Storms
S


Bizarro Earth

Philippine Tropical Storm Kills 9 People; 100,000 Residents Flee From Floods, Landslides

Philippines Flood
© AP Photo / Bullit MarquezMotorists negotiate a flooded portion of a highway at suburban Makati city, east of Manila, in the Philippines Sunday May 8, 2011 following a heavy downpour spawned by tropical storm Aere. The storm, with winds of 53 miles (85 kilometers) per hour and gusts of 62 mph (100 kph), has lashed the northeastern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least three people and forcing more than 100,000 villagers to flee from farming towns threatened by landslides about a month before the end of the summer vacation season.
Manila - Tropical storm Aere lashed the northeastern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least nine people and forcing more than 100,000 villagers to flee from farming towns threatened by landslides.

The storm slammed into Catanduanes province with winds of 53 miles (85 kilometres) per hour and gusts of 62 mph (100 kph). It triggered landslides and floods, disrupted transportation and knocked out power in some towns.

More than 4,700 commuters were stranded in several seaports after ferries suspended trips and roads were closed due to floods and the danger of landslides, officials said. Several domestic flights were cancelled.

A landslide buried a house in Camarines Sur province's Balatan township at dawn, killing three people, including a baby, regional disaster-response director Bernardo Alejandro said.

Cloud Lightning

Barbados: Heavy Flood Losses for Farmers

Farmers have been left with flooded fields, damaged crops and profits washed down the drain after heavy rains over the past few weeks.

From St Lucy to St Philip, tonnes of onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and watermelons lay destroyed in the fields as some farmers faced financial crisis and bleak futures.

Cloud Lightning

Torrential Rains Threaten Colombia's Coffee Crop

Colombian coffee grower
Colombia's rainiest April on record drenched Ismael Garcia's hillside coffee farm, causing a landslide that wiped out thousands of his trees in one swoop.

The loss would sting any year but hurts more now that coffee prices hit their highest levels in more than three decades this week.

Damage to farms like Garcia's from months of heavy rains in Colombia, the world's No. 1 producer of top-quality washed arabica beans, may threaten to push coffee prices even higher -- bad news for drinkers around the world.

Cloud Lightning

Nearly 3 Million Colombians Affected by Heavy Rains

Colombia floods
© AFPThe intense rainy season has caused heavy rains to beat down in Colombia for over a year.
Some 3 million Colombians, 6.4% of the population, have been affected by the heavy rains wreaking havoc across Colombia, revealed a study conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (DANE), Semana reported Thursday.

The official figure equates to just under 3 million people, with the greatest concentration of victims in the Caribbean region, where 1,479,434 people are affected, representing 3.2% of the Colombian population.

Cloud Lightning

US: For families of tornadoes' missing, a long torment

Image
© Dave Martin/APGeorge Thomas, 71, walks through the debris of the Rosedale Community where his brother-in-law lives in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Thursday, May 5. Authorities are continuing the search for victims over a week after killer tornadoes swept across the state.
Tuscaloosa, Ala. - Where is Johnnie Brown's sister? Or the friend Billie Sue Hall talked to every day? A week after tornadoes ripped neighborhoods to shreds across the South, there still are no answers.

It's unclear how many people are missing across the seven states where 329 deaths have been reported. There are 25 unaccounted for in Tuscaloosa alone, the mayor says, but that number could be off because of the chaos the storm left behind.

Cadaver dog teams across the region are scouring the debris to uncover whatever tragedies may remain, and even bad news would be comforting to anguished families.

Tracy Sargent's dog team took just minutes to do what humans searching for hours could not: Locate the body of a University of Alabama student in a maze of twisted trees and debris. The young man's father was there when the body was found in Tuscaloosa this week.

"(The father) went over there and bent over and touched his son and started talking to him," Sargent said. "And he hugged him, started crying, and told him that he loved him and that he would miss him."

Igloo

Czech Republic: February is back - lowlands report 3 and mountains 15 cm of snow

spring snow CZ
© Aktualne.czPolice nad Metují, Eastern Bohemia
Tuesday May 3 shortly after midday
[Translated by Sott.net]

Czech Republic
- Although it is May, the weather is more like in February.

Not only mountain tops were covered by a layer of snow during the night. In regions of Liberec, Karlovy Vary, Hradec Králove, Pardubice and Ústí snow fell even at lower elevations.

In the morning hours a layer of up to three centimeters lay on the ground. Also at midday it occasionally snowed even in the lowlands, Prague-Ruzyně reported sleet.

The midday air temperature on the Czech territory ranged from 0.2 °C in Liberec to 6.5 °C in the Brno area. At the top of Jeseník the temperature fell to -4.4 °C

Bizarro Earth

US: Hawaii Lightning Strikes Total 20,000...Again


A wicked storm that brought hail, waterspouts and torrential rain to the islands Monday night, also packed an electrical punch that rocked Oahu and Kauai.

Apparently lightning can strike twice.

"Yeah lightning can strike twice, it can strike 10-15 times in the same location," said Warning Coordinator Meteorologist Michael Cantin.

For the second time this year, Hawaii has experienced a spectacular electric show. In late February we saw nearly 21,000 lightning strikes in a five-hour window when a storm system stalled over Hawaii.

Monday night, Mother Nature was at it again.

"Each individual point represents a strike and what's kind of striking about this image right is here's the Big Island, Maui county, and then Oahu and Kauai are basically absorbed under the lightning strikes gives you an idea of how many we saw," said Cantin.

According to the Worldwide Lightning Detection system, the skies were busiest between 5 and 10 p.m.

"In total about 15,000 between that time period if you include that hour before from 4 p.m. it's almost 20,000," said Cantin.

Cloud Lightning

US: Double waterspouts form off Hawaii shore

Two tall and skinny waterspouts appeared off the south shore of Oahu, Hawaii yesterday, as some of the bad weather that has lately assailed the U.S. mainland has now alighted on the Pacific island.

The Star Advertiser reports that the waterspouts appeared during a hail and lightning storm that had reportedly knocked out power for at least 60,000 East Honolulu and Windward Oahu residents Monday evening. The spouts lasted for about 12 minutes. Waterspouts can become twisters if they reach land, but are usually weak.

You can watch the video below:




Arrow Up

Canada: 2,000 homes flooded in southern Quebec

Image
© CBC NewsThousands of homes are affected by flooding south of Montreal.
Emergency officials in Quebec are closely watching water levels in the Champlain Lake and Richelieu River.

Several towns and villages in the Montérégie region have experienced flooding, evacuations and damages in recent weeks.

The weather forecast calls for heavy rain overnight, leaving emergency officials worried.

"We have 2,000 houses flooded right now, and we have more than 300 people evacuated, mostly in Henryville, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ste-Anne-de-Sabrevois," said Yvan Leroux, head of emergency preparedness for the region.

The Richelieu River could rise another 20 centimetres by Wednesday morning, he warned.

Evacuations are voluntary, and about half of residents in the area have refused to leave their homes.

Bizarro Earth

Tornado hits New Zealand's biggest city

At least two people have been killed and many others injured when a tornado ripped through Auckland, New Zealand's largest city.