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Showing posts from May, 2016

25th May - Today's News: El Nino Ends, La Nina Loom

Probably my last update for a week as I'm off for a long weekend tour of tors (and standing stones on Dartmoor) .... Sadly not expecting to see any 'nadoes from the tors, but there have been some good pics coming in from chasers in the US tornado leaves damage in Dodge City, Kansas And in NZ, a tornado rips through caravan park whilst stormy weather hits Auckland, two houses struck by lightning Sri Lanka floods: Death toll reaches 101 as waters recede   Floods displace thousands in central China There's been an early taste of winter in South America   Exxon Mobil faces 'change or die' moment on climate as shareholders rebel against theor policy of denial Bad news as Poland starts logging primeval Bialowieza forest despite protests   A NASA study helps explain sea ice differences at Earth's poles And El Nino bows out after driving year of record heat as La Nina lurks in the wings

24th May - Today's News: Most Britons Prefer a Wet Bank Holiday ....

Perth weather: city drenched as another winter storm hits   Magnificent supercell thunderstorm in Kansas amazes tornado chasers   India’s roads melt as record-breaking heat wave continues   Tropical Cyclone Roanu finally runs out of steam Could lasers help avert climate change? High powered beams can create ice crystals in the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight Caught on video, the incredible moment a huge fireball soars through the sky illuminating FIVE Mexican states There's a history of snowfall on Greenland, hidden in ancient leaf waxes and it shows warmer temps led to more snow And whilst I am looking forward to good skies for photography on Dartmoor this weekend, it seems more than half of us secretly want it to rain so we can binge on box sets and stay at home - according to a Met Office survey.

23rd May - Today's News: 38 Rescued as First Winter Snows Hit NZ

In NZ group of 38 reach safety after being trapped by snow in Central Otago as a big snow dump blankets southern ski fields   Tornado rips off roofs as storm batter west Germany  The spectacular moment a tornado-like funnel cloud brings onlookers to a standstill in the North of England From Myanmar, video as jumbo-sized hailstones batter buildings in freak storm Bangladesh's Minister Maya says ‘fragile’ dams caused deaths, damage in storm Roanu Sri Lanka mudslides: Death toll reaches 92 with many still missing   Indonesia volcano: Seven killed as Mount Sinabung erupts And the latest from the circus on Mount Everest: Thirty climbers sick on Everest after three deaths - I think in many cases the word is tourist though, not climber ....

21st May - Today's News: Cyclone Roanu Bears Down on Bangladesh

Five dead, thousands flee as Cyclone Roanu nears Bangladesh Torrential rain, winds up to 109kph and monster waves hit Western Australia And in NZ, strong winds lift roofs off homes in Waikato as storm hammers North Island 'Half a million flee homes' as Sri Lanka grapples with deadly floods, landslides  Worth watching: Web cam captures dazzling double rainbow timelapse over Wasatch Range Volcano ash covers Costa Rica towns   Alice Springs surrounds rocked by magnitude 6.1 earthquake but, perhaps slightly with tongue in cheek, " the Bureau of Meteorology said there was no risk of it causing a tsunami ". And later this year a massive dust storm will cover most of Mars, scientists say

20th May - Today's News: India Records Hottest Ever Day

More records fall as the hottest day recorded in India's Rajasthan since records began.  A staggering 51c.  Meanwhile, in the south, Andhra and Odisha get ready to face Cyclone Roanu's wrath whilst the search resumes in rain for missing in Sri Lankan landslide as hundreds believed to be buried Canadian wildfire crosses border into Saskatchewan   Onlookers stunned as 'twister' spotted in Lincolnshire skies Antarctic rocks record Totten Glacier's rapid retreat history   Will more snow over Antarctica offset rising seas? Don't count on it Scientiists find evidence of ancient tsunamis on Mars - which is, of course, further evidence of ancient oceans on the red planet.   And Hubble takes Mars portrait near close approach And slightly off topic, but after the catastrophic landslides and earthquake in 2014 and 2015, the circus returns to the Himalaya as more than 150 scale Mount Everest after weather improves - it's getting more

18th May - Today's News: Scores Missing in Sri Lanka Landslide

Sri Lanka mudslide leaves scores missing whilst in India there's record rainfall in Chennai, 300 heatwave deaths in Telangana   Wild weather leaves a trail of flooding in NZ Canada faces hot weather, winds in battle against wildfire in Alberta Increased vegetation in the Arctic region may counteract global warming And Jupiter's moon: Europa's ocean may have an Earthlike chemical balance

17th May - Today's News: Record May Snowfall in New England

New England is covered in a record-breaking seven inches of snow whilst down in Texas, rescues unfold as Corpus Christi declares flood emergency   Canada wildfire: Oil workers urged to leave Fort McMurray camps 17 people killed, 4 missing in western Indonesia floods   Israel's spring heat wave continues as southern Israel experiences 46-47 °C And polluted dust can impact ocean life thousands of miles away

16th May - Today's News: Global Temperature Record Broken Again in April

April breaks global temperature record, marking seven months of new highs Lightning strikes kill 50 in Bangladesh Massive Heat Wave Leads to Brush Fires Across Israel  Heat wave continues in North India as India to 'divert rivers' to tackle drought The slow and deadly dzud in Mongolia Ontarians unimpressed with snow in mid-May The frequency of extreme heat waves on the increase in Africa: Could occur annually by 2040 whilst a billion people face global flooding risk by 2060, charity warns And more utter nonsense from the tabloid press: Britain to sizzle in summer highs of 33C - but flooding could bring school holidays washout, says Met Office - except, of course, the Met Office say nothing of the sort!   It's just been made up by some ignorant hack (and spread like a cold across the media ... The Sun even managed to tell us that 8 hurricanes were predicted to hit Britain! ).  There'll probably be a rebuttal from the MetO later today.

13th May - Today's News: NOAA Predicts La Nina Later This Year

El Niño 75 percent likely to become La Niña by fall or winter, NOAA says In NZ, wild weather brings tornado and disrupts flights, sailings Burkina Faso drought triggers water and power shortages Stunning new image reveals the 'dark eye' of Saturn: Huge south polar storm is shown in 10 times more detail Space mission first to observe key interaction between magnetic fields of Earth and sun and how they create 'space weather' How the spectacular Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain became so bendy And hopefully weather forecasts are about to get a lot more accurate: NOAA unveils new '4D' supercomputer model of the world's weather

11th May - Today's News: First Autumnal Snow in Australia

The first autumn snow blankets parts of Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales Australia also sees its quietest cyclone season  on satellite record Rather wet in parts of England yesterday and today (but very warm again in Skye) - and no escape for those heading south with much of southern Spain on flood alert as storms rage on whilst in Portugal, snow in May cuts access to mountains .    But it's officially hot – as blueberries bloom in southern Finland Dozens killed in Ethiopia landslides, flooding amid rains Headlines 'exaggerated' climate link to sinking of Pacific islands An unraveling spiral: The most compelling global warming visualization ever made And more than 1,200 new planets confirmed using new technique for verifying Kepler data

10th May - Today's News: 2 Dead in Oklahoma Tornadoes

At least two are killed, multiple homes are destroyed and highways are closed after tornadoes reaching speeds of 135mph leave a trail of devastation through Oklahoma - with some impressive pictures.   And more pics as monstrous wall clouds crawl across the sky as storm creeps up on Colorado residents Yesterday saw the warmest day of the year in Scotland - the actual max at Lusa was 26.7c which is the highest temperature every recorded on Skye in May Canada Fort McMurray: Leader says 90% of city survived In Rwanda: Landslides caused by heavy rains kill dozens - not an uncommon occurrence Thailand: Heatwave death toll climbs to 34 in under 2 months In cities, flooding and rainfall extremes to rise as climate changes   Ice-mass loss of Antarctica visualized - contrary to what some deniers and their kin claim, it's declining, not increasing. Leftover warm water in Pacific Ocean fueled massive El Niño last year And Mercury completes journey acros

