http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/peoplesdaily/article-3021481/The-du...

The dust that doesn't settle: Incredible pictures show Chinese city completely swarmed by giant sandstorm cloud

• Incredible pictures show a city in China devoured by a giant sandstorm
• Golmud, in the country's north west, was yesterday blasted for half an hour
• The entire city turned red as it was covered by the brightly-coloured sand
• As residents fled the streets, the city took on a Mars-type appearance

Incredible pictures have shown the moment ferocious red sandstorms currently engulfing China devoured a city in the country's north west.

China's pollution hit cities are now having to cope with a fresh nuisance after the fourth massive sandstorm struck the north-west of the country this year alone.

The images show the city of Golmud, in the country's north west Qinghai Province, as it succumbs to a sweeping half-hour sandstorm which reduced the visibility to as little as 30 metres, according to The People's Daily Online.

The raging sand storm sweeps in on the city of Golmud in north west China, where 200,000 people live

The sandstorm was the fourth to hit the area this year as authorities struggle to deal with the natural hazards

China's Meteorlogical Centre issued a blue alert as the sandstorms swept across the north of the country

China's National Meteorological Centre (NMC) has now issued a blue alert for the latest sandstorms to hit the northern regions.

The red sand swept across the northern part of the country bringing strong winds and floating sand to the regions of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia and Shaanxi, in what was the fourth sandstorm to hit the area this year.

The organisation advised residents to stay indoors and local authorities to brace for the clean-up operation after the sandstorms.

China's four-tier colour-coded weather warning system signifies red as the most severe followed by orange, yellow and blue.

Photos of the city of Dunhuang in the north-western province of Gansu show the thick orange haze coating the city's atmosphere and the lack of people on the streets gave the area an almost alien planet appearance.

A local meteorologist said visibility was reduced to less than 50metres in downtown areas.

Police spokesman Hui Chuang said: 'The storm forced most people to stay indoors because it was difficult to drive anyway given the low visibility and also hard to breathe without inhaling sand.

'It also forced the closure of the nearby Mogao Grottoes.'

The site is a UNESCO world heritage tourist site renowned for its massive sculptures and frescoes carved in caves along a cliff.

Governor issues mandatory water cuts as California snowpack hits record low

PHILLIPSStanding in a dry brown meadow that typically would be buried in snow this time of year, Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday ordered the first mandatory water cutbacks in California history, a directive that will affect cities and towns statewide.

California’s mountain snowpack is crucial to determining summer supplies, normally accounting for at least 30 percent of total fresh water available statewide. The poor snowpack means California reservoirs likely already have reached peak storage and will receive little additional runoff from snowmelt, an unusual situation.

“We’re standing on dry grass, and we should be standing in five feet of snow,” Brown said. “We’re in an historic drought, and that demands unprecedented action.”

Brown’s executive order directs California’s more than 3,000 urban water providers to collectively cut their water use by 25 percent compared with 2013. The State Water Resources Control Board is expected to impose the new restrictions by mid-May, setting a different target for each agency depending on how much water its customers use per capita and conservation progress since last year.

With 2015 opening with some of the driest weather in California history, Brown has faced increasing pressure to act on the drought. His call last year for residents to voluntarily reduce their water use by 20 percent statewide resulted in increased conservation, but ultimately fell short. Water agencies collectively managed to meet this target only once out of the last eight months.

“I called for 20 percent voluntary, and we’re going to get more like 9 percent,” Brown said. “That’s not enough.”

The new goals will be mandatory. Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the water board, said her agency will decide next month exactly what tools it will wield to ensure compliance. But she suggested water agencies that don’t meet their targets are likely to face fines.

“Enforcement is definitely on deck in this next phase,” she said.

Brown’s directive calls on the state to create financial incentives for homeowners to replace thirsty lawns with drought tolerant landscape, as well as rebates for new water-efficient appliances. But he said local water agencies also might issue cease-and-desist orders on water users if they fail to meet the conservation order.

“I would hope that we don’t see this in some punitive way, but that we see the challenge,” Brown said. “(The) reality is that the climate is getting warmer, the weather is getting more extreme and unpredictable, and we have to become more resilient, more efficient and more innovative. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

In the Sacramento region, water agencies overall cut water usage per capita by about 18 percent from the summer of 2013 to the summer of 2014, according to a Bee review of data reported to the state. That means many already are close to the 25 percent cut mandated by Gov. Brown.

However, the capital region still guzzles far more than most other parts of the state. On average. Sacramento area residents used about 190 gallons per person per day between June and September 2014, compared to an average of about 131 gallons per person per day in the rest of the state.

Among the other measures in the governor’s order:

▪ A program to replace 50 million square feet of residential lawns statewide with drought-tolerant plants, equal to more than 800 football fields.

▪ A new statewide consumer rebate program to subsidize installation of water efficient appliances, such as toilets and washing machines.

▪ A ban on watering ornamental lawns on public street medians.

▪ A ban on irrigating yards in new housing developments unless the water is recycled or drip irrigation is used.

▪ Financial assistance for families forced to find new housing because they have run out of potable water.

“People should realize we’re in a new era,” Brown said. “The idea of your nice little green grass getting lots of water every day, that’s going to be a thing of the past.”

Brown’s order requires water agencies that service agricultural areas to develop drought management plans, with increased reporting on water supply and use. But unlike cities, farms will face no conservation targets, mandatory or otherwise.

Agriculture consumes nearly 80 percent of the state’s “developed” water supply.

Marcus said agricultural water agencies already have had their surface water allocations slashed considerably. In the case of farmers dependent on the federal Central Valley Project, many have been told they will receive no water. The State Water Project, which is operated by DWR and also serves some farms, plans to deliver 20 percent of typical contract amounts.

Craig Wilson, former Delta watermaster at the state water board, is among those saying the state should be doing more to force conservation on farmers. He noted that many farmers enjoy so-called “senior” water rights, which have not been curtailed at all. Many also rely on groundwater, which has been pumped to unprecedented lows in some parts of the state.

Brown’s order requires groundwater users to expand or speed up their reports of water use, but does not restrict pumping.

“Ag is where the water is,” Wilson said. “Come up with a plan to cut their water use by 10 percent, 20 percent. I wouldn’t dictate to the farmers how to do it, but tell them to give us the plan that shows how you’re going to do it.”

Officials at urban water agencies mostly cheered Brown’s announcement, saying it will help keep the public focused on conservation as the drought worsens.

“I think he’s upping the ante, and I think it’s important that he does,” said Kevin Wattier, general manager of the Long Beach Water Agency. “You look at what’s happened with this snowpack and we need to step it up.”

Last week, Brown signed a $1.1 billion drought relief and flood protection package, then went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to address the crisis for a national audience. Brown has stopped short of attributing the drought to climate change but said it is the kind of event that climate change is making “absolutely inevitable in the coming years and decades.”

Two of the first three months of this year, January and March, were the driest in more than 100 years. Many areas of the state were also hotter than average during these months, shattering heat records in many locations, including Sacramento.

A few miles down Highway 50 from the meadow where the snowpack measurement took place, the only evidence of winter was a patch of snow that could be seen on a hilltop from the window of Strawberry Station, a general store.

“It’s pretty dire,” said David Schlosser, who owns the store with his wife, Jenifer. “It looks like August.”

Schlosser said families heading to the mountains for winter vacations this year stopped and asked how far they had to continue to find snow.

“We would say, ‘Denver,’” he said.

Jenifer Schlosser said that during a major drought in the late 1970s, when Brown was governor before, residents trusted dry years were cyclical and would come to an end.

“Now, with all the other changes – climate change – people are like, ‘Oh, this could be serious.’”

At the snowpack measurement, Brown was asked about his own conservation efforts.

“First of all, my own water use is relatively limited, I must say,” Brown said. “We’re very careful of what we’re doing – turning off that faucet a little quicker, getting out of the shower a little faster, and not flushing the toilet every time.”

Antarctica records unprecedented high temperatures in two new readings

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/31/potential-record...

Significant climate news was playing out in Antarctica, where two climate stations registered ominous new potential measurements of accelerating climate change.

A weather station on the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula recorded what may be the highest temperature ever on the continent, while a separate study published in the journal Science found that the losses of ice shelf volume in the western Antarctic had increased by 70% in the last decade.

Helen A Fricker of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, a co-author of the Science report, said that there was not necessarily a correlation between recent temperature fluctuations and disappearing ice.

“While it is fair to say that we’re seeing the ice shelves responding to climate change, we don’t believe there is enough evidence to directly relate recent ice shelf losses specifically to changes in global temperature,” Fricker said in an interview with Reuters.

What was incontestable were the unprecedentedly high temperature readings on the Antarctic ice mass.

The potential Antarctica record high of 63.5F (17.5C) was recorded on 24 March at the Esperanza Base, just south of the southern tip of Argentina. The reading, first noted on the Weather Underground blog, came one day after a nearby weather station, at Marambio Base, saw a record high of its own, at 63.3F (17.4C).

By any measure, the Esperanza reading this week was unusual. The previous record high at the base, of 62.7F (17.1C), was recorded in 1961.

Riyadh schools forced to close due to severe sandstorm - SAUDI ARABIA STORM «Dark»

Thursday 2 April 2015

http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/726646

All schools in the Riyadh region, including the ones run by expat communities, will remain closed Thursday.
The Education Department announced the suspension of schools on April 2 because of a major sandstorm that hit Riyadh on Wednesday.

A ferocious sandstorm blanketed the region hampering visibility and causing traffic snarls on many roads and highways. Several shops in the region downed their shutters early.
The Civil Defense has advised all residents in the Riyadh region to avoid going out during the dusty weather.

Your UAE sandstorm Twitter pictures - UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/weather/your-uae-sandstorm-twitter-pic...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/pangnirtung-power-outage-partia...

A fire at the local power plant has led to a community-wide power outage in the Nunavut community of Pangnirtung. (Submitted by David Kilabuk)

Qulliq Energy Corp, the power corporation for Nunavut, said late Thursday partial power has been restored to Pangnirtung. 

