World weather news

World weather news, January 2000

3rd: Ferocious windstorms that hit Europe at the end of 1999 may trigger insurance claims of up to seven billion Swiss francs, with the overall damage perhaps twice as high, a Swiss Re expert was quoted as saying. Storm Lothar, which struck with hurricane force, should cost insurers around four billion to five billion francs, of which around three billion was in France, Werner Schaad, head of Swiss Re's natural disasters unit, told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. A storm dubbed Martin, which hit two days later primarily in France, did much less damage.
4th: Heavy rain in southeastern Brazil swept away bridges and flooded cities, spreading devastation that killed at least 28 people and left tens of thousands homeless. But civil defense warned that the death toll could rise after rescuers investigate the 60 or so houses that were buried under mud in the mountain resort city of Campos de Jordao.
4th: Thousands of homes were without power and storm debris littered streets and yards following a tornado that ripped through Owensboro and other parts of western Kentucky. Some of the most serious damage occurred at Kentucky Wesleyan University where the roof of the president's house was ripped off and nearly every building on campus suffered some damage. The campus was largely empty because students had not returned from Christmas break. No official damage estimates were available but about 50 houses were destroyed and many others damaged. There were several injuries though no deaths were blamed on the tornado in Owensboro. One man died near Paducah, Kentucky, when his truck was swept off a road by floodwaters from heavy rains that accompanied the storm front. The same storm system dumped heavy snow from parts of Kansas northeastward to Wisconsin and lower Michigan. There were also reports of tornadoes Monday in Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
8th: Perth (Australia) today came to the end of one of its longest heatwaves on record. The city's weather station has recorded a top temperature of over 32C for each of the 15 days from 24 December up to today. The maximum on Saturday 8 January of 30.6C brought that run to an end. The record is 16 consecutive days in February 1996. The hot weather began on 17 December, and since then only 2 days have had maxima below 32 - 20 and 23 December. The thermometer exceeded 35C on 13 occasions, and the highest readings were 39.6C on 22 December and 39.3C on 27 December.
13th: The La Nina weather pattern has increased the chances of tropical cyclones hitting Vanuatu, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands this cyclone season, according to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (New Zealand).
14th: Torrential rain continued to fall in parts of Western Australia's north this morning, while the south of the state experienced severe thunderstorms, gale force winds and flooding during the afternoon and evening. Over 100mm fell in around 6 hours in the Broome area of this morning. Houses were flooded, roads closed, and phone and power lines cut as a result of the downpour.
16th-17th: A fierce windstorm battered the Pacific Northwest USA, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people, closing highways and killing two men. Electrical service had been restored to most customers by Monday. Wind along the coast gusted to 115 mph at Cannon Beach, Ore., and 109 mph at Long Beach, Wash. Gusts hitting 81 mph at Netarts, Ore., pushed a house 12 feet off of its foundation. The Space Needle in Seattle was closed because of the unnerving effect as the 610-foot structure swayed in the wind. More than 300,000 homes and businesses lost power in Washington at the height of the storms Sunday.
18th: In Venezuela, heavy rain caused more flooding in a zone devastated by killer mudslides last month, but authorities reported no deaths. Some 20 mountainside houses collapsed in Caracas. Also, part of a key road in Vargas state along the Caribbean coast was washed out, preventing relief workers from reaching eight coastal communities still recovering from the December floods.
18th: A state of emergency was declared in the Gaza Strip and the West bank as strong winds and gales lashed the area.
19th: An avalanche swept a bus into the sea in northern Norway, killing at least five people. Police said they believed up to 10 people were on the bus when it was caught in the avalanche, but that number could not be confirmed. Local fishermen and rescue crews plucked at least two survivors and five bodies from the icy water. The accident occurred along a fjord near Lyngseidet, 1,000 miles north of Oslo. The bus and a car were waiting for a snowplow to open the road after a previous avalanche. Rescue crews also feared additional avalanches, as storms in the past few days have left thick layers of wet and heavy snow on the steep slopes above the road that runs along the fjord.
19th: The hot air mass that has lingered over South Australia for the past nine days moved northeast today. Sydney and surrounds suffered worst, with temperatures in the western suburbs skyrocketing into the low 40s. Liverpool recorded a maximum of 42.7C, just 0.1C short if its hottest January day in 38 years of record.
21st: Heavy snow storms cut off several crossings on the Czech-German border and blocked many internal Czech roads. Some areas reported up to 30cm of new snow overnight. Mountain rescue officials in the northern Krkonose Mountains, popular with skiers, raised the area's avalanche danger warning to level four on its five-level scale.
21st: A violent winter storm with winds as high as 100km/h paralysed Canada's east coast provinces, forcing banks, schools and post offices to close. By early Friday afternoon 30cm of snow had fallen in at least two of the three Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island and 40 centimetres more snow was expected by the evening.
21st: The season's first major snow in the mid-Atlantic states blanketed Washington on Thursday, shutting schools, disrupting flights and giving federal workers the option to take an unscheduled day of leave. Starting before dawn, 3 to 6 inches of snow fell in Washington before tapering off by noon. The policy for federal workers meant they could take the day off and deduct it from their annual vacation time. Temperatures in New York dropped to 25F but the wind chill factor made it feel like 10F.
23rd: Heavy snowfall and fierce winds continued to inundate parts of eastern and southeastern Europe. A state of emergency remained in place Sunday for a third day in parts of central Czech Republic. In the upper Austrian city of Steyr, four people were injured, one seriously, after being buried by an avalanche. Snow and high winds also continued to batter Romania, where six people were killed in three avalanches over the weekend.
23rd: A rare winter ice storm swept through northern Georgia (USA) , leaving at least 450,000 people temporarily without electricity. The unusual weather, part of a coastal storm that dumped snow, sleet and freezing rain on several southern states, knocked down trees and power lines in about 40 counties in northern Georgia.
24th: Blizzards swept across Yugoslavia with heavy snows falling for more than 24 hours in most of the country, severely disrupting traffic and closing airports in Podgorica and Tivat. In Belgrade, the temperature plummeted to -9C overnight with strong winds. Forecasters warned that the temperature would drop further to minus 22 degrees during the week but expected the snow to stop by Tuesday. For the first time in 30 years, 10 centimeters (three inches) of snow blanketed the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, which usually enjoys a Mediterranean climate. Navigation on the Danube river was halted by high winds and snow. Snowdrifts reached three meters on roads leading to Kopaonik mountain in the south.
24th: More snow and ice blanketed parts of the southeastern United States on Monday after weekend storms in the region left more than 450,000 people in three states without power. In North Carolina icy roads were to blame for a two-vehicle crash on Monday that killed one person near Rocky Mount, and a 10-car pileup that injured several others near Raleigh.
24th: Snow storms in Romania have knocked out electricity supplies to scores of villages and snarled road and rail traffic. The Sulina canal of the River Danube and the Danube port of Galati were closed due to high winds, but all Black Sea ports and airports continued to operate. the Transport Ministry Romania's northern counties were worst hit. Fifty-six villages in Maramures and Suceava were without electricity, along with 28 in Arad county.
25th: National Guard troops were mobilized in North Carolina and Virginia to distribute emergency equipment and rescue stranded people as the most powerful winter storm in 72 years closed airports, buried highways and left at least three people dead. Hundreds of thousands of people were without power as blizzard-like conditions piled snow in huge drifts and ripped down trees and power lines. A record 18.2 inches of snow fell at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, eclipsing the record of 17.8 inches in a single day set in Raleigh-Durham on March 2, 1927.
26th: Minimum temperatures across Europe included values of -15C at Elsenborn in the Ardennen, -21.8C at Munich, -24.2 at Zweisel and -26.8 at Oberstdorf (following -28.2C the pervious night). In some places reading were the lowest since January 1987.
28th: A rare snowstorm dumped at least 15 inches of snow on Jerusalem today and covered the northern Negev Desert for the first time in half a century, toppling trees, closing roads and isolating cities throughout Israel. In neighboring Jordan, the storm dumped two feet of snow on Amman, the capital of the desert nation, and nearly three feet in other regions, including the usually arid south and east.
31st: At least 11 people were killed and more than 20,000 fled their homes as four days of heavy rains pounded the southern Philippines, triggering floods and landslides. Floods several feet deep inundated several homes, forcing residents to flee to roof tops or climb trees. The rains, which started on Friday, battered the Compostela Valley and four provinces on Mindanao island, wrecking several houses, damaging bridges, knocking out power in some areas and destroying agricultural crops.

