Storms
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills 3 family members and 2 goats in Telangana, India


New Indian Express
Tue, 21 May 2019 09:21 UTC
bolt
Lightning struck a farmer's family, leaving three members dead and one injured in Vikarabad district, located around 90 kms from Hyderabad on Monday.

The victims were standing under a thatched platform in the field located on the outskirts of Rajapur village of Dharur mandal in the district, taking cover from the unexpected heavy rain.

The victims were identified as Khaja Bee(38), her daughter Tabassum(16) and son Akram(12), while the head of the family Fakruddin received injuries in the incident. Two goats belonging to the family also died due to lightning. According to police, Fakruddin along with his second wife Khaja Bee and her two children went to their maize field located on the outskirts of the village.

Comment: Three days prior to the above incident lightning also killed 2 people and 2 cattle in the same Indian state while 2 woman were fataly struck in Odisha on the 16th of May. In Bangladesh strikes killed a total of at least 6 people on the 19th of May and 2 family members died after being hit by a bolt on the 14th.

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Tornado1

Tornado season: Giant twister spotted in central Texas as thunderstorms with golf-ball sized hail roar through Great Plains


RT
Mon, 20 May 2019 09:51 UTC
Tornado Ballinger Texas Mau 2019
Ominous moment caught on camera where a strong tornado slowly starts approaching Ballinger in West Texas.
A large tornado was filmed moving across a field in Texas as powerful thunderstorms sweep through the Great Plains. With tornado season in full swing, more than a dozen states have experienced outbursts of severe weather.

The imposing twister was spotted in the town of Ballinger in Runnels County, central Texas, making its way across an empty field. Several structures can be seen in the background but it was unclear how far they were from the tornado.


Comment: Accuweather storm chaser, Reed Timmer recounts his up-close encounter with a tornado in McCook, Nebraska, one of several major tornadoes that touched down across the region.

More storm photos:

Nebraska tornado May 2019
© (Twitter/@Sturms112010)A tornado tore through a field between McCook and Culbertson, Nebraska Friday evening, May 17, 2019.
twin tornadoes Nebraska May 2019
© Twitter/@terrellstormsA rare occurrence of twin tornadoes touched down near Farnam, Nebraska on May, 17, 2019.
tornado Minneola Kansas May 2019
A tornado spotted near Minneola, Kansas, on Friday evneing.


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Cloud Precipitation

Heavy rain and flooding hit parts of the Arabian Peninsula


Al Jazeera
Mon, 20 May 2019 18:01 UTC
Vehicles drive through a flooded road following heavy rains in Sanaa, Yemen.
© Yahya Arhab/EPAVehicles drive through a flooded road following heavy rains in Sanaa, Yemen.
Thunderstorms kicked off across much of the southern Arabian Peninsula this weekend after hot and humid conditions in the region.

In Oman, images out of Muscat's international airport showed very strong downpours on Sunday evening. Visibility was reduced to several hundred metres and flights were delayed while the storms moved through.


A bit further south in Oman, the town of Sur has picked up 66mm of rain in the last 48 hours. This is well above average for the month of May when the town would normally only see about 1.7mm.
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Apple Red

Floods, hail and bad weather affect fruits and vegetables in Italy

Maria Luigia Brusco
Fresh Plaza
Tue, 14 May 2019 18:35 UTC
Heavy rain, flooding in Puglia, Emilia-Romagna
Heavy rain, flooding in Puglia, Emilia-Romagna
After the strong hailstorm recorded on Sunday May 12 in the Italian regions Basilicata and Apulia, new 'water bombs' mixed with hail affected the same areas. The situation is worrying for stone fruit, watermelon and table grapes. It was a very wet awakening, Monday May 13, in the provinces of Forlì-Cesena and Ravenna (Emilia Romagna). The plentiful rains have swollen all the rivers and some have overflowed. The most difficult situation is in the territory of Cesena with flooded orchards and closed bridges and roads.

"The damages on peaches, apricots, nectarines and some goji plants are enormous, with damaged fields and fruits that will rot in a few days. We had just finished with the thinning of the apricots and waited for them to be completely ripe to proceed with the harvest", says Anna Camarda, a farmer from Basilicata who has her crops in Metaponto. "The varieties of apricots affected are Vitillo and Thirintos (early apricot), while for peaches it is Sagittaria. The citrus orchards in bloom are also affected."
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Snowflake

Spring storm dumps 7 inches of fresh snow overnight on California ski resort


Yahoo! News
Sat, 18 May 2019 11:28 UTC
Squaw Valley Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows reported 11 inches of snow in the past 24 hours at Squaw’s upper mountain, bringing the resort’s season total to 700 inches, which is third highest in resort history.
© Ben Arnst / Squaw Valley Alpine MeadowsSquaw Valley Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows reported 11 inches of snow in the past 24 hours at Squaw’s upper mountain, bringing the resort’s season total to 700 inches, which is third highest in resort history.
Up to seven inches of snow fell on Squaw Summit in California's Squaw Valley overnight into Thursday, May 16, according to the National Weather Service.

While many Californians might lament snowfall in May, employees at the Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows ski resort rejoiced, writing, "‪Our kind of May Showers!" Footage filmed by Kurt Wilhelmy shows thick snow covering snowmobiles and plows at Squaw Valley on Thursday morning.


Credit: Kurt Wilhelmy/Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows via Storyful
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Tornado2

Waterspout appears off Amelia Island, Florida


First Coast News
Fri, 17 May 2019 18:23 UTC
waterspout
Check out this cool video of a waterspout that a First Coast News viewer captured at Amelia Island in Fernandina. Thanks for sharing Bob Eger!

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Cloud Precipitation

Total catastrophe for U.S. corn production: Only 30% of U.S. corn fields have been planted - 5 year average is 66%

Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse
Wed, 15 May 2019 12:06 UTC
flood
2019 is turning out to be a nightmare that never ends for the agriculture industry. Thanks to endless rain and unprecedented flooding, fields all over the middle part of the country are absolutely soaked right now, and this has prevented many farmers from getting their crops in the ground. I knew that this was a problem, but when I heard that only 30 percent of U.S. corn fields had been planted as of Sunday, I had a really hard time believing it. But it turns out that number is 100 percent accurate. And at this point corn farmers are up against a wall because crop insurance final planting dates have either already passed or are coming up very quickly.

In addition, for every day after May 15th that corn is not in the ground, farmers lose approximately 2 percent of their yield. Unfortunately, more rain is on the way, and it looks like thousands of corn farmers will not be able to plant corn at all this year. It is no exaggeration to say that what we are facing is a true national catastrophe.

According to the Department of Agriculture, over the past five years an average of 66 percent of all corn fields were already planted by now...

Comment: Spring's record-late arrival in parts of the U.S. has a serious consequence

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Cloud Precipitation

Spring's record-late arrival in parts of the U.S. has a serious consequence

Linda Lam
The Weather Channel
Wed, 15 May 2019 11:06 UTC
crop snow
The calendar might've said it was spring more than a month ago, but the physical signs of it around us told a much different story.

Spring and its typical green growth arrived later than usual in much of the U.S., save for parts of the South, thanks to a stubborn weather pattern that most noticeably affected parts of the central and southern Plains, Northwest and northern New England.

Spring was more than 10 days later than usual in those areas, according to data from The USA National Phenology Network, which tracks the physical arrival of spring by looking at when leaves and other growth appears and blooms.

Using data that dates back to 1981, the group also examined how unusual this spring's lateness was compared to previous years.

Comment: Total catastrophe for U.S. corn production: Only 30% of U.S. corn fields have been planted - 5 year average is 66%

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Cloud Lightning

23 killed in storms, lightning strikes in Assam, India in past few weeks


Mid-day.com
Wed, 15 May 2019 18:43 UTC
Representational image
Representational image
The worst-hit districts are Sivasagar, Golaghat, Dhubri, Cachar and Sontipur. While 13 persons have died after being struck by lightning, ten persons died in the storms, the ASDMA said

At least 23 people have died in storms and lightning strikes in the past few weeks in Assam, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) stated.

The two natural disasters also affected around 22,801 families in 18 districts of the state in the current year, ASDMA) stated on Tuesday.

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Cloud Precipitation

Hail world records: the biggest, heaviest, and deadliest hail


Severe Weather Europe
Sat, 27 Apr 2019 19:04 UTC
NWS Aberdeen staff measuring the diameter and circumference of the record-setting hailstone. Note that the ruler is in inches!
© NWS Aberdeen.NWS Aberdeen staff measuring the diameter and circumference of the record-setting hailstone. Note that the ruler is in inches!
Imagine a melon-sized chunk of ice falling out of the sky? Punching a hole in your car windshield? Your roof? Breaking bone?

Hail is one of the biggest hazards with severe thunderstorms - while it is usually small, and relatively harmless, it may grow to tennis ball sized or even larger. It may cause severe damage, injuries and in extreme cases even death.

It forms as super cooled water droplets within a thunderstorm updraft begin freezing onto a condensation nucleus. The super cooled droplets are colder than 0 °C, but still in liquid state. As they come into contact with the growing hailstone they freeze onto it, making it grow. The growing hailstone is kept in the air by the storm's updraft until it grows too big and heavy for the upward wind to keep it aloft. The hailstone may make a single journey within the updraft, or it may make several journeys, each forming a new layer, producing a concentric onion-like structure.

Comment: More examples here: Baseball-sized hail: How severe hailstorms have caused devastation and killed people

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