QEC asked residents to conserve power for basic necessities as it sought to rotate power in Pangnirtung on two-hour intervals, hoping to increase the time increment as quickly as possible to four hours.

The Northwest Territories Power Corporation airlifted two mobile generators after the cause of the outage that affected the entire community of 1,400, a fire early Thursday at the local power plant.

"Loss of power in the community, in the North, in the winter time is a very serious situation," said Ed Zebedee, the territory's director of protection services in Iqaluit. The community relies entirely on the power plant that generates electricity from diesel fuel. 

Temperatures were forecast to hit a low of -18 C overnight Thursday with a high of -13 C expected Friday.

Pangnirtung, which has a population of 1,400, is the gateway to Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island. (CBC)

An emergency warming shelter has been opened at Attagoyuk Ilisavik School, where there is backup power. A few other buildings in the community also have backup power, but the rest are cold and dark. 

"We opened the warming shelters very early this morning and people are starting to go there," Zebedee said. "We talked to the hamlet and they are getting food from the local stores so they can start feeding people."

The Nunavut government is now working towards getting charter flights to the community to bring people with high-risk health issues, such as those who may be on oxygen generators, to Iqaluit.

The government also worked with the public health agency in Ottawa to get cots, blankets and pillows, which will be flown into Pangnirtung in case residents have to sleep in the school.

"We understand the impacts of being without power in Canada's North and are pleased to be able to assist our neighbouring utility," said Emanuel DaRosa, president and CEO of the power corporation. "It's the least we can do in this crisis situation."

Phone services degrading

Zebedee said he spoke with NorthwesTel this morning and its cellphone system "looks like it has completely failed right now."

A media advisory from NorthwesTel said long distance and data services in Pangnirtung were expected to continue to degrade as backup batteries deplete, but its central office in the community currently has a stable power supply, which should allow local calling to continue to function. 

"We have a bunch of satellite phones in the community with various government agencies and then we also have a couple with the hamlet," Zebedee said. "We have a response kit ready to go in with hand-held radios so that people can communicate between hamlet staff, bylaw officers, water truck people."

Members of the Canadian Rangers met Thursday morning to discuss the situation and went door-to-door to check on households, as well as warning people about potential dangers in their homes, such as carbon monoxide poisoning from using camping stoves or outdoor heating appliances indoors.

Fire began early in morning

The fire at the power plant began at about 1:30 a.m. ET and crews were able to extinguish it.

Ezra Arnakaq, who lives in the community, said there was a lot of damage to the power plant.

"One of the exhaust vents has fallen in part way and there is extensive damage in there," he said.

Residents of Pangnirtung are being asked to run taps regularly to ensure their pipes don't freeze, but to otherwise conserve water.

'Like a hurricane': Floods Swamp Louisville, Forces 160+ Water Recues (Apr 3)

Simone Wester woke up Friday to the sight of boats carting away her neighbors as torrential rains swamped portions of Kentucky's largest city, forcing emergency crews to navigate flooded neighborhoods and make more than 160 rescues.

"It looked like a hurricane struck, said Wester, whose apartment complex was surrounded by floodwaters, waist-deep in some places. "I didn't know what to do."

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said more than 160 water rescues had been made.

Five to 7 inches of rain fell overnight in the Louisville area, mainly along and just south of the Interstate 64 corridor, National Weather Service forecaster Brian Schoettmer said. By comparison, just over 4½ inches of rain had been recorded at Lexington's Blue Grass Airport as of 8 a.m.

The torrential rain closed portions of roads in multiple Kentucky counties Friday morning.

Some side streets near the University of Louisville were completely under water, and an overpass was flooded almost to its top, authorities said.

As storms pushed through the South and Midwest, severe thunderstorms were blamed for the death of a woman who was camping with her family at Natural Bridge State Resort Park in eastern Kentucky.

Catherine Carlson, 45, was killed and her husband was injured when a large tree limb fell on their tent, said Powell County Coroner Hondo Hearne. Their three children didn't appear to be injured, he said.

The campground where the family was staying was evacuated due to flash flooding, said Gil Lawson, a spokesman for the state Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet. The campground is near a stream, and about 15 campsites were occupied when the flood hit, he said.

Meanwhile thousands of people in south central Kansas lost power after winds that reached nearly 90 mph downed trees and damaged buildings overnight and early Friday.

No deaths were reported but six people were injured, emergency management officials said. Several buildings were damaged in Newton and the Jabara Airport in Wichita was closed Friday morning because of storm debris on the airfield.

In Oklahoma, the National Weather Service plans to send a survey team to Ottawa County to investigate reports of a tornado touchdown.

The possible tornado near Afton was part of a storm system that moved through northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas late Thursday and early Friday.

In Kentucky, Powell County received 4 inches of rain, and other eastern areas of the state had 3-4 inches, said National Weather Service meteorologist Tony Edwards.

A northern Kentucky school bus with 16 students aboard was stranded for about three hours by floodwaters that covered roads to schools. Numerous roads in northeastern Kentucky were under water.

The heavy rains in Kentucky started Thursday and continued Friday. Some areas received 1 to 2 inches per hour, said weather service meteorologist Brian Schoettmer. Some of the heaviest rains occurred along or just south of the Interstate 64 corridor, he said.

"We had several waves of rain that rode along the same path," he said.

Some cars were submerged by high water on roads next to the University of Louisville's main campus, said school spokesman Mark Hebert. A few campus buildings had water in the basements, he said. Early classes were canceled Friday, but classes resumed by midmorning, he said.

Bill Mattingly, assistant chief of the Okolona Fire Protection District, said floodwaters started pouring into first-floor apartments overnight.

Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville canceled classes Friday.

Sources

http://www.kentucky.com/2015/04/03/3782373/updates-storms-cause-sub...

http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/28713870/flooding-in-louisville...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3024458/Flooding-Louisville...

Strange black ring over Kazak village.

http://rt.com/news/246953-black-ring-sky-kazakhstan/

Sudden, Massive Hailstorm Kills 3, Injures 150 in India (Apr 4)

3 people were killed and 150 people have been injured due to hailstorms in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh yesterday evening.

"The number of injured is high due to sudden, massive hailstorms," ADM Dhirendra Sachan said.

"Ten cattle were killed and the majority of crops were destroyed in the hailstorm. Actual loss of the farmers has to be assessed," he said.

In Nagla Imam Khan area of Reethora village in Mathura, two persons including a child were killed when their house collapsed on Friday night due to heavy rains.

"While a 30-year-old woman and an eight-year-old child succumbed to injuries on the spot, six people who were injured were rushed to a private hospital in Kosi Kalan town," Mr Sachan said.

Source

http://www.ndtv.com/others-news/massive-hailstorm-in-mathura-3-kill...

Interesting read on Alaska's record warmth that coincides with the Zeta's explanation of the polar wobble (global warming disinfo removed).

Baked Alaska (Mar 11)

Earlier this winter, Monica Zappa packed up her crew of Alaskan sled dogs and headed SOUTH, in search of snow. "We haven't been able to train where we live for two months," she told me.

Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, which Zappa calls home, was practically tropical this winter. Rick Thoman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Alaska, has been dumbfounded. "Homer, Alaska, keeps setting record after record, and I keep looking at the data like, Has the temperature sensor gone out or something?"

Something does seem to be going on in Alaska. Last fall, a skipjack tuna, which is more likely to be found in the Galápagos than near a glacier, was caught about 150 miles southeast of Anchorage, not far from the Kenai. A few weeks ago, race organizers had to truck in snow to the ceremonial Iditarod start line in Anchorage.

This February was the most extreme on record in the Lower 48, and it marked the first time that two large sections of territory (each more than 30 percent of the country) experienced both exceptional cold and exceptional warmth in the same month, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. All-time records were set for the coldest month in dozens of Eastern cities, with Boston racking up more snow than the peaks of California's Sierra Nevada. A single January storm in Boston produced more snow than Anchorage saw all winter.

This year's Iditarod was rerouted — twice — because of the warm weather. The race traditionally starts in Anchorage, which had near-record-low snowfall this winter. The city was without a single significant snowstorm between October and late January, so race organizers decided to move the start from the Anchorage area 360 miles north to Fairbanks. But when the Chena River, which was supposed to be part of the new route's first few miles, failed to sufficiently freeze, the starting point had to move again, to another location in Fairbanks.

On March 9, Zappa set out with her dogs on the 1,000-mile race across Alaska as one of 78 mushers in this year's Iditarod. For most of the winter, the weather across the interior of the state had been abnormally warm. To train, many teams of dogs and their owners had to travel, often "outside" — away from Alaska. Zappa ended up going to the mountains of Wyoming.

A recent study said that Alaska's rivers and melting glaciers are now outputting more water than the Mississippi River. Last year was Alaska's warmest on record, and the warm weather has continued right on into 2015. This winter, Anchorage essentially transformed into a less sunny version of Seattle. As of March 9, the city had received less than one-third of its normal amount of snow. In its place? Rain. Lots of rain. In fact, schools in the Anchorage area are now more likely to cancel school because of rain and street flooding than because of cold and snow.

The Pacific Ocean near Alaska has been record-warm for months now. This year is off to a record-wet start in Juneau. Kodiak experienced its warmest winter on record. A sudden burst of ocean warmth has affected statewide weather before, but this time feels different, residents say. In late February, National Weather Service employees spotted thundersnow in Nome — a city just 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle. "As far as I know, that's unprecedented," Thoman told me. Thunderstorms of any kind require a level of atmospheric energy that's rarely present in cold climates. To get that outside of the summer is incredibly rare everywhere, let alone in Alaska.

For the past few winters, shifts in the jet stream have brought surges of tropical moisture toward southern Alaska via potent atmospheric rivers. This weather pattern has endured so long, it's even earned its own name: the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge. The persistent area of high pressure stretching from Alaska to California has shunted wintertime warmth and moisture northward into the Arctic while the eastern half of the continent is plunged into a deep freeze, polar-vortex style.

The warm water is making its way north into the Arctic Ocean, too, where as of early March, sea ice levels were at their record lowest for the date.

