Earth Changes

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Evacuations after floods in central region of Cuba - nearly 5 inches of rain in a few hours

Floodlist
Tue, 26 May 2020 18:40 UTC

Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, with floods of rivers,

Heavy rainfall on 25 May caused flash flooding in central areas of Cuba prompting evacuations. Heavy rain was also reported in Florida, USA, where as much as 4 inches (100mm) of rain fell in a few hours, causing flooding in southern parts of the state.

Cuba

Heavy rainfall on 25 May caused flooding in central parts of Cuba, in particular in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Villa Clara and Cienfuegos.

Cuban Meteorological Institute INSMET reported several locations recorded more than 120mm in a few hours early on 25 May.

Around 20 families were evacuated from their homes after rivers broke their banks in Santa Clara, capital of Villa Clara Province. Landslides were also reported in the area.

Severe storms, flooding, hail, snow, tornadoes and heat make for a messy Memorial Day weekend

Oppenheimer Ranch Project
YouTube
Mon, 25 May 2020 18:29 UTC

Severe storms, flooding and excessive heat make for a messy Memorial Day weekend.

Sources

30,000 hit by floods in Samarinda, Indonesia

Floodlist
Tue, 26 May 2020 10:04 UTC

Over 30,000 people have been affected by flooding in Indonesia's East Kalimantan Province.

Flooding struck in areas of the city of Samarinda from around 22 May after a period of heavy rain. Officials said areas close to the Karang Mumus River were badly affected.

Samarinda disaster management (BPBD) said on 25 May that flooding has reached 30,894 inhabitants across 4 sub-districts in 14 urban villages in Samarinda City.

North Samarinda district is among the worst hit areas, where as many 1,671 houses have been inundated, affecting 13,896 people. In Sungai Pinang District, 1,634 houses were flooded, affecting 6,211 people.

At least 3 dead as MASSIVE hurricane rips through capital city of Russia's Urals

RT
Mon, 25 May 2020 20:22 UTC

Powerful winds and heavy rain have hit Ekaterinburg in Russia's Urals, on Monday afternoon, felling numerous trees, damaging cars and obliterating weak structures. At least three people have been killed by the hurricane.

The hurricane brought down numerous trees across the city, Russia's fourth-largest, multiple videos show, blocking some roads and also destroying power lines, disrupting electricity supply.

Many unlucky motorists have found their vehicles obliterated by fallen trees and damaged by other debris.

Comment: Meanwhile: Siberia in midst of freak heat wave

Siberia in midst of freak heat wave

The Moscow Times
Mon, 25 May 2020 10:33 UTC

Western Siberia is experiencing abnormally high May temperatures, with some areas above the Arctic Circle breaking record-highs, The Siberian Times and The Washington Post reported last week.

Weather experts say temperatures in the region have been between 3 degrees Celsius and 6 degrees Celsius above average since January. The trend picks up from 2019, which forecasters declared the hottest year on record in Russia.

"That's not only a new record anomaly for Russia. That's the largest January to April anomaly ever seen in any country's national average," Robert Rohde of the nonprofit climate research group Berkeley Earth said in a tweet.

Russia's third most populous city of Novosibirsk in Krasnoyarsk region and the nearby regions of Omsk, Tomsk, Kemerovo and the Altai mountains saw record-breaking temperatures of between 30 degrees Celsius and 35 degrees Celsius in May, The Siberian Times reported last Tuesday.

At least one Siberian town above the Arctic Circle, Khatanga, broke its previous single-day record of 12 degrees Celsius for May 23 when the temperature hit 25.4 last Saturday.

"This heat wave occurs mostly at the area which has been anomalously warm during the whole 2020," Finnish researcher Mika Rantanen told The Washington Post.

Comment: Wildfires in Siberia are so large you can see them from space

Coldest May day in Brisbane for almost a century

Toby Crockford and Matt Dennien
The Sydney Morning Herald
Sun, 24 May 2020 11:11 UTC

Brisbane has endured its coldest May day in a century with the mercury hitting just 15C at about 1pm on Friday - and the chilly snap is here to stay

The mercury dropped to exactly 0 degrees in south-east Queensland on Sunday morning, the day after Brisbane's coldest May day in almost a century.

