Crazy Storm Weather and Lightning - Global


The authorities are claiming low levels of oil in the engines but they were able to get "one of four engines" started. My thoughts are more in line that the ship came across very strong and violent undercurrents and the engines couldn't handle the extreme pressure? In the photo, the sea looks very unsettled, choppy and more like High Tide?

The engines of a luxury cruise ship that narrowly escaped disaster during a storm off Norway on Saturday failed because of relatively low levels of lubricating oil in the engines, the Norwegian Maritime Authority said on Wednesday.

Luxury cruise ship lost engines due low level of lubricating oil: Norway March 27, 2019
FILE PHOTO: A cruise ship Viking Sky drifts towards land after an engine failure, Hustadvika, Norway March 23, 2019.   Frank Einar Vatne/NTB Scanpix/via REUTERS /File Photo

FILE PHOTO: A cruise ship Viking Sky drifts towards land after an engine failure, Hustadvika, Norway March 23, 2019. Frank Einar Vatne/NTB Scanpix/via REUTERS /File Photo

The Viking Sky, with almost 1,400 passengers and crew aboard, sent out a mayday signal on Saturday as it drifted in rough waters in the Norwegian Sea to within 100 meters of land. All four engines had failed, but crew managed to restart one of the engines just in time.

“Our conclusion is that the engine failure was directly caused by low oil pressure,”
the Norwegian Maritime Authority said in a statement.

“The level of lubricating oil in the tanks was within set limits, however relatively low, when the vessel started to cross Hustadvika,” it added, referring to the stretch of water where the incident happened.

The heavy seas probably caused movements in the tanks so large that the supply to the lubricating oil pumps stopped, the regulator said.

This triggered an alarm indicating a low level of lubricating oil, which in turn caused an automatic shutdown of the engines.

Rescue services airlifted 479 people, hoisting them one-by-one onto helicopters, before the weather subsided on Sunday and a tow could begin.

Built in 2017, the ship belongs to Viking Ocean Cruises, part of the Viking Cruises group. It acknowledged the probe’s findings in full, it said on Wednesday.

“We have inspected the levels on all our sister ships and are now revising our procedures to ensure that this issue could not be repeated,” Viking Ocean Cruises was quoted as saying in the statement by the Norwegian Maritime Authority.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Viking Sky left the port of Molde, where it had been anchored since Sunday, for repairs at a shipyard in Kristiansund, some 70 km (43.5 miles) away.
 
Over two dozen people were killed in a severe thunderstorm that swept through parts of southern Nepal late on Sunday and hundreds more were injured, police and officials said.

March 31, 2019 - Severe thunderstorm in Nepal leaves 25 dead, hundreds injured


Nepal’s Prime Minster K.P. Sharma Oli in a tweet said 25 people had been killed, and around 400 were injured.

“Helicopters have been kept ready for immediate rescue and relief,” Oli said in his post. He offered condolences to the families of the victims.

Rajesh Paudel, the top bureaucrat of Bara district, where the storm hit, said the death toll may increase as rescuers were still trying to reach many of those affected.

Bara is located about 62 km (39 miles) south of Kathmandu, and borders India’s eastern state of Bihar. Pre-monsoon thunderstorms are common in Nepal during the spring season, but are rarely of an intensity that causes high casualties.

Police officer Sanu Ram Bhattarai said rescue teams had been dispatched to the affected villages, but reaching the victims was difficult at night.

Television channels said the storm and accompanying heavy rainfall, uprooted trees and electric and telephone poles, crushing some people to death.
 
What should've been a fun afternoon for a group of children in central China on Sunday quickly turned into chaos and tragedy after a large dust devil swept an inflatable bounce house high into the air while children were playing inside.

April 1st, 2019 - Freak accident in China kills 2 children, injures 20 after dust devil tosses bounce house high into the air (Video)

Freak accident in China kills 2 children, injures 20 after dust devil tosses bounce house high into the air

Airborne bounce house


A powerful dust devil blew away an inflatable bouncy in central China’s Shangqiu City, killing at least two children. The dramatic video shows an inflatable bouncy castle being blown into the air by the dust devil and nearby people fleeing away quickly as the vortex lifts up various small objects. (Reuters)

Two children were killed in the freak accident, which was captured on video as it happened in Tianmiao Town, Henan Province, around 3 p.m. local time on March 31, according to The South China Morning Post.

