Storms
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Flood-damaged Fiji likened to warzone

Lindy Kerin
ABC News
Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:30 UTC

People in flood-ravaged Fiji have begun returning home after spending several days in evacuation centres.

At least four people have died in some of the worst flooding the country has seen in decades.

Officials in Fiji say locals are likely to be spared a further heavy downpour, with Cyclone Daphne, which formed on Monday afternoon, expected to pass the island.

Tafazul Gani, a correspondent for a Fijian magazine, says many of the island's residents are struggling to cope.

Softball-sized hail smashes windshields in Kansas

Miguel Llanos
MSNBC
Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:50 UTC

A storm system that could spawn twisters in the central U.S. on Thursday already did some damage overnight in Madison, Kan., where softball-sized hail smashed car windshields.

A twister nearly formed near the town just after midnight, the national Storm Prediction Center noted, but the biggest impact was from hail.

"That was a HUGE bow-hook, a monster funnel cloud," WxRisk.com, a private weather forecasting firm, posted on its Facebook page. "Hail in excess of 4.25 in[ches] (107.95 mm). Slightly larger than softballs at times."

The firm said one of three storm cells that moved through the town of 700 "produced monster-size hail for almost 30 minutes ... lots of reports of cars and structures being damaged due to the large hail. Tennis-ball hail, CD hail, Soft-ball hail, and even larger."

Large hail pounded other parts of Kansas overnight as well, and the forecast for Thursday had much of the region, including Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, with a high chance of severe weather, weather.com reported.

"We're getting into that time of year when we get severe thunderstorms just about every day," said Greg Forbes, weather.com's severe weather expert.

The storm system will trigger strong storms in the Ohio Valley on Friday, weather.com forecast.

Super-bolt rumbles in skies over Oklahoma

The Extinction Protocol
Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:43 UTC

It woke up sleepy Tulsans, set-off car alarms and freaked out the family pet. Many people thought it was an earthquake that hit Tulsa at 3:33 this morning. Instead, says National Weather Service Meteorologist Steve Amburn, is was a "Super Bolt." Amburn says a super bolt is a positively-charged cloud-to-ground stroke of lightning. Computer records indicate a single "super bolt" struck in the heart of South Tulsa just after 3:30. No damage from the super bolt is reported.

Devastating 'Mini-Tornado' Hits Australian City

Martin Parry
Agence France-Presse
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC

A devastating "mini-tornado" tore through the city of Townsville on Tuesday, ripping roofs off houses, snapping trees in half and injuring 13 people as wild weather pounded northern Australia.

The Queensland State Emergency Service (SES) said it received dozens of calls for help, with 13 people needing treatment, mostly for cuts and abrasions. Three were hospitalised.

"Rapid Damage Assessments in the Townsville area have recorded approximately 60 homes with varying degrees of roof damage," the SES said, adding that at least six of the properties suffered significant structural damage.

Meteorologists, who said the freak storm could not officially be called a tornado as there was no funnel, recorded winds of up to 111 kilometres (69 miles) per hour, leaving thousands of homes without power.

The weather bureau forecast further heavy rain.

One resident told Sky News that when the storm hit it sounded like "a jet taking off". Another said it was like "being in a washing machine".

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who faces being thrown out of office in state elections this weekend, said it was a frightening experience for the people affected.

NASA Sees More Severe Weather Over Eastern Texas, Oklahoma

EurekAlert.org
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:30 UTC

A low pressure area is centered over eastern Oklahoma, and its associated cold front drapes south into eastern Texas. The front is stalled over eastern Texas and eastern Oklahoma and is generating severe weather today. NASA's Aqua satellite and NOAA's GOES-13 satellite have been providing infrared, visible and microwave images to forecasters of the stalled frontal system.

On March 20, a flood warning was in effect up and down the eastern sides of Texas and Oklahoma, including Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. The National Weather Service posted a flood warning for the double cities because of heavy rainfall over the last 36 hours. More isolated thunderstorms are expected to develop late afternoon and evening, generating more heavy rainfall, lightning and small hail.

© NASA/JPL, Ed OlsenThe AIRS instrument onboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image that showed cloud top temperatures in the severe frontal system over Texas and Oklahoma on March 20 at 0753 UTC 34:53 am EST). The strongest thunderstorms, heaviest rainfall and coldest cloud top temperatures (around 220 Kelvin/ -63.6 F/-53.1 C) appear in purple.

Tornado Hits San Antonio as Severe Weather Rattles South and Midwest

Kevin Dolak
ABC News
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC

US - Severe weather hammered the Midwest and South from Minnesota to Texas including a tornado that touched down in San Antonio, where at least 50 homes were damaged or destroyed.

