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Heavy rainfall brings floods to greater Taipei, Taiwan - 4 inches of rain in an hour

Wang Shu-fen
Focus Taiwan
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 14:11 UTC
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Flooding in Taipei
Thunderstorms brought heavy rain to the greater Taipei area Sunday afternoon, causing flash floods in parts of the metropolises, as local firefighters, policemen and other officials work in emergency centers to cope with the situation.

Gongguan, famous for its night market and proximity to National Taiwan University, recorded 105 millimeters of rainfall in an hour from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) data.

Daan, Xinyi, and Wenshan districts in Taipei and Xindian, Yonghe, and Zhonghe districts in New Taipei have experienced heavy rain, meaning more than 50mm of rainfall in 24 hours, according to the bureau.
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Cloud Precipitation

Freak hailstorm turns desert white around Alice Springs, Australia

Freya Noble
Daily Mail, UK
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 13:51 UTC
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The Red Centre was blanketed in hail on Saturday following a freak storm
In a bizarre but beautiful sight the Red Centre turned white on Saturday following a thunderstorm which blanketed the area in a sheet of hail.

Photographs show a stunning contrast between the bright earth and hailstones covering the ground in parts of Alice Springs.

While the area does see storms it's not often conditions are just right to deliver the spectacle it did at the weekend.

'This event was set apart due to the fact it was a slow moving storm,' Jackson Browne, a meteorologist at the Darwin Bureau of Meteorology explained to Daily Mail Australia.

'Usually these storm cells move with quite a lot of pace,' he said, adding that although hail is present in most storms it has often melted by the time it meets the ground.

As the hailstones were only marble-sized they weren't large enough to cause any damage, but they did provide quite a sight for locals, many of whom have never seen hail despite living in the area for years.


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Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes kill 7 in five districts of Bangladesh


The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 11:13 UTC
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Seven people were killed by lightning in Bogra, Jessore, Mymensingh, Manikganj and Chapainawabganj districts yesterday and the day before.

Our Bogra correspondent reported that two people were killed by lightning in Dhunat and Nandigram upazilas of the district yesterday.

The victims are Rafiqul Islam, 30, of Pakrihata village in Dhunat upazila, and Jamuli Roy, 28, wife of Nitai Roy of Hatkoroi village in Nandigram upazila,

In Jessore, Abdul Hamid Fakir, 50, and his son Huraira Fakir, 16, were struck by a thunderbolt at Gobindapur village in Keshabpur upazila of Jessore yesterday afternoon. They died on the spot, reports our Benapole correspondent.

In Mymensingh, fish trader Sharif Uddin, 40, of Haidarpur village in Muktagachha upazila was killed by lightning while going to a local market around 10:00am.
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Black Cat

Tigers, lions and hippos roam the streets of Tbilisi following zoo escape after flooding


itv.com
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 10:08 UTC
Image
© REUTERS/Beso Gulashvili
The hippo wandered through the main street
Residents of Georgia's capital city have been warned to stay inside as tigers, lions, bears and hippos roam the streets after heavy flooding destroyed their zoo enclosures.

At least five people have died and several are missing after heavy rainfall overnight turned the Vere River flowing through Tbilisi into a torrent that swept away dozens of cars and even buildings.

Three zoo workers were among those reported dead, but it was unclear how they died, the Associated Press reported.

Tbilisi Zoo said this morning that an escaped hippopotamus was cornered in one of the city's main squares and subdued with a tranquiliser gun.


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Running free: Stunned drivers saw a lion walking down the street
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Cloud Precipitation

Five dead, five missing after major flood in Georgia's capital


Sputnik News
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 08:11 UTC
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Floodwater in Tbilisi, Georgia

A heavy rainstorm hit Tbilisi on Saturday evening, damaging power lines and causing multiple roads and buildings to collapse. Georgian authorities set up an emergencies headquarters to deal with the aftermath of the flooding.

Five people were killed and at least five are missing after heavy rains caused major flooding in Georgia's capital, the country's Minister of Internal Affairs Vakhtang Gomelauri said.

Three women are among those missing, Gomelauri told journalists on Sunday.

A heavy rainstorm hit Tbilisi on Saturday evening, damaging power lines and causing multiple roads and buildings to collapse as floodwaters rushed through the capital. A city zoo and buildings adjacent to the Mtkvari River were flooded.

The zoo's administration told reporters on Sunday that three of its staff members were missing.

Georgian authorities set up an emergencies headquarters to deal with the aftermath of the flooding.

At least eight people were injured as a result of landslides in Tbilisi suburbs.


