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Showing posts from December, 2020

31st December - Today's News: Houses Buried in Norwegian Landslide

Norway landslide: Houses buried in Gjerdrum village near Oslo Croatia earthquake: Strong aftershocks hit after quake kills seven A frigid air mass in Mongolia may have just crushed a world record for surface air pressure Experts warn of climate change in Turkey as trees bloom early after the country's warmest December on record And scientists say 2020 was exceptionally warm in Finland But after record heat comes extreme cold to Russian Arctic coast Storm Bella helps Great Britain set new record for wind power generation - on Boxing Day Five bodies recovered from remote Papua New Guinea landslide site Little damage done as tropical storm Chalane hits Mozambique   And a well preserved woolly rhino from Ice Age unearthed in Russian Arctic

29th December - Today's News: Christmas Floods and Snow

Christmas Eve snow for some, but Flooding ruins the holiday for thousands as flooding forces thousands of people to evacuate their homes on Christmas Day in Bedfordshire while floods ravage Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire as gale-force winds hit 100mph But there's a UK white Christmas declared after overnight snow And yesterday h eavy snow in Midlands leads to travel warnings and road disruption - we even had some wet snow in Evesham, though it didn't last very long here. Isolated Utopia homelands in central Australia cut off by heavy rainfall In Iran: Climbers die in blizzards and avalanche And globally, extreme weather causes huge losses in 2020

24th December - Today's News: Floods Dampen Christmas Eve in England and Wales

After an unexpected 37.6mm of rain in Evesham yesterday (and more elsewhere) no surprise that there are almost 100 flood warnings in force as deluge batters England and Wales The tragic moment woman, 61, is dragged away in flash flood after powerful storm hits Brazil Warmer winters causing more ice-free lakes in Northern Hemisphere, study finds And despite starting to break up, giant Antarctic iceberg A68a is not done yet

23rd December - Today's News: Iceberg A68a Begins to Break Up

Giant iceberg A68a shatters into large fragments as it nears South Georgia Perth weather: City reaches 40C as severe heatwave brings Christmas Eve scorcher Earlier in the week the Cornwall Eden Project closes after heavy rain causes floods Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, shooting steam and ash kilometres into the sky How wildfires, heat waves and hurricanes broke all kinds of records in 2020 The upside of volatile space weather is that it could change a planet's atmosphere increasing the chance of us detecting life And for those who weren't under cloud and rain on Monday night, Jupiter and Saturn align in the night sky

19th December - Today's News: 4 Dead in Fiji After Cyclone Yasa

At least four people dead as Tropical Cyclone Yasa leaves trail of destruction in Fiji Two dead, hundreds flee floods in Philippine storm Yesterday saw some localised flooding as heavy rain hits parts of Wales On the Jurassic Coast: Warnings after latest rockfall at Hive Beach And with La Nina under way in the Pacific, the Met Office predict that 2021 will be cooler but still in top six warmest

18th December - Today's News: Cat 5 Cyclone Yasa Hits Fiji

 Fiji surveys damage from Cyclone Yasa — one of the strongest storms ever recorded with winds gusting to well over 200mph  In the eastern US, the big freeze follows the deadly storm which saw as much snow in parts of New York as fell in the whole of last winter (here, the lightest of dustings would do the same ..... ). Giant iceberg A68a prangs seabed and loses corner A study concludes that there'll be a change in global precipitation patterns as a result of climate change - which should really be news to no-one A dark storm on Neptune reverses direction, possibly shedding a fragment whilst data suggests that Saturn moon, Enceladus, could support life in its subsurface ocean And a warning that wildfire smoke may spread infectious disease

17th December - Today's News: Winter Storm Hits US East Coast

In the US, there are three dead as Storm Gail blasts the East Coast with tens of millions on East Coast to be affected today.  Two feet of snow expected in places.   Which is probably about two feet more than Evesham will see all winter .... Meanwhile, in Japan, heavy snow strands 1,000 cars on highway, causes blackouts in Niigata, Gunma Fiji imposes curfew ahead of Cyclone Yasa Another deluge swamps Gold Coast as severe thunderstorms move across south-east Queensland Maps reveal 84 million Americans are living in areas hit by drought And how dancing starling spectacle caused power cuts in Scottish village

