Floods
S


Cloud Precipitation

World's first trillion-$ natural disaster: California's next megaflood would be worse than 8 Hurricane Katrinas

Eric Holthaus
Grist
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 18:22 UTC
Car in flood
© REUTERS/Stephen Lam
Worse than the 1906 earthquake. Worse than eight Hurricane Katrinas. Worse than every wildfire in California history, combined. The world's first trillion-dollar natural disaster.

A wintertime megaflood in California could turn out to be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history by far, and we are making it much more likely, according to an alarming study published this week in Nature Climate Change.

The odds are good that such a flood will happen in the next 40 years, the study says. By the end of the century, it's a near certainty. (And then another one hits, and another - three such storms are possible by 2100). By juicing the atmosphere, extreme West Coast rainstorms will happen at five times their historical rate, if humanity continues on roughly a business-as-usual path, the new research predicts.

The study's lead author, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a lifelong Californian, says the best way to understand what we're doing to California's weather is to think of earthquakes.
Read More...
Ice Cube

Ice jams cause flooding for central and northern Alberta communities


CBC
Sun, 29 Apr 2018 18:12 UTC
Ice jams on the Peace River near Fort Vermilion on Saturday.
© Ari/CanWestAirIce jams on the Peace River near Fort Vermilion on Saturday.
Flooding continues to plague parts of central and northern Alberta, with more evacuations issued in Woodlands County and park areas of Grande Prairie.

A critical alert due to high water levels and flooding remains in effect for Woodlands County, around 150 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. Six homes were evacuated a few kilometres east of Fort Assiniboine due to high water levels, Woodlands County spokesman Luke Mercier said Sunday morning.

Ice jams on the Athabasca River have created the high water levels, which have risen rapidly in the Pride Valley area.

Aerial footage Saturday shows severe flooding over Flats Road near Whitecourt in Woodlands County, where 10 people were forced to leave their homes on Saturday.

The road remains closed due to localized flooding.

Read More...
Cloud Precipitation

At least 6 killed after flash floods in Algeria


News24
Fri, 27 Apr 2018 09:37 UTC
Algeria floods
© YouTube/Фобос (screen capture)
Six people including two children were killed in 48 hours as flash floods swept away their cars in heavy rainfall over northwest Algeria, rescue services announced on Thursday.

Civil defence spokesperson Colonel Farouk Achour told AFP the children and a man died when a wadi flooded late Wednesday in the Tiaret region, 330km southwest of Algiers.

One of the children was earlier reported as missing.

Three other people drowned on Tuesday night when a river burst its banks in El-Bayadh, 800 kilometres southwest of the capital.

Emergency services said they carried out several rescue operations for Tiaret residents stranded in their homes or cars and at a school in the neighbouring region of Tissemsilt.


Comment: Some other flood related articles from this week include:

Read More...
Cloud Precipitation

With nearly 50 inches in 24 hours, Hawaii may have broken the US rainfall record

Linda Lam
The Weather Channel
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 07:26 UTC
Record flooding in Hawaii
© The Weather ChannelRecord flooding in Hawaii in April 2018.
A location in the Aloha State may have shattered an all-time 24-hour rainfall record for the U.S.

The incredible rainfall event place in mid-April in Hawaii. A site in northern Kauai, Waipa, recorded 49.69 inches in the 24-hour period ending at 12:45 p.m. April 15 (local time).

Data from this gauge will be carefully reviewed by the National Climatic Extremes Committee to determine whether this instrument is reliable enough to accept as a new U.S. record.

The current U.S. 24-hour rainfall record is 43 inches at Alvin, Texas, from July 25-26, 1979, during Tropical Storm Claudette.

If this recent event of almost 50 inches is certified, this would also break the current state 24-hour rainfall record for Hawaii, which is 38 inches at Kilauea on Jan. 24-25, 1956.

The National Weather Service office in Honolulu noted that the rain gauge where this new data was downloaded from "is operated by the Waipa Foundation which is a non-profit organization. Data from the gauge are not telemetered for real-time display and are used for watershed modeling and monitoring studies."

Comment: The world is seeing a rapid upsurge in extreme weather according to a recent report. For more information on these events from around the world, check out our Earth Changes Summaries. The latest video: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - March 2018: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs

To understand how and why these extreme weather events are occurring read Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection by Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk.

Read More...
Life Preserver

Flash floods kill nine teenagers in Israel


The Guardian
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 15:58 UTC
Israeli helicopter
© Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty ImagesAn Israeli military helicopter takes part in the search operation near Arava.


