Storms
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Cloud Lightning

Blackout from lightning claims 4 lives in Iran's flooded Khuzestan Province

Heavy torrential rainfalls hit across the southern city of Ahvaz, Khuzestan province on Monday, flooding the streets.
Heavy torrential rainfalls hit across the southern city of Ahvaz, Khuzestan province on Monday, flooding the streets.
A blackout caused by lightning and the failure of the hospital's emergency power system claimed the lives of four elderly women in the intensive care unit of Khomeini hospital of Ahwaz, the capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan Province.

The women had been hospitalized for respiratory problems caused by air pollution, another problem the province has been plagued with. The emergency power system failed to work when a fuse was struck by lightning.

After hours of heavy rain buildings and houses started flooding in several cities including Ahwaz, Abadan, and Karun on Monday evening. According to the Director General of the Weather Forecast Organization of Khuzestan Province Abadan has experienced 104mm of precipitation in a few hours today.


Cloud Lightning

3 churchgoers killed, dozens injured by lightning bolt in Malawi

lightning
A lightning strike killed at least 3 people and injured dozens more at a church on Sunday in Ntcheu.

The lightning struck a church building at Tsangano in Ntcheu in the afternoon.

Ntcheu police officer-in-charge Aubrey Nyirenda has confired of the three deaths due to the lightning.

"Some of the casualties are admitted to Tsangano health centre," said Nyirenda.

Tornado2

3 people killed as severe weather, tornadoes hammer Deep South

Tornado damage in Deep South
© Brad Kemp/APThe remains of a tornado-damaged building in Alexandria, La., on Monday, after storms went through the Deep South and killed three people.
Three people were killed by apparent tornadoes, one in Louisiana and two in Alabama on Monday, local authorities reported. Severe thunderstorms and high winds are expected to pummel areas of the Deep South overnight, according to meteorologists.

There were few details on the extent of the damage in Vernon Parish in western Louisiana where downed power lines and trees blocked roads and impeded rescue crews, according to Deputy Chief Calvin Turner of the sheriff's department, who said a local church fellowship hall also was demolished and some homes were damaged.

Another tornado was reported in nearby Alexandria, La., which tore off the roof of a church school, but no deaths or injuries were reported.

Two people died, identified by local officials as a husband and wife, and several others, including a child, were injured in Town Creek in northern Alabama.


Snowflake

Multiple feet of fresh snow recorded across Colorado's high country

Snowboarding on fresh powder at Keystone Mountain Resort
© Keystone Mountain ResortSnowboarding on fresh powder at Keystone Mountain Resort
Snow was possible along the Front Range on Sunday, mainly in the afternoon and evening, when the Denver area could see 1-3 inches. But the heaviest snow was expected to remain in the mountains. Another round of the storm was dumping snow over the southern and central mountains, from Vail to Aspen.

But even before the snow Sunday, the snowfall totals since Thursday were pretty high across the mountains. Near Rabbit Ears Pass, more than 43 inches
had fallen as of Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service's snowfall reporting location.


Below is the full list of snowfall totals from around Colorado, via the NWS locations . The totals below are all listed in inches.

1 NNE Rabbit Ears Pass: 43.4
1 NW Climax: 33.6
5 SSW Blue River: 32.2
1 NNW Berthoud Pass: 30.8
4 SE Mount Zirkel: 30.8

Cloud Precipitation

Heavy hailstorm leaves blanket of ice in several districts of Rajasthan, India, damages crops

ice hail
Nagaur district in Rajasthan witnessed unusual weather conditions as the area was hit by heavy rains and hailstorms causing it to be covered in a blanket of ice on Thursday.

Several areas of Nagaur, including villages of Chhapri, Maulasar, Keechak, were hit by heavy hailstorm that caused roads and roofs of houses to be completely covered in sheets of ice making it look like snow.

The hailstorm has caused significant damage to crops in the region. Reportedly, several animals and birds have also sustained injuries.


