Storms
S


Windsock

Easter storm brings Sahara sand to the Alps and southern France

Julia Schneemann
SnowBrains
Sun, 31 Mar 2024 13:54 UTC
he Engadin Valley in Switzerland received a lot of Sahara sand in the storm on Easter weekend.
© Engadin Facebookhe Engadin Valley in Switzerland received a lot of Sahara sand in the storm on Easter weekend.
A rather unusual sight was in store for visitors to some ski resorts on the south-side of the Alps, with slopes at Corviglia or Corvatsch, Switzerland, looking like a caramel Fudge Sundae.

Slopes in the southern Alps were covered in Sahara sand carried in by the strong winds that were blowing across the Alps with gusts of up to 100km (62 miles). Warm southerly winds have been bringing large amounts of fine sand from the Sahara to Central and Southeast Europe for days. On Saturday, large parts of Austria, Switzerland, and southern Germany were affected. Instead of a sunny Easter Saturday, it was partly eerily dark in the middle of the day in some areas.

According to calculations by Swiss Meteo, 180,000 metric tons of Sahara dust hung in the air over Switzerland alone on Saturday. While Sahara dust is a regular occurrence, this much is quite unusual. Normally, the wind will carry about half as much sand to Switzerland.

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning strike kills 15 sheep in Swat, Pakistan


24newshd.tv
Sat, 30 Mar 2024 11:54 UTC
mmmmm
Lightning killed more than 15 sheep in Swat distinct of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 24NewsHD TV channel reported Saturday,

According to local police, the lightning struck a house in the Malkidam area of Swat, killing more than 15 sheep.

Heavy rain and hailstorms hit KP areas and the chief minister put the PDMA and Rescue on high alert to cope with the challenge.
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Windsock

Amur region rocked by orange sandstorm in Russia


RT
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 11:42 UTC
MMMM
An unusual sandstorm struck Russia's Amur region from China and Mongolia, giving the air some orangey tints.

Residents will have to endure bizarre conditions for a few more days, while health experts have advised to take care of their eyes amid the sandy winds.

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Boat

Town submerged after heavy rain triggers severe flooding in central France


Yahoo! News
Sat, 30 Mar 2024 10:59 UTC
mmmmmmmmm
Floodwaters partially submerged a town in the Vienne department of west-central France on Saturday, March 30, after heavy rain caused the river to overflow and trigger severe flooding.

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Cloud Lightning

Florida coast hit by 4,000 lightning strikes in 15 minutes—'Absolutely Nuts'


Newsweek
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 12:27 UTC
mmmmmm
Nearly 4,000 lightning bolts struck off the southwest Florida coast in just 15 minutes on Wednesday.

A total of 3,946 lightning strikes were recorded in the Gulf of Mexico west of the cities of Naples and Fort Myers, according to WINK in Fort Myers.

"WOW! Mother Nature going absolutely nuts off the Southwest Florida coast right now," Matt Devitt, the chief meteorologist at the station, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "4,000 lightning strikes with this storm in just 15 minutes. Check out the lightning density and tight clustering of strikes in the bottom image."
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Cloud Precipitation

Flooding in Lisbon causes chaos


The Portugal News
Wed, 27 Mar 2024 13:54 UTC
FLOOD
Lisbon is being seriously affected by the bad weather today with streets flooding.

On social media, people are already sharing images of the chaos in the Portuguese capital. A video, captured on Rua das Pretas, in the parish of Santa Maria Maior, shows a river in the middle of the city. "A shame", reads the publication's caption.

The heavy rain has caused floods and flooding in other parts of the city, causing some traffic restrictions.

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Cloud Precipitation

At least 18 dead as Cyclone Gamane strikes Madagascar - more than 20,000 displaced (UPDATE)


The New Daily
Thu, 28 Mar 2024 12:51 UTC
Cyclone Gamane
Cyclone Gamane
At least 11 people have died after Cyclone Gamane struck the African island nation of Madagascar.

About 7000 people were affected by the devastation caused by the cyclone, which reached the north of the island on Wednesday, the National Authority for Civil Protection said on Thursday.

The cyclone moved across the island with an average wind speed of 150km/h and heavy rainfall.

In some places, winds of 210km/h were measured.


Comment: Update March 29

Reuters reports:
A tropical cyclone that swept across the island of Madagascar this week killed at least 18 people and displaced thousands more, the country's disaster management office said on Friday.

Tropical cyclone Gamane, which crossed the northeast of Madagascar on Wednesday and Thursday, displaced more than 20,000 people, the National Bureau of Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) said in a report.

Three others were injured and four were still missing, it added.


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Tornado2

Waterspouts spotted off the Oregon coast


NewsWatch 12
Wed, 27 Mar 2024 12:17 UTC
MMMMM
At least two waterspouts were spotted Wednesday evening off the Curry County coast. One waterspout was near Brookings and the other was near Gold Beach.

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Cloud Precipitation

Aerial footage shows thousands of solar panels in Texas destroyed by hailstorm on March 15

Aleks Phillips
Newsweek
Tue, 26 Mar 2024 11:38 UTC
Images captured by Fox affiliate FOX26 Houston KRIV show extensive damage to Fighting Jays Solar in Fort Bend County, Texas.
© FOX26 Houston KRIVImages captured by Fox affiliate FOX26 Houston KRIV show extensive damage to Fighting Jays Solar in Fort Bend County, Texas.
Thousands of panels on a solar farm southwest of Houston, Texas, were damaged by a powerful hailstorm on March 15.

Aerial footage showed rows of cracked photovoltaic cells at the Fighting Jays Solar Farm near Needville in Fort Bend County, local news channel KTRK reported on Saturday. Baseball-sized hail stones were observed falling in the area overnight, as per the Houston Chronicle.

The solar project, which began producing power for Texas's energy grid in 2022, generates 350 megawatts across 3,300 acres of land and is expected to power 62,000 homes.

It is one of many renewable energy installations across the state which has championed clean energy projects in recent years while benefiting the most from federal tax credits and incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act.

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Cloud Precipitation

Global cooling: Record outback rains in Australia

Tom Saunders
abc.net.au
Mon, 25 Mar 2024 13:04 UTC
So far this month hundreds of millimetres of rain has fallen across the NT as far south as Alice Springs.
© ABC NewsSo far this month hundreds of millimetres of rain has fallen across the NT as far south as Alice Springs.
An exceptional soaking across outback Australia has broken all-time rain records, caused dry Northern Territory rivers to flood, and will supply another boost to waters already flowing south into Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre.

The current rain event has triggered flood watches for more than 40 Queensland and NT rivers, prolonging a productive northern wet season which has brought frequent soakings deep into the country's interior.

And there's still more rain to come this week — the spell of showers and thunderstorms will continue across much of northern and central Australia this week, before possibly moving south this Easter, and potentially dampening the back half of the long weekend in parts of South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.


Comment: A report from about a week prior: Heavy rain, and possible flooding for Northern Territory, Australia as ex-Tropical Cyclone Megan crosses

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