Monday 17 November 2014

Crazy weather worldwide - 11/16/2014


This is the warmest October on record in what could prove to be the warmest year on record.

The main locus for this, the Arctic, is out of the headlines.

Meanwhile records are falling every day.

Welcome to the future!


The hot streak continues: Earth just had its warmest October on record

Please note, the only main land area with a colder temperature anomoly is western Russia



These floods were mentioned in brief on a news broadcast at 5 am this morning on Radio NZ. They are not getting much coverage elsewhere.  Pull up the bedcovers and go back to sleep - unless you are one of the ones being washed away!


70 coffins “washed away” as floods and landslides hit Europe
At least four people have been killed after landslides triggered by torrential rain slammed into buildings on either side of the Swiss-Italian border

Four dead as heavy rains batter Italy, Switzerland
Fiтle Photo

16 November, 2014

AT LEAST FOUR people have been killed as landslides triggered by torrential rain slammed into buildings on either side of the Swiss-Italian border Sunday, a day after floods in southern France killed five people.

In the rain-drenched southern Ticino region of Switzerland, two people died and one was critically injured when a mudslide slammed into a small residential building.

On the other side of the border, a pensioner and his granddaughter were killed when another landslide engulfed a house on the Italian shores of Lake Maggiore. Three other family members survived.

Those landslides were the latest of many to recently have hit northern Italy and southern Switzerland amid incessant rainfall over recent week.

The Italian Liguria region has been doused with as much rain in the first 15 days of November as it normally gets in an entire year.

Meanwhile, an estimated 70 coffins were washed away after 50 metres of retaining wall in a cemetery in the Bolzaneto district of Genoa collapsed.

Local residents reported skulls and other bones washing up on the banks of the Polcevera river.

Photos from the EPA agency showed firefighters digging to recover coffins carried away by the rushing water…



Tragedies

The latest tragedies came a day after storms in southern France left five dead, when their cars were swept away in flooding.

In one heartbreaking case, rescue workers managed late Friday to drag a father from his car, lodged on a bridge submerged by torrential rains, only to see the vehicle with his wife and two young sons still inside torn away by the raging water.

In Switzerland, the bodies of two local women, aged 34 and 38, were pulled Sunday from the rubble of the three-story apartment building in Davesco-Soragno, near Lugano, after being hit by the mudslide shortly before 2:30 am (0130 GMT), police said.

A 44-year-old Italian man, who was living with one of the women, had been dug out and taken to hospital in a critical condition, police told reporters.

Four others in the building at the time it collapsed had escaped with only minor injuries, while the final resident had not been home.

A wall above the building had crumbled under the rain and set off the landslide, police said.

That tragedy came 10 days after a young mother and her three-year-old daughter were killed when a landslide swept away their house in the same region.

After weeks of heavy rain, southern Ticino has been hit by severe flooding, which worsened when Lake Lugano burst its banks in several places and Lake Maggiore threatened to do the same.


Source: AP/Press Association Images ... Milan, yesterday


Digging with are hands

Just across Lake Maggiore, a 70-year-old man died today after his house was partially buried in a “sea of mud” unleashed after the rain-doused hill behind the building gave way.

Rescue workers managed to drag his 16-year-old granddaughter from the rubble after more than four hours of digging but she died later in hospital.

Her parents and grandmother survived. The family’s small, two-storey villa was the only property affected in Cerro, a hamlet on the outskirts of Laveno Mombello, a popular holiday spot.

A neighbour described how he had been awoken during the night by a huge bang “like fireworks”, and seeing rescue workers and the girl’s parents “digging with spades, even with their bare hands”.

It was a horrific scene,” the neighbour told Italian television.

The tragedy means a total of 11 people have died in Italy in accidents related to the freak weather conditions in just over a month.

That toll is expected to rise to 12 later today as rescue workers continued to search for a man whose car was swept off the road by a torrent of water near the Italian Riviera’s main city, Genoa.

Source: AP/Press Association Images ... The Garibaldi railway station is flooded after persistent rain in Milan.


Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, speaking from the G20 summit in Australia, said the havoc wreaked by the heavy rain was the result of years of neglect of infrastructure.




We have had 20 years of land management that needs to be scrapped,” he said


Deadly floods sweep southeastern France
Four people died in two separate accidents after their cars were swept away by floodwaters on Friday night in the southern French region of Le Gard, according to local authorities.







Photo: Twitter user @S_Burgatt I Local emergency workers looked for a child reported missing in Le Gard after a car was swept away by floodwaters. The baby's body was recovered Saturday



16 November, 2014

A family lost control of their car on a flooded bridge just after midnight on Friday. The bodies of the mother and two young children—aged one and four years—were found early Saturday. The father of the family was rescued and is now in hospital, officials in the town near the French city of Nîmes said in a statement.



The tragic scenario was repeated on another bridge nearby and the 50-year-old driver lost his life when his car was swept away by rising waters.



Local authorities maintained that the circumstances that caused the accidents were “extremely localised”, adding that the situation in Le Gard remained safer than in neighbouring regions, which have been battered by days of heavy rainfall.



Four neighbouring departments were under serious “orange” flood alerts until late Saturday afternoon. An orange alert is the second-highest flood warning level. Le Gard, however, was only ever under a less-severe “yellow” warning, where residents are advised to stay alert and monitor the situation, especially if undertaking “activities sensitive to the weather risk or close to a river or waterway.”



Heavy rain in the region was expected to continue through mid-Saturday, according to Météo France, which has predicted between 40 to 80mm of rainfall for the Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rhône regions.



Météo France has also predicted up to 140mm of rainfall for the Var and Alpes-Maritimes regions, which are already waterlogged after days of bad weather.