Snowflake Cold

Icelandic farmer digs out horses buried under deep snow

dig out
This morning, Magnús Ásgeir Elíasson, a farmer from Hvammstangi, had a sudden feeling that he should check on his horses. It was a lucky intuition, as Magnús arrived to his fields to find a large group of his horses stuck in the snow. Thankfully, he had arrived just on time to bring all of them to safety and warmth, he told Vísir.

Apparently, after he finished the morning feeding, something snapped in him. "As I was walking into the house, I felt someone stopping me and saying, 'Go check on the horses.' I then turned around, looked up [onto the mountain] and saw my herd," Magnús explained. His horses were freezing in the snow.


Comment: Iceland blizzard brings 149 mph winds, up to 10 feet of accumulating mountain snow


Cloud Precipitation

Two dead, hundreds of thousands of homes without power as powerful storm hits southwestern France

Floods  in Maubourguet, south western France
© AFP/LAURENT DARDA man walks through a flooded street following heavy rains that led to the flood of the Adour and Echez rivers on Dec 14, 2019 in Maubourguet, south western France.
Two pensioners have been killed and tens of thousand of homes left without electricity as gale force winds and flooding hit southwestern France.


Comment: Winds reached 160kms/hr! And this wasn't even a named storm; just a sudden plunge in air pressure off France's Atlantic coast.


Eleven departments remained on orange alert weather warnings late Saturday.

A 70-year-old man died in the Pyrenees-Atlantique in the Basque Country on Friday when his vehicle struck a fallen tree.

In Espiens in the Lot-et-Garonne region a 76-year-old man was swept away by rising waters when he went out to fetch his mail on Friday.

Rescuers found his body 24 hours later more than a kilometre from his home.


Comment: This weather event seems to have received little coverage in anglophone media. It was quite something: it raged for almost 48 hours, brought rivers to near-record levels, and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes.

Less than a month ago, by the way, storms in France, Greece and Italy caused 'biblical' destruction.


Snowflake

Snowfall will become a thing of the pass: 18 inches of new snow in 24 hours for White Pass, Washington

White pass
More than 18 inches of new snow has allowed the White Pass Ski Area to open for the Christmas season on Saturday for limited operations.

White Pass General Manager Kevin McCarthy says snow in the past two days helped fill areas that were lacking snow and will allow the area to open for business on Saturday.

He says they'll operate the Great White and Triple chairlifts as well as carpets.

That's great news to thousands of skiers and snowboarders who had been hoping for an earlier opening of the area because of early season snow.

Cloud Precipitation

Delhi records highest 24-hour December rainfall in 22 years

Delhi rain
The national Capital recorded its highest 24-hour December rainfall since 1997 on Friday, MeT officials said.

The Safdarjung Observatory recorded 33.5 mm rainfall, the second highest after 70 mm in December 1997.

The Palam weather station registered an all-time December high of 40.2 mm in the last 24 hours. It had measured 33.7 mm rainfall on December 3, 1997, the officials said.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its weekly weather forecast said foggy days will start from Saturday. "Moderate to dense fog from December 14 to December 19," MeT updated in Regional Weather Forecast for Delhi.

For the next week, minimum temperature will remain at 8 degrees Celsius and maximum will fluctuate between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius.

Snowflake Cold

Two feet of snowfall hits areas of Nepal

SNOW
Snowfall has occurred in Mustang and Myagdi districts since Friday morning. Two feet of snow has fallen in the upper parts of Myagdi district, locals said.

With the snowfall, the temperature has gone down, hitting the normal life in the highlands.

Touristic places including Ghodepani of Annapurna Rural Municipality-6, Gurja of Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality have witnessed a heavy snowfall, according to locals.

The biting cold caused by the December snow has forced the locals to stay indoors, hurdling around fires, said Rupesh Subedi, headmaster of Janakalyan Secondary School, Gurja.