Tornado tears through Mexican city on Texas border, killing 13
Mon May 25, 2015

At least 13 people died and dozens more were injured after a freak tornado ripped through the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Acuna on Monday morning, flipping over cars and tearing down homes, the government said.

Among the dead were three children as the whirlwind damaged an estimated 750 homes in the city across the Rio Grande from Del Rio, Texas, said Jesus Garcia, spokesman for the local state of Coahuila.

The calamity also injured 229 people, all of whom were transported to local hospitals for medical care.

Walls and ceilings collapsed under the force of the whirlwind, which traveled at a speed of some 31 mph (50 km per hour) and blew gusts over 124 mph, the government said, taking the border city unawares in the early hours of Monday.

"We're not used to such destruction," Ciudad Acuna's mayor Evaristo Lenin Perez told local radio. "We don't have records of a single tornado in Acuna, a 110-year-old city."

A spokesman for the National Meteorological Service said it was the strongest tornado for at least 15 years in Mexico. Preliminary findings suggested it registered between a grade EF2 and EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, the spokesman said.

After the twister had swept through the city, photos showed children climbing past mangled cars that had been swept into their homes, while adults salvaged valuables from the rubble.

"Most of the dead are people who were outside, not people who were inside their homes," Perez said.

Authorities have set up seven refuge points for those whose houses were destroyed, the Coahuila government said.

"We're working on clearing the debris of the destroyed buildings and cars that were displaced," said Francisco Martinez, the deputy minister for Civil Protection in Coahuila.

Coahuila's governor Ruben Moreira arrived this afternoon in Acuna, which had a population of around 134,000 in 2010, and promised authorities will lead the city's recovery.

(Reporting by Luis Rojas, Max De Haldevang and Gabriela Lopez, Editing by Peter Galloway, Marguerita Choy and Diane Craft)
Trending On Reuters

CIUDAD ACUNA, Mexico | By Jaime Escamilla

Reuters Link

The Mexican Army implemented the DN-III plan in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, in the wake of a tornado

The phenomenon occurred between 5:30 and 6:10 pm on Monday, in the demarcation known as expansion in Altos de Santa Teresa. The fury of wind blew vehicles, tore roofs, power poles and trees, and caused other property damage.

According to Civil Protection a storm accompanied by high winds left hundreds of people injured to be liked pieces of glass and chunks of concrete to crumble housing.

Valdez Ricardo Guajardo, director of the municipal health services, reported that hundreds of wounded from small to severe injuries, after being hit by falling concrete fences.

Geologist Sergio Almazan said it was an EF-4 tornado with winds of 320 kilometers per hour.

According to the head of Civil Protection, Felipe Bridge, a tornado is formed by the collision of two air masses, warm and wet from the sea, and a cold and dry from the poles that gives rise to a reaction explosive shaped rotating convection originates powerful storms.

Mexico City, May 25 (HOWEVER / Vanguard / Xinhua / dpa) .-

Google Translation

Original Note

Heat wave kills more than 1,100 in India

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/25/asia/india-heatwave-deaths/

The worst-hit area is the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, where authorities say 852 people have died in the heat wave. Another 266 have died in the neighboring state of Telangana.

India recorded its highest maximum temperature of 47 degrees Celsius -- 117 degrees Fahrenheit -- at Angul in the state of Odisha on Monday, according to B.P. Yadav, director of the India Meteorological Department.

Hot, dry conditions are being made worse by winds blowing in from Pakistan's Sindh province across the northern and central plains of India. "This extreme, dry heat is being blown into India by westerly winds," Yadav said.

The high temperatures are expected to continue for another two days before any respite, the meteorological department warned Tuesday. However, the agency said that another hot spell would likely soon follow.

Among the worst-hit states are Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the south. The northern states of Rajasthan and Haryana are also reeling from the intense summer as is India's capital, New Delhi, Yadav said.

Heat taking toll on the poor

Many of the dead are reported to be poorer people, beggars and the homeless as well as construction workers who are expected to work on building sites in direct sunlight.

About one-third of the country's 1.2 billion people have access to electricity, meaning millions are enduring the blistering heat without relief.

-------------------------

So hot the street are melting!

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--p5AWRcrp--/1270...

http://www.fire.lacounty.gov/unidentified-substance-washes-up-in-ma...

Unidentified substance washes on shore in CA.

Attack of the tiniest twisters: Freak tornadoes strike across Britain - ripping off roof tiles, destroying greenhouses... and sending garden furniture flying

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3102897/Twister-hits-Britai...

Forget the rain: freak tornadoes have wreaked havoc across Britain - destroying greenhouses, ripping off roof tiles and sending the odd bin flying after striking in at least two locations.
Tornadoes were reported to have hit in Somerset and South Wales this afternoon, although the Met Office hasn't been able to confirm either.
That's not to say the residents of a Newport neighbourhood and the village of Binegar were not victims of two of the 30-odd tornadoes which take place in the UK each year.
In Binegar, villager Mark Davis said damage had been done to his roof, garage and greenhouse in the freak event, which lasted just a couple of minutes.
'I've never seen anything like it,' said the 43-year-old, who estimated the repair costs would sit around the £2,000 mark.
'It made a deafening noise. I thought it was thunder and lightning to start with.
'The sky went very dark and it started pouring with rain.
'Some of my neighbours took cover indoors as debris was flying everywhere.'

UK weather: Met Office issues wind warning as 'powerful jet stream' approaches

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-weather-met-offic...

The Met Office has warned that Britain is about to be hit by an “unseasonable” blustery storm, bringing heavy rains, large waves and the potential for damaging 70mph winds.

Issuing a severe weather warning for Monday and Tuesday, meteorologists said that a “powerful jet stream” was pushing extreme weather systems across the UK that were decidedly unusual for the start of summer.

English Channel and Irish Sea coasts were warned to expect gusts of up to 70mph, while everywhere but the northern-most tip of Scotland was predicted to experience strong winds of up to 50mph.

The Met Office said the storm front could bring up to 40mm of rain to some northern and western areas on Monday night – around two-thirds of the entire June average for the UK.

It said the windy weather would persist well into Tuesday because of a further system crossing northern Scotland, but added that the developments remain uncertain.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/news/articles/hurricane-andres-...

Hurricane Andres quickly becomes a category 4 storm

Hurricane Andre seen in infrared satellite imagery Sunday night. Courtesy: NOAA/NASA, RAMMB/CIRA.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015, 8:56 AM - On Sunday night, Hurricane Andres quickly ballooned into a category 4 storm in the eastern Pacific, packing sustained winds up to 225 kilometres per hour. While the storm does not pose a threat to land, forecasters are interested in its unusual location.

According to Weather Underground's director of meteorology Jeff Masters, the storm's emergence as a hurricane at  118.8°W means Andres is the farthest west a Northeast Pacific hurricane has appeared during the month of May since accurate satellite records started in 1970.

The timing of the storm is unusual as well.

Hurricane season began on May 15 in the East Pacific, but the first major hurricane doesn't usually form in the region until mid-July.

Tropical Blanca isn't far behind Andres, and is currently swirling more than 600 km off the coast of the Mexican Riviera.

The storm was named by the National Hurricane Center Monday after it strengthened past the tropical depression that formed Sunday afternoon.

Blanca could become a hurricane by Tuesday and could strengthen into a category 3 storm by the end of the week.

Forecasters aren't sure if it will impact populated areas yet.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3109019/A-foot-snow-hits-pa...

