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Evros Floods, Greece – 30,000 Hectares of Farmland Underwater
Flooding continues to affect the regional unit of Evros in the region of East Macedonia and Thrace, north-eastern Greece, due to the overflowing of the Evros (Maritsa) river.
Flood first struck in the area on 01 February 2015, when heavy rain resulted in flooding and evacuations in Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia and later in Turkey. Evacuations are still in effect and as yet, flood waters haven’t receded enough for many of those displaced to be able to return home.
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Map of the Evros / Maritsa River, Europe. Image: WikiMedia, licensed under Creative Commons
Damage to Agriculture
Local media are reporting that between 20,000 and 30,000 hectares (75 to 115 square miles) of farm land remains under water, and the flooding in Evros is likely to have a devastating effect on the local rural economy.
Much of this region depends on farming for its income. Although levels of the Evros river may be falling, it is expected that it will take much longer for flood water to drain from farm land.
The president of the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives Ebro Lazarus Kitsikidis told the Greek news site in.gr that there is now a fear that farmers will miss as much as 80% of the growing season. He said that it could take another month for the farm land to fully drain and therefore most of the flooded fields will not be able be sown in time for the forthcoming growing season.
File photo: Floods in Evros, 2010. Photo credit:class="Apple-converted-space" JoannaSevere Weather Warnings
Severe weather conditions, including heavy snowfall and rainfall and strong winds, are forecast for most areas of the country on 9 February and Greece’s Meteorological Service has issued Red and Orange Alerts.
Malawi floods devastation far worse than first thought
UN agencies scale up response to disaster that has displaced nearly a quarter of a million people, and threatens disease and malnutrition
10 February, 2015
Nearly a quarter of a million people, more than originally thought, have been affected by the devastating floods that ripped through Malawi a month ago, and with rains still falling, many of the 230,000 who were forced to flee their homes have been unable to return and rebuild their lives, the UN said.
The UN children’s agency, Unicef, said new figures from the UN and the government of Malawi showed the number of people displaced stood at 230,000, compared with an original estimate of 174,000. About 64,000 hectares (158,147 acres) of land were damaged, it added.
The scale of the disaster has wreaked havoc on the densely populated country, where most people survive from subsistence farming. Crops of maize have been destroyed, villages obliterated, homes swept away and livestock killed.
In mid-January, President Peter Mutharika declared half the country a disaster zone and estimated it would cost 23.9bn kwacha ($51m) to repair the damage.
Unicef said 276 people had been killed or were missing, while 645 people had been injured.
“With these new numbers, and while prioritising additional severely affected districts, we need to take stock of our response to ensure all children and families have access to emergency services and supplies,” said Mahimbo Mdoe, Unicef’s representative in Malawi.
“We are carefully monitoring how displaced children are faring, as we know, after one month in crowded camps, disease outbreaks and increased malnutrition can occur,” he said.
About 47% of Malawi’s children are already stunted, which is caused by undernutrition, so they are particularly vulnerable.
Unicef has launched a $9.3m appeal to cover its emergency response for three months.
The agency is concerned about possible outbreaks of cholera, dysentery and malaria as well as the risk of malnutrition. About 56,000 women and children have received healthcare in the camps, and at Unicef-supported government clinics. A total of 287 children have been admitted for treatment for severe malnutrition.
“Unicef is working closely with the government and NGO partners to install enough water and sanitation facilities to keep waterborne diseases at bay, critical for the survival of young children,” said Mdoe.
“One month in, we are on target, but with these new numbers we need to look at scaling up services again to cover these additional prioritised districts. We already have a $3.8m funding gap, and that’s likely to increase as we move into recovery phase,” Mdoe added.
With support from Britain’s Department for International Development (DfID), the EU and USAid, Unicef is working to provide sanitation and clean water, as many water sources have been contaminated.
Many of those forced from their homes have taken refuge in schools, disrupting education for around 350,000 pupils. Unicef is providing tents so that the schools can set up temporary learning spaces while still offering accommodation to families at night.
Last week, the UN’s food agency said it was scaling up its food distribution in Malawi, adding that more resources were urgently required to fill a funding gap.
The World Food Programme is delivering maize, beans, vegetable oil and super cereal, a flour fortified with vitamins and minerals. It has also provided 28 tonnes of high-energy biscuits to people in the hard-hit and remote Chikwawa and Nsanje districts. It requires about $19m for its operations in Malawi.
By the end of January, the agency had been able to reach nearly 210,000 people with more than 1,500 tonnes of food assistance in eight districts.
At the UN, member states were urged not to allow other global humanitarian crises to prevent them from supporting a full recovery in Malawi.
“While we may not be able to prevent disasters from taking place, we can do much more to mitigate their impact on people and economies,” Denis Antoine, vice-president of the general assembly, told members last week.
Northern and central regions of neighbouring Mozambique have also been hit by flooding that has affected around 160,000 people and entire communities. Unicef said the flooding had cut off roads, disrupted power supply and destroyed bridges, houses and schools.
The Indian Ocean island of Madagascar has also been affected. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said in an update last week that Madagascar had received double its average rainfall since early January. This, coupled with the effects of tropical storm Chedza on 16 January, had left 74 people dead and displaced 20,000 people.
A mild winter in Russia with lots of snow
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In the United States, rain that is not going to make any difference to the drought while the East freezes and New England has never seen as much snow.
Currently it is a warm 22F (-6C) in Anchorage, Alaska.
Storms Bring Rain, Little Help For California's 'Meager' Snowpack
The
two storms that hit Northern California between Friday and Monday
morning brought the most significant rainfall to the region since
mid-December. However, despite the ample rain, and from a half-foot
to more than a foot of snow at some Lake Tahoe ski resorts, the
National Weather Service Western
Region reported
that the Sierra Nevada snowpack saw “small increases.”
In
late January, the California Department of Water Resources called the
snowpack “dismally meager” after its snow
measurement.
The snowpack is counted on for about 30 percent of California’s
water supply for agriculture and urban areas in the spring and
summer, when it melts and fills reservoirs.
The U.S.
Department of Agriculture Natural
Resources Conservation Service reported Monday that the Sierra Nevada
snowpack is "unusually low" for this time of year due to
the warm, dry January. And the agency says the extreme drought in
California may be "further aggravated by reduced streamflow"
in other parts of the Western U.S.
Other
states in the Western U.S. are experiencing below normal
snowpack conditions too.
For
the second consecutive year, Oregon’s mountains are experiencing
record-low snowpack levels, according to the latest snow survey data
from the USDA Natural
Resources Conservation Service.
“It
has been a warm and rainy winter in the Oregon mountains this
year,” said Melissa Webb, a hydrologist with the NRCS Oregon snow
survey team, in a news release. “Most of our sites in the Cascade
and Siskiyou Mountains are measuring record low snowpack levels right
now. There is grass growing in areas that are normally buried under
many feet of snow. There is still time for improvement in our
snowpack, but at this point, a full recovery is unlikely.”
Without significant snowfall in February and March, NRCS hydrologists say streams and rivers usually fed by snowmelt will experience well-below-normal flows this summer.
Without significant snowfall in February and March, NRCS hydrologists say streams and rivers usually fed by snowmelt will experience well-below-normal flows this summer.
The
National Weather Service in Sacramento reported
that runoff from the weekend storms have brought “higher water
levels in reservoirs,” but said those levels are “still below
normal.” The NWS said rain totals from late Thursday through Monday
ranged from 2-to-3 inches in the Sacramento area to 4-to-5 inches in
the Santa Rosa area and 7-to-10 inches around Garberville.
Heat
wave coming to Los Angeles area for Valentine’s Day weekend
A
combination of Santa Ana winds and dry weather conditions will make
for a hotter-than-usual week leading up to Valentine’s Day, with
temperatures expected in the 80s across most of the area.
“It
looks like starting Wednesday, temperatures will really jump up,”
Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service
in Oxnard, told City News Service. “The hottest temperatures will
be Thursday, Friday and Saturday.”
Seto
said the temperatures could be near record levels by Valentine’s
Day, noting that average temperatures for this time of year are
generally around 67 in downtown Los Angeles.
“It’s
going to be about 20 degrees higher than normal Friday and Saturday,”
he told CNS.....
Boston digs out from new snow record
Snow hits New England for 3rd week in a row
Winter's
Coldest Yet to Come for Northeast; Next Arctic Blasts Could Reach
Florida
Had
enough of the snow and cold in the Northeast? There's bad news for
you in the forecast.
This
animation shows the two shots of cold air on the way, one for late
week, and another this weekend.
We
are tracking two new surges of arctic air that will be ushered in
across the central and eastern U.S. through the weekend, pulled
southward by a pair of low-pressure systems that will also bring some
snow to parts of the East. This time, the polar plunges could extend
very deep into the South.
Many
locations have a chance to see their coldest weather of the winter.
In fact, some could see the lowest temperatures in years or even
decades.
Chilly
conditions have already been in place for much of the Northeast since
start of the year, except for a few brief breaks in January. Low
temperatures have typically dropped into the single digits and teens
for many in New England, with occasionally even colder readings.
Boston saw below-average temperatures for 29 of the first 41 days of
this year, with 19 of those days being at least 8 degrees below
average.....
Meanwhile Down-Under the fires are out of the headlines in Australia while the drought in New Zealand, despite some rain this week continues in earnest.
Meanwhile Down-Under the fires are out of the headlines in Australia while the drought in New Zealand, despite some rain this week continues in earnest.
Fire crews battle Bullsbrook blaze
And for the international situation
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