(Nov. 23)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/23/fort-lauderdale-a1a-washin...

A1A Washing Away Near Fort Lauderdale's Sunrise Boulevard

Sandy has come back to haunt Fort Lauderdale Beach.

A section of A1A north of Sunrise Boulevard is in danger of washing out to sea less than a month after many South Florida beaches were ravaged by high tides and pounding waves due to Hurricane Sandy's northward path.

Fort Lauderdale officials closed northbound A1A at around 4 p.m. on Thursday after pounding surf took out palm trees, the seawall and the sidewalk on a section of road north of Northeast 16th Court, just north of Sunrise Boulevard.

"Our concern is the traffic signal," said Fort Lauderdale spokesman Matt Little. "The piling is exposed. I don't know how deep it goes, but we've already lost palm trees, the seawall and the sidewalk."

Little said that if the signal fell, motorists and pedestrians could be in danger.

At 3:34 p.m. when the high tide rolled in, waves were crashing onto the road and one northbound lane had already been closed on the block north of Northeast 16th Court.

"It happened so fast," said Carolina Ibarrez. "We've been here for half an hour and we've seen several palm trees just fall into the ocean."

At 7:41 p.m., the city announced by email that the two northbound lanes of A1A at Northeast 16th Court remained closed, and that the southbound lanes were being used to accommodate both north and southbound traffic

Motorists were warned to expect delays, to use caution when traveling in the area, and to seek alternate routes when possible.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2238931/UK-floods-500-famil...

Underwater city: Scenes of devastation in North Wales as emergency services evacuate hundreds from flood-hit homes after river burst its banks

• Police have been knocking on families' doors to tell them to leave their houses
• Many are sheltering at the leisure centre after the lower half of the city was lashed with rain
  
• Days of rain have turned roads into rivers, flooded more than 900 homes and left at least four people dead
• One in five trains were hit by delays yesterday with transport network in chaos
  
• Owners of 4x4s ignored closures and danger warnings in arrogant belief their vehicles could cope with deep water
• Rescuers said vital manpower wasted plucking drivers from stranded cars instead of coping with other emergencies
• Environment Agency have issued 204 flood warnings and 277 flood alerts for England and Wales
  

By Vanessa Allen and Emma Reynolds

PUBLISHED: 23:11 GMT, 26 November 2012 | UPDATED: 13:07 GMT, 27 November 2012

Hundreds of families have been told to evacuate their homes in a north Wales city after a river burst its banks overnight, swamping them with up to 5ft of floodwater.

Terrified homeowners in the lower part of St Asaph in Denbighshire were woken by police and firefighters knocking on their doors at 4.30am.

Some jumped in cars to speed through the rising water to the homes of friends or family, while 200 gathered at a Red Cross shelter at the local leisure centre - one of three opened overnight in the area.

Parents grabbed children, still in their night clothes, as they fled through the streets.

The River Elwy reached a record 4.35 metres in St Asaph and is rising steadily, swirling into houses, old people’s bungalows, and businesses - washing away furniture, food and prized possessions.

with the torrential rain set to persist for at least eight hours more.

The Environment Agency warned that 'conditions are expected to deteriorate' following 24 hours of non-stop rain.

Scroll down for video

Waist-deep: Emergency services wade through flooded streets to help families escape from their homes after the River Elwy rose to record levels and submerged the city

Big deal: The council advised residents to go to stay with friends or family early this morning, with the city in chaos. Pictured, loaves of bread and teabags are awash in a flooded grocery store

First the Mississippi River, now the Great Lakes:

Water Levels in Great Lakes Approaching Record Lows (Nov 27) -

http://news.yahoo.com/great-lakes-plummet-towns-try-save-harbors-19...

For more than a century, easy access to Lake Michigan has made Onekama a popular place for summer visitors and a refuge for boaters fleeing dangerous storms. Now the community itself needs a rescue, from slumping lake levels that threaten its precious link to open water.

The Great Lakes, the world's biggest freshwater system, are shrinking because of drought and rising temperatures, a trend that accelerated with this year's almost snowless winter and scorching summer. Water levels have fallen to near-record lows on Lakes Michigan and Huron, while Erie, Ontario and Superior are below their historical averages. The decline is causing heavy economic losses, with cargo freighters forced to lighten their loads, marinas too shallow for pleasure boats and weeds sprouting on exposed bottomlands, chasing away swimmers and sunbathers.

Some of the greatest suffering is in small tourist towns that lack the economic diversity of bigger port cities. Yet they are last in line for federal money to deepen channels and repair infrastructure to support the boating traffic that keeps them afloat.

"How do you like our mud bog?" Township Supervisor Dave Meister asked on a recent afternoon, gesturing toward the shoreline of Portage Lake, part of a 2,500-acre inland waterway that connects Onekama to Lake Michigan. A wide expanse that normally would be submerged is now an ugly patchwork of puddles, muck and thick stands of head-high cattails. A grounded pontoon boat rested forlornly alongside a deserted dock.

The Army Corps of Engineers has estimated that about 30 small Great Lakes harbors will need attention in the next couple of years.

In bygone days, friendly members of Congress would slip money into the federal budget to dredge a harbor. But so-called earmarks have fallen out of favor, leaving business and civic leaders wondering where to turn. A desperate few are raising money locally for dredging but insist they can't afford it on a regular basis.

Tourism has sustained Onekama since the early 1900s, when northwestern Michigan coastal towns became popular with wealthy visitors from Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit. On a typical summer day, the community's marinas are crowded with yachts, speedboats and fishing charters.

But the falling water levels are taking a toll, illustrating how extensively the health of the Great Lakes affects the economy of a region that is home to more than 30 million people extending from Minnesota to New York.

Lake Michigan's level at the end of October was more than 2 feet below its long-term average. The Corps of Engineers says without heavy snowfall this winter, the lake may decline to its lowest point since record-keeping began in 1918.

The channel that connects Portage Lake and Lake Michigan is now about 7 feet deep at best. When the water is choppy, some vessels can hit bottom. If things get much worse, Onekama may be effectively cut off from the big lake.

"Businesses would close. People would be laid off. It would be devastating," said Jim Mrozinski, owner of Onekama Marine Inc., which services and stores pleasure craft and draws customers from across the Upper Midwest. He owns three marinas, one now unusable because of shallow water. If he's lucky, the others will have enough depth to rent perhaps 10 of the 55 slips next spring.

Onekama's year-round population is less than 2,000. Much of its tax base comes from expensive waterfront homes owned by summer residents who come for the boating and fishing. Without the link to Lake Michigan, property values would plummet, hammering local government budgets, Meister said.

"You're talking about schools, 911 emergency, library, fire protection — everything," he said.

Many places around the Great Lakes are having similar problems. At least a dozen boats have run aground this year in Lake Ontario around the harbor in Orleans County, N.Y. The state of Wisconsin warned boaters to watch for stumps, boulders and other hazards lurking just beneath the water. Boat-towing services have done brisk business rescuing stranded craft in newly shallow stretches of Lake Erie.

What makes the situation particularly frustrating for small Great Lakes communities is that a fund for dredging and other harbor maintenance already exists. It's generated by a tax on freight shipped at U.S. ports and raises about $1.5 billion a year. But about half of the money is diverted to the treasury for other uses. Members of Congress from coastal states are pushing to change that policy.

Even if the effort succeeds, there's no guarantee that communities like Onekama will get a share of the cash. The Corps of Engineers gives top priority to large ports such as Duluth, Minn., Detroit and Cleveland. Whatever is left goes to medium-sized harbors that also accommodate cargo ships. The region's 112 small harbors, including 71 with only recreational traffic, have relied on budget earmarks since the 1990s.

"Many of these towns wouldn't exist if it wasn't for their ports," said Mike O'Bryan, chief of engineering and technical services for the Detroit district office.

The Great Lakes Small Harbors Coalition, led by Onekama retiree Chuck May, says $20 million a year would cover all those areas' dredging and maintenance costs, and rescue tourist communities that pump billions into the economy.

Farther up the coast near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, the village of Leland scraped together more than $100,000 from a local Indian tribe, businesses and government agencies this year to dredge a 13-foot-deep channel enabling charter fishing boats and pleasure craft to reach Lake Michigan. Harbormaster Russell Dzuba is already fundraising to dredge in 2013 but says that's no long-term solution.

"We have a moral obligation to keep this place open," he said. "We're the only safe harbor for a 75-mile stretch and Lake Michigan is a tempestuous beast. But the feds have cut us adrift."

I am truly not sure where to place this story so if moderators could assist it would be much appreciated.  This is tied into the flooding in England as well as general prep for what is to come to that island.  Many references to the flooding problems much of Europe faces.

