Storms
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Igloo

Southern Chile Buried in Heavy Snow


Reuters
Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:25 UTC
Chile Heavy Snow_1
© The Weather NetworkThe snow is so thick, you can barely see the dog.
Araucania Region, Chile - Heavy snow storms bury southern Chile in six feet of snow leaving communities isolated with blocked roads and downed power lines.

A massive snowstorm dumped some six feet of snow on Chile's Araucancia region, leaving many without power and communities completely cut off from the rest of the country.

Residents of the mountainous region of the Andes were forced to dig out from massive piles of snow and television footage showed homes almost completely burried in the snow.

A heavy snow season has disrupted highways and mountain passes connecting the southern Chilean region with Argentina via snowy Andes Mountain passes.

Chile Heavy Snow_2
© The Weather NetworkThe snow has piled up on roads, cutting resident off from everything.
"The problem is the roads, that's all. We are cut-off from everything, but they're going to have to open it," said one resident of the Araucania region on Monday (July 18).

Emergency crews were removing snow from vital highways to allow for transportation to continue in and out of the secluded area as residents said they were also facing communication complications.
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Ambulance

US: Mom, 3 daughters from Colorado killed in Wyoming washout


Associated Press
Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:19 UTC
a van
© AP Photo/Wyoming Highway PatrolIn this photo provided by Wyoming Highway Patrol, a van which was carrying four members of a family who died, is seen downstream from washed-out section of Wyoming Highway 130 in the Medicine Bow Mountains in southern Wyoming on Tuesday, July 19, 2011. They were fleeing torrential rains at a national forest campground.
Cheyenne. - Four members of a Colorado Springs family died after their vehicle drove into a washed-out section of a mountain highway in Wyoming and was swept downstream by a raging creek as they fled torrential rains at a national forest campground.

A mother and her three young daughters were killed; only the husband and father managed to escape as the van was carried away.

Officials said debris in the creek blocked large culverts that run under the highway and the water then tore through the roadway, opening a 25-foot-wide, 9-foot-deep breach about 20 miles from Saratoga in the southern part of the state.

The van went into the creek sometime between 1:15 a.m. and 1:40 a.m. and was swept about 75 yards downstream and submerged up to its rooftop, patrol spokesman Stephen Townsend.

Minutes later, a local emergency management official who was responding to the accident hit the same washout and plunged into the creek.
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Phoenix

US: Giant Dust Storm Moves Through Phoenix, Arizona Area

Nick Oza
Globegazette.com
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:53 UTC
A dust storm rolls into the Phoenix area
© AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Nick OzaA dust storm rolls into the Phoenix area Monday evening, July 18, 2011. The dust wall was about 3,000 feet (900 meters) high and created winds of 25 to 30 mph (40 to 48 kph), with gusts of up to 40 mph (64 kph), said Austin Jamison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
A giant wall of dust rolled through the Phoenix area on Monday, turning the sky brown, creating dangerous driving conditions and delaying some airline flights.

The dust, also known as a haboob in Arabic and around Arizona, formed in Pinal County and headed northeast, reaching Phoenix at about 5:30 p.m.

The dust wall was about 3,000 feet high and created winds of 25 to 30 mph, with gusts of up to 40 mph, said Austin Jamison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Visibility was down to less than a quarter-mile in some areas, he said.

"You have suddenly very poor visibilities that come on with all the dense dust in the air," he said. "With poor visibilities, that makes for dangerous driving conditions and that's arguably the biggest impact."

There were no immediate reports of accidents on roadways because of the storm, which began to clear within an hour of moving in. The Arizona Department of Public Safety did not immediately return a request for information about road conditions.

More pictures
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Bizarro Earth

Eight Dead In Northeast Brazil Floods From Mudslides


Agence France-Presse
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:31 UTC
Image
© UnknownIllustration only
Torrential rains drenching the northeast Brazilian state of Pernambuco caused at least eight deaths, mostly people carried away in mudslides, civil defense officials said Monday.

In one incident Sunday, a house outside the state capital Recife was buried in a mudslide, killing four members of one family.

An estimated 500 families were left homeless, and officials ordered evacuations in many areas.

Weather officials said that the Monday forecast called for more heavy rains, which have also cut off many roads in the state.

Elsewhere in Latin America, two people died and three were missing in floods in Guatemala, officials said.
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Cloud Lightning

Scotland hit by floods after 24 hours of torrential rain and thunderstorms

Lachlan Mackinnon
DailyRecord.co.uk
Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:14 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Flash flooding caused misery across Scotland yesterday.

