Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms - Roundup of Tropical Storms:

Tropical cyclone (tc) 06p (Six), located approximately 282 nm east-northeast of Pago Pago, is tracking south-southeastward at 13 knots.

NewsBytes:

Britain - Winter storm Frank battered the north and west of the U.K., causing chaos to transportation and leaving thousands of people without electricity or facing more flooding in what’s been the wettest December on record for parts of the country. Areas in southern Scotland and Cumbria in northern England were expecting to get another 100 millimetres (4 inches) of rainfall after Storm Frank made landfall, according to the Met Office. Winds exceeding 60 miles (100 kilometres) an hour hit towns and cities from Northern Ireland to Edinburgh overnight and were forecast to continue into Wednesday afternoon. As much as 70 millimetres of rain had fallen on parts of Scotland before 9 a.m. local time, the BBC reported. Homes were evacuated in Aberdeenshire in the northwest as the River Dee burst its banks, while Dumfries in the southwest was also at risk of inundation. Among the disruptions to travel on major roads, a stretch of the motorway linking Scotland with England was shut in both directions due to flooding, according to Traffic Scotland.

USA - The Mississippi River is coming, and so are the Arkansas, the Red, the Ohio and the Missouri. The water on the Mississippi River is already so high that Missouri has closed interstate highways. Governor Jay Nixon activated the National Guard to stave off disaster. And the floods only stand to get worse. Warmer-than-usual weather through December has precipitation falling as rain. Some areas have seen 5 to 10 inches (12 to 24 centimetres) above normal flowing into the rivers instead of being locked up as snow and ice on solid ground until spring. Flooding on the lower Mississippi may become severe enough to force the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway protecting New Orleans, according to the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Centre. Today, the Missouri River is at a major flood stage, and it’s pouring into an already swollen Mississippi, forecast to reach its second-highest crest at St. Louis around the start of the new year. All of that water will join the Ohio and together flow toward some of the most densely packed industrial river fronts in the country. The floodwaters are forecast to reach New Orleans in the third week of January.