World weather news, February 2000

8th: Floodwaters caused by torrential rains in the northern part of South Africa left at last 19 people dead as they washed away roads and bridges and snarled traffic. South African Broadcasting Corp. said that 15 people drowned when they tried to cross a swollen river in Northern Province. Two others drowned in the same province, while details of the remaining deaths were not reported. Parts of the popular Kruger National Park were isolated because of flooded roads. Parks customer relations manager Chris van der Linde said 18.4 inches of rain had fallen in 18 hours. A restaurant's windows were broken and furniture was floating away, he said.
10th: The Mozambican Government has appealed for urgent humanitarian aid for people displaced by floods as torrential rain continues thorughout southern Africa. Along with South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique are experiencing their heaviest rainfall in decades. The downpours have also spread westward to the normally-arid Botswana, where crops have been badly damaged. More than 70 people are reported to have died in southern Africa as a result of the floods and tens of thousands have been left homeless.
14th: Flooding and impassably boggy roads continue to halt transport across a vast area of northern South Australia and southern Northern Territory (NT) as patchy heavy showers continue. In what the NT Department of Transport has described as the worst Central Australian floods since 1988, the main north/south Stuart Highway remains blocked by the flooded Finke and Palmer Rivers south of Alice Springs, both flowing about 2km wide. in NT, Tennant Creek Airport received 90mm in 3 hours to 6am, 70.4 of this falling in one hour to 5.30am. Shops in the town's main street were flooded when drainage failed to cope.
15th: Tornadoes have swept across south-west Georgia, in the United States, killing at least 22 people and injuring more than 100. One tornado struck at 0100 EST (0600 GMT) in the Mitchell County town of Camilla, about 320 km (200 miles) south of Atlanta. A five-mile wide swathe of destruction was cut through the southern part of the town, resulting in huge damage to a housing development.
17th: Mozambique faces a new onslaught of floodwaters as rain which fell in South Africa's highlands rushes towards the coast. The government in Maputo says more than 200,000 people have been already been affected by the floods. Large parts of Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Botswana last week experienced their heaviest rains in 40 years, which caused widespread flooding in all four countries. Although the heaviest storms are over, rain is still falling over southern Mozambique, and the greatest threat comes from swollen rivers that are carrying more water into the country.
21st: Record amounts of rain for February fell across western New South Wales and Victoria (Australia). A slow moving trough fed copious amounts of moisture into the area and colder air aloft gave plenty of instability to produce widespread uplift. 24 hour totals of 50 to 150mm were recorded across thousands of square kilometres of western NSW, northwest Victoria and in a band from southwest Queensland to the Central Qld Coast. Pooncarie (NSW) recorded 145mm, its heaviest day's rain in a record stretching back to 1882, while Werrimull (Victoria) also had an all-time record with 129.6mm.
22nd: The hundreds of millimetres of rain which have fallen over central and western Queensland (Australia) over the past week have gradually swollen streams to the point where the first major flood levels were reached today. Landsborough Creek and the Bulloo River at Quilpie both peaked with major flooding, while major flooding is expected over the next couple of weeks in the Georgina, Diamantina and Thompson Rivers as inland seas of brown water lazily make their way to the south or southwest. All of the streams in flood drain into Lake Eyre, or lose themselves in desert sands.
23rd: Hundreds of thousands of people were stranded without food and aid workers warned of an imminent humanitarian crisis after a cyclone and flooding in Mozambique. Cyclone Eline lashed Mozambique yesterday with winds that ripped off roofs and downed power lines and with rain that added to the misery of weeks of flooding from torrential rains that already had killed 67 people and displaced 211,000. Vast tracts of land in southern Mozambique remained submerged under muddy brown water and were only accessible by air.
23rd: Monsoon rains have turned the parched heart of Australia into an inland sea, with waterfalls cascading down the face of the giant Uluru (Ayers Rock) and outback towns flooded. Tourists have been expecting to see spectacular sunsets but instead are in awe of seeing waterfalls coming down the rock," an Ayers Rock Resort spokeswoman said. Uluru, which stands 348m above the flat desert in the Northern Territory, has received more than half its annual rainfall in the past three days. South of Uluru, three major river systems, the Finke, Hugh and Palmer Rivers have broken their banks, flooding into the flat desert landscape.
23rd-24th: A storm packing tornado-like bursts of wind and driving rain damaged buildings, snarled highways and was blamed for two fatal traffic crashes in southern California. The California Highway Patrol said there were more than 570 accidents. The storm dumped 1.43 inches of rain on Burbank and left up to 8 inches of fresh snow in Big Bear. Snow that began falling at higher elevations Wednesday night also led to the closure of Interstate 5, a major link connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco. The highway was closed in both directions over the mountainous Grapevine pass.
27th-29th: Tropical cyclone Steve hit Cairn (Australia) with 105mph winds on Sunday as the center passed over the city. There was widespread structural damage. The storm began to weaken during the evening as it moved inland, but it then moved back over the Gulf of Carpentaria and regained some strength on Monday. After being over water for much of Tuesday, it then came ashore again late on Tuesday over the Northern Territory. More than 200mm of rain fell in places.
29th: At least thirteen people have been killed following heavy rains in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo. Most of the victims came from the same shanty town, where improvised shacks were buried by a mudslide. Rescuers had to work for several hours to find all the bodies. two-hour rainstorm also caused chaos on the city's roads.
29th: Heavy weather has delayed the launch of the UK's biggest ocean racer, built by Pete Goss. Although the 70ft-wide carbon fibre Team Philips is designed to sail through the storms of the Southern Ocean, the project's insurers have said the launch in Totnes, Devon, cannot go ahead in winds of more than 20mph. It cost nearly \A32.5m to build. On Monday night the boat was inched out of its hanger on to the quayside ready to be hoisted into the water, despite fears that gale force winds could scupper its maiden voyage. But high winds and the flooded state of the river have forced Mr Goss, a 36-year-old former marine, to postpone the launch.

World weather news, March 2000

4th: A tornado lashed through seven villages in northwestern Bangladesh, injuring 50 people and leaving at least 3,000 homeless. The tornado, which hit the Natore district shortly before midnight Saturday, battered nearly 500 tin and thatch cottages and uprooted hundreds of trees. Wheat crops were damaged across nearly 100 acres along the river Godai, 100 miles northwest of the national capital, Dhaka. Tornadoes and severe storms are common at the end of winter in Bangladesh.
7th: Cyclone Steve, which lashed Australia's northwest coast with strong winds and flooding rains overnight, weakened Tuesday after moving inland. However, weather warnings remained in place for parts of the Pilbara region of Western Australia state, as forecasters warned that the storm may strengthen again if it moves back offshore. The swirling winds and driving rain of a tropical cyclone develops from an area of low pressure over the ocean, but the conditions usually dissipate quickly once the eye of the storm crosses overland. Cyclone Steve has formed three times and died twice in the past 10 days, as it traveled the length of Australia's north coast, leaving a trail of destruction.
7th: Several hundred people were stranded Tuesday in freezing temperatures on buses and trucks on a snow-blocked road in northeastern Turkey. Rescue teams were trying to reach several vehicles trapped in a snowstorm on Kizildag Mountain, between the cities of Sivas and Erzincan. At least nine buses and several trucks had been stranded on the mountain road for about 12 hours. Freezing temperatures and snow hit most of Turkey on Monday, blocking many main roads and cutting off some 4,000 villages in the east.
8th: Storms produced high winds and hail, blew down trees, and blew out windows near Milwaukee (USA). Officials said at least one tornado was sighted. The National Weather Service had earlier posted a tornado alert for the city. The worst damage appeared to have been a broken gas main and a tipped-over tanker.
9th: Heavy rains drenched flood-ravaged southern Mozambique Thursday, soaking hundreds of thousands of displaced people crammed into aid camps, hampering relief operations and raising fears of further flooding. The floods - the worst on record in Mozambique - have already killed hundreds, and the toll may reach into the thousands.While the effect of the new rain was not immediately apparent, it forced three aid helicopters to temporarily return to Maputo early Thursday.
9th: Record-setting temperatures soared as high as the 70s around the Northeast USA. In Worcester, the temperature climbed to 74 degrees, leapfrogging the old record of 60 for the date. It was 34 degrees above the normal high. Records were set at 78 degrees in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and at 73 in both Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, New York. Boston was a record 72. Even far-north Burlington, Vermont went to 66 - beating the record set when the mercury hit 60 in 1921.
10th: The UN says it is deeply concerned about severe flooding in Madagascar, as aid workers try to reach remote villages cut off by floods. The agency says more than half-a-million people have been affected by torrential rain which has devastated much of the region. There are reports that the island's once-pristine beaches are littered with dead birds and cattle. Coffins have been dredged up by the churning floodwaters. Cyclone Eline tore through Madagascar last month before heading on to devastate Mozambique. It was followed recently by Cyclone Gloria.
10th: Without food aid, Mongolia could face large-scale starvation as the coldest winter in 30 years continues to kill the livestock that are the mainstay of the country's rural economy. More than 1.4 million farm animals have died in 13 provinces, directly affecting 500,000 people, roughly 20 per cent of the country's 2.7 million people. Unusually early and severe blizzards began hitting Mongolia in September, following a summer of drought. At least four people have died in temperatures well below 0F and heavy snows have covered the grasses herds live on.
10th: The winter of 1999-2000 was the warmest winter in the United States since the government began keeping records 105 years ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. This marked the third year in a row that record warmth was recorded in the United States during the winter months. Since 1980 more than two-thirds of U.S. winters have been warmer than average, NOAA said.
10th: Tropical Cyclone Steve made landfall in Australia for the third time since it formed last week. Steve moved onshore near Carnarvon in western Australia Friday morning, Australian time. Steve brought heavy rain and gusty winds to the much of western Australia. Forecasters expect near record flooding as the system slowly moves over Western Australia through the weekend. The meandering nature of the storm is unique because it was able to survive for more than a week, even as it crossed major tracks of land. It survived so long because it received a large amount of moisture and energy from an unusually strong monsoon, which is common over northern Australia this time of year.
13th: Steady rains continued to fall Monday across northwestern Argentina, extending a week of heavy rainfall and flooding that has left 10 people dead and forced some 15,000 people to evacuate their homes. Authorities reported two deaths in the central city of Cordoba. Cordoba was hit by torrential rains, hail and blustery winds on Sunday that left much of the city without drinking water or electricity. Waters from the overflowing Suquia River uprooted trees and flooded homes in Cordoba, Argentina's second-largest city.
14th: Former Tropical Cyclone Steve, which formed off Cairns in the early hours of Sunday 27 February, went out with a bang today after completing a near circuit of the continent. Steve entering the Great Australian Bight on Saturday evening, still packing a punch with galeforce winds, torrential rain, and a central pressure of 993mb. On Sunday and Monday, the ex TC maintained intensity while moving southeast, picked up a passing Southern Ocean trough last night, and moved S ofr Tasmania this morning bring brief storm force winds as its associated front crossed the island. The AWS on the summit of Mt Wellington recorded a peak gust of 133km/h, with a 10 minute average windspeed of 98km/h. At Maatsuyker Island, off Tasmania's south coast, the barometer rose 11.1mb between 6am and noon, an unusually large rise for this time of year.
14th: Since the start of the dry season at the end of February 2000, forest fires have been rapidly spreading out of control in Sumatra and West Kalimantan in Indonesia. By 5 March 2000 more than 780 hot spots had been located over Sumatra, according the Meteorological Service Singapore. Reportedly, most of the fires were triggered by illegal burning of plantations and forests for land clearance. The most affected area is Riau province on the east coast of Sumatra, facing Singapore, followed by West Kalimantan province and Central Kalimantan province. According to the national authorities, in Pekanbaru, capital of Riau province, the air pollution index has registered levels high above those considered hazardous to human health. Clouds of smoke and some haze have been billowing over the area. Although recent rainfall has doused some of the fires and improved visibility, the situation is still very alarming.
14th: Rome's Fiumicino Airport was closed early today due to heavy fog. Eighteen flights were cancelled and departing aircraft experienced delays of up to two hours. Heavy fog disrupted traffic at other airports in northern and central Italian cities such as Ancona and Bologna.
16th: At least 34 people were injured as two tornadoes left a mile-long line of damaged homes, downed power lines and debris-strewn streets in two southern Louisiana (USA) parishes.
28th: At least four people were killed and more than 100 injured as tornadoes carved paths of destruction through Fort Worth in Texas. Tornadoes hit the centre of the city just after the evening rush hour, shattering windows in high-rise buildings, overturning cars and uprooting trees. The storms were accompanied by torrential rain and giant hailstones.
29th: Storms and dense cloud cover in the high mountains delayed the search Wednesday for two snowboarders reported missing after an Alpine avalanche buried skiers beneath tons of snow, killing at least 11 people. Ten people were found dead in the area of the huge snow slide south of Salzburg and another died at a hospital. Two others were able to free themselves while rescuers dug out a third survivor.