Moderator's Comment: I think you've found the perfect place for this idea, as the wobble creates so much flooding. What a top notch idea!

Are floating homes a solution to UK floods?

By Katia MoskvitchTechnology reporter, BBC News

The recent flooding across the UK has seen hundreds of householders desperately trying to prevent water from entering their houses.

Most use the centuries-old approach of piling heavy sandbags at their doors and windows.

But what if your house was buoyant - rising at the same level as the surrounding water?

Earlier this year, Baca Architects was granted permission to build Britain's first amphibious house by the banks of the River Thames in Buckinghamshire - one that rests on land, but in the event of a flood rises with the water.

The Environment Agency is interested in the idea of such floating homes, says the agency's flood risk engineer Tony Andryszewski who often works at a flood test centre, set up to investigate new technologies for flood prevention and control.

The agency is keen on seeing how other countries approach the problem, he says, especially in the Netherlands.

The Dutch are widely acknowledged as having the best flood management technologies in the world.

Even the flood forecasting software used by the Environment Agency, Delft-FEWS, has been developed by the Dutch.

Flood-proofing

Such know-how is not surprising - much of the Netherlands' land mass is below sea level, and even the country's name reflects its low-lying topography,

Since the 12th Century people have been draining delta swamps and creating artificial dry land - polders - at first using pumps powered by windmills.

Currently, there are about 3,500 low-lying polders enclosed by dykes in the Netherlands. They easily collect water from rain, rivers and the sea, and are constantly being pumped to keep nearby communities dry.

"The Dutch have built dykes for over 1,000 years," says Jos Maccabiani from Flood Control 2015, a Dutch government programme charged with developing better information systems for managing floods.

"Since the last major flood in 1953, in which more than 1,800 people died, this system has been upgraded to very high standards."

According to computer simulations, today's defences in the Netherlands are supposed to withstand the kind of flood so severe that it would occur only once in 10,000 years, he explains.

There are dams all around the country, guarding all main river estuaries and sea inlets.

"Nevertheless, with the ever-increasing urbanisation of our polders and flood plains, spatial planning is increasingly combined with flood resilience," adds Mr Maccabiani.

"There are projects under way where urban revitalisation of a city is combined with the widening of the river bed, lowering the peak water levels, and others that look into flood-proofing the country's highway infrastructure."

Ready to float?

One Dutch technology that the UK is observing keenly is the "smart levee", designed in the Netherlands as part of an EU research project, UrbanFlood.

Sensors are put inside flood embankments, as an early online warning system and for real-time emergency management. The technology constantly monitors the condition of the levee, and sends a warning when it is weakening.

Another innovation that Britain has already started to adopt is movable river barriers - installed in the ground, they rise with the water.

Dutch floating houses are also on the Environment Agency's radar, says Mr Andryszewski.

Homes on stilts are common in flood-prone countries such as Thailand, Burma and India. Floating houses of different designs exist in a few places too, namely in Germany, Canada, the US, and even on Taggs Island in the UK, where some 60 homes are attached to piles driven into the riverbed of the Thames.

But creating an amphibious home - placing a house on a platform that makes the house float in case of a flood - has only recently been looked at in the Netherlands.

In 2005, Dutch firm Dura Vermeer built several buoyant houses in the village of Maasbommel, along the Maas River, about 60 miles (100km) from Amsterdam.

They rise as the water rises, keeping occupants and their possessions dry. When the floods subside, the houses sink to their original position.

The houses float on hollow pontoons made of concrete and timber. All pipes and ducts for water, gas, electricity, and sewage disposal are flexible and keep functioning even when a house rises several metres.

Unlike boats, the houses can't drift away, as they are kept in place by sturdy posts set deep into the ground.

Currently, Dutch architectural company Waterstudio is planning to build an entire apartment complex on water, which it says could accommodate hundreds of people.

'Sandless' sandbags

Even if the UK doesn't build floating houses any time soon, there are some innovations that could at least replace the heavy sandbags.

UK entrepreneur Richard Bailey designed lightweight bags that expand on contact with water - and also absorb it.

"It was first designed for the Ministry of Defence," says Mr Bailey, explaining that his company FloodSax was asked to create an easily portable alternative to sandbags for the army's bomb disposal unit.

"We put the bag into a barrage unit, the water comes in, gets soaked into the bag, the bag expands, blocking the water at the door.

"Or unfortunately when someone has been flooded, you can put it down in the house, soak up the water and the mud as well, so that you can get back into your house a little quicker."

There are other firms offering similar technology, such as Thailand-based Nanotec or another UK company, HydroSack, and FloodSax's bags are now being used in many countries across the world.

"Unfortunately though, they are still not as popular as the traditional sandbags, because not everyone is aware of the innovation," says Mr Bailey.

But Mr Andryszewski is confident that the UK will continue to use more and more innovative technology - there are already numerous places that use watertight submarine-type doors, he says, and the flood test centre is busy experimenting with other original approaches to keep the land - and homes - as dry as possible.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20502736

Tornado in Taranto, Italy.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t3#/video/bestoftv/2012/11/28/ital...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9710284/Larg...

Sidmouth, east Devon, South West Britain.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2242020/Frame-frame-The-dra...

Pictured: Dramatic moment huge chunk of Jurassic coastline crashes 100ft on to beach after heavy rainfall 

• Red sandstone cliff in Sidmouth is part of the Dorset and East Devon world heritage site
• Residents claim it is the fifth collapse along the 95 mile stretch of historic coastline in a week
• Experts claim cracks in the rock-face are being caused by too much rain
  

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 23:27 GMT, 2 December 2012 | UPDATED: 00:49 GMT, 3 December 2012

This is the dramatic moment when a whole chunk of Jurassic coastline came crashing down on to a beach.

The rain soaked clifftop plunged 100 feet to the pebbled beach below at Sidmouth, east Devon.

The moment was captured by John Austin, 70, who spotted a crack in the red sandstone cliffs while out for a walk last week.

A crack on the surface: A large crack is visible along a red sandstone cliff in Sidmouth, east Devon

Going, going... The cliff situated in the Dorset and East Devon world heritage site begins to break away

EDIS Number:    TC-20121203-37381-PHL
Event type:    Tropical Storm
Date/Time:    Monday, 03 December, 2012 at 17:17 (05:17 PM) UTC
Continent:    Pacific Ocean - West
Country:    Philippines
Area:    Mindanao Regions
Coordinate:    N 11° 57.201, E 123° 8.086

An impending major catastrophe is likely to occur in the southern Philippines from super typhoon Bopha during the next 12-24 hours. Bopha is set to deliver wind gusts of 160-180mph (260-290 kmph) in a swathe across northern central Mindanao. A major disaster is now almost certain for this region. Bopha's projected landfall is close to that of tropical storm Washi a year ago. Washi killed over 1200 people. However, Bopha's landfall wind intensity will be considerably higher than that of Washi and the disaster potentially greater (although rainfall will be less).

Typhoon Bopha bears down on Philippines

Infrared satellite image of super typhoon Bopha early Monday-hat tip: Stu Ostro

Via NASA: “One of the Expedition 34 crew members aboard the International Space Station captured this still image of Super Typhoon Bopha on Dec. 2, 2012.”

Forecast track for super typhoon Bopha (Joint Typhoon Warning Center)

Source

Source

Bopha: the 2nd most southerly typhoon on record

Bopha is likely to hit at Category 4 or 5 strength, making it the strongest typhoon ever recorded in Mindanao.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/07/world/world-affiliates-severe-weather...

Severe weather leaves trail of destruction

Weather extremes across the world

(CNN) -- This past week saw severe weather in many parts of the world that took dozens of lives and left behind serious damage.

Here's a look at some of the extreme weather stories covered by CNN's global affiliates, including a typhoon in the Philippines and a tornado in New Zealand.

Unlikely typhoon in the Philippines

Typhoon Bopha devastated the Compostela Valley region in the southern Philippines early this week. At least 148 people have died and thousands of homes have been destroyed, according to TV5. Typhoons are uncommon in the Bopha region. Watch the video above to see how the storm knocked down power lines.

Tornado strikes near Auckland

A tornado ripped through the outskirts of Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, killing three people and leaving more than 200 people injured, according to TVNZ. About 150 homes were left without power.

Flooding in Argentina's capital

Heavy rains in the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires left two people dead, forced evacuations and flooded nearly 9 million acres of farmland, Canal 9 said. See some of the most serious flooding in the video above.

Hard to see in Chinese province

Dense fog in the province of Sichuan caused heavy traffic and temporary highway closures in southwestern China. In some areas, visibility was reduced to less than 200 meters. Check out the fog in the video above from CCTV.

