Storms
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Tornado2

Waterspout swirls near coast of Australia's Northern Territory

waterspout
A waterspout formed near Bynoe Harbour in Australia's Northern Territory on Tuesday, December 8, as local Mark Hay was returning from an outing on the water.

Hay said he and his companions were "dodging a storm" when they spotted the waterspout.

"It got a lot bigger as we [came] around the top end of an island in Bynoe Harbour," he told Storyful. "So we stopped to take pictures and it just kept growing bigger then moments later it disappeared."


Credit: Mark Hay via Storyful

Tornado2

Tornado confirmed to have caused freak weather damage in Horsham, Australia

Horsham tornado damage
© Gregor Heard.Nilo Polkinghorne and John McKenzie of the Hamilton State Emergency Service attend to the clean-up in the wake of wild weather in Francis-st, Horsham on Monday morning.
A FREAK weather event that caused severe damage in the Victorian city of Horsham has been confirmed as a tornado.

Preliminary investigations confirmed a short lived, but fierce storm hit a narrow swathe of the northern suburbs of the city.

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Diana Eadie said it had been classified as an EF1 event, which means top wind speeds of between 138 and 177kph.

The State Emergency Service (SES) reported close to 100 requests for assistance, with 76 calls for property damage, around 12am to 1am Monday morning., with most of the damage in a narrow band 400 metres wide.

Ms Eadie said the entire event took place in around a minute.


Comment: Extremely rare winter tornado hits Trieste, Italy


Snowflake Cold

Temperatures drop to minus 21C, with up to 4 feet of snowfall in Diamer, Pakistan

mountain
Temperatures dropped in upper areas of Diamer district in Gilgit-Baltistan region to intense cold after sporadic snowfall for last two days, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

Mercury dropped to minus-21 Celsius at Nanga Parbat base camp, according to a weather report.

Babusar Top, Nanga Parbat base camp and Fairy Meadows have received heavy rainfall, according to weather report. Battugah Top and adjoining areas have also received snowfall on mountains.

Babusar Top and Battugah Top have received over four feet snowfall in the snow spell.


Snowflake

Firefighters conduct rescue operations after heavy snow in Northern Italy

Two cool cats
Two cool cats
Italian firefighters staged rescue operations in the Belluno region on December 8 after heavy snowfall in northern Italy, according to Italian reports.

Reports said eight people were reportedly trapped in Passo Giau.

In another operation on the same day, nine people were rescued at Passo San Pellegrino.


Comment: Historic levels of snow falls in parts of the Alps - up to 3 meters, with another meter forecast


Boat

Ship loses record number of containers while crossing the Pacific - hit by waves 16 meters (52.5 feet) high

containers
Uncontained containers
Ship returned to Japan after encountering severe weather (wave heights of up to 16 meters, or 52.5 feet, the height of a five-story building).

The ONE Apus suffered the incident after encountering severe weather on Monday, November 30, during its voyage from Yantian, China to Long Beach, California. The vessel was approximately 1,600 nautical miles northwest of Hawaii at the time.

The ONE Apus is a 14,000 TEU containership built in 2019 measuring 364-meters in length and sailing under the Japanese flag. The vessel is operated by Japan's Ocean Network Express on the Far East Pacific 2 (FP2) Service.

Boat

Severe floods hit Uberlândia, Brazil

flood
(Translated from Brazilian Portuguese): A heavy rain that fell early tonight (8) in Uberlândia (MG), located in the Triângulo Mineiro, left the city with several flooding points. The Santa Monica neighborhood and the center were the most affected places. Drivers had their cars stopped because of flooding on public roads and some vehicles were driven by the current. Teams from the Civil Defense, the Fire Department and the Military Police (PM) were called in to respond to the occurrences.

Earlier, the Civil Defense issued an alert and confirmed that the city is on yellow alert due to the forecast of heavy rains. In case of emergency situations, residents should call the Fire Department (193), PM (190) or the agency itself (199). On Saturday (5), the city was also hit by a thunderstorm.


Attention

French rescue helicopter crashes in the Alps during bad weather, killing 5

This picture taken on Dec. 9, 2020, shows houses and a church under snow at the entrance of Bonvillard, France, where a helicopter crash left five dead with only the pilot surviving but badly wounded.
© AFPThis picture taken on Dec. 9, 2020, shows houses and a church under snow at the entrance of Bonvillard, France, where a helicopter crash left five dead with only the pilot surviving but badly wounded.
Five people were killed when a rescue helicopter crashed in poor weather in the French Alps Tuesday.

The Eurocopter EC135 was flying at an altitude of about 5,900 feet when it came down near the town of Bonvillard, about 10 miles from Albertville in the Savoie area of the French Alps, according to a government news release.

Local authorities said weather conditions were particularly bad at the time, the Associated Press reported. It was overcast with low cloud ceilings and some snow was falling in the area Tuesday night, according to weather.com meteorologists.

Six people were on board, including the pilot, a pilot in training, two rescue personnel and two winch operators, according to the BBC.


Cloud Lightning

More than 200,000 lightning strikes recorded across Mackay, Australia

Incredible shades of purple were captured in the lightning storm around Mackay.
© Marty StreckerIncredible shades of purple were captured in the lightning storm around Mackay.
A terrific light show overnight has given the Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday region a vibrant kick-off to the storm season.

Ergon Energy said more than 200,000 lightning strikes were recorded across the region since Tuesday afternoon.

"Mackay and surrounds ... in a 100-kilometre radius it was more than 76,500 lightning strikes," spokeswoman Emma Oliveri said.


Moranbah recorded 35,000 and Airlie Beach clocked up 30,000.


Tornado2

Extremely rare winter tornado hits Trieste, Italy

Trieste tornado
© YouTube/Matej Tratnik (screen capture)
"Today, on Dec 7th, 2020, an intense supercell storm rolled across the North Adriatic Sea and produced a tornado that hit the Port of Trieste city, Italy in the evening hours. Severe weather with large hail and damaging winds blasted across the Slovenian coast, and also the city of Trieste itself," reports Severe Weather Europe.

"Call it rare, historic, or whatever possible, the event is extremely rare! Lets us repeat... it is December 7th, a winter month and the Adriatic Sea and the city of Trieste are located in central Europe."


Snowflake

Historic levels of snow falls in parts of the Alps - up to 3 meters, with another meter forecast

snow
Up to 3m has fallen in parts of Italy and Austria. The huge storm started on Friday and though it has eased, it is still falling in places with a further 1m expected.

Winter has struck with a vengeance in some parts of the Dolomites in Italy and in southern Austria.

Here is the snow coming down in Madonna di Campiglio:


Comment: View more videos: Winter storm dumps up to 2 meters of snowfall in the Alps causing problems, with another meter forecast