Storms
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Cloud Precipitation

One dead, two missing after severe storm hits Catalonia - Barcelona inundated by freak flash-flooding

Natalia Penza
Daily Mail
Wed, 23 Oct 2019 10:23 UTC
Emergency services were deployed throughout the night to try and find people who had disappeared during the freak flash floods (poor weather conditions pictured in Sant Antonio, Spain)
Emergency services were deployed throughout the night to try and find people who had disappeared during the freak flash floods (poor weather conditions pictured in Sant Antonio, Spain)
The body of a 75-year-old man who disappeared in the Arenys de Mar municipality during Spain's freak flash floods has been found.

He was discovered on a beach near Arenys, Spain, this morning.

He went missing as he went to move his car which had been swept away by a swollen river, yesterday.

The man is the same civilian who emergency teams had searched for throughout the night, according to the regional Mossos d'Esquadra force. He was discovered on a beach near Arenys this morning.

It has also emerged that a 52-year-old man died in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat southwest of Barcelona after being run over by a train in an incident blamed on the storms.

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Tornado2

One dead, thousands displaced by East Java tornado

Aman Rochman
ReliefWeb
Mon, 21 Oct 2019 06:43 UTC
East Java tornado

A puting beliung (small tornado) swept through three different villages in Batu city in East Java over the weekend, leaving one dead and over 1,000 residents displaced.

The tornado destroyed about 20 houses, a telecommunications transmitter and parts of the electricity network in three villages: Sumber Brantas, Gunungsari and Sumbergondo.

Several trees fell and blocked access to the affected areas. Sodiq, a resident of Jurang Kuali hamlet in Sumber Brantas village, was killed by a falling tree, news site tempo.co reported.

Over 1,200 residents took shelter in five locations, including at the mayor's residence and the Batu Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) compound.

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Tornado2

Major damage reported in Dallas after powerful overnight tornado: UPDATE - Four killed

Megan Sheets
Daily Mail
Mon, 21 Oct 2019 07:03 UTC
Dallas tornado
© BubbaSaenz/twitterA violent tornado struck North Dallas on Sunday night, causing a convenience store to collapse and damaging several other structures. Dramatic video posted on social media captured the mammoth twister with winds estimated at 111mph
A violent tornado tore through Dallas on Sunday night, leveling buildings, tossing trailers and cutting power to thousands of homes.

A Tornado Watch was issued across most of North Texas as the weather phenomenon tore through the state with wind speeds of up to 111mph.

The National Weather Service confirmed that a twister touched down near Love Field Airport just before 9pm before moving approximately 17 miles northeast through the city as residents of Dallas and Ellis counties were warned to take shelter.

Social media was flooded with dramatic photos and videos of the tornado descending from the sky as users expressed shock over the sudden storm at the end of a sunny fall weekend.

NWS meteorologist Jason Godwin said the size and severity of the tornado won't be known until daylight comes Monday morning.

Local news outlets reported that several structures in North Dallas had been damaged, including a convenience store that collapsed when struck by unrelenting winds.

A clerk at the store reported that everyone who was inside the building made it out unscathed.


Comment:

Update: Daily Mail on 22nd Oct. reports:

Rescuers are continuing to sift through the rubble left by a devastating tornado that tore homes and businesses apart in Dallas as authorities confirm four people were killed as a late-night series of storms caused chaos in several states.

The tornado struck the tornado struck Dallas at about 9pm on Sunday night with devastating 111mph winds.

More video footage has emerged:





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Snowflake

Casper Mountain in Wyoming sees 14 inches of early snow cover after latest storm

Brendan LaChance
Oil City News
Mon, 21 Oct 2019 18:32 UTC
snow
© Dan Cepeda, Oil City
Casper Mountain saw over a foot of snow fall over the weekend.

As of Monday, Oct. 21, the Casper Mountain Snotel recorded 14 inches of snow cover.

That is according to the National Weather Service's Riverton office.

Snow is likely in the mountains from Tuesday-Thursday, the NWS says. Snow is also possible in lower elevations.
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Tornado2

Tornado blows rooftops off and destroys 20 homes in Malaysia

Tamara Jayne
SAYS
Mon, 21 Oct 2019 10:45 UTC
TORNADO
© KLXpress/YouTube
A landspout struck 20 homes and uprooted trees in Mukim Jeram, Kedah on Sunday, 20 October

Videos of the incident recorded by residents made its rounds on social media.

One video showed the landspout swirling in the middle of a paddy field, while villagers prayed from a distance.

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Tornado2

Second freak tornado to touch down in France this week


La Depeche
Sun, 20 Oct 2019 12:32 UTC
Tornado france
© Vincent Deligny/KeraunosTaken near the A75 highway by storm hunter Vincent Deligny.
A violent storm circulated over the Hérault this Sunday, accompanied by heavy rainfall and strong electrical activity. A tornado was also filmed by several Internet users.

