Storms
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Windsock

Cyclone Fani makes landfall in India threatening huge destruction


The Telegraph
Fri, 03 May 2019 05:10 UTC
Cyclone Fani
© Twitter/@WMOCyclone Fani makes landfall in eastern India.
Cyclone Fani, one of the biggest storms to come off the Indian Ocean in recent years, slammed into India on Friday, tearing down trees, blowing away food stands and cutting off power and water.

The monster weather system, which threatened to bring a dangerous storm surge that could flood low-lying areas, was packing winds of up to 180 kilometres (110 miles) an hour as it ripped into the country's east coast.

Forecasters say the areas could see gusts of up to 200 kilometres per hour, equivalent in strength to a Category 3 to 4 hurricane.

In recent days authorities in Odisha, where 10,000 people died in a 1999 cyclone, have evacuated more than a million people as they fret about a possible 1.5-metre (five-foot) storm surge.

Hundreds of thousands more people in West Bengal state have also been given orders to flee. Special teams were moving through holiday villages urging tourists to get to safety.

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Snowflake

Snow blankets Utah following spring storms on the first day of May


Yahoo! News
Thu, 02 May 2019 10:29 UTC
Mount Superior
Mount Superior
Spring snowshowers swept across parts of Utah, on May 1, prompting multiple warnings from the National Weather Service for sub-freezing temperatures and flooding from snow melt later in the week.


Credit: Andy Hyer via Storyful
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Snowflake

National Park covered in snow as spring storm hits Newfoundland


Yahoo! News
Wed, 01 May 2019 10:05 UTC
File photo
File photo of Gros Morne
A spring storm left Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland covered in snow on May 1.

Andre Beyzaei, who captured this footage, told Storyful it's not common to see this amount of snow around western Newfoundland at this time of year. "We usually see something like this in January or February," he said.

Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning on Wednesday for the Rocky Harbour area due to the continued snowfall.


Credit: Andre Beyzaei via Storyful
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Windsock

Five killed as giant dust storm sweeps through southern Iraq

Chiara Giordano
The Independent
Wed, 01 May 2019 13:44 UTC
Large dust storm hits Najas, Iraq
© YouTube/The World (screen capture)Large dust storm hits Najaf, Iraq.
Five people have died after a deadly dust storm hit southern Iraq.

More than 60 people were also injured after the storm swept through several cities on Monday.

A video filmed in Najaf, where local media reported one person had died, shows a huge sand-coloured cloud slowly descending on the city.

Photos and video footage shared on social media show extensive damage to buildings and cars crushed by the storm.

Victims are said to have suffered from injuries including suffocation and wounds caused by falling debris.


Comment: This deadly dust storm is just the latest extreme weather event to hit the region recently. See also: Flash-flooding, dust-storms, hailstorms, and even snow: Entire Mid-East & North Africa regions pummeled all month long with extreme weather

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Tornado1

India evacuates 800,000 people as country braces for Tropical Cyclone Fani


The Guardian
Thu, 02 May 2019 05:40 UTC
Tropical Cyclone Fani gathers force in the Bay of Bengal
© HO/AFP/Getty ImagesTropical Cyclone Fani gathers force in the Bay of Bengal. It is set to hit the east coast of India on Friday.

Emergency crews deployed to Odisha state as storm packing 205km/h winds bears down on the east coast

India has begun the evacuation of 800,000 people and deployed emergency personnel as the country's east coast braces for a severe cyclonic storm.

Tropical Cyclone Fani, located in the Bay of Bengal and packing wind speeds up to 205 km (127 miles) per hour, is expected to make landfall on the coast of Odisha state on Friday.

The state's authorities said they hoped to have evacuated 800,000 people from the state's coastal districts by Thursday morning.

Odisha has also moved in thousands of disaster management personnel to help those living in mud-and-thatch homes in low-lying areas take shelter from Fani.

"We are making best efforts to inform them about the cyclone and move these vulnerable people to cyclone shelters," Bishnupada Sethi, the state's special relief commissioner, said.

The neighbouring coastal states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have also been put on high alert.

India's national disaster management authority (NDMA) said sea conditions were "phenomenal" over the west-central Bay of Bengal area.
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Tornado2

Storms tear through 5 states and spawn at least 2 dozen tornadoes - 2 killed in Oklahoma

Jan Wesner Childs and Pam Wright
The Weather Channel
Wed, 01 May 2019 19:17 UTC
Over two dozen tornadoes were reported yesterday after a severe weather system crashed through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.
Over two dozen tornadoes were reported yesterday after a severe weather system crashed through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.
A rash of severe storms that lashed the Plains on Tuesday and spawned at least two dozen suspected tornadoes in five states has turned deadly.

