Storms

Montana, US: Fast, Strong Storm Knocks Out Power Around Great Falls

Kimball Bennion
Great Falls Tribune
Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00 UTC

© Ryan Hall/Tribune Photo
A NorthWestern Energy crew works on putting up a downed powerline Tuesday evening on 29th Street and 3rd Avenue North following a storm.

A brief but burly storm moved through Great Falls on Tuesday evening on a northeast trajectory that took it through northcentral Montana.

The storm knocked out power about 6 p.m. Tuesday, affecting around 2,000 customers in the downtown Great Falls area, according to NorthWestern Energy spokeswoman Michelle Sullivan.

The brief outage occurred when wind blew two power lines together. Sullivan said NorthWestern crews responded to several scattered outages Tuesday night all over Great Falls. One was caused by a broken pole, one by a broken power line, and others by trees or branches falling on lines.

As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, firefighters with Great Falls Fire/Rescue said they still were responding to calls related to outages or down power lines.

Sullivan said NorthWestern workers also were sent to repair outages in Portage, Carter and Fort Benton.

"Our crews are pretty busy," she said.

US: Freak Storm Breaks San Francisco Rainfall Records For June

KTVU.com
Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:29 UTC

A record-breaking rain fell throughout the Bay Area much of the day Tuesday as a hefty storm system doused the region.

While rain was heaviest in the North Bay, the most surprising figures came in San Francisco where Tuesday's rainfall of just over three quarters of an inch marked the most precipitation to fall on the date since 1849 (the year of the earliest recorded rainfall statistics in the entire state) according to KTVU Channel 2 Chief Meteorologist Bill Martin.

Tuesday's rain also lifted monthly totals to make this the second wettest June since the Gold Rush Era.

One positive result of the late rain would be that the saturation of dried brush around the Bay Area should shorted the fire season in the region by about a month, Martin said.

The messy afternoon commute could also be blamed on the unseasonable rainfall as the wet roadways led to accidents and slowed freeway traffic.

In San Francisco, a branch of a tree weighed down by wet leaves split and fell on Hyde Street. The branch narrowly missed parked cars and temporarily stopped cable cars service.

Canada: Mudslide closes Highway 1 between Chilliwack and Hope

Evan Duggan and Mike Hager
The Vancouver Sun
Wed, 29 Jun 2011 10:32 UTC

A mudslide hit Highway 1 Wednesday, trapping at least one driver and leaving work crews scrambling to remove debris and eliminate the possibility of further victims.

Front-end loaders and trucks worked into Wednesday night on the stretch of highway between Chilliwack and Hope in an attempt to clear the road before the rush of vacationers descends on the highway for the long weekend.

The slide left a mess five metres deep and 60 metres wide across the eastbound lanes of the highway, about 100 metres from the Herrling Island exit.

"We weren't able to see that there was [anyone else trapped] by foot, but the equipment, as it begins to move the debris will make a determination if there's anyone else impacted," said RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen.

"The mudslide is large enough that it could easily cover a number of vehicles and we wouldn't know it until we uncovered them."

A woman whose vehicle was flipped over and pushed against the median escaped with minor injuries, said B.C. Attorney-General and Chilliwack-Hope MLA Barry Penner. Penner toured the site Wednesday afternoon and said cleanup crews began work at about 3:45 p.m., after geotechnical experts concluded the area was safe.

Alnwick Garden's Himalayan lilies ruined by heavy rain

British Broadcasting Corporation
Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:22 UTC

Gardeners faced a major blow after rare flowers which take seven years to bloom were ruined by storms.

The Himalayan lilies had been cared for by staff at Alnwick Garden, in Northumberland, since 2004 in anticipation of long-awaited blooms.

Head gardener Trevor Jones said heavy rains since the weekend had ripped most of the flowers from their stems.

He said they had started coming into flower at the beginning of last week and would have been a summer highlight.

At least 31 dead as heavy rains slash India

Xinhua
Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:13 UTC

New Delhi -- At least 31 people were killed and thousands of others homeless due to heavy rainfalls in northern and eastern India over the past few days, local media reported Wednesday.

