Storms
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Bizarro Earth

Hurricane season roars on: Jose moves northward off US Coast while Tropical Storm Maria tracks Irma's path threatening Caribbean and Florida

hurricane jose maria lee
As Hurricane Jose ambles northward in the Atlantic far off the East Coast, an innocuous-sounding system has turned into Tropical Storm Maria in the Caribbean and could well follow Irma's destructive path toward Florida as a full-blown hurricane.

At 5 p.m. Saturday, the National Hurricane Center upgraded the one-time disturbance to Tropical Depression Maria and said it was 620 miles east-southeast of the Lesser Antilles, moving west at 20 mph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.

A hurricane watch was issued for Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat, a route followed by Irma as it moved westward.

Cloud Precipitation

Thunderstorms and golf ball-sized hail strike Split, Croatia

hailstones
© Break Time Nautical
Did you SEE that?

Chances are if you were in Split this morning just before 11:00, you witnessed one hell of a thunderstorm.

Rain fell from the sky at rapid rates, and increasingly high winds blew the colossal droplets from left to right, and every which way possible.

Lightning sparked the sky, thunder rumbled the floor beneath us, and the hail that followed - the monstrous, golf ball-sized hail - began to slap our roofs, dent our cars, and nearly crack our windows.


Cloud Precipitation

Typhoon Talim causes flooding and landslides in Japan; Oita sees 7 inches of rain in 5 hours

Residents are evacuated from their home in Oita, Japan after heavy rainfall
Residents are evacuated from their home in Oita, Japan after heavy rainfall
Typhoon Talim made landfall over the western coast of Kagoshima prefecture, Kyushu island, Japan, on 17 September with winds of up to 162km per hour. It then continued moving over eastern Kyushu, eastern Shikoku, western and northern Honshu, weakening. Talim reached the northern island of Hokkaido by early (local time) Monday 18 September.

High levels of rainfall have been reported across several areas. According to Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) figures, 179 mm of rain fell in 5 hours in Oita, Oita prefecture, on Sunday, 17 September. As Talim moves north, JMA warnings are in place for potential landslides and flooding in parts of Hokkaido and Tohoku.

Damage

FDMA says that 1 house was completely destroyed in Kagawa. Around 250 houses have suffered some damage. As many as 113 homes have been flooded in Okayama, 25 in Kagawa and 37 in Ehime.

Strong winds and heavy rain conspired to cause major disruption to public transport. Train services, including the Bullet trains, and dozens of flights have been cancelled.


Attention

Maria upgraded to Category 1 hurricane as it tracks toward Barbados & St Lucia

St. Martin hurricane Irma damage Maria
© Christophe Ena / ReutersWeather experts say the island of St Martin, which suffered extensive damage when Hurricane Irma hit, is potentially in Mariaโ€™s path.
The Caribbean is braced for more catastrophic weather after tropical storm Maria strengthened to a hurricane as it tracks towards Barbados and St Lucia.

Maria was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane by the National Hurricane Center at 9 pm UTC.

The governments of Barbados and St Lucia earlier warned citizens that tropical storm Maria could hit in the form of a hurricane within 36 hours.

Windsock

Eight dead, dozens injured as fierce storm hits western Romania

Romania storm damage
Emergency workers stand around a car that was destroyed by a traffic sign blown over by heavy winds, in Timisoara, Romania, during a violent storm on Sept. 17, 2017. The impact killed the driver.

A strong storm killed eight people and injured at least 67 in western Romania as winds of up to 100km/h also brought destruction to parts of Serbia and Croatia
, officials said.

Road and rail traffic in parts of Romania was halted by fallen trees.

Several hospitals, schools and apartment buildings had roofs damaged and dozens of towns and villages were left without electricity.

Some of the casualties were people strolling outside or coming out of supermarkets, the emergency services said.

A group of tourists was stranded for an hour in a chairlift in the northern county of Maramures.

In Serbia, a man went missing on his boat on the Danube river near Belgrade and six people, including a five-year-old child, were injured by falling trees.

Arcing from power lines, caused by the high winds, triggered several wildfires.


Cloud Lightning

Three storms currently raging in the Atlantic; one aiming for Irma's path

Tropical Storm Maria forms in the Atlantic.
Tropical Storm Maria forms in the Atlantic.
Three storms are spinning in the Atlantic, with one already a hurricane and another one strengthening and forecast to threaten areas battered by Hurricane Irma last week.