The city of Anchorage has saved an estimated $1 million on snow removal this year and is instead pouring the money into fixing potholes and other backlogged maintenance issues. But getting around the rest of the state hasn't been so easy.

There are few roads in rural Alaska, so winter travel is often done by snowmobiles over frozen rivers. Not this year. Warm temperatures in February led to thin ice and open water in the southwest part of the state near Galena and Bethel. David Hulen, managing editor for the Alaska Dispatch News in Anchorage, has spent nearly 30 years in the state. He says the freeze-thaw cycle is out of whack, "changing the nature of the place." Usually, things freeze in the fall and unfreeze in the spring; this winter, they've seen a nearly constant back and forth between freezing and thawing.

Those are city problems. Along the state's west coast, some native coastal villages are facing an existential threat as sea levels rise. Earlier this winter, Washington Post climate reporter Chris Mooney visited Kivalina, one of the six villages considering plans to relocate.

For now, the most visible change is still in the shifting habitats of the fish, birds, trees, and animals. Permafrost still covers 85 percent of the state, but "almost everywhere, the depth of the active layer is increasing over the last few decades," said Thoman. Since the active layer — the zone of soil above the permafrost that thaws out each summer — now penetrates deeper down, that means landforms are shifting, lakes are draining, and new forests are springing up.

Sources

http://theweek.com/articles/546496/baked-alaska

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/03/clima...

"This is a result of the Polar Push, where the magnetic N Pole of Earth is shoved away daily when it comes up over the horizon to face the Sun and the approaching Planet X, aka Nibiru. The magnetic N Pole of Earth is now positioned over eastern Siberia, which is bitterly cold while Norway and Sweden, just as far north, are warm. The magnetic N Pole of Earth receives less sunlight, and as the globe then leans to the right the northeastern part of N America likewise is cold. The lean to the left, next in the Figure 8 wobble, gives Europe more sunlight while the magnetic N Pole is on the far side of the globe, as does the bounce back from the Polar Push which gives Alaska its warm temps." 

ZetaTalk: February 25, 2015

Easter Monday as San Silvestro, polar temperatures: -15 ° C to Predazzo, -13 ° C in Livigno [DATA] - ITALY

Monday, April 6, 2015

Temperatures of nearly 10 ° C lower than the average of April, very cold especially in the center / north but in the next two days the mercury will drop further

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/04/temperature-minime-oggi-in-italia-pa...

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=y&...

Very cold this morning throughout Italy, especially in the center / north where the weather is sunny but cold and windy as if we were in the middle of winter

Frosts early in the Po Valley with -1 ° C to Malpensa and other locations subzero between Piedmont, Lombardy and Veneto. Freezing cold on the reliefs with -15.4 ° C in Predazzo, -15.3 ° C to Pale di San Martino, -14.0 ° C in Ortisei, -13.7 ° C in Peio, -12.6 ° C Livigno, -12.3 ° C to Grigna, -12.2 ° C in Cortina d'Ampezzo, -12.1 ° C in Pinzolo, -11.4 ° C to Passo del Tonale, -10.3 ° C La Thuile, -9.5 ° C to Monte Cimon, -9.2 ° C at the Refuge Hut, -8.8 ° C to Croce Arcana, -8.7 ° C at Mount Elbow.

Instead these minimum temperatures in the main: 0 ° C to Bologna and Verona, + 1 ° C in Padua, Vicenza, Cuneo, Belluno, Cremona, Varese, Modena, Mantua, Bolzano and Campobasso, + 2 ° C in Parma,

Temperatures will fall again tomorrow and Wednesday, which will be the two coldest days, with extensive frost in the center / north from the plains.

A deep extratropical cyclone on the Black Sea ravaging the south of Ukraine, strong winds and torrential rains flooded the city of Odessa

Wednesday, April 8, 2015,

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/04/profondo-ciclone-extratropicale-mar-...

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=y&...

A severe wave of bad weather yesterday lashed several southern areas of Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula, with heavy rain, torrential character, accompanied by strong winds, NE, N-NE and North, who are over 70 -80 km / h gusts. The mix of heavy rain and strong winds has reaped considerable damage and many hardships in many cities in southern Ukraine. The strong wave of bad weather was produced by the passage of a young and deep extratropical cyclone of 995 hPa on the Black Sea, and in the 24-36 hours before it was developed on the western sector of the Black Sea, taking a remarkable development, with an intense frontogenesis in the lower layers.

The interaction between an extended advection of warm air source sub-tropical continental un'avvezione of very cold air flowed towards the Carpathian region and the western area of ​​the Black Sea, has woven the ideal conditions for the development of a deep cyclogenesis on the Black Sea Basin

But strong winds, exceeding the threshold of the storm, they also swept the remaining Oblast 'southern Ukraine, from Dnipropetrovsk to the coastal city of Mariupol', Sea of ​​Azov, gusting to N-NE and NE until beyond 70 km / h

MAP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odessa

Tornadoes Wreak Destruction Across the Midwest (Apr 9)

Multiple tornadoes ripped through parts of Iowa, Illinois and Ohio on Thursday, leaving widespread destruction and injuries in their wake, including a 50-mile path of damage across north central Illinois.

"Preliminary indications based on radar data would suggest a path of 50 mies of intermittent tornado damage, potentially a single track or a couple of tracks, and there have been reports of more significant damage," National Weather Service Meteorologist Gino Izzi said.

In Rochelle, Illinois, there were "multiple reports of injuries and damage," the Ogle County Sheriff's dispatchers said.

The Rochelle Community Hospital was in "disaster mode," spokeswoman Kelly Smith said, with patients in the emergency room and urgent care because of the tornado.

Storm chaser Dan Gottschalk told CNN he observed "massive damage" north of Rochelle, spotting some homes with only their foundations remaining.

"You can hear the hissing everywhere from where the structures used to be," he said.

As reports of tornadoes in Illinois, Ohio and Iowa grew, ominous storm images quickly surfaced on social media.

More tornadoes were later reported near the Illinois community of Ashton, which also saw tennis ball-sized hail, and around Rockford, which is Illinois' third largest city, about 85 miles northwest of Chicago.

Lee County, Illinois, which is about 50 miles south of Rockford, also had a tornado go through, county Emergency Management Agency Director Kevin Lalley said.

"We do have damage at this time," Lalley said. "I'm trying to confirm the area of the image and the extent."

Emergency officials reached in parts of McHenry County said they were swamped with calls for help. There were reports of damage in the incorporated community of Fairdale. A dispatcher with the McHenry County Sheriff's Department said they have received several reports of tornadoes in the area of Woodstock.

The small town of Kirkland has sent its public works employees with backhoes, generators and other equipment to the town of Fairdale to help in anyway they can, Village President Les Bellah said.

"Fairdale is pretty well destroyed, from what I understand," Bellah said. "They're taking our backhoes and whatever generators and whatever equipment we got over there to assist them. Our fire department is there now on scene as well."

More than 700 flights have been canceled at Chicago's airports, and more than 1,400 were experiencing delays.

The twisters are part of a broader severe weather pattern that was expected to affect about 95 million people Thursday, including those in major cities such as Chicago and St. Louis.

Eight tornadoes were reported Wednesday in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, the Storm Prediction Center said.

The National Weather Service indicated a tornado may have touched down in the small town of Potosi, Missouri, about 70 miles from St. Louis.

Another tornado was reported south of Toledo, Ohio.

More storms are expected in the Midwest, Mississippi River Valley, Tennessee River Valley and near the southern Great Lakes, the Weather Service said.

Sources

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/09/us/severe-weather/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-weath...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-live-blog-sto...

http://www.kttc.com/story/28766363/nws-tornado-touched-down-in-east...

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/photos-tornadoes-hail-fl...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-geraldine-sch...

Snowfall on the Cairo-Alexandria desert road

http://www.3ajlnews.com/egypt/78250.html translated with google

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&a...

Alexandria saw this afternoon, the increase in the severity of a wave of bad weather that hit the province, since the dawn of the day, with snow-white balls fell west of Alexandria and on the road to Alexandria - Cairo Desert.

Also different parts of Alexandria, had heavy rain, which led to traffic problems on the Corniche and the main street.

Holy Saturday of rain in Jerusalem, the cyclonic circulation on Turkey provoke intense thunderstorms in the Middle East

April 11, 2015

The cyclonic circulation Anatolian plateau moves eastward causing rains, scattered showers and thunderstorms between Asia Minor and the Middle East

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/04/sabato-santo-di-pioggia-a-gerusalemm...

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=y&...

A Holy Saturday, the eve of the Orthodox Easter, penalized by the rain and the rain on the city of Jerusalem.

Since yesterday throughout Asia Minor, and even along the coast of Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, the weather continues to be markedly unstable, with rain, scattered showers and thunderstorms, locally also give rise to short bursts of hail. All because of continental polar air that has moved away from the Aegean to the Western Turkey.

This cyclonic circulation has evolved into a minimum depressionario derivative that you went to place the Sea of Levante, off the southern coast of Turkey and Syria where he is leading a phase of marked instability, with frequent rains and thunderstorms between Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and northern Egypt.

Strong wave of bad weather in Israel: snowfall in the Galilee and the Golan
Heavy rains have fallen on the Mediterranean coast and also in the area of ​​Jerusalem
April 12, 2015

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/04/forte-ondata-di-maltempo-in-israele-...

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=y&...

A wave of bad weather yesterday invests different regions of Israel, particularly the Upper Galilee and the Golan Heights. In some localities' are reported blizzards as we have not seen for a decade.

Heavy rains have fallen on the Mediterranean coast and also in the area of ​​Jerusalem. Consequently they are now in full in the Judean Desert several rivers that lead from the hills of Jerusalem to the Dead Sea depression. Some roads were closed to traffic for prudential reasons. Persistent rains and strong winds are also recorded in the Negev desert.

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Wave of bad weather in the Gaza Strip: flooding to hail and rain [PHOTOS and VIDEO]

A stretch of the main artery, the Sallah-a-din, was closed to traffic
April 12, 2015

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/04/ondata-di-maltempo-nella-striscia-di...

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=y&...