Poland's winter wonderland

Seven centimeters of snow fell in the city of Lublin on Monday. The snow brought with it temperatures of minus 1 degree Celsius (30 degrees Fahrenheit). In the nearby town of Bialystok, nine cars collided, causing one injury. See the snow in the video above, courtesy of TVN.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2244458/Arctic-Britain-Sibe...

Freezing Britain: Siberian front brings ice, snow and -16C temperatures (but at least these skiers are enjoying themselves)

• Temperatures expected to dip from Sunday with frozen conditions bringing chaos to the roads later in the week
  
• Commuters pictured battling through heavy snow in Leeds, Newcastle and Lincolnshire
• AA warn drivers to be prepared for treacherous conditions and advise grit is ineffective below -9C
• Icy gusts from the east will bring a wind chill factor of -16C next week, according to Met Office forecasters
  
• Follows a week of transport chaos with airports closing and dramatic car crashes putting police officers and a boy of 11 into hospital
  

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 09:40 GMT, 7 December 2012 | UPDATED: 17:07 GMT, 8 December 2012

With icy blasts sweeping in from Siberia expected to send the mercury plummeting from as early as tomorrow afternoon, skiers made a rare UK appearance this morning enjoying an unexpected spot of glorious sunshine.

The intrepid winter sportsmen took to the gentle slopes of the South Tyne Valley, near Alston, in Cumbria, and if forecasters are correct there will be plenty more of the white stuff to come.

After today's brief respite, many parts of Britain face their first significant snow of the winter, with freezing winds, treacherous ice and sub-zero temperatures forecast for much of  next week.

The Met Office has warned that snow will ‘march relentlessly’ down the East coast and by mid-week temperatures there will struggle to rise above freezing – day or night. In some parts of the country, the mercury could plunge as low as -16C (3F).

Forecasters said bitter easterly winds – dubbed ‘the Beast from the East’ – will arrive after a mild weekend in which temperatures could rise to 9C (16F) in the South.

Scroll down for video

A skier enjoys the morning weather in South Tyne Valley, near Alston, Cumbria. Forecasters warn icy Siberian blasts will bring further bad weather from tomorrow afternoon

Making the most of it: Skier Nigel Rowell enjoys perfect conditions for a spot of cross country skiing in the South Tyne Valley, near Alston, in Cumbria

Record snowfall seen in Missoula

MISSOULA - Missoula residents sure are seeing white...lots of white.

The National Weather Service reports that Friday's snowfall set a record for the day.

NWS says 7.7 inches was recorded at Missoula International Airport, shattering the old record of 3.5 inches set in 1971.

Heavy snow fell all across Western Montana, including in Flathead County.

The National Weather Service reports nearly two feet of snow has fallen in the last 24 hours near Essex. That has U.S. Highway 2 down to one lane one mile north of Essex.

Around 10 inches of snow was reported near Libby, about eight inches of snow was reported near Creston and five inches was recorded near Condon and Heron.

'Fist-Sized' Hail Damages Hundred of Homes Near Johannesburg South Africa (Dec 9) -
More than 500 houses have been damaged in Ladysmith by "fist-sized" hail stones.  The storm hit the Akasia area of Ladysmith on Sunday evening.

No deaths or injuries had been reported, although an unknown number of families had been forced to take shelter in a local school hall.

Mabaso warned that the province should continue to brace itself for inclement weather.

"We have no prediction of any area, but there is a constant change in weather conditions and we will constantly advise people as it changes."

The public had to make sure their homes were safe and find out whether they lived on a flood plain.

"You must be able to know who to contact in a case of emergency. When it rains, don't just sit and pretend it's normal," he said.

Source

Rare December Tornadoes Slam Southern States (Dec 10) -

At least nine tornadoes ripped through four southern states Monday evening, blowing over gas pumps and destroying homes on Monday.

The hardest hit areas by the unusual December tornadoes were in Florida and Alabama.

In Edgewater, Fla., 40 homes were damaged and 12 completely destroyed. There were two people with minor injuries but no deaths, the Edgewater Fire Department reported. Most of the damage was inside Terra Mar Village, a mobile home community.

The city firehouse in Gonzales, La., was badly damaged by one of the tornadoes. The fire crew, which was out at the time, was forced to return to the building, The Weather Channel reported.

Wind from the tornado blew through the firehouse’s back doors and blew out the front of the building. Inmates were sent out by the sheriff's office to help clean up the wreckage.

In Alabama, there were no reported injuries or deaths, the Birmingham Fire Department reported, but a gas station off I-165 had its pumps blown over.

The Weather Channel reported widespread tree damage and structural damages to buildings in other areas of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.  

The forecast for Tuesday calls for a slight risk of tornadoes in areas stretching from Daytona Beach to Fort Meyers, Fla. Damaging winds, spotty hail and three to four inches of rainfall are expected.

There was a total of nine tornado reports in the U.S. on Monday, according to the Storm Prediction Center.

National Weather Service survey crews confirmed several tornadoes.
Alabama
A EF-1 tornado touched down just northwest of downtown Birmingham, Ala., shortly before 5 a.m. CST on Monday. The twister damaged a metal roof of a building and caused the overhead doors to collapse. The tornado then moved on to damage 29 homes, two of which sustained severe damage. The tornado path was 1.05 miles long and 250 yards wide. Wind speeds have been estimated at 90 mph.

Mississippi
An EF-1 tornado with peak winds up to 100 mph touched down in Walthall County, Miss., before 8 a.m. CST Monday. The tornado destroyed a metal building and threw debris 200-300 yards away. Two homes were damaged and a barn was destroyed. Several trees were severely damaged, while hay bales were thrown 75-100 feet. The twister was on the ground for 17 miles. The tornado was up to 100 yards wide.

An EF-1 tornado with maximum winds of 100 mph hit Marion County, Miss., shortly after 8:15 a.m. CST Monday. Numerous trees were damaged and uprooted along the tornado's path. A few sheds and gazebos were destroyed, while a metal carport was thrown onto a home. Shingle damage occurred to other homes. The twister was on the ground for 3 miles.

Louisiana
An EF-1 tornado with winds estimated at 105 mph struck eastern Baton Rouge Parish, La., before 7 a.m. CST Monday. The twister damaged a home and a convenience store. Numerous trees were damaged by the tornado. The worst damage was caused in the Lincoln Heights Subdivision, where trees were snapped and homes suffered moderate to major roof damage. The tornado was on the ground for 5.4 miles.

An EF-1 tornado with 90-mph winds hit Ascension Parish, La., shortly before 9:00 a.m. CST Monday. It tore a metal roof off a boat dealership and smashed the windshields of 10 cars at a car dealership. A pickup truck was lofted about 20 feet into the air before being thrown back onto its wheels. Numerous trees were damaged, while minor damage was inflicted to a few homes. The twister blew out five large overhead doors of a fire station. A metal frame building had extensive damage. The tornado's path length was 1.33 miles with a maximum width of 25 yards.

Florida
Public reports and pictures confirmed a waterspout over Lake Apoka in Orange County, Fla., at 4:30 p.m. EST on Monday.

NWS Survey crews will be in Volusia County, Fla., today examining damage from a possible tornado before 5:30 p.m. EST Monday. Twelve mobile homes were damaged and rooftops were ripped off homes. Power lines were also downed.

Tornado in Ocoee / Apopka Florida

Sources

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/11/15840317-rare-december-t...

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/see-one-of-mondays-torna...

Kiev Hit by Heaviest Snowfalls on Record (Dec 13) -

Ukrainian capital Kiev was experiencing its snowiest period since meteorological records began in 1881, the Ukrainian Hydro Meteorological Center said Thursday.

The amount of snow that Ukraine's Kiev has seen during the recent couple of days corresponds to what the city normally sees during two winter months.

The city is literally paralyzed. There are meter-high snowdrifts in the streets, trees break under the weight of snow. Seventeen trees have broken in the city as a result of heavy snowfalls.

Heavy snowfall and strong wind blocked roads across northern Ukraine and left hundreds of villages without electricity, authorities said Tuesday.

The Emergencies Ministry said sleet, snow and powerful wind brought down power lines in some 200 villages in northern Ukraine.

With snow as thick as 50 cm in some areas, hundreds of cars were blocked on the snow-covered highways in the northern Kiev and Chernigov regions.

The snowy weather has caused traffic chaos in the capital, where some 10,000 of cars have been stranded on major transport interchanges and bridges.

"Kiev faces severe weather conditions. The amount of snow and sleet exceeded previously recorded values for the entire period of meteorological observations since 1881," the weather bureau said in a statement.

The snowfall has lasted for more than two days in the Ukrainian capital and brought total precipitation to 103 millimeters.

Kiev State Administration declared a state of emergency as heavy snow paralyzed the city's roads. More than 360 snowplows are struggling to clear the capital.