World weather news, April 2000

4th: Hudah charted a devastating course across Madagascar Sunday night and Monday, killing two people. In the northeastern town of Antalaha, the storm destroyed all the wooden homes and buildings and ripped the roofs off concrete structures. Telephone lines and electricity were cut, and schools and churches were heavily damaged. 13 people are now known to have died in Madagascar, when the powerful cyclone, Hudah, hit. Cyclone Hudah has created a desperate situation in northern Madagascar with 100,000 people homeless and in need of shelter and food.
4th: A sustained drought across Ethiopia has left 8 million people facing shortages of food and water. The worst conditions are in south east Ethiopia where 1.3 million are affected and almost 600,000 people are in particular need; people are already dying.
5th: Scientists have discovered that Europe's permafrost, the frozen earth covering mountain areas like the Alps, is melting. Underground temperatures have risen by nearly a degree in the past decade - three times faster than at any other time in the last century. Buildings and villages will be increasingly at risk. Cable cars stations, restaurants and even homes are built on frozen ground beneath the snow, where rocks and soil are literally glued together by ice. Now there is evidence that the underground ice is beginning to melt causing new rockfalls down the slopes. Professor Michael Davies, a civil engineer from Dundee University, is one of a group of world experts in ice and snow who have been visiting the St Moritz area of Switzerland to investigate: "Over the next 20- 30 years, we might find large movement to structures such as cable cars, and an increase in debris flows causing problems to villages which might lie in their path."
5th: Winds reaching 60 mph lashed Turkey's northwest killing two elderly people and fanning fires that burned down scores of village homes. The strong southwesterly winds lifted roofs, uprooted trees and knocked down electricity poles, cutting power in many regions. Fires ignited by overturned stoves and heaters raged through dozens of homes and stables in several of the region's villages. The winds also helped fan forest and brush fires in at least 19 different locations in the region, devastating more than 3,000 acres.
6th: Fierce winds laden with desert dust buffeted Beijing in what local reports said was the worst such storm in 10 years. The dust delayed flight, entered windows and doors and sent people scurrying for cover. Dozens of flights were delayed in Beijing's Capital Airport and at least 40 flights were rerouted. The storms are caused by winds picking up dust from the arid deserts and grasslands upwind from the city. Severe water shortages and sparse vegetation in the desert and grassland have left soil loose and prone to wind erosion.
6th: The Jamaican government announced it will shut off water supplies in some areas for several hours per day in response to a 4-month-old drought in the Caribbean nation. The government's National Water Commission will begin ''locking-off'' the water supply to parts of Kingston for as long as eight hours a day starting on Tuesday, with other parts of the country to follow. Water levels at the two reservoirs serving Kingston, the Jamaican capital, have grown dangerously low.
10th: Hungary has declared a state of emergency in the east of the country, which is threatened by the worst floods in years. Heavy rain and melting snow have swelled the Danube and Tisza rivers. The government agreed to emergency measures for the region on Saturday. In neighbouring Romania, officials said heavy rains which started on Wednesday had flooded thousands of houses. Hundreds of people have been evacuated. At least five people are reported to have been killed - two in flash floods and three in flooded villages close to the border with Hungary. Officials closed flooded main roads in the central Transylvania region, while high winds on Friday blew off the roofs of hundreds of houses. Hungary's emergency decree provided for temporary road closures and the evacuation of residents.
14th: Spring floods have left thousands of people homeless in the southern Russian city of Orsk in the region of Orenburg, on the border with Kazakhstan. Local media reports say at least one person is missing. Residents are using boats to move around the city. The regional deputy governor, Yuri Karpov, blamed the weather service for inaccurate forecasts. Melting ice led to flooding of the Ural river.
15th: Torrential rains Friday and Saturday was blamed for at least 8 deaths on China's southeast coast near Hong Kong. Reports in the state newspaper says that the storm brought up to 25.1 inches of rain to the area, causing flooding in Shenzhen, a bustling business center on the Hong Kong border. Flooding from heavy rain was also reported in parts of Hong Kong Friday.
17th: The government has declared nine drought-stricken states in northern Mexico disaster areas, clearing the way for federal aid, the government news agency Notimex reported Monday. States across northern Mexico have been suffering from prolonged droughts and have experienced less than half of the average rainfall, according to Notimex reports. Similar drought conditions spread across the region last year, killing cattle, parching crops and forcing some communities to truck in drinking water.
17th: Heavy rain from a tropical storm is being blamed for killing three people and injuring at least 50 others on this low-lying country. The government's Meteorological Department reports that wind speeds reached 56 mph and that more rain is expected on Sunday and Monday. Last Wednesday, a tropical rainstorm that tore through the country leveled mud-and-thatch huts, leaving 7,000 people homeless.
18th: More isolated communities in Hungary are being evacuated because of days of flooding - the worst on record. A week-long state of emergency has been extended around the River Tisza, where rising water levels following heavy rain have already led to more than seventeen-hundred people being taken to temporary shelters. The authorities say they're importing sand-bags from as far away as the United States because local supplies have run out. Floods have also hit northern Serbia, where rising river waters have been diverted onto fields, ruining crops in order to protect towns. But floodwaters in Romania have begun to receed. More floods are being expected because winter snow is still melting.
19th: At least 15 people have been killed in landslides that have destroyed homes and forced dozens to evacuate in Quito (Peru). A Red Cross representative stated that close to 25 people have also been injured with about 30 homes destroyed. Steady rain in the past six days is thought to be the cause of the landslides. The region's rainy season is typically September through May. 'We have had rain before, but not like this, with landslides inside the city,'' said Quito Mayor Alfonso Lasso. Ecuador's Meteorological Institute said that the rain has already totaled 5.5 inches so far this month, and the average rain in April has not surpassed 6 inches in the last 15 years.
19th: Inhabitants have protested across the Indian state of Gujarat over the failure of local authorities to cope with an ongoing drought crisis. The cities of Rajkot, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Junagadh are the worst affected, with residents getting water only once in three days. Water supplies come by tanker but officials concede they have been unable to meet demand. This admission comes as summer temperatures have already hit above 40C. Over half the western state's villages have been hit by the drought, which is reckoned to be the worst in 100 years. Water scarcity has also hit wheat and groundnut crops Gujarat's western Saurashtra, and many farmers unable to get fodder have abandoned cattle along the roads.
19th: Tropical Cyclone Rosita, packing winds of over 120 mph across northwestern Australia Thursday. The storm buffeted the Outback town of Broome with heavy rain and winds, The storm uprooted trees and blew roofs off houses. No injuries were reported. The weakening cyclone is forecast to dissipate later on Thursday over sparsely populated areas of the Great Sandy Desert.
29th: A cholera outbreak, compounded by drought, has claimed 43 lives in 24 hours in central Somalia. The governor of Hiran region, said 25 people were reported dead in villages around the regional capital, Belet Huen, about 150km north of Mogadishu. Another 18 deaths were reported in villages around Gelib in the Middle Juba region. The impact of cholera, which is spread by contaminated water, is being intensified by a drought that has dried up fresh water sources and parched lands in neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea and Sudan.

