Areas around Gander and St. John's got a light dusting of snow as temperatures dipped to about -1 C, with a wind chill of about -7 C.
Some called it a cruel Spring joke that yielded some bemused Twitter comments.
Earth Changes
Areas around Gander and St. John's got a light dusting of snow as temperatures dipped to about -1 C, with a wind chill of about -7 C.
Some called it a cruel Spring joke that yielded some bemused Twitter comments.
A traffic light in Torreón, Coahuila, melts in the heat.
Parts of Mexico continue to swelter in a record-breaking, prolonged heat wave that has caused at least three deaths, given a boost to the economy and even caused traffic lights to melt in two northern states.
Authorities in Chihuahua - where temperatures have been as high as 48 C - said an 18-year-old indigenous Tarahumara man and a 17-year-old male died due to heat-related illnesses.
A 33-year-old homeless man also died in Saltillo, Coahuila, due to heatstroke.
According to the National Meteorological Service (SMN), temperatures of up to 49 are expected to continue in the north of the country until next Tuesday, June 5.
". . . What we're observing is that as the heat wave progresses, the high [atmospheric] pressure is not decreasing, so it's going to strengthen in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Léon, Durango and Zacatecas," SMN general coordinator Alberto Hernández told a press conference.
© Orlando Estrada/AFP/Getty Images
A policeman carries an elderly evacuee in Alotenango, 55 km southwest of Guatemala
A policeman carries an elderly evacuee in Alotenango, 55 km southwest of Guatemala
At least 25 people, including three children, have been killed and nearly 300 injured on Sunday in the most violent eruption of Guatemala's Fuego volcano in more than four decades, officials said.
Fuego volcano, whose name means "fire" in English, spewed an 8km (five-mile) stream of lava and belched a thick plume of black smoke and ash that rained onto the capital and other regions.
Sergio Cabanas, the general secretary of Guatemala's Conred disaster agency, said on the radio: "It's a river of lava that overflowed its banks and affected the Rodeo village. There are injured, burned and dead people."
Mario Cruz, spokesman for the volunteer firefighter corps, said: "We have seven confirmed dead, four adults and three kids, who were already taken to the morgue." He added that 3,100 people had evacuated the area so far. The disaster agency later updated the death toll to 25.
President Jimmy Morales said he had convened his ministers and was considering declaring a state of emergency in the departments of Chimaltenango, Escuintla and Sacatepequez.
It is the second time the volcano has erupted this year, setting off loud explosions and spewing ash into the sky. Soot blanketed cars and houses in the nearby villages of San Pedro Yepocapa and Sangre de Cristo.
Comment: In the past few days Indonesia's Mount Merapi had the biggest eruption this year, as on-going volcanic and seismic activity continues at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano.
Update 5th June 2018
BBC:
Soldiers are helping firefighters search for missing people after Sunday's horrific volcanic eruption in Guatemala, when torrents of superheated rock, ash and mud destroyed villages.
The official death toll from the destruction at the Fuego volcano has risen to 69, the authorities say.
Thousands of people are being housed in temporary shelters.
Volcanologists report the eruption, which sent ash up to 10km (33,000ft) into the sky, is now over.
The eruption also generated pyroclastic flows - fast-moving mixtures of very hot gas and volcanic matter - descending down the slopes, engulfing communities such as El Rodeo and San Miguel Los Lotes.
PBS NewsHour:
Why did Fuego's pyroclastic flow kill so many?
Fuego's lethal eruption took the form of a pyroclastic flow, the same searing cloud of debris that cooked and choked the city of Pompeii after Mount Vesuvius exploded in 79 AD.
On its surface, a pyroclastic flow looks like a falling cloud of ash. But if you could peer into the cloud, you would find a really hot and fast-moving storm of solid rock, said Janine Krippner, a volcanologist at Concord University who studies pyroclastic flows.
"It's not really like anything else on Earth," Krippner said. People are familiar with avalanches of rock or landslides, but pyroclastic flows move much more quickly, traveling more than 50 miles per hour. The upper part of the pyroclastic flow resembles a grainy sandstorm, but it is filled with hot gases, whose temperatures range from 400 to 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit.
"The bottom [of this cloud] is a jumble of chaotic [lava] rocks. It's large boulders that are breaking up into smaller pieces," Krippner said. "They can knock trees down like matchsticks and destroy houses. They can send cars flying. They're incredibly dangerous.".....
"When you reach the surface with magma, there is a lot less pressure because there's a lot less rock, so the gas comes out," Krippner said. "During a violent eruption, that gas expands rapidly, forming bubbles in the magma. That then explodes, blowing the magma apart like shaking a bottle of coke and then opening the top."
But instead of foam, Fuego released sprays of solid rock.
Krippner said Fuego's latest eruption produced a larger-than-average pyroclastic flow, given it spread more than 10 kilometers downslope of the volcano crater. This may explain why it took so many by surprise.
More than 3,100 people have been evacuated and 1.7 million people have been affected by the eruption, according to CONRED, the government agency for disaster reduction, reported by CNN. Guatemala's President Jimmy Morales has declared three days of national mourning.
