Weather & Earth Science News

Fish are saved after 86F highs cause river to dry up as UK faces longest heatwave since summer of 1976 - the end of the article has a good piece on the 1976 heatwave..  Meanwhile, there's a fire warning over sun-baked grass as two houses are destroyed by blaze that spread from shed along dry lawns as three major wildfires - including on Saddleworth Moor - continue to burn (in fact there jave been dozens of wild fires this week, the Daily Fail forgets that Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland exist.  Again.)  More than 50 firefighters battle wildfire in Scotland and in Wales there are three wildfires in Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Rhondda Cynon Taff .  And there's now a hosepipe ban in Northern Ireland as heatwave puts strain on water supplies The Eastern Pacific set to see the most named tropical storms it's ever recorded so early in the year And there's no end in sight as heatwave grips Tokyo Dust storm slams Senegal Nasa image shows p...

Unusually, so far in this heatwave, it's not been too humid, there's been a pleasant breeze, and night-time temps have dropped off nicely.   But spare a thought for the residents of Quriyat where there was a minimum temperature of 42.6 °C (108.7 °F) in Oman on June 26, 2018: a new world record No National records beaten in the end here yesterday, but it was 33c in Porthmadog, 31.9c at Shannon Airport (the highest temperature in Eire since 1976) and 31.8c in Glasgow and the first time home nations hit 30C in five years whilst Met Éireann's Joanna Donnelly says Ireland's heading for record-breaking temperature today Meanwhile the heatwave forces UK farmers into desperate measures to save cattle with a warning not to take baths or use hosepipes as water supplies dry up in heatwave - though of course this is due to the lack of recent rain rather than current heat. There's a second moorland blaze in Winter Hill as crews to tackle Saddleworth Moo...

Britain buckles in the heat! Roads melt, gritters hit the streets and tap water turns white in 'extreme' conditions as temperatures soar to 90F while soldiers to tackle fire near Saddleworth Moor and it's forecast that Scotland could see hottest June day on record today.  Yesterday was the warmest for 20 years - with Aviemore the hot spot.  In Northern Ireland firefighters flown to Glenshane Pass gorse fire as the province recorded its hottest June day since 1995. And it's not just the British Isles as heatwave returns to Europe Powerful tornado rips through Kansas town injuring eight people, two critically Galapagos' Sierra Negra volcano eruption triggers evacuation Met Office Weather Warnings: What is changing? And Saturn moon a step closer to hosting life

Burning since the weekend, Saddleworth Moor fire: Homes evacuated in 'major incident' Temperatures reached 30.3c in my garden yesterday, with Northern Ireland the hottest place (30.7c at Rostherne).  Eire was also a tad warm and today Met Éireann could issue red weather warning as inland areas soar to 32C .  Like Britain, it's also been very dry in Ireland and 'Even if it rains now, it's too late for some crops' - Farmers struggle in the heat as 'crop yields down by half' whilst in Northern Ireland the public urged to conserve water .   And in some parts the heatwave could bring council road gritters out Worth noting that whilst we saw higher temperatures June last year, and indeed, do so most summers, a week or longer of temperatures around 30c is far less common.   Meanwhile, in the US, a wildfire grows in California, at least 1,500 people under mandatory evacuation orders But not everywhere is warm. 'Never seen it th...

Heatwave causes railway slowdown and wildfires - and it will get even hotter until weekend - over 29c here yesterday and expecting 30c+ today.   But worth noting we reached over 31c June last year.   So it's not that unusual.   Though more unusually, the long term outlook is for mostly fine, warm weather, at least in the south.  The lack of rain this month is, however, a more notable issue. Devon dust devil whips up Sticklepath hay field Teen Boy Scout killed after tree falls on tent during storm in Georgia In Siberia, an epic storm lashes Barnaul, with crane crashing on to city’s main wedding palace Vietnam's flood death toll rises to 15, more rains forecast whilst in India there are four dead as torrential monsoon rains lash Mumbai The dramatic moment fearless firefighters swim through raging floodwaters to save a trapped couple in China Dominican Republic hit by an 'easterly wave' And a new study explains Ant...

