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Bizarro Earth

Worst Monsoon Floods in Northeast India in a Decade Force 2 Million to Flee Homes, Kill 81


Associated Press
Mon, 02 Jul 2012 23:25 UTC
Gauhati - The worst monsoon floods in a decade to hit a remote northeastern Indian state have killed more than 80 people and forced around 2 million to leave their homes.

Nearly half a million people are living in relief camps that have been set up across Assam state, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told journalists Monday in Gauhati, Assam's capital. The rest of the 2 million displaced are living with relatives or sheltering under tarpaulin sheets.
Image
© Reuters
A view of the flood-affected area of Sonitpur district in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, July 1, 2012.
Assam officials say 81 people have been killed over the past four days. Most were swept away when the mighty Brahmaputra River overflowed and flooded villages. Sixteen people were buried in landslides triggered by the rains.

At least 11 people were missing in six districts, the state disaster management agency said.

Air force helicopters were dropping food packets and drinking water to marooned people, Singh said after surveying the flood-hit districts.

Army soldiers used boats to rescue villagers from rooftops of flooded homes.

Teams of doctors have opened health clinics in the 770 relief camps that had been set up across Assam, one of India's main tea-growing states. The hilly tea growing areas have not been affected, but lower rice fields have been washed away.
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Bizarro Earth

DC Derecho Disaster Explained

Christina Reed
Discovery News
Mon, 02 Jul 2012 07:50 UTC
Derecho
© Jim Reed, Corbis
A deadly derecho strikes central Kansas in 2005.
As the millions of people still without power today will attest, that was no ordinary wind storm on Friday.

An event that reportedly happens about once every four years, a fast and furious thunderstorm formed west of Chicago at about 11 a.m. and then raced at speeds upwards of 60 mph in a straight line across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. and out over the Atlantic Ocean by midnight, according to news reports.

Meteorologists call this kind of straight-lined fast moving thunderstorm a derecho. And this Friday's derecho already has its own wiki page.

Like other thunderstoms, derechos generate power from convective wind gusts formed between pressure systems. But unlike other storms, derechos maintain a forward motion, basically feeding off the interface between the systems in a race that moves the storm at upwards of 50 mph for distances of hundreds of miles.
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Attention

U.S. electrical grid system suffers 'catastrophic damage' from storms

Ian Simpson
Rueters
Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:23 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Relentless heat was forecast for much of the eastern United States for a fourth straight day on Monday, with about 2.2 million customers without power after violent storms and soaring temperatures killed at least 15 people.

Power companies warned it could take several days to restore electricity completely in some areas as much of the United States sweltered in a record-breaking heat wave.

"Hot and hotter will continue to be the story from the plains to the Atlantic Coast for the next few days," the National Weather Service said.

Emergencies were declared in Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington because of damage from a rare "super derecho" storm packing hurricane-force winds across a 700-mile (1,100 kilometre) stretch from the Midwest to the Atlantic Ocean.

About 2.2 million homes and businesses from Illinois to New Jersey were still without power Monday morning, with the biggest concentration of outages in the Washington area.
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Cloud Lightning

Wettest April to June in UK Since Records Began, More Unsettled Weather to Come

Richard Alleyne
The Telegraph
Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:42 UTC
Image
© PA

England and Wales have already received more than double the long-term average rainfall for the month
Late spring and early summer have been the wettest on record with much of the country receiving more than a foot of rain.

The Environment Agency said that the recent deluges had meant that the last three months have seen more rainfall than at any time since 1910 when the first readings were made.

The highest rainfall was in Wales, parts of which saw 17 inches fall during the time.

The "driest" area was the Anglian region with 11 inches.

The Environment Agencies, which monitors rainfall levels as part of its brief to avoid droughts, made the announcement as the clean-up after being battered by the latest torrential downpours battered homes and the transport network.
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Bizarro Earth

States of Emergency Declared in 4 States and DC as Storm Death Toll Rises

Feww
Feww Wordpress.com
Sun, 01 Jul 2012 02:18 UTC
US Hazard Map
© NOAA's National Weather Service
US Weather Hazards Map, July 1, 2012.
District of Columbia, Maryland, Ohio and the two Virginias declare States of Emergency amid rising storms toll.

Deadly storms across Eastern U.S. have claimed at least 13 lives and left many injured, hundreds homeless and about 5.5 million utility customers, or an estimated 17 million people, without power amid sweltering heat wave.

Widespread damage and power losses have been reported across a vast region ravaged by deadly storms since Friday.