The terrifying scene occurred at a tourist attraction that was packed with visitors. In a video posted online, people could be seen falling as powerful wind gusts and dust tossed the castle into the sky and sent dust and debris flying. According to the South China Morning Post, a bystander can be heard shouting in horror, “There’s a child falling," as the inflatable structure went airborne.

“The nature of this accident is also not yet known, as it is still unclear whether … it was an incident partly caused by human factors,” said Shi Jinghan, an official with the county government who told media that two children died at the scene of the accident, the Post reported.

Two adults and 18 other children were reportedly hurt when the large bounce house became airborne, with one child in serious condition. Local authorities said the others that were injured were receiving treatment for minor injuries.

The dust devil was about 32.8 feet (10 meters) in diameter, according to the Henan Provincial Meteorological Observatory, and lasted about four minutes, Chinese news channel CGTN reported.
 
RIO DE JANEIRO - Torrential rains doused Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, killing at least six people and sowing chaos in Brazil’s second largest city, which declared a state of emergency after a storm that the mayor described as “absolutely abnormal.”

April 9, 2019 - Powerful, 'abnormal' rains lash Rio de Janeiro, at least six dead
People react at the site of a mudslide after heavy rains, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

People react at the site of a mudslide after heavy rains, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

A woman and her 7-year-old granddaughter were buried in a mudslide as they rode in a taxi, and the driver’s body was also found inside the vehicle, police detective Valeria Aragao told O Globo newspaper. Two adult sisters died when their home in a slum was buried in a mudslide, while a man drowned in another part of the city, the mayor’s office said in a statement.

The rains began around Monday evening and had not let up by midday Tuesday, with a heavy downpour forecast through the end of the day. More than 34 cm (13 inches) of rain fell on parts of the city in the last 24 hours, according to the mayor’s office.

Videos on local news showed normally calm residential streets turned into raging torrents that dragged people and cars. A coastal bike path meant to be a legacy of the 2016 Olympics that had been weakened by previous storms suffered more damage, with chunks of the path falling into the sea.

“These rains are absolutely abnormal for this time of year; none of us expected so much rain at this time,” Mayor Marcelo Crivella told an early morning news conference.

The mayor’s office declared a state of emergency on Monday night. Major roads were closed, and the mayor’s office said 785 places were without power.

Emergency services acted to rescue people trapped in cars and on the streets. TV images on Tuesday showed divers examining a car submerged in a flooded underpass.

Rio’s streets were quieter than usual on Tuesday, as nearly all schools shut and people worked from home to avoid the risk of being trapped at work.

It was the second major storm in two months to batter Rio. A violent tempest that hit the city in February killed at least seven people.
 
Cyclone Kenneth battered northern Mozambique on Thursday with gusts of up to 280 km per hour (174 miles per hour) after killing three people on the island nation of Comoros overnight.

April 25, 2019 - Cyclone Kenneth hits Mozambique after lashing Comoros
Tropical Cyclone Kenneth approaches the coast of Mozambique in this April 25, 2019 handout satellite image.   NASA/Handout via REUTERS

Tropical Cyclone Kenneth approaches the coast of Mozambique in this April 25, 2019 handout satellite image. NASA/Handout

Impoverished Mozambique is still recovering from another powerful tropical cyclone which made landfall further south last month, flattening the port city of Beira and killing more than 1,000 people across a swathe of southeastern Africa.

A regional cyclone-monitoring center on the French island of La Reunion said Kenneth made landfall at around 1430 GMT north of the port city of Pemba and was expected to weaken as it moved inland.

The storm caused storm surges of up to five meters (16.4 feet) in some areas and rains associated with it could cause serious flooding, the center said.

“Kenneth remains an extremely dangerous system which is currently severely impacting regions to the north of Pemba,” the center’s latest cyclone report said.