VIDEO: http://www.meteoweb.eu/video-gallery/?id=734

A wave of bad weather and in the last hours in the Gaza Strip, making it even more' difficult living conditions of thousands of Palestinians displaced after the conflict with Israel last summer. Local sources of heavy rains (which have caused flooding in several districts, including Khuzaa, Sajaya and Beit Hanun) and even hail in the northern Gaza Strip. A stretch of the main thoroughfare, the Sallah-a-din, and 'was closed to traffic. In some localities' panel houses made available to displaced persons are flooded. Only a consolation for the population and 'an increased supply of electric current, past now three to eight hours daily.

Tale of two countries: Snow in the North, but glorious sunshine in the South

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3036143/Tale-two-countries-...

As thick snow settled in Cumbria and rain lashed other parts of the North, winter is clinging on in half of the country.
But with this week set to be sunny and the mercury predicted to hit 24C (75F), the rest of Britain is heading for a heatwave.
Forecasters say temperatures will be up to 10C above average for the time of year, making parts of the UK hotter than holiday destinations in southern Europe.

And bookmakers have slashed odds on this being the warmest spring on record after the Met Office confirmed temperatures from now to June are more than twice as likely to be above average than below average.
Last Friday was the hottest day of 2015 so far, reaching 21.9C (71.4F) in St James’s Park, central London. But despite balmy weather in much of the South, blizzards hit Scotland and northern England, covering areas including the Lake District’s Kirkstone Pass with a layer of snow. Rain battered Manchester and the Pennines.
The South enjoyed sunshine, with punters flocking to the Cam in Cambridge – 250 miles from the Lake District – but temperatures stalled at 13-14C (55-57F).
The mercury fell below zero in Berkshire early yesterday, while winds in Wales reached speeds of up to 75mph.

Incredible dust storms between Ukraine and Belarus, unprecedented phenomenon in the history [PHOTOS and VIDEO]

April 13, 2015

An impressive dust storm invests western Ukraine and Belarus southern causing huge inconvenience and a lot of fear among the population. Event quite unique to this corner of Europe

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/04/incredibili-tempeste-di-polvere-tra-...

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=y&...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8wuBcnLE5c

The wall of dust observed in Ukraine

The month of April continues to amaze us, churning weather events truly amazing on the old continent.

Just yesterday afternoon as impressive as a rare dust storm hit several areas of Ukraine northwestern and southern Belarus, characterized by rather mature and intense storms that were preceded by powerful "downbursts".

The advance of these storms was accompanied by the formation of impressive clouds of dust as high as 900-1000 meters, moving in parallel with the various "storm cells" that generated have temporarily obscured the sky in different villages and cities Ukraine's north-western and southern Belarus.

The strong "downbursts" raising the air, quite turbulent, a ingentissima amount of land and fine powder which has created a real wall of sediment along the part of the advancing storm front.

This process has led to the formation of this incredible dust storm, unusual for these areas of Europe.

Around 17:00 PM a massive wall of red dust, which was accompanied by the "gust front" of storms, has invested in the full Oblast 'Ukrainian Khmelnytsky, causing a drastic reduction in horizontal visibility, as well as a temporary darkening of heavenly blanket for the presence of a very heavy amount of fine dust in the air coming from the fields and from rural northern Ukraine.

But the worst dust storms were observed on its southern Belarus, where there was a real "Haboob", such as those that usually are realized on the Sahara or the sandy deserts of the Middle East.

The dust cloud has hit the Belarusian city of Soligorsk, where shortly after 17:00 PM the arrival of '' Haboob 'has virtually overshadowed everything, so much so that within seconds it has gone from daylight to night To the astonishment and fear of the local population, not accustomed to living with similar weather phenomena .

During the arrival of the cloud of dust the city of Soligorsk remained totally paralyzed in the dark, with people who have crowded stores for shelter from all that dust that made the air unbreathable. What most surprises most is that a similar phenomenon has occurred in the month of April and not in the middle of summer

more to the west, between Ukraine and Belarus, similar events are most unique and rare, given the very considerable distance from sandy deserts or steppes dusty semi-arid regions (such as those of Central and Eastern Kazakhstan). CONTINUE...

This is unprecedented, nearly 60 villages!  Uncharacteristically strong and rough winds!

23 dead, more than 900 injured in Siberian grassland fire

http://rt.com/news/249393-siberia-grass-blaze-russia/

https://youtu.be/Neuaq79cAjk

https://youtu.be/PcWzva5tPPc

The massive fires that swept through nearly 60 villages and towns in the Siberian republic of Khakassia have left 23 people dead, and more than 900 injured, according to an official committee investigating the tragedy.

“Currently the committee can confirm 23 deaths,” head of the investigative committee Vladimir Markin was quoted as saying by TASS.

More than 1,400 homes were destroyed in the fire, leaving some 6,000 people homeless, according to regional governor Viktor Zimin. Those who suffered severe injuries from the fire were delivered to Krasnoyarsk for treatment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally coordinated emergency services operations in Khakassia, according to his spokesperson.

Some 5,000 firefighters as well as thousands of volunteers worked to contain the blazes through the night, extinguishing the fires by Monday morning. Temporary camps have been set up in the Beisky and Shirinksy districts nearby for those displaced by the fire.

The fires started after mass grass burning by residents in the region. Grass burning is a springtime tradition among farmers in some parts of Russia, meant to clear the fields of dry grass and prepare them for planting.

Officials blamed the extreme severity of this year’s fire on “uncontrolled burning, dry weather and uncharacteristically strong and rough winds.”

“As soon as snow melts, while rivers are still covered by ice, dry grass burns like gunpowder,” said emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov, “People begin to burn grass on their plots and fire spreads to agricultural land and pastures are burnt.”

Massive Sandstorm Causes Panic In China (Apr 15)

A massive sandstorm swept over Beijing on Wednesday, darkening the skies and causing panic among residents.

The storm, which some outlets are calling the worst in more than a decade, reached speeds of 45 miles an hour and brought traffic in the city to a halt. Visibility plummeted and authorities urged people to stay indoors after the national observatory, China's environmental monitoring center, issued a heightened "yellow" alert before the storm hit.

Some residents wrote they felt like it was "the end of the world" and questioned how they could "survive such bad weather."

Source

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/16/beijing-sandstorm_n_708171...

Earthworms rain down from skies over Norway, puzzling scientists

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/earthworms-rain-down...

Meteorologists and biologists have been left baffled by earthworms raining from the sky over Southern Norway.

According to Norwegian news service The Local, the most recent phenomenon was discovered by biology teacher Karstein Erstad while he was skiing in the mountains.

“I saw thousands of earthworms on the surface of the snow,” he said.

“When I found them on the snow they seemed to be dead, but when I put them in my hand I found that they were alive.”

He thought they might have crawled through the snow, but rejected this idea, as the snow was over half a metre thick across the mountains.

This is not the only time an area experiencing worms raining from the sky in Norway, with other cases found in Molde and Bergen, both in the south of the country.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3043071/The-storm-turned-da...

The storm that turned day into night: Watch darkness descend on city in Belarus as 'apocalyptic' weather hits

• Incredible footage of an 'apocalyptic' sandstorm in Belarus has gone viral
• It shows a city being plunged into darkness as a storm blocks out the sun
• The sandstorm caused electricity cuts and forced 100,000 people indoors
• It brought with it a cold front and heavy rain that damaged buildings

This incredible footage shows the moment an 'apocalyptic' weather storm struck Belarus, turning day into night when fast-moving storm clouds blocked out the sun.

Filmed from a high rise apartment, the video shows traffic moving along a busy street in the province of Salihorsk, south of the capital of Minsk on Monday afternoon.

As dark clouds move over the city, the entire area is plunged into darkness - forcing motorists to turn on their lights as they navigate the darkened roads.

Scroll down for video 

Dark clouds start forming over the city of Soligorsk, Belarus, as the sandstorm sweeps over the city

Within a matter of minutes, the storm had blocked out the sun, creating chaos on the city streets

The sandstorm was so thick the city was plunged into darkness during the Monday afternoon storm

Towards the end of the video, the clouds thin out and the city once again slowly becomes illuminated.

The storm was caused by a cold front moving in from the Ukrainian-Belorusian border, named a haboob - which is Arabic for an intense dust storm, RT reported.

Not only did it cause chaos on city streets, but forced about 100,000 residents of the city of Soligorsk to stay indoors. Those that did venture outside travelled by torchlight.

Heavy rain associated with the storm also caused electricity cuts and damage to buildings. 

Several people from the region who commented on the video described the storm as like a 'doomsday scenario' or the apocalypse.

While sandstorms, or haboobs, are commonly associated with the Sahara region, they can occur in any arid area.

Epic sandstorm turns day into night in Belarus and causes chaos

The deserts of Australia are particularly prone to the storms, as are countries located along the Arabian Gulf and parts of Africa.

Associated with thunderstorms and small tornadoes, sandstorms are characterised by strong winds which move huge amounts of sand in a dense wall across thousands of kilometres - at heights reaching 1,000m.

Parts of California Missing More Than 2 Years Worth of Rain (Apr 17)

The state's current drought is unprecedented in modern times.

As of March 24, more than 98 percent of the region was struggling with dry conditions, with 41.1 percent in an 'exceptional' drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Approximately 37 million residents have been affected.

Since October 2011, most of the region has missed out on the equivalent of a year's worth of rain -- while some places are losing out on more than two year's worth.

Earlier this month, California officials took the unprecedented step and imposed state-wide, mandatory water restrictions. 

While regional water restrictions have been imposed in the past, this is the first time the entire state -- which is home to about 39 million people -- has been put under the order.

Officials hope the restrictions will reduce water usage by 25 percent. Proposed initiatives include replacing 50 million square feet of city lawns with drought-tolerant foliage and requiring large landscapes like golf courses and cemeteries to cut their water use.

Source

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/parts-of-california-...

A Fish rain down on Thailand (photos)

Posted by wikistrike.com on April 18, 2015

http://www.wikistrike.com/2015/04/une-pluie-de-poissons-s-abat-sur-...

