Storms
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Windsock

Over 25 people dead in dust storm in India's North


Sputnik
Sun, 13 May 2018 13:07 UTC
duststorm
A powerful dust storm and rains have hit Delhi, grounding flights, uprooting trees and bringing traffic on the city's roads to a standstill, several days after an alert was issued over north India for a massive storm, New Deli TV reports.

The storm, which had wind speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour (45 miles per hour), demolished dozens of homes and destroyed power lines in northern Uttar Pradesh state, a government official said.

At least 25 people have lost their lives and dozens more injured, according to the Times of India paper.

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Cloud Precipitation

At least 15 killed, 22 injured after heavy rainfall, windstorm strikes Pakistan


The New Indian Express
Sun, 13 May 2018 10:49 UTC
RAIN
At least 15 people were killed and 22 others injured in heavy downpour and windstorm that lashed different parts of Pakistan, according to local media reports.

Heavy rains and storm hit different parts of Punjab province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Nine people were killed and 13 others suffered injuries in incidents of wall and roof collapse after a windstorm hit the area in the evening, Dawn News reported.

According to officials, most of the dead and wounded belonged to Mamond and Khar tehsil.

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Windsock

Sandstorm engulfs southern Iraq turning day into night


ABC Online
Fri, 11 May 2018 07:28 UTC
A powerful sandstorm engulfed southern Iraq
A powerful sandstorm engulfed southern Iraq on May 11, 2018 turning day into night.
A severe sandstorm struck al-Muthanna province in southern Iraq on Friday, engulfing the landscape in a red dust.

Ahmad Qasem, a resident of the town of Samawah took footage of the red glow.

The video shows the impact of the red sand, darkening the skies at around midday.

Parts of Iraq often suffer from dust storms, especially in the past decade, as strong winds sweep up Iraq's vast deserts, blowing sand and dust into urban areas throughout the country.

Researchers say climate changes within the region have added to the problem with a decrease the annual rainfall and environmental changes, such as drying of the marshes, land degradation, and desertification.


Comment: Sand/dust storms have also hit other countries in the Middle East this month such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Dubai and UAE.

In north India recently powerful 'freak' dust storms killed over 125 people, the highest death toll in decades.

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Cloud Precipitation

Severe thunderstorms with large amounts of hail and heavy rain hits Germany


The Local Germany
Fri, 11 May 2018 10:50 UTC
Hamburg floods
© DPAOne of the houses near Hamburg that had to be evacuated with a car sunken into the ground beside it.
After heavy storms hit regions of the country on Thursday, the fire services responded to some 2,000 emergencies, ranging from streets filled with water to flooded basements.

Just as German meteorologists predicted, heavy rain, wind and hail hit much of the country on the public holiday. Though no injuries were reported due to the weather, northern Germany was particularly hard hit by the storms.

Fire brigades in the north of the country had their work cut out, responding to close to 2,000 calls mainly in Schleswig-Holstein and in the Hamburg area.

On Friday morning in Oststeinbek, a municipality east of Hamburg, cellars full of water were still being pumped. Oststeinbek's historic water mill was also washed out. A few houses had to be evacuated in the vicinity and some of the house's walls had even collapsed. In neighbouring Havighorst, an underground car park was flooded in up to three metres of water.


Comment: Severe storms affected other parts of Europe this week also:

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Tornado2

Several waterspouts seen in Florida Keys

Chris Bianchi
Weather Nation
Tue, 08 May 2018 10:28 UTC
waterspout
A string of waterspouts were spotted offshore from the Florida Keys on Tuesday morning, though none of the spouts caused damage or moved onto land.

At least seven waterspouts were reported from United States Coast Guard and National Weather Service officials at several different points on the Keys. Here's a look at some of those spouts:
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Bizarro Earth

Wild winds, record rainfall and cold temperatures hit Australia

Christiane Barro
The New Daily
Fri, 11 May 2018 16:12 UTC
Flash flooding has wreaked havoc across Hobart
© Twitter/Andrea RathjenFlash flooding has wreaked havoc across Hobart.
Extreme weather events have broken historic rainfall records, caused wild winds and prompted unusually cold conditions across most of Australia on Friday, with more yet to come.