Kenneth Eppler, spokesman for the Bryan County Emergency Management, confirmed the death of 58-year-old Debby Boyd Tuesday in Bokchito, Oklahoma.

Eppler told weather.com her husband, Allen Boyd, was also injured when the storm tore through the town in Bryan County, about 150 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. He is hospitalized with undisclosed injuries.

In east Tulsa, the body of a 55-year-old man was recovered from a vehicle that was found submerged in about 15 to 20 feet of water in a flooded creek, Andrew Little, public information officer for the Tulsa Fire Department, told KJRH on Wednesday. The identity of the man has not been released pending family notification.

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Attention

UN: Pattern of Mozambique storms 'unprecedented'


Phys.org
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 17:44 UTC
Pounding rain from Cyclone Idai turned the region around the city of Beira in central Mozambique into an inland sea
Pounding rain from Cyclone Idai turned the region around the city of Beira in central Mozambique into an inland sea
The back-to-back cyclones that have ravaged Mozambique are unprecedented in recorded history, the UN said Friday, as it planned to examine the country's defences against extreme weather in the light of climate change.

Cyclone Kenneth, which smashed into northern Mozambique late Thursday, hit "an area where no tropical cyclone has been observed since the satellite era," the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a statement.

Kenneth struck barely a month after Cyclone Idai cut a path of destruction through central Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, leaving more than 1,000 dead.

"There is no record of two storms of such intensity striking Mozambique in the same season," the WMO said, labelling Kenneth an "unprecedented tropical cyclone."


Comment: Cyclone Kenneth: Mozambique hit by its strongest storm ever - Just five weeks after Idai devastated country



Comment: See also:

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Tornado1

Epic tornado in Romania lifts bus into the air

Manuel Crespo Feliciano
AccuWeather.com
Tue, 30 Apr 2019 21:05 UTC
Romania tornado
© AccuWeather.comOnlookers capture breathtaking photos and video of monstrous tornado roaring through field in Romania.
A breathtaking tornado was captured on video and in photos by onlookers in Romania on Tuesday. One video, which was shot by an intrepid man at around 6 p.m. local time and briefly streamed live on Facebook, showed the monster twister churning up dust clouds as it tore through the plains in southeastern Calarasi County, in the Muntenia region -- about 51 miles due east of Bucharest, Romania's capital.

Other videos and photos depicted the towering tornado from various vantage points.

According to local Romanian media Libertatea, the tornado caused seven injuries and damage to some agricultural vehicles and rural facilities. The wounded were passengers aboard a bus that was carrying 39 people and was lifted by the wind and thrown 10 meters into a nearby field, according to the report. Photos taken at the scene showed the green passenger bus lying on its side in the field with its windshield shattered and blown out.

Another report from local media indicated that several houses sustained damage from the tornado.


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Snowflake

Spring season snowstorm dumps heavy snow across Rockies - 29 inches in Montana

Amanda Schmidt
Accuweather
Tue, 30 Apr 2019 18:34 UTC
Springtime snow on the Front Range in Windsor, Colorado, on Tuesday, April 30.
© Becky DePodwinSpringtime snow on the Front Range in Windsor, Colorado, on Tuesday, April 30.
High snowfall totals have been recorded in the Rockies as a late-season storm moves through the region, sparking travel advisories and warnings.

The region is no stranger to late-season snow events.

"It's fairly common to get snow this late in the season for parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.

Denver has had measurable snowfall after April 20 in 2016, 2017, 2018 and now in 2019, too," AccuWeather Meteorologist Steve Travis said.

In Denver, the average day for the last snow is April 27, but there has been measurable snow in the area as late as June 1.

Heavy snowfall totals have accumulated over the previous three days with the highest totals recorded in Montana. As of Tuesday morning, 29 inches of snow were recorded in Highwood, Montana, and 18 inches were recorded in Monarch, Montana, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).


Comment: At the same time: Parts of Minnesota dunked on with up to 15 inches of spring snow

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Tornado1

Huge waterspout swirls through the sea off Thai island


Yahoo! News
Tue, 30 Apr 2019 18:13 UTC
waterspout
This is the dramatic moment a large waterspout was seen swirling along the ocean off the coast of a Thai island.

The tornado caused by an ongoing heatwave was seen by locals and tourists near Koh Si Chang in Chonburi, eastern Thailand this morning (April 30).

The huge waterspout, which was travelling at around 40mph, appeared two kilometres away from the island's most popular shore, Tha Wang beach at 6.30 a.m.

Village chief Arkom Tanyongmas, who captured the natural phenomenon, said that it was the biggest tornado that had ever happened on the island.

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