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&...

http://coeursdafrik.com/une-pluie-de-poissons-sabat-sur-la-thailand...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QX4Q4nNCs0

Fish scattered everywhere in the streets after the rain in Thailand, surprised passersby who found themselves in front of thousands of fish that had been transported from the sea.

So much for "the show must go on".

Storms Cause Circus Chaos in Angleton, Texas (Apr 17)

A frantic crowd evacuated the circus last night in Angleton, Texas, as the massive circus tent started collapsing from the severe weather that swept through the area.

Laura Cudagirl Solis, who posted the video on Facebook, wrote, "Well so much for having a good time at the circus ... the whole tent started collapsing."

Source

http://abc13.com/news/video-chaotic-circus-crowd-evacuates-amid-fea...

3 killed, 200,000 homes without power as ‘worst in decade’ storm rages in Australia

A powerful storm hitting Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) coast has killed at least three people so far and left thousands without power.

The gusts of wind averaged 100km/h and some 30cm of rain fell in some areas, many times more than usual. The average yearly amount of precipitation in the region is 5.5cm.

People on the ground have taken to social media to post some of the damage from the storms, including sunken boats, floating houses and fallen trees.

The minister for police and emergency services David Elliott described the disaster as “once in a decade storm, the likes of which we haven’t seen since 2007.

“Today’s events are going to test our emergency services but they are there to be tested. We have seen, as the Premier said, 4,500 responses thus far,” he added.

Read more:  http://rt.com/news/251497-australia-nsw-storm-fatalities/

Tornado in western Santa Catarina leaves two dead and 120 injured - BRASIL 04/21/2015

At least 500 homes were affected in seven neighborhoods of Xanxerê

http://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/tornado-no-oeste-de-santa-catarina-d...

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=y&...

Tornado destroyed homes in western Santa Catarina - Disclosure / Civil Defense Santa Catarina

It struck west of Santa Catarina

SAO PAULO - The National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) confirmed early on Tuesday that a tornado hit the city of Xanxerê in the west of Santa Catarina, in the late afternoon on Monday. Two people died and 120 people were injured - three seriously, who are admitted to hospitals in neighboring cities. According to state government information, the tornado hit 500 houses in seven districts of the municipality.

It is estimated that the tornado in the rating scale ranging from zero to five, level TWO has been lasted two to three minutes. The winds may have exceeded the speed of 200 km / h at 15 hours, phenomenon time. The tornado is a violent and rotating column of air between the cloud and the ground. According to the Inmet, is the most destructive of all storms in the rating scale atmospheric phenomena.

One of the dead is the driver Alcimar Sutil, 33, who was hugging the child trying to protect them from the rubble. Before he could take his wife and daughter 3 months of house which collapsed

Two regional coordinators of the Civil Defense of Santa Catarina work Xanxerê to conduct a survey of the number of affected and displaced or homeless. During the isolated thunderstorm, five power towers, which bear winds up to 200 km / h, were ripped from the ground and 200 000 homes are without power.

According to the regional coordinator Xanxerê, Luciano Peri, several people were taken with injuries to municipal health units. A sports hall collapsed. The council, which has 47 679 inhabitants, still suffers from problems in water supply and telephone signals. Systems should be restored later on Tuesday. The families that had homes destroyed spent the night in city shelters.

MAP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Catarina_%28state%29

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A 1,000 Mile Stretch Of The Pacific Ocean Has Heated Up Several Degrees And Scientists Don’t Know Why

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/a-1000-mile-stretch-of-th...

By Michael Snyder, on April 13th, 2015

According to two University of Washington scientific research papers that were recently released, a 1,000 mile stretch of the Pacific Ocean has warmed up by several degrees, and nobody seems to know why this is happening.  This giant “blob” of warm water was first observed in late 2013, and it is playing havoc with our climate.  And since this giant “blob” first showed up, fish and other sea creatures have been dying in absolutely massive numbers.  So could there be a connection?  And what is going to happen if the Pacific Ocean continues to warm up?  Could we potentially be facing the greatest holocaust of sea life in the Pacific that anyone has ever observed?  If so, what would that mean for the food chain and for our food supply?

For a large portion of the Pacific Ocean to suddenly start significantly heating up without any known explanation is a really big deal.  The following information about this new research comes from the University of Washington…

“In the fall of 2013 and early 2014 we started to notice a big, almost circular mass of water that just didn’t cool off as much as it usually did, so by spring of 2014 it was warmer than we had ever seen it for that time of year,” said Nick Bond, a climate scientist at the UW-based Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, a joint research center of the UW and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Bond coined the term “the blob” last June in his monthly newsletter as Washington’s state climatologist. He said the huge patch of water – 1,000 miles in each direction and 300 feet deep – had contributed to Washington’s mild 2014 winter and might signal a warmer summer.

It would be one thing if scientists knew why this was happening and had an explanation for it.

But they don’t.

In fact, according to the Washington Post, they are calling this something that is “totally new”…

Scientists have been astonished at the extent and especially the long-lasting nature of the warmth, with one NOAA researcher saying, “when you see something like this that’s totally new you have opportunities to learn things you were never expecting.”

The following map comes from the NOAA, and it shows what this giant “blob” looks like…

According to CBS News, ocean temperatures inside this blob have risen anywhere from two to seven degrees Fahrenheit above normal…

This warm blob, which is about 2 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 4 degrees Celsius) warmer than the usual temperature for this region, means the winter air that crosses over the Pacific Ocean wasn’t cooled as much as it normally would be. That, in turn, spelled warmer, dryer conditions for the West Coast.

Meanwhile, while this has been going on, scientists have also been noticing that sea creatures in the Pacific have been dying in record numbers.

In fact, last summer I wrote an article entitled “Why are massive numbers of sea creatures dying along the west coast...”

Since then, things have continued to get even worse.

For instance, it was recently reported that the number of sea lions washing up on Southern California beaches is at an all-time record high…

A record 2,250 sea lions, mostly pups, have washed up starving and stranded on Southern California beaches so far this year, a worsening phenomenon blamed on warming seas in the region that have disrupted the marine mammals’ food supply.

The latest tally, reported on Monday by the National Marine Fisheries Service, is 20 times the level of strandings averaged for the same three-month period over the past decade and twice the number documented in 2013, the previous worst winter season recorded for Southern California sea lions.

And of course fish are being deeply affected as well.  Sardines have declined to their lowest level in six decades, and National Geographic says that a whole host of tiny fish species at the bottom of the food chain are dying off rapidly…

Since the 1950s, researchers every year have dropped nets 1,000 feet (300 meters) down to catalog marine life many miles off California. Most track commercially important species caught by the fishing industry. But J. Anthony Koslow tallies fish often credited with keeping marine systems functioning soundly—tiny midwater bristlemouths, the region’s most abundant marine species, as well as viperfish, hatchetfish, razor-mouthed dragonfish, and even minnow-like lampfish.

All are significant parts of the seafood buffet that supports life in the eastern Pacific, and all are declining dramatically with the vertical rise of low-oxygen water.

“If it was a 10 percent change, it wouldn’t have been worth noting, but they’ve declined by 63 percent,” says Koslow, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

So if the bottom of the food chain is experiencing a catastrophic collapse, what is that going to mean for the rest of the food chain in the Pacific Ocean?

In turn, what is that going to mean for the seafood industry and for the price of seafood in our grocery stores?

Some really strange things are happening on the other side of the Pacific right now as well.

Over in Japan, the media is buzzing about the recent mass beaching of 150 melon-headed whales.  A similar incident was observed just six days before the great earthquake and tsunami of 2011.  The following comes from the Japan Times…

The mass beaching of over 150 melon-headed whales on Japan’s shores has fueled fears of a repeat of a seemingly unrelated event in the country — the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed over 18,000 people.

Despite a lack of scientific evidence linking the two events, a flurry of online commentators have pointed to the appearance of around 50 melon-headed whales — a species that is a member of the dolphin family — on Japan’s beaches six days before the monster quake, which unleashed towering tsunami and triggered a nuclear disaster.

Very strange stuff.

For our entire lives, we have been able to take for granted that our oceans would always be stable and healthy.

But now it appears that things may be changing.

Incredible time lapse video shows how a train station vanished underwater in just 45 minutes as Sydney became drenched in 225mm of rain

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3051461/Time-lapse-video-sh...

Incredible footage of a Sydney train station flooding during the storm of a decade on Wednesday has been captured on CCTV.
A time lapse video, filmed from the platform over a 45 minute period at 11am, shows the water creeping along the tracks at Bardwell Park in Sydney's south forcing the partial closure of the T2 Airport line.
At one point a worker in a high-vis jacket appears to look at the rising water to take a photo.
The murky flood water eventually submerges the train line and begins moving like a river past the platform.
Sydney's two-day total rainfall totalled about 225mm by 9am Wednesday – the most fall for almost 17 years.

Lake Mead On Track For Record Low Water Level Amid Drought

By Victoria Cavaliere

April 24 (Reuters) - Nevada's Lake Mead, the largest capacity reservoir in the United States, is on track to drop to its lowest water level in recorded history on Sunday as its source, the Colorado River, suffers from 14 years of severe drought, experts said on Friday.

The 79-year-old reservoir, formed by the building of the Hoover Dam outside Las Vegas, was expected to dip below 1,080 feet on Sunday, lower than a previous record of 1,080.19 feet last August, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Predictions show that on May 31, the reservoir will have dipped again to 1,075 feet, well below its record high levels of around 1,206 feet in the 1980s, according to Bureau of Reclamation data.

Lake Mead supplies water to agriculture and about 40 million people in Nevada, Arizona, Southern California, and northern Mexico.

The water source and several other man-made reservoirs springing from the 1,450-mile (2,230-km) Colorado River, have dropped to as low as 45 percent of their capacity as the river suffers a 14th straight year of crippling drought.

About 96 percent of the water in Lake Mead is from melted snow that falls in "upper basin" states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming, officials said.

Over the past 14 years, snowfall has dropped in the Rocky Mountains, leading to a drop in snow pack runoff that feeds the river, according to Bureau of Reclamation statistics. In 2013, runoff was at 47 percent of normal.

The lake's levels are nearing a critical trigger where federal officials will have to start rationing water deliveries to Nevada, Arizona and parts of California. States in the region have enacted action plans to lessen greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change.

A study carried out by the Bureau of Reclamation and the seven states in the Colorado river basin concluded that the drought was not likely to end soon, and that large metropolitan cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix grew rapidly during a rare wetter period for the river.

On average, the Colorado River Basin temperature is projected to increase by five to six F degrees during the 21st century, the report said. Mean annual runoff is projected to decrease by 8.5 percent by 2050. (Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/24/lake-mead-record-water-dro...

Freak hailstorm pounds NSW

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/storms-forecast-fo...

BEACHSIDE suburbs have been made over as winter wonderlands after a destructive hailstorm blanketed much of Sydney and the Blue Mountains with ice.

FIREFIGHTERS were expected to spend much of the night mopping up at Huntingwood, in Sydney's southwest, where five large factory buildings were brought down by the weight of up to half a metre of hailstones.

PHOTOS: Massive Hailstorm Buries Sydney, Australia

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/photos-massive-hailstorm...

A strong thunderstorm crossed Sydney, Australia, on Saturday, covering the ground with hail.

The thunderstorm crossed the city during the late-afternoon hours on Saturday. In excess of 50 mm (2 inches) of rain and hail flooded roadways and covered yards. While individual hailstones were not large in size, the amount of hail was enough to bring significant problems

44 killed, nearly 200 injured by severe storm in northwest Pakistan

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/44-killed-nearly-200-injur...

The storm, described by the meteorological department as a “mini- cyclone”, lashed Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
 

Fallen trees and mobile phone towers and rubble from buildings blocked several key roads. In Peshawar, the roofs of several houses collapsed during the storm. The torrential rainfall resulted in the accumulation of three feet of water in some areas.

http://floodlist.com/america/cuba-2-killed-havana-floods

Cuba – 2 Killed in Havana Floods after 188mm of Rain

A storm dumped over 188mm (7.4 inches) of rain on Havana, Cuba, during 30 April 2015, leaving 2 dead and causing several buildings to collapse.

Local media say that one of the victims, an elderly man, drowned in the flood water in the Old Havana District of the city. The other victim was electrocuted after power cables were knocked down by the storm.

Water and power supplies were interrupted during the storm. At least three buildings collapsed and over 20 others were damaged. Building collapses are not uncommon in the older areas of the city, where housing stock is densely inhabited and generally in poor condition. In late November 2013, 2 people died in Havana after a building collapsed as a result of f....

The heavy rain flooded many of the city’s streets. The municipalities of Centro Habana, Old Havana and Cerro were the worst affected, according to local media. Flood water was over 50cm deep in some areas, causing problems for drivers and pedestrians.

More heavy rain is expected in the country over the next 24 to 48 hours, particularly in western regions. The torrential rains have been caused by thunderstorms that formed rapidly in the Florida Straits, ahead of a cold front, according to Cuba’s National Institute of Meteorology (INSMET).

Rainfall Figures

According to WMO figures, between 29 and 30 April 2015, Havana received 188.3mm of rain in 24 hours. Between 30 April and 01 May, Caibarién, Villa Clara saw 80.7 mm and Playa Girón, Matanzas 99.0 mm

Nearby Florida also saw some heavy rainfall. In 24 hours between 29 and 30 April 2015, Key West received 134.1 mm and Miami 53 mm.

Floods in Havana, Cuba, 30 April 2015. Photo credit: Juvenal Balán / Granma

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/may/04/california-drought-kills-12-mi...

California Drought Killed 12 Million Forest Trees Since Last Year

U.S. FOREST SERVICE

This aerial view shows Jeffrey pine and oak mortality in the Cleveland National Forest in San Diego County, April 2015.

In San Diego County, 82,528 trees, mostly Jeffrey pines across Mt. Laguna, have succumbed to a lack of rainfall, with many more struggling to survive.

An estimated 12 million trees across California’s forestlands have died over the past year because of extreme drought conditions, according to an aerial survey conducted April 8-17 by the U.S. Forest Service.

In San Diego County, 82,528 trees, mostly Jeffrey pines across Mt. Laguna, have succumbed to a lack of rainfall, with many more struggling to survive, said Jeffrey Moore, interim aerial survey program manager for the U.S. Forest Service.

DOCUMENT

Tree Mortality In Southern California Forests

The extent and severity of tree mortality, which occurred after the 2014 aerial surveys in Southern California Forests.

Download

DOCUMENT

Southern Sierra Tree Mortality

Recently dead or injured trees were mapped visually by a surveyor using a digital aerial sketch-mapping system flying in a light fixed-wing aircraft approximately 1,000 feet above ground level.

Download

There is “very heavy mortality, a lot of discoloration in the pine trees that probably will expire sometime during this growing season, as well as oak trees that are suffering,” Moore said.

Moore was part of a team that surveyed the trees visually, using a digital mapping system while flying in a fixed-wing aircraft 1,000 feet above ground.

A tree’s survival often depends on its proximity to other trees, he said.

“A lot of trees are competing for whatever available moisture there is in a drought situation,” Moore said. “When you have too many trees in an area, it makes it hard on all of the trees.”

In Southern California, the researchers tracked more than 4.2 million acres in Cleveland, San Bernardino, Angeles and Los Padres National Forests, where they found an estimated 2 million perished trees. They combed another 4.1 million acres in the Southern Sierra Nevada, where they documented approximately 10 million dead trees. Their findings were compared to similar surveys taken in July 2014, Moore said.

In San Diego County, Moore said they found substantial pine mortality near Descanso Road in the Cleveland National Forest, and throughout Mt. Laguna.

The team did not attempt to map gold-spotted oak borer beetle-related mortality in this survey, he said. Nor did they track black oak trees, since it's unclear whether those without leaves are dead or just “leafing out”—bare but in the process of growing their new leaves for the spring.

The county’s forests are already reeling from the2003 Cedar Fire that devoured 280,000 acres, including in the Cuyamaca Mountains. The region was formerly blanketed by a coniferous forest, but recovery has been poor, Moore said.

“Most of those areas aren’t even coming back into trees at all,” Moore said. “They’re kind of being switched over now into Chaparral plants because they burned so hot the seed source is gone.”

Large trees, such as the Jeffrey pine, are important for storing carbon from the air. They also provide food and habitat for various species, including squirrels, deer and birds, such as the Pygmy Nuthatch that probes into clusters of pine needles for small insects.

U.S. DROUGHT MONITOR

This color-coded map shows drought conditions across the U.S., on April 30, 2015. Much of San Diego County, shown in red, is in an "extreme" drought. At this level, major crop and pasture losses are common, fire risk is extreme, and widespread water shortages can be expected, requiring restrictions.

“When you start thinking about what it takes for a tree, which is usually a fairly hearty type of plant to die off, it’s telling you a pretty clear signal of just how intense the drought has been,” said Brian Fuchs, climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center.

“These dead forests are going to be more primed for any type of fire,” Fuchs said. “Also, it’s going to impact water quality as there’s going to be more particulate that will go running off these hillsides into the rivers and streams.”

Fuchs said 67 percent of California remains in an “extreme” or “exceptional” drought, and conditions are expected to worsen as the dry season sets in.

“The heat of the summer really amplifies some of that development,” Fuchs said.

http://rt.com/usa/255477-california-waves-new-zealand/

Colossal waves in California blamed on New Zealand storm

Reuters / Mike Blake

A recent storm near New Zealand is being blamed for major waves thousands of miles away off the coast of California this week.

The National Weather Service says Californians can expect to encounter massive waves through Tuesday this week as a result of the storm that erupted on Thursday and Friday in the southern hemisphere, the Los Angeles Times reported. 
According to the paper, a high-surf advisory has been issued for the west coast upon concerns that waves as tall as 15 feet could crash onto Newport Beach in Orange County. 
“Once those waves are created, they keep traveling until they reach land,” David Sweet, a weather service meteorologist, told the Times. “So we can thank our friends Down Under.”

The Orange County Register reported on Monday morning that waves taller than 18 feet have already been spotted at the Wedge, a popular surf spot by Newport Beach. 

“It’s a washing machine,” 48-year-old surfer Christopher Scott told the Register on Sunday. “It can knock the wind out of you, break people’s bones. Some people don’t realize the power of The Wedge.” 

“Right now, if a surfer came down here, I’d be like, ‘Dude, what are you doing?’” lifeguard Jonathan Richards told the paper eight miles up the beach in Huntington on Sunday.

According to the Associated Press, authorities had to rescue at least 16 people in Newport Beach on Sunday due to high waves. Additionally, the Carnival Imagination cruise ship was prompted to change course and dock in San Diego due to the extreme conditions. 

"Therefore, in the interest of caution, the cruise ship ... deviated to San Diego," Carnival said in a statement.

The LA Daily News reported that current swells have been racing across the Pacific from New Zealand at a rate of around 30 miles per hour, according to NASA oceanographer Bill Patzert, covering upwards of 750 miles each day. 

“This will carve a new coastline in some areas,” Patzert predicted.

Extreme bad weather in Germany, devastating tornadoes: Bützow and Rostock destroyed [PHOTOS]

Extreme bad weather in Germany, devastating tornadoes and severe damage
May 5, 2015

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/05/maltempo-estremo-in-germania-tornado...

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While Italy is going through the heat wave more intense and premature in the history of Europe with peaks of more than + 40 ° C in Sardinia and, tomorrow, probably also in other regions of the South, northern Germany was hit in the last hours by violent storms that have spawned numerous tornadoes. The most serious has literally devastated Bützow Rostock and causing dozens of injuries. Fortunately at the moment there is no news of casualties. Several cars were overturned, many roofless houses with streets flooded by the tiles.

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Geneva: historic flood Arve - Switzerland

News - Updated Monday, May 4, 2015 by The Weather Channel- LA CHAINE METEO

The Jura and Savoies are hit by severe weather since last Thursday. Switzerland is no exception, with a historical flood Arve in Geneva and some flooding.

http://actualite.lachainemeteo.com/actualite-meteo/2015-05-03-13h14...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyxw-8DaSpg

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This severe weather is linked to a series of disturbances that sweep France and Central Europe. The torrential rains in Switzerland. Since last Tuesday, the average cumulative amount to 100mm (across the country), or the equivalent of one month of rain fell in 72 hours.