9th May - Today's News: "Supertide" Catches Out British, French Tourists

26.8c at Pershore, 26.5c in my garden yesterday on what was actually quite a pleasant 'hot' day - a keen breeze kept the humidity down.  Be a while before we see such temps again though.   Maybe the late May bank holiday weekend?  When I will be on holiday .... But some folk enjoying this early spell of summery weather had a shock as 20 cars submerged after high tide at Talacre , Flintshire with more caught out in London as River Thames floods on hottest day of the year whilst across the Channel supertide on the French coast swallows tourists' cars Colorado hit by several tornadoes amid swarm of spring storms   Canada wildfire advance 'slows' as evacuations finish but 20% of Fort McMurray homes destroyed, says MP (remembering that this was a town with a population of 80,000) Wild weather hits Melbourne and Adelaide with flash flooding and 80km/h winds causing chaos - as Sydney is washed out with rain while r ain falls at critical time for farme

7th May - Today's News: Mount St Helens Reawakening?:

Vulcanologists warn that Mount St Helens is recharging 36 years after 'deadliest blast in US history’ Canada wildfire: Blaze disrupts convoy near Fort McMurray   Sydney residents warned to stay inside as the city is shrouded in a choking cloud of thick smoke from a bushfire 'backburn'   Solomon Islands: Rising sea levels blamed for the disappearance of five reef islands February's fatal Haxby gas explosion probably caused by wet weather   Argentina: In the north, residents try to harvest rain - to combat the reduced rainfall brought by deforestation ... In Japan one dead, 181 treated for heat exhaustion April 25-May 1 And some mesmerising drone footage shows a Norwegian mountain road cut off by snow being dug out in time for the summer

6th May - Today's News: Further Evacuations from Massive Alberta Wildfire

Canada wildfire: Thousands airlifted from Fort McMurray as blaze grows whilst a harrowing dashcam footage captures escape from 'supercharged' Alberta wildfire .  And how a 'perfect storm' of El Niño and warming boosted Alberta fires Some better news in India fires: Rainfall douses deadly blazes in Uttarakhand but as the heatwave continues, most States record temperature above 40 degree Celsius   Heavy downpour causes flooding around southeast Europe earlier this week Cloud seeding UAV makes first flight over Nevada to provide relief to drought-stricken state and could a manmade mountain make it rain in the United Arab Emirates? How to talk about climate change so people will act   Global warming is pushing high altitude clouds towards the poles, Nasa study finds   Ambitious plan to divert Siberian water to China gets showered in criticism There's a likely cause for recent southeast US earthquakes: Underside of the Nor

4th May - Today's News: Wildfire Forces Evacuation of Canadian Town as Heatwave Continues

Canada wildfire forces mass evacuation in Fort McMurray following record high temperatures Wave of dead sea creatures hits Chile's beaches, experts blame El Nino Floods following drought worsen Ethiopian hunger Wind can power ‘79% of Scottish homes’ - but only when it is blowing at the right speed.  Wherein lies the problem .... Water shortages will deliver ‘severe hit’ to world by 2050 – World Bank Researchers discover that rain spawns more rain when it falls on ploughed land And it's suggested that Earth may be home to one trillion species   - almost all of which are microbial and yet to be discovered.   Rather raising the prospects of similar life on other planets, I think, though not necessarily of extremely rare (by Earth standards) big animals like humans.

3rd May - Today's News: Storms Hit Melbourne

Melbourne weather: Wild storms lash city on Sunday , whilst more wild weather wreaks havoc in Melbourne with 100km/h winds today.    And in the north, a dry season storm dumps heavy rain on Darwin   Nearly 200 people have been killed by flooding in the U.S. during the last 16 months A continuing heatwave sees temperature records shattered across B.C.   OB-serving climate change in Siberia A warning that global warming could turn Middle East and Northern Africa into 'dead zones' for humans and force 500 million people to relocate   (note to so-called sceptics: could , not will !) And a Nasa study finds each square kilometre of Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is hit 233 times a year