Parts of Gippsland in eastern Victoria are bracing for a month's rain - as much as 100mm - on Saturday as the low pressure system that made Friday a sodden, wind-lashed taste of winter does its worst.

New South Wales and the ACT are also beginning to feel the effects of the complex system, as it brings damaging westerly winds to the NSW ranges and the Illawarra.

Tasmania

The island state's capital was brought to a standstill on Friday as record-breaking rainfall caused schools to shut down, legal proceedings to halt and businesses to be evacuated.

In the 24 hours leading up to 9am on Friday, Hobart experienced its wettest day since 1960 with the CBD and surrounding suburbs receiving more than 120 millimetres of rain.

Sarah Sitton, extreme weather meteorologist from the Bureau of Meteorology, told The New Daily that by Friday morning, Mount Wellington had recorded 236 millimetres.

"That was the second-highest-ever May rainfall in a single day for Tasmania. It was the highest rainfall that's ever been recorded at Mount Wellington," Ms Sitton said.

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Bizarro Earth

Extremely rare cyclone forms off the coast of Chile

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That
Sat, 12 May 2018 02:57 UTC
Rare Cyclone off Chile
© MODIS/NASA
An extremely rare cyclone formed in early May 2018 about 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of Chile-an area that almost never sees tropical cyclones. This image was acquired on May 9, 2018, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite.

Cyclones are not typically found in this region because sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the southeastern Pacific Ocean are usually too cold. The oceanographic process known as upwelling tends to bring cold water up from the deep ocean along the Chilean coast. (Similar conditions prevail offshore from California in the northern hemisphere.)
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes kill another 11 people in Bangladesh


Dhaka Tribune
Fri, 11 May 2018 09:12 UTC
lightning
In Habiganj, a farmer and a school girl were killed when a thunderbolt hit them at separate places in Baniachong upazila

At least 11 people were killed and nine others injured by lightning strikes in eight districts across the country on Thursday.

In Habiganj, a farmer and a school girl were killed when a thunderbolt hit them at separate places in Baniachong upazila.

The deceased were identified as Tarin, 15, a sixth grader of Sujatpur High School, and Mizanur Rahman, a farmer. Both were residents of Sotomukha village in Sujatpur union.

Comment: A day earlier came this report: 29 killed in lightning strikes in 24 hours across Bangladesh - 112 such deaths in May so far

In Cambodia two people were also killed by lightning recently.

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Cloud Lightning

16 dead, 12 injured as thunderstorm wreaks havoc across Uttar Pradesh, India

Srawan Shukla
DNA
Thu, 10 May 2018 18:58 UTC
Thunderstorm in Uttar Pradesh
At least 16 were killed and over 25 injured in yet another thunder and hailstorm that wreaked havoc in over a dozen districts in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday night. Earlier, 73 people were killed when a high-velocity storm hit different parts of the state about a week ago.

Reports reaching the state headquarters claimed that four persons in Etawah and Agra, three in Mathura, two in and Ferozabad, one each Aligarh, Hathras and Kanpur Dehat were killed in separate incidents of house collapse/tree and electric pole felling and lightning.

Reports claimed that Western parts of Uttar Pradesh, particularly the Agra division, was worst-affected again when yet another 68 Km/hour high-velocity winds hit the state, third in less than two months. The met department had warned about the storm in advance.


Comment: For details of the earlier storm, see: Powerful 'freak' dust storms kill over 125 people in north India, highest death toll in decades - UPDATES

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Cloud Precipitation

Severe hailstorm hits Thessaloniki, Greece

Tasos Kokkinidis
Greek Reporter
Thu, 10 May 2018 16:50 UTC
flood
Fire service crews are searching for a person who was swept away by flash flooding in Thessaloniki, northern Greece following a hailstorm on Thursday.

The incident happened at the Sykies neighborhood of the Greek city.

Local sites report that the storm that struck on Thursday lunchtime and created huge problems.

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