A WATERSPOUT was seen Wednesday afternoon, May 19, 2021, over Bacolod Real Estate Development (Bredco) Port in Bacolod City.
Executive Assistant Joemarie Vargas, cluster head of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO), said the waterspout was seen in the coastal area of Bredco Port around 1 p.m. but did not make landfall.
He said it lasted for several minutes and there were no reports of damage.
"It's a natural phenomenon (waterspout) that usually occurs when the summer season is about to end and signaling the start of the rainy season," he added.
Cyclone Tauktae intensified into a "very severe cyclonic storm" causing rough seas along the western coast of India, the nation's Meteorological Department (IMD) reported on Monday. The cyclone has so far killed at least 16 people and left a trail of destruction as it brushed past the coastal states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, authorities said.
The financial hub of Mumbai was lashed with heavy rain and strong winds, forcing authorities to suspend operations at the city's airport and to close some main roads due to flooding. Mumbai's urban rail system, one of the world's busiest, was also affected as tracks flooded. Witnesses saw trees uprooted and stranded cars and buses in the city.
Cyclone Tauktae brought gusts of up to 210 kmph that would put it on par with a Category 3 hurricane, rating it one level below the IMD's super cyclone category. The storm also forced Mumbai and Gujarat to temporarily suspend their COVID-19 vaccination drives.
Two tornadoes have ripped through central and eastern China, killing one person, injuring more than 60 people and causing significant damage in each locality, according to the state news agency Xinhua.
One person died and 21 were injured, two seriously, after a storm system struck the Shengze area of Suzhou city in eastern China's Jiangsu province.
Comment: Update: AP reports (via ABC News) on May 15:
Back-to-back tornadoes kill 12 in China; over 300 injured
Back-to-back tornadoes killed 12 people in central and eastern China and left more than 300 others injured, authorities said Saturday.
Eight people died in the inland city of Wuhan on Friday night and four others in the town of Shengze, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east in Jiangsu province, local governments said.
The first tornado struck Shengze about 7 p.m., damaging homes and factories and knocking out power, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The Suzhou city government, which oversees the town, said in a social media post that four people had died and 149 others had minor injuries. Shengze is near Shanghai on China's east coast.
Another tornado hit Wuhan at about 8:40 p.m. with winds of 86 kilometers (53 miles) per hour, destroying more than two dozen homes and triggering a power outage affecting 26,600 households, Xinhua said. Officials in Wuhan said at a news conference Saturday that eight had died and 230 were injured.
They said that 28 homes collapsed in Wuhan, another 130 were damaged and put economic losses at 37 million yuan ($5.7 million), the Hubei Daily newspaper said. Construction site sheds and two cranes were also damaged, while downed power lines knocked out electricity, Xinhua said.
Photos showed a swarm of rescuers searching through building debris in Wuhan after midnight Friday and workers clearing metallic debris at a factory in Shengze in the morning.
Wuhan is the city where COVID-19 was first detected in late 2019.
Tornados are rare in China. In July 2019, a tornado killed six people in the northeastern Liaoning province, and another tornado the following month killed eight on the southern resort island of Hainan.
In 2016, a tornado and accompanying hailstorm killed 98 people in the eastern Jiangsu province.
Richard Davies Floodlist Fri, 14 May 2021 14:55 UTC
Army rescues group trapped by flood waters in Ruwanwella
Sri Lanka has seen heavy rainfall from around 10 May 2021. As of 13 May, Disaster Management Centre (DMC) reported floods and rainfall damages in the districts of Rathnapura, Colombo and Puttalam, affecting around 1,000 people and displacing 175. Lightning and strong winds also caused damage during the period 11 to 13 May 2021.
DMC said that flooding damaged 3 houses and affected around 10 people in Rathnapura from 11 to 12 May. In Colombo, 175 people were displaced by flooding on 13 May. In Puttalam District, flooding affected 485 people in Chillaw division and 266 in Arachchikattuwa on 12 May.
Acording to Sri Lanka's Department of Meteorology as much as 229 mm of rain fell in 24 hours to 12 May in Beralapanathara. In an 8 hour period on 13 May 2021, several areas recorded more than 140 mm of rain. Hiniduma in Galle recorded 190 mm of rain and Horana in Kaluthara 160 mm during this period.
