Weather & Earth Science News

UN to assess North Korean floods as more rain falls Typhoon leaves at least 7 dead in Philippines Heatwave causes Russian football switch In northern Finland: flooding in Oulu; houses overturned in Virolahti Snowdon rescue record as bad weather catches out walkers - don't they ever look at the forecast? Cooling, not population loss, led to fewer fires after 1500 in New World .   Or possibly it was both? Idaho power touts positive results from cloud seeding Weather station temperatures are over-heated, report claims - but take this with a pinch of salt, the report comes from Anthony Watts who wouldn't accept there was warming if his own mother's blood boiled dry .....   His claims have been looked at before by others who have found that in fact, if anything, US weather station data may be underestimating any temp increase .  But as one ex-sceptic says climate change is down to humans , just  what evidence will it take to con...

In a rare incident, 4 Polish hikers killed by lightning in Pieniny mountains ,  whilst there were also  record lightning strikes on Sunday in Finland I still don't really get the point of grandiose theatrical opening ceremonies for a sporting event, but it has to be said that the opening of the Olympics on Friday night was very clever, with some nice bits of British humour, and something to be proud of.  And good to see 205 seperate nations represented.  Also, it didn't rain, although there was a brief shower before the ceremony began.   Not that that stopped Piers Corbyn from expressing delight that his prediction of thunderstorms and deluges was correct and that the MetO's forecast that there was just a small risk of a shower was wrong .......   Maybe he was watching a repeat of the Euro football chanpionships in Ukraine?   Saturday proved another fine day but some heavu showers on Sunday - not that that stopped Lizzie Armistea...

In the US, July on pace to be the hottest month on record and as a consequence, Great Lakes water temperatures at record levels US midwest drought worsens despite rains But I'm sure no-one is too concerned that its summertime, and the twisters are missing .   Although yesterday, powerful storms leave thousands without power across US   with a couple of minor tornadoes reported. In Britain hot weather sees more rail speed restrictions But in Somerset, the land the heatwave forgot: farm still 2ft under water and swifts suffer after miserable UK weather though some better news as record rainfall restores rivers in Thames area   Heatwave allegedly buckles road in Amsterdam In Australia,  WA's big freeze continues as Jandakot hits -0.4c but over in Victoria warm winter weather breaks records whilst in NZ, warm weather keeps snow and skiers away .  (incidently: my latest winter thoughts are for a cold December, with man...

Hottest day of the year so far in Britain with 30.1c in London.   But trains miss Olympic stop as weather is too hot  and at the Royal Welsh Show: major heatstroke alert declared . And talking of the Olympics, Piers Corbyn's latest pronoucement is that: .....this period 27-28th is an R4 Red weather warning meaning that (on at least 95% of occasions) rain, thunder, hail tornado risk, frontal actovity and turbulence will be significantly exacerbated in this period beyond the expectations of standard meteorology expectations from a day or so ahead The only possible aversion of the rain could be through weather control if it would work - by cloud seeding (using dry-ice = solid CO2  or silver iodide) to make deluges and floods in Northampton instead of Stratford. We note that this was not done for the Queens river pageant on June 3rd (or if that was secretly tried it failed). It is also worth knowing these things can go catastrophically wrong. For ...

After record rain and floods earlier this month, heatwave claims 13 lives in Japan last week and in Korea, sweltering day and night puts country under heat wave advisories Scores injured as typhoon lashes HK Meanwhile, the weekend's deadly Beijing floods prompt infrastructure question but there was some good news as record rainfall replenishes Beijing water supplies, ending a 13 year drought A warm day yesterday with 28c in London and for the rest of the week UK to swelter in hotter weather than Hawaii (assuming the UK means central, southern and eastern England and Wales) - we may well see 30c somewhere today or tomorrow.  But it looks like turning unsettled and showery by the weekend.   Which of course is close to what Piers Corbyn forecast - though whether we'll see any 'deluges' and 'thunderfloods' is another matter!   Some early indications now that this coming unsettled spell may only be short lived in the south though - watch this space. Sum...

Beijing chaos after record floods in Chinese capital - with 460mm reported to have fallen at one location.  More pictures here Spanish wildfires: three killed in Catalonia Flooding, slips close Waikato roads in NZ Floods from heavy rain turn metro Manila into 'waterworld' In Hyderabad rain brings death at dawn Siberian wildfires light up US west coast - the smoke producing stunning sunsets US experiences warm and dry June; drought expands to 56% of lower 48 Food price crisis feared as erratic weather wreaks havoc on crops Climategate inquiry 'did not identify any suspects' so is the 'Climategate': case closed? River networks on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, point to a puzzling geologic history

Holiday makers are getting a bit more heat than they bargained for as Portugal's Maderia hit by forest fires - more details on the Maderia news blog .   Video of the fire over Funchal looks damned frightening!   In the Canaries, firefighters battle Tenerife forest blaze .  And near Athens, Greek wildfire damages homes, forces evacuation of children's camp, retirement home, monastry . Meanwhile, in Cypress, heatwave claims its first victim With over 22mm, mostly from two thunderstorms (well, there was a bit of thunder and I did see a couple of flashes of lightning, one possibly a ground strike!) made Wednesday the wettest day in Evesham since August 2010, and also means that July is already the wettest month also since August 2010.   However we have some way to go still to match the rainfall in July 2009, let alone the record 251mm in 2007.   Four of the past 6 years have now recorded over 100mm against a long term local avera...