Storms
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Cloud Lightning

Superstorm smashes UK as flash-flooding and 5-inch long hailstones cause widespread damage

Rob Cooper and Jaya Narain
Daily Mail
Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:15 UTC
A huge clean-up operation was being carried out in parts of Britain today after yesterday's downpours brought flooding chaos to parts of the country. Hailstones as big as golf balls pummelled parts of Leicestershire after black thunderclouds descended. Residents reported cars being dented and damaged by the ice, some even smashing windows.

Torrential storms also left hundreds of homes flooded and motorists having to be rescued from their vehicles. At the storm's peak, 153 lightning strikes were being recorded every minute. The Environment Agency has 10 flood warnings in place in the Midlands, North East and North West, but the worst of the weather looks to be over.

Forecaster Nick Prebble, said: "Today there will be a mixture of sunshine and showers across the UK with temperatures cooling off. "Most parts of Britain could experience the odd passing shower during the day, but the focus of the heavy downpours will be across Scotland. "Northern parts could also have a few thunder storms but the weather doesn't appear to be as severe as yesterday."

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© North News and Pictures LtdFloodwaters rise around stranded cars as the rain teems down in Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne where roads were transformed into lakes in a matter of seconds
Additional pictures
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Bizarro Earth

100 killed in landslides and flooding, 250,000 dislocated, as heavy torrential rains pound Bangladesh


The Extinction Protocol
Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:37 UTC
Landslides and flooding caused by heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 100 people in southern Bangladesh and many more are missing, the government said Wednesday. Officials said the landslides occurred mainly in remote villages with poor roads, making rescue work more difficult.

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© Unknown
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Cloud Lightning

Powerful tornado sucks caravan into the air with terrified security guard inside as it wreaks havoc in sleepy village

Matt Blake
Daily Mail
Thu, 28 Jun 2012 09:02 UTC
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© Nikki Griffin/SWNWDumped: Mr Sinclair said he felt like 'a tennis ball in a tumble dryer' as he smashed against the walls, into cupboards and appliances
A granddad today relived the moment a tornado sucked his caravan into the air and dumped it in a field... while he was trying to relax inside.

David Sinclair, 49, said he felt like a 'tennis ball in a tumble drier' as the twister bounced his mobile home through the buffalo paddock, in Long Sutton, Lincs, before squashing him under his own fridge.

He managed to drag himself free and stagger to a nearby farmhouse for help and was rushed to hospital with suspected internal bleeding.
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Cloud Lightning

Saskatoon hit with high winds, power outages


CBC News
Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:59 UTC
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© Dan Zakreksi/CBCTree limbs were snapped off on 3rd Avenue in Saskatoon on Wednesday.
Electricity was out again in parts of Saskatoon, thanks to high winds bashing tree limbs into power lines.

Reports said some areas downtown, as well as homes in the Sutherland area, were in the dark Wednesday morning.

Broken branches littered some streets and city crews were called out to clean up the damage.

The day before, thousands of residents on the west side lost power for several hours after lightning struck a transmission structure outside the city. For them, the lights came back on before midnight.
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Arrow Down

More Florida sinkholes open up, including 100 foot wide gash in Marion Country

Amanda Evans, Dave D'Marko & Margaret Kavanagh
cfnews13.com
Tue, 26 Jun 2012 05:11 UTC
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A sinkhole looks to swallow an entire truck near Ocala Monday morning.
Severe weather from Tropical Storm Debby overnight has left a mess Monday morning in Marion County, where emergency managers said a tornado may have touched down.

Marion County emergency managers reported a possible tornado touchdown around 11 p.m. in Ocala, near Highway 326 and Northwest 80th Avenue, about six miles southwest of Lowell.

Officials said six to seven buildings were damaged, including a barn with a damage roof. The damage reportedly spanned a mile to a mile and a half north to south.

The storm knocked down trees, left debris along the roadways and caused some flooding around storm drains in the area.

"I was in bed and it woke me up," said Joanne Stover, who lives near the reported touchdown. "It sounded like a train, and the house started moving. Then it was just over."

Limbs from some trees have been caught up in some power lines, knocking out power for more than 2,000 customers.
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Cloud Lightning

Landslides, Floods Kill 76 in Southern Bangladesh

Farid Hossain
ABC News
Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:00 UTC
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© ReutersThe rescue operation has been hampered by the heaviness of the rainfall
Dhaka, Bangladesh - Landslides and floods caused by heavy monsoon rains killed at least 76 people in southern Bangladesh and rescuers Wednesday were searching for more missing, officials said.

