Storms
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Cloud Lightning

Tornadoes cause heavy property damage near Montreal


The Star, Canada
Sun, 27 May 2012 15:38 UTC
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© Ryan Remiorz/THE CANADIAN PRESSCampbell Miller looks over the wreckage of the Grand Fresniere Presbyterian church caused by a force one tornado in Saint Benoit, Quebec, on Saturday.
Two tornadoes ripped through communities near Montreal Friday night, smashing-in roofs, shattering windows and uprooting trees that lay in their paths.

No one appears to have been injured after the twisters struck within minutes of each other in largely rural communities which lay about 35 kilometres apart.

"Someone at the wrong place at the wrong time could have been seriously injured, but fortunately that wasn't the case," said Environment Canada meteorologist Rene Heroux, who spent Saturday touring the areas where the tornadoes touched down.
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Cloud Lightning

Tornadoes strafe Kansas, damaging homes; 1 hurt


CBS News
Sun, 27 May 2012 15:33 UTC
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© Tom Dorsey / Salina JournalKelly Escue, of Wichita, carries items salvaged Saturday afternoo from the rubble that was the home of her grandmother, Pat Strecker. Strecker's home half a mile south of Russell was destroyed Friday night by a tornado.
Tornadoes raked Kansas overnight, injuring one person and damaging some homes and businesses.

The Kansas Department of Emergency Management said one person was injured in Russell when a modular home was destroyed. That person was taken to Russell Hospital. Several other homes in the area were also damaged.

CBS Affiliate KWCH reports five tornadoes touched down in Rush County. The most significant damage happened in La Crosse, a town of about 1,400, where a tornado struck a four-block area. No injuries were reported.

The Kansas Department of Emergency Management says one building, a car wash, a farm shed and three camping trailers were destroyed.

Authorities closed U.S. 183 north of the town and Kansas 4 west of the town because of downed power lines.

Tree limbs, power lines and poles are also down as a result of the storm. Downed power lines forced the closure of U.S. 183 north of town and K-4 west of town.
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Cloud Lightning

Hurricane Bud heading for area near Puerto Vallarta


MSNBC
Fri, 25 May 2012 09:37 UTC
Hurricane Bud lost some strength as it moved closer to Mexico's Pacific Coast and was forecast to hit land south of the popular tourist town of Puerto Vallarta Friday night, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

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Cloud Lightning

Tornado Confirmed on Ground near Wausau, Wisconsin


nbc15.com
Fri, 25 May 2012 06:49 UTC
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Weather officials have confirmed a tornado touched down about two miles south of Marathon City in Marathon County, and was on the ground intermittently for about five minutes.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or major structural damage.

Jeff Last is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. He says that at about 7 p.m. Thursday, a Wisconsin State Patrol officer saw the tornado touch down. It was on the ground off and on for several miles as it moved northeast.

Last says the tornado lifted off the ground about two miles northwest of Rib Mountain State Park.

He says the storm was fast-moving.

Local authorities are surveying the area. So far, they have seen several downed trees.

Streamline winds also downed trees as storms moved across the state.

Source: The Associated Press
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Cloud Lightning

Tornado damages 15 homes in North Port, Florida


Herald Tribune
Fri, 25 May 2012 06:37 UTC
A possible tornado damaged 15 homes in North Port on Thursday evening, leaving one family homeless,

According to a news release from the City of North Port:

At about 6:30 pm Firefighters received a call of structural damage to a home from a tornado. When firefighters arrived on scene they discovered roof damage to a mobile home in the Holiday Park community. A flurry of calls came in from the Highland Ridge community nearby, and that is where several more homes received damage.

Three fire engines, three ambulances and three command cars responded to assess the damage to the neighborhood. While firefighters conducted a ground survey, the Sarasota Sheriff's helicopter surveyed from the air.

