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Cloud Precipitation

Typhoon Fitow wreaks havoc in E China province

Flood in China
© AP
Wenzhou - Ten people were killed and five others remain missing in Wenzhou City after Typhoon Fitow brought heavy rains to east China's Zhejiang province, local authorities announced on Wednesday.

Among the dead, eight died of electric shocks, including a family of three, according to a statement from the government of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province.

Two men died after their car plunged into a river, said the statement.

Typhoon Fitow, which made landfall in Fujian Province, just south of Zhejiang, early on Monday, has triggered heavy rain in the region, inundating roads and houses, and causing river breaches and power failures.

As of 11 a.m. on Wednesday, 254,746 households in Zhejiang Province had no power supply. About 10,000 workers are repairing electrical facilities in the province.

The typhoon has affected 7 million people in 11 cities in Zhejiang, causing direct economic losses of 12.4 billion yuan (2 billion U.S.dollars)as of 10 p.m. on Monday, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

The county-level city of Yuyao, which is administered by Ningbo City, has been severely affected in the recent typhoon-triggered storms.h As of Wednesday, over 70 percent of the downtown area of the city had been flooded. Over 830,000 people from 21 townships in the city have been affected, though no casualties have been reported so far, according to the local government.

Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes killed 32 people, including nine children, during weekend storms in India

Lightning
© Unknown
Lightning strikes killed 32 people, including nine children, during storms at the weekend in India.

It is not rare for lightning to strike someone when it is monsoon season, but that the sheer number of the death toll is extremely rare.

The strikes killed people in the eastern Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand.

'About 24 people including seven children were killed Saturday and Sunday by bolts of lightning across Bihar,' State Disaster Management Minister Renu Kumari Kushwaha said.

In neighbouring Jharkhand, eight people including two children died, Puran Mahto, an official in the state's Dhanbad district said.

Torrential rains accompanied by strong winds uprooted trees, damaged houses and brought down power cables across the region on Sunday night.

Cow

October blizzard taking a toll on livestock

dead livestock
© Erick In The Woods

Along SD Hwy 212, dead cattle are being found. There are reports of losses of over 200 head from just one herd, south of Dupree, SD. Travelers came across this scene near the Gerald Woodward ranch, Dupree.
Sturgis , South Dakota - The cost to what is being called one of the worst blizzards in South Dakota's history will reach into the multi-millions. In Sturgis and other Black Hills communities, collapsed roofs, extended power outages, damage from felled trees, the cost of around the clock emergency response divisions and the equipment needed; and the extra crews that are being brought in - will be the norm in the foreseeable future.

But in the vast expanse of the foothills and prairies north, east, and west of the Black Hills, a huge economic impact is beginning to emerge. Lost livestock, drifting with 60 mile per hour wind gusts and blinding snow, were driven with the storm, trailing over buried fence lines. Those that made it through the blizzard, are still lost or stranded. And reports of hundreds of head of livestock that didn't make it, are beginning to come in.

According to Meade County Dispatch, owners are attempting to locate lost livestock. Being hampered by poor road conditions and unable to reach livestock once located, is slowing not only that process but an accurate count of how much producers have lost.

Cloud Precipitation

Typhoon Fitow slams Okinawa on way to China followed by Danas

Typhoon Fitow
© JRC
Winds gusting to 55 meters per second (125 miles per hour) halted air traffic and caused power outages on Okinawa's Miyakojima island as Typhoon Fitow blew through on course for northern Taiwan and China's coast, with a second storm following close behind.

Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau hoisted a typhoon warning as Fitow neared the island's north coast today, while Chinese maritime authorities issued red alerts, the highest level, for storm tides and waves, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Fitow was heading west-northwest at about 20 kilometers per hour, some 220 miles (350 kilometers) north of Taipei at 1 p.m. Japan time, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported. Its central atmospheric pressure was 960 hectopascals with maximum sustained winds of 40 meters per second.

Typhoon Danas, with a central pressure of 970 hectopascals, was about 650 miles southwest of Okinawa's main island, moving west-northwest at 35 kilometers per hour, according to JMA. The storm is forecast to curve northward after passing over Okinawa tomorrow, brushing past the southwest coast of Kyushu and southern South Korea before turning northeast through the Sea of Japan.

Fitow caused blackouts of 6,800 homes in Miyakojima city, public broadcaster NHK reported. It also forced delays and cancellations of some flights to and from Okinawa, All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Airlines Co. said on their websites today.

Fitow is forecast to make landfall between east China's Fujian and Zhejiang provinces tomorrow morning, Xinhua said. Storm tides are expected to rise as much as 2 meters above normal along the coast, Xinhua said.

Cloud Lightning

Evacuations ordered as Tropical Storm Karen nears U.S. coast

Authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders for low-lying areas south of New Orleans on Friday as a weakened Tropical Storm Karen closed in on the Louisiana coast after disrupting U.S. energy output in the Gulf of Mexico. Karen's top winds were holding at 50 mph (85 kph), down from 65 mph (105 kph) a day earlier, and National Hurricane Center forecasters in Miami said the storm looked less likely to strengthen into a hurricane.
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Oil output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico had been cut in half as oil and gas firms shut platforms and evacuated some workers in preparation for the storm, which could still strengthen before landfall. The Gulf accounts for about 19 percent of U.S. oil production and 6 percent of natural gas output.