World weather news, May 2000

1st: 121mm fell in 24mm at Rosario (Argentina), the monthly normal being 140mm.
2nd: The United Nations warned of a crisis in drought-ravaged Pakistan and Afghanistan, where thousands are on the move in search of water and entire animal herds have died. An urgent appeal was issued for $1.8 million for Afghanistan people. The situation in Pakistan's Baluchistan and Sindh provinces is ''very critical,''. Half a million people over 2 million acres of Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province suffered from a shortage of water and 2.5 million people were affected in Sindh province. In India's western states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, the drought has affected more than 50 million people and killed thousands of cows, goats and buffaloes. Even camels have died.
5th: Forest fires burned out of control in parts of Russia's Far East, fueled by unusually dry and windy weather Sixty-eight fires were raging on more than 11,100 acres of forest in provinces along Russia's Pacific coast and in Eastern Siberia. In one region, Buryatia, fires have already destroyed about 24,700 acres of forest.
7th: Poelkapelle near Ypres Severe 20 min. thunderstorm with cloudburst and hail near Ypres (Belgium). Village streets under water to a depth of 20 cm. 80 or so houses also flooded. Violent thunderstorm with hail on Sunday afternoon in Dieppe (France) and the surrounding area. Cliff fall blocked the Dieppe-Rouen railway line. Dieppe had 48 mm rain. Some 500 calls to the fire brigade in NE France - especially at Thionville where some roads were made impassable by mud.
8th: Pakistan's military leader appealed to Pakistanis at home and abroad to send help amid a drought that has left at least 127 people dead, with doctors warning that more could die from contaminated water supplies. Over the weekend, General Musharraf asked people to pray for rain and announced a $37 million aid package for the worst hit areas. The money is being used to get food and water to the area and help relocate people who are able to move to areas with water.
8th: Cloudbursts caused some flooding in Mater, Ichtegem and Aarsele in east Flanders (Belgium). In West Flanders - roads under water for a time and some houses flooded in Aardooie and Tielt. Ghent-De Panne railway line flooded in Tielt. The Wallonia - Li\E8ge area affected by local flooding and landslips, especially the Ourthe valley around Tilff and Trooz. One man had to escape from his car by swimming when caught in floods near Li\E8ge. In Germany severe thunderstorms in Bavaria and parts of Saxony. Hundreds of calls to fire brigade to deal with flooded roads, underpasses and cellars. Hailstones 2 cm in diameter in the Oberallgau district of Bavaria. In SE Holland Den Dungen near Den Bosch had 47 mm - with crops damaged by heavy hail.
10th: Violent thunderstorms struck western France, killing one woman whose car was swept away by rising waters. The storm hit the region north of the city of Rouen on Wednesday night. The Austreberthe Valley was hardest hit when floodwaters unleashed a wall of mud. A torrent of water in the town of Barentin swept away the car of a woman who was then thrown from the vehicle, which crashed into the windows of a cafe. About 200 hundred miles of roads were submerged and closed to traffic and train traffic in the region also was delayed. Several hundred homes were without electricity Thursday morning, and 16,000 people were without drinking water. Carteret on the Cherbourg Peninsula reported 48 mm.
11th: In the afternoon Paris had a severe thunderstorm - heavy rain, hail, gusts of 75 km/hr and visibility down to 800 m. Paris-Orly 38 mm rain; Paris-Montsouris 47 mm.
11th: Typhoon Damrey quickly weakened to winds of 50 mph as it soaked Iwo Jima early Thursday morning. Damrey had winds of 180 mph Tuesday night and forecasters were concerned that the super typhoon could bring devastating winds and damage to Iwo Jima. Fortunately, Damrey weakened to 50 mph winds before it hit Iwo Jima early Thursday.
12th: The first 12 days of May gave 160 hours of sunshine at Ronaldsway, Isle of Man, an average of 13.3 hours per day. Tiree was almost as sunny, and so was Dublin.
16th: A powerful storm lashed Buenos Aires Province and parts of Uruguay on Tuesday, killing three children at an emergency shelter and forcing 25,000 to flee rising floodwaters. The children died and nine people were injured when a tree fell and crushed the refuge in Rosario. Over 100mm of rain fell in a few hours in Buenos Aires.
17th: The first half of May 2000 has been exceptionally warm and sunny across the whole of Germany. Many areas report a mean temperature anomaly up to the 17th of around +5 degC. In the hills of central Germany, anomalies as high as +7 degC are reported. Many northern areas have already reached their monthly quota of sunshine with over 200 hours in places. Although thunderstorm outbreaks have been frequent, some regions have not yet had a single drop of rainfall in May. The warm weather follows on from a very warm April, which was the warmest since 1952 in Berlin.
17th-18th: The heatwave in Germany, which saw temperatures peak at 33.9 C at Zinnowitz, Usedom on the 17th, came to a spectacular end later that day as severe thunderstorms swept from west to east. Munich had 98 mm in 12 hours, of which 68 mm fell within an hour. Hailstorms were also reported in places while flash floods caused considerable damage.
18th: Two days of downpours caused flooding that killed at least six people and forced more than 100,000 to flee their homes in Manila and several northern Philippine provinces. In metropolitan Manila, floodwaters rose chest-deep in some areas and forced more than 7,000 people to evacuate. High tides Thursday slowed the draining of floodwaters from canals. The floods were triggered by continuous heavy rain Wednesday and Thursday over much of the main Philippine island of Luzon. Much of the flooding in the capital has been blamed on garbage clogging the city's drainage system.
18th: Floods washed away refugee camps along the border between East Timor and the Indonesian-controlled western half of the island, killing at least 50 people.
19th: In the 33h to 1200GMT 183mm fell in Bombay, India. The monthly mean for May is 17mm.
19th: Floods in the northern Philippines triggered by days of heavy rain killed at least 10 people and left one person missing. Tropical Storm Longwang which caused the torrential rains over wide areas of the northern Philippines has weakened to a tropical depression with winds less than 39 mph. At the height of the rains and floods, about 112,000 people were forced to flee their homes to escape rising floodwaters. Six people drowned, three others were killed by collapsing structures and another person died of electrocution.
22nd: Incessant weekend rains in Columbia triggered flooding and mudslides that killed at least 21 people, including seven who died when a truck was swept away. Twelve people died under torrents of earth in Pasto, capital of southern Narino State. The other two deaths were in Putumayo and Santander states. Hundreds of families will have to be relocated. Meteorologists predicted more heavy rains ahead.
24th: 41.8C at Roswell (New Mexico, USA) was the highest on record for May there, some 14C above the normal for the time of year.
24th: More than 100 people suffered minor injuries when hailstones bigger than golf balls fell on two states north of Tokyo. Hail fell on Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures for about an hour early Wednesday afternoon. The largest hailstones reportedly measured 6 to 7cm in diameter. In Chiba, which borders northern Tokyo, at least 76 people suffered light injuries and two were treated at local hospitals. He said more than 4,000 homes were damaged by the hailstorm, which in some areas was accompanied by heavy rain, wind gusts and lightning.
25th: Oran (Algeria) had 30mm of rain in the 24h ending 0600GMT, more than one and half times the average for the month. In the next 6h 39mm fell at Algiers, the monthly mean being just 36mm.
29th: Two rain-swollen rivers burst their banks and flooded dozens of villages in northeastern Bangladesh, stranding at least 70,000 people. Relief workers used boats to delivering food and drinking water to villagers in the hard-hit Maulvibazar district, 100 miles northeast of the capital of Dhaka, the Flood Information Center said. The flooding occurred when four days of torrential rains swelled the Manu and Dholai rivers.
30th: In western Rajasthan, over one million people have been affected by the drought in this district caused largely by poor monsoon rains over three successive years. In areas of Rajasthan the water-table is decreasing by 100 cm a year leaving thousands of wells bone dry.
31st: The latest in a series of New Mexico wildfires exploded in size on Wednesday to become a 22,000-acre blaze that threatened towns and water supplies in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, officials said. Huge clouds of smoke billowed into the normally pristine air of northern New Mexico and flames leaped several hundred feet into the sky as the fire consumed mountain pine forests. Some 600 firefighters were already on the scene and another 600 were expected to arrive shortly to fight the fast-moving blaze.
31st: Drought-stricken peasant farmers tending their fields in southern Ethiopia got a nasty shock when the heavens opened and they were pelted by fish, a local newspaper reported. "The unusual rain of fish which dropped in millions from the air - some dead and others still struggling - created panic among the mostly religious farmers," the weekly Amharic newspaper said. Saloto Sodoro, a fish expert in the region, attributed the phenomenon to heavy storms in the Indian Ocean which swept up the fish before shedding them on the unsuspecting farmers. Southern Ethiopia has been in the grip of a severe drought for two years which aid officials say threatens the lives of up to eight million people.
31st: Argentine farmers were still unable to harvest their 1999/2000 soybean and corn crops in various key locations as persistent humidity kept the fields wet and inaccessible, analysts said.
31st: At De Bilt May 2000 was the equal 4th warmest May in the last 100 years. It was the 3rd warm May in a row. May 2000 was noteworthy for the remarkable sequence of 12 days with 25C or more ending on 16th. Even June has never had more than 10 such days in a row.

World weather news, June 2000

1st: Torrential rains have driven thousands of people from their homes in the Chalco Valley near Mexico City in the worst floods in the region in five years. Three children and two adults who had been camping drowned when a river overflowed its banks on Wednesday.
1st: Residents of Sao Paulo, Brazil - South America's largest urban area - braced Thursday for up to six months of water rationing during what some meteorologists are calling its worst drought in 100 years. As many as three million people in Sao Paulo, a business mecca that contributes at least a quarter of Brazil's gross domestic product, will be without running water for 24 hours every third day as the water company turns off the tap.
1st: Spring thunderstorms that dumped as much as 8 inches of rain in 24 hours drove people from their homes and businesses, closed roads and washed out bridges across parts of the U.S. Midwest. In the southeast corner of the state south of Milwaukee the rising Fox River threatened to force more evacuations, officials said. The National Weather Service posted flash flood advisories for parts of southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, northeast Iowa and southeast Minnesota, a region soaked by a parade of storms in recent days.
4th: Two days after heavy rains cause a open-air sewage canal on the edge of Mexico City to overflow, thousands of residents are camped out on roofs with their houses swamped by a metre of foul smelling water and human waste. There are fears of disease as the people of Chalco shunned emergency shelters and stayed on roofs to ward off possible looting.
6th: A mudslide triggered by torrential rains swept through a town in northern Guatemala, killing 13 people and injuring 24 others. The slide on buried 21 homes in Senahu, about 75 miles northeast of Guatemala City. Rescue workers said the slide left Senahu without drinkable water and with almost no food. Government supply trucks dispatched Wednesday morning had trouble reaching the area because of impassable roads.
7th: India's southwest monsoon is progressing slightly ahead of schedule and is expected to hit the drought-hit western Gujarat state in two to three days, weather department officials said on Wednesday. The monsoon rains, which account for about 80 percent of India's rainfall, arrived on schedule on June 1, over the southern state of Kerala, the southern tip of the subcontinent. The monsoon has covered most parts of southern India and is progressing north-westwards.
7th: Flooding and landslides in separate regions of China have killed 74 people and left thousands homeless. Torrential rains triggered floods and landslides that left 38 people dead and left 12 missing in Sichuan province. Hail, flooding and landslides have devastated areas in Gulin and Xuyong counties, 1,000 miles south of Beijing, since the beginning of June. In Gansu province, widespread flooding has killed 36 people and left thousands homeless. Each summer, floods due to heavy seasonal rains cause widespread damage in many parts of China.
9th: Heavy rainfall in parts of Australia today. Georgetown, 280km SW of Cairns, recorded 60.4mm, its heaviest one-day June total in 118 years of record. Warruwi, on a small island off the northern Northern Territory coast 290km ENE of Darwin, recorded a seemingly insignificant 20mm, still its highest 24 hour total in 78 years. The heaviest 24 hour totals were reported from the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria. Centre Island registered 72mm while a gauge on the Limmen River 140km WNW along the southern Gulf coast registered 81mm. Median rainfall in this area is typically between 25 and 50mm for the entire 6 months of Winter and Spring.
11th: Heavy rain and snow in southern France and the Pyrenees Mountains caused flooding which left 1 dead and forced hundreds of evacuations. The rain had subsided by Sunday, but many homes remained without power. France's national power company, EDF, was working to restore electricity to 700 homes in the southeastern Rhone-Alps region. Many were forced to evacuate several homes and campsites in the Ariege region near the Pyrenees. The flooding was also blamed for a bus accident that killed one and injured several others near the southwestern city of Toulouse.
11th: Four people are reported to have died, and another two are missing, presumed dead, after heavy storms and flooding in northern Spain. Two Civil Guardsmen drowned after their inflatable vessel capsised in a river while they were searching for two brothers who went missing after a road-bridge collapsed, in north-eastern Catalonia. Spanish newspapers reported that an elderly woman drowned in floodwaters elsewhere in Catalonia, while an elderly man was drowned off the Basque coast. There has been snow and heavy rains on the French side of the Pyrenees as well.
13th: At least 10 people are feared to have drowned in flash floods in the north east Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Officials say water levels in the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries are dangerously high and still rising, because of continuous rain in the Himalayan region. The neighbouring state of Assam is also under threat and preparations are underway to help stranded villagers. More than 20,000 homes have been destroyed and thousands of acres of crops and thousands of cattle have been lost because of the floodwaters.
13th: A drought in central and eastern Europe is threatening this year's food crops - with Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Croatia worst affected. Much of the region has had no rain for six weeks.
14th: Record high temperatures and heavy air conditioning demand overwhelmed parts of Northern California's power grid, with local utilities resorting to rolling blackouts in a bid to avoid more widespread outages. The San Francisco Bay Area was sweltering, with temperatures hitting unofficial highs of 105F in San Jose and 95F in San Francisco - a city better known for summer fog than searing heat.
14th=15th: Torrential rain wreaked havoc on Chile's capital Santiago and surrounding areas on Wednesday, flooding streets, causing traffic chaos and forcing authorities to close schools. President Ricardo Lagos declared the capital a catastrophe zone, immediately opening public coffers to fund emergency aid. Houses in several districts were flooded under 1 metre of water and hundreds of cars were stranded on streets that turned into rivers overnight because of the rain which fell uninterrupted. In the 24-hour period leading up to 1200 GMT on Thursday 43.3mm of rain had fallen in Santiago. This year 196.8mm has fallen in the capital, which is 141 percent above the average year-to-date amount.
17th: A long spell of drought and heat has damaged crops in North Korea, which already depends on outside aid to feed its hunger-stricken people. Hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland were hard hit by drought.The bad weather did the worst damage in Pyongyang and plains on the west coast. Water levels in lakes have fallen, and small reservoirs, rivers and streams are dried up. Paddy fields are parched, with the roots of rice plants exposed to sunlight.
18th: An avalanche thundered down on a rescue team working on a snow-covered mountain in northwest Japan, killing four people and injuring five others. The avalanche hit the 5,198-foot Mount Asakusa in Niigata prefecture. The avalanche claimed the lives of two policemen, one firefighter and a volunteer, police said. The avalanche struck near the village of Irihirose, about 124 miles northwest of Tokyo. Snowfall on the mountain was exceptionally heavy this winter.
20th: A drought spreading across north China has left at least 3.2 million people short of water, brought out swarms of locusts and threatened hundreds of thousands of farmers with economic ruin. People are low on water in the eastern province of Shandong and farmers are being forced to make long treks and line up for water as reservoirs run dry. Just 24 inches of rain have fallen on Shandong since September 1998, the smallest amount of rain in nearly 50 years. In contrast, provinces along the Yangtze, China's longest river, were warned Tuesday to prepare for possible summer flooding following large rainfalls on the river's upper reaches and tributaries.
21st: An exceptional heatwave on the longest days of the year has led to all-time record June temperatures across parts of central and northern Germany. On the 20th, the heat was concentrated over lower Rhine valley with 37.3C in Koblenz, while, further east, Berlin's 36.1C was a new June record. Several stations reported minima above 22C on the following night with an exceptional 23.8C recorded at Alexanderplatz in the centre of Berlin. On the 21st, Berlin's Tegel airport reported a new June record on 36.9C as the heatwave shifted further east leading to peak readings of 37.9C at Cottbus and 38.6C at Preschen, both in the low-lying Lausitz valley near the border to Poland. Similarly in Poland - Szczecin 35.6C, Poznan 36.5C.
21st: Torrential rain triggered landslides and crumpled houses in southeast China, killing 19 people. One Fujian county, Longhai, received 15 inches of rain in one day. The flooding signalled the onset of the often devastating Chinese summer flood season, which causes widespread damage and sometimes kills hundreds. Precautions are being taken throughout much of China to prepare for the upcoming flood seaso
21st: Floods from unusually heavy rains threaten Guyana's staple commodities and could hamper economic growth. The flooding has hit rice and sugar crops and bauxite output, export products that are critical to the economy.
21st: A brush fire spread by windy conditions forced firefighters to evacuate 450 homes in suburban Halifax, Canada. No injuries were reported and no houses had caught fire by Wednesday evening. The fire covered at least 100 acres of forest. The fire came within 100 yards of a subdivision with about 1,000 homes. The cause of the fire was unknown.
21st: Searchers recovered the bodies of two people who were swept away along with four others by an avalanche on Humboldt Peak in Venezuela. The avalanche was the worst climbing accident in history at Humboldt Peak, civil defence officials said.
22nd: Hurricane Carlotta, which was a 150 mph hurricane for a brief time on Wednesday, has begun to weaken as it moves northwest over the eastern Pacific Ocean. The storm, with winds of 100 mph, spared the Mexico coastline all but a few showers and some big waves on Wednesday. The hurricane is forecast to weaken during the next several days as it moves over cooler water.
22nd: A Chinese domestic airliner flying in a thunderstorm crashed in central China, killing all 42 people on board. The domestically-manufactured aircraft, carrying 38 passengers and four crew, went down at 3 p.m. in a sparsely populated suburb of Wuhan city in Hubei province. The Wuhan Airline plane, a domestically made YUN-7, was flying from Hubei's Enshi county to Wuhan, the provincial capital, the airline said, attributing the crash to a thunderstorm.
22nd: Summer-like heat that began months earlier than usual are taking a deadly toll on parts of South Asia. On the heels of a warmer-than-normal winter, temperatures steadily climbed as high as 122F as early as March this year, killing scores of people. Pakistan and Afghanistan face the worst of the dry heat wave, with lakes and wells drying up, crops killed, and disease breaking out. The region?s monsoon season should bring relief to Pakistan next month, meteorologists say. But Afghanistan does not have a monsoon season, leaving many to wonder how they'll make it through an expected stifling summer.
22nd: Moldova, hit by a severe three-month drought, is likely to gather a meagre 500,000 tonnes of wheat this year, below even last year's disastrous 790,000 tonnes and just half the 1998 figure, the agriculture ministry said. The drought had already cost Moldova $320 million.
22nd: Very high temperatures again in Central Europe. Warsaw 35.1C; Poznan 35.5C; Vienna 35.9C; Bratislava and Budapest 36.3C; Brno and Gyor 36.6\B0C.
20th: LATE NEWS: The first thunderstorm on record moved through the Barrow (Alaska) area and dropped 0.16 inches of rain in just a couple minutes. In the past, numerous thunderstorms and lightning have been reported in the records but always at a distance. Many calls were received at the weather office from people who have just witnessed their first thunderstorm and lightning display.
23rd: Summer-like heat that began months earlier than usual are taking a deadly toll on parts of South Asia. On the heels of a warmer-than-normal winter, temperatures steadily climbed as high as 122F as early as March this year, killing scores of people. Pakistan and Afghanistan face the worst of the dry heat wave, with lakes and wells drying up, crops killed, and disease breaking out. The region's monsoon season should bring relief to Pakistan next month, meteorologists say. But Afghanistan does not have a monsoon season, leaving many to wonder how they'll make it through an expected stifling summer.
26th: Lightning struck a tree where a dozen farmers had sought shelter from a thunderstorm in the central Philippines, killing seven and seriously injuring the others. The dead in the town of Murcia in the Negros Occidental province included two women, two brothers and a father and son who had gone to a farm to plant rice. Police said those injured by the lightning were being treated for body and head burns.

