Extreme weather update - 10/12/2018

Monster! Hurricane Michael the fourth-strongest storm in recorded history to hit the mainland US hammers north-west Florida

Monster: A view of the eye of Hurricane Michael taken on Oct. 10, 2018, from the International Space Station currently orbiting Earth.
The photo was taken by astronaut Dr Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, Credit: NASA

the Big Wobble,

11 October, 2018

It was the fourth-strongest storm in recorded history to hit the mainland US and battered north-west Florida, flooding beach towns and snapping trees.

According to the BBC, Hurricane Michael made landfall on Wednesday afternoon as a category four storm with 155mph (250km/h) winds in the state's Panhandle region.

Associated Press

 
Two people, including a child, were killed by falling trees, officials say. Michael was downgraded to a tropical storm as it weakened over Georgia on its way to the Carolinas.

More than 500,000 homes and businesses in Florida, Georgia and Alabama have been left without power as the storm moves northeast before ending up in the Atlantic by Friday.

Michael is the fourth strongest storm ever to hit the US after Andrew in 1992, Camille in 1969 and an unnamed Labor Day Hurricane in 1935.

According to the Daily Mail, scientists claimed it was so strong because warm waters of 84F (29C) extended unusually far up the northern Gulf Coast for this time of year after Florida had its warmest September ever. (Warm water is like rocket fuel for a hurricane)

Associated Press

 
The storm came ashore as a category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson wind scale before it was downgraded to a category 3.

By 8pm, it was down to a category 1.

The winds were so strong they brought down a billboard in Florida's Panama City, tore down a Texaco gas pumping station canopy in Inlet Beach, and the storm surge completely knocked a house off its foundations in Mexico Beach.

Beachfront structures could be seen collapsing and metal roofing materials were blown away amid the heavy rain.

Now the storm has moved north into South and North Carolina, hitting Georgia on Wednesday evening sparking flash floods and property damage.

The tropical storm was speeding across southwestern Georgia at about 20 mph Wednesday night as it made its way northeast towards the Atlantic.

And then we have events unlikely to be reported.

Flash flooding kills 10 in Mallorca – “The probability of 233 millimeters of rain falling in Mallorca, which was recorded yesterday, is one in a thousand years”

 

At least 10 people, including a British couple, have died in Mallorca, in Spain’s Balearic Islands, after the island was hit by flash flooding on Tuesday night. A child is still unaccounted for, down from six people reported missing this morning.

It is one of the most serious floods to hit Spain in the past 25 years. Three deaths occurred in S’Illot, one in Artà and four took place in Sant Lorenç des Cardassar, a neighborhood 60 kilometers from the island capital Palma de Mallorca, according to emergency services.

More than 230 millimeters of rain fell on the area in just two hours. According to a preliminary report by Spain’s AEMET national weather service, “the probability of 233 millimeters of rain falling in Colònia de Sant Pere [close to Sant Lorenç] in Mallorca, which was recorded yesterday, is one in a thousand years.”

Cyclone hits India at 125km/h speed, kills at least 8

RT

At least 8 people have been killed in cyclone 'Titli' that hit the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh and partly the neighbouring state Odisha, Thursday. Raging at a speed of around 125 km (80 miles) per hour, the cyclone pounced on Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, mowing down trees, damaging buildings and scattering debris on the streets.