On Friday and Saturday, 54 daytime temperature records were equalled or broken across the state, according to a list shared by the Bureau of Meteorology on social media.

The bureau said the low maximum temperature records would need to be confirmed by its climate services team in the coming days.

Meteorologist Kimba Wong said Brisbane reached a maximum of 15.1 degrees on Saturday, the coldest May day since the River City struggled to a top of 15 degrees on May 22, 1922.

On Sunday, the South Burnett town of Kingaroy, about 150 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, reached freezing point and the Scenic Rim towns of Beaudesert, with a low of 0.6 degrees, and Canungra, with a morning minimum of 0.9 degrees, weren't far behind.

Brisbane itself had a minimum of 10.4 degrees on Sunday, while the Ipswich suburb of Amberley and Greenbank, in Logan, both dropped to 3.3 degrees.

Comment: North America has set 233 new all-time monthly low temperature records in May (so far) vs just the 18 record highs

India's worst locust attack in 27 years, and worse is yet to come

India Today
Mon, 25 May 2020 23:58 UTC

Swarms of the desert locust, which invaded India via Pakistan in April, have made their way to at least five states, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. Desert locust move in large groups, called swarms, and can eat crops up to their own weight every day. When millions of locusts descend on a crop, they destroy everything.

The desert locust is considered the most destructive migratory pest in the world and a single swarm covering one square kilometre can contain up to 80 million locusts. As per eyewitnesses, the swarm which entered India from Pakistan was about two to three kilometres long.

In December 2019, when the parts of Gujarat were invaded by locust, they had destroyed crops spread over 25,000 hectares of land. This time, the attack is more widespread.

Comment: Biblical-style events appear to be a pretty common occurrence in our days.

U.S. hailstone and hailstorm records

Christopher C. Burt
Wunderground.com
Sat, 23 May 2020 20:24 UTC

© Michael Mee, FEMA
Hail can accumulate to remarkable depths when a storm becomes stationary over one place for a period of time. The hail in this photograph, however, drifted this deep after floodwaters washed it into these giant heaps in a low-lying area.

Recently, an investigation into a hailstorm that took place in Villa Carlos Paz, Cordoba Province, Argentina on February 8, 2018, reported that a hailstone some 9.3 inches in diameter may have fallen during a storm there. The Weather Channel's Chris Dolce has a summary of the event, which has been documented in a February paper for the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society entitled "Gargantuan Hail in Argentina." The authors propose that hailstones larger than 6" in diameter be classified as "gargantuan".

If verified, the Argentine hailstone would surpass the U.S. record holder, an 8-inch-diameter stone collected near Vivian, South Dakota on July 23, 2010. (That hailstone was said to have actually been 11" in diameter before a portion of it melted prior to being officially measured.) However, the Argentine hailstone will likely never become an official record, since its size was estimated only from video evidence and not from any first-hand measurements.

On Friday night, May 22, 2020, a hailstone of 5.33" diameter was reported in Burkburnett, Texas (the same hailstone shown in this Facebook post). With peak U.S. hail season at hand, here is a recap (portions of which appeared in a blog entry I posted in April 2018) of the costliest and deadliest hailstorms in U.S. history, along with a summary of the largest hailstones yet observed in the United States.

Comment: Related and pertinent: Cosmic rays increases hail size and duration - Lightning inception by large ice particles, GSM much?

Heavy rain triggers floods in Assam, landslides in Sikkim, India

Floodlist
Mon, 25 May 2020 19:42 UTC

Heavy rain has caused flooding and landslides in north-eastern India, leaving at least 1 person dead in Sikkim state and affecting around 10,000 people in Assam state.

Assam

In Assam, the Puthimari and Jia Bharali rivers were swollen after heavy rain brought by the remnants of Cyclone Amphan. As of 24 May, the Jia Bharali in Sonitpur, was 77.55 metres, above the danger mark of 77 metres.

According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), as of 24 May flooding had affected 10,081 people in 46 villages in the districts of Lakhimpur, Sontipur, Darrang and Goalpara. Earlier flooding had also affected Barpeta district. Roads and bridges have been damaged in Lakhimpur, Sontipur and Goalpara.