Category Archives: Extreme weather

Home swept away by flood waters in Turkey – video

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Footage shows the moment a house collapsed and was swept away in flood waters gushing through the streets of the Black Sea town of Arhavi, Turkey, on Thursday. Local media reports said nobody was hurt in the incident.

Access to dozens of villages in Artvin province were blocked and rescue efforts were under way, with officials saying 200 people had been evacuated. Floods are common along Turkey’s Black Sea coastal region at this time of year. Last week, at least six people were killed and two others went missing in flood waters in the province of Rize

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‘There’s magic in misery’: ultramarathon runners cross Death Valley – in a drought

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A hundred athletes are picked each year for the 135-mile race. This time the climate was especially brutal

In the Badwater Basin at the bottom of California’s Death Valley, the air feels like a giant hair dryer and the pavement can melt the soles of your shoes.

Yet on Monday night, 100 of the world’s top endurance runners set off on what has become known as “the world’s toughest foot race”, carving 135 miles of terrain through one of the planet’s most extreme climates at the most intense time of year.

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China floods: death toll climbs as questions raised over preparedness

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Public scrutiny has focused on contradictory statements from local media and differences between posts by authorities and public

The official death toll from central China’s devastating floods has risen to 33, as the public began to ask questions about the readiness of authorities for the disaster.

Cleanup efforts were under way in Henan province and the capital city Zhengzhou on Thursday, after a record breaking rain storm flooded the city’s streets and subway, damaged dams and reservoirs, collapsed roads, cut power to at least one hospital and was linked to a massive explosion at a factory in Dengfeng city.

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More than 80 wildfires rage across western US – video report

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The Bootleg fire in Oregon, now roughly the size of Los Angeles, is so intense that it has created its own weather system, causing winds that have further fanned its flames. It has been burning for two weeks and barely a third of its perimeter has been contained. The Dixie fire in California exploded in size to roughly 94 sq miles (243 sq km) on Tuesday, and is only 15% contained. It broke out on 13 July

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Aerial shots of New York show hazy skies from western US wildfires – video

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New York officials have told vulnerable people to stay indoors because of sooty air pollution from wildfires in western US states that have drifted across the country. Residents of New York City, 2,000 miles away from the blazes, witnessed a fiery sunrise on Tuesday. The Bootleg fire in Oregon has become so large and hot it is creating its own weather system, causing winds that have further fanned its flames

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Thunderstorms and lightning threaten to spur more fires in US west

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More than 80 major wildfires currently burning in western states as Bootleg fire reaches 537 sq miles

Oregon’s explosive summer of wildfire is threatening to escalate further, with thunderstorms and lightning set to spur more of the blazes that have torn through much of a parched, dangerously hot US west this year.

Related: Heat exhaustion, apocalyptic scenes: what it’s like fighting the US’s biggest wildfire

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Huge Oregon blaze grows as wildfires burn across western US

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Bootleg Fire, largest wildfire in US and one of at least 70 wildfires, torches more dry forest landscape in Oregon

The largest wildfire in the US torched more dry forest landscape in Oregon on Sunday, one of dozens of major blazes burning across the west as critically dangerous fire weather loomed in the coming days.

The destructive Bootleg Fire just north of the California border grew to more than 476 sq miles (1,210 sq km), an area about the size of Los Angeles.

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At least 70 large wildfires burning in US west as fears mount over conditions

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Bootleg is now the largest US forest fire at 281,208 acres and just 22% contained as ‘excessive heat’ forecast

At least 70 large wildfires are burning across the US west and nearby states – engulfing more than 1m acres in flames – as fears mount that shifting conditions can worsen an already dire situation. Significant areas of these states are in the grips of drought conditions that are considered “extreme” and “exceptional” – the most severe categories.

Related: Heat exhaustion, apocalyptic scenes: what it’s like fighting the US’s biggest wildfire

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Oregon wildfire causes miles-high ‘fire clouds’ as flames grow

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Pyrocumulus clouds viewable from 100 miles away as Bootleg fire grows beyond size of New York City

Smoke and heat from a huge wildfire in south-eastern Oregon are creating giant “fire clouds” over the blaze – dangerous columns of smoke and ash that can reach up to six miles (10km) in the sky and are visible from more than 100 miles (160km) away.

Authorities have put these clouds at the top of the list of the extreme fire behavior they are seeing amid the Bootleg fire, the largest wildfire burning in the US. The inferno grew on Friday to about 377 sq miles (976 sq km), an area larger than New York City, and was raging through a part of the American west that is enduring a historic drought.

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Western US and Canada brace for another heatwave amid more than 70 wildfires

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  • Fires have burned about 1,562 sq miles
  • Next heatwave expected to start on Saturday

The fourth searing heatwave in five weeks is set to strike the west of the United States and Canada this weekend, aggravating wildfires that are already ravaging an area larger than Rhode Island as drought and record-breaking temperatures tied to the climate crisis pummel the region.

