Storms
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Boat

Think 2020's disasters are wild? Worse is yet to come say experts

Creek Fire
© APA firefighter battles the Creek Fire as it threatens homes in the Cascadel Woods neighborhood of Madera County, California.
A record amount of California is burning, spurred by a nearly 20-year mega-drought. To the north, parts of Oregon that don't usually catch fire are in flames.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic's 16th and 17th named tropical storms are swirling, a record number for this time of year. Powerful Typhoon Haishen lashed Japan and the Korean Peninsula this week. Last month it hit 130 degrees in Death Valley, the hottest Earth has been in nearly a century.

Phoenix keeps setting triple-digit heat records, while Colorado went through a weather whiplash of 90-degree heat to snow this week. Siberia, famous for its icy climate, hit 100 degrees earlier this year, accompanied by wildfires. Before that Australia and the Amazon were in flames.

Comment: While former NASA chief scientist Abdalati is wrong about a number of things, it is obvious to anyone paying attention that there are great changes afoot on our planet. And so for a more compelling answer as to what's driving these changes and that also explains the increase in extreme and unusual events, across the board, from sinkholes; extreme temperature swings; global cooling; the meandering jet stream and stalling gulf stream; the unusual electrical activity in our skies; the rise in fireballs and comets; the increase in volcanic and seismic events - and much more - check out Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk's book Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection, as well as the following SOTT podcasts:


Cloud Precipitation

Severe floods hit 760,000 people in West and Central Africa

Residents walk through a flooded street after last week's heavy rains in Keur Massar, Senegal September 8, 2020.
© REUTERS/Zohra BensemraResidents walk through a flooded street after last week's heavy rains in Keur Massar, Senegal September 8, 2020.
Nigerien student Hachimou Abdou has had to catch a boat to classes since river water swamped his route to university in the capital Niamey - one of about 760,000 people hit by severe flooding in recent weeks in parts of West and Central Africa.

Floods are common during the rainy season, but in recent years climate change, land degradation and poor urban planning have led to more frequent disasters as rapidly-growing cities struggle with heavier-than-normal rainfall.

Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Congo Republic and Senegal are among those worst-hit this year, with at least 111 people killed, according to latest figures from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).


Cloud Precipitation

300,000 displaced by floods in Ethiopia, says UN

Evacuations after floods in Afar region, Ethiopia September 2020.
© OCHA EthiopiaEvacuations after floods in Afar region, Ethiopia September 2020.
Heavy rain and flooding continue in Ethiopia, with over 500,000 people affected and around 300,000 displaced since July.

Unusually heavy Kiremt season (June to September) rainfall triggered flooding in the country from late July. By early August the UN reported 30,000 people had been displaced, with many of them in the Afar region after the overflow of Awash River. The regions of Gambella, Oromia, SNNP and later Amhara were also affected.

In a report of 06 September, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said "heavy summer season (June-September) rains continue to cause flooding in many parts of the country. Some 500,000 people were so far affected, including some 300,000 displaced."


Snowflake Cold

Temperature extremes: Colorado shatters multiple records as wild weather continues

Fallen tree limbs block a street during an early season snow storm on September 9, 2020 in Boulder, Colorado.
© Michael CiagloFallen tree limbs block a street during an early season snow storm on September 9, 2020 in Boulder, Colorado.
A wild week of weather continues to unfold in Colorado that started with 100+ degree temperatures and transitioned into more than a more than a foot of snow in parts of the state.

Here's a look at some of the weather records that were set in the Centennial State during this tumultuous time.


Cloud Precipitation

Violent rainstorms, flash flooding hits Cagliari, Italy

floods
Downpours, lightning, gales sweep flooded Sardinian capital

Two violent thunderstorms hit Cagliari in the space of a few hours on Thursday turning the streets of the Sardinian capital into rivers.

Cagliari and the surrounding area were swept by thunder, lightning, cloudbursts and a gale-force northwesterly wind.


Comment: The nearby town of Carbonia was also hit by flooding:




Cloud Lightning

Lightning strike kills 2 footballers during match in Gazipur, Bangladesh

LIGHTNING
Another man killed while fishing at a water body in the district

Three people, including two school students, were killed in separate lightning incidents in Gazipur.

One of the incidents took place at the Shaheed Barkat Stadium, killing the two footballers on the spot. In the other incident, a person was killed while he was fishing at a waterbody in Bipraborta at around 12:30pm on Thursday.

The young footballers were killed in the lightning strike when a group of schoolboys were playing football in Gazipur Shaheed Barkat Stadium.

Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills 4, injures 4 others in Madhya Pradesh, India

lightning
Four persons, including a minor boy, were killed, and four others injured when lightning struck their makeshift house on a field in Madhya Pradesh's Barwani district on Thursday, an official said.

The incident took place in the area under Varla police station limits, where the victims took shelter in the makeshift house during the rains, sub-divisional magistrate of Sendhwa Tapasya Parihar said.

Four persons were killed and as many were injured when lightning struck the house, she said.

The deceased have been identified as Shantabai (35), Leelabai (25) Neerabai (23) and Azad (5), all residents of Khapada village, the official said, adding that the injured were referred to a hospital in Sendhwa.

Source: PTI

Cloud Lightning

Lightning strike kills 2 in Jamaica

lightning
A lightning strike in the southern parish of St. Elizabeth on Wednesday, led to the death of two people.

The police report that Ricardo Fisher, 14, from the community of Keynsham in the parish and Sheldon Caine, 30, a farmer from the neighbouring parish of Clarendon, were picking avocados when they were struck by lightning.

Fisher and Caine suffered severe burns and died on the spot, while the third man, who was wearing water boots, escaped with minor injuries.

Snowflake Cold

September snow blankets parts of 4 US states - up to 17 inches deep

casper wyoming snow
Casper Wyoming snow
Seventeen inches of snow, 70-degree temperature drops and the earliest snowfall on record were just part of a record September winter blast.

Seventeen inches of snow in Wyoming, the earliest snowfall on record for New Mexico and the earliest flakes in decades for parts of Colorado — these are just a few of the astonishing weather reports coming out of a record-setting September week.

On Wednesday morning, snow was falling over parts of Colorado and 5 million people remained under winter weather alerts across portions of the Northern and Central Rockies. Those in the Denver area woke up to 1 to 4 inches of snow coating trees and grassy surfaces.

A few more inches of snow was possible, mostly at the highest elevations, before the snow was expected to end by afternoon.


Cloud Precipitation

China renews blue alert for rainstorms

floods
China's national observatory on Tuesday renewed a blue alert for rainstorms in parts of the country's northeastern, eastern and southern regions.

From Tuesday to 8 am Wednesday, heavy rainfall and rainstorms are expected in parts of Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi, the National Meteorological Center said.

Some regions will see up to 60 mm of hourly precipitation, the center said.