Moreover, the two seaside regions were placed under a yellow alert for large waves, which are expected to reach up to two metres on Saturday morning.








Post by Emanuela Mazzone.


One of the things predicted with a changing climate is more lightning adding to the risk of wildfires




In the Balkans right now - 


Strong storm cluster now over N Adriatic and Istra, Croatia



More thunderstorm activity: Island Pašman, Croatia under attack this evening!




Meanwhile the jetstream is going to do its thing in Britain this winter. Remember last winter's  floods?


MORE flood woe for Britain? Forecasters' shock warning of WETTEST winter for 30 YEARS

BRITAIN is about to battered by another bout of autumn storms as the country faces one of the wettest winters in 30 years.


Britain faces the wettest winter in 30 yearsPA/GETTY
Britain faces one of the wettest winter in 30 years

15 November, 2014

Some forecasters warn an unusually strong jet stream charging over the UK threatens to drag in a succession of deep Atlantic low pressure systems.

It has raised fears of another winter flood crisis with Somerset and Devon already edging closer towards a repeat of last year.

The Met Office’s three-month contingency outlook warns of the risk of above-average rainfall through to the end of January - using probability data from 1981.

Last year was the wettest winter on record after more than 20 inches of rain fell across the UK - the highest total since records began in 1910.

Although this year will have some way to go to beat that, early signals suggest exceptionally wet weather over the next few months.

The Met Office said: “Atmospheric patterns which favour above-average precipitation also tend to increase the frequency of cyclonic weather systems crossing the UK and thus spells of wet and windy weather may be more frequent than is typical, particularly in the early part of the period.”

Met Office long-range expert professor Adam Scaife added: "These storms are generated by the jet stream which also carries them eastwards towards us.

The jet stream has recently got stronger and moved north, which could carry weather systems from the Atlantic right over the UK.”

Army called in during last winter's flood crisisPA
The army were called in during last winter's flood crisis in Somerset
However opinions are still very much divided with other long-range forecasters predicting a major big freeze this year.

James Madden, forecaster for Exacta Weather, said weeks of heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures threaten to grind the country to a halt.

He said: “An area we need to watch for as we progress throughout this week is a progressively cooler picture developing from the north.

There is also likely to be some snow across higher ground towards the latter part of this week and into next weekend, and we may also see some wintry showers developing across some other parts of the country, in particular, in some parts of northern England and some western coastal areas at times.”

It comes as parts of Britain which bore the brunt of torrential downpours and gales last week brace for more misery this week.

Ferocious gusts of 93mph were recorded in Devon while heavy rain caused part of the M25 motorway around London to collapse on Friday.

The Environment Agency has stepped up warnings across the southwest, central and eastern parts where river levels are rising and ground is saturated.

It has issued 11 flood alerts across the country with one more serious flood warning in the southwest including Devon and Somerset.

As a matter of interest...The original article has disappeared - perhaps because it isn't true?


World's tornado hotspot is er... BRITAIN
Experts say UK has more twisters than America!
THE UK has been named the world's tornado hotspot, even ahead of America.
EXPRESS.CO.UK|BY DION DASSANAYAKE









Floods displace thousands in Somalia’s Beledweyne


Floods in Somalia's south-central town of Beledweyne have displaced more than 21,000 people. The biggest river in the region has broken its banks, further worsening the humanitarian crisis in the African nation.






And things are starting to heat up Down Under

Bushfire at Warrimoo in Blue Mountains

An emergency warning, the highest level of bushfire alert, has been issued for an out-of-control blaze burning in the Blue Mountains.


Smoke rises over Blaxland about 2.30pm on Friday.
Smoke rises over Warrimoo about 2.30pm on Friday, as seen from Blaxland. Photo: Ethan Hodson

SMH,
14 November, 2014

The NSW Rural Fire Service said the blaze was burning in a difficult-to-reach area between Greens Road and Florabella Street in Warrimoo and has been upgraded to emergency level.

Firefighters are at Warrimoo Public School as a precaution and were escorting students to a school bus so they can leave. They said students and staff were safe.

An RFS spokesman, Matt Sun, said students had been sheltering in the school hall as a precaution.

Parents have been allowed supervised access to their children. The school bus was expected to leave about 3.15pm.

The fire was moving from Warrimoo in a south-easterly direction towards Baden Place at Blaxland, Mr Sun said.

"Fire is burning in a difficult-to-reach area in bushland in that vicinity," he said.
"It's not directly impacting on homes but it is putting up a lot of smoke and spotting ahead of the fire front."

Mr Sun said the fire was "putting off embers which could potentially create spot fires".

About 3.30pm, Mr Sun said the RFS was not planning to backburn the area, but instead use ground crew and an Aircrane to bring the fire under control in "hopefully a couple of hours".

He advised commuters to check transport updates for delays following reports that the fire was burning "near the railway corridor".

Fire and Rescue NSW said they had sent nine crews, made up of 36 firefighters, to the fire.

Firefighters have told residents near Baden Place to leave now if the path is clear and they are not prepared for the fire.

There is thick smoke in the area and and residents have been warned to look out for burning embфers.

Firefighters have warned residents in Bridge Road, Boynton Street and Bourke Street in Blaxland to monitor the situation.

Ethan Hodson said he could smell the fire in neighbouring Blaxland and see the smoke.

"There's a yellow tinge to the sky and it's bigger now," he said.

A Transport Management Centre spokeswoman said smoke was reducing visibility and one westbound lane of the Great Western Highway was closed at Blaxland.


Trains were no longer running between Warrimoo and Blaxland.

View image on Twitter
MRT @NSWRFS: Heading home over Blue Mountains? Slow down, smoke & fire trucks in Warrimoo area.

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