A tornado was filmed near Aspiran, Paulhan or Pézenas. The videos have been relayed on social networks.

In addition, four departments were placed on rain-flood orange alert by Météo France this Sunday morning: Ardèche, Haute-Loire, Loire and Rhône.

According to our colleagues from France Bleu, four municipalities have been completely plunged into darkness due to wind and rain in the Gard department, which is on yellow alert.

Comment: Just four days ago: Freak tornado rips off roofs as it tears through French town damaging 173 houses

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Tornado2

EF-1 tornado, waterspout hits near Shelton, Washington


komonews.com
Sat, 19 Oct 2019 12:24 UTC
damage
The National Weather Service confirmed Saturday night an EF-1 tornado hit near Shelton on Friday night with winds between 90 and 100 miles per hour.

The twister started on land near Shelton traveling more than a half mile before moving over Pickering Passage and becoming a waterspout.

It dissipated shortly after moving over the water.

The Weather Service completed a survey of the area on Saturday before release its findings.

The tornado cut a path about 90 yards wide and was on the ground for approximately five minutes.

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Alarm Clock

State of Emergency: Vital oil pipeline shuttered by snow storms in Canada

Irina Slav
OilPrice.com
Thu, 17 Oct 2019 10:36 UTC
snow
TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, has declared force majeure on the Keystone oil pipeline after a snow storm in Manitoba disrupted operations, Reuters reports, citing a confirmation from the pipeline operator.

"Due to the recent storm in Manitoba over the weekend, we did declare force majeure as the province declared a state of emergency. We are currently operating at reduced flows," a spokesperson for TC Energy told Reuters in a statement.

The Keystone pipeline has a capacity to carry 590,000 bpd of Canadian crude to the United States refineries. While it is unclear exactly how much TC Energy had reduced the flow of oil through the pipeline, but Western Canadian Select was down on the news, extending a losing streak.
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Windsock

'Bomb cyclone' slams US Northeast, knocks out power to half a million customers

Clyde Hughes
UPI
Thu, 17 Oct 2019 11:01 UTC
US Northeast bomb cyclone
© NOAA/GOES-East
More than 500,000 homes and businesses in the Northeast lost power Thursday as a quickly moving "bomb cyclone" knocked down trees and electrical lines throughout the region.

The storm pushed some of the coldest air of the season through the Northeast. Wind gusts of up to 55 mph could be felt along the coast from Maine to as far south as Cape May, N.J., and some parts of Delaware.

Towns like Duxbury, Mass., saw homes damaged as strong gusts blew through the area forcing schools to close.

"This whole town got hit pretty hard," Duxbury Fire Capt. Rob Reardon told ABC News. "You can tell by just the amount of trees, the wires, the damage to houses. Roads are blocked, schools are shut down because school buses can't access these streets at all. We're having a difficult time trying to get to calls from one side of town to the other."


Comment: The 'bomb cyclone' set a record as the strongest October storm ever in the Boston area.



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Snowflake

Study finds extreme Arctic snowfall in 2018 caused near 'complete reproductive failure of plants and animals'

Andrea Germanos
Common Dreams
Wed, 16 Oct 2019 16:06 UTC
The Zackenberg valley in Northeast Greenland
© Lars Holst HansenThe Zackenberg valley in Northeast Greenland, summer 2018. Huge amounts of snow still covered the ground in late June, where the snow-covered season usually is coming to an end.

"2018 may offer a peep into the future, where increased climatic variability may push the arctic species to — and potentially beyond — their limits."

A new study published Tuesday looked at the implications of extreme snowfall in the Arctic in 2018 — the kind of increased precipitation event scientists link to climate change — and researchers say the scenario could be a harbinger of how ecosystems in the region will be negatively affected by a rapidly warming planet.

"The result was an almost complete reproductive failure of plants and animals of all sizes," the authors wrote.

The takeaway for arctic ecosystems, the authors found, is that "changes in precipitation may prove as crucial as changes in temperature — if not even more."

For the study, published in the journal PLOS Biology, researchers focused on the monitoring site of Zackenberg in Northeast Greenland. In 2018, the Arctic — including the High Arctic where the Zackenberg facility is — saw unusually large amounts of snow. That meant there was a significant delay in snow melt, which in turn made it difficult for plants to grow and for animals to access resources.

The result? The "most complete reproductive failure encountered in the terrestrial ecosystem during more than two decades of monitoring," said the study.

Comment: Elsewhere in the Arctic a wildflower meadow photographed in Arctic oases surprises scientists.

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