The head of the Kiev City State Administration Alexander Popov urged all residents to come out into the streets to remove the snow. Drivers are recommended not to use their cars.

The head of the city administration addressed the citizens and guests of the Ukrainian capital. The document published on the website of the Kiev administration says that heavy snowfalls have triggered a state of emergency in the city, MediaPort reports. This will give an opportunity to have public utilities, departments of EMERCOM and the Ministry of Defense, as well as builders and employees of various companies involved in the work to remove snow from the streets.

The damage from the prolonged snowfall in Kiev is estimated at some 125,000 U.S. dollars per day, according to authorities.

Sources

http://english.pravda.ru/news/hotspots/12-12-2012/123140-ukraine_ki...

http://english.cri.cn/6966/2012/12/13/2561s738285.htm

100 Year Storm Causes Widespread Damage Across Eastern Scotland (Dec 15) -

Gale-force winds and unusually high tides have caused damage across areas of eastern and northern Scotland.

Huge waves caused up to £500,000 damage to North Berwick harbour in East Lothian, as sea defences were swept away.
A 15m section of the harbour wall collapsed in Lossiemouth in Moray.

And residents of a sheltered housing complex were evacuated after coastal flooding hit parts of Aberdeenshire.

Gerry Hughes, chairman of the North Berwick Harbour Trust Association, said he believed the storm that hit the town overnight between Friday and Saturday was the worst in more than 100 years.
Rest centre

He added: "This was a massive storm causing damage to sea walls that have stood for 150-odd years.

"The wind strength wasn't all that high, but the sea was absolutely beyond understanding. In the harbour you have a 40ft sea container that was washed approximately 200m, took away some fencing, and went straight into the harbour.

"There were also sea defence boulders weighing up to 200 kilos washed 150m along the esplanade, so that gives you the size and some sort of scale of the energy of the whole thing."

High tides and severe weather led to 25 people being taken from sheltered complexes at Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire.

They were taken to St Bridget's Hall in the town, where a rest centre was set up.

Further north at Peterhead, about 30 people were evacuated from properties in the Roanheads area.

The town's RNLI lifeboat launched in what were described as "horrendous" conditions at 02:30 to rescue three people marooned on the east side of Peterhead harbour.

A spokeswoman for Aberdeenshire Council said the high tide again reached Stonehaven at about 14:30 on Saturday, causing further coastal flooding.

People evacuated from affected properties earlier in the day remained out of their homes, with most having been collected by friends or family and alternative accommodation has been found for others, including at the new Edenholme care village in Stonehaven.

A flooding advice centre will be set up at Aberdeenshire Council's housing office on Allardice Street in Stonehaven on Monday from 11:00 until 16:30.

Elsewhere, a 15m section of the harbour wall collapsed in Lossiemouth. Police and council staff were at the scene and warned some flooding was possible at high tide. They also urged people to stay away from the area until it was made safe.

The village of Kingston in Moray was said to have been completely cut off after its sea defences were breached.

In Wick, on the far north coast, roads were closed and fishing boats were damaged in high winds.

About 12 cars were moved from a car park when a strong surge breached a river bank, police said, and several roads were closed by debris thrown up by the waves.

The town The Shore, Harbour Quay and South Quay were closed.

Huge waves caused part of the harbour wall at Balintore, near Tain in Ross-shire, to collapse, with two boys aged 12 and 14 suffering minor cuts after being thrown to the ground by the force of the water.

Resident George Wood, 52, said: "I've lived in Balintore all my life and I've never seen it this bad before. It's devastation. The wall should have been repaired long ago."

And storm force winds continued to batter Shetland throughout Saturday, with the road through Sandsayre in Sandwick flooded.

The force of the waves combined with the high tide ripped up part of the beach and lifted some of the boats onto the road, and the nearby boat museum was flooded.

The Scottish government has convened its Resilience Room in response to the storms.

Source

Samoa Flooding Worst in Memory (Dec 17)

The Samoa capital, Apia, has been hit by the worst flooding residents can remember in the wake of tropical cyclone Evan.

The Disaster Management Office said in a statement: "Power is off for the whole country . . . Tanugamanono power plant is completely destroyed and we might not have power for at least two weeks,"

Winds of up to 200 kilometres an hour hit the region early on Monday. Hundreds of people were evacuated as high winds damaged homes and Apia's Vaisigano River broke its banks.

"Most of the mountains have been stripped bare of leafs and trees and so all the plantations have been affected," she told Radio Australia's Asia Pacific.

"You've got taro, grapefruit and banana all affected. Once we get over this, the cyclone itself, we're going to have major food issues afterwards."

The National Emergency Operations Centre says the damaging impact of the storm is as severe as the tsunami that devastated the country in 2009.

Pictures of damage have also emerged from the small Pacific territory of Wallis and Futuna, where the eye of cyclone Evan reportedly passed within 50 kilometres.

In Samoa the death toll stands officially at four but eight fishermen are still missing at sea.

Authorities say 4,500 people are in emergency evacuation centres after their homes were flooded or destroyed.

Seti Afoa said cyclone Evan "hit Apia directly" after travelling "as slow as a car" over part of the island.

"The cyclone brought with it a huge amount of water, dumped it on the hills". The significant rainfall was ironic as the country had previously been praying for rain, with shortages looming.

The Vaisigano River filled and swept down to the coast, coinciding with "the biggest tide of the year", Seti Afoa said.

The combination meant of flooded river and high tide "this is the worst flooding Apia has faced. People have lost everything - homes, shops, cars."

The flooding was "appalling".

"We should have electricity for the whole country some time next week," she said.

"Right now electricity is prioritised for hospitals and the central business district, some other parts of the country and the airport.

"Most likely it will take about a week, the whole of this week to finish off the clean-up.

Disaster assessment teams are now moving out across the island of Upolu, which has bore the brunt of Cyclone Evan.

Ms Nelson says a picture is emerging of widespread and severe damage.

Food staples such as bananas and breadfruit have been particularly badly hit.

Broken trees and battered plantations stretch for kilometres in the south-west of the island.

A state of emergency has been declared after the cyclone struck the South Pacific nation last Thursday.

Mr Grimsich told Pacific Beat the damage caused by Cyclone Evan is much worse than initially expected.

"There's a number of power lines down, roads damaged, we're having a lot of difficulty communicating by mobile phones because the lines are actually quite jammed at the moment," he said.

"We had a large number of people displaced from their homes near the coast and near the river."

Many places in Samoa have only just rebuilt after being devastated by a tsunami in 2009.

It said hospitals and other essential services were using standby generators, with water supplies also out and most roads cut off by fallen trees and power poles.

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs said the cyclone had caused "damage to local services and infrastructure, including communications and electricity services and Faleolo International Airport".

"The Australian High Commission in Apia has closed until further notice due to storm damage," DFAT said.

It advises travelers to exercise normal safety precautions in Samoa.

In Wallis and Futuna, communication to the region is difficult and images show battered homes and uprooted trees on the island of Wallis.

Source

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2012-12-17/samoa-flo...

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Metro+Vancouver+storm+surge+...

Metro Vancouver storm surge a climate-change preview, expert says.

http://rt.com/news/russia-freeze-cold-temperature-379/

Down to -50C: Russians freeze to death as strongest-in-decades winter hits (PHOTOS)

RIA Novosti / Yakov Andreev

Russia is enduring its harshest winter in over 70 years, with temperatures plunging as low as -50 degrees Celsius. Dozens of people have already died, and almost 150 have been hospitalized.

­The country has not witnessed such a long cold spell since 1938, meteorologists said, with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees lower than the seasonal norm all over Russia.

Across the country, 45 people have died due to the cold, and 266 have been taken to hospitals. In total, 542 people were injured due to the freezing temperatures, RIA Novosti reported.

The Moscow region saw temperatures of -17 to -18 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, and the record cold temperatures are expected to linger for at least three more days. Thermometers in Siberia touched -50 degrees Celsius, which is also abnormal for December.

RIA Novosti / Aleksey Malgavko

­The Emergency Ministry has issued warnings in 15 regions, which have been put on high alert over possible disruptions of communication and power.

Across the country, heat pipelines have broken down due to the cold. In southeastern Russia’s Samara, the cold has broken down many heat pipelines, leaving hundreds of homes without heating, including an orphanage and a rest house. Many schools and kindergartens have been closed for almost a week. 

The cold spell, along with snowfalls, has disrupted flights all over the country, and led to huge traffic jams. In the southern city of Rostov-on-Don some highways were closed due to snowfalls over the past two days, triggering a traffic collapse.