In neighboring Zimbabwe, where hundreds died in heavy rains following Cyclone Idai, the civil protection department sent out a warning that some areas near the eastern border with Mozambique could be affected by the cyclone.

The winds caused widespread power outages in the northern part of the main island, Grande Comore, and the capital Moroni as well as on the island of Anjouan, residents said. Government offices and schools were closed.
 
Rain grounds Mozambique aid flights as cyclone death toll hits 38 April 29, 2019
A man ferries residents through a flooded road in the aftermath of Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba, Mozambique, April 29, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
Rains grounded aid flights in northern Mozambique for a second day on Monday, hampering efforts to reach survivors of Cyclone Kenneth as the death toll there jumped to 38.


India suspends operations in major east Indian port after cyclone warning May 1, 2019
India has suspended operations at a major port on its east coast until an impending cyclone makes landfall on Friday, a port official in the mineral rich eastern state of Odisha said.
 
Wettest 12-month period in recorded history, U.S.
With 919.48 mm (36.20 inches) recorded from April 2018 to May 2019, the United States has set its new year-long rainfall record. The previous record was 908.81 mm (35.78 inches) recorded from April 2015 to March 2016.
statewidepcpnrank-201805-201904.png


"Averages across the contiguous U.S., the total of 919.48 mm (36.20 inches) made the period from May 2018 to April 2019 the first year-long span ever to top 914.4 mm (36 inches)," Weather Underground meteorologist Bob Henson said.

Across the contiguous U.S., average yearly precipitation has risen by about 50.8 mm (2 inches) over the past century, from around 736.6 mm (29 inches) to just over 787.4 mm (31 inches), Henson said.

"For the entire nation, including Alaska and Hawaii, precipitation increased by about 4% in the period from 1901 to 2015," Henson added.

"Averages across the contiguous U.S., the total of 919.48 mm (36.20 inches) made the period from May 2018 to April 2019 the first year-long span ever to top 914.4 mm (36 inches)," Weather Underground meteorologist Bob Henson said.

Across the contiguous U.S., average yearly precipitation has risen by about 50.8 mm (2 inches) over the past century, from around 736.6 mm (29 inches) to just over 787.4 mm (31 inches), Henson said.

"For the entire nation, including Alaska and Hawaii, precipitation increased by about 4% in the period from 1901 to 2015," Henson added.

All that rain left only 2% of the country in drought, which is the 2ndsmallest drought footprint on record at the end of April.

"The ten wettest 12-month spans in the contiguous U.S. are clustered around several periods when major events pushed the numbers up in a big way. Over the past year, we’ve had Hurricane Florence in the Southeast, as well as a remarkably soggy autumn in the Midwest and the nation’s wettest winter on record. In 2015-16, we saw the wettest months on record in both Texas and Oklahoma (May 2015) and the Southeast flooding related to offshore Hurricane Joaquin (October 2015)."

jan-dec-us-prcp.jpeg


Annual precipitation across the contiguous U.S. has increased by about 7% over the past century. Blue bar shows the linear increase since 1895, while the red curve is a smoothed version of the year-to-year numbers in green. When averaged over running four-year periods (not shown), the past four years are the wettest on record for the contiguous U.S. Image credit: NOAA/NCEI.
 
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Arkansas River approaching historic highs, at least 7 killed as severe storms march through central U.S.
Another wave of severe thunderstorms is affecting the central United States since Monday, May 20, 2019, with heavy rain and nearly 100 tornadoes. At least 7 weather-related deaths were confirmed since May 21. Meanwhile, Arkansas River is approaching historic highs.

 
Is already here at SOTT Storms, floods kill at least 24 people in 2 weeks across Iran - 20 by lightning strikes but found more info

Flash floods submerged 90 percent of Iran, displaced 500 000 people
At the peak of the recent flood disaster in Iran, half a million people have been displaced and 90% of land submerged, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) reports. One of the worst affected provinces was Golestan, which received approximately 70% of its annual rainfall in 24 hours, something that had not been seen in over 300 years.


Heavy rain and floods started affecting Iran on March 19, 2019, causing massive damage to the country's agricultural sector, damaging 36% of the entire road network, destroying 84 bridges, nearly 2 200 rural roads and leaving at least 78 people dead. According to information provided by official sources, flooding has caused at least 47 trillion rials (about $350 million USD) in damage to the country's agricultural sector, as of April 4.