A foot of snow hits parts of Australia as the country endures its lowest temperatures for 40 years as its winter begins

• Parts of New South Wales, in Australia, have been buried under a foot (30cm) of snow on their first day of winter
• Temperatures plunged to minus nine degrees Celsius in some areas while Melbourne had its coldest day in 40 years
• Freezing conditions welcomed by skiers who are expected to flock to resorts to take advantage of early snowfall

Australia is experiencing the coldest start to winter in forty years after parts of the country were buried under a foot of snow.

Temperatures plunged as low as minus nine degrees Celsius as the alpine resorts of Perisher and Thredbo in New South Wales disappeared underneath a blanket of snow on Monday evening.

Average winter temperatures across New South Wales are typically between 14 and 16 degrees Celsius.

It got as cold as 6.1 degrees Celsius in the City of Sydney, making it the chilliest morning the region has seen since 1987. Falls Creek in Victoria also received 20cm of snow overnight and Mount Buller recorded8cm, while Melbourne got off to its coldest morning in almost 40 years. 

Freezing temperatures on the first day of winter has ensured the Snowy Mountains will live up to its name ahead of the ski season opening this weekend with 30cm of snow falling at Perisher Valley

The NSW alpine resorts of Perisher (pictured) and Thredbo turned white overnight as 30cm of snow blanketed the mountains with lows of minus nine degrees

It was minus seven degrees at Perisher on Monday morning and low temperatures are expected to continue throughout the rest of the week

Perisher's the Village Eight Express will be open for skiing and boarding on Friday, while Friday Flat will be open at Thredbo

While the UK, in comparison, was bathed in sunshine today as highs of more than 21 degrees Celsius were recorded this morning in Lincolnshire. 

The freezing weather is forcing many Australians to get creative with ways to beat the cold, from leaving the oven on to heat the house, to warming their beds with hairdryers.

Kuwait with Mitribah won the first + 50 ° C of 2015

June 3, 2015

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/06/il-kuwait-con-mitribah-si-aggiudica-...

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

Kuwaiti desert landscape

As we have already in recent days to write the bulk of the heat wave that for days has stationed over the area Indo-Pakistani starts moving westward, arroventando the deserts of southern Iran, Iraq and Kuwait. Just yesterday afternoon, Monday, May 2, 2015, the weather station of Mitribah, in Kuwait, was the first weather station in the world to record a maximum of absolute well + 50.0 ° C in the shade.

The + 50.0 ° C Mitribah set the new season-high touched on Earth since the beginning of 2015. In fact, to date, no meteorological station of the Earth, even those located in the red-hot canyons of southern Pakistan, managed to break through the fateful threshold of + 50 ° C.

Kuwait wins so the new, possibly temporary, a season of 2015, pending the performance of the other locations in the Middle East. Of all those in southern Iraq and Saudi Arabia

‘January in June’ stranded drivers

http://www.newsinenglish.no/2015/06/02/january-in-june-strands-driv...

“It was incredible to wake up to a full snowstorm in June,” Sigurd Bjåen of Hovden, in the mountains of southern Norway, exclaimed on national radio Tuesday morning. The heavy and drifting snow forced closure of several highways, with others open only for convoy-driving behind snowplows.

All motorists in Norway switched from winter- to summer tires weeks ago, believing that winter was over.

Bjåen lives just north of Hovden, known as a popular winter ski resort, and he can’t ever remember a worse pre-summer season than this year. Snow hasn’t fallen to such a degree, even in the high mountains, since at least 1967.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28258514/one-denver-block-buried-...

One Denver block buried under up to 4 feet of hail

06/05/2015 10:23:56 AM MDT

Up to 4 feet of ice buried all the territory between Dakota and Alaska — streets, that is.

In some ways it was "gi-normous," freakishly so. In other ways it was microscopically small.

The hail that pounded down between 10 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Thursday turned a block of South Irving Street into a massive pile of fused and impassable hailstones that trapped a dozen cars. It required not just snowplows but a front-end tractor to dig it out Friday morning. The tractor filled more than 30 dump-truck loads of hail in the process.

"We were scared. Oh my God, it was so weird," said Belen Gonzalez, 42, who lives at the corner of Dakota and Irving. "We don't understand why it happened only on this street. My husband said it was someone's enormous prank."

There's actually a meteorologic term for what happened on Irving Street, just north of Alaska: "plowable hail."

The term was created following scientific studies about similar weather events around the country and previously in Colorado including last year, said Cari Bowen, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder.

"It's a very interesting phenomenon," Bowen said. "We saw the storm stall. It produced copious amounts of hail in one small area. It's a meteorological thing."

Lights were flickering on and off in homes on the south side of Dakota and north of Alaska, but not across the streets. A stream of icy rain water ran down Dakota carrying away bags of trash. One person described sleeping in the basement at Dakota and Irving when a stream of hail and icy rain poured on him in a sudden torrent. Across the street, Antonia Lopez, 73, pointed to a screen that had been torn off her home the night before.

"I believe it was a tornado," Lopez said in Spanish. "It was very strong. The house was shaking."

Gonzalez said she also worried that it was a tornado. Looking out the windows, it was just black.

Austin Sierra, 11, said the hailstones were as big as "bumble bees. No, ping pong balls. We saw a bike. It was floating down the street."

"Trees were swaying. We couldn't hear ourselves talking. Our cars were covered with leaves. It looked like they came out of a swamp," Sierra said.

Cookie the cocker spaniel cried and barked through the seemingly endless hail storm, said Joanna Cervantes, 11.

"It just started pouring, bunches," she said.

Crews from Denver Public Works help neighbors dig their cars out from several feet of hail at S. Irving Street and Alaska Place in Denver. (Kathryn Osler, The Denver Post)

From left to right Maggie Martin-Eyl, her wife Jennifer Eyl and Jennifer's brother Eryc look over the damage to their parents home on Blue Mountain Ave in Berthoud, Colorado on June 5, 2015. The home is owned by Bill and Lorraine Eyl who were home at the time the tornado struck. They survived by ...

PHOTOS: Tornado, hail hit Front Range as Colorado experiences severe weather

Heatwaves from India to the Middle East and Europe

http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2015/06/07/heatwaves-from-india-to...

Strong heatwaves have swept several parts of the globe over the last two weeks, claiming lives and setting new records. While India experienced world's fifth deadliest heatwave in recorded history in May, extremely high temperatures were present in Pakistan and this heat eventually reached the Middle East. 

Above-average temperatures for this time of year are now observed in Europe too. In general, temperatures across Europe now are at 3.8 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average for this time of year. 

Fifth deadliest heatwave in recorded history - India

Although India is known for the hot weather in May, the last month was exceptionally warm, with temperatures going up to 12.2 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) above the month's average for almost two weeks. Over 2500 people have died, making it the fifth deadliest heatwave recorded in history.

With temperatures rising above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), the roads in New Delhi melted, and other parts of the country were almost seven degrees hotter.

It seems that the worst of the heatwave has passed now, and the Indians are keeping their fingers crossed in the hope for strong monsoon rains this year to bring some relief from the hot weather.

Heatwave in the Middle East

The heatwave which started in India has been gently blown south and eventually reached the Middle East.

During the second half of May, daily temperatures hovered between 48 and 49 degrees Celsius (118.4 and 120.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Indus Valley, Pakistan. In Nawabshah, temperatures persisted on 49 degrees Celsius (120.2 degrees Fahrenheit) four days in a row.

By June, the hot air, loaded with dust has reached Oman and and the UAE. Temperatures there have risen three to five degrees since the start of the month, AlJazeera reports.