The impending heatwave comes as 12 states are already battling 71 active wildfires. The combined area of the blazes is about 1,553 sq miles (4,021 sq km), according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

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‘Catastrophic’ flooding hits western Germany leaving dozens dead – video report

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Heavy rain and floods have caused the collapse of six houses in Germany’s western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, leaving at least 38 people dead and many missing or stranded on rooftops. Two firemen drowned and the army was deployed to help stranded residents on Wednesday, after a slow-moving low-pressure weather system caused once-in-a-generation floods

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Deadly heat: how rising temperatures threaten workers from Nicaragua to Nepal

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As scorching temperatures spread, the search for ways to protect against heat stress is becoming ever more urgent

William Martínez, who as a child worked on a sugarcane plantation in rural Nicaragua, learned the hard way what many in the US and Canada are now realising: that rising temperatures are costing lives and livelihoods.

Martínez, along with fellow villagers in La Isla, found himself getting sicker as he worked long, gruelling days in the fields under the beating Nicaraguan sun two decades ago. Workers at the nearby mill, which supplies molasses to alcohol companies, began to suffer kidney failure, and would be forced out of the workforce and into expensive and time-consuming dialysis. His father and uncles, addled with the same affliction, had died when Martínez was a boy, forcing him to join the workforce.

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London and southern England hit by torrential rains and floods

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Met Office says thundery downpours also caused floods in parts of London, where fire brigade received over 150 calls

Southern England was hit by torrential downpours that resulted in significant flooding on Monday night.

The Met Office said the heavy and slow-moving thundery showers caused floods in parts of London. The London fire brigade said its 999 control officers received over 150 calls to flooding incidents in the capital.

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Firefighters struggle to contain exploding northern California wildfire

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Blaze rushes north-east from the Sierra Nevada forest region after doubling in size as heatwave blankets US west

Firefighters struggled to contain an exploding northern California wildfire under blazing temperatures as another heatwave blanketed the west, prompting an excessive heat warning for inland and desert areas.

Death Valley in south-eastern California’s Mojave Desert reached 128 F (53C) on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service’s reading at Furnace creek. The shockingly high temperature was actually lower than the previous day, when the location reached 130F (54C).

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US west heatwave: 31m people brace for record-breaking temperatures

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Las Vegas could surpass its record-high of 117F as residents of US west face very high risk of heat-related illness

More than 31 million people across the US west and south-west are bracing for a brutal heatwave that could bring triple-digit temperatures this weekend, with authorities warning that records could be broken in many regions of California and Nevada. Officials have said that Las Vegas could even surpass its record-high temperature of 117F.

The “heat risk” is classified as “very high” across much of this area, meaning all residents there face “very high risk of heat-related illness due to both the long duration heat, and the lack of overnight relief”, the National Weather Service (NWS) has said.

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New York City hit by extreme weather, flooding subways and streets – video

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The US east coast was hit by extreme weather on Thursday as heavy thunderstorms brought flooding and travel disruption to New York City. The city witnessed dramatic scenes as subway stations were inundated by water due to heavy rainstorms ahead of the arrival of Tropical Storm Elsa

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Hail, tornadoes and flooded New York subways as stormy weather hits east coast

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Rainstorms drenched New York while Tropical Storm Elsa sparked tornadoes in North Carolina and Virginia

The US east coast was battered by extreme weather on Thursday as heavy thunderstorms brought flooding and travel disruption to the New York City area, while Tropical Storm Elsa dumped heavy rainfall and even sparked tornadoes in North Carolina and Georgia.

Some subway system ya got there. This is the 157th St. 1 line right now. @NYCMayor @BilldeBlasio pic.twitter.com/xyfTAUPPNu

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Record-breaking US Pacific north-west heatwave killed almost 200 people

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Officials reported 116 deaths in Oregon and 78 in Washington after extreme temperatures in normally moderate region

The death toll from the record-breaking heatwave that struck the US Pacific north-west last week has risen to nearly 200, with health authorities reporting 116 deaths in Oregon and 78 in Washington state.

The data in Washington state are particularly striking given historical context. There were seven heat-related deaths in Washington between mid-June and the end of August in 2020. Between 2015 and 2020, the state saw just 39 deaths in the late spring and summer months.

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At least one killed as Tropical Storm Elsa hits Florida and sweeps into Georgia

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  • Several injured as possible tornado hits Georgia navy base
  • ‘This could have been worse,’ says Florida governor

A weakened Tropical Storm Elsa made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, killing at least one person in the state and injuring several others when a possible tornado struck a campground at a navy base in south-east Georgia.

The National Hurricane Center said Elsa still packed 45mph (72kph) winds more than nine hours after making landfall along Florida’s northern Gulf Coast. The storm’s center was sweeping over south-east Georgia by Wednesday evening.

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‘No chance of life’: search for survivors ends as Miami condo deaths hit 46

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  • About 100 people remain unaccounted for in Surfside
  • ‘Our primary goal is to bring closure to the families’

Emergency workers have given up hope of finding survivors in a collapsed Florida condo building, telling distraught families that there was “no chance of life” in the rubble as crews shifted their efforts from rescue to recovery mode on Wednesday.

The announcement followed increasingly somber reports from officials, who have told relatives to brace for the worst.

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