Starting in the northern province of Golestan and moving to the South and the West of the country, heavy rains have poured over 28 of the 31 provinces of Iran. Almost the whole country was under water, IDMC said.

Spring 2019 flash floods are the worst disaster impacting the country in over fifteen years, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.

One of the worst affected provinces was Golestan, which received approximately 70% of its annual rainfall in 24 hours, something that had not been seen in over 300 years.

...
 
Sweltering heat, storms and possible twisters were expected to hit the US southern Plains and southeastern states on Memorial Day (May 27) after a spate of deadly tornadoes and flooding in the region.

May 27, 2019 - Storms and sweltering heat seen hitting southern US on Memorial Day
Storms and sweltering heat seen hitting southern US on Memorial Day
A tornado spins during stormy weather in Mangum, Oklahoma, on May 20, 2019.

A tornado spins during stormy weather in Mangum, Oklahoma, on May 20, 2019.PHOTO: REUTERS

Temperatures around 38 deg C were forecast in cities from Jacksonville, Florida, up the southeast into Macon and Savannah Georgia, and on to Charleston, South Carolina, the National Weather Service said.

"This is super hot for this time of year," said John Deese, a NWS forecaster in Peachtree, Georgia, near Atlanta.

"This is a heat wave across the south, and it's going to be here for a while," said Deese, predicting high temperatures through the week staying in the mid to high 90s in the region.

The risk of strong tornadoes are moderate but remain possible through the week for the southeastern Plains states, already hit by lethal twisters last week, forecasters said.
 
Watch: Extraordinary hailstorm hits Puglia, in southern Italy
Watch: extraordinary hailstorm hits Puglia, in southern Italy
Published on June 3, 2019 (0:30 min.)

The roads were flooded or covered by several centimetres of hail in a wave of bad weather that hit the Southern Italian region of Puglia in the past 48 hours. The extraordinary rain and hail have flooded the countryside and destroyed crops, bringing local agriculture to its knees and creating several traffic disruptions.

The greatest damage was recorded in the towns of Monteroni, Galatina, Sternatia, Poggiardo, Surano, Ruffano, Parabita and Matino, in the province of Lecce, and in Torricella, Maruggio and Palagiano, in the Taranto area.

The hail momentarily turned the region, that usually enjoys sunshine and warm weather in early June, in a winter landscape. Streets were covered with ten centimetres of ice, to the point that bulldozers had to intervene to shovel it away.

Farmers are now sounding the alarm as the bad weather destroyed or severely damaged orchards, olive groves, vegetables, vineyards and wheat fields in a region that still strongly relies on agriculture.

"It looks like a damned season for farmers", said Raffaele Carrabba, regional president of Puglia farmers association Cia Agricoltori Italiani della Puglia. "Our hearts are crying and we are very worried: a whole cycle of crops and crops is going down the drain".


June 3, 2019 - Meteorologists predict Europe will experience summer heat waves
Meteorologists predict Europe will experience summer heat waves

Summer started in Europe this past weekend as high temperatures in Great Britain, France, Portugal, and Spain climbed to 30 degrees Celsius before they will drop again next week.

Heat waves could be a trend this summer in Europe, according to Accuweather's 2019 summer forecast.

High temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius are possible in France, Spain, and Portugal.

Météo France wrote that Europe and France would experience warmer temperatures this summer due to high pressure systems.

The State Meteorological Agency of Spain issued warnings for high temperatures in parts of Andalusia over the weekend.

Heat waves and dry weather in Europe could put several countries at risk for wildfires, with northern Portugal, Spain, and the Alps most at risk, according to an Accuweather prediction for this summer.

"High temperatures may reach 40 degrees Celsius in parts of southern and eastern France from July into early August," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Tyler Roys in a posting on their website.

They predict that Portugal and Spain could see multi-day heat waves with temperatures above 43 degrees Celsius.

Météo France predicted that dry conditions could affect the northern part of Europe in the summer months.
 
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