Storms
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Cloud Lightning

Tornado hits southern Maryland, more possible along with flooding

Justin Berk
Examiner.com
Sun, 26 Aug 2012 03:35 UTC
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© Mark Dignen It looks like a funnel dropping form the base of a super cell. This was near Cordova, between Talbot and Caroline Counties in Maryland. This was part of a cluster of storms that led to flooding.
It has been a turbulent day that started with a band of heavy rain lined up on the west side of the Chesapeake Bay through Annapolis before dawn. There was a short break, but storms began spinning up rapidly around lunchtime. Literally. Please note that a storm does not have to have a warning to be deadly. Lightning kills!

A storm spinning over Virginia has a tropical depression type of feel to it. This is what led to the incredible storms on the Delmarva Saturday. We had evening views from Ocean City, which got their flooding at night. Consider that 4-8 inches of rain fell on the Delmarva Saturday, and that could repeat for us today.

While the original system is well inland, a new wave of Low Pressure has formed near the coast. Combine that with High Pressure in New England, and the funneling of very humid winds off of the Atlantic Ocean is helping to generate widespread storms. Enough circulation in the atmosphere is helping a few of these storms to spin up rapidly.
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Cloud Lightning

Cyclone slams into Italy, brings tornadoes


iafrica.com
Mon, 27 Aug 2012 16:53 UTC
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View of the storm front from Venice, northern Italy
Cyclone Beatrice struck northern Italy on Sunday, causing light flooding, storms and a mini-tornado but also providing much needed cooling after a weeks-long heatwave.

Farmers and vintners hampered by the drought looked forward to Beatrice, which succeeded Lucifer, an anticyclone with winds that spiral out from a high-pressure centre, which had brought hot air from the Sahara Desert.

The cyclone is expected to move slowly toward the south of Italy, lowering temperatures and causing storms next weekend.

Some roads and highways were flooded in the centre-north of the country, causing delays for Italians returning home from summer holidays.

A mini-tornado also ravaged the renowned botanical gardens of Villa Taranto on the shore of Lake Maggiore, uprooting 250 plants and destroying others at the arboretum visited by 150 000 people each year.
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Arrow Down

Update: Heavy Rains double size of sinkhole in downtown Baltimore


baltimore.cbslocal.com
Sun, 26 Aug 2012 16:41 UTC
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© baltimore.cbslocal.com
Parts of Maryland are still getting drenched. Thunderstorms dumped up to five to six inches of rain, making it one of the wettest days of 2012.

Derek Valcourt has more on the serious damage it caused.

The storm caused lots of localized flooding, some road closures, even some power outages, and one sinkhole in Baltimore just got a lot worse.

Cell phone cameras captured this funnel in the water off Cobb Island in Charles County during a tornado warning that set of sirens, but it was severe rains that did the real damage.
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Cloud Lightning

Get out now! 53,000 people ordered to evacuate Louisiana as 'Category 2' Isaac prepares to strike Gulf Coast - Seven Years to the Day Since Katrina devastated New Orleans


Daily Mail
Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:41 UTC
Tens of thousands of Louisiana residents have been ordered to evacuate as Tropical Storm Isaac picks up strength in the Gulf of Mexico - and it may strike seven years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the same area. More than 50,000 residents of the St. Charles Parish in southeast Louisiana have been told to leave ahead of Isaac, which is churning in the Gulf.

Governor Bobby Jindal suggested anyone in low-lying parts of the state's coastal parishes leave their homes, while evacuations were also enforced in the lower areas of the Alabama coast, which is likely to be lashed by rain, wind and flooding. Isaac is expected to crescendo to a Category 2 hurricane before striking land along the Gulf Coast by Tuesday night or Wednesday - the anniversary of Katrina - according to the National Hurricane Center.

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© Twitter/seven_marineOminous: Tropical storm Isaac gathers pace as it barrels towards the Gulf coast, where it is expected to hit by Wednesday - the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
Additional images
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Umbrella

Tropical Storm Isaac Takes Aim at US as Residents Brace for Hurricane

Richard Luscombe
The Guardian
Mon, 27 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
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Millions of residents in four vulnerable Gulf Coast states were bracing for the arrival of a powerful tropical storm that has already claimed several lives on its path through the Caribbean.

The governor of Florida, Rick Scott, declared a state of emergency ahead of tropical storm Isaac's expected landfall Sunday night in the Florida Keys, with the storm then expected to intensify into a 105mph hurricane as it moves north into the Gulf of Mexico and towards the Alabama-Mississippi-Louisiana coastline.

But with tropical storm-force winds extending up to 200 miles from Isaac's centre, the area under threat for moderate to substantial damage covered much of southern and western Florida and along the Gulf Coast to Louisiana.
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Airplane

Grounded: Airlines cancel 654 flights as Tropical Storm Isaac pelts Florida, heads across Gulf


The Washington Post
Sun, 26 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesStorm clouds build offshore in Clearwater, Florida. Tampa area residents wait for tropical storm Isaac.
The airports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale were hit the hardest, cancelling 589 flights - the vast majority of the 742 U.S. flights grounded overall because of the storm as of Sunday afternoon, according to the flight-tracking service FlightAware.