How SNH use satellite data for mapping wildfires in the Highlands (I'd not realised how extensive the Rum fire was!) Heavy summer storm in Poland kills a town's deputy mayor Cleanup follows deadly flooding in Ivory Coast's Abidjan Reports of floating bears, rescued campers as Montana and Texas flood Antarctic ice sheet is melting, but rising bedrock below could slow it down Why does India's air look different from space? More on the horrors of marine plastic: Hundreds of fragments in dead seabirds Huge wave in Venus’ clouds changes the length of a day And yes, there's a heatwave on the way for most of Britain.  Again.   Shaping up to be quite a hot start to the summer.

Martian dust storm grows global: Curiosity captures photos of thickening haze A flash flood emergency in parts of coastal Texas from over a foot of rain Here, it's been a warm and dry June so far and some parts of Britain look set to record their driest June on record.   I have recorded just 4.1mm this month - 8% of average - with no more rain forecast until at least July ....  And unlike some parts, we didn't have a wet winter or spring.  And drought haunts farmers in Poland, Baltic states too Arnhem Land beaches reaching crisis point as Indonesian waste floats ashore And a warning that New Zealand’s Mount Taranaki ‘almost certain’ to erupt ..... one day .....

17 killed after devastating floods in Ivory Coast Storms spawn tornadoes, damaging hail in Colorado, Kansas whilst heavy rain hits Texas as Midwest reels from its own flooding B.C. is Canada's hot spot as temperature records fall across province BOM declares a 50 per cent chance of El Nino this spring, possible dry and warm conditions ahead Swedish metorologists calculate that last month's Stockholm May heatwave only happens 'three times in a million years' - what's the betting it happens again this century? A new study on the impacts of palm oil: The carbon cost of deforestation And new video shows magnitude of fissure 8 lava flow from Kilauea volcano

Japan earthquake: Child and two men dead and hundreds injured Australia hit with extreme cold front as snow hits and people are warned of dangerous conditions Lightning strike may have killed 50 Canada geese outside of Montreal The land-based portion of massive East Antarctic ice sheet retreated little during past eight million years And a 'tsunami from Heaven': Austrian photographer creates stunning time-lapse of rainstorm

Not a hoax, not a horror film .... seafood rains down on cars in China after huge storm sends creatures flying   Typhoon Gaemi brings record-breaking rain to Okinawa Tropical Storm Carlotta to threaten southern Mexico with flooding into Sunday   'Sustainable palm oil' may not be so sustainable after all - my views on it are well known.  Ban it .... What saved the West Antarctic Ice Sheet 10,000 years ago will not save it today And why hydro is not necessarily a good thing: Low on snow: Norway's power prices soar as dry spring gulps down reservoirs

Lebanon scrambles to cope with Baalbek floods that left one dead this week Roads blocked and scaffolding collapsed as Storm Hector batters North Wales and lots of pictures from across the UK in the Daily Mails as Storm Hector batters Britain with 70mph winds Delhi residents choke as dust blankets capital and India facing the 'worst water crisis in its history' - mainly due to lack of infrastructure and growing demand in the world's second most populated country.  Changes in monsoon rainfall, and diminishing glaciers will not help matters. How ocean waves following sea ice loss trigger Antarctic ice shelf collapse And NASA’s Opportunity rover is fighting for its life in a Martian dust storm

After a long spell of mostly benign weather, northern parts of Britain and Ireland hit by strongs winds (and even some rain!) with travel disruption as Storm Hector sweeps across Scotland whilst in Ireland 35,000 homes remain without power after 'severe and potentially damaging gusts' and more travel disruption as Storm Hector leaves debris trail in Northern Ireland At least 14 killed as landslides sweep away Rohingya shelters in Bangladesh In SW India, 3 children among 5 killed as rain wreaks havoc in Kerala; death toll rises to 28 Gemstones are reportedly raining down from the sky right now in Hawaii - unfortunately not emeralds or diamonds though, just olivine.  And the reports have not been officially confirmed by geologists. Antarctica loses three trillion tonnes of ice in 25 years And to forecast winter rainfall in the Southwest, look to New Zealand in the summer (that's the SW USA)

Where are all the tornadoes? Lack of twisters has been record-setting in U.S. Bud becomes second straight Pacific storm to explode into a major hurricane - but it's expected to weaken this week before drenching parts of Mexico It's June, but one Alaska community just got half a foot of snow At least one media outlet reads what the MetO actually say ..... as the Met Office set the record straight over 'three-month UK heatwave' claims .  Once again! With recent thunderstorms restricted to the mainland, Stornoway's spell of dry weather 'unique' - 22 days now without rain. Météo France warns of more rain in record-breaker June - already one of the wettest on record, due to summer storms.  And 7 injured as Paris suburban train overturns due to heavy rain Switzerland has also seen wild weather: chaos as torrential rainfall strikes Lausanne Chileans delighted as winter snow falls in Santiago Israel to top up Sea of Ga...

