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Tornado2

Munich Re insurance company data shows natural disasters are on the rise


Thundering Heard
Thu, 20 Mar 2014 20:02 UTC
Just over a year ago, the post What is the Transition? Part 1 presented statistics and charts showing that there is an acceleration in extreme weather events and geologic changes. And there have been several posts with specifics, including these:
The Weather Gets Even Wilder

Weather Wildness Update

Britain faces choice of saving town or country from floods
This is a statistical update showing that this exceedingly important trend continues.

For starters, here is a chart from the world of yet another industry whose original intent - a way to spread financial risk that could overwhelm an individual to a wider community - has been perverted to massive investment pools from which any payment is not celebrated as a victory but is called a loss. Thus the chart of "Loss events worldwide 1980-2013" from the largest re-insurance company in the world, Munich Re.

I use it so that any reader who might still be mired in "it's just better reporting because of the internet" delusion about accelerating Earth changes - I heard of a person who still claimed that recently, so there must be more - can put that aside. So, not from the woo-woo world, but from the Mr. Gradgrind hard-nosed, no-nonsense, actuary-driven world where all things are calculated in currency and where the business model depends in great part on frightening people into buying more insurance than they need:

munich RE
© Munich Re
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Fire

Hundreds evacuated as wildfire rages near Yarnell, Arizona


Daily Mail (UK)
Thu, 09 Jun 2016 15:27 UTC
wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona June 2016
© Les Stukenberg/The Daily Courier via AP
A brush fire burns in Yarnell, Arizona, Wednesday, June 8, 2016.
Hundreds of people evacuated their homes as a wildfire raged near the Arizona town where a 2013 blaze killed 19 members of an elite firefighting crew.

Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Dolores Garcia said 250 to 300 people left their homes in the town.

The fire grew to 600 acres, but crews expected it to ease somewhat during the overnight with cooler temperatures and higher humidity.

There have been no reports of injuries, the Yavapai County sheriff's office said.

About 140 firefighting personnel were battling the blaze, supported by three air tankers and two helicopters making blaze suppression drops. Garcia said three unoccupied buildings have burned but no homes have been lost near Yarnell, about 60 miles northwest of Phoenix.

The cause of the blaze was being investigated, but Garcia said crews had ruled out lightning.

It was burning south and east of the site of the Yarnell Hill Fire in which members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots died when they got trapped by the flames nearly three years ago — the deadliest U.S. tragedy for wildland firefighters in several decades.


Comment: 18 specialist firefighters killed battling Arizona wildfire


That lightning-caused wildfire destroyed nearly 130 homes in the area.

On Wednesday, some Yarnell homeowners said they saw smoke and received a voluntary evacuation notice on their cellphones.


Comment: Arizona burning? State officials warn of 'potentially significant wildfire season'

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Wolf

Woman killed by pit bull terrier in Montreal, Canada

Stephen Smith
cbc.ca
Thu, 09 Jun 2016 16:01 UTC
Dog attack
Farid Benzenati says he was unable to sleep last night after witnessing a violent dog attack on his neighbour in Montreal.

The 55-year-old woman was attacked in the backyard of her home in Montreal's east end on Wednesday afternoon by what police describe as a pit bull.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police initially said the woman was killed by the dog, but late Thursday morning, they said an autopsy was needed to confirm that hypothesis.

Benzenati said he arrived at his Pointe-aux-Trembles home from work around 5 p.m. ET, and as is his habit, had a quick look outside at the pool in his backyard.

Montreal resident Farid Benzenati says he wasn't able to sleep after witnessing a dog attack on Wednesday.
© Steve Rukavina/CBC
Montreal resident Farid Benzenati says he wasn't able to sleep after witnessing a dog attack on Wednesday.
That's when he noticed movement behind the fence.

"I saw a big dog that appeared to be playing with a large object. I looked closer and saw that the object was really big," he said.


Comment: This is the fourth fatality within 5 days due to dogs going berserk in North America, see also: Child mauled to death by dog in Nunavut, Canada

Dog kills 7-year-old boy in Penobscot County, Maine

Pit bull terrier kills man in Stockton, California

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Snowflake

Summer snowfall hits China's northernmost province


cctvplus.com
Tue, 31 May 2016 13:19 UTC
Snow China
People in the city of Mudanjiang of China's northernmost province of Heilongjiang were amazed at the magical force of nature as a snow fell Tuesday morning at the beginning of summer.

The snow lasted for about five hours in Xuexiang in the Shuangfeng Forest Farm of Hailin County, with snow accumulated to about 10 centimeters in some areas.

Analysts say it is unusual to see snow at this time of the year, though snow is frequent in April due to its special geographical location.


Comment: See also: Global warming? Snowfall in Siberia marks the official start of summer

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Tornado2

Another tornado destroys homes in Germany, this time in Hamburg (VIDEOS)


The Local
Thu, 09 Jun 2016 12:37 UTC
tornado hamburg

The tornado that hit Hamburg, northern Germany, June 7, 2016
Hamburg locals were shocked by the sight of the tornado on Tuesday, but meteorologists say this isn't the end of the bad weather.

Hamburg fire services on Tuesday declared a state of emergency due to the severe storm - believed to be a tornado - and have dispatched more than half of the available fire service workers in Hamburg.

"There are countless roofs that have flown off and flooded basements. More than 1,000 firefighters and technical helpers are on duty," said a fire department spokesperson.

Meteorologists have not yet declared whether the storm was in fact a tornado, which is defined as having contact with both the earth and a cloud.

