Weather & Earth Science News

A large Galloway wildfire 'largely extinguished' after five-day fight - there have been further wildfires across Britain, but rain for the south yesterday will have eased matters and the weather for most looke like turning unsettled, so we've hopefully passed the worse, for now.    This comes after the MetO announce that April 2020 provisionally sunniest on record for UK Near Aviemore, the mystery disappearing Loch Vaa's level rises to '20-year high' - and still no-one knows why it fluctuates like it does Some "weather porn" for the lockdown as timelapse shows unusual mammatus cloud rolling over Oklahoma In Tennessee, a dog that went missing after alerting her family to a tornado has been found 54 days later In 2018, did heavy rain make Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupt? Wildfires add to coronavirus misery across nine Siberian regions and republics Glacier detachments: A new hazard in a warming world? Climate change could sl...

The latest European State of the Climate Report issued by the Copernicus Climate Change Service shows that 2019 was Europe's warmest year on record Heart-stopping footage shows tornado ripping up everything in its path as at least seven people are killed by twisters in Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana Scotland's dry weather sees 'aggressive' spread of wildfires More signs of a big reduction in pollution  as the skies over New Delhi turn a rare shade of blue New research suggests that flooding will affect double the number of people worldwide by 2030 Another prediction that the North pole soon to be ice free in summer - maybe before 2050, but only in summer, and not necessarily every year. And Antarctica's A-68: Is the world's biggest iceberg about to break up?

Kenya floods: At least 22 missing after landslide .  This comes after heavy rains cause flash floods in western Kenya whilst in central Africa, the death toll from floods in eastern DRC climbs to 40 A central Queensland supercell storm's tennis ball-sized hail causes widespread damage to homes and property whilst Brisbane records hottest April day in 14 years In the US, 1 killed by suspected tornado as storms rake South for second week in a row After firefighters tackle large wildfire near Strathpeffer at the weekend, yesterday another wildfire breaks out on the deserted hills near Glasgow   . This is, of course, the peak of the UK wildfire season and it's been quite dry of late.  However, with less people in the hills there are fewer than we'd normally expect. And a bizarre fireball spotted over Hull last night 'may have been a meteor from the annual Lyrid shower' .  Or, more likely, another aircraft contrail .....

A climate-driven megadrought is emerging in western US, says study Miami just had one of its most miserable April mornings on record - with a record high minima of 80f.  In Norway, there's been a l ost Viking ‘highway’ revealed by melting ice Heavy rainfall wreaks havoc on Yemen In India, Odisha reels under heat wave; Sonepur sizzles at 40.8 degrees celsius Last summer, blue skies pushed Greenland 'into the red' with record snow and ice melt Arctic stratospheric ozone levels hit record low in March How volcanic carbon dioxide emissions helped trigger Triassic climate change And Chile astronomers discover star 'dancing' according to Einstein's century-old relativity theory

Tornadoes kill at least 30 people and damage hundreds of homes in America's Deep South at the weekend as the tornadoes that ripped through the south destroyed 1 million homes and businesses from Texas to the Carolinas Fortunately, the Chernobyl fire under control, Ukraine officials say Record-size hole opens in ozone layer above the Arctic And March 2020 was Earth's second-warmest March on record, NOAA says and had the joint 3rd highest deviation from average of all months.   Only February and March 2016 (at the peak of El Nino) were higher.

As covid-19 continues to dominate the news, there haven't been a lot of weather events reported around the world ....  Although often this is anyway a "quiet" time of year.   Yesterday did however see a new UK date record with 25c recorded in Bude (25.3c in my garden) as the lockdown coincides with an Easter heatwave.  Typical! Earlier this week, Cyclone Harold leaves a path of destruction in Fiji with 150mph winds flattening homes and flooding towns after which the Pacific's monster storm Harold destroys tourist resorts in Tonga , whilst the previously hit Vanuatu gets Australian aid to help Cyclone Harold relief efforts as COVID-19 frustrates response Perth records hottest April day ever as Easter beach crowds observe coronavirus measures Californian rain will linger another day as downtown L.A. sets record for most consecutive wet days in April In Ukraine, a village evacuated as forest fires in Chernobyl exclusion zone continue to burn . ...

Cyclone Harold: Monster storm strengthens in Pacific, lashing Vanuatu Whilst yesterday the  temperatures here exceeded 21c for the first time this year, a blanket of snow continues to cover large parts of mainland Greece  And how NASA satellites are measuring drought in South America

There's been record snow and ice falls in Upper Midwest, new storm to hit California this weekend Heavy rain brings flooding to Spain's eastern Castellon province Cyclone Harold intensifies to category two storm, aims for Vanuatu and Solomon Islands  And could giant concrete 'umbrellas' stop a hurricane's storm surge?

Dozens feared missing off boat in Solomons amid cyclone Rare spring snow blankets large parts of northern Greece whilst snow hits Portugal’s Douro during spring And in the east too, Tokyo experiences rare late-March snowfall 20 killed in Congo-Brazzaville as lightning triggers electrocution Chinese forest fire: Firefighters and guide killed in Sichuan blaze after the wind changed direction   6.5 earthquake hits Idaho The coronavirus lockdown slashes air pollution in China by 25% 'and could save up to 36,000 lives a month' if sustained long-term, study finds Fossil remains show that 'dinosaurs walked through Antarctic rainforests' Climate change: Warming clips the nightingale's wings  And the San Rafael is no more: Tallest waterfall in Ecuador runs dry after mysterious sinkhole opens up under the river that feeds it