Tropical Storm Maria formed Saturday in the western Atlantic Ocean and is expected to be a hurricane by late Monday and a major hurricane by Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center says.

By Sunday morning, Maria was about 460 miles southeast of the Lesser Antilles. The storm is moving toward the Caribbean at 15 mph, according to the center.

"Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 65 mph (100 km/h) with higher gusts. Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Maria will likely become a hurricane later today," it said.

Tornado1

Tornado hits town in midwest Netherlands: Dozens of homes damaged

windhoos westland
© NOSGreenhouses in the area were damaged by the landspout.
Dozens of homes in the Zuid-Holland town of 's-Gravenzande were damaged by a tornado on Thursday. Roof tiles were blown off, windows shattered and trees were blown over. The tornado lasted around 25 seconds, according to the Telegraaf.

The tornado happened in the vicinity of Marsmanstraat, also hitting a number of greenhouse companies. No one was injured. According to the fire department, none of the homes were so badly damaged that the residents had to be evacuated. The fire department couldn't say exactly how many homes were damaged, but estimated between 20 and 40. The affected residents were visited by the mayor of Westland, the municipality that covers 's-Gravenzande.

Comment: Dutch news sources report that the type of tornado that hit 's-Gravenzande was a 'landspout'. In case anyone hasn't noticed yet, the weather is increasingly chaotic on our planet. Where is it all leading? We suppose we'll find out soon enough. Keep an eye on Sott.net's Earth Changes category to stay up to date.


Cloud Lightning

Is smog breeding storms? Researchers in China explore rise in lightning deaths

lightning
China is investigating whether air pollution has played a part in the rapid increase in the number of people struck by lightning in some of its largest cities in recent decades, according to a scientist involved in the project.

The investigation follows a discovery by US scientists that fossil fuel exhaust fumes could double the lightning risk at sea, which raised concerns about the risk to vessels in some of the world's busiest waters, including the South China Sea and the Malacca Strait.

Lightning now kills or injures nearly 4,000 people in China annually, according to government statistics, but less than 20 years ago the reported casualties were only a tenth of the present level.

The cost of the damage it causes to businesses in sectors such as telecommunications, power and transport is estimated to be somewhere between 5 billion and 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion).

Cloud Precipitation

Powerful one minute microburst swamps, sinks powerboats, jet skis at Lake Powell, Arizona

The National Weather Service says the 56 mph microburst swept through the region in about a minute accompanied by rain showers.
© Jimmy RexThe National Weather Service says the 56 mph microburst swept through the region in about a minute accompanied by rain showers.
A sudden, powerful downward gust of wind swamped or sank dozens of powerboats and jet skis Thursday at Lake Powell along the Arizona-Utah border.

Authorities say at least three people were injured with a 60-year-old woman suffering a severe arm injury that required amputation.

They say a 57-year-old woman suffered head and hip injuries while another person had a dislocated shoulder.

The National Weather Service says the 56 mph microburst swept through the region in about a minute accompanied by rain showers.


Windsock

Typhoon Doksuri kills 4 in Vietnam; more than 100,000 homes damaged

Typhoon Doksuri hits Vietnam
© AFP/Getty ImagesHeavy rain and wind lashed Vietnam's central coast Friday as Typhoon Doksuri made landfall, prompting mass evacuations
At least four people have been killed and 10 more were injured by the effects of Typhoon Doksuri as it made landfall in Vietnam on Friday, officials said.

A disaster official told the Associated Press that a man was killed in Quang Binh province when he tried to reinforce his home and fell to his death. The man's identity has not been released. An elderly man was also killed in the province when he fell to the ground and died of his injuries in his yard, disaster official Nguyen Duc Toan told the AP.

Officials also confirmed to the AP the death of an 83-year-old woman in Nghe An province, and in Thua Thien Hue province, a man was swept away by floodwaters and died.

The provinces of Ha Tinh and Quang Binh were hardest-hit, with upwards of 100,000 homes sustaining damage in the hours before and after landfall, the AP also reported. Power was cut to entire provinces before the storm arrived, leaving hundreds of thousands in the dark.

"It looks terrible, worse than war time," Tran Thi Hong, principal of the Ky Xuan school in Ha Tinh province, which lost its entire roof, told Reuters. "I could just cry, it took us so long to build this school."