The storms have left a trail of destruction from Indiana to New Jersey, with the worst-hit areas being in Washington Metropolitan area, Maryland, West Virginia, and suburban Virginia.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell called the widespread power losses as "the largest non-hurricane power outage in Virginia history," as more storms threatened. "This is a very dangerous situation," the governor said, "the next few days in Virginia are going to be very, very difficult."
  • About 2.5 million Virginian customers, or an estimated 7.5 million people, in are still without power.
In Ohio, excessive heat, widespread power losses and utility damages prompted Gov. Kasich to declare a state of emergency. As of Saturday morning, about 1 million homes and businesses, or an estimated total of 3 million people, still faced power outages.
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Cloud Lightning

Electrifying! Record 110,000 Lightning Bolts Strike During UK 'Superstorms'

Andrew Hough
The Telegraph, UK
Fri, 29 Jun 2012 18:15 UTC
Lightning
© Marc Burton
The spectacular bolt of lightning hit Tyne Bridge during the "superstorms".
The Met Office said more than 110,000 lightning bolts were recorded across the UK, with more than 200 strikes recorded every minute at the peak of activity.

Experts said this was 40 times higher than an average lightning storm and was the equivalent of four months' worth of strikes in one day.

Government forecasters said most of Thursday's strikes, which came as rare "super cell" thunderstorms battered the Midlands and northern regions, were fork lightning and hit the ground.

In one dramatic video, footage showed a spectacular bolt striking the lighting storm over a field in Suffolk, UK Bridge, linking Newcastle and Gateshead, which captured the intensity of the fierce storms that swept across the North.

While the Met Office does not maintain lightning records, the UK Tornado and Storm Research Organisation (TORRO) suggested Thursday's levels were a record amount to hit Britain in one day.
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Cloud Lightning

Millions evacuated in several parts of China due to heavy torrential rain and landslides

Adonai
The Watchers
Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:30 UTC
Image
Several parts of China have been hit by torrential rains over the last few days, resulting in the evacuation of millions of people and property damage.

In east China's Zhejiang province, heavy rains have forced 17,000 people to relocate and affected the lives of more than 350,000 others since June 22. A 12-year-old girl was killed when her house was buried in a landslide on Saturday, June 23, in Zhejiang's Songyang county.

Rains have battered central China's Hunan province since June 21, killing one person, leaving another missing and affecting the lives of 138,000 others. A landslide was triggered in Hunan's city of Chenzhou, blocking roads and rivers and stranding 130 tourists, the report said.

South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has been reeling under heavy downpours since June 21. In the hard-hit city of Hezhou, over 10,000 people have been evacuated and economic losses of 200 million yuan ($31.4 million) have been incurred, according to officials.

More rain and storms are expected to hit Zhejiang, Fujian and Anhui provinces in south China, as well as Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces in the south-west over the next three days, the weather office said.
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Torrential rain causes havoc across Ireland with parts of Cork worst hit - wettest June on record

Patrick Counihan
IrishCentral.com
Sat, 30 Jun 2012 16:06 UTC
Image
© Renate Murphy (@renatemurphy)
Douglas village in Cork this morning.
Ireland has been hit by torrential rain as the summer disappears again - with parts of Cork and Belfast flooded.

Emergency services are struggling to cope with the flash floods across the country as homes are left without electricity.

The towns of Douglas, Bandon and Clonakilty in Cork are badly flooded with some areas under three feet of water.

Residents were evacuated from the Ballyvolane area of Cork city while there is no access in or out of Clonakilty.

The Irish Independent reports that up to 15,000 homes in Cork are currently without electricity after the overnight storms which saw 70mm of rain fall in a few hours.

Flooding has also been reported in parts of Sligo and Tipperary and motorists have been warned to take extreme care.

Cork County Council has confirmed that it activated a flood response plan after the torrential rain.
Ireland's weather service Met Eireann issued a flood alert to more than a dozen county councils with 70mm of rain forecast to fall in parts of Munster, Connacht, south Leinster and the midlands.
      Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Violent derecho storms ravage Eastern U.S. leaving 5 dead and 2 million without power


The Extinction Protocol
Sat, 30 Jun 2012 15:59 UTC
Violent evening storms following a day of triple-digit temperatures wiped out power to more than 2 million customers across the eastern United States and caused at least five fatalities - including a 90-year-old Virginia woman asleep in bed when a tree slammed into her home, and two young cousins on a camping trip in southern New Jersey. No significant damage was reported in Hampton Roads, according to police dispatchers in the five cities. Widespread power outages were reported from Indiana to New Jersey, with the bulk of the service interruptions concentrated on Washington, D.C., and the surrounding areas.


Image
© Unknown
derecho storm over Virginia June 29, 2012. A derecho (Spanish for straight) is a widespread and long-lived, violent convectively induced straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms in the form of a squall line usually taking the form of a bow echo.
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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."

Image
© North News and Pictures Ltd
Floodwaters 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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