Police say 15 rescued and one still missing from group hiking south of Dead Sea

Nine Israeli teenagers who were hiking south of the Dead Sea have been killed by flash floods, Israel's rescue service said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 25 students in a pre-army course were "caught off guard" near Arava in southern Israel and some were "washed away" by heavy rains. He said 15 hikers were rescued and one was still missing. Eight of those killed were men and one was a woman; they were all 18.


Comment: Rpoerted a day earlier, also in Israel and Palestine:

Two killed as flash floods hit Israel and West Bank

Read More...
Cloud Precipitation

Heavy rainfall causes chaos in Cairo, Egypt


Egyptian Streets
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 10:22 UTC
flood
A rare bout of heavy rainfall, thunder, and lightning has attacked Egypt's capital and other parts of the country for the second day running, causing flooding and incapacitating the city's traffic - and its people.

The state news agency, MENA, reported that the authorities were forced to close highways, with parts of Cairo's ring road being shut. As a result, some travellers had to spend the night in their cars.

Little seems to have been spared the vicious downpour, with videos emerging on social media of water pouring through the ceiling of Point 90 mall in Fifth Settlement, alongside parked cars which were almost completely submerged in water. In addition, buildings, houses, and bridges collapsed reports Egypt Independent and Egypt Today.

Read More...
Cloud Precipitation

Flooding hits Cape Town, South Africa after long drought


The Citizen
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 16:52 UTC
Ravensmead flooding.
Ravensmead flooding.
The Mother City was lashed by heavy rains overnight, leading to widespread localised flooding in areas around the metropole.

Drought-stricken Cape Town was lashed by heavy rains overnight, leading to widespread localised flooding in areas around the metropole.

The weather service had predicted thunderstorms and heavy rains while the City of Cape Town's Disaster Risk Management had been placed on standby in the event of flooding and other emergencies.

Read More...
Cloud Precipitation

Floods leave 72 people dead and 211,000 displaced in Kenya - thousands of livestock killed


Floodlist
Thu, 26 Apr 2018 09:40 UTC
Police Constable Abdi Galgalo of Sultan Hamud Police Station captured by a motorist while directing traffic on a flooded section of the Nairobi-Mombasa highway at Sultan Hamud on Saturday.
Police Constable Abdi Galgalo of Sultan Hamud Police Station captured by a motorist while directing traffic on a flooded section of the Nairobi-Mombasa highway at Sultan Hamud on Saturday.
More than 211,000 people have been displaced by flooding in Kenya according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

According to the OCHA report, 72 people have reportedly died and 33 injured in flooding since March 2018.

The current wave of flooding began around mid-April. In mid-March the country experienced flooding which left least 15 people dead and hundreds displaced. At the beginning of March at least 7 people died during a period of heavy rain.

According to the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), the worst affected counties are, Tana River, Garissa, Isiolo, Kisumu, Taita, Mandera, Wajir, Marsabit, West Pokot, Samburu and Narok. About 50,000 people have had to leave their homes in Tana River County.

Read More...
Cloud Precipitation

Two killed as flash floods hit Israel and West Bank


i24NEWS
Wed, 25 Apr 2018 15:43 UTC
Flash flooding in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv
© Screengrab from video/Emily GattFlash flooding in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Wednesday April 25, 2018.
Two teens, one Israeli male and one Palestinian woman, drowned on Wednesday as a sudden storm lashed the region, bringing flash flooding and heavy hail.

Both teens were aged seventeen. Palestinian authorities said a female died after being swept away near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, while Israeli police said the male teen died near the town of Yeruham in the desert Negev region.

An additional Palestinian teenager was reported missing near the West Bank city of Hebron, where Palestinian and Israeli officials are searching for her.

Major flooding has been reported through the streets of all major cities and waters in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv rose to knee height in a matter of minutes, witnesses said.

Read More...
Cloud Precipitation

Heavy rainfall and landslides kill 18 in Rwanda

Clement Uwiringiyimana
Times Live (South Africa)
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 12:08 UTC
The damage from heavy rain and landslides in Rwanda.
© Ministry of Disaster Management and RefugeesThe damage from heavy rain and landslides in Rwanda.
Eighteen people died overnight on Monday when heavy rains ripped through several parts of Rwanda, causing landslides, the government said.

The East African nation, dubbed a country of a thousand hills, has recently been affected by landslides as a result of heavy downpours flattening houses on mountain slopes.

"Eighteen people passed on due to disasters caused by heavy rains in the night of 23rd April," Rwanda's ministry in charge of disaster management said on Twitter.

Read More...