16th December - Today's News: Fuiji Braces for Category 5 Cyclone Yasa

Fiji braces for 'dire situation' as Category 5 Cyclone Yasa threatens 600,000 people whilst in Tonga there's a much weaker Tropical Cyclone Zazu tracking between Vava'u and Ha'apai In Australia, another severe weather warning issued for Sydney as heavy rain continues to flood parts of NSW with Byron Bay's Main Beach 'all but disappeared' as a result of the storms Strong evidence that lightning 'gouged channels' into Scottish mountain A68a iceberg: Science mission to investigate frozen giant as it nears South Georgia Wildfire hotspots in the western US and Arctic reached 'unprecedented intensity' in 2020 – but global fire emissions are decreasing overall, satellite data shows The melting of the Greenland ice sheet could lead to a sea level rise of 18 cm in 2100 - past predictions of sea level rise by the end of the century have sensationally been anything up to 2 metres ....   This does seem a bit more realistic (but doesn't

14th December = Today's News: Severe Storms Batter Eastern Australia

Northern New South Wales hit by wild weather as winds and flash flooding lead to hundreds of calls for help whilst south-east Queensland hit by heavy rain overnight with BOM forecasting more extreme weather Many parts of Finland see zero hours of sunshine in December so far 700-year history of wind recorded in island mud And there are weird volcanoes everywhere we look in the solar system    

12th December - Today's News: 241 Avalanches in Scotland Last Winter

There were some 'lucky escapes' among 241 avalanches last winter   Covid drives record emissions drop in 2020 The new sunspot cycle could be one of the strongest on record, new research predicts - contrary to those predicting a prolonged solar minimum and "mini ice age" ..... (which we should now be in the midst of!) And what caused the ice ages? Tiny ocean fossils offer key evidence

10th December - Today's News: Australia's Record Spring Heat Attributed to Climate Change

Australia's record spring heat a one-in-500,000 chance without climate change Russia's Arctic temperatures hit new records in December with some places recording temperature above freezing ....   But still cold in some places with some impressive light pillars recorded over the city of Tyumen in Western Siberia Venice floods as forecasts fail to predict extent of high tide Oops! Better delay that move to Proxima Centauri ..... space weather discovery puts 'habitable planets' at risk And it's been a sluggish start for Arctic sea ice freeze-up

7th December - Today's News: Europe's Warmest Ever Autumn

Very dangerous storms bring wild winds and hail north of Brisbane as wild weather spreads across South-East Queensland whilst BOM says 'short-lived but fierce tornado' hit Horsham in west Victoria Severe flooding disrupts trains and trams in parts of Scotland on Saturday Snowy UK winters could become thing of the past - I thought they already were!  Austria postpones some virus testing after huge snowstorm But climate change threatens 'most Alps glaciers' by the end of this century. And last month was the hottest November ever as Europe had its warmest fall on record

5th December - Today's News: Record Rain, Heat and Deadly Landslide in Alaska

In Alaska, Haines grapples with landslides and flooding after a record-breaking storm with as it's predicted this weird week will go down in weather history Temperatures to soar over the weekend as southern Queensland swelters through heatwave Sweden's unusually mild autumn sets spate of November records Alaska's weird week will go down in weather history There's another Southern California wildfire burning out of control — and will for days to come Why once in a lifetime floods to become regular occurrences by end of century for parts of New York Greenland ice sheet faces irreversible melting Why a cluster of Alaskan islands could be single, interconnected giant volcano How the climate changed rapidly alongside sea ice decline in the north during Dansgaard Oeschger events And the world's biggest iceberg captured by RAF cameras

4th December - Today's News: Britain's First Disruptive Snow of Winter

There's been disruption after 'thundersnow' hits Scotland as a blanket of snow covers large swathes of Britain .  We just had a bit of rain .... Cyclone Burevi heads to southern India after hitting Sri Lanka Rains in western Indonesia leave 2 dead, 2,700 homes flooded China announces expansion to weather modification program, artificial rain to cover area bigger than size of India Heatwave deaths among over-65s have doubled in the UK since the early 2000s as the effects of climate change hit health, report warns 2020 set to be one of the three warmest years on record , despite the arrival of La Nina. Field geology at Mars' equator points to ancient megaflood And this tropical glacier is rare, revered, and could be gone by next year

2nd December - Today's News: Storms, Wildfires and Record Heat in Australia

After Sydney records hottest November night on record a l ightning strike in severe Sydney storm destroys heritage bell tower, thousands without power Meanwhile, Australia bushfire spreads across popular Fraser Island after Australia endures hottest spring ever, with temperatures more than 2C above average and Queensland registers record temperatures as heatwave intensifies in first days of summer November temperature records smashed across Norway too Deadly flooding hits Sardinia after heavy rains Last week in India: Cyclone Nivar makes landfall bringing rains, flood Stunning light pillars illuminate the night sky of a Chinese city due to an optical illusion In  Brazil's Amazon: Deforestation 'surges to 12-year high' And, what will the climate be like when Earth's next supercontinent forms?