The mayor of Grand Isle, Louisiana, clamped a mandatory evacuation on the popular vacation and fishing destination on a barrier island south of New Orleans. Evacuations were also ordered in Lafourche Parish in the south, and residents in much of Plaquemines Parish, southeast of New Orleans, were told to be out of their homes before nightfall.

The Sand Dollar Motel and Marina on Grand Isle was a frenzy of activity on Friday as boaters scrambled to get their vessels to higher ground and marina employees secured the premises. "It's already pouring here and the wind is real strong," said marina owner Susan Gaspard, who added that squalls had been hitting all morning.

Karen's projected path shifted slightly westward and it was expected to move ashore over Louisiana on Saturday night and into Mississippi on Sunday.

Snowflake Cold

"Unseasonably" intense fall snow storm hits U.S. upper Midwest - up to 3 feet of snow and high winds expected

Powerful storms crawled into the Midwest on Friday, dumping heavy snow in South Dakota, spawning a tornado in Nebraska and threatening dangerous thunderstorms from Oklahoma to Wisconsin.

A foot of snow had fallen in western South Dakota's scenic Black Hills by early Friday, bringing blizzard conditions that shuttered roadways and even canceled a polka bar crawl in an Old West tourist town. Residents were bracing for as much as 3 feet of snow, along with wind gusts of up to 70 mph, from an unseasonably intense fall snow storm.
Image
© State of Wyoming
Traffic cam from I-80 in Wyoming
The typically bustling Pilot Travel Center just west of Rapid City was like a ghost town Friday morning, as drivers were likely heeding forecasters' warnings to stay off the roads, said store general manager John Barton.

The blowing snow was picking up outside the truck stop along Interstate 90, which was closed for about 30 miles thanks to a storm gaining strength as it moved in from Colorado and Wyoming. Conditions were expected to deteriorate throughout the day.

Cloud Lightning

Storm knocks out power, swamps U.S. Pacific Northwest - more rain in a day or two than typically falls in the entire month

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This NOAA satellite image taken Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, at 02:00 AM EDT shows an expansive area of cloudine
An early winter storm dumped a record amount of rain in the Pacific Northwest, knocked out power to thousands and likely churned up a rare tornado Monday that ripped a hole in the roof on an industrial plant near Seattle. The most dramatic damage was at an industrial park in Frederickson, south of Tacoma. As thunder and lightning flashed, the wind uprooted trees and tore a jagged hole in the roof of the Northwest Door manufacturing plant.

"It looked from the inside like a wave going along. You could actually see the roof flexing," Northwest Door President Jeff Hohman said. Witnesses reported seeing a tornado in the area at the time, and the Weather Service sent a team to Frederickson to investigate. Washington may get a tornado or two every year, but they are usually small. One of the largest was an F3 in 1972 in Vancouver that killed six people.

No one was injured in Monday. About 100 employees evacuated and the business closed while inspectors assess a 40-by-40-foot hole in the roof. The wind also caused damage at a nearby Boeing plant, mostly in the parking lot, spokesman Doug Alder said. The storm blew out the windows of about two dozen cars and knocked down fences, power lines and trees. Some tiles were blown off the Boeing roof. Nobody was injured and there wasn't any damage to airplane parts or equipment.

Cloud Lightning

Typhoon leaves 75 missing in China

Typhoon Wulip
© Unknown
Ships are seen moored in the Xiuying Port to take shelter from typhoon Wulip in Haikou, capital of south China’s Hainan Province, September 29, 2013.
A powerful typhoon has left 75 people missing after sinking three Chinese fishing boats in the South China Sea, media reports say. Citing maritime authorities, Xinhua news agency said on Monday that "three fishing boats have sunk since Sunday afternoon."

The incident took place after the vessels with 88 fishermen aboard encountered strong winds near the Paracel Islands, said a statement released by the Hainan government in south China. "Two of the vessels sank Sunday and contact with the third has been lost," it said. Typhoon Wutip also forced tens of thousands of people to flee high-risk areas in central Vietnam on Monday.

The powerful typhoon, with sustained winds of up to 93 miles per hour, was expected to rock the central coast later Monday. Disaster official Le Tri Cong said more than 43,000 people were evacuated from coastal areas to safe places in Quang Tri Province as of Sunday night.

Arrow Down

Oil spills add to the damage of flood disaster in Colorado

Image
© Dana Romanoff/Getty Image
Workers attempt to clear a drainage that was clogged from a flash flood September 12, 2013 in Boulder, Colorado. An estimated 6-10 inches of rain fell in 12-18 hours and more is expected throughout the day. Flash flood sirens warned people to stay away from Boulder Creek and seek higher ground.
5,250 gallons of crude oil has spilled from two tank batteries in to the South Platte River south of Milliken.

The spill from a damaged tank was reported to the Colorado Department of Natural Resources Wednesday afternoon by Anadarko Petroleum, the company responsible for the spill.

Nearly 1,900 oil and gas wells in flooded areas of Colorado are shut, and 600 workers are inspecting and repairing sites, according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.

Anadarko, the second-largest operator in the operator in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, has shut down 250 tank batteries and 670 wells.

Comment: See also: Is there a media blackout on the fracking flood disaster in Colorado?


Snowflake

Snow covers parts of California

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© KCRA/NBC
California's Sierra Nevada Mountains get the season's first dusting of snow on Saturday.
The first day of fall looked more like the first day of winter in parts of California!

The area around the Sierra Nevada Mountains hit with snow and heavy rains.

The wet weather even causing slick road conditions and caught residents by surprise - who said they were just in t-shirts a few days ago!