Historic flood Arve in Geneva

In the canton of Berne and Fribourg, firefighters intervened almost 300 times for the flooded houses. In Geneva, the Arve, which crosses the city, had a rate of twelve times higher than normal, making it the largest ever observed since 1935. This is a hundred-year flood. The trend is the decline since Sunday despite the resumption of the rains, lower than those experienced Thursday and Friday.

http://floodlist.com/america/usa/nebraska-declares-state-of-emergen...

Nebraska Declares State of Emergency after Flood and Storm Damage

Parts of Nebraska saw over 8 inches (200 mm) of rain in 24 hours yesterday, 07 May 2015. Storm and flood damage has been so severe that Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts declared a State of Emergency for the affected areas.

The Governor surveyed storm damage and flooding in Hebron, Deshler, Roseland, and near Lincoln via helicopter. Following the flight he said, “I have authorized an emergency declaration. At this time the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency is in contact with other state agencies and they are actively monitoring the situation and will provide assistance as needed.”

“The good news is nobody was hurt and everybody is safe. Utility crews are out there working. We did have a power outage last night in about a third of the town. As we flew over the state, we saw more utility crews continuing to work to restore power to folks in Roseland.”

Other affected areas include the town of DeWitt and the city of Fairbury, where 100s of people have been evacuated. The town of Crete saw 8.10 inches of rain fall in 24 hours. Salt Creek and Little Blue River are reported to be at flood stage at several points in the area.

Deshler, Nebraska, flood damage 07 May 2015. Photo: Nebraska Governor’s Office

Lincoln Evacuations

Heavy rainfall cause severe flooding in the city of Lincoln, Nebraska. As much as 6.65 inches of rain fell in 24 hours at Lincoln Airport between 06 and 07 May 2015.

The mayor’s office of Lincoln issued a statement last night encouraging residents to evacuate flood-hit areas of the city. The statement said:

“Public safety officials are advising residents in the North and South Bottoms neighborhoods to voluntarily evacuate as soon as possible. The affected area is bordered by Folsom, 8th, Van Dorn and Cornhusker. Salt Creek is getting close to topping the levee as other creeks drain into it”.

The American Red Cross set up two shelters in Lincoln to house those evacuated. The mayor’s office warned that mandatory evacuations may follow, depending on the flood situation.

“The Salt Creek levee has not been topped. The next 24 hours will be critical. If the creek tops the levee, a mandatory evacuation may be necessary.”

Several people had to be rescued from flood waters. There were also reports of cars floating along roads and highways. No deaths have been reported.

Nebraska Rainfall

Below is a map showing official rainfall figures from NOAA / NWS for the area.

Image: NOAA

Rainfall figures from CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network) for a 24 hour period to 07 May 2015 show further extreme levels of rainfall. These figures are considered supplemental and are not official NWS figures.

Fairbury 10.47″
Wilber 9.85″
Daykin 9.60″
Hallam 8.10″
Tobias 8.02″
Lincoln 7.71″

http://rt.com/usa/257401-us-tornado-injured-destroyed/

Dozens injured, houses destroyed: Powerful storms ravage central US (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

Snow covers the ground off Interstate 90 east of Sturgis, South Dakota, United States, in this view from a highway camera taken May 10, 2015. (Reuters/South Dakota Department of Transportation/Handout)

Snow, flooding and powerful tornadoes have ripped through many central US states, emergency officials said. The most affected were Texas and South Dakota where dozens of people have been injured and many houses were left in ruins.

The storm hit eastern Van Zandt County and the town of Van in northeast Texas on Sunday, the Van Zandt County fire marshal and emergency management coordinator Chuck Allen said. At least 26 people have been taken to hospital with injuries.

About 30 percent of Van, a town with 2,500 people, was damaged.

"Damages range from completely destroyed homes, damaged homes, to trees and power lines down,"Allen said, adding that utility companies are now restoring "vital infrastructures." Also the American Red Cross is to open a shelter at First Baptist Church in Van, Allen said.

At least six people have been pulled out of homes by rescue helicopters in Denton County thunderstorms brought heavy rains in the area, officials said.

http://floodlist.com/america/usa/1-dead-houston-floods-10-inches-rain

1 Dead in Houston Floods after 10 Inches (254 mm) of Rain in 24 Hours

© Johnny Kelly
Many vehicles submerged in flood waters on Gulf Freeway near Houston

Washington State Declares Drought Emergency

Drought isn't just a California problem, folks. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a statewide drought emergency on Friday, with snowpack and stream flows dramatically below normal.

“We’re really starting to feel the pain from this snowpack drought," Inslee said at a press conference. "Impacts are already severe in several areas of the state. Difficult decisions are being made about what crops get priority water and how best to save fish. ... We have some tough, challenging months ahead of us. We’re ready to bring support and relief to the hardest hit areas of the state. We’re going to do everything we can to get through this."

The drought in Washington, famous for lush greenery and rainy weather, is less severe than what California has endured since 2011. Data released by the National Drought Mitigation Center on Thursday shows how conditions have worsened in Washington over the last year.

Drought emergencies also have been declared in parts of Oregon and Nevada.

Washington Department of Ecology Director Maia Bellon described the drought as "unlike any we've ever experienced," with snowpack in the mountains dropping to just 16 percent of normal, and 78 percent of streams running below normal.

“Rain amounts have been normal, but snow has been scarce," Bellon said. "And we’re watching what little snow we have quickly disappear. ... We've been busy the past few months working with sister agencies, tribes and communities to prepare and respond to this. We’re working hard to help farmers, communities and fish survive this drought.”

A press release from Inslee's office warns that the Department of Agriculture predicts the drought will cause $1.2 billion in crop loss this year. Washington's agriculture-rich Yakima Valley is known for its cherries, apples, mint and wine grapes, Northwest Public Radio noted, but farmers in the region with junior water rights anticipate receiving less than 40 percent of their usual supply.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/15/washington-drought-emergen...

+ 44.4 ° C: absolute record heat for a month of May in Europe

News - Published Saturday, May 16, 2015 by The Weather Channel - LA CHAINE METEO

http://actualite.lachainemeteo.com/actualite-meteo/2015-05-16-14h50...

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Up until early May 2015 exceptional around the western Mediterranean, the heat record for a month of May in Europe was 41.7 ° C in Andujar in Spain on 17 May 2006. May 2015 began with a first heat wave unprecedented in the Western Mediterranean: thus, on May 6, the former European monthly record was set in Sicily, with 41.9 ° C to Catenanuova.

But last Thursday (May 14), the heat is still rising a notch. Of the Saharan air is back on Spain. Consequently, the old record of monthly European heat (41.9 ° C to Catenanuova May 6) was again beaten in several Spanish cities, which also sprayed their previous heat record for a month of May (or even for a June, like in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands). In some cities the old records were sprayed 2 to 3 ° C compared to former and up to 6 ° C higher in Valencia (42.6 ° C against 36.2 ° C).

44.4 ° C IS EQUIVALENT TO 111.92 ° F

http://rt.com/usa/259413-us-tornadoes-nine-states/

Twisted weather: 19 tornadoes wreak havoc, down power in central US states (IMAGES)

A cowboy hat lies among the debris of destroyed homes after a tornado swept through the area the previous night in Van, Texas May 11, 2015.(Reuters / Mike Stone)

 

At least 19 tornadoes have struck the mid-US this weekend damaging homes and causing blackouts, according to weather channels. The worst affected states are Oklahoma and Texas, which were hit by hail and destructive storms.

Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Iowa and Louisiana have all witnessed the wayward and harsh whims of May’s weather.

A tornado touched down near the town of Ogden in Iowa, on Sunday.

On Saturday, a “multi-vortex” tornado hit southwest of the towns of Murdock and Rosen in Minnesota on Saturday. Broken Arrow in the northeastern part of Oklahoma also reported a twister, which caused structural damage and power outages in the area. A separate and large tornado struck southwestern Oklahoma.

“Elsewhere in Oklahoma, tornadoes were reported 9 miles [14 km] south of Anadarko, near Meers and Elk City along Interstate 80,” the Weather Channel said.

Homes and power lines have been damaged following the severe weather in Oklahoma. The Department of Emergency Management reported over 3,000 power outages there.

"We've gotten a lot of rain in a short time. The ground is saturated, so every time we get another big soaking, the rain causes more flash flooding," spokeswoman Keli Cain said.

"We are seeing pockets of damaging winds from Missouri south to northeast Oklahoma," Bill Bunting, chief of operations for the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center in Norman, also told AP. "It's a very strong upper level disturbance."

US Highway 283 in the town of Elmer had to be shut down due to a fallen power line, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported.

Texas was not only again struck by tornadoes as in the previous week, but also received a battering from some “baseball-sized” hail. Heavy rains and winds are still whipping across parts of the Lone Star State, as well as drenching and buffeting Kansas, Nebraska and Minnesota, who may see some more tornadoes on Sunday.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2003916/cold-temperature-records-set-in-s...

Cold temperature records set in Saskatchewan

The incredible traces OF tornadoes in Germany

News - Updated Wednesday, May 20, 2015 by The Weather Channel - LA CHAINE METEO

Aerial photos reveal the wake left by a tornado on the Feldberg mountain in Germany a few days ago.

http://actualite.lachainemeteo.com/actualite-meteo/2015-05-20-06h19...