Monsoon rain continued to lash most parts of northern India on Tuesday when 14 people were killed due to rain-related incidents in the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, reported local daily The Hindu.

Meanwhile, at least 17 people died and over 900,000 people were affected in the heavy rains in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal over the past two days, said the newspaper.

Heavy Rain Forces 16,000 to Evacuate in S.China

China Radio International
Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:05 UTC

More than 16,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes Wednesday as torrential rains pelted parts of south Guangdong Province, local flood control authorities said.

Heavy rains unleashed by summer monsoons started to pound the Pearl River Delta and the province's west coastal region Tuesday evening, disrupting traffic and forcing people in low-lying areas to leave their homes, said a spokesman with the provincial flood control headquarters.

Over 13,500 of the evacuees were from the worst-hit city of Yangjiang, while the evacuation of the rest 2,500 was reported in the city of Taishan, where downpours flooded 20 villages, said the spokesman.

The headquarters Wednesday sent a work team to the rain-ravaged regions to direct flood-relief operations.

Heavy Rains Batter Southeast Mexico

Latin American Herald Tribune
Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:54 UTC

Cancun, Mexico - The torrential rains that fell in the last few hours in the southeastern Mexican state of Quintana Roo, brought on by a tropical wave, abruptly halted outdoor tourist activities, caused ports to be closed to small boats and flooded much of the state.

Municipal authorities on Monday launched Operation Storm to activate contingency plans for flooded areas and safeguard those living in vulnerable districts.

Maritime authorities stopped the sailing of small boats throughout the Mexican Caribbean as a preventive measure and hoisted red flags to warn bathers of the risk of powerful waves.

The heavy rains and high winds brought on by the tropical wave began Saturday afternoon.

Lightning strikes kill 15 in northeast Nigeria

Associated Press
Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:47 UTC

Authorities say 15 people in northeastern Nigeria have died from lightning strikes after strong thunderstorms swept through the region's rural pasturelands.

A spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday the deaths occured in Gombe and Yobe states, killing eight men, four women and three children Tuesday.

Nigeria is experiencing its annual rainy season, with storms sweeping through its tropical south and arid north. Floods already are affecting the country, causing some drowning deaths.

US Nebraska: Storm Serves Up Supersize Hail in Sidney

Klark Byrd
The Sidney Sun-Telegraph
Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:00 UTC

© Jesse Almanrode/For The Sun-Telegraph
Residents of Peetz, Colo., had a unique view of the tremendous storm cloud that passed directly over Sidney on Saturday. This storm had many points of rotation, but no tornadoes have been confirmed. It did produce hail up to the size of softballs that caused further property damage throughout Sidney.

Saturday's bright sunny skies disappeared in the evening hours as a supercell thunderstorm grew in intensity and tracked southeast from northeastern Kimball County. The massive storm reportedly spawned several unconfirmed tornadoes and sporadically spit supersized hail onto property unfortunate enough to be in the way.

Numerous reports of large hail filtered into the National Weather Service, beginning with a 6:52 p.m. reported from Kimball County. Trained weather spotters 12 miles northeast of Kimball and also 19 miles southeast of Harrisburg reported golfball-sized hail falling for several minutes.

The slow-moving supercell continued to affect mainly rural parts of both Kimball and Cheyenne counties before passing over Potter around 7:30 p.m.

Heavy Rains Sour Cocoa in Southeast Ivory Coast

Loucoumane Coulibaly
Reuters Africa
Mon, 27 Jun 2011 13:47 UTC

Heavy rains in Southeastern Ivory Coast have hurt the region's cocoa sector, hindering drying and fermenting operations and damaging key roads to market, farmers said.

The downpours come amid rising concern over bean quality in the world's top grower nation, after exporters said much of the 15,000 tonnes of beans arriving at ports last week was not suitable for shipment.

"It has rained too much. The roads are blocked, there are lots of floods and the farmers are having trouble working on the plantations," said Paul Essien, who farms near Aboisso, around 100 km (60 miles) east of Abidjan.

"We need lots of sun in July, otherwise the quality will degrade sharply and diseases will appear. We fear a decline in prices in the coming weeks," he said.

Some 203.2 millimetres of rain fell in the Aboisso region last week, according to meteorologist readings.