Three days of rain had hit the region of small hills and forests, and huge chunks of earth and mud buried flimsy huts where families were sleeping late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Many homeless people live at the foot of the hills or close to them despite warnings from authorities.

Monsoon floods are common in Bangladesh, a delta nation of 160 million people. Many of the dead were women and children, and the death toll is likely to rise as rescuers are searching for several missing people, officials said.

Volunteers using loudspeakers had warned people about the danger of landslides during the recent monsoon rains, said Jaynul Bari, a government administrator in one of the stricken areas, Cox's Bazar district. The floods inundated dozens of villages and were disrupting communications in the region.
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Bizarro Earth

Floods cut part of main interstate highway as Debby storms over Florida - total of 2 feet of rain possible by weekend


CBS News
Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:36 UTC
Parts of the main interstate highway across northern Florida were closed by flooding Tuesday as Tropical Storm Debby hung stubbornly offshore over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening up to two feet of rain in places.

After raking Florida's Gulf coast with high winds and heavy rain, Debby promised to bring more of the same in the coming days as it drifted on a path forecast to take it over the state and east into the Atlantic by Friday.

The National Hurricane Center said Debby was about 85 miles west of Cedar Key, Florida, and moving eastward near 3 mph. It had maximum sustained winds near 45 mph, barely tropical-storm status.

But the wind, high surf and relentless rain have made the storm's presence felt.

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Bizarro Earth

Update: Uganda tragedy: 450 people missing and believed to be buried under mountains of mud


BBC News
Tue, 26 Jun 2012 08:51 UTC
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© Peter Busomoke/AFP/Getty ImagesUgandan soldiers and relatives search for victims of a landslide in Bududa in 2010.
Rescue workers in Uganda have abandoned efforts to find an estimated 70 people believed to be buried in a landslide. Eighteen people have been confirmed dead after three villages were swept away on the slopes of Mount Elgon. Uganda's Red Cross told the BBC efforts were now concentrating on looking after the injured and displaced.

In March 2010, thousands were forced to flee after after a landslide killed more than 350 people in Uganda's eastern Bududa district.

'Many cracks'

Ken Kiggundu, director of disaster management for Uganda's Red Cross, told the BBC that 72 people were still missing. He added that 480 had been displaced and were now living with relatives and friends following Monday's landslide, which occurred after a number of days of heavy rain. "At 2pm, the ground trembled, followed by heavy rumbling of soil and stones which covered our home," Rachael Namwono, a villager in Bududa district, told Uganda's private Monitor newspaper.
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Cloud Lightning

80 Percent Of Lightning Strike Victims Are Male, But Why?

Eyder Peralta
NPR
Tue, 26 Jun 2012 07:53 UTC
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© Dr. Scott M. Lieberman/APLightning streaks across the sky in Tyler, Texas, as a powerful line of thunderstorms moved across the state in April.
This tweet from the National Weather Service caught our attention, today:
"More than 80% of lightning victims are male. Be a force of nature by knowing your risk, taking action and being an example"
Eighty percent seemed to us pretty significant, so we turned to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and asked, "Why?"

Susan Buchanan, a NOAA spokeswoman, said the agency had not conducted any formal studies, but NOAA and its partners had batted around a few theories.

- First, men take more risks than women. "If you look at the percentage of men who take part in high risk sports, that might give you an idea," said Buchanan.

- Men typically spend more time outside.

- Men, said Buchanan, don't want to be seen as "wimps." This theory, she said, was backed up by talking to the Boy Scouts, who said no one wants to be the one to say it's time to go inside.
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Bizarro Earth

Tropical Storm Debby Breaks Record with Early Debut

Andrea Mustain
OurAmazingPlanet
Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:01 UTC
Tropical Storm Debby
© NOAAA ghostly Tropical Storm Debby is drenching Florida and surrounding regions.
An unusually early spate of tropical storms has been keeping forecasters busy this year, and now Tropical Storm Debby, the fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, has set a record - this season marks the first time in more than 150 years that so many storms have showed up so early.

"This is first time we've had four tropical storms develop in the Atlantic basin before July 1," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.

U.S. records for tropical storms and hurricanes stretch back to 1851, Feltgen told OurAmazingPlanet. And although Tropical Storm Debby has broken the century-and-a-half-long record, there is certainly a chance that four storms may have formed this early in the past, yet escaped notice simply because forecasters didn't have the tools to see them.

"We figure that back in the day there could have been several storms per season that could have been missed," Feltgen said. "We didn't have satellites." Forecasters relied largely on ship reports and on firsthand observations when a storm hit land.
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