Category Archives: Extreme weather

Twenty dead in Bahamas after Dorian leaves ‘generational devastation’

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Officials expect the number of dead will continue to rise as large parts of some islands remain inaccessible to rescue crews

The official death toll of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas has risen to 20 people with officials certain the number will continue to rise, the prime minister, Hubert Minnis, announced as he declared a “historic tragedy” on the archipelago.

At a press conference late on Wednesday the prime minister also warned of reports of looting on the Abaco Islands, a northern band of islands in the Bahamas hardest hit by Dorian, which pummelled the area as a slow moving category 5 hurricane over the weekend.

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Hurricane Dorian bears down on Georgia and Carolinas – live updates

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The monster storm is expected to bring intense rainfall and flooding after causing devastation in the Bahamas

A handy guide from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on dealing with the storm:

If you're sheltering from #Dorian & the power goes out:

Unplug appliances & electronics to avoid damage from electrical surges

❄ Keep the refrigerator & freezer closed so food lasts longer

⚠ Only use generators outside, away from windows

Tips: https://t.co/xGiYRfN5oB pic.twitter.com/fFbx1CeF3o

Approximately 396,000 residents are under mandatory evacuation orders, according to North Carolina’s joint information center spokeswoman Laura Leonard.

On Monday Henry McMaster, the governor of South Carolina, ordered 830,000 to leave areas likely to be effected by the storm. Charleston was among the mandatory evacuation zones, along with parts of counties to the north.

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Hurricane Dorian: aerial footage reveals extent of devastation in Bahamas – as it happened

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Video shows the scale of catastrophe as the storm continues to move away from the Bahamas and towards Florida

Kari Paul logging off for the evening. Please stay tuned tomorrow for more updates as Dorian reaches the US coast and the picture of effects on the Bahamas become clearer.

Here are the latest updates from this afternoon:

The death toll for Hurricane Dorian climbed to seven, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said on Tuesday night, according to CNN. The death toll, which was at five earlier in the day, has been expected to climb as survivors of the natural disaster face ongoing food and medicine shortages.

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Hurricane Dorian: officials worldwide seek aid amid ‘historic tragedy’ in Bahamas

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Thousands left without shelter and likely to face food and water shortages, say UN, US and local authorities

US officials and counterparts around the world sent out an urgent call for help for the Bahamas after the northernmost islands in the archipelago were pulverized by Hurricane Dorian.

Thousands of residents of Grand Bahama and Abaco islands are without shelter, stranded by flooding and are likely to suffer shortages of food, water and medicine that will worsen without quick action by the international community, according to coordinated messages from the United Nations, the US state department, the US embassy in Nassau and local officials.

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Hurricane Dorian: five dead as ‘extreme destruction’ inflicted on Bahamas

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Dorian stalls over Grand Bahama, bringing high winds, torrential rain and storm surges

Hurricane Dorian has stalled over the Bahamas, lashing the islands with wind, rain and storm surges, and killing at least five people.

Thousands of homes were inundated by floodwater as rescue operations tried to reach stranded residents, many trapped on roofs.

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The hellish future of Las Vegas in the climate crisis: ‘a place where we never go outside’

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Las Vegas is the fastest warming city in the United States. The city’s poorest residents are most at risk in the heat

The Clark county death investigator Jill Roberts vividly recalls the sunny 115F (46C) afternoon last summer when she entered a Las Vegas home with no functional air conditioning. The indoor heat felt even worse than the broiling temperature outside. She climbed up the stairs, through thick, stifling air, landing in a third-story bedroom where the resident had died in sweltering conditions. The room had no fan and the door was shut. It felt as if it couldn’t get any hotter.

“Our elements are unforgiving. Especially on those 115F days, it doesn’t take a lot,” Roberts told the Guardian. “In that situation I’ll go stand in the sun in the 115F heat to do my paperwork as opposed to staying in the house because it’s that hot.”

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Hurricane Dorian leaves trail of destruction across the Bahamas – video

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Hurricane Dorian has pummelled the Bahamas with winds of over 180mph, unleashing massive flooding. Hubert Minnis, the prime minister of the Bahamas, said his country is 'in the midst of a historic tragedy' as at least five people were reported dead. The American Red Cross, which is already at standby in the Bahamas, is also preparing to shelter up to 60,000 Americans as the storm edges closer to the US.

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What to expect next from Hurricane Dorian

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The storm has been downgraded to category 2, but is expected to remain ‘powerful’ with winds of up to 105mph

Hurricane Dorian was slowly moving up the United States’ south-eastern coast on Wednesday, after pummeling the Bahamas with deadly force.

Related: 'Pray for us': Bahamas residents tell of terror as Hurricane Dorian hit

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‘Pray for us’: Bahamas residents tell of terror as Hurricane Dorian hit

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Bahamians say storm has left devastation, with buildings destroyed and bodies floating

• Hurricane Dorian hits Bahamas – live updates

Residents of the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama have described “nightmarish” scenes as the full force of Hurricane Dorian struck the northernmost part of the Bahamas.

As the first person to have died in the storm was reported to be seven-year-old Lachino Mcintosh, who drowned after his family tried to move from their home, witnesses described large-scale flooding and damage as 185mph (300km/h) winds ripped roofs from buildings.

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Hurricane Dorian: as many as 13,000 houses severely damaged or destroyed in Bahamas – live updates

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Reports an eight-year-old boy has been killed after Dorian made landfall at Great Abaco Island on Sunday

Despite its downgrade, Dorian is still a powerful hurricane and will remain so in the coming days. There’s not much difference between an intense category 4 and a low-end category 5.

Friendly reminder: There is little difference in impact between a #hurricane at the top end of Cat 4 and "low end" of Cat 5. Grand Bahama Island would certainly vouch for that right now. #Dorian pic.twitter.com/g93aDrp02T

Disastrous flooding from the Bahamas - lady who posted this video said: “#HurricaneDorian this was taken in a home by the canal my aunty live by the canal yall I scared” pic.twitter.com/EEZHE3GeCx

Queens Cove Grand Bahamas #Dorian pic.twitter.com/yDhBwoiy3k

NEW: The Hurricane Warning along the east coast of Florida has been extended northward to the Flagler/Volusia County Line. The Hurricane Watch has been extended northward to Altamaha Sound, Georgia. Full advisory on #Dorian is at: https://t.co/tW4KeFW0gB pic.twitter.com/at3bCDs6OQ

The National Hurricane Center expects the hurricane to gradually weaken and has reclassified from a category 5 to a category 4. Maximum winds are at 155 miles per hour, with higher gusts.

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Hurricane Dorian spares Puerto Rico and heads for eastern coast of Florida

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Power outages and flooding were reported in the Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican islands, but no damages

Hurricane Dorian caused limited damage in the northern Caribbean as it left the region and gathered strength late Wednesday, setting its sights on the US mainland as it threatened to grow into a Category 3 storm.

Puerto Rico, which had braced for the worst, seemed to be spared any heavy wind and rain, a huge relief to many on an island where blue tarps still cover some 30,000 homes nearly two years after Hurricane Maria. The island’s 3.2 million inhabitants also depend on an unstable power grid that remains prone to outages since it was destroyed by Maria.

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Spain braces for more rain after hail piles up during violent storms

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Cold front heads towards east of country and Balearics as Madrid reels from flash-floods

Parts of eastern Spain and the Balearic islands are bracing for heavy rains after Madrid and the surrounding area were battered by violent storms, torrential hail, and flash flooding.

Roads around the Spanish capital were flooded, flights diverted from Barajas airport and underground services affected on Monday night as an isolated depression at high levels moved across the centre of the Iberian peninsula.

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Weatherwatch: 2018 heatwave left people praying for rain

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While temperatures in the UK were just about tolerable last summer, Europe faced serious extremes

Last year brought the summer of the heatwave. As Britain baked in sunshine, the England men’s football team even managed to reach a World Cup semi-final.

But while temperatures in Britain remained just the right side of uncomfortably hot, much of Europe experienced serious extremes, in the continent’s warmest August on record. And far from being confined to the area around the Mediterranean, even Scandinavia had worryingly hot weather.

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Lightning strikes kill five and injure 100 in Poland and Slovakia

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Dead include two children after thunderstorm in trekking location in the Tatra mountains

At least five people, including two children, have died and more than 100 have been injured during a sudden thunderstorm in Poland and Slovakia’s Tatra mountains, according to rescuers.

Most of the victims were in Poland, where lightning struck a metal cross atop Mount Giewont as well as a metal chain near the summit, according to local media. The four dead in Poland included two children, a spokeswoman for the Polish air ambulance service, Kinga Czerwinska, told the news broadcaster TVN24. One person died in Slovakia.

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Typhoon Lekima: 30 killed in eastern China after landslide

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Thousands of flights cancelled as natural dam collapses north of Wenzhou

A powerful typhoon left at least 30 people dead in China, after a landslide backed up a river that broke through debris and inundated homes, state media reported on Sunday.

Another 20 people remained missing, the official Xinhua News Agency said, and more than a million people were evacuated, state broadcaster CCTV has reported.

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I followed the advice for Paris’s hottest day – it didn’t help | Megan Clement

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From walking the dog at midnight to a dip in the canal, I tested the heatwave plan as the city reached 42.6C. Here’s how it went

Last week, as Paris faced down its hottest day since records began, the city authorities declared their readiness. Since the notorious heatwave of 2003 that killed thousands across France, the capital has put in place a heat strategy: cooling areas, a checking system for vulnerable people, shady parks kept open all night.

Could these strategies actually work against a predicted record temperature of 42C (107.6F)? A study released this week shows that the world has never warmed faster than now. By 2050, the average temperature in the hottest month in Paris will rise by six degrees. This heatwave might be the new normal.

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Indian navy rescues more than 800 people from train stranded in floodwaters

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Mahalaxmi Express stuck for about 12 hours near Mumbai when river burst its banks after torrential rain

Indian navy helicopters and emergency service boats came to the rescue of more than 800 people stranded on a train in floods near Mumbai on Saturday. Some reports have the number of people affected at over 1,000.

The Mahalaxmi Express left Mumbai late on Friday for Kolhapur but travelled only 60 kilometres (37 miles) before it became stranded after a river burst its banks in torrential rain, covering the tracks.

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All-time temperature records tumble again as heatwave sears Europe

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Highs in Germany, Netherlands and Belgium exceeded for second time in 24 hours

Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium have recorded all-time national temperature highs for the second day running and Paris has had its hottest day ever as the second dangerous heatwave of the summer sears western Europe.

The extreme temperatures follow a similar heatwave last month that made it the hottest June on record. Scientists say the climate crisis is making summer heatwaves five times more likely and significantly more intense.

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Netherlands and Belgium record highest ever temperatures

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All-time records in Germany and Luxembourg could also fall in continent-wide heatwave

The Netherlands and Belgium have recorded their highest ever temperatures as the second extreme heatwave in consecutive months to be linked by scientists to the climate emergency advances across the continent.

The Dutch meteorological service, KNMI, said the temperature reached 39.1C (102F) at Gilze-Rijen airbase near the southern city of Tilburg on Wednesday afternoon, exceeding the previous high of 38.6C set in August 1944.

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