The heavy rain is a result of a low pressure area developed in the southeastern Arabian Sea. The Department of Meteorology warned on 13 May that "prevailing showery condition in the Southwestern parts of the country (particularly in Southern, Western, Sabaragamuwa, North Central and Central provinces) is expected to continue further. Very heavy falls above 200 mm will occur at some places tonight."
Sri Lanka - Floods and Landslides Leave 3 Dead, 11,000 Affected
Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Centre (DMC) has reported further flooding and landslides in several parts of the country.
Further heavy rain has fallen in Sri Lanka since our report here. The Department of Meteorology reported 336 mm of rain fell in Agalawatta, Kalutara District in 24 hours to 14 May 2021.
Recent figures from DMC show that at least 3 people have died and more that 11,000 have been affected by recent floods, landslides and strong winds across the country over the last few days.
DMC said that 1 person died in a landslide on Warakapola, Kegalle and 2 people died in floods in Nagoda, Galle.
In Kegalle, a total of 1,132 people were affected by severe weather on 13 May, while flooding affected 1,115 people in the Colombo area, where 175 remain displaced.
As many as 6,119 people were affected by floods in in Gampaha where 85 homes were damaged. One person was injured in Aththanagalla
In Kurunegala, 366 people were affected by floods and in Matara a total of 2,806 people were affected, with 98 homes damaged.
Tropical Depression Crising caused devastation in Zamboanga Peninsula with reports of flooding, bridge collapse, and landslides.
In the municipality of Bayog, a hanging bridge collapsed due to the raging waters of the Dipili River, according to a report on News TV Live on Saturday.
Meanwhile, in the municipality of Dimataling, nine houses were submerged in floodwaters in Barangay Saloagan. Six houses were swept away and a landslide was also reported. No one died in the incidents.
In the municipality of Lapuyan, Crising also caused landslide and flooding.
A cyclonic circulation, which originated along the western coast of India, and is now travelling in the northeast direction, caused the rains that lashed parts of Hyderabad and rest of the state on Friday. (DC file photo)
At least five people are feared killed as thunderstorms accompanied with lightning lashed the state on Friday. While one person was reported dead at Chigurumamidi mandal in Karimnagar, two others were reported dead in Huzurabad mandal, and two in Munipallli mandal in Sangareddy district. The three victims from Karimnagar were reportedly taking shelter under a tree, when the lightning struck. The other two died while they were working in the farm.
A cyclonic circulation, which originated along the western coast of India, and is now travelling in the northeast direction, caused the rains that lashed parts of Hyderabad and rest of the state on Friday.
With the Tauktae cyclone expected to intensify into a severe cyclonic storm, the India Meteorological Department has issued a red alert in nine districts in Kerala on Saturday. Heavy rain has been lashing Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod districts from Friday evening.
The districts may receive more than 20 cm rainfall in 24 hours. Meanwhile, the sea continue to be very rough and huge tidal waves are battering the coastal hamlets displacing hundreds of families. The stormy weather is expected to continue till Sunday evening.
The water level is rising in rivers and the Central Water Commission has issued a flood alert on the banks of Manimala and Achankovil rivers.
Although we are not in the winter season, Shkodra in northern Albania woke up on Friday in a surprise hailstorm that left about half a meter of ice on the roads and caused severe damages to crops.
The heavy hail of around 50 minutes covered the entire city and part of the surrounding administrative units. The hail caused problems for a few minutes with the traffic in the city while the damages were greater to the farmers in surrounding villages.
In Kuç of the Guri i Zi administrative unit, the storm destroyed considerable cultures of fruit and vegetables. Hail is a typical spring phenomenon in Albania, which occurs after the immediate drop of high temperatures.
According to Meteoalb, there is possibility of hail storms tonight overnight, and tomorrow morning in the northwest but also in the southern part of the country.
Kazakhstan said Friday that around 350 critically endangered Saiga antelopes had been killed, probably by lightning, after villagers found their bodies in steppe land in the west of the country.
The discovery came during calving season for the Saiga, which is known for its distinctive bulbous nose.
The Kazakh ecological ministry said in a statement that lightning was the probable cause of their deaths "as there are traces of lightning strikes on the carcasses."
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), whose "Red List" is the scientific reference for threatened wildlife, lists the Saiga as among five critically endangered antelope species, with a population of around 124,000 adults.
[When conducting political campaigns] one has to be insincere and promise something which you cannot fulfill. So you either have to be a fool who does not understand what you are promising, or deliberately be lying.
Comment: Update: AP reports (via ABC News) on May 15: See also: