Extreme weather across the globe

These are stories of extreme weather of various intensities, hitting the globe within a 24-hour period.


From record temperatures and tornadoes in the US to extreme gales in Japan, the Fiji floods and floods coming to the East Coast of NZ which is typically a dry area; and snow in Scotland - Gaia seems to be telling us things are way out of kilter.

Tornadoes touch down in Dallas area causing 'considerable damage'

Large tornadoes reported just south of Dallas, but no injuries reported from twisters that ripped through neighbourhoods.

the Guardian,

3 April, 2012

Tornadoes tore through the Dallas area on Tuesday, tearing roofs off homes, tossing trucks into the air and leaving flattened tractor trailers strewn along highways and parking lots.

The National Weather Service reported at least two separate "large and extremely dangerous" tornadoes south of Dallas and Fort Worth. Several other developing twisters were reported as a band of violent storms moved north through the metropolitan area. Officials had no immediate information about injuries.

Footage from highway video cameras showed a large, dark funnel cloud moving on the ground not far from a major interstate early Tuesday afternoon. Crumpled orange tractor trailers were later visible in a Dallas County parking lot, as well as flattened trailers along the sides of highways and access roads.

In one Dallas County neighborhood, local television footage showed homes without roofs while other buildings were flattened. Plywood was strewn on the grass and on top of buildings. Residents could be seen walking down the street with firefighters and peering into homes, looking at the damage after the storm passed.

The storm pushed cars into fences and toppled trees over. Branches and limbs were scattered across lawns and in the streets. A tow-behind RV was torn apart and crumpled in a driveway where part of a roof of the home was torn off.

For article GO HERE

The strongest storm in Japan since 1959

-- For a year Collapsenet has painstakingly documented all of the above-ground radiation that has thoroughly saturated or covered much of Japan from Hokkaido to Okinawa. The storm is going to take those deadly particles and spread them all over the landscape and make it impossible to even consider decontamination. And quite likely we will see a further weakening of Japan's grid and transmission system.

Japan keeps absorbing huge body blows and we all hope that this storm -- in a very angry weather year -- does not worsen the situation for Japan. -- MCR

Winds at 140 km/h: Strongest storm in decades batters Japan

A powerful rainstorm is battering Japan, paralyzing traffic and leaving thousands of homes without electricity. The storm halted commuter trains and grounded more than 500 domestic flights in and around Tokyo.

RT,

3 April, 2012

Three people have been killed and at least 305 injured by the rainstorm, which lashed Japan's main island of Honshu Tuesday. Public broadcaster NHK tallied at least 97 people injured across 17 prefectures.

As many as 11,500 households have lost power because of the storm in Toyama and Ishikawa prefectures, Hokuriku Electric Power Co. said in a statement. Many companies and stores closed early.

Winds of up to 140 kilometers per hour were nearly typhoon strength, reports Bloomberg, but the storm was triggered by a low pressure system.

"This is like the core of a typhoon, but it is staying for a long time. A typhoon usually moves rather quickly," a spokesman for the Japanese Meteorological Agency said.

The storm has already dumped up to 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) of rain an hour in central Japan as it crossed from the southwest and is heading for the capital city. This is the strongest storm to hit Tokyo since 1959.

Japan's weather agency has issued a warning of possible tornadoes in the western half of the country and said heavy rain could also trigger landslides and flooding. The outlook for Wednesday shows strong winds are likely to move northwards, producing waves up to 10m high

Fiji Floods 2012: Flights Out Resume Amid Disease

Severe floods in Fiji have left five dead, 11,000 in shelters, and nearly 3,000 tourists stranded in the Pacific island nation's second major flooding disaster in 2012...

IBTimes,

3 April, 2012

Tropical Cyclone Daphne lashed Fiji's largest and most populous island, Viti Levu, earlier this week with strong winds and heavy rains.

Rains that began last week swamped homes, washed out roads, and forced the temporary closure of Nadi International Airport, the main international gateway to Fiji.

Officials recorded 11,772 people forced into evacuation centers on Monday, though several returned home Tuesday to assess the damage. Meanwhile, the government is working to restore electricity and vital infrastructure like bridges while also delivering fresh drinking water to residents.

Fiji's permanent secretary of tourism said the country's tourism areas were not as badly affected because they tended to be more sheltered from the storm. Flight disruptions, however, left around 3,000 visitors -- mainly from Australia and New Zealand -- stranded over the weekend before regular flight service resumed on Monday evening.

Officials reported a slight backlog in flights out Tuesday afternoon after days of disruptions.

Nadi International Airport, which serves about 1.2 million passengers a year, became a shelter Sunday and Monday as frustrated tourists slept on airport benches waiting for the first flights out.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade advised its country's citizens planning to fly into Fiji "to reconsider their need to travel."

Yet many who did "reconsider their need to travel" found that doing so could be costly.

"It has been said that the island isn't in any state or form for more tourists so why in the world would people like myself not get a full refund," said Rebecca Camilleri of Melbourne. "I'm told its okay to go, it's all clearing up."

Camilleri and 15 others were headed to Fiji on holidays but reconsidered. "I wasn't going to risk my children's life for a holiday," she said.

When she went to her travel agent requesting a refund, the agent informed her that the wholesalers said the island was fine and no full refund would be given. She said her travel insurance also told her she was unable to claim back money because she would be canceling herself.

"I don't understand what the state of the island has to be like for us to reserve our money back in full," she lamented.

Over the weekend, stricken tourists in Fiji raised concerns about food shortages, clean water, and electricity in damaged hotels. Some resorts even helicoptered guests out to safer locations.

"There is no water, food is running out, we are on generator power, and the situation is critical," Anna Dennis, whose family was holed up at the Shangri La hotel on Yanuca Island, told Melbourne's Herald Sun on Sunday.

Fiji is a popular destination for both Australians and New Zealanders and was particularly busy for the week leading up to Easter.

Though several tourists remained stranded Tuesday, most were able to catch flights out on Monday as airlines sent in extra aircraft to handle the logjam.

Fiji has not called for international assistance, but Australia and New Zealand said Monday they are ready to help.

Both regional powers have had a fractured relationship with Fiji since naval officer Voreqe Bainimarama took power in a 2006 military coup. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said the nation would work with non-government agencies rather than the regime while Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Canberra would provide up to $1 million to support disaster relief efforts.

Tafazul Gani, a correspondent for a Fijian magazine, told Australia's ABC that the damage in Nadi is extensive.

"Basically, if you look at the town, the town is totally decimated. It actually looks like a warzone," he said.

"There is not a single shop in the town which has not been affected. Some shops actually have nothing left. Everything that was in the shop, the counter, the merchandise, everything got washed away."

Fijian authorities are now cracking down on "unsanitary practices" amid fears that disease could quickly spread through the country's evacuation centers.

"We are seriously concerned about the state of evacuation centers," said Divisional Health Inspector Dip Chand while addressing heads of government at an emergency operations center briefing in Lautoka on Monday. "We have to put in place strategies that will prevent outbreaks and contain diseases if they do exist at these centers. We have to ensure that we do not reach the crisis level."

Floodwaters are now beginning to recede enough that locals can begin what will likely be a long and costly clean-up.

Warmest March on record across half the U.S., expert says

Last month was the warmest March on record across half of the United States with summer-like temperatures providing some welcome news to the country's farmers and clothing retailers, a weather expert said.

Reuters,

3 April, 2012

Forecasters predicted April could be another warmer-than-normal month, though they said temperatures were likely to fluctuate in a more seasonal pattern in the first half of the month and that fewer records would be shattered.

Accuweather.com said cities in more than 25 states, as well Washington, D.C., broke records for average daily temperatures last month, including Chicago, Oklahoma City, Des Moines, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Detroit.

New York City and Philadelphia both came within 0.4 degrees of beating existing records for average temperatures in March.

Albany, New York took the prize for breaking the oldest temperature record on the books, according to Accuweather.com. Its average daily temperature in March was 45.9 degrees, breaking a record of 44.4 degrees set in 1859, the private weather forecasting firm said.

St. Louis also broke a longstanding record, according to the National Weather Service, enjoying its warmest March since record-keeping started in 1874.

The average temperature in St. Louis in March was 61.1 degrees, the Weather Service said, soaring past the former record of 57.7, set in 1910.

The unusually warm temperatures allowed farmers in the country's Corn Belt to plant 3 percent of this year's corn crop before the traditional April 1 start to the planting season, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Monday, matching the fastest pace on record.

The USDA report did not show how much corn was planted in Iowa, the country's top producer. But planting in Illinois, which usually produces the second largest amount of corn, was 5 percent complete by the end of the month, the department said.

Cropcast Ag Services, a private forecasting company and division of MDA EarthSat Weather, predicted March "will surely go down as one for the ages."

The summer-like temperatures are also expected to have boosted the fortunes of clothing retailers, prompting consumers to snap up spring clothing earlier than usual and leading to broad sales gains at top U.S. chains.

The milder winter left the stores stuck with an inventory of warm clothes in December and January. But most of the retailers accelerated their shipment of spring products to take advantage of the weather.

As a result, analysts expect retailers to build on the sales gains they posted in February when they report sales for March on Thursday.

Mike Pigott, a forecaster at Accuweather.com, said the long-range forecast suggested a good chunk of the country would enjoy warmer-than-normal temperatures again in April, especially in the latter half of the month.

In the meantime, he said residents who were spoiled by the summer-like warmth in March will be subjected to several weeks of more seasonable and more spring like fluctuations in temperatures.

"The pattern will feel more normal than what we saw in March -- at least for the first half of April," Pigott said.

NZ: Hawke's Bay prepares for deluge

MetService issued a severe weather warning for Gisborne and Hawke's Bay yesterday as the low responsible for the storms in Fiji started to move over New Zealand...

Stuff

4 April, 2012

About 60mm of rain had already fallen on northern Hawke's Bay overnight, and a further 150mm was expected to pour over the region before midday Thursday, with peak accumulations of 15 to 20mm per hour.

Hawke's Bay Civil Defence group manager Ian Macdonald said there was real risk of slips on roads and floods in low-lying areas.

"We've also got a heavy swell warning, so it's sort of shaping up to be a wet start to Easter," he said.

"People just need to be aware of what is going on. Keep update with the weather forecast and really be careful when driving, especially since it's a holiday weekend."

Macdonald said Civil Defence was keeping a close eye on areas that were close to waterways and coastal communities in northern Hawke's Bay.

The regional council was giving Civil Defence advice on river levels and coastal swells, and Macdonald was keeping up to date with emergency officers throughout the region to prepare for any flooding.

Further north, Gisborne was expecting about 200mm rain by midday Thursday, with peak accumulations of 15 to 25mm per hour.

MetService said about 71mm had already fallen over Gisborne city and about 120mm on other areas.

Heavy fall was also forecast for Auckland, Northland and the Coromandel Peninsula.

Sun, snow, snakes: Scottish skiing's salvation sweeps south

Wintry weather follows record temperatures in north, boosting mountain resorts and sparking draught excluder confusion..

the Guardian,

3 April, 2012

Snow is moving south after blanketing much of Scotland, where there has been one of the most startling turnarounds in temperature in recent years.

For article GO HERE

Images of the Fiji floods