Temperature in Sweihan, Abu Dhabi hit 50.5 degrees Celsius (122.9 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, June 3.

Khasab, Sunayah and Fahud in Oman measured 49 degrees Celsius (120.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on the same day.

The heat has been rising in Qatar too. Doha measured 45.8 degrees Celsius (114.4 degrees Fahrenheit), 45.5 degrees Celsius (113.9 degrees Fahrenheit) and 46.1 degrees Celsius (114.9 degrees Fahrenheit) in the first three days of June.

Early-season heatwave in Europe

An early-season heatwave swept over parts of Europe on Friday, June 5. Although the heat is not too strong or dangerous, it's still pretty early in the season for temperatures in this range in northern Europe. Late afternoon temperature maxima were up to 32.2 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit), and the heatwave was especially intense in the Rhine River Valley in southwest Germany and eastern France.

In general, temperatures are at 3.8 degrees Celsius (25 degrees Fahrenheit) above the average for this time of year. According to Accuweather's Eric Leister, some cities, including Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt are seeing their hottest temperatures of the year so far. A line of thunderstorms caused by the intensity of the heatwave swept across northern Europe.

The heatwave peaked on June 5, although the above-average temperatures have continued to spread across Europe on Saturday into Sunday (June 6 - 7), and are expected to drop back to normal by early next week.

Source: http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2015/06/07/heatwaves-from-india-to...

33 people injured by lightning at the Rock Am Ring festival
Mendig, west of Germany

News - Published Monday, June 8, 2015 by The Weather Channel - LA CHAINE METEO

33 people were taken to hospital after the impact of two lightning during one of the biggest rock festivals in Europe, the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park this Sunday.

http://actualite.lachainemeteo.com/actualite-meteo/2015-06-08-10h33...

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

VIDEO ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW0hnQ0ngn4

The weekend was very electric at the Rock Am Ring festival in Mendig, west of Germany. While the country was on orange alert for the risk of violent storms, two lightning strikes have hit the festival site in the night from Saturday to Sunday. Just after the performance of Marilyn Manson in an already stormy context, a first bolt hit the equipment present in the scenes at 1am, wounding eight members of the production.

A second flash was then shot in the pit around 4 am on the public: twenty people were affected, not by the impact, but by the detonation nearby and projection of metal objects exploded by the impact. These are the final 33 people were taken to hospital. The provision of Fritz Kalkbrenner, scheduled at 1:35 was canceled. Other concerts of the weekend (The Prodigy, Foo Fighters, Slipknot) were maintained but tents lightning rods were installed to protect the public.

Alaska Fire Crews Battling 2 Large Tundra Wildfires

Posted: 06/08/2015 10:49 pm EDT

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Following a winter marked by little snow and warmer temperatures, fire crews on Monday were tackling two large wildfires burning on mostly treeless tundra in the southwest part of the state.

Weekend rain helped tamp down the lightning-caused fires that through Monday have burned 63 square miles in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, about 50 miles northeast of the commercial hub town of Bethel.

Alaska gets fewer fires in tundra than in forests, and tundra fires tend to be smaller, but they are not unheard of, according to Fish and Wildlife Service fire ecologist Lisa Saperstein.

Tundra fires are more common in southwest Alaska, but rare in the far north, she said. In 2007, a lightning-caused fire burned 400 square miles in the Brooks Range in the North Slope in an area where lightning is an anomaly.

The current fires are burning about 400 miles south of where the 2007 fire took place. Both fires are located in a biologically dynamic area where waterfowl nest, Saperstein said.

"There's lots of vegetation," she said. "And where you have vegetation, it's fuel."

According to a 2013 report by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, climate change could be a factor in a growing number of fires in tundra ecosystems over the next century.

Since the current tundra fires are not threatening people or buildings, crews were expecting to depart from one of the fires on Monday and continue mopping up hotspots at the other larger blaze, fire information spokesman Tim Mowry said.

Many Alaska wildfires are allowed to burn themselves out without crews if they are remote and far from any infrastructure. The bigger of the two fires, for example, had grown to 39 square miles by Monday, but crews were not immediately assigned to fight it until it had grown to almost half that size, Mowry said.

The amount of snow that falls during winter can expose an area to higher risk of fire because there is less moisture in the ground.

"But you still need something to ignite it," Saperstein noted.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/08/alaska-wildfire-tundra_n_7...

http://floodlist.com/asia/china-over-100-died-in-natural-disasters-...

China – More Floods hit South, Officials Say Over 100 People Died in Natural Disasters in May 2015

Summer in Madrid: Hail, storms and flashfloods

http://www.thelocal.es/20150611/summer-in-madrid-hail-and-flashfloods

Freak weather conditions for June caused chaos in Madrid on Thursday when the capital was hit by electric storms, torrential rain and even hail.

Around mid-morning the skies darkened and then the heavens opened causing torrents of water to flood streets and overflow drainage systems.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3123378/A-city-lockdown-Tig...

Where's an ark when you need one? Apocalyptic scenes in Georgia as lions, bears, wolves and HIPPO are among dozens of animals to escape from zoo during freak flood in Tbilisi 

• Flooding has destroyed enclosures at Tbilisi Zoo in Georgia allowing more than 30 dangerous animals to roam free
• Among the animals to escape are six tigers, six lions, 20 wolves and a hippo, which was hit by a tranquiliser gun
• Flash flooding in the Georgian capital has already killed up to 10 people including three who work at the zoo 
• The zoo confirmed that one of the keepers that died had lost an arm after being attacked by a tiger last month 

The capital of Georgia has been placed on lockdown after heavy flooding destroyed enclosures at the city's zoo allowing tigers, lions, jaguars, wolves, jackals and a hippo to escape and roam the streets.

Residents in Tbilisi have been warned to stay indoors after more than 30 dangerous animals became free from the zoo after heavy rain and wind.

The flash floods have already killed up to 10 people including three workers who are employed at Tbilisi Zoo. 

A hippo who escaped from a zoo in the Georgian capital Tbilisi after flash flood destroyed the animal's enclosures allowing them to roam the streets 

As well as the hippo, tigers, lions, bears and wolves has escaped for their pens, forcing the city to be placed on lockdown by authorities 

The escaped hippo was eventually cornered in the main square of Tbilisi and was subdued by being shot with a tranquiliser gun

The zoo said one of the dead was Guliko Chitadze, a zookeeper who lost an arm in an attack by a tiger last month.

Some of the animals have been seized but it is unclear how many are still on the loose.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3123359/Snow-desert-Freak-h...

Snow in the desert: Freak hailstorm turns the Red Centre white, blanketing parched earth in ice

• A large thunderstorm in the Alice Springs area on Saturday blanketed the area in hail
• The red earth contrasting with the white hail gave way to a stunning spectacle
• The unusual phenomenon did not bring hail big enough to cause any damage 

In a bizarre but beautiful sight the Red Centre turned white on Saturday following a thunderstorm which blanketed the area in a sheet of hail.

Photographs show a stunning contrast between the bright earth and hailstones covering the ground in parts of Alice Springs.

While the area does see storms it's not often conditions are just right to deliver the spectacle it did at the weekend.

'This event was set apart due to the fact it was a slow moving storm,' Jackson Browne, a meteorologist at the Darwin Bureau of Meteorology explained to Daily Mail Australia.

'Usually these storm cells move with quite a lot of pace,' he said, adding that although hail is present in most storms it has often melted by the time it meets the ground.

As the hailstones were only marble-sized they weren't large enough to cause any damage, but they did provide quite a sight for locals, many of whom have never seen hail despite living in the area for years.

The Red Centre was blanketed in hail on Saturday following a freak storm

Stunning photographs show the contrasting colours in the unusual phenomenon

Storm Ashobaa Oman: 8 years of rain in one day!

News - Published Saturday, June 13, 2015 by The Weather Channel - LA CHAINE METEO

Tropical storm Ashobaa hit the south of the Arabian Peninsula. Oman has been particularly affected.

http://actualite.lachainemeteo.com/actualite-meteo/2015-06-13-16h02...

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

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-3tveUnOMk

Tropical storm "Ashobaa" was born in the Arabian Sea last Tuesday. She hit Oman on Thursday and Friday, causing extreme rainfall and flooding in the south. If one counts no casualties, more than a hundred people had to be rescued, however due to flooding.

8 years of rainfall in 24 hours!

Several cities in the south of the Sultanate received impressive amounts of water. A Massirah, rains of 231mm were collected against an average of 2mm in June. When you know that the annual rainfall of 40mm to Massirah, so we can consider it rained in 24 hours equivalent to 8 years of rainfall in this city!

A very rare phenomenon

It is rare that a tropical storm reaches the coast of Oman. In general, typhoons and cyclones formed in the Arabian Sea from reaching rarely reach the land. But this year, the very high temperatures observed in India and neighboring countries and a late monsoon contribute to cause an unusual rise in temperature of the Arabian Sea (abnormality of + 2 ° C at the surface of the Sea of Oman), which may partly explain the presence of the storm Ashobaa an unusually high latitude.

MAP;

Violent storms on the east of European Russia, with strong winds and hail hit the Oblast 'of Kirov

Violent storms lash the plains of European Russia

June 16, 2015

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/06/violenti-temporali-sullest-della-rus...

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

MAP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirov_Oblast

The storm front photographed during the transition sull'Oblast 'Kirov

During the afternoon yesterday, Monday, June 15, 2015, a series of intense thunderstorms lashed the eastern part of eastern Russia and Kazakhstan, causing damage and many hardships as a result of the floods produced by heavy rainfall. The most violent storms have affected the Oblast 'of Kirov, along the basin of Vyatka, where there have been also strong hail, accompanied by an intense electrical activity and strong blasts of wind-related "downbursts" of individual thunderstorms.

The storm was preceded by a giant wall of very dark rain which resulted in a drastic reduction in horizontal visibility, by dropping the darkness in a few minutes.

The outbreak of these violent storms in eastern European Russia is linked to its passage in the upper troposphere (250 hPa), the main branch of the "polar jet" for days positioned with its maximum altitude above the ground and in European Russia and the Urals area.

thunderstorms hit the area around the city of Kirov, where the storm was preceded by strong gusts of wind uprooted several trees and created many hardships, especially road traffic and airport.

Flooding caused by heavy storms yesterday

Water Theft Rising in Drought-Ravaged California (Jun 15)

A growing number of Californians are resorting to water theft and police are playing catchup, as nearly half the state suffers a historic 4-year drought.

It's gotten so bad, police are warning businesses and residents to start locking up their taps.

Palo Alto resident Jason Zhur said he’s shocked it has come this far. “But water’s becoming more expensive than gas."

A group of thieves broke locks guarding spigots at a shopping center in Milpitas, KPIX reported over the weekend, making off with hundreds of gallons of water. Police are still seeking the suspects, who braved surveillance cameras to access the water.

In March, thieves drove off with a 500-gallon water tanker in the Oakland Hills. The Marina Landscape tanker was resting on a trailer parked in front of a job site near the Caldecott Tunnel and police believe a thief hooked it up to a truck and drove off. The tanker is worth $4,500 to $5,000 and authorities suspect the thieves will use it to steal more water.

Last month, Sacramento police caught two men who illegally tapped into a city fire hydrant to fill a 2,000- to 4,000-gallon water truck they’d rented, the Sacramento Bee reports. Officials are determining whether the men had simply forgotten to obtain a permit or were intentionally stealing water.

This month the owners of a nudist resort in the Santa Cruz Mountains were charged with theft after piping water from a nearby creek despite many warnings from Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District to stop, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

Also this month, water bandits pried open locks on water spigots at a shopping center in Milpitas, CBS reports. Witnesses noticed three to four people filling containers in the middle of the night and the property owner confirmed the incident by looking at his water bill and noticing a significant jump in water use.

In April, the Associated Press reported that a large amount of water was stolen from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a source of water for 23 million state residents.

The AP also reported in February that Modesto homeowners had illegally taken water from a canal.

Hundreds of gallons were stolen from a fire department water tank in North San Juan during wildfire season last summer.

"We were just absolutely stunned," Boyd Johnson, a battalion chief with the North San Juan fire department, told the National Journal. "Fires are on everyone's mind during the summer so to see this happen, I think it really scared people."

Enforcing water theft laws in the face of a four-year drought is not easy, some in law enforcement say.

"This is something that's very hard to pin down. If you don't catch someone in the act, how do you prove they did it?" Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman told the National Journal.

Mendocino County currently counts water theft as a misdemeanor. "To me this is like looting during a disaster. It should be a felony," Mendocino County Supervisor Carre Brown said of water theft.

In Lemoore, the Public Works Department dedicated an employee to searching for water thieves after police found evidence of someone accessing water through fire hydrants.

Hardware stores are now selling locks that screw onto water valves to prevent water theft.

Sources

http://rt.com/usa/267361-water-theft-drought-california/

http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2015/06/15/water-thieves-are-on-the-ris...

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/06/13/lock-your-taps-spigot-m...

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3125930/Wildfire-rages-hear...

Alaska wildfires tear explosive path of devastation threatening hundreds of homes and forcing people to flee 

• Two wildfires are sweeping through Alaska putting homes under threat 
• The most recent fire erupted on Monday, burning buildings to the ground 
• Volunteers had to rescue residents as well as sled dogs and other animals 
• Hundreds of people have also been forced from their homes on Kenai Peninsula 

Hundreds of homes are under threat in Alaska after two 'explosive' wildfires are sweeping through the state forcing people to flee.

The most recent fire erupted on Monday, burning six buildings to the ground, prompting hundreds of residents to evacuate their homes on the Kenai Peninsula.

The latest fire is just 150 miles south of a major wildfire that started a day earlier near Willow, in the heart of the state's sled-dog community.

A building is consumed by flames as an out of control wildfire burns near Willow in Alaska, forcing people to flee their homes 

The fire has been raging in the heart of the state's sled-dog community and has put hundreds of homes under threat 

The fire has ripped through the far flung community of about 2,000 people living along a major road connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks 

The blaze prompted volunteers to join in making sure that both people and their sled dogs as well as other animals were safely evacuated.

Alaska's Department of Natural Resources said in a news release that the 'explosive wildland fire' on the Kenai Peninsula forced the evacuation of hundreds of homes.

Downburst in Normandy: impressive photos - FRANCE

News - Published Friday, June 12, 2015 by The Weather Channel - LA CHAINE METEO

Our users have sent us photos of wet downbursts taken during a storm in the Orne this Thursday, June 11, 2015. Explanation and video of the phenomenon in action.

http://actualite.lachainemeteo.com/actualite-meteo/2015-06-12-17h13...

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

L ORNE was crossed by severe thunderstorms on Thursday, causing large amounts of rainfall. The photographs of our users show perfectly the phenomenon as a whole: a powerful very localized rain curtain, so very violent, under the storm cloud. This is a wet downburst, or "wet downburst" in English. A weather phenomenon sudden and short-lived (a few minutes) capable of crushing everything in its path.

Totally different from tornadoes with which they are sometimes confused, downbursts are destructive wind corridors able to bring down a plane landing or taking off.

Coldest June in 92 years (Norway)

original link

You have every reason to complain about the weather. Trøndelag has not experienced such a cold first half of June since 1923.

Since the daily measurements (average temperature through the day) began in Trondheim in 1870, it has been measured an even colder first half of June only once, 92 years ago.

There has not been a single day of summer meteorological in Trondheim in the first half of June.

Thunderstorms in France: more than 500,000 lightning in 15 days!

News - Updated Friday, 19 June 2015 by The Weather Channel - LA CHAINE METEO

After a remarkably stable spring, the beginning of June was particularly hot in France, but also very stormy, with several peaks of activity during the first 15 days.

http://actualite.lachainemeteo.com/actualite-meteo/2015-06-19-06h25...

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

If the first three days of June 2015 have not been particularly stormy, it is quite another result. Indeed, according Blitzortung network, the number of readings lightning was above 20000 for 10 consecutive days, from June 5 to 14, with two peaks of activity on June 6 and June 11 (over 80000 flashes these days there). Of all the first 15 days of the month, more than 500,000 lightning were recorded.

However, in the image of the distribution of total rainfall, thunderstorm activity was very heterogeneous across the country. It is above the edge of the reliefs and the south, mainly the southeast as storms erupted and where the electrical activity was intense. In the north, however, the electric activity was much lower (0 days in Paris), and mainly concerns the Normandy and Picardy.

June on track to be coldest summer for 40 years

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/june-on-track-to-be-co...

JUNE is on track to be the coldest summer month for more than 40 years as the persistent rainfall and low temperatures blight hopes of a turn to warmer weather.

Scotland's average temperature up until June 15 was 9.3C, two degrees below normal and the coldest June, July or August since June 1972, Met Office records show.

Forecasters are predicting another 10 days of downpours from next week. But first, another cold front will bring cloud and scattered heavy showers tomorrow, followed by a wet Sunday with hail. Highs of 18C tomorrow will drop to 15C on Sunday.

18 dead, 4 missing as dangerous storms sweep through China

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/06/20/18-dead-4-missing-as-danger...

Heavy storms that swept through several southern Chinese provinces this past week have killed 18 people and left four more missing, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The storms have dumped more than nearly 8 inches of rainfall in 48 hours on some towns, toppled thousands of homes, and dislocated tens of thousands of residents, the ministry said Friday.

The deaths were caused by house collapses, landslides, drowning or lightning.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/69567269/hundreds-flee-rising-flood...

Hundreds flee rising floodwaters in North Island  

A hundred people have been evacuated from Waitotara - likely the south Taranaki village's entire population - after flooding engulfed the remote town.

Waitotara is located about 30 kilometres north of Whanganui. It has sixty houses and sits on the Waitotara River, which flooded in the heavy rain over the weekend.

Residents were not able to return to their homes on Sunday, as flood waters were still high, Civil Defence said. Some residents were asked to evacuate, while others self-evacuated. Many went to the nearby town of Waverley.

A state of emergency remains in place for Taranaki, Whanganui and Rangitikei.

More than  200 people were evacuated from areas near the Whanganui River, which reached record levels of 9.1 metres at Town Bridge at 3am on Sunday. Many more people had self-evacuated.

About 100 flood affected homes on the city's Anzac Parade could be inaccessible until Tuesday because of the high waters, the Ministry of Civil Defence said.

 

The Whangaehu River in flood.

Assessments of properties along the Whanganui River had been delayed because water levels were not expected to start receding until early afternoon, despite improvements in the weather, CD director Sarah Stuart-Black said.

Slips had also come down on the aveneue and needed to be assessed before the road could reopen.

http://pulse.ng/local/in-lagos-floods-overwhelm-major-streets-photo...

Floods overwhelm major streets [PHOTOS]

Motorists are finding it hard to navigate their way due to the water level and pedestrians are unable to pass unaided.

Rare double rainbow frames Sydney skyline

June 18, 2015

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/18/asia/sydney-double-rainbow-stunne...

double rainbow at sunset in Sydney.

Sydney's sunset was twice as spectacular Wednesday when its beaches, harbor and city skyline were framed by a rare double rainbow.

Social media was awash with breathtaking pictures, with the sight literally stopping traffic on the city's streets.

Pakistan Heat Wave Kills Hundreds: Victims 'Dying On the Streets'

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pakistan-heat-wave-kills-hundreds...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A heat wave raging through southern Pakistan has claimed more than 700 lives, officials said, with witnesses describing victims "dropping dead" on the streets.

Temperatures have exceeded 110 degrees in recent days, and thousands of people have been left to face the heat without electricity amid widespread power outages.

South Island wakes to record freeze (new zealand)

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/276919/south-island-wakes-to...

In a rare event, almost the entire South Island has woken up to temperatures below zero degrees today.

MetService meteorologist Stephen Glassy said the coldest place in the South Island overnight was Pukaki aerodrome near Twizel which reached a bone chilling - 19.8°C.

The all time record low is - 25.6°C recorded in Ranfurly in 1903.

Power still out for many

Some people in the Canterbury region have been without power since heavy snow brought down lines last week.

Line workers have been working to restore power, using helicopters to get to isolated places.

Comment by SongStar101 19 hours ago

Water level in reservoir formed by Hoover Dam dips to record low

Low water levels of Lake Mead is seen near the Hoover Dam on the Nevada and Arizona border in this April 11, 2015, file photo. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart/Files

By David Schwartz

(Reuters) - The largest capacity reservoir in the United States has hit its lowest water level in history following years of severe drought that have dramatically reduced flows from the Colorado River, water managers said on Wednesday.

Officials said Nevada’s Lake Mead, the 79-year-old reservoir created by the massive Hoover Dam, registered 1,074.98 feet (327.7 meters) above sea level late on Tuesday, but was able to rise above a critical mark by early on Wednesday morning.

A water level of below 1,075 feet projected for January would translate to water cutbacks in 2016 for two U.S. western states, Arizona and Nevada. An announcement would be made this August.

But a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman said cutbacks are not expected to be implemented and that projections are for the water level to be 6 feet (1.8 meters) above the trigger point.

“We don’t expect that to happen right now,” spokeswoman Rose Davis said, referring to possible cutbacks. “Right now the probability of a shortage for 2016 is negligible.”

Davis said the reservoir’s water level could again fall to record lows in the next six to eight weeks, but that it would rebound by the end of December.

Lake Mead supplies water to roughly 40 million people and agricultural customers in Nevada, Arizona, Southern California and northern Mexico.

The water source and several other man-made reservoirs springing from the 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 Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming, officials said.

Snowfall has dipped 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.

“We’re all definitely concerned about the low levels of Lake Mead,” Davis said. “You have to be... this drought has extended for so long.”

She said water managers will continue to closely monitor its levels and work with those involved on various conservation efforts.

(Reporting by David Schwartz in Phoenix; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Lambert)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/water-level-reservoir-formed-hoover-dam-dips-... 

Parched Caribbean faces widespread drought, water shortages

 By DANICA COTO8 hours ago

This June 19, 2015 aerial photo shows the drought affected lakeshore of La Plata reservoir in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico expanded water rationing across several municipalities as it continues to confront a drought of potentially historic proportions. Thanks to El Nino, a warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean that affects global weather, and a quieter-than-normal hurricane season that began in June, forecasters expect a shorter wet season. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The worst drought in five years is creeping across the Caribbean, prompting officials around the region to brace for a bone dry summer.

From Puerto Rico to Cuba to the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia, crops are withering, reservoirs are drying up and cattle are dying while forecasters worry that the situation could only grow worse in the coming months.

Thanks to El Nino, a warming of the tropical Pacific that affects global weather, forecasters expect the hurricane season that began in June to be quieter than normal, with a shorter period of rains. That means less water to help refill Puerto Rico's thirsty Carraizo and La Plata reservoirs as well as the La Plata river in the central island community of Naranjito. A tropical disturbance that hit the U.S. territory on Monday did not fill up those reservoirs as officials had anticipated.

Puerto Rico is among the Caribbean islands worst hit by the water shortage, with more than 1.5 million people affected by the drought so far, the U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center says. The amount of water flowing into 12 of at least 22 rivers that supply the island's reservoirs is at an all-time historic low, the Department of Natural Resources reported Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of people receive water only every third day under strict rationing recently imposed by the island government. Puerto Rico last week also activated National Guard troops to help distribute water and approved a resolution to impose fines on people and businesses for improper water use.

The Caribbean's last severe drought was in 2010. The current one could grow worse if the hurricane season ending in November produces scant rainfall and the region enters the dry season with parched reservoirs, said Cedric Van Meerbeeck, a climatologist with the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology.

The Caribbean isn't the only area in the Western Hemisphere dealing with extreme water shortages. Brazil has been struggling with its own severe drought that has drained reservoirs serving the metropolis of Sao Paulo.

In the Caribbean, the farm sector has lost more than $1 million in crops as well as tens of thousands of dollars in livestock, said Norman Gibson, scientific officer at the Trinidad-based Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute.

On St. Lucia, which has been especially hard hit, farmers say crops including coconuts, cashews and oranges are withering.

"The outlook is very, very bad," said Anthony Herman, who oversees a local farm cooperative. "The trees are dying, the plants are dying ... It's stripping the very life of rivers."

In the nearby Dominican Republic, water shortages have been reported in hundreds of communities, said Martin Melendez, a civil engineer and hydrology expert who has worked as a government consultant. "We were 30 days away from the entire water system collapsing," he said.

The tourism sector has also been affected.

Most large hotels in Puerto Rico have big water tanks and some recycle wastewater to irrigate green areas, but many have curtailed water use, said Frank Comito, CEO of the Florida-based Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association.

Other hotels have cut back on sprinkler time by up to 50 percent, said Carlos Martinez of Puerto Rico's Association of Hotels. "Everybody here is worried," he said. "They are selling water tanks like hot cakes ... and begging God for rain."

Guests at Puerto Rico's El Canario by the Lagoon hotel get a note with their room keys asking them to keep their showers short amid the water shortage. "We need your cooperation to avoid waste," says the message distributed at the front desk of the hotel in the popular Condado district.

At the Casa del Vega guesthouse in St. Lucia, tourists sometimes find the water in their rooms turned off for the day, preventing them from taking a shower. "Even though we have a drought guests are not sympathetic to that," hotel manager Merlyn Compton said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/parched-caribbean-faces-widespread-drought-wa... 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33265985

India floods: Fifty die in Gujarat rains

Gujarat has been hit by heavy rains

Authorities in India's Gujarat state have asked people to move to higher grounds as incessant monsoon rains have triggered floods and house collapses.

Heavy rains have been battering the worst-affected Saurashtra region, where more than 50 people have died in flood-related incidents.

Nearly 10,000 people have been moved to higher ground, including 1,000 who were airlifted to safety.

India regularly witnesses severe floods during the monsoon season.

But the ferocity of this year's monsoon in Gujarat has surprised many, says the BBC Hindi's Ankur Jain in Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat.

House collapses have been responsible for most of the deaths and the toll is likely to increase, our correspondent adds.

"The coastal district of Amreli was the worst affected, where 36 people succumbed to the flood fury," Gujarat's disaster control room said in a statement.

There have been reports of lions coming out of their habitat in the Gir forest in Junagadh - the only home to Asiatic lions - which has been hit by rains, our correspondent adds.

Indian air force helicopters have airlifted people stranded in a bus on a highway and low lying villages in the flood-hit districts.

An air force helicopter rescued passengers from a stranded bus
The Saurashtra region is the worst-hit by floods

India receives 80% of its annual rainfall during the monsoon between June and September.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/06/24...

Trees are consumed by flames as an out-of-control wildfire burns near Willow, Alaska, on June 14. (Stefan Hinman/Mat-Su Borough via Reuters)

This story has been updated.

Following on a record hot May in which much snow cover melted off early, Alaska saw no less than 152 fires erupt over the weekend. The numbers have only grown further since then, and stood at 291 active fires Thursday,according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center.

“Given the high number of fires and the personnel assigned to those fires, the state’s firefighting resources are becoming very limited, forcing fire managers to prioritize resources,” noted the state’s Department of Natural Resources Tuesday. The preparedness level at the moment for the state is 5, meaning that “resistance to control is high to extreme and resistance to extinguishment is high.”

Dramatic flash flood ravaging the city of Sochi, fallen over 177 mm of rain in a few hours - Southern Russia

June 26, 2015

A series of strong thunderstorm flooded the city of Sochi, on the heights of the nearby hinterland are estimated more than 200 mm of rain

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/06/drammatica-alluvione-lampo-flagella-...

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

Credit Severe Weather RU (facebook)

The streets of Sochi completely under water. Credit Severe Weather RU (facebook)

An overhead view of members flooded after heavy storms yesterday

A dramatic flash flood, yesterday afternoon, Thursday, June 25, 2015, swept through the city of Sochi, one of the best known and most famous cities of southern Russia, overlooking the Black Sea coast. During the day yesterday the city was invested by a series of strong rain, to vent thunderstorm, sometimes even violent, that in less than 12 hours have downloaded to the ground over 177 mm of rain.

But on the areas near the mountainous hinterland, behind the town, the intense precipitation, characterized by indices of rain / very high rate, in a few hours would have downloaded up to 200 mm of water. Just enough to transform the hilly streets in torrents of water and mud that have afflicted with all their impetus Housing, dragging the Black Sea coast of a large quantity of water and debris that reached as well the districts of Sochi. All that water falling in such a short time on the surrounding heights could not be disposed of easily. The large "surplus" water caused the flooding of almost all rivers and the subsequent "flash flood" that put under water much of the city. The steepness of the area has made it even more destructive floods.

In practice, in as little as 11-12 hours on the eastern part of the region of Krasnodar it fell the same amount of rain that usually falls in two months. Probably on the southern slopes of the hills that characterize the immediate hinterland, behind the city of Sochi, they have focused the maximum loads precipitation,

This flow of very moist air and highly unstable raised by the now more warm surface waters of the Black Sea, going towards the north-east, has reached the coastal area near Sochi.

Just three years ago, in July 2012, a devastating flash flood, caused by a violent storm, plague the city of Krymsk and Novorossiisk, claiming dozens of casualties and enormous damage materials for the overflowing of all rivers and streams in the western part of the region of Krasnodar. In those days the very serious flood event that drench Krymsk and locations near forced Russia to stop naval activity in the port of Novorossirsk, with the temporary shutdown of oil exports because of the floods and a landslide that rendered impossible any type of connection, both road and rail. Meanwhile, between today and tomorrow, given the persistence of the cyclonic circulation at high altitude in the east of Ukraine and southern Russia, new rains and thunderstorms will strike again Sochi and the flooded areas, the risk of causing new hardships on land already seriously vulnerato.

MAP : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sochi

@ Kris, this is ZetaTalk about what the northern islands on the Caribbean Plate will experience during the 7 of 10 plate movements.  The exposed shores in article are on the banks of inland reservoirs so this appears to be a result of drought, but if there is more beach exposed on the northern shores of these lakes that could mean the island is tipping.

"wonder if your post of drought in Puerto Rico is actually just a result of the Caribbean Plate tipping. I think Puerto Rico is on edge of plate that's rising. Maybe that's why those waters have receded. Drought might be the excuse. Would a drought have that effect there? How much of a drought? And has that level been met, if one looks up the rainfall stats?

http://zetatalk.com/7of10/7of10-42.htm

“The larger islands along the northern part of the Caribbean Plate could be assumed to gain elevation except that the entire Caribbean Plate is losing, overall. Thus the southern shores of these larger islands will experience some elevation loss, where beaches may emerge on the northern shores.”

La Plata reservoir in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico

https://www.google.com/maps/place/18%C2%B020'00.0%22N+66%C2%B014'12...

Carraizo reservoir in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico

https://www.google.com/maps/dir//18.3142925,-66.0213867/@18.3789105...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/wildfire-hazard-extreme-...

A forest fire in the La Ronge area from earlier in June. (Facebook)

The wildfire situation in Saskatchewan's north is getting worse.

Officials are recommending people not travel to the La Ronge area, including north of the community. 

Provincial fire officials said Thursday that the hazard from wildfires is extreme. There are several fires burning in the area and a change in wind direction could lead to evacuation orders. Smoke is also a concern.

People in the affected communities — including La Ronge and Air Ronge, Sucker River, Wadin Bay, Stanley Mission and Nemeiben — were encouraged to relocate to a safer community.

Throughout Saskatchewan's north there are 31 wildfires burning.

Officials said the area has been drying out significantly since the last rainfall, leading to the potentially hazardous wildfire conditions.

The province has also issued a fire ban, meaning no open fires and no fireworks, for the northern part of the province.

• Here's a map showing the areas covered by a fire ban

http://globalnews.ca/news/2076694/la-ronge-area-residents-asked-to-...

Sheep herders mourn loss of sheep to giant hail stones

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/sheep-herders-mourn-loss-of-...

NISLAND | In addition to suffering extreme damage to their roofs, a shed and expensive farm equipment to giant hail stones that fell last week, the Mickelson family is still reeling from a more emotional and heart-wrenching loss.

The hail that was as large as softballs crashed down upon their farm near Nisland and directly killed or led to the death of around 30 head of lambs and 10 ewes.

They also had major loss to buildings and vehicles, and two center pivot irrigation systems both went down in the winds. One unit, just east of the house, looked like twisted spaghetti pieces, while another, further south across a field, lost five sections.

Sean Ryan, Journal staff

http://floodlist.com/america/700-displaced-1500-houses-damaged-cost...

700 Displaced, 1,500 Houses Damaged in Costa Rica Floods

Costa Rica has experienced further heavy rainfall over the last few days which has left 19 communities isolated and forced over 700 people from their homes.

Heavy rain and floods that hit the nation’s Caribbean and Northern regions on 21 J... had left 25 communities isolated and forced over 500 people to evacuate their homes.

An improvement in the flood situation by 25 June 2015 allowed Costa Rica’s National Emergency Commission (Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias – CNE) to announce that most of those displaced were able to return home. Repairs to damaged roads and bridges had also been carried out, re-connecting isolated communities.

By 27 June the country was faced with further torrential rain which has caused damage to roads, bridges and houses, and affected over 200 communities across 3 provinces of Limón, Heredia and Cartago.

According to figures from CNE, the flooding and heavy rain has damaged 1,585 houses, 18 schools, 23 roads, 11 bridges, 7 dams and 3 aqueducts.

There are currently 19 communities isolated as a result of the flooding causing damage to transport infrastructure. The canton of Sarapiqui in Heredia province is one of the worst affected areas. Twelve communites located along the banks of the swollen Sarapiquí and Sucio rivers have been cut off there

CNE have set up 12 shelters for those displaced by the floods. Currently there are 745 people housed in the shelters, many of them (342) in Sarapiqui.

Schools have been closed in Talamanca, Limon, Matina, Pococí, Siquirres, Guácimo, Sarapiqui and Turrialba.

flood damage in Costa Rica, June 2015. 

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/smoke-from-prairie-forest-fires-prompt...

Hot in France: over 40 ° C, during the night almost 1 million without electricity [PHOTOS]

July 1, 2015

Dinners by candlelight in the tens of thousands of homes, firefighters and ambulances mobilized to rescue people in respiratory assistance

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/07/caldo-in-francia-superati-i-40c-in-n...

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

Temperatures above 40 degrees in France, where some forty departments are on alert. Last night, just under a million inhabitants in the west of the country and 'remained without electricity' for a maxi blackout due to the wave of heat.

According to the company of electricity ', this morning everything and' returned to normality 'but are not excluded new incidents of the same kind in the day. Everything 'success when an electric overheated and' went into a tailspin, dragging the entire fault zone, starting from Brittany and Normandy, where Saint-Malo, Dinard or Dinan traffic lights went off, the film had to stop projections and restaurants were left with oven. Dinners by candlelight in the tens of thousands of homes, firefighters and ambulances mobilized to rescue people in respiratory care.

https://www.facebook.com/severeweatherEU/photos/a.1423656947857402....

Impressive effect of the strong heat wave over W Europe already very obvious - like the asphalt melting on roads around Portal au niveau de Vars, France today as air temperatures reach 37 °C (surface temperatures well exceed that under the constant Sun).

https://www.facebook.com/severeweatherEU/photos/a.1423656947857402....

Satellite view of the omega block over W Europe, which is causing the big heat wave. A strong ridge has formed over W Europe, flanked by lows on both sides. Clear, sunny and very hot weather prevails under the ridge.

THE OMEGA BLOCK http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/144/

Inch-wide hailstones fall as thunderstorms sweep the country after 98F Britain bakes on hottest July day on record

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3146860/Summer-s-98F-Britai...

Yesterday may have been Britain's hottest July day on record but today the sweltering heat which saw temperatures reach 98F had given way to fierce storms and enormous hailstones.
Temperatures hit a scorching 36.7C (98.1F) at London Heathrow Airport yesterday afternoon, making it the warmest day in the country for 12 years and prompting health officials to warn people to stay out of the sun as Britain became hotter than Barcelona and Athens.
But today the weather picture looked rather different as rain swept through the north of the country overnight, with the wet weather predicted to become more widespread by this afternoon.
Yesterday, play had to be stopped at Wimbledon after a ball boy fainted in the heat, while other spectators were also spotted being treated by paramedics.
Nick Prebble, from MeteoGroup, said today would provide some respite from the searing heat, but warned the weekend would see the return of the tropical heatwave.
He said: 'Temperatures will be suppressed today, about 10C lower than yesterday with highs of 25C or 26C. It will be noticeably cooler but still warm.

San Diegans Not Used to Wild Weather

Spotty showers, thunder and lightning captures our complete attention whether it its on the road or in our house

By Dave Summers

Mission Bay is a Fourth of July destination park.

Escondido resident Robert Snowden and his wife ventured out for a walk in the rain Wednesday evening to pick a party spot for this weekend.