The eruption officially ended late Sunday, said Guatemala's National Institute of Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology. "The eruption ... is reaching its end with 14.763 feet of ash and weak-to-moderate explosions and incandescence in its crater," it said in a statement.
But it warned there could be new eruptions, and residents in the surrounding areas should be on alert for mudslides containing volcanic material.
© CNN
Residents flee El Rodeo village after the Fuego volcano erupted.
Residents flee El Rodeo village after the Fuego volcano erupted.
How exceptional was the eruption?Update 6th June 2018
Fuego is one of Latin America's most active volcanoes. A major eruption devastated nearby farms in 1974, but no deaths were recorded.
Another eruption in February this year sent ash 1.7km (1.1 mile) into the sky.
Sunday's event was on a much greater scale.
This eruption is Guatemala's deadliest such event since 1902, when an eruption of the Santa Maria volcano killed thousands of people.
RT reports:
The death toll from the ongoing eruption of Guatemala's Fuego volcano (Volcano of Fire) climbed to 75 people on Tuesday. The bodies were recovered by search and rescue teams, Guatemala's National Institute of Forensic Studies confirmed, saying that only 23 have been identified so far. It is feared that the number of victims can rise substantially since 192 people still remain unaccounted for.
© Hindustan Times
Absence of recent records of 51 butterfly species in Uttarakhand means they have most likely gone extinct. And this shows that everything is not well with the Himalayan environment.
Absence of recent records of 51 butterfly species in Uttarakhand means they have most likely gone extinct. And this shows that everything is not well with the Himalayan environment.
Prof Kirti, president of the Association of Entomologists, said butterflies "are very sensitive and fragile organisms" and one of the best indicators for changes in environment and ecology of a region.
"Butterflies are a good model for assessment and habitat monitoring studies and effective indicators of forest health as they are widespread, conspicuous, and easily recognizable," Prof Kirti said. "If there are no recent records of 51 butterfly species in Uttarakhand, it means they have most likely gone locally extinct. And this shows that everything is not well with the Himalayan environment."
Local fire and emergency crews were called out to over 450 interventions during the storm, with over half of them in the town of Morlaix, Finistère, where some homes have been evacuated.
Photos and videos on Social Media showed flood water raging through the streets of Morlaix. Stéven Tual, meteorologist for Meteo Bretagne, said that around a month's worth of rain fell in less than an hour. Meteo Bretagne said Morlaix received 52 mm of rain and 70 mm in Monts d'Arrée.
Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (Aemet) Valencia said that 116.8 mm of rain fell in the city in 24 hours to early 03 June. Roads and tunnels were flooded and transport severely disrupted.
In Alginet, Valencia, local firefighters were called on to carry out dramatic flood rescues when a car carrying 3 people was trapped in rising flood water.
In the province of Albacete, El Gallego, municipality of Elche de la Sierra, recorded 180 mm of rain in 24 hours, according to local observers.
The landslide at noon on Saturday at Kanaints in the Gama local level government area happened as the villagers were getting ready for their usual weekend soccer game.
Acting director for the Madang provincial health office Paul Mabong said the mother and her son, 14, were buried under rocks brought down by the landslide near the village.
Mabong said a woman, aged 26, had her right arm cut off by falling rocks.
"She's the one seriously injured now," he said.
Illegal gold mine which residents were working on collapsed during rain.
Illegal gold mine which residents were working on collapsed during rain in Bakan Village, Lolayan Sub-district, Bolaang Mongondow Regency, North Sulawesi Province on Sunday (6/3/2018) at 3 pm Central Indonesian Time (WITA).
The landslide also buried six miners as they kept mining despite heavy rain.
"The joint SAR team evacuated the landslide victims. From six people who were buried five people had been evacuated in dead condition on Sunday at 7 pm WITA and one person was still in search," said Sutopo, Monday (6/4).
"We are very concerned about our safety," said homeowner Christina Ambrose.
She and her husband, Thomas, said it started two weeks ago with the onset of the nonstop rain.
"More and more of our pavers fell in and the hole gets larger and wider," Christina Ambrose said.
The Ambroses called their councilwoman and watershed came out to inspect.
"They said, 'Yes, it is caused from the sewer they were able to do some testing,' and they said, 'We'll be taking care of it this is our responsibility," Christina Ambrose said.
National Committee for Disaster Management spokesman Keo Vy told newsmen that the first five months of the year have seen 68 people killed during storms.
Vy said that the current number of deaths by lightning has already surpassed 2017's toll for the same period.
"Lightning deaths this year are worse than last year.
"So far, 65 people were killed by lightning this year, while 46 were injured and 69 cattle were killed," he said.
Comment: Mexico scorches while Europe is underwater and Canada is seeing unusually heavy 'spring snow':
- Floods Everywhere: Europe Battered By Sheets Of Rain, Hail and Thunderstorms
- Six gold miners buried by landslide after heavy rain in North Sulawesi, Indonesia
- Flood rescues following heavy rain in Valencia, Albacete and Murcia, Spain
For more, check out SOTT's monthly documentary: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - April 2018: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs