Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms

Pacific Ocean:

Tropical cyclone Colin is located approximately 819 nm south-southeast of Diego Garcia.

Southern Indian Ocean:

Tropical cyclone Ian is located approximately 739 nm south of Pago Pago.

TC Ian is the most powerful cyclone ever to hit Tonga and has destroyed villages, flattened trees and left at least one person dead. Up to 70 per cent of houses and buildings in the central Ha'apai islands group - which is home to about 8000 people and bore the brunt of Cyclone Ian - were damaged or destroyed. The Tongan government on Sunday declared a state of emergency in the Ha'apai region after it was pounded by winds in excess of 200 kilometres an hour, which whipped up mountainous seas around coastal villages.

US extreme weather caused by shifting Arctic Cyclone?

As residents of the United States and Canada were surprised by the frigid cold dipping below minus 30 degrees Celsius, Russians and other Europeans were also surprised by the January weather, with temperatures in Moscow rising some 11 degrees above average. In Germany tourists sat outside in the warm sun enjoying Italian Ice Cream. Now weather experts say the two anomalies are in fact connected.

As Americans kept struggling with extreme cold and snow brought on by a ‘polar vortex,’ people in central Russia were puzzled by warm rainy weather that melted all the snow away. Central Europe also experienced sudden warm-up, and trees in Moldovan capital Chisinau got confused to the point their buds started swelling, apparently in anticipation of the blooming season.

One of the reasons for the snowless January in Russia and the coldest winter in the last 17 years for the US is the shifting of the Arctic Cyclone towards North America, says a warning meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The arctic cyclone may come to Russia in a week or two, he said, predicting that the temperatures in the country could soon leap back to below zero and even below average. Russian meteorologists have said that the gradual return of winter is to be expected even sooner.

According to the Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia, frost and snow is coming back, starting from this weekend and reaching minus 17 degrees Celsius on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, people in practically every US state (except Alaska and Hawaii) have been suffering the fate of the US East Coast and Midwest, which were hit by heavy storms ahead of Thanksgiving, and then have suffered Winter Storm Hercules, with its severe snowfall and chilling wind, just after New Year’s. The natural disaster grounded thousands of flights, halted some trains and traffic midway, cut power lines, leaving whole parts of cities in the dark, and was responsible for countless road accidents, some of them fatal. New York's Governor on Tuesday even declared a state of emergency due to a “polar vortex” raging in the state, describing the weather conditions as “life threatening.”

Weather experts, however, have stopped short of saying the anomalies are direct signs of global warming. "What is happening now in the US and Russia is due to “natural climactic variations,” said a spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization. The so-called Rossby planetary waves, which, among other factors, are responsible for the emergence of jet streams – the strong high-altitude winds blowing from west to east – are behind the extreme weather fluctuations.

NewsBytes:

A modest severe weather outbreak over the Southeast U.S. on Saturday, January 11, brought the first tornadoes of 2014: three to Virginia, and one to Georgia.

Lightning strikes in Mozambique have claimed lives of four people and injured eight others during storms.