Storms
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Cloud Lightning

New York, US: Violent Weather Damages Homes in Wayne and Cayuga Counties

Susan McNamara and Brian Sharp
Democrat and Chronicle
Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:59 UTC
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© Susan McNamaraOfficials are investigating the possibility of a tornado touching down in Wayne County that caused damage to this house on Route 89.
Witnesses said a tornado blew through Wayne and Cayuga counties Sunday afternoon, cutting a crooked path through cornfields and woods and severely damaging the few homes in its way.

There were no reported serious injuries.

Fire officials said the tornado appeared to have traveled about five miles from South Butler, Wayne County, crossing Route 89 northeast to the town of Conquest in Cayuga County.

The National Weather Service has not officially classified the event as a tornado, but you can't convince Michael Dunn otherwise.

"I saw it. Oh yeah, it was a tornado," said Dunn, a volunteer with the South Butler Fire Department.

Dunn was in his yard working on his lawnmower when it suddenly became "pitch black - like someone turned the lights off. I could see the debris field around it," he said.

Then he turned and - dodging flying tree limbs - ran for the mobile home where he lives with his wife and two children, ages 10 and 8. He said he made them get in the bathtub and he stood in a doorway.
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Bizarro Earth

Irene Strengthens into Hurricane as It Heads for Haiti


BBC News
Mon, 22 Aug 2011 06:02 UTC
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© AP PhotoIrene is now officially a hurricane
Tropical Storm Irene has turned into a hurricane - the first of the Atlantic hurricane season - over Puerto Rico.

Haiti, where hundreds of thousands of people still live in tents after last year's earthquake, is in Irene's projected path, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

It is next set to hit the Dominican Republic, and may also hit Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas in the US.

Irene has maximum sustained winds of 75mph (120kmh), said the NHC.

That puts it just above the official strength of a hurricane. At 09:00 GMT it was centred about 25 miles (40km) west of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and moving west-northwest at around 12mph.
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Cloud Lightning

Storm Cuts Short Pope's Speech in Spain


The Guardian
Sun, 21 Aug 2011 15:42 UTC
Pope storm
© David Ramos/Getty ImagesBiblical: Lightning over the World Youth Day crowd.
Rain and lightning forces pope to skip bulk of speech to 1 million young pilgrims and disrupts Sunday's mass

A thunderstorm forced the pope to cut short his speech to an estimated 1 million young pilgrims gathered at a Madrid airfield to mark World Youth Day.

As rain soaked the crowd and lightning lit up the night sky on Saturday, the 84-year-old pontiff skipped the bulk of the speech and delivered brief greetings in half a dozen languages.

During the day, firefighters had sprayed the crowds with water, and pilgrims sought shade in the near 40C (104F) heat.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Tropical Storm Irene Could Take Aim at Florida


Reuters
Sun, 21 Aug 2011 07:52 UTC
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© NOAAA map from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the probable course of tropical storm Irene.
Tropical Storm Irene whipped the northern Leeward Islands with rain and squalls on Sunday as it barreled west on a track through the Caribbean that looked set to threaten Florida.

Irene, the ninth named storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, was expected to pass Puerto Rico's southern coast early on Monday and then strengthen into a hurricane as it approached the Dominican Republic.

It would be the first hurricane of the so far busy, but to date not destructive, 2011 Atlantic hurricane season.

At 8 a.m. EDT, Irene was packing winds of 50 miles per hour and was located about 35 miles west northwest of the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, moving into the northeastern Caribbean sea, the U.S.-based National Hurricane Center said.

Residents of Antigua reported rains, strong squalls and surf as the storm passed.
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Bizarro Earth

Pennsylvania, US: Rain, Traffic, Land Contribute to Deadly Flood

Kevin Begos
The Associated Press
Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:35 UTC
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© Tribune Review, Chris LangerRomy Connolly is lifted from a rescue boat by Pittsburgh emergency responders after being caught in a flash flood, Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, in Pittsburgh.
The flash flooding that killed four people and forced others to swim to safety or climb onto car roofs was a freak accident caused by heavy rainfall that overwhelmed the sewer system just as rush-hour traffic clogged low-lying city streets, officials said Saturday.

A mother and her two daughters died in Friday's flood after becoming trapped in their vehicle and rising water pinned it to a tree. Another woman's body was washed into the Allegheny River, where she was found Saturday morning.

Back-to-back storms pounded the city with 3 to 4 inches of rain. The water drained rapidly onto Washington Boulevard, a main street near the Allegheny River on the city's east side, with a force too great for a pair of sewer pipes 9 feet in diameter. The torrent blew off 60-pound manhole covers.

"We had geysers here," said Raymond DeMichiei, deputy director of the city Office of Emergency Management.

"There's only so much any drainage system can handle," said Jim Struzzi, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. PennDOT maintains the roadway, but the city is responsible for the pipes underneath, part of aging sewer system.
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Dollar

Best of the Web: US: 2008 Record for billion-dollar weather disasters tied - frequency and cost of extreme weather are rising


MSNBC
Wed, 17 Aug 2011 04:19 UTC
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© Nati Harnik / Associated PressA tractor sits in floodwater from the Missouri River in Plattsmouth, Neb., on Aug. 10.
With four months still to go in 2011, the United States has already tied its yearly record for the number of weather disasters with an economic loss of $1 billion or more, the U.S. government reported Wednesday.

