Category Archives: Extreme weather

Tropical Cyclone Jasper prompts Queensland weather warnings for wild winds, heavy rain, possible flooding

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Cyclone weakened to category 1 on Sunday night but BoM says it is expected to intensify before crossing coast of far north Qld near Cairns

Residents of far north Queensland are bracing for wild weather, possible power outages, and internet and water supply disruptions with the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Jasper.

As of 4.30am on Monday, Jasper had weakened again to a category 1 system and was about 600km east of Cairns and 530km northeast of Townsville.

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Tennessee storms: tornadoes kill at least six and cut power to tens of thousands

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Three deaths reported in Montgomery county and a further three in the suburbs of Nashville, officials say

Severe storms and tornadoes in Tennessee killed at least six people on Saturday and caused what local emergency services described as extensive damage with tens of thousands of residents without power.

Nashville police said in a statement Sunday that a two-year-old boy and his mother were among three people killed there.

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Weather tracker: Low Mississippi River levels take toll on farmers

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Economic loss from disruption on important travel route for grain exports estimated to be $20bn

Extreme drought and a warm autumn have left water levels on the Mississippi exceptionally low for the time of year. This is causing problems for farmers who rely on the river as a travel route for the crops: 60% of US grain exports use the waterway to reach the Gulf coasts.

The total economic loss is estimated to be about $20bn and, despite attempts to dredge the river, it remains worryingly low as the country enters an important month for grain transport.

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Australia news live: Daniel Andrews fires up over ‘Dictator Dan’ moniker; festival-goers warned about heatwave conditions

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Former Victorian premier gives first interview after resignation, saying ‘the haters hate and the rest vote Labor’. Follow the day’s news live

James Ashby to stand for One Nation in Queensland seat

James Ashby, the chief of staff to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, will stand for the party in the seat of Keppel at next year’s Queensland state election, AAP reports.

The Nationals are dead in Queensland’s parliament while the Liberals are lurching further left in their attempts to secure inner-Brisbane seats.

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iPhone manufacturers in India halt production due to Cyclone Michaung

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Foxconn and Pegatron temporarily shut factories near Chennai because of torrential rains that have claimed at least four lives

Taiwan’s Foxconn and Pegatron have halted production of Apple iPhones at their factories near Chennai in southern India because of heavy rains, sources close to the matter said on Monday.

In Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai, the state’s largest city and a major electronics and manufacturing hub, at least two people died and the runway of one of the country’s busiest airports was submerged after torrential rain as the city braced for a severe cyclone expected to hit in the next 24 hours. Two others had died elsewhere. Cyclone Michaung was expected to make landfall on the coast of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh around noon on Tuesday, the country’s weather office said, with sustained winds of 90kph to 100kph (56mph to 62mph), gusting to 110kph.

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At least 47 people killed and 85 injured by landslides in Tanzania

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Toll expected to rise after heavy rains caused flooding in Katesh in country’s north

At least 47 people have been killed and 85 others injured in landslides caused by flooding in northern Tanzania, a local official has said, with warnings the toll would rise.

Heavy rain on Saturday hit the town of Katesh, 300km (186 miles) north of the capital, Dodoma, district commissioner Janeth Mayanja said on Sunday. “Up to this evening, the death toll reached 47 and 85 injured,” Queen Sendiga, regional commissioner in the Manyara area of northern Tanzania, told local media. Both warned that the death toll was likely to increase.

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Two years after silt and mud trashed them, Northern Rivers schools rise from ruin

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Dave Lee, principal of the newly rebuilt Mullumbimby public school, vividly recalls the emotion of his first visit to assess the flood damage

“My first memories were just the silt and the mud,” says Dave Lees, summoning back his impressions from the day he returned to the Mullumbimby public school campus, the day after it was swallowed by flood waters.

“It was just a brown, smelly, clay-laden, dirty space. It looked like another planet,” the school principal says.

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Weather tracker: deaths after first heavy snowfall of winter hits eastern Europe

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Thousands of towns and villages in Moldova, Ukraine and Bulgaria left without electricity as cold snap bites

Heavy snowfall and blizzards across eastern European countries this week have resulted in a number of deaths, and left thousands of towns and villages without electricity, after the first major cold snap of the season.

In Moldova, four people were reported dead over the weekend, with two bodies being recovered from cars that had been buried in snowdrifts. In Ukraine, severe snowstorms left 10 people dead across the Odesa, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Kyiv regions. Fifteen hundred towns and villages were left without power, with one snowstorm in Odesa leaving 2,500 people in need of rescue and about 850 vehicles requiring towing. Southern Ukraine was the worst affected, as cars and buses slid off frozen roads, with local authorities battling strong winds to rescue vehicles. Bulgaria was also badly affected, declaring a state of emergency as winter storms left more than 1,000 villages without electricity.

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Climate crisis a ‘substantial risk’ to fight against malaria, says WHO

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New report says disease-carrying mosquitoes thrive in rising temperatures, leading to transmission in hitherto unaffected areas

The climate crisis poses a major threat to the fight against malaria, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with evidence suggesting extreme weather events and rising temperatures have already led to spikes in cases.

Mosquitoes, the carriers of the disease, thrive in warm, damp and humid conditions, which are increasing with global heating.

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‘A biodiversity catastrophe’: how the world could look in 2050 – unless we act now

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The climate crisis, invasive species, overexploitation of resources and pollution could break down crucial ecosystems. We asked experts to lay out the risks and offer some solutions

The continued destruction of nature across the planet will result in major shocks to food supplies and safe water, the disappearance of unique species and the loss of landscapes central to human culture and leisure by the middle of this century, experts have warned.

