi, the head of Relief and Rescue Operations at Iran's Red Crescent Society, said the flooding had claimed eight people in Khorasan Razavi, two in Golestan, and another in North Khorasan.

Two people have gone missing in Golestan's Aliabad County, he said.

In Khorasan Razavi, which has suffered the brunt of the human losses, flooding has hit the cities of Dargaz, Quchan, Nishapur, and Kalat. Mojtaba Ahmadi, the director of the Red Crescent Society in the province, said 190 rescue workers had been dispatched to the affected areas there, alongside ambulances and aid shipments.

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Cloud Lightning

Severe thunderstorm hits southern Finland; wind gusts too strong for measuring equipment to record says meteorologist


YLE News
Sun, 13 Aug 2017 11:10 UTC
Downed trees in the Helsinki district of Pirkkola
© Markku Sipi
Downed trees in the Helsinki district of Pirkkola.
Rescue services were kept busy cleaning up damage incurred by high winds and heavy rain from a severe thunderstorm, but report no deaths or serious injuries.

A severe thunderstorm that hit southern Finland Saturday evening brought gusts of wind up to 32.5 meters per second to the capital city region, proving too strong for the Finnish Meteorological Institute's (FMI) measuring devices.

"The gusts were very strong in Helsinki and its coastal area in particular. Our automated observation equipment rejected the measurements because the readings were so severe," says FMI meteorologist Henri Nyman.

FMI says its website crashed last night, due to the overwhelming amount of people who were checking in on the progress of the storm. The servers couldn't handle the surge in traffic.

Hundreds of 112 calls

In a story that was last updated at 11 pm Saturday evening, Yle interviewed rescue service representatives that said fires, downed trees and water damage kept them busy in the evening - but at the time it appeared that no one had been killed or badly hurt in the storm.

Comment: Severe storms have caused havoc across Poland and other parts of Europe in the last few days.

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Cloud Precipitation

Landslide kills 45 people in northern India

Harriet Agerholm
The Independent (UK)
Sun, 13 Aug 2017 17:41 UTC
India landslide
© Shailesh Bhatnagar / AP
Soldiers used shovels and pickaxes to remove rocks, boulders and debris covering the buses and pull out the bodies
Two buses, two cars and a motorbike buried in mud

A landslide that swept two passenger buses off a hillside in northern India has killed 45 people, officials have said.

The landslide in Urla village in Himachal Pradesh state, which was triggered on Sunday by heavy monsoon rains, buried part of the road, trapping two cars and a motorbike as well as the buses.

Soldiers used shovels and pickaxes to remove rocks, boulders and debris covering the buses and pull out the bodies.

Rescue efforts were hampered by intermittent rain, said Ashok Sharma, a police officer who was at the site.

"One of the buses is buried under nearly 15 metres of mud," Mr Sharma said. "It will take us many hours to extricate the bus."

Mr Sharma said he did not hold out much hope of any survivors.

Dozens of houses were washed away in the torrential rain that hit the Mandi region in the Himalayan foothills.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences: "Pained by the loss of lives due to landslide related accidents in (Himachal Pradesh's) Mandi district. My condolences with the families of the deceased."

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Snowflake Cold

Global temps cooler than when Gore won Nobel Prize in 2007

Marc Morano
Climate Depot
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 10:09 UTC
AlGore
© Scott London
AL GORE'S POOR TRACK RECORD - Chart by Meteorologist Joe Bastardi of Weatherbell Analytics. - An inconvenient truth: Global temps were warmer when Al Gore won the 2007 Nobel Prize than today, even after the 2015/16 super El Nino.

Meteorologist Joe Bastardi explains: "Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize based on warnings of future events - the same future events that have not happened. The fact is that global temperatures from 2006-2007 while Gore was basking in the glory of his apocalypse-driven fame were warmer than they are now, and we are still falling off the Super El Niño peak. Additionally, much of the time in-between was lower than what it was in the run-up to An Inconvenient Truth." Bastardi added: "Fact: Without monkeying around and 'finding' warming, temps have changed very little during 20 year AGW hysteria period."
Gore chart
© Dr. Ryan N. Maue/WeatherBELL
[Climate Depot Note: The Bastardi graph uses the the global 2m temperature anomaly. There are several different temperature datasets, two satellite datasets (UAH & RSS) and several surface datasets that may show somewhat different temperature anomalies. Claims of "hottest year" or "hottest decade" are debunked [here and here and here].

