Category: Weather

Thailand: Flash floods cause 200-km gridlock as death toll rises to 25

FLASH floods in southern Thailand washed out a bridge on the country’s main north-south highway on Tuesday, backing up traffic for 200 km as the death toll from days of unseasonable rain rose to 25, media reported. More than 360,000 households, or about a million people, have been affected by the floods that have damaged homes and schools and affected rubber and palm oil production, the Department of Disaster Prevention and industry officials said.

Extreme cold weather continues to batter East Europe

Icicles hang from a roof of a house in Oberstdorf, southern Germany, Sunday Jan. 8, 2017. Heavy snowfall and below-freezing temperatures continued to sweep the European continent, causing more than a dozen deaths, grounding airplanes and crippling ferries in Italy and Turkey.

Bringing hope and healing to Haiti

As I sit to write you about my recent trip to Haiti, I am not sure where to start. The devastation I saw from Hurricane Matthew was huge but the picture that immediately comes into my mind is of the young mom with a 12-month-old babe and a three-year-old boy whom I met.

Motorists warned over floodwaters in northern Qld

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12 dead after heavy rains in southern Thailand

Heavy rains continued to hammer Thailand’s flood-ravaged south on Saturday, bringing the death toll up to 12 and leaving thousands of villages partially submerged, authorities said. The flooding, which was roof-high in some areas, has affected more than 700,000 people since it started a week ago, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Nearly 1 million swamped by relentless southern deluge

FLOODING in lower Thailand has now expanded to leave 10 of the 15 southern provinces inundated, affecting nearly a million people and claiming 11 lives, according to the Interior Ministry’s Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department. And eight provinces Phetchaburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Ranong and Phang Nga face more heavy rain until today.

Santa Cruz County endures mudslides, wrecks

Northbound Highway 17 traffic was brought to a standstill between Pasatiempo and Scotts Valley when this pickup truck, which skidded off the freeway and slid down the embankment Tuesday night, was being removed from the slope on Wednesday afternoon. SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz Mountains received more than 7 inches of rain Tuesday night.

Mother Nature can’t decide which kind of winter to send us

But according to Geoff Coulson, warning preparedness meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada, that was the case in December. After a mild start to December, cold air finally made an extended appearance across the province after about the 7th of the month until the days leading up to Christmas.

Updated: 6 hours agoComments (0)The worst of the storm has passed.

A Colorado low dumped up to 30 centimetres of snow on some parts of Northwestern Ontario before moving off to the east on Tuesday. “There was a massive area of precipitation with this thing; rain in southern Ontario to heavy snow in the northern part of the province,” Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson said Tuesday.

Cold Southerly Blast Today

A cold southerly blast spreads up the country today, bringing a few thunderstorms and even hail to some areas in the east of the country. The cold change is expected to continue up the Kaikoura coast this afternoon, and the rest of the North Island this evening.

Hail and ‘decent gusts’ for Christchurch

In the middle of New Zealand’s summer, hail could whiten the ground in Christchurch this afternoon as a cold snap moves up the island. Enough hail to blanket the ground is expected in the late afternoon, and Cantabrians with vegetable gardens are warned to cover them or expect damage from hailstones up to 1.5cm.

Australia kicks off global New Year party defying terror threat

SYDNEY: Global terror attacks have cast a pall over 2016 but Australia was Saturday set to defy the threats and ring in the New Year with bumper crowds gathering to watch a firework extravaganza on Sydney’s glittering harbour. 2016 has seen repeated bloodshed, most recently a deadly truck attack at a Berlin Christmas market, a similar incident on Bastille Day in France that killed 86, and atrocities in Turkey and the Middle East.

Russian hackers penetrated Vermont electric utility -Wash Post

A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont electric utility, The Washington Post reported on Friday, citing unnamed U.S. officials. The Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations of the utility, the officials told the Post, but penetration of the nation’s electrical grid is significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability.

Residents say new homes could increase flooding risk

RESIDENTS opposed to a new housing development on a former football field in Apperley Bridge have claimed that building on the site could pose a flood risk to nearby homes. Bellway Homes has applied to Bradford Council to build 45 houses on the Harrogate Road site, which was the home of local amateur side Crag Road United until 2011.

Temperature in Tamsui records low of 10.9 C

A strong continental air mass has brought with it lower temperatures, with Tamsui recording 10.9 degrees Celsius twice on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, a new low for low lying areas this year, the Central Weather Bureau said. The strongest cold front so far this season sent temperatures as low as 13-14 degrees in northern Taiwan and Yilan in the northeast, 11-12 degrees in coastal areas of those regions and 16 degrees in southern Taiwan, as well as Hualien and Taitung in the east on Wednesday morning, according to the bureau.

Second flight recorder recovered from Black Sea crash site

In this image from video and provided by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service, ministry diver adjusts a rope on a fragment of a plane engine, to lift it outside in Sochi, Russia, Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016. The Defense Ministry says search teams have recovered another flight recorder from a military plane that crashed in the Black Sea, killing all 92 aboard.

Seven missing after freak rains drench Australia’s outback

Unusual torrential rain in Australia’s outback turned the Uluru monolith into a series of cascading waterfalls and triggered flash floods, and seven people are missing including a Japanese tourist who was swept away in a car and an Australian family. Police were using helicopters to search for the family of six, missing since Christmas Day downpours drenched the desert that is usually sweltering in the midst of the southern summer at this time of year.