Russia: record lows; Germany: record highs

Berlin, Moscow - Russia this year's December cover extremely low temperatures in Siberia have fallen by up to 57 degrees Celsius below zero. The worst cold in the last 50 years, some parts of Russia completely paralyzed. Meanwhile, the Germans are much more strongly, since the south of the country is projected to nearly judging expect spring temperatures up to 20 degrees Celsius.

Russia

According to official figures, this year's cold claimed more than 56 victims, hundreds of people in the hospital due to frostbite. In addition, every day dozens of people die due to carbon monoxide poisoning or explosions of gas, as they try to warm up on the old stove or an open fire and there is no follow safety regulations.

Meanwhile in southern Germany instead of white Christmas this year apparently lived to see green. In some parts of Germany on Christmas Eve will be a record warm. In Bavaria, where they are taking this time still snow, this Christmas may be the warmest in history, reported dpa.

In Munich for Monday, the day before Christmas, the predicted temperatures up to 20 degrees above zero. 24th warmest december so far they have with 14 degrees in Munich had in 1977.

bit.ly/WzG4Rw

Nearly 200 killed in cold snap across Russia, eastern Europe

A vicious cold snap across Russia and eastern Europe has claimed nearly 200 lives, officials figures showed Friday, as forecasters warned it would last until Christmas Eve.

In Russia, the cold has killed two people in the past 24 hours, the Ria-Novosti agency reported, citing medical sources, bringing the total number of deaths over the past week to 56.

The freeze had also left 371 people in hospital.

Thermometers have been stuck below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) in Moscow -- and below minus 50 degrees (minus 58 F) in some parts of Siberia -- for a week.

Russian weather forecasters said temperature in the Khabarovsk region in eastern Russia had dropped to minus 43 Celsius, while Krasnoyarsk in Siberia reported minus 47.

This "abnormal" frost would last till Monday because of a persistent anticyclone, they added.

In Russia's European region, meanwhile, the mercury is expected to fall to minus 31 degrees Celsius on Christmas Eve before rising rapidly afterwards.

Other European countries hit hard by the extreme temperatures were counting the toll as temperatures gradually started to return to normal.

Authorities in Ukraine, which has been battling heavy snowfall for weeks, said 83 people had died of cold, with 57 of the victims found on the street.

The homeless are traditionally the hardest-hit by the region's bitter winters.

Another 526 cold victims were reportedly receiving hospital treatment in Ukraine.

Overnight temperatures in Ukraine reached an average minus 15 degrees Celsius, which is common at this time of year.

Ukrainian authorities said 93 villages -- mainly on the Crimean peninsula in the south of the country -- were still hit by a power outage.

In eastern Europe, police in Poland said Friday that 49 people had died of exposure this month, with most of the victims homeless, as temperatures plunged to minus 10 degrees Celsius.

At least six people have died of exposure in Lithuania in the past weeks, police and emergency services said there.

In Latvia, temperatures reached minus 14 Celsius on Friday morning. In the capital Riga, authorities decided to drop public transport fares to encourage drivers to leave their cars at home and prevent crashes and jams.

On Christmas Eve temperatures in Latvia are expected to drop to minus 28 Celsius, a record low.

In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, temperatures hovered around zero on Friday.

Czech police said several people had died of exposure in recent weeks, but no overall statistics were available for the country.

Source

Mississippi river faces shipping freeze as water levels drop

Link to this video

Navigation has become treacherous as the worst US drought in half a century brings water levels close to record lows

The Mississippi as seen from Ed Drager's tug boat is a river in retreat: a giant beached barge is stranded where the water dropped, with sand bars springing into view. The floating barge office where the tugboat captain reports for duty is tilted like a funhouse. One side now rests on the exposed shore. "I've never seen the river this low," Drager said. "It's weird."

The worst drought in half a century has brought water levels in the Mississippi close to historic lows and could shut down all shipping in a matter of weeks – unless Barack Obama takes extraordinary measures.

It's the second extreme event on the river in 18 months, after flooding in the spring of 2011 forced thousands to flee their homes. Without rain, water levels on the Mississippi are projected to reach historic lows this month, the national weather service said in its latest four-week forecast.

"All the ingredients for us getting to an all-time record low are certainly in place," said Mark Fuchs, a hydrologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in St Louis. "I would be very surprised if we didn't set a record this winter."

The drought has created a low-water choke point south of St Louis, near the town of Thebes, where pinnacles of rock extend upwards from the river bottom making passage treacherous.

Shipping companies are hauling 15 barges at a time instead of a typical string of 25, because the bigger runs are too big for the operating conditions.

Barges are carrying lighter loads, making for more traffic, with more delays and back-ups. Stretches of the river are now reduced to one-way traffic. A long cold spell could make navigation even trickier: shallow, slow-moving water is more likely to get clogged up with ice.

Current projections suggest water levels could drop too low to send barges through Thebes before the new year – unless there is heavy rainfall.

Local television in St Louis is dispensing doom-laden warnings about rusting metal and hazardous materials exposed by the receding waters.

Shipping companies say the economic consequences of a shutdown on the Mississippi would be devastating. About $7bn (£4.3bn) in vital commodities – typically grain, coal, heating oil, and cement – moves on the river at this time of year. Cutting off the transport route would have an impact across the mid-west and beyond.

The potential closure of the Mississippi river due to low water levels has raised concern for barge companies and others who use the river for shipping. Photograph: James West/Climate Desk

"There are so many issues at stake here," said George Foster, owner of JB Marine Services. "There is so much that moves on the river, not just coal and grain products, but you've got cement, steel for construction, chemicals for manufacturing plants, petroleum plants, heating oil. All those things move on the waterways, so if it shuts down you've got a huge stop of commerce."

Companies which ship their goods on the river are talking about lay-offs, if the Mississippi closes to navigation. Those would be just the first casualties, Foster said. "It is going to affect the people at the grocery store, at the gas pump, with home construction and so forth."

And it's going to fall especially hard on farmers, who took a heavy hit from the drought and who rely on the Mississippi to ship their grain to export markets. Farmers in the area lost up to three-quarters of their corn and soya bean crops to this year's drought. Old-timers say it was the worst year they can remember.

"We have been through some dry times. In 1954 when my dad and grandfather farmed here they pretty much had nothing because it was so dry," said Paul McCormick who farms with his son, Jack, in Ellis Grove, Illinois, south of St Louis. "But I think this was a topper for me this year."

Now, however, farmers are facing the prospect of not being able to sell their grain at all because they can't get it to market. The farmers may also struggle to find other bulk items, such as fertiliser, that are typically shipped by barge.

"Most of the grain produced on our farm ends up bound for export," said Jack McCormick, who raises beef cattle and grain with his father. "It ends up going down the river. That is a very good market for us, and if you can't move it that means a lower price, or you have to figure out a different way to move it. It all ends up as a lower price for the farmers."

The shipping industry in St Louis wants the White House to order the release of more water from the Missouri river, which flows into the Mississippi, to keep waters high enough for the long barges to float down the river to New Orleans.

Foster said the extra water would be for 60 days or so – time for the US army corps of engineers to blast and clear the series of rock pinnacles down river, near the town of Thebes, that threaten barges during this time of low water.

Sending out more water from the Missouri would doom states upstream, such as Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota, which depend on water from the Missouri and are also caught in the drought.

"There are farmers and ranchers up there with livestock that don't have water to stay alive. They don't have enough fodder. They don't have enough irrigation water," said Robert Criss, a hydrologist at Washington University in St Louis, who has spent his career studying the Mississippi. "What a dumb way to use water during a drought."

Elected officials from South Dakota and elsewhere have pushed back strenuously at the idea of sending their water downstream. Foster reckons there is at best a 50-50 chance Obama will agree to open the gates. But such short-term measures ignore an even bigger problem. Scientists believe the Mississippi and other rivers are headed for an era of extremes, because of climate change.

This time last year, the Mississippi around St Louis was 20ft deeper because of heavy rain. In the spring of 2011, the army engineers blew up two miles of levees to save the town of Cairo, Illinois and Missouri farmland, and deliberately flood parts of rural Louisiana to ensure Baton Rouge and New Orleans stayed dry.

"It has kind of switched on us, and it switched pretty quick," said the coastguard chief Ryan Christiansen. "It wasn't that long ago that you had pretty high flooding, and now we are heading towards record lows."

Source

ANTARCTICA: RAINFALL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 9 YEARS, SYOWA STATION (DEC 23)

Rainfall was observed at Syowa station, Antarctica ） （ Japan time yesterday afternoon-23, dawn, 22. Japan Meteorological Agency recorded at Syowa station said rain is 1/1/2004 about nine years.

