Storms
The landslides struck in the early hours, affecting the villages of Jepun and Bindang in Pasean District. Disaster authorities reported at least 5 people were killed. Two houses are thought to have been buried, while around 20 other homes and a school were also damaged.
Surabaya City recorded 78mm of rain in 24 hours to 24 February, while Semarang City in Central Java recorded 155mm.
The snow banks are also reaching heights of up to 12 feet, and stunning people who live near the mountain pass.
"I mean this weather has been pretty crazy," said Glenn Vickery. "We've actually had some really good light snow, but it's been a lot of snow and it's been unique with this pebble-like snow, so it's been a crazy year with a lot of different weather conditions. It's been pretty cool."
Silas Wild is an avid skier and drove down Snoqualmie Pass to North Bend before sunset. "Coming up you could see all the trucks were stopped to chain up and the plows were plowing and causing a little slowdown, so I'm glad I'm going down and not up," said Wild.
Since November, I-90 to Snoqualmie Pass was closed for more than 40 hours due to collisions, spinouts and avalanche control work.
Here is a timeline compiled by Anadolu Agency.
Jan. 2:
- Massive forest fire engulfs the picturesque Dzuko Valley located in northeastern India.
Jan. 3:
- The death toll from the landslide in the village of Ask, Norway, on Dec. 30, rises to six.
- Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra, Indonesia, erupts, spewing ash columns up to 1,000 meters high.
Both incidents occurred on the evening of February 22, 2021 in the areas of Traditional Authority Bwananyambi and Mponda.
According to Mangochi Police Deputy publicist, Amina Tepani Daudi, in the first incident, John Chicha and Tiyanjane Bakali both 23-years-old were struck by lightning at Masuku Trading Centre.
At the time, it was heavily raining and lightning struck 5 people whereby the two were pronounced dead upon arrival at Mulibwanji Community Hospital. The other three suffered serious burn wounds.
In South Africa, flooding affected parts of Vhembe District, Limpopo Proince, in particular the town of Musina, where roads and homes were damaged along with electricity and water infrastructure. Images shared on Social Media showed a flooded hospital.
Flooding also affected areas the border town of Beitbridge in Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe, damaging roads and some buildings.
Meteorological Services Department of Zimbabwe said Beitbridge recorded 76mm of rain in 24 hours to 22 February. Heavy rainfall was also reported further north in Nyanga, close to the border with Mozambique.
As reported here, flooding struck in Greater Jakarta from 19 February, prompting 1,300 evacuations mostly in South and East Jakarta and also affecting parts of West Jakarta.
Hurricanes are blasting Bermuda with wind speeds that have more than doubled in strength over the last 66 years, due to rising ocean temperatures in the region as a result of climate change, according to a new study.
Within a 62-mile (100 kilometers) radius of Bermuda, the average maximum wind speed of hurricanes increased from 35 to 73 mph (56 to 117 km/h) between 1955 and 2019, the researchers found. This is the equivalent of a 6 mph (10 km/h) increase every decade.
During this time, sea-surface temperatures in the region also increased by up to two degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius), according to the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series (BATS), a long-running dataset collected by the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences.
Scientists already knew that higher sea surface temperatures fuel stronger tropical cyclones. But the new findings show that temperatures below the sea surface also play a key role in how these storms form.

An atmospheric river event known as the Pineapple Express is forecast to bring a prolonged period of wet weather and the potential for avalanches to Washington and Oregon beginning Sunday.
The effects from rain and considerable mountain snow will be felt through early this week. With the ground already saturated from previous storms, flooding is possible even from the few inches of rain the storm is forecast to produce.
Avalanche warnings have been issued for much of the Cascades across Washington ahead of this heavy snow. A "high" avalanche danger warning (level 4 out of 5) has been issued for Sunday by the Northwest Avalanche Center. Large natural avalanches are possible even at lower elevations.
Avalanches have killed 30 people across the United States this winter season, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
"This will mark the beginning of a wet period across Western Washington, as the southern periphery of the Atmospheric River will affect the region before it shifts southward over the area Monday," the National Weather Service office in Seattle warned Saturday.

An aerial photo shows the extent of flooding in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021 after a river overflowed its banks due to heavy rains from Tropical Storm Auring (international name: Dujuan).
About 51,400 people have been moved to 331 evacuation centres in the provinces of Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Dinagat Islands, and Butuan City, the disaster risk reduction and management agency said.
There were 944 daily-record-cold highs on Feb. 14, alone. (Happy Valentines day everyone.)
Another 567 daily-record-cold lows were set on the following day, Feb. 15.
As impressive as those numbers are, dozens of locations set records, not just for a particular day, but for any day in their history.











Comment: See also:
Bad news: Study claims hurricanes' translational speed is slowing down, potentially increasing damage