7 missing in Australia’s Northern Territory

Seven people including a child and an Asian tourist are missing after heavy rain over Christmas caused severe flooding in Australia’s Northern Territory. Two cars went missing on Christmas Day while driving between Kiwirrkurra and Kintore, across the Western Australian and Northern Territory borders, police said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Sydney weather: temperatures, UV levels to soar in heatwave

After ideal weather over the Christmas weekend, Sydney’s heatwave is predicted to intensify over the next two days with a spike in temperatures and minimal chance of rainfall. Wednesday is forecast to reach a maximum temperature of 30 degrees with only 5 per cent chance of showers, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Water Authority worried as rain doesn’t reach Kinneret

While the Kinneret has risen 18cm since the beginning of the month, making it the strongest December since 2013, officials at the Water Authority say it’s just not enough as this major source of freshwater is still -231.67 meters below sea level. The Kinneret has only risen 2cm since Saturday, as rains fell mostly on the coastline-from Netanya to Ashkelon-and did not reach the Galilee and Golan areas.

Wind warning issued for all of P.E.I.

Winds forecasted to gust at 90 km/h across province, while blowing snow expected in central and western eastern P.E.I. It is a windy Christmas Day on Prince Edward Island with northwest gusts expected to reach 90 km/h this afternoon. Environment Canada has issued a warning for the entire province that there is a significant risk of strong winds that could cause damage as well as blowing snow.

Tens of thousands flee Christmas Day typhoon in Philippines

Babies, toddlers and old people were loaded onto military trucks in pouring rain in the Philippines on Sunday as tens of thousands fled the path of a powerful typhoon barrelling towards the disaster-prone archipelago. Officials warned of large coastal waves of up to 2.5-metres high, landslides and flash floods as Nock-Ten closed in on the Bicol peninsula and nearby islands.

‘Hit by drought, Kashmir nomads shifting closer to urban centres’

Jammu, Dec 25 : Hit by unprecedented dry spell in the higher reaches, nomad tribals in Jammu and Kashmir have started shifting to plain areas close to cities and towns in the Jammu region, a tribal rights body said on Sunday. [NK Business] “Facing extreme deficit of fodder for their animals due to insufficient rainfall, the drought-hit families of Gujjars living in hills of Jammu and Kashmir have started shifting along with their cattle towards the plain areas, nearer to cities and towns, in search of cattle feed and water,” the Tribal Research and Cultural Foundation, representing nomadic tribals, said in a statement.

Chandigarh, neighbouring areas receive showers

Chandigarh, Dec 25 : Giving a break to a prolonged dry spell this winter, Chandigarh and parts of neighbouring Punjab and Haryana received rainfall early on Sunday. [NK Punjab] The rain came as a relief on the occasion of Christmas for revellers who were planning to drive to hill stations like Shimla and Kasauli in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.

Faithful celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem

Thousands of pilgrims and tourists from around the world together with local Christians gathered in the biblical town of Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas Eve in the traditional birthplace of Jesus, with spirits lifted by a slowdown in recent violence and cool, clear weather. Security was tight in Bethlehem after recent deadly attacks on Christian targets in neighboring Egypt and Jordan by Islamic extremists.

Thousands of faithful gather in biblical town of Bethlehem for Christmas Eve

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Thousands of pilgrims and tourists from around the world together with local Christians gathered in the biblical town of Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas Eve in the traditional birthplace of Jesus, with spirits lifted by a slowdown in recent violence and cool, clear weather. Security was tight in Bethlehem after recent deadly attacks on Christian targets in neighboring Egypt and Jordan by Islamic extremists.

Thousands of faithful celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem

Thousands of pilgrims and tourists from around the world together with locals began Christmas Eve celebrations in Jesus’ traditional birthplace of Bethlehem on Saturday, raising spirits after a tense year that saw a spike in violence between Palestinians and Israelis. The faithful braved the chilly weather outside Manger Square as traditional Christmas songs like “Jingle Bells” played in Arabic over loudspeakers and scout groups paraded with bagpipes and sang carols.

Wind warning for much of Alberta, gusts of 100 km/h possible

WATCH ABOVE: It’s going to be a windy one! Here’s Mike Sobel’s Monday, December 19, 2016 early morning weather forecast for Edmonton, Alberta and the surrounding area. A wind warning is in effect for much of southern and central Alberta, including the city of Edmonton, as strong winds that may cause damage are expected or are already occurring.

French foreign minister visits Haiti city devastated by

France’s foreign minister has visited a Haitian city devastated by Hurricane Matthew two months when the Category 4 storm’s center tore through the impoverished country’s southwest. The French Embassy in Port-au-Prince says the purpose of Jean-Marc Ayrault’s visit to Jeremie on Sunday was to express France’s solidarity with its former colony as affects areas struggle to recover from Matthew’s Oct. 4 passage.

Latrobe comes alive for Christmas fun

An estimated 2000 people still turned out in poor weather conditions for the Lions Christmas Parade at Latrobe on Saturday. Coordinator Kevin Moulden said despite terrible weather conditions, they still had 32 float entries, with an estimated 2000 people turning out to witness the event, which gave the kids the chance to see Santa.

‘Hell on Earth’ heat is coming

This severe weather video update provides information on Thunderstorms across SE Australia and Heatwave in QLD. Video is current at 4pm AEDT 19 Jan, 2017 The heat map shows the extreme inland temperatures that will make their way the coastlines over the next few days.