9:30 It began to sleet and rain too much said 11: 22, Syowa station and intermittently continued to fall until the night. 4.6 Degrees maximum temperature, minimum temperature 0.9 degrees and became a rare day not less than 0 degrees.

round up of the year's crazy weather in the UK:

A heatwave in March, a twister in Bicester and the wettest summer on record: Britain’s topsy turvy weather which kept Britain talking

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2252965/A-heatwave-March-tw...

WEATHER GOES INSANE OVER EUROPE:  White Christmas for Moscow while south Europe sweats

From deadly cold in Russia, floods in Britain and balmy conditions that have residents in southwest France rummaging for their bathing suits, the weather has gone haywire across Europe in the days leading up to Christmas.

The mercury in Moscow has fallen to minus 25 degrees Celsius (minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit) -- unseasonably cold in a country where such chills don't normally arrive until January or February.

The cold has claimed 90 lives in Russia since mid-December and 83 in Ukraine, with eastern Eurasia in the grips of an unusually icy month that has seen temperatures drop to as low as minus 50 degrees C in eastern Siberia.

Another 57 people have died from the cold in Poland this month, and officials say the icy front is probably "the most severe of the last 70 years," according to Regis Crepet, a forecaster with Meteo-Consult.

While the former Eastern bloc shivers and Britain fights severe flooding after heavy rains, holiday-makers and residents in the south of France and in Italy have dug out their shorts and swimwear to welcome an unexpected blast of beach weather.

Temperatures on Sunday climbed to 24.3 degrees C in Biarritz on the Atlantic coast, nearly 12 degrees hotter than the seasonal average, and nudging the 1983 record of 24.4 degrees C.

"These are remarkable temperatures that we do not see every year," French weather forecaster Patrick Galois said.

In Catania on Italy's Sicily coast, beach temperatures on Christmas day are forecast to climb as high as 22 degrees C in some places, while in Austria, the small village of Brand at an altitude of more than 1,000 metres (3,200 feet), noted a December 24 record of 17.7 degrees C.

Source

Record Number of Christmas Tornadoes, Blizzards Tear Through U.S. (Dec 25)
The National Weather Service said there were a record 34 tornadoes reported in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday.

A state of emergency was declared in Mississippi, where homes, roads and businesses were damaged in at least nine counties. Eight people were injured but expected to survive, officials said.

A tornado watch was issued Wednesday for the eastern Carolinas until 5:00 p.m. ET.

At one point late Tuesday, holiday celebrations went dark for at least 150,000 customers in Alabama; electricity had been restored to all but 8,500 by the next morning, according to Alabama Power.

The worst of the tornadoes hit Tuesday afternoon in Mobile, Ala.  Along with brutal, straight-line winds, the storms knocked down countless trees, blew the roofs off homes and left many Christmas celebrations in the dark. Torrential rains drenched the region and several places saw flash flooding.

Rick Cauley, who was hosting relatives for Christmas, got everyone in the house to a shelter at the high school down the block.

"As luck would have it, that's where the tornado hit," Cauley told The Associated Press. "The pressure dropped and the ears started popping and it got crazy for a second."

Mobile Press-Register reporter John Sharp wrote that he hunkered down in his bathtub in the fetal position while the power flickered off and the twister roared around his building.

When he walked outside, he was stunned. The roof of a small shopping center had caved in, and several cars in a restaurant parking lot were destroyed.

“Visibly, it was like a bomb has gone off at The Loop,” he wrote. “A one-way street sign was literally sawed into half. The Dauphin Island Parkway/Airport Boulevard sign was flattened. Power lines were lying on the ground.

Mobile’s Trinity Episcopal Church lost a large section of its roof and a wall, but officials were looking on the bright side. Hours before the tornado touched down, there were 500 people in the church for Christmas Eve services.

Blizzard Conditions Across 8 States

At least eight states were issued blizzard warnings, as the storms made highways dangerously slick heading into one of the busiest travel days of the year.  The death toll rose to six with car accidents on snow and sleet-slickened highways in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Indianapolis had 7 inches on the ground by 10 a.m. after receiving as much as 3 inches of snow in a single hour making it one of the strongest snowstorms in years to strike central and southern Indiana.

Ice accumulation in Arkansas bent trees and power lines, leaving at least 50,000 customers across the state without power. About 10 inches of snow fell on Fayetteville, Ark.

Fifty-two Indiana counties have travel restrictions in place during the blizzard.

Motorists were stranded Wednesday morning on State Road 37 southbound at the Monroe-Morgan county line.

Indiana State police say slick, snow-covered road conditions on an incline in the area stalled 40 to 50 cars.  An Indiana Department of Transportation truck tried to clear the area, but ended up in a ditch.

All roads, including SR37, SR46 and SR45 in the Bloomington District remain snow covered, slick and extremely hazzardous. Some areas are down to one lane and some remain impassable.   

More than 100 Indiana National Guard soldiers and airmen have been activated Wednesday to assist the citizens and communities of Indiana, Indiana State Police troopers and local authorities throughout the state under the direction of Indiana Department of Homeland Security.

National Guard personnel will deploy 10 Highway Assistance Teams, consisting of a total of 40 personnel, that will augment emergency personnel with the evacuation of stranded motorists and shut-ins.

Additionally, six Armory Support Packages, consisting of a total of 24 personnel, have been initiated to provide life support and vehicle staging operations to emergency personnel during IDHS operations.

More than 900 flights around the U.S. were canceled as of Wednesday midday, according to the flight tracker FlightAware.com. The cancelations were mostly spread around airports that had been or soon would be in the path of the storm.

Sources

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/26/16166853-power-crews-scr...

http://abcnews.go.com/US/nasty-winter-storms-spawn-tornadoes-blizza...

http://tribstar.com/latest/x1303500919/Indiana-National-Guard-respo...

Usually a harbinger of Spring, daffodils are blooming 2 months early in the U.K. (Dec 25)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2253108/The-Christmas-daffo...

The Christmas Daffodil?

Keen gardener said that the flowers are his earliest blooms yet.

While most of the UK continues to be deluged by rain - the early signs of spring have already made an appearance in one Devon town.

Keen gardener Brian Rickard saw the first daffodils in his Plymouth, Devon, flowerbeds bloom in time for Christmas.

The bright yellow flower made an appearance despite the town enduring 128.8mm of rain already in December - surpassing its monthly average for this time of year of 118.8mm.

In bloom: Keen gardener Brian Rickard is pictured outside his Plymouth, Devon, home with his daffodils which have flowered in time for Christmas

Spring on its way: Brian Rickard, right, says neither he, nor his wife Mary, knew what variety the bulbs were

Looking good: Although Mr Rickard usually sees his daffodils flower in December, he says that this is the earliest they have ever made an appearance

Although Mr Rickard usually sees his daffodils flower in December, he says that this is the earliest they have ever made an appearance.

Mr Rickard said: 'They have been out since December 15. Everybody who goes past is amazed.

'We always seem to have the first out. People are always saying "how on earth do you do it?".

'We don’t do anything at all. We just planted them and left them. I think it is because we are in a sheltered valley.

He added: 'These are in the front garden, which is south facing so it’s a bit warmer.'

Three girls spot early daffodils as they walk to the pub for Christmas lunch in Westward Ho!, North Devon

Brian, 73, a retired university technician, said neither he, nor his wife Mary, knew what variety the bulbs were.

'I haven’t a clue,' he said.

'It’s team work. Mary does the weeding and I do the planting and digging.

'It does cheer you up, seeing daffodils at Christmas.'

Although normally planted in Autumn, daffodils develop their roots over several months before flowering in the spring.

Mr Rickard's daffodils were not the only ones to flower two months early.

More daffodils were spotted in Westward Ho!, Devon.

East coast, and Southern Australia Brace for Heat waves (Jan 1)

Severe Fire Dangers are forecast for most of South Africa, just a day after a bush fire started in the Clare valley. Authorities have warned today that any blaze that is sparked today is likely to be fast moving and uncontrollable. Some parts of Queensland are also facing dangerous fire conditions with Northwest Queensland expected to have temperature of 43 degrees. The state of Victoria is also preparing for a record breaking heat wave.

Source

Unseasonable snow falls in South Island (Jan 3)

A sodden South Island will have the chance to dry off over the next few days, after a front which brought gales, torrential rain, thunderstorms and unseasonal snow to the south moves off the country.

Source

India: More Than 100 Die Of Exposure As Temperatures Drop In The North

A homeless child sits wrapped in a towel in his temporary home under a flyover in Jammu, India, on Jan. 2,2013. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Police say more than 100 people have died of exposure as northern India deals with historically cold temperatures.

Police spokesman Surendra Srivastava said Thursday that at least 114 people have died from the cold in the state of Uttar Pradesh. At least 23 of those died in the past 24 hours.