Homes were hit as streets turned into rivers after more than 24 hours of torrential rainfall and thunderstorms.

And the rain is expected to continue to fall across the country throughout this week.

Properties in the Culloden, Balloch and Smithton areas, near Inverness, were affected by flood waters.

Police closed Murray Road and Murray Terrace in Smithton, and Barn Church Road, Culloden, and said the A96 Balloch junction was "badly flooded".

There were also flash floods in Perth and Balerno, Edinburgh, where there were lightning strikes during a storm.

The Met Office's Dave Clark said: "The winds are so light that it creates convergence zones, where the wind comes from several directions to one spot.
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Stop

Utah, US: Girl dies, father hurt in crash caused by sinkhole


The Associated Press
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:29 UTC
Image
© Utah Highway PatrolAn image provided by the Utah Highway Patrol shows the wreckage of a car that ran into a sinkhole.
A 15-year-old girl died after heavy rains caused a huge sinkhole to open on a Utah highway, swallowing one vehicle and causing her father's SUV to careen off the road.

Authorities said the crash that killed Justine Barneck and injured her father, Michael Barneck, late Wednesday night happened when the road collapsed in front of them, leaving a patch of asphalt on the edge of the hole that the vehicle hit, causing the fatal accident.

At about the same time, a second car actually went into the 40-foot-wide, 30-foot-deep hole, said Utah Highway Patrol Cpl. Todd Johnson. The driver of that vehicle, 37-year-old Helen Paulson, was hurt, but the extent of her injuries was not immediately clear.
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Cloud Lightning

1 Dead, 150,000 Affected in Northeast India Floods


The Seattle Times
Sun, 17 Jul 2011 00:32 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar SinghCommuters, riding on a horse cart, cover themselves with a plastic sheet to shelter from the rain in Allahabad, India, Saturday, July 16, 2011.
Heavy monsoon rains have led the mighty Brahmaputra River to overflow its banks and submerge scores of villages in India's remote northeastern state of Assam.

District magistrate Anwaruddin Chowdhury says more than 150,000 people have been hit by floods in three districts of northern Assam.

Chowdhury said Sunday at least one person died after he was swept away by the strong current when he jumped in the river to try to rescue his cattle.

Relief agencies are distributing rice, lentils and salt to tens of thousands of people in temporary shelters set up in schools, offices and other government buildings.
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Cloud Lightning

Idaho, US: Lightning Sparks Off Wildfires Across Valley

Justin Corr
KVTB
Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:28 UTC
Image
© KVTB
Firefighters say lightning is likely responsible for three grass fires early Saturday morning in the Boise area.

Crews responded to a fire off Highway 55 by the Shadow Valley Golf Course, a small grass fire near Broadway and Myrtle and a large fire near Gowen and Orchard.

It made for a busy morning for fire crews, which turned into a busy afternoon as crews continued to fight the fire off Highway 55.

Firefighters said it's just unfortunately that time of year when weather, heat, and fuels combine to create a demand on their resources.

"Last night was very busy when that lightning storm rolled in," said David Cooper, the Boise Fire Battalion Chief. "We had multiple grass fires going on."
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Umbrella

US: Minnesota: Heavy rains flood neighborhoods, metro roads


KARE 11
Sat, 16 Jul 2011 10:55 UTC

Heavy rains flooded metro neighborhoods and roads, including a half-mile stretch of Interstate 35W near Interstate 694.

Crews closed that section of the well-traveled freeway early Saturday morning, after receiving reports of stalled vehicles. Both directions of I-35W were reopened by around 9:30 p.m.

"With the intense rains we had overnight, the overflow ponds have overflown onto the freeway," said Trooper Kyle Klawiter of the Minnesota State Patrol.
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Cloud Lightning

North Carolina, US: Flash flood slams Cherokee hatchery

Clarke Morrison
Citizen-TImes
Sat, 16 Jul 2011 20:59 UTC
Thousands of fish were killed when a wall of water swept through the Cherokee Fish Hatchery.

The flash flood washed many of the young trout out of the raceways where they were being raised as well as taking down about 75 feet of fence surrounding the facility, hatchery supervisor Doug Reed said.

The hatchery has about 800,000 fish at any one time. Reed said Saturday he and other workers were still trying to determine how many had been killed as they cleaned up the mess. He estimated the damage at about $30,000-$50,000.

"It overflowed the raceways and poured the fish out onto the ground," he said. "It washed leaves and sticks into the raceways."
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