Weekend thunderstorms in Scotland lead to rail disruption after Dalmuir line flood whilst a hailstorm halts M9 motorway traffic and a family 'devastated' after lightning strike at home near Lenzie Meanwhile, in Cumbria, a funnel cloud spotted over Eden Valley There are also more weather alerts as storms batter France Australia asks how bad is the drought and why has it been so dry? Alberta storms see wind speeds reach 122 km/hr in Lloydminster Hurricane Bud on track to impact Mexico and the Southwest U.S.  A new Arctic cyclone could be among the most powerful on record And the north of England hit by 3.9-magnitude earthquake on Saturday night.   I felt nothing.

Hurricane Aletta becomes the first major hurricane in the Western Hemisphere in 2018; second system to follow - Aletta does not pose any risk to land.  But reseach shows hurricanes are slowing down, and that's bad news Australian tornadoes flying under the radar but more common than you think, BOM warns In parts of Scotland it's the ‘worst year ever’ for midges is leaving people ‘prisoners in their homes’ - though fortunately I encountered very few when in the Cairngorms last month - whilst in the US, there are so many that a massive cloud of midges shows up on weather radars in Ohio as they swarm Lake Erie There's been a key 'step forward' in cutting cost of removing CO2 from air And minerology on Mars points to a cold and icy ancient climate

It's not just the British Isles and Europe (and China) that have been enjoying heat wave conditions of late.  The U.S. just had its warmest May in history, blowing past 1934 Dust Bowl record A powerful EF3 tornado near Laramie, Wyoming, wows storm chasers U.S. coastal flooding breaks records as sea level rises, NOAA report shows - the frequency of such events has doubled in the past 30 years and last year was the worst yet. Hawaii volcano eruption destroys 600 homes, but creates more than a kilometre of new land - not that that the latter will be suitable for building on just yet!  Cold snap as winter hits southern half of WA with a vengeance - Perth has it's coldest day for 9 years Thunderstorms in Frankfurt cause flight cancellations, train delays whilst flash floods in France claim two more lives with more storms to come and a giant mudslide covers Italian village May hottest month in Czech Republic since 1811 Tropical storm floods so...

Guatemala volcano: Almost 200 missing and 75 dead .   Meanwhile, in Hawaii, lava from Kilauea eruption destroys hundreds of homes Southern California clouds are vanishing, but why? Ancient Greenland was much warmer than previously thought - during both the last interglacial and the more recent Holocene climatic optimum (the peak of the current interglacial, prior to modern warming) And alien apocalypse: Can any civilization make it through climate change? Well, I suspect we'll make it through.  So ....

Guatemala volcano death toll climbs to 69 as new explosion hampers rescue efforts WA storm cuts power, hits homes and washes yachts ashore as cold front strikes near Perth Strange 'twister' spotted in the sky above West Wales - general concsenus is that it is inded a tornado, rather than a sust devil Snow in June? The heatwave is truly over for this town in northern Sweden but elsewhere the record-breaking heat continues across Europe And the world failed to end yet agains as an asteroid on collision course with Earth burns up hours after it was detected

Back after a week of stunning weather in the Cairngorms ......  Whilst I was away, enjoying the sun, a man in 80s dies in Walsall as flash floods hit Midlands , and more flash-flooding brings parts of London and Kent to standstill Subtropical Storm Alberto makes landfall in Florida; 2 journalists killed in North Carolina whilst a North Carolina landslide kills two; two dead in Virginia flooding and there's another seven killed in storm Alberto flooding in Cuba   Guatemala volcano eruption kills at least 25, lava flows hamper rescue efforts Thunderstorms trigger flooding in Yemen There's some relief in sight from Hong Kong's heat India thunderstorms and lightning strikes kill 50 Controversially it's announced that May 2018 hottest since records began in UK - but only for the mean maximum temperature, and records only began in the 20th century.   It wasn't the warmest in the much longer CET series.    But very ...