American Airlines and its American Eagle affiliate cancelled 486 flights. The last American flight left Miami at noon Sunday. The airline expects to be fully operational out of Miami by noon Eastern time on Monday, said airline spokesman Matt Miller. American runs a hub in Miami, a jumping-off point for flights to the Caribbean and Latin America.

Overall, airlines have cancelled 184 flights for Monday but expect to be operating normally by late Monday, according to FlightAware.

Isaac, already carrying winds of more than 60 miles an hour, was expected to cross the Keys by late afternoon. The storm will likely pick up strength from the warm, open waters of the Gulf of Mexico and strike as a dangerous Category 2 hurricane somewhere between New Orleans and the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday, the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency ahead of Isaac late Sunday and urged voluntary evacuations for coastal parishes in the state.
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Cloud Lightning

After Isaac slams tent camps, Haitians try to return to normal

Erika Angulo
NBC News
Sun, 26 Aug 2012 21:35 UTC

Haiti - Since Isaac stormed through this island country, streams of dirty water run through many of the tent camps earthquake refugees call home.

Floods represent the main threat, aid workers say. They not only destroy the fragile tents, but also bring with them a range of diseases, from stomach illnesses, to skin infections, to parasites, doctors here fear.

At the Marassa tent city in Port au Prince, residents feared what the storm would do to La Riviere Grise, or the gray river, named for its dirty color. After more than more than 24 hours of rain Saturday, La Rivere Grise became a fierce current that flooded part of the camp. Refugees who had been able to accumulate key survival belongings since the earth shook on Jan. 12, 2010 -- a tarp, a cooking pan, some clothes -- lost all again, in a few minutes.

The situation is similar in post-earthquake camps outside Port au Prince. Some tents survived the storms, others were blown away, shredded or buried under mud.
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Bad Guys

Gulf oil platforms evacuating workers due to Isaac storm threat


NBC News
Sun, 26 Aug 2012 11:50 UTC

Major oil producers said Sunday they would be evacuating workers from Gulf of Mexico platforms in the face of an imminent threat of high surf and winds from Tropical Storm Isaac.

BP Plc said it will shut production at all of its Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms and evacuate all workers on Sunday in light of Isaac's westerly shift and forecasts that it could strengthen into a hurricane. BP has already shut and evacuated four platforms, including Thunder Horse, the world's largest. The company said Sunday it will shut its other three platforms.

Chevron, second to BP in Gulf oil production, said it would be evacuating some workers directly involved in oil and gas production from some of its platforms. "Chevron continues to closely monitor the projected path of Tropical Storm Isaac and has begun to evacuate some essential personnel from some offshore facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. Production has not been affected," the company said.
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Bizarro Earth

Massive Typhoon Bolaven slams Okinawa, Japan and heads for Koreas


CNN
Sun, 26 Aug 2012 10:33 UTC
A massive typhoon began to make landfall Sunday over Okinawa, bringing winds more ferocious than even the typhoon-weary Japanese island has seen in decades. It will likely be the strongest since 1956, said CN N International meteorologist Tom Sater.

With a cloud field of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), Typhoon Bolaven is 20 times larger than Okinawa's length. "It's been very, very severe," said storm chaser James Reynolds, on the northwestern coast of the island. Tree branches were flying through the air amid torrential rain, he said.

The infrastructure on Okinawa is designed to withstand violent storms. "Everything's made of solid concrete," said Reynolds. "Utility poles are so wide you couldn't even put your arms around them," Reynolds said. "All the houses are built with concrete. There's no such thing as a beach house in Okinawa because it would just get destroyed by a typhoon." Still, the power was out where he was Sunday.
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Cloud Lightning

Floods hit Pakistan again


Pak Tribune
Sun, 26 Aug 2012 04:30 UTC
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Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are facing flood threat as the Met Office has forecast heavy rains in the next two days.

There was a low-level flood in River Ravi at Baloki but the water level was gradually increasing.

According to Indus River System Authority (IRSA), in River Indus the water inflow at Tarbela was 256,000 cusecs and outflow was 140,000 cusecs, while in River Jhelum at Mangla the water inflow was 63,000 cusecs and outflow was 13,000 cusecs.

In River Chenab, the inflow was 126,800 cusecs and outflow was 91,800 cusecs at Marala. Water inflow recorded in

River Sutlej near Head Sulemanki was 16,777 cusecs and outflow remained 4,792 cusecs.

According to the Meteorological Department, the three rivers of Punjab, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum, were facing flood threat. The department also forecast that within next 48 hours scattered rain/thundershower was expected over Azad Kashmir, Hazara, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Lahore and Gujranwala divisions. The department predicted hot and humid weather elsewhere in the country.
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