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Germany was hit by a series of destructive tornadoes last week. One of them has left a lasting mark on the mountains of Fledberg, near the Swiss border, on 13 May. Aerial photos of its passage are impressive: the wake lasts for 400 to 500 meters wide and 10 kilometers long! Its intensity has not yet been precisely determined, but the first field surveys are a priori condition of EF2 tornado (with swirling winds around 200 km / h).

in pictures taken in Germany: the trees are lying in all directions

Mexico City, Mexico: Ring around the sun becomes phenomenon in networks.
A ring around the sun stole the attention of thousands of Mexicans in Mexico City, who could not hold to turn the sky and capture the phenomenon.
The comments were far from a simple description, to the notice of an earthquake, according to the most superstitious.
Dozens of users reported the singular phenomenon in social networks.
Scientifically, this solar halo is described as luminous circumference around the sun occurs when the light undergoes a phenomenon of refraction by ice crystals suspended in the troposphere or the atmospheric layer that is located closer to our planet.

Terra News
21 may 2015
Google Translation
Original Note

Mexico City, Mexico
PHOTO GALLERY: The halo around the sun
Excelsior
21/05/2015 13:14
The people of the capital have begun to turn to the sky because the sun is surrounded by a halo.
In the streets people seen with cell phones and cameras pointing to the sun due to the circle he fell around him with red, yellow and blue.
Similarly, through social networks, users post images expressing the beauty of the phenomenon and wondering why it.
This is due to weather conditions as there are clouds crystallized by the cold, so to be pierced by sunlight, the halo forms around, a phenomenon usually precedes storms with hail.

Google Translation
Original Note

Personal Note: This has caused quite a commotion even in my Facebook Contacts, many of them posting photos. My wife called me from Mexico City to tell me to go outside and look at the sun, although I'm 130 miles northwest and the halo is not visible.
Metro Mexico City is a big city with 20 million people, this halo will have a lot of them talking.

Apocalyptic rainstorm floods Moscow streets, lightning blasts gas station (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

http://rt.com/news/261337-moscow-thunderstorm-floods-streets/

A heavy rainstorm washed over the Russian capital on Friday, prompting an extreme weather warning, sending torrents of water rushing down the city’s streets, and blowing up a gas station with lightning.

After a warm muggy Friday afternoon, the sky above Moscow suddenly darkened, sending the city into twilight. Soon after, the clouds erupted in a powerful thunderstorm.

..Some almost had to swim home. Communal services say that 90 streets in total were partially flooded.

The thunderstorm caused actual destruction as well. An explosion sparked by a lightning strike shook a local petrol station during the storm, according to witnesses. The blast also shattered windows in nearby buildings and started a fire.

Thousands flee deadly flash floods in Texas

At least two die as heavy rainfall and tornadoes sweep the US midwest

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11627975...

Record-breaking rainfall and damaging tornadoes wreaked havoc across the US midwest on Sunday, causing flash floods that killed at least two people and forced another 2,000 to evacuate.
A firefighter in Oklahoma was swept to his death while trying to rescue 10 people in high water. And the body of a man was recovered from a flooded area along the Blanco River, which rose 26 feet (7.8 metres) in just one hour and left piles of wreckage 20 feet (6 metres) high, authorities in Texas said.
"It looks pretty bad out there," said Hays County emergency management coordinator Kharley Smith, describing the destruction in Wimberley, a community that is part of a fast-growing corridor between Austin and San Antonio. "We do have whole streets with maybe one or two houses left on them and the rest are just slabs," she said.

From 350 to 400 homes were destroyed in Wimberley, many of them washed away, Ms Smith said. Several people remained missing. Kenneth Bell, the emergency management coordinator in nearby San Marcos, said the damage in Hays County alone amounts to "millions of dollars."
Authorities also warned people to honour a night-time curfew and stay away from damaged areas, since more rain was on the way, threatening more floods with the ground saturated and waterways overflowing.
Rivers rose so fast that whole communities woke up on Sunday surrounded by water. The Blanco crested above 40 feet - more than triple its flood stage of 13 feet - swamping Interstate 35 and forcing parts of the busy north-south highway to close. Rescuers used pontoon boats and a helicopter to pull people out.

Violent hail storms in Turkey

News - Published Friday, May 22, 2015 by The Weather Channel- LA CHAINE METEO

Izmir was covered with a thick layer of hail and ravaged by mudslides after a violent storm on Wednesday. Watch the impressive images of the phenomenon in video.

http://actualite.lachainemeteo.com/actualite-meteo/2015-05-22-14h37...

https://translate.google.com.ar/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&js=y&...

90 mm of rain in 30 minutes, this is the destructive record of violent storms that erupted stationary over western Turkey including the city of Izmir on Wednesday at 15.30 torrential rain but hail sometimes covering almost entirely the cars.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3095904/More-430-dead-India...

Heatwave from hell: Temperatures of (118F) sweep through India, killing 540 so far - and there's no reprieve in sight

• 539 deaths have been recorded - mainly construction workers, the elderly or homeless in southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
• Kolkata's famous yellow taxis have been taken off the road as drivers refused to work between 11am and 4pm over deaths of two colleagues
• Government has cancelled leave of all doctors amid heat-stroke epidemic
• Indian Meteorological Department says conditions to continue this week 

India is sweltering under a heatwave which has seen temperatures soar to 118F and left more than 500 dead. 

And the intense heat which has gripped northern and southern parts of the country looks set to continue this week, officials said today.

The hottest place in India was Allahabad, a city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which saw mercury rise to 47.7 degrees Celsius (117.8 Fahrenheit) on Sunday, while the capital Delhi recorded a high of 43.5C (110.3F).

Most of the 539 recorded deaths have been of construction workers, the elderly or the homeless in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana where temperatures have been hottest, said officials, but some deaths have also occurred in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal.

Scroll down for video 

Sweltering: A boy cools down in Kolkata during a heatwave across India which has killed 539 people

Getting by: This boy in Kolkata is still outside despite the heat as millions of Indians cannot afford to take time off work

The Indian Meteorological Department has issued a red warning to affected regions saying that the heat wave conditions are likely to continue over coming days.

http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=114...

A storm blasting Antarctic weather over New Zealand is currently the biggest storm on earth according to WeatherWatch.

The low stretches from just south of Fiji to Antarctica's ice shelf, but only 20 per cent of the storm is affecting New Zealand.

Snow surrounding the Shotover River in Queenstown. Photo / Supplied

WeatherWatch.co.nz said the forecast air pressure at its centre over the next 24 hours would be greater than that of Hurricane Katrina when it made landfall in 2005.

Weather expert Philip Duncan said, "It's fairly normal to get a cold snap in late May. We're less than a week away from winter, it's not surprising to get a blast like this."

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But he said the low's strength was surprising.

"The depth of this storm south of New Zealand is up there with some of the biggest hurricanes we've seen. It's a really big storm."

However, WeatherWatch.co.nz said only the storm's edges were affecting New Zealand - its centre lay around 1000 to 1500kms to our south east.

Southland, Otago and Banks Peninsula woke this morning to the heaviest dumping of snow so far this year.

Overnight, areas of Central Otago and Southland saw up to 30 cm of snow, according to Metservice.

The North Island didn't escape the cold weather with light snow falls reported in Napier and heavier falls on the Napier-Taupo Rd.

Queenstown Airport was temporarily closed, with heavy snow right down to the township, and snow flurries blanketed Invercargill.

Dunedin was battered by an onslaught of nasty weather, said MetService, hit by snow, showers and offshore thunderstorms.

Arrowtown blanketed in snow. Photo / Supplied by Petra Balsillie

15 cm of snow was reported just above the city, while its hill suburbs saw around 10 cm.

Mr Duncan said the South Island low had joined forces with the subtropical low that affected the North Island on Saturday.

"The two of them are working together to dredge up Antarctic air.

"So we've got this air at the moment being pulled up from Antarctica, and dumped over New Zealand."

There were a number of road closures for eastern parts of the South Island, with drivers advised to use extreme caution and to drive to the conditions.

MetService said while it was a cold morning, nowhere reached a record low for May.

Winter's icy grip took hold in the North Island as well, with snow reported down to sea level in Hawke's Bay.

Light snow falls were reported in the Napier suburbs of Taradale and Maraenui, and motorists experienced sleet on the way to work between Hastings and Napier.

A farm at Puketapu, Hawkes Bay. Photo / Supplied by Brenda Reay

Heavier falls were experienced inland, on the Napier-Taupo Rd and further north at Waikoau and Putere,

Cold southwest winds continued to bring showers across Auckland, and saw a severe weather warning put in place for Wairarapa and western Bay of Plenty where there was a risk of gales.

Last night's lightening storm and strong winds in Dunedin cut electricity to Musselburgh, Port Chalmers and part of the Otago Peninsula.

Aurora Energy said lightening damaged transformers, while severe winds brought down a power line.

Central Otago and Wanaka also experienced black outs.

Delta crews were responding to faults and making repairs as soon as it was possible to do so safely.

Overnight wind and rain and this morning's brief snow in Hawke's Bay resulted in power cuts in some "higher-up" rural areas.

Unison Networks customer relations manager Danny Gough said "a few hundred" customers had their supply cut, in some cases for up to two hours.

Temperatures were expected to rise slightly tomorrow, with warm weather set to return by Friday.

Meteorologist Georgina Griffiths said, "On Thursday morning, expect frosts across many parts of the North Island, as wind drops out, leaving the cold air behind."

The minimum temperature forecast for Thursday is 6C for Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington, 3C for Napier, 1C Palmerston North and 0C for Hamilton, Taupo and Masterton.

Track the storm in real-time here

More weather chaos: Record heat in parts of Alaska

May 25, 2015

Temperature difference from normal May 22, 2015

Since Wednesday, high temperatures (well into the 70s) in Fairbanks, Alaska have outdone the highs (in the 60s to mid-70s) in Washington, D.C.

The Last Frontier is in the midst of an extended streak of record-challenging warmth that will continue through next week.

Alaska’s warmest temperatures, with respect to normal, have actually focused north and east of Fairbanks.

Barrow – Alaska’s northernmost city, located above the Arctic circle – has logged record highs four of the past five days, including a toasty 47 on Thursday. That’s some 18 degrees above normal.

Eagle, Alaska – located about 200 miles east of Fairbanks – has recorded six straight days with highs in the 80s.

A massive bulge in the jet stream over our 49th state has allowed a heat dome to build over the past several days.

GFS model simulation of upper level weather pattern shows massive ridge in the jet stream over Alaska

Source