Storms
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Cloud Lightning

Freak storm to batter Britain: 100mph winds and downpours to cause chaos

Nathan Rao
The Express, UK
Fri, 13 Dec 2013 07:49 UTC
Another freak storm is set to sweep Britain next week as our topsy-turvy weather continues.

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© GETTYForecaster warns 'we are heading into an unsettled period'
Torrential rain and 100mph gales are expected to topple trees, bring down power lines and damage buildings.

And forecasters warn that this time there will be no let-up until Christmas.

As parts of the country were still struggling yesterday to clear up the damage caused by last week's storm and devastating tidal surge, there were reports of 80mph winds next week with 100mph storm-force gusts likely to lash areas of the North.

After a few days of relatively calm, foggy weather, Leon Brown, forecaster for The Weather Channel, said a shift in the jet stream would turn things more unsettled over the weekend.

He warned Britain could feel the full brunt of the storm by Wednesday with gales continuing until Christmas.

"There is a 30 to 40 per cent risk of severe gales for central and southern Britain on Thursday as a deep area of low pressure tracks east to Scotland," he said.

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© SWNSMist shrouds countryside near Ashford as a few days of calm weather precede next week’s big storm
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Cloud Lightning

Tourists warned to stay indoors as Canary Islands are battered by wind and heavy rain - 'highest ever severe weather alert'

Sarah Gordon
The Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 12:38 UTC
Holidaymakers in the Canary Islands have been warned not to go out after the popular holiday destination was hit by dangerously high winds and rain. The government issued itshighest ever severe weather alert for the Canaries as a storm hit yesterday, leaving the southern part of Tenerife under water.

The gale force winds and driving rain are expected to continue battering the Canaries until Friday and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has warned British tourists to follow local safety advice.

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Dark days: The Canary Islands have been hit by heavy rain and strong winds, prompting warnings for tourists and locals to stay inside
The FCO said: 'A severe weather warning has been issued for the Canary Islands, with gale-force winds and heavy rain expected to affect the area until Friday 13 December. Some airport and port services are disrupted. Local authorities advise that tourists and residents remain indoors.'

Local press has reported that around 30,000 people on Tenerife have been left without electricity, while the emergency services in the capital Santa Cruz received around 140 call-outs in just four hours overnight.
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Snowflake Cold

Rare snowstorm near Syria-Lebanon border brings havoc, disrupts aid


Russia Today
Wed, 11 Dec 2013 22:42 UTC
lebanon snow storm
© AFP Photo / STRA Syrian refugee shovels snow outside her tent in the makeshift refugee camp of Terbol near the Bekaa Valley town of Zahleh in eastern Lebanon on December 11, 2013.
At least two people were killed and 14 injured as the first snowfall of the season hit Syria and Lebanon. High winds and freezing temperatures affected refugee camps and disrupted international aid. More severe weather is expected this winter.

The storm, named 'Alexa,' took the lives of two people and injured 14 others in Lebanon, Ya Libnan reported, citing Red Cross Secretary General George Kettaneh.

The winter storm caused transportation chaos in the region and grounded the UN humanitarian airlift, which was scheduled to bring food and supplies from Iraq to the northeastern Kurdish areas of Syria. Tens of thousands of people are isolated in those areas, waiting for the aid to arrive.

"Qamishli airport (in Syria) has suspended all flights due to weather conditions, snow and poor visibility," UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHR) spokesman Dan McNorton told Reuters. "We're not going to be able to make those flights happen until the weather improves."

The storm is estimated to last until Saturday, with temperatures plummeting below seven degrees Celsius in mountainous regions of Lebanon.

"I don't know if this tent will hold up, it's just a few flimsy pieces of metal holding it up," refugee Abu Suleiman told AP. He resides in the Lebanese town of Marj, located near the border with Syria.

In the northeastern Lebanese town of Arsal, temperatures hovered just above zero degrees Celsius. A member of the town's municipal council, Wafiq Khalaf, said that refugees were "shivering with cold, especially the ones in tents."

"At the moment there is more than 10 centimeters of snow on the ground, but more is expected," he told AFP.
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Ice Cube

Coldest arctic blast of the season will trigger 3 feet of lake effect snow in Upstate New York


Daily Mail UK
Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:41 UTC
Upstate New York is braced to receive an onslaught of lake effect snow by week's end. New Yorkers from Syracuse to Watertown could see as much as three feet thanks to the coldest temperatures to hit the region yet this season blowing across Lake Ontario.

Other lakeside cities like Chicago and Buffalo also expected major snow from the second bitter arctic blast of the year, which is set to chill Americans from Cincinnati to Boston by Thursday. Weather maps of the Great Lakes region show nothing but snow in the forecast through Friday, with the most intense precipitation in Upstate New York.

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Frigid days ahead: The air currently blowing across the Great Lakes is the coldest arctic blast of the season and is due to stretch through the Midwest, the South and then chill most of the Northeast by Thursday
Locally intense snowfall east of Lake Michigan, south of Lake Superior and east of Lake Ontario could reach a whopping four feet, according to Accuweather.com.