World weather news, July 2000

1st: The the worst dry spell in 30 years in Afghanistan is devastating entire provinces in the south and relentless rains are wiping out whole villages north of the capital. The drought has wiped out entire herds and sent tens of thousands of people searching for water. Meanwhile, powerful storms in the Sheikh Ali district of Parwan province north of Kabul have destroyed entire villages, according to Radio Shariat.
4th: A supercell stalled over a little town called Vanguard in south-western Saskatchwan dropped 333 mm of rain in an 8 hour period. That's more than they normally get in a year-and-a-half. Most of the town is flooded, roads are closed or washed out and there is no drinkable water.
5th: Violent protests have broken out in the town of Abadan in south-west Iran over a lack of drinking water. The protests were triggered by a severe heatwave, in which temperatures have soared to 53C, and which have led to the water supply being cut off.
5th-7th: Severe storms in the Philippines have left at least 12 dead and forced 80,000 to flee their homes. The five days of heavy rains were caused by typhoon Kirogi and a tropical depression, later to become typhoon Kai-Tek.
6th: High temperatures seared southeastern Europe, the hottest day for most of the region in a heat wave that has left at least 23 dead and sent thermometers climbing to 113F in Greece. In Romania, where temperatures reached 109F, nine people were confirmed dead due to the heat, most of them farmers working in fields west of Bucharest. Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia and Bosnia also reported heat-related deaths on Thursday. The entire southeastern region of the continent has been gripped by a high pressure area that has sent temperatures rocketing and broken century-old records. Average daytime temperatures for much of the Balkans normally range between 86-95F. Arid conditions have also sparked forest fires, with major blazes in Greece and Italy.
6th: Flooding from the opening weeks of China's rainy season has caused more than 410 deaths and local governments were being warned to prepare for more floods. In the latest catastrophe, torrential rains washed away a mountainside, killing ten people in Dazhou city, Sichuan providence. The rains have caused $16 million in losses. While rains have begun falling on some parts of drought-stricken north China, many areas remain parched. The dry weather has contributed to unusually large hatches of locusts.
6th: High temperatures and a long spell of dry weather have killed 40 people and damaged some crops in Croatia this week. The interior ministry reported eight forest fires blazing in various places along Croatia's Adriatic coast, wiping out large areas of shrub and pine trees.
7th: Typhoon Kai-Tak wreaked havoc in the northern Philippines, leaving 26 people dead and more than 700,000 homeless, relief officials said.
7th: Intense temperatures of well over 40C that has left dozens of deaths in southeast Europe eased. Strong northerly winds began cooling Greece, including Athens, where temperatures on Thursday (6th) reached 44.4C.
7th: Power went out for several hours in sweltering Nicosia when the electricity grid failed to cope with a surge in demand as people switched on their air conditioners amid soaring temperatures. The Electricity Authority said it had received a record demand for power as the capital sizzled under temperatures of 43C in the shade.
9th: At De Bilt in the Netherlands the pressure fell to 987.5 mbar - equalling the lowest ever July pressure recorded there on 11th July 1894.
8th: A typhoon that left a trail of death in the Philippines pummeled eastern Japan, killing three people, flooding cities, snapping power lines and burying homes in landslides. After traveling up Japan's Pacific coast, Typhoon Kirogi headed for Hachinohe, a city 300 miles north of Tokyo on Japan's main island of Honshu. Residents of Mito, northeast of Tokyo, trudged knee-deep through torrents of muddy water that raced down streets and lapped storefronts.
10th: In Ukraine, the Chernobyl nuclear power station has been forced to shut down after being flooded by heavy rain.
11th: A prolonged heat wave has provided the fuel for numerous wildfires in Greece. More than 50 people have died throughout the region since last week - killed by everything from heatstroke to drowning or falling off roofs while trying to cool off.
12th: At least 42 people died and 38 were injured when part of a hill loosened by monsoon rain collapsed on unauthorized slums. The tin and mud huts built into a hillside that overlooks a road in eastern Bombay were smashed late on Wednesday when the mud loosened due to the heavy downpour since earlier in the previous 24 hours. The annual monsoon rain has crippled transport services, with clogged drains causing flooding of roads and railroad tracks throughout India's largest city.
17th: Forest fires on the Indonesian island of Sumatra are increasing, but officials on Monday played down the possibility of a repeat of Southeast Asia's smog crisis of 1997. That smog started to disperse on Monday, although health concerns remained. Plantation firms in northern Riau province, near the border with North Sumatra and not far from Singapore and Malaysia, were to blame for the fresh outbreaks.
17th: 11 people died in Canada's worst tornado in 13 years, at a lakeside trailer park in Alberta. At least 130 people were injured, many of them treated for glass cuts and lacerations from flying debris, others hurt after being tossed into the lake in their trailers. The twister was rated as an F-3 tornado on a scale of zero to five, with five being the most severe. Alberta experiences an average of 16-20 tornadoes a year but most are considered weak. A F-4 tornado killed 27 people and injured 300 in the provincial capital of Edmonton in 1987.
17th: For the fifth day in a row, temperatures 6 to 8C above normal have occurred over a wide area of Central and Western Australia. Today, records for July top temperatures were broken at Roebourne (33.6C) and Pannawonica (32.0C) in Western Australia's north as both day and night time temperatures stayed at levels more usual in mid autumn or spring. The unusual spell of warmth has been caused by a prolonged stream of northwesterly winds over the northern half of Western Australia.
18th: At least eight people have been killed by a week of temperatures above 100F in Texas and neighboring states. Un relenting sun has prompted the National Weather Service to issue heat advisories for much of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Heat-related deaths were reported in Houston; Dallas; Austin, Texas; and Shreveport, Louisiana. Several of the victims were elderly shut-ins who had no air conditioners or could not afford the electricity to keep the units running. In Dallas, health officials declared a heat emergency triggered by six consecutive days of temperatures over 100F.
19th: France's Burgundy grape crop is developing several days ahead of schedule, despite the rain and low temperatures which have made for the country's coldest July in 20 years. Hail storms during the first weekend of the month have nonetheless caused important damage in selected regions, in particular around Givry, affecting wines such as Clos Salomon and Cellier aux Moines, among others.
19th: Sixty million people have been affected by a severe drought in Central and South Asia that has killed livestock and crops and threatens to uproot families as they look for food and water. Earlier this week the World Food Program appealed to donors for $55.4 million to help some of the estimated 3 million to 4 million Afghans most seriously affected by the drought - the worst Afghanistan has experienced in three decades. Other countries most at risk include Tajikistan, where U.N. assessments indicate wheat production this year will be off 30%. Parts of Pakistan are experiencing the worst drought in the country's history. Iran estimates that 60% of the rural population in the 18 provinces most affected - and another 12 million people elsewhere - are experiencing shortages of potable water.
19th: A thin blanket of smog from forest fires in Indonesia has reached southern Thailand but the air pollution is unlikely to get as bad as in other Southeast Asian countries, officials said. In the first reports of smoke haze in almost three years, the Thai meteorological office said air quality and visibility had deteriorated in the southern provinces of Songkhla, Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani over the last week.
19th: Water levels in the Mekong River in Cambodia have reached their highest in 40 years, displaced hundreds of families and destroyed crops. Hundreds had been forced to move by the rising waters and thousands of hectares of rice and other crops were being destroyed.
21st: Parts of Central Sweden are severely affected by flooding after recent heavy rain - worst hit is the province of Halsingland. Sections of roads and some bridges have been washed away by swollen rivers - on Thursday 35 roads in the area were closed. Troops have been called in to distribute sandbags. Trains to the area from the south have been suspended because the tracks have been undermined. Ange - a small town between Sundsvall and Trondheim - is completely cut off.
21st: Landslides in northern Vietnam province have killed 20 people, including seven children. Twenty-two people have been injured in the landslides during the past few days. Official media reported earlier that up to 300 mm of rain fell in the area on Sunday.
22nd: Floods from heavy and prolonged monsoon rains have triggered flooding throughout southern India. The Godavari River has inundated low-lying parts of the Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh state, forcing officials to evacuated 20,000 people to safety. At least 200,000 people and 50 villages have been affected by flooding that has swamped roads under five feet of water, uprooted trees and disrupted communication links.
26th: Heavy rain Sweden this month has already led to July rainfall records being broken. At Hoglekarden 304mm exceeds the previous record of 274mm in 1993, while at Sveg 224mm is the greatest July total since 1875. Other totals include 215mm at Ostersund and 196mm at Orebro.
26th: A NASA study of Greenland's ice sheet reveals that it is rapidly thinning. In an article published in the July 21 issue of Science, Bill Krabill, project scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA, reports that the frozen area around Greenland is thinning, in some places, at a rate of more than three feet per year. Any change is important since a smaller ice sheet could result in higher sea levels. "A conservative estimate, based on our data, indicates a net loss of approximately 51 cubic kilometers of ice per year from the entire ice sheet, sufficient to raise global sea level by 0.005 inches per year, or approximately seven percent of the observed rise," Krabill said.
27th: Brazil's 2001/02 (July/June) coffee crop may reach no more than 25.9 million 60-kg bags, sharply down from its potential, after drought and frost damaged vulnerable trees.
31st: In Cambodia severe floods, which have been wreaking havoc across the country since early July, have left as many as 15 dead and caused more than $6 million in damage.
31st: Floods and mudslides caused by torrential rain have killed at least 8 people in northeastern Brazil over the last two days and made more than 1,000 homeless. Four people died in Recife, the capital of coastal Pernambuco state, and another four in the neighboring city of Olinda. Television showed hillside shacks being swept away by tonnes of mud and whole districts flooded with water.