Comment: Numbers, if accurate and in correct context, don't lie. People, on the other hand...
See also:

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Sun

Drought kills 2 million animals in Ethiopia


Vanguard
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 13:08 UTC
dead animals
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said that two million animals have been lost to a "devastating" drought in Ethiopia.

The UN agriculture agency said that the drought had devastated herders' livelihoods as it exhausted pastures and water sources.

It said the current food and nutrition crisis was significantly aggravated by the severe blow to pastoral livelihoods.

"For livestock-dependent families, the animals can literally mean the difference between life and death - especially for children, pregnant and nursing mothers, for whom milk is a crucial source of nutrition.

"With up to two million animals lost so far, FAO is focusing on providing emergency livestock support to the most vulnerable pastoralist communities through animal vaccination and treatment, supplementary feed and water, rehabilitating water points, and supporting fodder and feed production".
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Wolf

92 animal bite cases reported in a day in Sarawak, Malaysia


New Straits Times
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 11:33 UTC
The Sarawak Health Department said of the total, 84 involved domestic pets (dogs and cats), while eight involved feral animals (dogs, cats and rats).
© NSTP
The Sarawak Health Department said of the total, 84 involved domestic pets (dogs and cats), while eight involved feral animals (dogs, cats and rats).
A total of 92 new cases of animal bites were reported in the state yesterday.

The cases comprise the districts of Serian (42 incidents), Kuching (35 incidents), Samarahan (12 incidents) and Sri Aman (3 incidents).

The Sarawak Health Department said of the total, 84 involved domestic pets (dogs and cats), while eight involved feral animals (dogs, cats and rats).

"This brings the cumulative number of animal bite cases (in the state) since April 1 to 2,062," it said in a statement.
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Cloud Lightning

Five dead as violent bow echo storm system hits Poland (UPDATE)


RTE.ie
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 20:29 UTC
Poland storm damage
© REUTERS
A roof destroyed by a storm hangs from an apartment building in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Aug 12, 2017.
Five people, including two Girl Guides, have died in freak accidents as violent storms hit Poland amid a heatwave.

The two girls, aged 13 and 14, were crushed by falling trees while sleeping in a tent when a storm hit the campground for Girl Guides and Boy Scouts in the northern village of Suszek.

Another 20 children were said to have been injured.

A woman died when a tree hit her house in the northern village of Konarzyny.

In a nearby village, a man sleeping in a tent also perished after being hit by a tree brought down by high winds.

Authorities in the same region also confirmed the death of a fifth victim, a 48-year-old man, crushed by a tree.

A total of 28 people were reported injured.

Power was cut to around half a million homes and businesses as violent winds downed trees and ripped off roofs in northern and southern regions.


Comment: Severe storms hit Europe

Update (14.08.2017): According to tvnmeteo the deadly storm system which caused devastation in parts of Poland was a phenomenon called a bow echo. Severe straight-line winds can be produced by these systems, which can be seen on radar imagery shaped like an archer's bow. Wind speeds were recorded of 112 km / h in Chojnice, 125 km / h in Gniezno and 151 km / h in Elblag.

Bow echo storm over Poland
© radar-opadow.pl/IMGW
Bow echo storm system over Poland.
Huge swathes of trees in the forests of Chojnice County in northern Poland were destroyed by the storm system.



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Seismograph

6.4 magnitude earthquake jolts Indonesia's Sumatra


The Indian Express
Sun, 13 Aug 2017 04:39 UTC
Sumatra earthquake map

Meanwhile, panicked residents fled their homes. There are no reports of damage or casualties, however.
An earthquake measuring 6.4 in magnitude struck Indonesia's Sumatra on Sunday, according to the United States Geological Survey. Seismologists, however, said there was no risk of tsunami. The quake hit at a depth of 35 kilometres at 10:08 AM (0308 GMT) 73 kilometres west of Bengkulu, news agency AFP reported.

Meanwhile, panicked residents fled their homes. There are no reports of damage or casualties, however.

Speaking to news agency AFP, Indonesia's meteorology and geophysics agency official said that the tremors were quite strong. "The earthquake was quite strong and shallow, it was felt all the way to Padang, West Sumatra, but there was no threat of a tsunami," he said. He added the officials are looking out if there are any casualties or property damage after the tremors.

A resident of Bengkulu region in Indonesia, Neng Hasnah told AFP that her family fled the house out of fear as the tremors were quite strong. "I was carrying my seven-month old granddaughter and I had to run, all the neighbours also ran outside their homes," Hasnah said.
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