Lake effect snow occurs when cold, dry air passes over the relatively warm water of the Great Lakes and picks up moisture. That moisture eventually freezes and falls in the form of snow.
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Snowflake Cold

Lebanon takes action ahead of snowstorm Alexa


The Daily Star
Wed, 11 Dec 2013 17:07 UTC
sidon residents
© The Daily Star/Mohammed Zaatari Sidon residents buy essentials to prepare for Alexa.
Caretaker Education Minister Hassan Diab announced Tuesday the closure of public and private schools as municipalities across Lebanon began taking precautionary measures in anticipation of a brutal snowstorm.

"Because Lebanon is subject to the harsh snowstorm, 'Alexa,' which has already caused a sharp decline in temperatures, and rainwater is expected to increase and block traffic, to avoid the risks caused by the storm and its impact on school students ... public and private schools will be closed and classes will not be held Wednesday," the statement from the Education Ministry said.
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Windsock

Israel braces for five-day winter storm

Gavriel Fiske
The Times of Israel
Tue, 10 Dec 2013 16:54 UTC
Jerusalem rain
© Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
High winds, rain and low temperatures to begin Tuesday evening and last through the weekend; snow likely in Jerusalem Thursday

A major winter storm was expected to hit the region Tuesday evening and to last throughout the weekend, bringing rain, high winds and high-altitude snow. Emergency services across the country were put on high alert ahead of the storm's arrival.

Tuesday started clear or partly cloudy and unseasonably cold, but high winds and rain were set to begin along the coast in the evening, followed by showers, thunderstorms, high winds and snow on Mount Hermon, the Israel Meteorological Service reported Tuesday morning.
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Ice Cube

Icy winter storm shuts down North Texas

Nomaan Merchant
Yahoo News!
Fri, 06 Dec 2013 15:34 UTC

Freezing rain and stinging winds slammed the Southwest Friday and made a strangely blank landscape out of normally sun-drenched North Texas: mostly empty highways covered in a sometimes impassable frost, closed schools and businesses, and millions of residents hunkered down for icy conditions expected to last through the weekend.
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Cloud Precipitation

Cyclone Madi to intensify into severe storm


NDTV
Sat, 07 Dec 2013 17:33 UTC
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© The HinduThis image from the IMD website shows Cyclone Madi, which lay centred about 500 km southeast of Chennai at 8.30 a.m. IST on Saturday
A cyclonic storm named 'Madi' would intensify into a severe cyclonic storm, bringing rain or thundershowers over some parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh during the next 48 hours, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said today.

"The depression over southwest Bay of Bengal intensified into a cyclonic storm 'MADI' early this morning and will intensify into a severe cyclonic storm and move nearly northwards very slowly in the next 48 hours," an IMD bulletin said.

It was "practically stationary" and lay centred about 500 km southeast of Chennai and 370 km northeast of Triconamalee in Sri Lanka, it added.

"Under the influence of this system, rainfall at a few places would occur over coastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands during the next 48 hours," it added.
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Cloud Lightning

Climate change warning: Killer winter storms for next THIRTY years

Matthew Young
Daily Star, UK
Sun, 08 Dec 2013 14:06 UTC
storm surge
© AlamySea storms and colossal waves will batter towns and villages
Killer freezes, floods and heatwaves will devastate Britain during the next 30 years, climate ­experts have warned.

Many people could die as extreme weather becomes common.

There will be more freak winds like the October storm, which killed four people.

Heatwaves will be lethal and the sea level will rise, leaving coastal towns at risk of being swamped by storm surges.

Sir Brian Heap, president of the European Academies Science Advisory Council, said he felt "obliged" to issue the warning after a new study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

It comes on the back of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, which has killed more than 5,000 people.

Comment: They never give up, do they? Like the extreme weather has anything to do with their 'sea-levels-rising-by-2100-due-to-man-made-global-warming' nonsense.

The very IPCC report this 'Sir' cites acknowledges that there has been no 'warming' since 1998!

No, something else is causing all these powerful storms, coastal surges and volcanic eruptions... and no amount of recycling cartons is going to do anything to stop it.

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Ice Cube

U.S. East Coast braces for Monday morning commute from hell: Winter storm threatens to bring freezing rain and has already caused 50 car pile-up in Pennsylvania


Daily Mail UK
Mon, 09 Dec 2013 08:46 UTC
A powerful storm that crept across the country dropped snow, freezing rain and sleet on the Mid-Atlantic region and headed northeast Sunday, turning NFL playing fields in Pennsylvania into winter wonderlands, dumping a foot of snow in Delaware and threatening a messy Monday commute in the northeast corridor.

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Freezing raining days and Mondays: The above map shows how the weather will impact East Coast roads Monday morning
The storm forced the cancellation of thousands of flights across the U.S. and slowed traffic on roads, leading to a number of accidents, including a fatal crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Morgantown that led to a series of fender-benders involving 50 cars that stranded some motorists for up to seven hours. More than two dozen vehicles were involved in another series of crashes on nearby Interstate 78.

What was forecast in the Philadelphia area to be a tame storm system with about an inch of snow gradually changing over to rain mushroomed into a full-blown snowstorm that snarled mid-afternoon traffic along Interstate 95 in Pennsylvania from the Delaware to New Jersey state lines.

Additional images
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