By 2050, if humanity does not follow through on commitments to tackle the five main drivers of nature loss critical natural systems could break down just as the human population is projected to peak.

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Weather tracker: Ethiopia hit by severe drought amid east Africa floods

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More than 50 people dead in Tigray and Amhara regions while UN warns of ‘crisis-level hunger or worse’ in Somalia

The regions of Tigray and Amhara in northern Ethiopia have continued to experience severe drought conditions with more than 50 people dead, as well as 4,000 cattle.

While northern Ethiopia suffers from droughts, the southern and eastern parts of the country, along with Kenya and Somalia, have been hit by flooding. Somalia suffered the worst of the flooding, with 50 people reported dead. According to the Somali disaster management agency almost 700,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.

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Madagascan heatwave ‘virtually impossible’ without human-caused global heating

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Study finds impact of heat on millions of people went unrecorded, highlighting limitations many African countries face

A record-breaking heatwave in Madagascar in October would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused global heating, a study has shown.

The extreme temperatures affected millions of very poor people but the damage to their lives was not recorded by officials or the media. Many governments in Africa lack the capabilities to record climate impacts. The scientists behind the report said this lack of information made implementing measures to avoid deaths very difficult.

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State of emergency declared in parts of France after record rainfall

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Floods force evacuation of homes, schools and town halls in Calais region and in the Alps

Widespread flooding in northern and eastern France has led to thousands of people having to evacuate their waterlogged homes, the collapse of roads and the closure of schools and public buildings.

Record rainfall has caused rivers to break their banks, forcing the government to declare an official state of emergency in hundreds of towns and villages.

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Thousands without water after Storm Ciarán disrupts Surrey treatment works

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Thames Water has provided bottled water to people in Guildford, Godalming and surrounding areas

Thousands of people have been left without water after Storm Ciarán caused problems at a treatment works in Surrey, Thames Water has said.

A major incident was declared as at least 13,500 homes in Guildford, Godalming and the surrounding areas were left without water or with low pressure by 2.50pm on Sunday, while a further 6,500 were expected to lose supply later in the day.

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Storm Ciarán leaves seven dead in Italy as torrential rain causes flooding

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Hundreds forced to evacuate homes and others left without power in Tuscany as storm sweeps across Europe

A seventh person has been found dead and another is still missing more than a day after rivers burst their banks following torrential rain in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the Ansa news agency reported.

The body of a 69-year-old man was found in the town of Campi Bisenzio, about 9 miles (15km) north-west of Florence, the news agency said. Officials earlier said six people had died in the deluge that started late on Thursday.

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‘The children screamed for hours’: horrors of Hurricane Otis leave devastation for Acapulco’s poorest

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Mexico’s Pacific coast was battered by 165mph winds and torrential rain on 25 October. Thousands lost their homes and many now have too little food or water to survive

In the small hours of Wednesday 25 October, Josefina Maldonado, a grandmother of two in her 60s who lives in the Renacimiento district of Acapulco, watched as the corrugated metal roof of her home flew into the sky, ripped off by 165mph (270km/h) winds. The family home and everything and everyone in it, including two terrified small children, were prey to the torrential rain and the horrors of the hurricane. Most of the furniture, including the beds, was swept away.

“It wasn’t that the wind or the water was stronger. Both were working together,” Maldonado says. “We were up all night trying to save what we could, and the children screamed and cried for hours.”

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Flood warnings issued for south England amid heavy rain after Storm Ciarán

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Met Office issues yellow weather alert as heavy rain forecast to fall on already saturated ground

Heavy rain is forecast across south and south-west of England, with 38 flood warnings and 160 flooding alerts in place days after Storm Ciarán hit the UK.

Although Storm Ciarán has largely eased, the Met Office issued a yellow weather notice on Saturday to last until 11.59pm, stretching from Kent to Cornwall.

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Climate crisis talks resume on ‘loss and damage’ funding for poorest countries

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World leaders will reconvene in Abu Dhabi before UAE’s Cop28 after talks broke down two weeks ago

Governments will meet this weekend for a last-ditch attempt to bridge deep divisions between rich and poor countries over how to get money to vulnerable people afflicted by climate disaster.

Talks over funds for “loss and damage”, which refers to the rescue and rehabilitation of countries and communities experiencing the effects of extreme weather, started in March but broke down in rancour two weeks ago.

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Storm Ciarán kills at least 15 across western Europe as floods strike Italy

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Tuscany is in a state of emergency and three people died when their sailing boat capsized off Portugal

At least six people have died in severe flooding in Tuscany, central Italy and three in Portugal, bringing to 15 the provisional death toll across western Europe from the torrential rain and record winds brought by Storm Ciarán.

Eugenio Giani, the president of Tuscany, announced a state of emergency on Friday, describing the situation as “really very serious”. It had been “a long and complex night for the entire regional civil protection system”, he said.

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Storm Ciarán: schools closed and travel disrupted in UK amid ‘danger to life’

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Amber warnings in place for wind across southern England with north Wales forecast to receive most rain

Winds of more than 70mph and heavy rain have hit parts of south-west and southern England as Storm Ciarán began to disrupt parts of the UK.

Hundreds of schools were shut, roads closed, flights and bus and rail routes affected, with “danger to life” amber warnings in place for wind across southern England.

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