With the bulk of the hurricane season ahead and winter storms after that, National Weather Service Director Jack Hayes said 2011 could surpass the record, first set in 2008.

"I don't think it takes a wizard to predict 2011 is likely to go down as one of the more extreme years for weather in history," he told journalists on a conference call.

The "new reality" is that both the frequency and the cost of extreme weather are rising, making the nation more economically vulnerable and putting more lives and livelihoods at risk, Hayes said.
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Cloud Lightning

St. Louis, Missouri, US Tornado: Man Films Tornado From Inside Airport

Kate Auletta
AOL Travel
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 11:30 UTC
The tornado that ransacked St. Louis on Friday [22 Apr 2011] left Lambert airport struggling to get back on schedule (the airport is meant to be at 100% on Tuesday). A male passenger in the hardly hit C concourse was filming the surrounding lightning storm when the tornado hit.

Though he doesn't reveal where he was headed, the man was calmly filming the lightning (the video does reveal a few amazing views of lightning strikes) when people start screaming and running away from windows.

It's hard to imagine what a tornado that powerful was like to be near. But this man's unbelievable video--he keeps filming the entire time--offers a glimpse into what it must have been like.


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Cloud Lightning

US: Deadly storm hits northern Wisconsin


Fox 11 Online
Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:20 UTC
A man has died after the trailer he was in was flipped by a strong storm that hit Marinette County earlier Friday evening.


Dozens of trees and power lines are down after the storm tore through the area. Officials say they believe it was an apparent tornado.
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Attention

US: 3 dead, 1 missing in Pittsburgh flash flooding


The Associated Press
Sat, 20 Aug 2011 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated Press / Tribune Review, Chris Langer Pittsburgh emergency responders throw a life vest to Robert Bailey, 80, who climbed onto the roof of his car after being caught in a flash flood, Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, in Pittsburgh. Three people died in a flash flood on Friday after heavy rains submerged cars in the area around Washington Boulevard, which runs parallel to the Allegheny River in the city's Highland Park neighborhood, after thunderstorms dropped up to 3 inches of rain in an hour.
A pair of storms that pounded Pittsburgh on Friday cut electricity to hospitals and universities and submerged more than a dozen vehicles in a flash flood that killed a woman and two children and left another person missing and presumed dead.

Officials said drivers were overwhelmed as water rose up to 9 feet in some places along Washington Boulevard, a main road that parallels the Allegheny River in the city's Highland Park section.

Rescue crews used inflatable boats to reach marooned drivers, though some swam to safety on their own. Rhodearland "Bob" Bailey of Penn Hills, who is about 80, was rescued from the roof of his car.

"I can swim a little bit and was looking at a tree branch," Bailey told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "I heard one woman yelling for help, but the water was coming down so fast, I couldn't see. ... I've never seen nothing like this in my life. Lord have mercy."

The area received 2.1 inches of rain in an hour, said Rihaan Gangat, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. But an earlier storm meant the region was drenched by 3 to 4 inches of rain overall on Friday.

The three victims, whose names were not released, were unable to escape their vehicle, which was completely submerged and pinned to a tree, Pittsburgh public safety director Michael Huss said at a news conference.

Rescuers floated over the car without knowing it was below.
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Bizarro Earth

Five Dead as Stage Collapses at Storm-Hit Belgium Festival


Agence France-Presse
Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:18 UTC
Belgian Stage Collapse
© Pino Misuraca, AFP / Getty ImagesA man climbs a ladder beside a tree that fell on a promotions booth during a storm at the Pukkelpop music festival in Kiewit Hasselt on August 18, 2011. A violent storm hit an outdoor rock music festival Thursday in northern Belgium, leaving at least two person dead and 40 others seriously injured, firefighters said. Two stages collapsed, one falling on the concert-goers. Some giant screens also fell down and trees were uprooted by the fierce storm, the Belga news agency reported.
Hasselt - A violent storm that lashed an outdoor rock music festival in northern Belgium killed five people, Hasselt mayor Hilde Claes said Friday.

Ten more were seriously injured with three in critical condition, police said, as two stages collapsed, trees were uprooted and hailstones "the size of golf balls" rained down on petrified youths, witnesses said.

Organizers, who had drawn capacity crowds of 65,000 fans for each of the three days the event was due to run, called a halt to planned performances by global names such as Eminem and the Foo Fighters.

The storm "cost the lives of five people," Claes told a press conference, adding that all five victims were Belgian citizens and that in total 140 people had received medical treatment.

She said initial checks on emergency planning measures, which staff told AFP included "checking trees for their resistance to high winds, and testing the drainage system," left officials confident they had done everything that could be expected of them given such freak conditions.

Youngsters among the thousands of muddy-legged, sorrow-stained figures traipsing away from the campsite after sleepless nights late on Friday morning said no blame could be attached to the authorities.

Tens of thousands of people were attending the outdoor Pukkelpop festival when the storm broke Thursday, toppling one stage on concert-goers at the annual event - already marked by tragedy in recent years.
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