Residents reported seeing rain, then hailstones as big as table tennis balls, then suddenly a tornado on Tuesday evening in eastern Hamburg.



Comment: See also:

5 June 2016 - Rare twin tornadoes touch down in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
6 May 2015 - Tornado and severe storms hit northern Germany

Becoming less 'rare' by the day...

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Fire

20 foot high flames spew continuously from borehole in Madhya Pradesh, India


Hindustan Times
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 19:24 UTC
Mandi Bamora borehole fire
© HT
Flames as high as 20 feet emanate from below the earth’s surface in Vidisha on Sunday
Panic gripped the Mandi Bamora village in MP's Vidisha district on Thursday when flames as high as 20 feet began to emanate from below the earth's surface during the boring of a tubewell on Thursday. The flames have been emanating continuously since then.

The district administration called a fire brigade to put off the flames but in vain. A barricade has been placed around the spot and policemen have been deployed to restrict people from venturing near the spot.

On Thursday morning, Rajkumar Sahu of Mandi Bamora village brought a boring machine at his farmland for the boring of a new tubewell. When the boring work reached a depth of 400 feet, suddenly flames began to emanate with force, causing panic among the locals. Thereafter the people began to pour water into the borewell to put off the fire but to no avail. The boring machine operators fled the spot and soon the news spread wildfire in the whole area.

On Friday the district administration officials inspected the spot and ordered the area be secured to prevent any major mishap. However, since Thursday morning the spot has become a matter of curiosity as well as panic among the locals. Some are terming the incident as a miracle of nature while others say it is the wrath of local deities.

This is third such incident in which flames emanated during boring of a new tube well in the Mandi Bamora area. Earlier on January 30 this year, flames had come out while a tubewell was being bored near Mandi Bamora railway station. And a few years ago the same thing had happened near a government hospital.


Comment: See also:

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Arrow Up

6.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia off Lombok coast


RT
Thu, 09 Jun 2016 04:49 UTC
Lombok earthquake map
© earthquake.usgs.gov
A powerful 6.2 magnitude earthquake has struck some 190 miles south of the Indonesian island of Lombok, according to preliminary data from the US Geological Survey.

The quake happened at a depth of 29 km some 300 kilometers south of Praya, the main town of Central Lombok Regency on Lombok Island.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The quake happened along the 5,600 km of the tectonically active Sunda convergent margin, where India and Australia plates are converging with and subducting beneath the Sunda plate at a rate of approximately 50 to 70 mm/yr, according to the USGS.

Comment: Only two days ago a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's eastern coast.

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Cloud Precipitation

London flooding: Cars submerged as flash floods strike Sutton, Croydon and Mitcham

Laura Proto
Evening Standard
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 20:27 UTC
Three people were trapped in their cars after being submerged in flash floods in south-east London

Three people were trapped in their cars after being submerged in flash floods in south-east London
Flash floods left cars submerged as torrential rain hit south London today.

Emergency services were called to Mitcham, Croydon and Wallington as thunderstorms brought heavy downpours to parts of the capital.

Three cars were almost completely submerged under flood water near Wallington station with one person having to be rescued by firefighters.

One man was rescued by a stranger who threw a brick to smash the window of his Mercedes after it became trapped in the flood water.

A London Fire Brigade (LFB) spokesman said: "We were called at 2.21pm to three cars under water two metres deep.



Submerged: a car after flash floods in south London
© Facebook/Paul Jolly
Submerged: a car after flash floods in south London

Comment: Flash floods and lightning strikes caused chaos across the UK on Tuesday as a month's worth of rain fell in just an hour.

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Fire

At least 9 wildfires in Oregon sparked by lightning in one day

Mark Furman
kval.com
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 18:48 UTC
The smoke plume from the Draw Fire as seen from the air on June 6, 2016.
© South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership
The smoke plume from the Draw Fire as seen from the air on June 6, 2016.
Wildfires sparked by lightning Sunday continue to burn in southeast and south central Oregon as firefighters faced unfavorable hot and windy weather conditions.

The Owyhee Canyon Fire south of Jordan Valley has burned over 20,500 acres, according to fire officials. The fire is 50 percent contained, but the weather forecast could be a problem.

"Wind and lightning are expected today and could frustrate suppression and containment efforts," fire managers said in a report Tuesday morning.

Twenty miles northeast of Chiloquin in south central Oregon, fire crews are working the 500 acre Draw Fire. It's the largest of about 7 fires sparked by lightning there on Sunday. The other blazes were kept to 3 1/2 acres or smaller, the USDA Forest Service said.
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Fire

Could 2016 be California's worst wildfire season?

J. Weston Phippen
The Atlantic
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 18:39 UTC
A helicopter makes a water drop on a fire in Calabasas, California.
© Gene Blevins / Reuters
A helicopter makes a water drop on a fire in Calabasas, California.
Consecutive years of drought have killed more tress, and recent rains have added to grass growth, which provides quick fuel for fires.

Five years of drought have dried up California's forests and the first six months of this year has seen twice as many acres burned as the same time in 2015, the Los Angeles Times reported.

By Monday, about 400 firefighters working on the ground and in helicopters had extinguished one blaze in Calabasas, a neighborhood on the edge of Los Angeles. On Tuesday at least two other large fires in the state burned, as the Times reported:
In the north, crews tackled the 3,200-acre Coleman fire as it tore through Los Padres National Forest, threatening several homes. Farther south in Calabasas, residents left their homes as flames consumed more than 500 acres. Fast-approaching flames forced a bride, groom and their guests to act quickly and move their entire wedding at the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon to a nearby beach.
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