"We will be prepared we have awnings, umbrellas whatever it takes," Snowden said.

Marvin Riggs and his wife are visiting from out of town. They've already found a spot and brought the party with them.

"I'm a 65 degree person. As long as you are not caught in it. It's just atmosphere," Riggs said. 

It seems no matter the expectations visitors and residents are finding the good in this week's wacky atmosphere.

Even Craig Wilkerson, who has to work in the elements delivering pizza, sees a silver lining.

"Travel sucks but it makes it better because everyone stays inside and orders more pizza," Wilkerson said.

For those who have been just bearing with the spotty showers and mugginess, they may be pleased to learn conditions this weekend aren't expected to be like the last two days.

Source: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/San-Diegans-Not-Used-to-Wild-... 

http://sputniknews.com/videoclub/20150706/1024267176.html

Unprecedented Wildfires in Canada by the Numbers (Jul 7)
Drought conditions have sparked wildfires across western Canada, contributing to smoky haze seen as far east as Quebec and the United States.

Here's a breakdown of the current situation:

    British Columbia

•     Wildfires have burned through over half a million acres in B.C. this year.
•     Since April 1, 900 wildfires have been sparked in B.C. alone.
•     There are 184 active wildfires currently burning in B.C.
•     More than 800 people have been evacuated or put on evacuation alert across the province.
•     June 18, or 22 days ago, was the last time B.C.'s South Coast has seen measurable rainfall.
•     On Tuesday, the air quality rating in Whistler was on par with some of the world's most polluted cities.
•     Smoke from the B.C. fires has spread across all three Prairie provinces and into Ontario and Quebec.
•     The smoke is large enough to be spotted from space by NASA satellites.

Saskatchewan

•     There have been 582 wildfires in Saskatchewan so far this season, compared to 210 in 2014.
•     13,000 people have been evacuated in northern Saskatchewan due to wildfire threat.
•     1,400 military personnel may be sent to help with the fires in Saskatchewan.
•     As of July 7, there were 113 active wildfires in Saskatchewan.
•     Smoke from the wildfires has affected areas in the United States, including Wisconsin and Colorado.

 
Sources

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/bc-fires-by-the-numb...\

http://www.inquisitr.com/2232759/fires-in-canada-many-forced-evacuate/

http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/MediaDetail2.php?MediaID=1720&MediaTyp...

It may be summer… But snow is forecast for the Highlands

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/631302/snow-for...

The weather comes about a week after temperatures rose to 30C around Inverness and the north west Highlands.

The tornado of Mira and Dolo: an F4 with winds of 300km / h, among the most violent in the history of Italy-

July 9, 2015

Tornado Venice, the incredible images of Villa Fini (Dolo) completely destroyed [PHOTOS]- ITALY

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

As a very strong earthquake: the tornado that struck yesterday afternoon the Riviera del Brenta Venetian has literally leveled Villa Fini, known historically as Villa Santorini-Toderini-Fini, dating back at least four centuries ago.

http://www.meteoweb.eu/2015/07/il-tornado-di-mira-e-dolo-un-f4-con-...

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

The tornado of Mira and Dolo: an F4 with winds of 300km / h, among the most violent in the history of Italy

The tornado of Mira and Dolo and the Fujita scale: it was an event of category F4

July 9, 2015

The tornado that yesterday afternoon, Wednesday, July 8, hit the Brenta River between Mira, Dolo, Cazzago Sambruson and was one of the most violent in the history of Italy. Based on the damage caused to the ground, we can classify without any shadow of doubt this tornado as an F4 on the Fujita Scale. F2 not as it seemed at first, not F3 as we assumed in late last night, but even an F4, a violent phenomenon, in a scale ranging from F0 to F5 then the fifth level on a scale of six.

Based on the damage yesterday in Venice, the tornado was certainly of category F4 in areas where this has resulted in the total destruction of brick houses and lifted the car at great speed and distance

The winds in this category range between 270 and 320km / h, it is therefore likely that yesterday you have reached 300km / h. The images of Villa Fini razed in Dolo are impressive , but the brick houses destroyed by the tornado are lots , over 100.

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GERMANY

Very impressive video of the severe downburst near Halle/Saale in NNE Germany yesterday. Wait until the end to see how the powerful winds can cause severe destruction. JULY 7 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6PF71Vdpo4

http://www.weather.com/storms/severe/news/flash-flooding-july-south...

Neighborhoods Evacuated Near Indianapolis; Meteorologists Warn More Flooding Likely

Residents from the Southern Plains to the Ohio Valley could see more dangerous flash flooding again Wednesday, forecasters say.

On Tuesday, heavy storms dumped hours-worth of rain in pockets across these regions. First responders pulled people from vehicles and homes in three separate states: Texas,  Kentucky and Missouri.

Downpours slammed Indianapolis on Tuesday evening, prompting evacuations west of the city.

The streets of Manhattan, Indiana, under water Tuesday. 

This is the same system that brought heavy flooding to Kansas City, Wichita, Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, on Monday night.

You can get the latest forecast at the weather.com severe tracker.

Here's the very latest from the impacted states:

Indiana

Nearly 4.5 inches of rain was recorded at the Indianapolis International Airport Tuesday afternoon, according to weather.com meteorologist Linda Lam, breaking a 100-year-old record. The city of Plainfield, just west of the airport, received 5.4 inches in less than four hours.

Wayne Township was hard hit. WISH TV reported about 20 homes were flooded and up to 60 people were evacuated.

"We have multiple homes affected by flood waters," Lt. Troy Wymer of the Wayne Township Fire Department told the Indianapoils Star. "The water is rising pretty rapidly." 

No injuries have been reported.

Kentucky

The rain started before sunrise, around 5 a.m., and drenched parts of western Kentucky with 5 inches in a short amount of time.

McCracken County Emergency Management Director Jerome Mansfield told the Associated Press the "torrential downpour of rain" led to an apartment complex and a motel being evacuated and crews rescuing multiple people from vehicles that got stuck in high water, mostly in low-lying areas. He said he wasn't sure how many people were evacuated and rescued.

No injuries were reported and Mansfield said officials were trying to assess the damage now that the rain has stopped.

The American Red Cross was opening a shelter in Paducah overnight for anyone who couldn't return to their homes because of flooding.

West Kentucky Star reports that Paducah police participated in at least 18 water rescues from stalled vehicles.

Missouri

Enlarge

Cars swept into a pile Tuesday by flooding in Branson, Missouri. (Sierra Dobson)  (Sierra Dobson)

A flash flood emergency was issued Tuesday morning for parts of Stone and Taney counties in Missouri, including the city of Branson. Significant flash flooding was reported in Kimberling City, Reeds Spring and along Roark Creek. Multiple water rescues have been reported in Branson, according to Branson Fire-Rescue.

The Barry County Sheriff's department told the Joplin Globe crews have had to evacuate some Cassville residents and rescue others because of flooding. The sheriff's department advises people to stay away from Cassville, saying on its Facebook page that "Cassville is CLOSED! Do NOT come to Cassville!"

The Missouri Department of Transportation also closed several highways and roads around Cassville.

Texas

At least 34 water rescues were performed in the Abilene area Tuesday morning, according to the Abilene Police Department. Water also reportedly entered some homes. 

The Abilene Regional Airport recorded 7.15 inches of rain on Tuesday through 1:40 p.m. CDT, making it their all-time wettest calendar day on record. The previous record was 6.54 inches on May 11, 1928.

By afternoon, storms over San Angelo prompted at least 20 water rescues, according to the sheriff's office.