Tag: flooding

Elsewhere in Weather News: July 19th, 2014

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Another Super Typhoon Spins Up in the Western Pacific

The Western Pacific Ocean has been very active in the past few weeks, churning up numerous typhoons including its most recent – super typhoon Rammasun. Rammasun made landfall at least twice; once in the Philippines and China, respectively, during its trek across the Western Pacific.

The first landfall occurred southeast of Manila, Philippines, where it brought with it winds of 185km/h. Many precautions were taken ahead of this storm in the Philippines as it was the first typhoon to hit the country since super typhoon Haiyan. Over 500,000 people decided to ride out the storm in evacuation centres and plenty of warning (3 days) was given to residents before the typhoon made landfall. Despite the warnings, many homes could not be saved – as many as 7,000 as reported by authorities. Unfortunately 38 people died due to the typhoon in the Philippines.

After making landfall in the Philippines, Rammasun quickly strengthened with help from the very warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs) that approached 30°C in the South China Sea. With these warm SSTs conditions were primed for the storm to reorganize. Rammasun quickly developed a well-defined eye and became a super typhoon (category 4) as it approached China for a second landfall. The typhoon made landfall on Friday morning with sustained winds of 250km/h gusting to 280km/h on one of China’s southern provinces; Hainan. All modes of damage were possible with a storm of this intensity; including flooding rains, landslides and severe storm surge. It is still unclear how the region is doing in the aftermath of the storm as of Friday night. A report of 178mm of rain in the coastal city of Haikou (pop. 900,000) in 6 hours on Friday combined with expected storm surges of 20 feet in the general area made for big flooding/landslide concerns. Rammasun is expected make a turn for China’s mainland and die off this weekend, but not before bringing widespread torrential rains to the region.

IR image of Rammasun just before it made its second landfall. (Source: NASA/NOAA)
IR image of Rammasun just before it made its second landfall. (Source: NASA/NOAA)

More tropical storms are expected to spin up this week with possibilities in both the Atlantic and Western Pacific as depicted by some models. The strength or paths of these are uncertain.

Elsewhere in Weather News: June 28th, 2014

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Active Week in Southern Ontario

It’s been a fairly uneventful week worldwide regarding severe weather events. However, southern Ontario has seen its fair share of significant weather events this past week including a few tornadoes and flooding in Toronto.

Last Tuesday two tornadoes touched down in Ontario causing some damage to homes and barns. The first tornado reported touched down in New Tecumseth, ONT – a town located about 100km from Mississauga. The EF-1 tornado did significant damage to a barn which was almost completely torn apart, and 15 buildings (one with structural damage) along a path of 10 kilometres. Only a horse perished in the tornado; no residents were injured or killed. The second tornado has not yet been confirmed by Environment Canada as of yet but there is speculation that it occurred near Hawkesbury on the same day. The New Tecumseth tornado comes in the wake of the Angus, EF-2, tornado which did significant damage to over 100 homes two weeks ago. Ontario’s tornado count is already at six for the year while the average for tornadoes in southern Ontario is between eight and ten.

The barn destroyed in the New Tecumseth area by the tornado on Tuesday. (Source: Rob Cooper/CTV)
The barn destroyed in the New Tecumseth area by the tornado on Tuesday. (Source: Rob Cooper/CTV)

Southern Ontario has also seen flooding problems this past Wednesday. A slack flow aloft combined with a disturbance moving in made for fairly slow moving cells that trailed each other in the Toronto area. This generated some fairly significant street flooding in the area, some power outages as well as part of the city’s subway system being put out of order for a few hours. Water rescues also had to be executed due to motorists stranded in their vehicles on one of the city’s large parkways. Some recorded rainfall accumulations were in excess of 30mm in the region Wednesday evening. Since then the water has subsided and the power is back for residents that were left in the dark.

Elsewhere in Weather News: May 24th, 2014

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Balkan Flooding Could be Billion Dollar Disaster

This past week the full effects of the Balkan floods have been coming to head as floodwaters retreat. The Balkans are located in Southeast Europe just to the east of Italy across the Adriatic sea. The flooding event which started on May 14th and lasted up until Saturday May 17th, caused the most severe flooding to Serbia and Bosnia. The flooding was caused by a deep low pressure system which moved from the Adriatic Sea and stalled for a few days over the Balkan Peninsula. The low was not only able to tap into a great amount of moisture but also use the mountainous terrain to its advantage. By forcing air up the mountain, the air then cools, condenses and subsequently falls as precipitation; this is also called orographic lift.

Low spinning just northwest of the Balkan Peninsula bringing heavy rain to the region. (Source: NASA)
Low spinning just northwest of the Balkan Peninsula bringing heavy rain to the region. (Source: NASA)

Several towns from both countries were severely hit from this event including Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, where a whopping 205mm of rain fell and broke the previous record (175mm) from 1897. Across both countries, over 2,100 landslides were reported and the Bosna River also overflowed its banks inundating numerous large cities (Doboj, Maglaj). Unfortunately 55 people died in the event as well as large amounts of livestock. In total over one million people in the region have been affected. The magnitude of the damage to the infrastructure is significant – 3,000km of roads have been damaged or washed out as well as about a third of all railroad lines. This is likely to be counted as a billion dollar disaster.

Search and rescue efforts have eased in the region this past week and the next phase will be the cleanup. Weather looks to be variable in the coming days as popup showers and thundershowers are possible in the afternoon hours.

Elsewhere in Weather News: April 19th, 2014

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Extratropical Storm Ita Brings Soaking Rains to New Zealand

The same cyclone as discussed in last week’s Elsewhere in Weather News article has continued its trek southeast and has brought torrential rains as well as strong winds to New Zealand. After making landfall on Australia’s northeast coast, Ita curved back out to sea while transitioning to an extratropical storm. Extratropical storms are characterized by well-defined frontal features as well as cold core as opposed to cyclones which are tropical in nature and have warm cores.

Surface map analysis on Friday evening (local time) of extratropical cyclone Ita just offshore of New Zealand. (Source: Met Service NZ)
Surface map analysis on Friday evening (local time) of extratropical cyclone Ita just offshore of New Zealand. (Source: Met Service NZ)

The remnants of Ita brought torrential rains and fairly strong winds to New Zealand’s islands. These adverse conditions knocked out power to around 22,000 people in addition to washing away roads, wreaking havoc on Easter weekend travelers. Some water rescues also had to be executed due to people being trapped in their cars. It appears as though a general 100mm fell across the northern part of the island. Locally higher amounts (200mm+) were possible as upslope winds contributed to higher amounts where higher topography was present. The highest wind gusts also affected the northern and western side of the country, where winds coming straight off the ocean produced gusts as high as 115km/h in Westport.

Thankfully the extratropical cyclone is expected to exit the region and continue its track south, bringing more pleasant conditions to New Zealand for Sunday and Easter Monday. Another significant cyclone is churning this weekend, but thankfully in the open waters of the Indian Ocean. Although it is expected to reach category one, it will remain over open waters and is not expected to make landfall.