Category Archives: Natural disasters and extreme weather

New Zealand volcano: one dead and ‘likely to be more’ after eruption on White Island – live

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At least one person has died after volcano erupted suddenly while dozens of tourists were on the island. Follow the latest updates

Former prime minister Helen Clark has shared her condolences.

Terrible tragedy on White Island, an active volcano off NZ coast. My thoughts are with family of deceased & all injured & traumatised by the sudden eruption. Having walked to the crater on the island, I can well imagine the terror of what happened. https://t.co/Wlc5IaBVmX

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs says it is making “urgent enquiries” to find out if any Australians were affected by the eruption. However, it does not have any information to share at present.

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NSW fires so destructive thousands of koala bodies may never be found, ecologist says

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Inquiry hears most koalas cannot move fast enough to get away from fires leaping from treetop to treetop

Fires burning around New South Wales have razed koala habitats so extensively “we will probably never find the bodies”, an ecologist has told a parliamentary inquiry.

On Monday the NSW upper house inquiry held an urgent hearing into the state’s koala population and habitat after this season’s “unprecedented” bushfires destroyed millions of hectares of forest.

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Australia fires: heatwave forecast amid calls for emergency meeting

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Conditions ease but Labor urges emergency Coag meeting before extreme heat in NSW and Victoria

Firefighters have taken advantage of less extreme conditions to try to contain blazes burning across New South Wales ahead of worsening conditions and soaring temperatures expected on Tuesday.

More than 100 fires were still burning across NSW on Sunday, including the massive Gospers Mountain blaze, which is expected to burn for weeks.

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The volunteers fighting fires: ‘there’s always the fear you’re not going to come home’

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The New South Wales Rural Fire Service is made up of mechanics, bakers, students, retirees and young parents. They face a dangerous Australian summer

Fire warning signs are pinned to thirsty eucalypts every few kilometres on the highway.

The paddocks around central west New South Wales look golden from a distance, but are crispy and brown underfoot. Wind has been howling for days, stirring up red dust on the horizon. Severe fire conditions are looming; it’s only the beginning of summer.

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‘Just leave’: Delhi, Beijing and Mexico City residents on how to cope with pollution

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As air quality plummets on the Australian east coast as a result of devastating bush fires, residents of cities clogged with smog share their coping strategies

The east coast of Australia is in the grip of a bushfire and air pollution crisis. But plummeting air quality levels are a regular occurrence in cities in India, Latin America and China. Here, residents and experts from Delhi, Beijing and Mexico City explain how they survive the smog.

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Worst drought in a century shrinks Victoria Falls to a trickle – video

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Victoria Falls, on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, has slowed down to a trickle after an unprecedented decline in water levels, officials have said. Data from the Zambezi River authority showed water flow at its lowest since 1995, and well under the long-term average. 

The Zambian president, Edgar Lungu, said it was a stark reminder of what climate change is doing to the environment, yet some scientists are cautious about categorically blaming the climate crisis. Harald Kling, a hydrologist at engineering firm Pöyry and a Zambezi River expert, said climate science dealt in decades, not particular years, 'so it’s sometimes difficult to say: this is because of climate change because droughts have always occurred'

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Queensland fires: ‘firenado’ forms as Australia blazes continue – video

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Aerial footage captured a 'firenado' forming on Saturday in the Bundamba suburb of Ipswich, Queensland, as a huge fire rapidly advanced across dry grassland, threatening homes. Queensland state authorities have issued an emergency warning as the east coast of Australia works to tackle more than 100 bushfires

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Australia fires: helicopter crashes as 140 bushfires rage in NSW and Queensland – live

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RFS says Gospers Mountain blaze, which has merged with neighbouring fires, will take many weeks to put out

A shipping container full of fireworks? Really?

This is from AAP:

A shipping container loaded with fireworks has exploded and residents have been warned to flee as an unpredictable fire closes in on homes in south-east Queensland.

The fast-moving blaze is burning in bushland at Bundamba, west of Brisbane, and travelling in a northerly direction from White Street towards the Warrego highway.

This, I fear, will be the trend for the afternoon. Across the east coast of Australia, fires worsening with strengthening winds, no respite in temperatures.

Watch & Act - Blue Gum Road (Tenterfield LGA)
Fire is burning SW of Urbenville. Spot fires are starting ahead of the main fire front. If you are in the Wallaby Creek area, seek shelter as the fire approaches. Protect yourself from the heat of the fire. #nswrfs #nswfires pic.twitter.com/Fw0wlqMgOE

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NSW fires: five bushfires merge north of Sydney – as it happened

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Gospers Mountain, Paddock Run and Little L Complex, Three Mile and Thompson Creek fires overlap, and there are now seven emergency warnings in NSW as fire conditions worsen along Australia’s New South Wales and Queensland coasts. This blog is now closed

We are going to wrap the live blog up here. As of almost 7.30pm AEDT there are still seven fires at emergency warning level across NSW.