World weather news, August 2000

1st: Following the outstanding warmth of the early summer, July was an extremely dismal month across Germany. Mean temperature anomalies were widely below -2 C. Munich had its coldest July since 1980, after having had its hottest June for 50 years. Sunshine totals in July were especially low. In Berlin, only 103 hours of sun were recorded, 47of normal, easily the cloudiest July on record. Meanwhile, in the Harz mountains region, less than a third of normal sunshine was recorded.
2nd: Rescue workers searched for bodies after a flooded river Sutlej submerged villages near India's mountainous border with Tibet, washing away 1,000 houses and drowning at least 107 people. Workers were having trouble in rescue efforts due to the persistent rain, which also flooded several government offices, houses, and private hotels. Police and officials added that the death toll was likely to rise once water recedes from the roads and rescue workers reach the villages.
2nd: 9mm fell in 6h at Izana, Tenerife; the monthly average is just 13mm.
3rd: Torrential rains that killed 57 people in Brazil's impoverished northeast and made over 150,000 flee their homes in the past five days, stopped or weakened on Thursday.The region's worst deluge in 25 years, according to officials, submerged entire towns in water, triggered mudslides that destroyed scores of hillside shacks and forced residents to camp in makeshift shelters in schools, hospitals and gymnasiums. In Pernambuco, 21 people had been killed mainly by mudslides and over 73,000 people had been forced to abandon their homes. The press service for Alagoas state, where 36 people died and 90,000 were evacuated, said the situation was stable, with water levels in overflooded rivers subsiding.
6th: Heavy monsoon rain flooded hundreds of villages in northern Bangladesh, killing at least four people and leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless, the government said Sunday. At least 100,000 people were marooned in the worst-hit districts of Kurigram, Gaibandha and Lalmonirhat, 150 miles north of Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital, the flood control ministry said.
7th: A flash flood hit a group of elementary school students and their chaperones on a hiking trip in the mountains of northern Japan, killing a 55-year-old man and injuring six other adults. Heavy rains early Sunday caused the Yubiso River at the foot of Mount Tanigawa to swell, touching off mudslides, said local police spokesman Kaoru Tashiro.
8th: Torrential rains triggered flash floods and mudslides in South Asia, leaving about 170 people dead and millions homeless. Over 2.5 million people have been affected by floods in eastern India and neighboring Bhutan over the past few days. At least 11 high-rise buildings in Tala collapsed because of the unprecedented flash floods. Across the southern border, in India's northeastern Assam state, the death toll rose to 80 from drowning or disease, government officials said. In India's eastern state of Bihar, the army and the air force worked to provide relief to more than 1,000 villages where at least 1.6 million people have been affected by the surging flood waters. The floods also submerged a large part of the Kaziranga National Park in India, home to 1,600 one-horned rhinos and hundreds of elephants.
9th: Heavy rain submerged more of northeastern India on Wednesday and two of the nation's largest rivers crested over their banks, killing 116 people and leaving 4.9 million homeless. The Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers were rising and expected to remain high above the danger levels for the next several days. At least 40 people have died in the last four weeks from waterborne diseases brought on by the high water. Hundreds of others, including children and elderly people in relief camps, were suffering from dysentery, diarrhea and other waterborne diseases. The flooding water has washed away roads and bridge, cutting off communication in many districts.
10th: Typhoon Jelawat, which pounded Japan's southern island of Okinawa earlier this week, is on a collison for the southeast China coast. The typhoon, with winds of 80 mph Thursday afternoon, Asian time, is forecast to slam into the China coast south of Shanghai late on Friday, Asian time. The typhoon will likely bring battering waves, strong winds and flooding rains to coast.
10th: The National Hurricane Center lowered its yearly Atlantic estimate on Thursday, predicting not eight but seven hurricanes are likely to brew during the 2000 season. The season, relatively quiet so far this year, runs from June to November and usually hits its stride in mid-August. But cool equatorial waters along the Africa-Caribbean hurricane belt, a diminished La Nina weather system and a large vertical wind shear off Africa's coast lessened the likelihood of strong storms, NHC meteorologist Chris Landsea said.
10th: Alberto, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, continued its northwesterly course over open ocean early Thursday, one day after returning to hurricane strength. At 5 a.m. EDT, Alberto was about 710 miles southeast of Bermuda and moving northwest at 21 mph. Later in the week, Alberto is expected to swing northward and pass well east of Bermuda, forecasters said.
10th: Hundreds of homes are still inundated by flood waters more than a week after heavy flooding in Russia's Far East, emergency officials say. In the Lesozavodsk district alone some 2,000 houses are flooded. Floodwaters subsided by Thursday in southern parts of the Primorye region, but remain high in northern districts, where several towns and villages are battling floodwaters, said Zalyotov. The flood, caused by heavy rains and a typhoon in the Pacific Ocean at the end of July, are reported to have damaged 9,211 homes, washed out 196 bridges and downed 253 kilometres (157 miles) of power and telephone lines.
23rd: For the first time in 50 million years, visitors to the North Pole can see something extraordinary: water. The thick ice that covers the Arctic Ocean at the North Pole has melted, leaving a mile-wide (1.6-kilometer-wide) stretch of water at the top of the world. Two recent visitors to the poles spoke about the unexpected sight. The water could be the result of global warming, although there is a debate among experts about the cause. Some believe it could simply be a natural occurrence rather than the result of a "greenhouse effect" caused by manmade pollution and increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Scientists have said that the last time the North Pole had this much water was 50 million years ago.
24th: Typhoon Bilis uprooted trees and triggered landslides that destroyed a railway and wrecked more than 1,000 homes in coastal China, officials said Thursday. Bilis, which killed 11 people in Taiwan earlier, unleashed destructive winds and rain throughout southeast China's Fujian province. Luckily, no casualities were reported. In Jinjiang city and the provincial capital Fuzhou, strong winds and heavy rain caused flooding, uprooted thousands of trees, damaged fishing boats and wrecked numerous dwellings. Economic losses are estimated to exceed 60 million dollars. On Tuesday, Bilis pushed across Taiwan. Some 98,000 acres of rice paddies and orchards were flooded in Taiwan.
24th: Sixty-five people have died in floods following two days of heavy rain in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the state's chief minister said on Thursday. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu told state legislators the situation was grim in three districts - Guntur, Prakasam and Kurnool. Five people were still missing. About 300 are feared to have died in flooding that has hit north and northeast India, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh during the current monsoon season leaving millions homeless, hungry and prey to disease.
27th: Gusting winds have dropped off, helping firefighters contain major blazes that killed seven people and razed dozens of homes in Greece this week, authorities said Saturday. Fire chief Panagiotis Fourlas said firefighters had gained the upper hand at the Albanian border and in southern Arcadia province, the scenes of the worst destruction. Following an appeal for international assistance, a 60-member fire crew from Israel joined the effort Saturday. Greece has had its worst fire season in decades this summer. Hundreds of fires have broken out around the country, helped by successive heat waves and strong winds. Up to 370,500 acres of forest have been blackened. Seven people were killed in northern Greece on Thursday and Friday, bringing the summer death toll to 12. Fourlas said he expected hot and windy weather conditions to continue in September.
28th: A history-making drought in North Texas has all the signs of continuing for days - or even weeks - and the rain forecast elsewhere in the state isn't much better. With no precipitation in the forecast Monday, the record of 58 onsecutive days without rain in the region - first set in 1934 - was vulnerable. A rainless Sunday tied the record, which had been repeated in 1950.
29th: Satellite data from above Antarctica show an unusually early and severe drop in the level of ozone, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday. The United Nations agency said an average drop of 30 percent was recorded compared to the benchmark 1964-76 period, before a hole in the protective ozone layer was reported. But it said meteorological conditions in the stratosphere could change and it was too soon to say if there would be record depletion of the layer this year.
29th: Firefighters said yesterday they had brought under control blazes which have ravaged at least 9,000 hectares of woodland over the past week on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. With smoke rising from the ashes of forests and bush across the holiday island, some 1,000 firefighters kept watch over areas where winds risked re-igniting the fires. Tanker planes prepared to make their final flights to douse any lingering flames. Firefighters said almost 2,500 hectares (6,100 acres) were destroyed in the scenic forest of Restonica, near the central town of Corte, while 4,800 hectares (11,900 acres) went up in smoke in the area of Vivario and Ghisoni. Fires swept across 1,600 hectares (4,000 acres) around the island's capital Ajaccio. They said many of the blazes started simultaneously, a sign that arsonists were to blame.
30th: Italy's grape pickers worked the latest in a slate of 12- to 15-hour days Wednesday to complete the earliest wine harvest in memory, hurried along by a torrid summer that threatens to turn the crop to raisins on the vine. July rains followed by two weeks in the high 90s (30s C) could make for a great year of high-alcohol, full-bodied wine - or a harvest of shame, if the grapes aren't in soon.
31st: Typhoon Prapiroon killed four people and injured more than 80 as it brushed past China's eastern province of Jiangsu, state media reported on Friday. The typhoon caused heavy flooding in the province, submerging more than 364,000 hectares of farmland and damaging some 7,500 houses, the official Shanghai Daily said. An official at the Jiangsu Flood-Control Headquarters told Reuters there was heavy damage in some districts but he declined to confirm the casualty reports. Rain swept Jiangsu province for 24 hours before ending on Thursday morning, the official Xinhua news agency said. It also reported the storm left four dead and more than 80 injured, but gave no details.
31st: Volunteers have evacuated some 12,000 residents to cyclone shelters after floods deluged an island town, Red Crescent officials here said Thursday. High tides from the Bay of Bengal put Sandwip island's main town four to five feet (12 to 15 metres) under water. More than 1,000 homes had been flooded, and that number was rising, Red Crescent's regional chief Golam Rabbani told AFP. Sandwip is one of the largest of Bangladesh's islands in the Bay of Bengal with a population of more than 362,000. Weather officials said islands in the Bay of Bengal were gripped by high tides caused by monsoon clouds, and warned all fishing boats to return to their bases.
31st: Thirty-one people have died in floods in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said Thursday as rivers receded in southern Andhra Pradesh state, ravaged by the worst floods in 46 years. Uttar Pradesh officials said major rivers were in spate in the sprawling province adjoining the Indian capital and added that relief and rescue operations were underway. They said the 31 died in the past 48 hours in eight flooded Uttar Pradesh districts. The latest deaths have taken the flood-related death toll in Uttar Pradesh to 226 since the onset of the monsoon in June, a state government spokesman said by telephone from the provincial capital of Lucknow. Parts of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, are in the grip of a harsh drought, he added. At least 140 people also died earlier this month in flash-floods which devastated the northern summer resort state of Himachal Pradesh, which adjoins Uttar Pradesh.

