Storms
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning kills 7 family members in Zimbabwe

Tatenda Chitagu
NewsDay
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 19:11 UTC
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National police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba in a statement yesterday identified the deceased as Marian Nebvuma (32), her children Fadzai (11) and Gloria Chenjerai (5); and four other family members, namely Claudia (4) and Crywind Mugwinyi (6), Odrey Masunda (4) and Esther Muchagara (5).

Charamba said Marian was in her bedroom hut while the rest of the family were in the kitchen hut when both huts went ablaze and trapped them inside.

She said the victims' charred remains had since been taken to the Silveira Mission Hospital mortuary while burial arrangements were yet to be announced.

The incident happened at around 5pm during a heavy downpour in Mugwinyi village.
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Snowflake

Record-breaking 113cm of snowfall in Luleå, Sweden


thelocal.se
Tue, 03 Feb 2015 18:42 UTC
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© TTLuleå resident Anitha Andesson enjoying the record snowfall.
The people of Luleå in northern Sweden are used to white winters, but this Tuesday the snowfall hit new heights - or new depths - breaking a record set almost 50 years ago.

As snow continued to fall across Sweden, an impressive snowfall was measured at Luleå airport on Tuesday morning, breaking the town's previous record of 111 cm in 1966.

"This has happened very fast. On January 28th they had 56 cm. In a week they have doubled their snow depth," Alexandra Ohlsson, a meteorologist at SMHI, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
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Attention

Thousands of dead starfish found on Pensarn beach in Wales

Suzanne Jordan
newsnorthwales.co.uk
Tue, 03 Feb 2015 15:28 UTC
Thousands of of dead starfish have washed up on a beach in Abergele after a period of stormy weather.

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Shocked amateur photographer, Gordon McGookin, initially thought that Pensarn beach was covered in rubbish when he went out for a walk on Sunday.

On a closer inspection, he discovered thousands of starfish and razor clams spread out across 500 metres of sand.

Mr McGookin, aged 39 who lives in Pensarn, said: "I try to get out each day usually walking on the beach. It was Sunday when I spied them, just after the tide had gone out.

"There was thousands of them. I have never seen anything like it before. I was a bit concerned but I guess the recent rough sea and high tides over the last week or two was probably the cause."

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Binoculars

Snowstorm brings Eurasian thrush to Apple River, Canada


Cape Breton Post
Tue, 03 Feb 2015 16:31 UTC
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This rare Fieldfare was spotted by Blaine and Kathleen Spicer in Apple River, Cumberland County, on Jan. 31, and again over the next two days.
Kathleen Spicer has seen a lot of different birds in her yard over the years, but very few in North America have been visited by a Fieldfare.

The robin-like European bird was first spotted by Spicer's husband Blaine in an apple tree in their yard during a snowstorm on Jan. 31, and was still being observed there as of Monday.

"Blaine saw it out the window and said, 'I don't know what this is,' so I grabbed my camera and stood on a chair to get a picture of it," aid Mrs. Spicer. "I thought maybe it was a Varied Thrush, because it had a robin shape. But when I looked at the picture, I knew it was something else."

Although she had never seen a Fieldfare before, there was something familiar about the bird. She grabbed a guidebook she had for European birds, and there one was right on the cover.
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Snowflake

Boston sets 7-day snowfall record


WCVB
Mon, 02 Feb 2015 23:33 UTC
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© Getty Images
If it's any consolation, we're part of a history-making period in Boston weather. As of 1 p.m. Monday, Boston set a new record for snowiest seven-day period in the city's history with 34.2 inches. The old record of 31.2 inches was set 19 years ago in January, 1996.

Snowfall totals to the north of the Massachusetts Turnpike may reach 15 to 18 inches, with up to 20 inches in some areas. Schools in Boston were closed for Tuesday.

"The safety of our children and families in Boston is always our top priority. Our crews will be working hard to clear all streets and schools tonight and tomorrow as we recover from this ongoing winter storm," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said.

Tony Troc, of Whitman, Mass., was among those looking on the bright side of shoveling snow, and sees it as a pretty good workout.