Srivastava said many of the dead were poor people whose bodies were found on sidewalks or in parks.

The weather department said temperatures in the state were 4 to 10 degrees Celsius (7 to 18 degrees Fahrenheit) below normal.

Temperatures in New Delhi, which borders Uttar Pradesh, hit a high Wednesday of 9.8 degrees (49.6 Fahrenheit), the lowest maximum temperature in the capital since 1969.

Heavy Snow Blankets Northern Mexico, West Texas (Jan 3)
Snow blankets Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on January 3, 2013. The same winter weather system forced the closure of Interstate 10 in El Paso, Texas, just across the border from Juarez.

Blizzard conditions hampered efforts early Friday to reopen large sections of Interstate 10 in west Texas that were closed following crashes.

Portions of a 240-mile stretch of the interstate were closed in both directions from El Paso to Fort Stockton city Thursday evening, said Veronica Beyer, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation.

She urged motorists to "avoid" the area.

The interstate will likely remain closed through the morning hours because of a "truck wreck and blizzard conditions," Beyer said.

Heavy snow also caused the closure of U.S. Highway 62/180, also from east of El Paso west to the New Mexico state line.

The National Weather Service predicted that some mountain areas in west Texas could see up to 8 inches of snow by midday Friday.

The snow storm caused the closure of some schools, stores and government buildings in the El Paso area Thursday, CNN affiliate KTSM said.

"The weather has had an impact on our flights today. We have seen cancellations and also many delays," Liz Bellegarde, a spokeswoman at El Paso International Airport, told KTSM.

Source

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/04/us/texas-weather/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Worst drought in decades hits Brazil's Northeast

Ueslei Marcelino / Reuters

Farmers from the Brazilian northeast carry out a demonstration holding cattle skulls in front of the Planalto Palace in Brasilia Dec. 4, 2012. The protesters are demanding the cancellation of their debts and help from the government to alleviate the effects of the drought that rages over the region this year.

Brazil's Northeast is suffering its worst drought in decades, threatening hydro-power supplies in an area prone to blackouts and potentially slowing economic growth in one of the country's emerging agricultural frontiers.

Lack of rain has hurt corn and cotton crops, left cattle and goats to starve to death in dry pastures and wiped some 30 percent off sugar cane production in the region responsible for 10 percent of Brazil's cane output.

Thousands of subsistence farmers have seen their livelihoods wither away in recent months as animal carcasses lie abandoned in some areas that have seen almost no rain in two years.

"We are experiencing the worst drought in 50 years, with consequences that could be compared to a violent earthquake," Eduardo Salles, agriculture secretary in the northeastern state of Bahia, said in an emailed statement.

China's Coldest Winter in Decades at New Low

China is experiencing unusual chills this winter with its national average temperature hitting the lowest in 28 years, and snow and ice have closed highways, canceled flights, stranded tourists and knocked out power in several provinces.

China Meteorological Administration on Friday said the national average was -3.8 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit) since late November, the coldest in nearly three decades.

The average temperature in northeast China dipped to -15.3 degrees C (4.5 degrees F), the coldest in 43 years, and dropped to a 42-year low of -7.4 degrees C (18.7 degrees F) in northern China.

Source

Snow disaster affects 770,000 people in N China (Jan 6)

Thirty-year record-low temperatures and a snow disaster have left two people dead and affected 770,000 others in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local authorities said Sunday.

Snow has fallen on 917,000 square kilometers, or 78 percent, of Inner Mongolia, with 82,000 square km buried in snow at least 25-centimeters deep, according to the regional meteorological authority.

More than 3,700 residents have been relocated and 260,000 others are in need of emergency aid, sources with the region's civil affairs department said.

By Jan. 4, snow had left about 180,000 head of livestock dead, with direct economic loss estimated at 690 million yuan (110 million U.S. dollars).

Civil affairs authorities have earmarked disaster relief funds that will be allocated to those affected by adverse weather conditions ahead of the Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 10 this year.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/Off_the_Wire/2013-01/06/content_27604...

Thirty-year record-low temperatures and a snow disaster have left two people dead and affected 770,000 others in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local authorities said Sunday.

Snow has fallen on 917,000 square kilometers, or 78 percent, of Inner Mongolia, with 82,000 square km buried in snow at least 25-centimeters deep, according to the regional meteorological authority.

More than 3,700 residents have been relocated and 260,000 others are in need of emergency aid, sources with the region's civil affairs department said.

By Jan. 4, snow had left about 180,000 head of livestock dead, with direct economic loss estimated at 690 million yuan (110 million U.S. dollars).

Civil affairs authorities have earmarked disaster relief funds that will be allocated to those affected by adverse weather conditions ahead of the Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 10 this year.

Chicago Snowfall: City About To Break A 72-Year-Old Weather Record

A lone cyclist navigates the bike path through a snow storm at Chicago's North Ave. beach Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

It's already been a mild winter of record-shattering proportions in Chicago -- and the weather records keep falling in the city.

Unless at least an inch of snow falls yet Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, AccuWeather reports that the city will beat a record, dating back to 1940, for the longest stretch of consecutive days without an inch of the whit... falling to the ground: 319. Such snowfall is not in the forecast amid nearly spring-like temperatures arriving in the area.

Adding further insult to injury, at least for those Chicagoans who enjoy snow, the city has still only logged a grand total of just 1.3 inches of snowfall through the entire winter to this point, 0.4 of which fell Saturday, pushing the city past one inch of snowfall for the season on nearly the latest date on record since 1866.

As the RedEye points out, some unlikely cities have surpassed Chicago's paltry snowfall total this year, including El Paso, Texas (3.1 inches), Amarillo, Texas (2.1 inches) and Oklahoma City, Okla. (1.4 inches).

Still, winter is far from over and the average snowfall for a Chicago winter is 38 inches: the Chicago Weather Center notes that a blast of frigid air is forecast to come down from central Canada on Friday, at which point the Windy City could begin to make up some snowy ground.

Source

Australia swelters through hottest ever day

The hot weather that has fuelled fires in southern Australia has also delivered the nation its hottest day since records began a century ago.

In records going way back to the start of 1911, [Monday] - with an average temperature of 40.33 - is Australia's new hottest day on record," he said.

Dr Jones says the national temperature is the average of between 700 and 800 stations.

"And if we look at maximum temperatures that were recorded at those, average those across country, taking into account the spatial distribution, and then just get a simple number," Dr Jones said.

"So what it tells us really is if you look across Australia, as an average, what was the daytime maximum temperature."

The previous all-time high was in 1972.

Dr Jones says Tuesday is expected to be even hotter.

"Our guiders are suggesting we may beat yesterday's record by another 0.1 or 0.2 of a degree. The other record that we'll be watching is a run of very hot days," he said.

"We'd only ever seen four days of 39 degrees or above consecutively. We've now seen six, and we'll almost certainly see seven, and perhaps even eight.

"So, this event is now going beyond anything in our record books."

Source

It’s Now So Hot in Australia that Gasoline Evaporates Before You Can Pump It (Jan 9)

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology added new colors to its weather forecasting chart to represent record-breaking heat Tuesday.

Jerusalem hit by worst snowstorm in twenty years

Unusually heavy snowfall as temperatures dip below freezing

The Holy City of Jerusalem has been covered in a brilliant white blanket after the worst snowstorm in 20 years.
 
Schools and highways have been closed as up to eight inches of snow piled up in the city centre by this afternoon.
 
Israel and much of the surrounding region has been hit by five days of rain, wind and snow as temperatures have dipped below freezing.
 
Elisha Peleg, an official in charge of emergencies with the Jerusalem Municipality, urged the city's residents to remain at home and stay off the streets, telling Army Radio the area had overnight seen its greatest snowfall since 1992.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2260223/Jerusalem-hit-worst...

Record Cold Kills 80 in Bangladesh (Jan 10)

A cold snap which saw temperatures drop on Thursday to their lowest point in Bangladesh's post-independence history has killed around 80 people, officials said.

The weather office said the lowest temperature was recorded at 3ºC in the northern town of Syedpur and the Red Crescent said hospitals were packed with patients suffering respiratory illness.

Shah Alam, deputy head of the weather office, said the last time the temperature had dropped below 3ºC was in February 1968 when Bangladesh was still part of Pakistan.

"The temperature is the lowest in Bangladesh's history," he said.

The Red Crescent Society said impoverished rural areas had been worst hit as many people could not afford warm clothing or heating.

"They are not prepared for such extreme weather. Many could not even go to work," the society's general-secretary Abu Bakar said.

"According to the reports of our district offices and local administrations about 80 people have died due to cold-related diseases such as respiratory problems, pneumonia and cough," Bakar added.

Bangladesh, which is a tropical country, normally sees temperatures fall to around 10ºC at this time of year.