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Rainbow

Giant fire rainbow colors the sky over Bangkok and baffles residents


Strange Sounds
Tue, 09 Jun 2015 00:00 UTC
fire rainbow bangkok
A giant fire rainbow appeared in the sky over Bangkok on June 9, 2015.

Many users of social networks say this iridescent cloud could presage an anomalous natural event, like an earthquake. Well hopefully not!



Comment: June sure has been an active month for 'signs' in the skies:

Sun halo appears during beatification mass in El Salvador

Rare 'smile in the sky' rainbow spotted over Welsh border

England night sky lit up by rare noctilucent clouds above Newcastle, Country Durham and Northumberland

Sun halo captured in Maine skies

US: Rare auroras and lightning visible side by side

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Magnify

Unusual numbers of purple sea hares wash ashore near San Francisco


CBS SF Bay Area
Fri, 12 Jun 2015 00:00 UTC
Sea hares
© Morgan Dill
Giant sea slugs called sea hares have been washing up in some East Bay beaches in unusual numbers this summer.
Giant sea slugs have been washing up on some Bay Area beaches in unusual numbers this summer, and some folks who aren't sure what the creatures are actually calling police thinking they've made a grisly discovery.

The big purple blobs, called "sea hares," are invading East Bay beaches and waterways to the wonder and curiosity of beach combers and naturalists. Because they're so strange looking, some beachgoers have even called 911 thinking they're body parts that have washed ashore.

"They're about the size of a human organ, and that's almost what they look like," said Morgan Dill, a Naturalist with the East Bay Regional Park District.

By the time they wash up, they're typically dead. Dill was fascinated when she found one that was still alive, and picked it up to take a closer look. Most people, however, though excited by the discovery find they're not the most pleasant-looking sea creatures, especially with the mess of purple ink they leave behind.

Comment: Perhaps this small data point is related to the recent warm anomaly in the Pacific Ocean.
"In the fall of 2013 and early 2014 we started to notice a big, almost circular mass of water that just didn't cool off as much as it usually did, so by spring of 2014 it was warmer than we had ever seen it for that time of year," said Nick Bond, a climate scientist at the UW-based Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, a joint research center of the UW and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


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Cloud Lightning

Giant hail falls in Minooka, Illinois

Scott Viau
Plainfield Patch
Thu, 11 Jun 2015 00:00 UTC
Illinois hail
As storms passed over the region, one of them found its way over Minooka and dumped giant balls of hail over the village, according to a public information statement from the National Weather Service and several photos that popped up on Facebook showing the hail.

"There were multiple reports of hail up to 4.25 inches in diameter," the statement said. "Some of this hail caused severe damage to vehicle windshields."

National Weather Service Meteorologist Andy Krein said for hail to reach this size, you need a strong updraft in the thunderstorm itself.

"That's the vertical motion that is holding the hailstone aloft and in an environment that is conducive to the growth of the ice around it," Krein said. "That would be in the range where temperatures are between 0 celsius and minus 20 celsius. The updraft would have to be strong enough to suspend that big chunk of ice that high in the atmosphere."
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Attention

Sinabung volcano unleashes hot ash a mile into the air on Indonesian island

Jay Akbar
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 13 Jun 2015 19:10 UTC
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Eruption: A farmer continues to tend to his field on the Indonesian island of Sumatra as Mount Sinabung erupts violently in the background

A volcanic eruption in western Indonesia has unleashed hot ash over a mile into the air and threatens the lives of thousands in nearby villages.

Mount Sinabung, which is located on the island of Sumatra, had been dormant for over 400 years before erupting in August 2010 when it killed at least two and made over 30,000 homeless.

Its status was raised to the highest alert level on June 2 because of the growing size of its 'lava dome', a magma-filled mound which grows inside the volcano before erupting violently.

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Explosion: Stunning images have captured the 2,460m-high volcano unleashing hot ash and gas over a mile into the air

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Attention

Elephant escapes from circus and kills 65-year-old man in Buchen, Germany

Imogen Calderwood
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 13 Jun 2015 18:57 UTC
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Elephant attack: The 65-year-old man was killed when the African elephant (not the elephant pictured) escaped from a nearby circus in the town of Buchen and attacked him in the early hours of this morning

A 65-year-old man has been killed by an escaped circus elephant in Germany.

The man was taking his regular early morning stroll in some woods near the southwest town of Buchen.

The African elephant is believed to have attacked him shortly after 3am GMT, after escaping from a nearby circus.

A Heidelberg police spokesperson Yvonne Schmierer did not reveal what he injuries he received during the attack.

The 34-year-old female elephant, named 'Baby', has been captured and returned to the circus.

Police are investigating how the elephant was let out of its enclosure, and why it acted so aggressively towards the man.
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