"The damage was relatively minor and there were no injuries to citizens or first responders," said Battalion Chief James Woods, "that's the outcome we want".
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Camera

Tornado steals scene in Kansas couple's wedding photos

Heather Hollingsworth
Seattle Times
Fri, 25 May 2012 06:31 UTC
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© Cate EighmeyCaleb and Candra Pence pose for a wedding photo as a tornado swirls in the background after they were married in Harper County, Kansas
For people living outside Tornado Alley, Caleb and Candra Pence's wedding last Saturday is generating the kind of buzz usually reserved for celebrity nuptials.

Kansas City, Missouri - In the plains of central Kansas, tornadoes are so unremarkable that guests barely flinched as a barrel-racing bride wed her bull-riding groom with a twister dropping from the sky just miles away.

But for people living outside Tornado Alley, Caleb and Candra Pence's wedding last Saturday is generating the kind of buzz usually reserved for celebrity nuptials. The video of the service has gone viral, garnering more than 20,000 views on YouTube and a flurry of media coverage.

"It is amazing how fast it has taken off," said the groom's uncle, Lee Pence, who shot the video.

After Saturday's outdoor service on the groom's family farm near the small south-central Kansas town of Harper, the couple posed for photos with the twister visible behind them. The pictures capture them smiling serenely - the 21-year-old bride in a white gown and the 22-year-old groom in a cowboy hat and jeans.

Comment:
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.
~ Matthew 24;37

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Cloud Lightning

Freak storm brings never seen before hail to Philippines, homes destroyed


Sun Star
Sat, 19 May 2012 17:13 UTC
hail
Balls of ice the size of marbles or a child’s fist hit two barangays.
Local officials of Pinamungajan declared a state of calamity on Friday in one of two barangays that got hit by a strong wind and hail. The town is expected to follow suit.

Lamac barangay captain Mariflor Cantero, whose house the wind also leveled, said the officials made the declaration to hasten the release of aid.

Power and water supply in the affected barangays were disrupted, and the residents were still shocked by the sudden weather disturbance.

"They've never seen anything like this," said Representative Pablo John Garcia (Cebu Province, 3rd district) who visited the area on Friday. There was no way the residents could have prepared for what happened.
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Cloud Lightning

Freak storm lashes Cannes film festival, soaking stars

Agence France-Presse
Mother Nature Network
Mon, 21 May 2012 16:51 UTC
Cannes rain
© Valery Hache/AFP
Lashing wind and rain damaged the roof of a Cannes screening room, organizers said on May 21, after soaked stars were left shivering on the red-carpet by a freak storm at the Riviera film festival.

Unseasonably heavy rains beat down on the French city on the night of May 20, forcing the cancellation of a 65th-anniversary fireworks display and leaving festival goers huddling under their umbrellas in puddles of water.
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Bizarro Earth

Hurricane Season Comes Early This Year

Tim Wall
Discovery News
Tue, 22 May 2012 12:39 UTC
Alberto
© Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASAImage of Tropical Storm Alberto from NASA's Terra satellite.
Spring came early this year, and so did hurricane season.

Alberto, the first tropical storm of the year, formed on May 19, nearly two weeks before the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season on June 1, reported NASA's Earth Observatory. The storm troubled the waters off the coast of North Carolina with winds that reached up 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour. An eye never formed and the storm didn't develop into a full blown hurricane.

By the next day, Alberto had petered out. No damage was reported on the mainland.

The annual hurricane heads-up from Colorado State University forecasted a slow hurricane season in 2012 with 10 named storms, four hurricanes and two major hurricanes. Alberto started the party early, so meteorologists have already notched one named storm off the list this year.
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Cloud Lightning

Violent rainstorm wreaks havoc in North-Eastern France


BBC
Tue, 22 May 2012 06:58 UTC
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Cellars were flooded in some parts
A violent rainstorm has caused flooding and power cuts in north-eastern France, with one person found dead in their home, French media report.

The equivalent of up to six weeks' rain fell in three hours on Nancy and the surrounding area on Monday night.

Emergency services have been called out 648 times, with floodwater reaching two metres (6.6ft) in some areas. Some 4,100 homes were left without power, several roads were shut and three schools were closed.

A firefighter was seriously injured when his vehicle collided with a coach. Two coach passengers were lightly hurt in the incident in Nancy, French radio reported.
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