"It doesn't bother me at all," said Troc, of Whitman, who works in a supermarket warehouse and spoke Monday after clearing about eight inches of snow from his driveway. "If I didn't like it, I'd be in Florida."

Just a week after a blockbuster blizzard dropped up to three feet of snow in some part of Massachusetts, another winter storm is expected to bring another foot of snow or more.
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Cloud Precipitation

2 dead and 5,000 homes damaged following floods and landslides in Indonesia

Richard Davies
floodlist.com
Mon, 02 Feb 2015 13:28 UTC
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© JP/Jerry AdigunaA girl rides her bike through a flooded street in Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta, on Saturday, following heavy rain in the capital and surrounding areas.
Heavy rainfall across Indonesia has caused flooding and landslides, resulting in the death of at least 2 people and damage to over 5,000 homes.

Bali

Floods and landslides killed two people in Karangasem district, Karangasem, Bali on 31 January 2015. Two others were injured in the landslide which occurred after heavy rainfall in the region.
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning strikes kill 6 in South Africa


The Citizen (South Africa)
Sun, 01 Feb 2015 19:03 UTC
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© Thinkstock
Three people died after being hit by lightning near Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday, paramedics said. Another three were killed in Colenso.

Two women, aged between 70 and 80, and a man, believed to be in his sixties, were confirmed dead at the scene, said Emergency Medical Services spokesman Robert McKenzie.

They were believed to have been in a house at the time.

Three other women sustained serious injuries when they were struck by the lightning.

"Paramedics stabilised them on the scene before transporting them to the local eDumbe Community Health Centre," said McKenzie.
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Cloud Precipitation

Flash flooding hits Greece and Albania forcing evacuations

Demetris Nellas and Llazer Semini
Houston Chronicle
Sun, 01 Feb 2015 17:22 UTC
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© APView of a flooded house in southern Gjirokastra city, 180 kilometers (110 miles) south of captial Tirana, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015. Heavy rain and snow have swollen rivers, flooding thousands of hectares (acres), hundreds of homes and blocking many roads in southern Albania, which borders Greece
Flash floods caused by heavy rains have hit northwestern Greece and southern Albania, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of villagers Sunday and destroying a famous 18th-century stone bridge.

No casualties were reported in either country.

Heavy rains began Saturday in the northwestern Greek province of Epirus, prompting authorities to evacuate four villages and several isolated farmhouses close to the city of Arta.

By Sunday, at least four rivers had overflowed their banks, three of them near Arta and another closer to Greece's border with Albania. The Plaka Bridge near Arta also collapsed.

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© Yorgos Karahalis/APHuge waves hit a promenade at Floisvos suburb, west of Athens, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015.
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Airplane

Heavy snowfall closes down Bratislava international airport in Slovakia


Yahoo! News
Fri, 30 Jan 2015 15:41 UTC
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An official in Slovakia says heavy snow has forced the closure of the international airport in the capital.

Veronika Sevcikova, spokeswoman for Bratislava's M. R. Stefanik Airport, says all outgoing flights have been canceled, while the incoming flights have been diverted to airports in neighboring Austria and Hungary.

Sevcikova says one incoming flights have been diverted to Linz, Austria, and three others to Budapest, Hungary.

She says it is not clear when the airport might be reopened.

The snow has caused traffic disruption and road closures all across the country Friday.


Source: Associated Press
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Windsock

Swaying highway lamps were 'vortex-shedding' in the wind, Lofthouse, England


upi.com
Fri, 30 Jan 2015 16:04 UTC
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UK weather conditions left lampposts swaying violently in gale force winds
Britain's Highways Agency said the violent swaying of lamp posts in a video taken by a motorist driving in high winds was an example of "vortex-shedding."

Bob Hill posted a video on YouTube showing lamp posts swaying violently in the wind while he was driving Wednesday on M62 near Lofthouse, England.

The Highways Agency posted a comment explaining why the posts were swaying while other tall objects in the background, including other lamp posts, didn't move at all.

"This video shows 'vortex-shedding' -- when the natural frequency of a lamp column matches the speed of the wind. It only happens at certain wind speeds and is a fairly rare event," the comment read.

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