They are:

Related: Australia fires: five blazes merge north of Sydney as conditions forecast to worsen

Some more photos from photographer Matthew Abbott out at Kulnura:

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Australia fires: five blazes merge north of Sydney as conditions forecast to worsen

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More than 100 bushfires were burning in New South Wales on Friday, more than half of them out of control

Five fires burning to the north of Sydney joined up into one huge conflagration on Friday, with out-of-control blazes threatening homes and lives.

On a day that brought choking smog to Sydney, the premier of New South Wales said the entire coastline of the state was on fire.

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Flooding hits New Zealand tourist hubs of Wanaka and Queenstown

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Heavy rain has led to rivers bursting their banks, forcing the closure of shops and restaurants

Streets in the South Island tourist towns of Wanaka and Queenstown were slowly going under water on Friday, after Lake Wanaka and Lake Wakatipu burst their banks earlier in the week, flooding businesses and sewerage systems.

Water and large debris closed the main street of Wanaka, a popular spot with Instagrammers thanks to its famous tree that appears to have grown out of the lake. On Friday businesses were sandbagging as heavy rain continued to fall.

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Thousands flee Typhoon Kammuri in the Philippines – video

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More than 200,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, say officials, after Typhoon Kammuri slammed into the central Philippines.

The typhoon, the country's 20th this year, brought winds of up to 124mph (200km/h) and caused flooding and landslides. Hundreds of flights at Manila's Ninoy Aquino airport were cancelled. At least three people are reported to have been killed

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Revealed: ‘monumental’ NSW bushfires have burnt 20% of Blue Mountains world heritage area

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More than 10% of forest in NSW national parks destroyed by fire this season, with the damage to Gondwana rainforest a ‘global tragedy’

More than 10% of the area covered by New South Wales national parks has been burned in this season’s bushfires, including 20% of the Blue Mountains world heritage area, state government data obtained by Guardian Australia has revealed.

The amount of bushland destroyed within NSW national parks dwarfs that of the entire previous fire season, when 80,000 hectares were lost.

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Heavy flooding hits southern France after week of torrential rain – video

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Three emergency workers were killed in a helicopter crash near Marseille while on a rescue mission in southern France where floods have left two people dead, officials have said. The Var and the neighbouring Alpes-Maritimes region were on red alert for floods that disrupted train services and cut the A8 motorway for four hours on Sunday evening.

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French floods: five dead after three rescue workers killed in helicopter crash

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Three emergency workers killed in Marseille while two men died in the French Riviera

Three emergency workers were killed in a helicopter crash near Marseille while on a rescue mission in southern France where floods have left two dead, officials have said.

Their EC145 helicopter lost radio and radar contact while on a rescue and reconnaissance flight in the Var region on Sunday night.

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Total fire bans in six NSW regions as 146 blazes burn across the state

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Greater Hunter, greater Sydney, Illawarra/Shoalhaven, central ranges, northern slopes and north-western regions have ‘severe’ or ‘very high’ danger

Total fire bans were in place for the greater Hunter – which is facing severe fire danger – greater Sydney, Illawarra/Shoalhaven, central ranges, northern slopes and north-western regions.

These regions and the far south coast, southern ranges and New England, as well as the ACT, had very high fire danger.

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Albania earthquake: at least 16 dead and hundreds injured

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Magnitude 6.4 quake strikes at shallow depth, bringing down buildings in Tirana and nearby

At least 16 people have died and 600 people have been injured after a powerful earthquake hit Albania in the early hours of Tuesday, causing damage along the country’s Adriatic coastline and in the capital, Tirana. Several buildings collapsed, burying residents in the rubble.

The 6.4-magnitude quake struck shortly before 4am local time (0300 GMT), the US Geological Survey said, and was the second powerful tremor to hit the region in two months. It was centred 19 miles west of Tirana, at a shallow depth of 12.4 miles. Scores of aftershocks included three with preliminary magnitudes of between 5.1 and 5.4.

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Destruction and panic as quake hits Albania – in pictures

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A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck Albania early on Tuesday, killing four people and sparking panic in the capital, Tirana, and other cities. The epicentre of the quake, the strongest in the region in decades, was about 20 miles north-west of Tirana, according to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre

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Mystery sounds from storms could help predict tornadoes

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Scientists narrow down causes of low-frequency rumbles emitted before twisters form

Mysterious rumbles that herald tornadoes could one day be used to predict when and where they will strike, according to researchers.

Storms emit sounds before tornadoes form, but the signals at less than 20Hz are below the limit for human hearing. What causes these rumbles has also been a conundrum.

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