Residents across this broad region were bracing for flooding Tuesday after the severe weather brought heavy rain and hail that is anticipated to continue for the next few days. With the storm system slowing significantly, tornadoes are becoming less likely but flash flooding becomes a major concern, forecasters said.

The slow-moving weather pattern will bring thunderstorms with heavy rain as it moves over the same area, according to the National Weather Service, which said that some locations will receive a foot of rain by midweek.

The NWS reported that the tornado touched down 25 miles southwest of San Antonio on Monday evening, and that parts of the city and surrounding areas were under a tornado warning. Although some were trapped inside their homes, no fatalities were reported by early Tuesday morning.

Tornado warnings across the San Antonio area were canceled around 11 p.m. Monday, according to ABC News affiliate KSAT. Crews began assessing damage to the area late Monday night.

Flooding feared after storms sock south-central US

Katie Fretland
Associated Press
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:05 UTC

Residents and businesses from southeast Texas north through western Missouri braced for flooding Tuesday after a violent band of storms brought heavy rain, hail and at least one tornado, with more of the same forecast for the next several days.

The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down Monday evening about 25 miles southwest of San Antonio. The twister damaged several homes, trapping some people inside their mobile homes, but no fatalities were reported, according to The San Antonio Express-News.

The fresh crop of storms comes after two tornadoes damaged homes and railcars in North Platte, Neb., on Sunday. The EF3 twister with winds up to 165 mph injured four people.

Flooding remains a serious concern across the affected areas.

Hail, rain, snow at 1,500 feet elevation keep California utility crews busy

Loretta Kalb
The Sacramento Bee
Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:52 UTC

Rain and hail pounded the chilly Sacramento region, snow shrouded the foothills at elevations as low as 1,500 feet, and thousands of customers were without power Sunday, capping one of the year's wettest weeks.

By mid-afternoon Sunday, pea-sized hail was reported throughout the area - from Curtis Park to midtown to Rancho Cordova.

"We got hail here for about 10 minutes," Rancho Cordova Councilwman Linda Budge emailed The Bee. "Also thunder once. Temps dropped noticeably between noon and three."

And if you thought it was colder than usual, you were right. Sunday's daytime high of 55 was well below the normal temperature on March 18 of 67 degrees, the National Weather Service said.

Baseball-Sized Hail in Forecast for Oklahoma and Texas

Katie Fretland
ABC News
Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:18 UTC

Storms are expected to sweep through the middle of the country over the next several days, bringing heavy rain and the threat of hail and tornadoes. Flood warnings stretch from southeast Texas north through western Missouri on Monday, but after a year of drought in much of the region and a largely snowless winter, fears of flooding aren't what they otherwise might be in several states, where the ground is expected to absorb inches of rain with ease.

The forecast for northern Texas and southeast Oklahoma also calls for baseball-sized hail, damaging winds and possibly tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. Two tornadoes damaged homes and rail cars in North Platte, Neb., on Sunday.

Eight inches of rain are expected in southeastern Kansas, which has been unusually dry for nearly a year. The area has had less than three-fourths of the precipitation it typically gets since last April, state climatologist Mary Knapp said.

Tornadoes strike Nebraska, flipping tractor-trailer and rail cars

MSNBC
Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:00 UTC

Severe storms overnight in Nebraska, Texas and Ohio damaged homes and tossed rail cars as well as at least one tractor-trailer, and the threat continued Monday with a large part of the central U.S. on alert.

The greatest damage overnight was just outside North Platte, Neb., where two confirmed tornadoes tore roofs off several homes, downed power lines and injured two people.

One twister crossed Interstate 80, flipping a tractor-trailer in its path. The truck's driver was hospitalized.

A rail yard also was hit, with 15 cars derailed or knocked over, the North Platte Telegraph reported. One worker there was hit by flying debris, treated at a hospital and then released.

In central Ohio, tornado sirens went off as large hail and high winds swept through Sunday night. In Gardendale, Texas, two people were hurt when high winds flipped over their mobile home. No tornadoes were reported in either state.

The mix of warm weather in recent weeks with cold pockets across the Midwest and central U.S. has led to an early start to the tornado season.

"It has been an active season already for tornadoes, and that's part of the reason we've scooched up our siren testing starting in March," Paul Johnson, emergency manager for Douglas County in North Dakota, told KETV.

Tornado watches have been issued for parts of Texas and Oklahoma for Monday, while the rest of the central U.S. is under severe weather warnings that include the possibility of large hail and high winds.

The threat will shift slightly to the east on Tuesday, weather.com reported, with parts of Illinois, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas seeing the biggest threat.