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US: 'It was horrifying'! New Yorkers describe seeing baseball-sized hailstones fall in freak storm

Mark Duell
The Daily Mail
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:41 UTC
Some thought it as 'horrifying', others labelled it 'unbelievable' and one man even described feeling a shock wave from a sonic boom.

But this was not the end of the world - rather a freak outbreak of hailstones that centred over the Queens area of New York City.

Some of the hailstones were as big as baseballs and smashed car windows, punctured outdoor furniture and sent people scurrying inside.

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© ABCBaseball sized: A freak outbreak of hailstones centred over the Queens area of New York City on Monday night and scared local residents
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© ABCImpact: Cars had their wind-shields s masked by the base-ball sized hail which followed a heatwave in New York
However the strange weather was good news for vehicle repair shops, which were experiencing overwhelming demand.
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Bizarro Earth

Double Rainbow, Now With Lightning!


OurAmazingPlanet
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:29 UTC
Lightning & Rainbow
© dcstormchaser / YouTube.
Lightning struck seemingly in front of a double rainbow in suburban Washington, D.C., yesterday (Aug. 1). All the action was caught on video.

The rare moment happened as thunderstorms moved through the region early Monday morning, reported the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang blog. The storms hit Fairfax, Va., bringing little rain, but creating a double rainbow as the sunlight poked through the clouds. Lightning appears to cut through the bows in the video.

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Cloud Lightning

US: Tornado in South Florida


YouTube
Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:00 UTC
An EF1 tornado touched down in Tamarac, Florida. Several buildings suffered roof damage, broken windows, and shutters torn off.

The funnel formation:


Comment: While not highly dramatic footage, weather changes are progressing.

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Cloud Lightning

Tropical Storm Set to Cross Dominican Republic, Haiti


MSNBC
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:00 UTC
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© Thais Llorca/EPAResidents of Fajardo, Puerto Rico, faced flooded streets Wednesday after heavy rains from "Emily," the fifth tropical storm of the hurricane season in Atlantic.
Flooding feared; in Haiti, 630,000 people are still without shelter after 2010 quake

Port-Au-Prince, Haiti - Tropical Storm Emily was nearing the Caribbean island of Hispaniola Wednesday and could strengthen if it makes it through the island's mountainous terrain, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

A "steady shield of rain" should reach Hispaniola, which is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, around noon and the rainfall should worsen by late afternoon, said John Dlugoenski, senior meteorologist with Accuweather.com.

At 2 p.m. ET, Emily was about 120 miles south-southwest of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, the hurricane center stated.

"On the forecast track, the center of Emily will move very near or over Cabo Beata in the Dominican Republic late today," the center added, and "over Haiti tonight and into the southeastern Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands on Thursday."

"Some restrengthening is possible after the center moves away from Hispaniola," the center stated.
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Cloud Lightning

Tropical Storm Emily forms in the Caribbean


CNN
Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:41 UTC
Tropical Storm Emily formed in the Caribbean Monday, prompting area governments to issue warnings and watches, the National Hurricane Center said.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for Dominica, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the islands of Guadeloupe, Desirade, Les Saintes and Marie Galante, meaning that tropical storm conditions were expected within 36 hours.

Haiti, the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat and Antigua were under a tropical storm watch. Storm conditions were possible in those areas within 48 hours.
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Info

What's Behind Venezula Lightning Zone Phenomenon?


WJBF.com
Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:02 UTC
Lightning
© ABC News
It's a mysterious jam session of light...hammered all night, nearly every night. There's 40,000 bolts of lightning up to 300 nights a year.

The indigenous people of northwest Venezuela near the Catatumbo River call this phenomenon "Ri Ba-Ba" (or the River of Fire in the Sky). Scientists know it as one of the lightning capitals of the world

Our guide is Alan Highton, who photographs the lightning and lives on the lake with villagers...

Alan Highton: "The lightning to them is like cars on the street to someone in New York City."
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Bizarro Earth

Chile: World's driest desert hit by snow, rain - the Ice Age Cometh?


MSNBC /Associated Press
Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:05 UTC
Chile's Atacama was hit by four years' worth of rain in one day in July

This has been the wettest winter in decades for Chile's arid northern desert, where fractions of an inch of rain have done major damage in some areas and set the stage for spectacular floral displays in the weeks to come.

July came and went with major storms that together dumped more than five times the annual average of rain and snow on parts of the world's driest desert.


The past weekend's precipitation blocked highways, forced the cancellation of a top Chilean football match and damaged the homes of 1,800 people, said Vicente Nunez, chief of the Interior Ministry's national emergency office.

A similarly wet stretch in early July dumped four years' worth of rain in one day on coastal Antofogasta.
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Cloud Lightning

Florida on hurricane alert as tropical storm Emily is gaining power and threatens to hit the U.S. by the weekend


Daily Mail
Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:13 UTC
A tropical storm has formed in the Caribbean and could develop into a hurricane before hitting the U.S. coast, experts warned today.

Emily is currently travelling north and west and could eventually have wind speeds in excess of 74 mph prompting severe weather warnings and watches in Florida.

According to the U.S. National Hurricane Centre, while there have been many tropical storms that have hit land along the Atlantic Seaboard of the U.S. in recent years, the last hurricane to hit the Sunshine State was Jeanne in September 2004.

Caribbean islands in Emily's path have already been hit with torrential rain, flash flooding, and mudslides while roads have been washed away.

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Destructive: The projected path of the tropical storm Emily as it picks up in wind speed and heads for Florida

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Cloud Lightning

Venezuela's Mysterious Catatumbo Lightning Phenomenon Vanishes for Months, then Reappears

Matt Gutman and Robert Rudman
ABC News
Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:00 UTC
Catatumbo
© Alan Highton PhotographyCatatumbo lightning in 2010.
A mysterious symphony of rapid-fire lightning bolts used to create the greatest light show on Earth over the Catatumbo River in Venezuela -- until suddenly they stopped and no one knew why.

More than 40,000 bolts ripped across the night sky as many as 300 nights a year for nine hours at a time. It occurred so frequently that the phenomenon became known as "Relampago de Catatumbo," or "Catatumbo Lightning."

For centuries, the indigenous people of Northwestern Venezuela called the phenomenon "rib a-ba" or "river of fire in the sky." Ancient mariners supposedly used the lightning for navigation.

"I saw my first lightning when I was 8 years old," said Erik Quiroga, a native of the area. "I thought it was a smile from the night sky."
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Cloud Lightning

New York, US: Auto Body Shops Flooded With Repair Calls After Storm

Katherine Creag
Nbcnewyork.com
Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:53 UTC

Auto body shops in Queens and Long Island are overwhelmed with repair calls today, a day after severe summer storms lashed the region, in some places dropping tennis-ball-sized hail that dented cars and smashed windows.

"It's a windfall for me, a catastrophe for others," said Bob Polgar, owner of Tip Top Auto Body in Garden City, N.Y., on Long Island.

The shop got 100 calls Monday night. On a normal day, it gets 15 calls, Polgar said. Most car owners are reporting busted windshields and dents on hoods and roofs.

"They were the size of tennis balls," said Sandy White. "I had to check if any of my windows were broken."
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