Source

http://www.news24.com/World/News/Record-cold-kills-80-in-Bangladesh...

Deadly storms blanket parts of Mid-East in snow (Jan 10)

The worst storms to hit the region in a decade have claimed several lives and left parts of Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan covered in snow.

At least 10cm (4in) of snow fell on Jerusalem on Thursday.

Across the Middle East, many schools are shut and thousands of homes are without power.

Heavy snow in Jerusalem on Thursday brought transport to a standstill.

The freezing conditions have brought misery for thousands of Syrians living in refugee camps in northern Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

Two weather-related deaths were reported in Lebanon including that of a baby swept away in a flash flood.

Another four people died in the West Bank which has also suffered severe flooding.

Egyptian officials said five French tourists were injured when their minibus overturned on snow-covered mountain roads in the Sinai Peninsula.

In Jordan, police said a blizzard had blocked most roads in the capital Amman and other areas.

King Abdullah II ordered the army to help local authorities keep roads open and rescue those stranded by the severe conditions.

Power cuts were reported in Lebanon, Jordan and Israel.

The snow followed days of heavy rain and high winds across the Middle East and meteorological officials have described it as the worst storm to hit the region in 10 years.

Correspondents say the storm has also badly hit regional economies.

The Manufacturers Association of Israel warned it cost the country's industry at least about 300m shekels (£50m) in damages, most caused by flooding.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20970870

N. America Record Highs/Lows Smashed From Coast to Coast (Jan 13)

Records were broken across the country Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning.

Dozens of record highs were set or tied from Ontario through Florida on Saturday while record lows were found throughout the West.

Below is a list of selected official record high temperatures from Saturday:

    Montgomery, Ala. 80 degrees broke the previous record of 76 from 1950.
    Tampa, Fla.  83 degrees broke the previous record of 82 from 1989.
    Atlanta, Ga.  76 degrees broke the previous record of 71 from 1995.
    Alpena, Mich.  57 degrees broke the record of 49 from 2005.
    Bradford, Pa.  53 degrees broke the record of 50 from 2006.
    Bluefield, W.V.  72 degrees broke the record of 68 from 2005.
    Ottawa, Ontario  45 degrees broke the record of 42 from 1932.
    Toronto, Ontario  55 degrees broke the record of 49 from 2006.
    Columbia, S.C.  82 degrees broke the record of 74 from 2005.

Below is a list of selected unofficial record low temperatures from Sunday morning:

    Ely, Nv.  -21 degrees which would break the record of -19 from 2007.
    Winnemucca, Nv.  -20 degrees which would break the record of -19 from 1917.
    South Lake Tahoe, Calif.  -14 degrees which would break the record of -6 from 2007.
    Thermal, Calif.  20 degrees which would break the record of 25 from 2012.
    Riverside, Calif.  22 degrees which would break the record of 25 from 1963.
    Burns, Ore.  -15 degrees which would break the record of -9 from 1960.

Source

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/records-highslows-smashe...

http://graphical.weather.gov/sectors/conus.php#tabs

Temps across the USA setting records in stunning image forcast!  East of the Sierras is mostly in the Minus -F degrees purple to white!

Temperature anomaly in the Arctic11.01.13. Meteorologists for the first time report a record 7-degree deviation from the annual temperature in the Arctic.

According to Roman Vilfand of the Russian Hydrometeorology Center, a record small area of sea ice was observed in the Arctic in 2012.

As he addressed a news conference in Moscow, Vilfand said the temperature anomaly in question had been registered in the northern part of the Kara Sea between Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya.
http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_11/Temperature-anomaly-in-the-Arctic/

Snow in Europe: Record amount of snow and the longest traffic jams

Zagreb, Amsterdam - in Zagreb after snowfall on Sunday and Monday January intention record amount of snow, snowfall in Holland today during rush hour resulted in the longest traffic jams in the country's history.

After the snowfall on Sunday and Monday in the Maksimir Park in the eastern part of Zagreb intent 68 cm of snow. It is a record amount of snow since January 1861, when in the end started to take measurements, confirmed the Croatian meteorologists. Also in the city center recorded a record as the only on Monday canceled almost 60 cm of snow.

Snowfall today in the Netherlands at the time of the peak resulted in the longest traffic jams in the country's history, the subject Dutch automobile association ANWD. The total length of all the congestion on highways across the country is 1,000 kilometers is exceeded.

http://alturl.com/j6med

Surprise winter storm creates travel woes across N. Texas (Jan 15)

An unexpected winter storm that struck North Texas before daybreak Tuesday put morning commuters on ice, canceled flights and forced some schools to open later than normal.

Forecasters had predicted a slight chance of light sleet but had said that most of the precipitation should stay southeast of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Oops.

"It's always a challenge to predict winter precipitation in North Texas," said Nick Hampshire, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth. "It's always a fine line. If it had been two or three degrees warmer, we would have been talking about a rain event."

Many parts of Tarrant County received as much as a half-inch of sleet and snow, the most significant icy precipitation since the Christmas Day storm, said Dan Shoemaker, another weather service meteorologist.

Photos: Real Time Weather Observation: Flooding parts of Kruger National Park (19 January 2013) - SOUTH AFRICA

http://sawdis1.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/flooding-hits-kruger-nationa...
Flooding hits Kruger National Park
According to Latest Sightings Kruger, flooding has hit the national park.

According the reports on Latest Sightings, the once dry river at Tamboti is nearing the camp's fence.

The river near the Malelane gate has risen and is apparently pulling down trees.

http://sawdis1.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/photos-real-time-weather-obs...
Photos: Real Time Weather Observation: Flooding parts of South Africa (19 January 2013)

Record snowfall closes lifts and roads in the Pyrenees

The Pyrenees are experiencing historic, but also terrifying moments right now. Around 200 centimeters of freshies came down in the ski resorts on the French side of the Pyrenees since Sunday. All the lifts in the resorts are closed since Tuesday morning as a precaution.

Historical snow fall
The start of the season wasn’t that good for the Pyrenees. Until Friday. Where the snowcover was less than in other years, this huge dump changed it all. In just three days time. This is happening just once every twenty years. We have to go back to the nineties for a similar situation. Lots of snow in a short period of time and the highest avalanche danger (five) for days.

Source

Snowpocalypse Russia: 'Snow tsunami' swallows streets, cars, buildings (PHOTOS)

Norilsk. (Photo from bigpicture.ru)

Unrelenting snowfalls have caused unprecedented chaos in Russia. Over the past week, the country has seen scores of traffic accidents, flight delays and, in some cases, the complete isolation of some remote settlements and towns.

Norilsk (Photo from bigpicture.ru)

Norilsk (Photo from bigpicture.ru)

On Friday, Moscow was on a verge of traffic collapse as more than 10 inches of snow fell on the city, which is more than half of January’s average.

Thousands of passengers were stranded overnight in the capital’s major airports, as several dozen flights were delayed.

Muscovites woke up and found their cars, driveways and houses buried under a thick layer of snow, with city workers unable to get to smaller streets.

Moscow’s Yandex app showed traffic at level 10, the highest possible, as strong winds created blizzard conditions and built imposing snow drifts.

Falling snow and ice caused many accidents due to poor visibility and bad road conditions. Moscow witnessed a 13-kilometer jam on MKAD, one of the city's main highways, reducing speeds to 10 to 25 kph in the capital.

More than 12,000 snow removal trucks worked around-the-clock to clean up the mess, but their efforts did little, with the city coming to an effective standstill.

The chair of the Duma’s transport committee called for local transport officials to face legal sanctions for failing to cope with the winter weather. “Until local bureaucrats face the wrath of the law, winter will always be a surprise occurrence. They will continue to do nothing, as people suffer,” Mikhail Bryachak told Kommersant FM radio.

However, meteorologists have promised some good news for Moscow: The stormy conditions are expected to recede over the weekend.

'Incredible:' Another snowless record on tap for Chicago

Whether you like it or not, we will officially break another record for no snow today, according to the National Weather Service.

"It's pretty incredible," said NWS meteorologist Gino Izzi. "It's the middle of January and there's no snow on the ground. Dallas, Texas has had more snow than us."

Source

N.India snowfall at eight-year record

The Queen of the Hills, as Shimla was fondly called by the British, recorded the highest snowfall on a single day January in the past eight years, a Met official said here Saturday.

Manmohan Singh, director of the meteorological office here, told IANS that the town recorded 38.6 cm snow in the past 24 hours, the highest in the first month of the year since 2005.

"The maximum snow in a day in January was recorded was in 2005. It was 33.2 cm Jan 18," he said, adding: "On two consecutive days (Jan 17 and 18 this year) the town got 63.6 cm."

Source