World weather news, September 2000

2nd: Very hot weather in S parts of the USA led to many record high temperatures for the date being set, including Salina, KS 110F, Dallas, TX 109F, Wichita Falls, TX 108F, Wichita, LA 108F,
3rd: A NASA spectrometer has detected an Antarctic ozone "hole" (what scientists call an "ozone depletion area") that is three times larger than the entire land mass of the United States - the largest such area ever observed. The "hole" expanded to a record size of approximately 11 million square miles (28.3 million square kilometers) on Sept. 3, 2000. The previous record was approximately 10.5 million square miles (27.2 million square km) on Sept. 19, 1998.
11th: Hundreds of search and rescue teams combed a campground for the disabled, where a rain-swollen stream swept 12 people to their deaths. Authorities say at least four others are missing and 22 others hospitalized, after mud and water washed over the campground flipping over cars and shoving trailers into trees. The campground was filled with disabled people vacationing with their volunteer aides. Environmentalists questioned building a campground near a stream and Italian lawmakers began investigating, to determine if any laws had been violated.
12th: Five people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes as Japan's heaviest rains on record soaked the country. Authorities in the major city of Nagoya ordered about 363,985 people to move to public facilities or other safe places as the country's biggest carmaker Toyota Motor Corp was forced to stop production. About 50,000 passengers were forced to sleep overnight at railway stations or in trains that ground to a halt. Services resumed in the afternoon after a record interruption of more than 18 hours. Television footage showed residents wading waist-deep in muddy water and children navigating flooded streets in rubber inner-tubes. Troops in rowboats paddled past inundated buses to rescue stranded residents. Winds of 89 mph are also churning close to the coast of Okinawa and lashing areas of southern Japan with powerful gusts. A tornado has also swept through a residential area in central Tokyo, destroying the roofs of several homes, police said. There were no reports of injuries.
12th: Boulevards became muddy rivers and hundreds of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate Tuesday as torrential rain soaked central Japan, killing at least six people. Rainfall totaling 23 inches was recorded in Tokai, near Nagoya, over the past 24-hour period, the local observatory said. More than 360,000 people to evacuate their homes in Nagoya, many of whom sought shelter on the second or third floors of schools. Nagoya-based Toyota Motor Corp. stopped production nationwide because of the relentless downpour, a company spokeswoman said.
13th: Typhoon Saomai forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes in China's coastal Zhejiang province, local authorities said on Wednesday Sept. 13). At 7 p.m. local time, the typhoon was about 310 miles east of the city of Shanghai, and city officials issued a typhoon warning.
14th: Rain from the seasonal monsoon and tropical storms are causing floods across much of the Southeast Asia. The floods, which have killed nearly 100 people in the region, have forced 600,000 people from their homes in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. In Cambodia, the level of the Mekong River flowing through the capital city of Phnom Penh is at its highest in more than 70 years. The Cambodia director of the Red Cross and Red Crescent federation says that 500,000 people need emergency assistance such as clothes, food, plastic sheets and blankets. Another 100,000 people require similar aid in Vietnam. The heavy rain began in July, 45 days ahead of the normal monsoon. Despite the widespread rains, only 2% of Vietnam's rice crops were destroyed because of an early harvest.
14th: A 4,000-acre wildfire in Santa Barbara County, California, burned parts of Vandenberg Air Force Base on Wednesday (Sept. 14). About 150 residents from the nearby town of Casmalia were evacuated.
19th: More than 26,000 old people die from the cold weather in London each year more than Finland which is twice as cold. The death rate from cold in Britain is higher than Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Greece. Every winter 26,596 elderly people die in London alone 3,129 in every million compared to 2,457 per million in northern Finland. Professor William Keatinge, who conducted the research, said: `People in cold regions of Europe take more effective protective measures against a standard degree of cold than people in warm regions.'
19th: In a torrential downpour 200 mm rain fell in Marseille between 17.00 and 23.00 local time - including 90 mm between 17.00 and 18.30 and 80 mm between 19.00 and 20.30. Many streets were flooded and the Old Harbour in the city centre overflowed. The fire services were inundated with calls for help and the electricity supply failed in parts of the central area. Two people were killed in road accidents. In Montpellier 3 people were killed and 7 injured when 3 building cranes fell during a thunderstorm accompanied by wind gusts of over 100 km/hr.
21st: At least eight people have died and thousands have been left homeless by storms which have lashed both the east and west coasts of Mexico. The civil protection agency has declared alerts along the coast of the western state of Michoacan, where hundreds of people have been evacuated. In the southern state of Chiapas, two adults and two children were killed when they were buried under falling mud and rocks, unleashed by the rains. Meanwhile in the east of Mexico, heavy rainfall has caused rivers to overflow in areas which suffered heavy flood damage a year ago.
24th: One minute before midnight on the 23rd, enough drops had fallen in a rain gauge at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to register 1/100th of an inch - the only measurable rainfall the official rain gauge had taken since June 30. Those few drops, and the showers that followed on Sunday, officially ended North Texas' record dry spell. The streak had shattered the previous record of 58 days set during the dust bowl in 1934 and reached again in 1950.
25th: A snowstorm that had earlier blanketed most of Wyoming (USA) severely hit on Cheyenne over the weekend, setting a record for snow fall so early in the autumn, before moving through Colorado and into western Nebraska. Wyoming's capital recorded 10.5 inches of snow, though the accumulation was fleeting. Throughout Sunday, clumps of snow fell from sun-warmed trees and roofs and all but a couple of inches melted away.
25th: Floodwaters in Vietnam's upper Mekong Delta are continuing to rise at a rate of 5-15 cm a day, and are now only 5-10 cm below the levels recorded during the catastrophic 1961 floods. The Dong Thap, An Giang, Long An, Kien Giang and Can Tho provinces are all completely flooded. While water levels in central and northern Cambodia are beginning to recede, water levels in Vietnam are expected to continue to rise in the next few days. Some Vietnamese officials fear that water levels may not peak until early October and high water levels are likely to persist into late October. Many families may not be able to return to their homes until November or December.
25th: More than 700 people have died in India and Bangladesh since September 18 as late monsoon rains pushed water over river banks and dams, erasing the tree-lined frontier. More than 10 million people in eastern India are homeless, and 125,000 in Bangladesh. Most of the dead, 652, have been in India. In Bangladesh there are fears the toll will rise from sickness and starvation.
29th: The UN's World Food Programme announced a major emergency operation intended to help more than one million people in Tajikistan threatened by famine because of one of the worst droughts in decades in central Asia. The drought comes at a time when regional food supplies are strained, severe financial restaints are limiting the Tajik government's capacity to purchase grain on the international market, and the price of wheat in Kazakhstan - the main regional grain exporter - has risen by 15 percent since last year.
30th: Authorities declared a state of emergency in Italy's southern region of Calabria after rain triggered flooding and mudslides. Authorities evacuated 400 people from homes in the town of Bovalino, one of several villages in the region fully or partially isolated by the rains and mud. No injuries were immediately reported. Rain caused trouble across much of northern and central Italy as well Saturday, with a record 14 inches of rain in 24 hours reported in the Piedmont region. High water flooded St. Mark's Piazza in Venice.

World weather news, October 2000

1st: Finland was at least very close to new October record. Temperatures of 18-19C were reported. The absolute October temperature record for whole Finland is 19.4C (Helsinki-Malmi 1985).
2nd: Hurricane Keith battered the Yucatan Peninsula and Belize with torrential rain, damaging winds and storm surge while remaining nearly stationary off the coast. Since encountering land on Sunday, Keith has slowly weakened with top steady winds decreasing to 75 mph. Deadly flash floods and mudslides are possible in the Yucatan Peninsula and Belize in addition to Honduras and eastern Mexico where up to 20 inches rain are possible. Already more than 14 inches of rain has been reported at the Belize Airport according to a statement issued by the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
2nd: The death toll from devastating floods in western Bangladesh exceeded 100 as grim reports poured in Monday of tens of thousands of marooned people waiting to be rescued. There were 30 flood-related deaths in the worst-hit Jhenaidah and Chuadanga areas during nearly two weeks of unprecedented floods in 10 western districts bordering India. Reports of deaths from boats capsizing, snakebites and a lack of medical attention were pouring in from the flooded areas, where hundreds of unfed and marooned people were being exposed to water-borne diseases.
3rd: Hurricane Keith continues to batter most of Central America including Belize where it appears to have caused its most serious damage. The devastating storm toppled wooden houses and ripped the roofs off hotels in Belize. Reports from Nicaragua say ten people have been killed by flooding caused by a hurricane affecting much of Central America. The authorities said most of the victims drowned as they tried to cross swollen rivers. In neighbouring Guatemala, a young girl was also reported killed.
3rd: The pounding rains from a tropical storm flooded homes and streets and forced schools and businesses in Florida to shut down early. Thousands of residents were left without power. The storm, which started as a disturbed weather system over Cuba, dumped up to 11.5 inches of rain in some parts of Miami-Dade County over a 15-hour period. Numerous flights were cancelled at Miami International Airport. According to National Weather Service meteorologist Joel Rothfuss, the deluge was comparable to Hurricane Irene, which last October dumped up to 18 inches of rain on south Florida, causing millions of dollars in damage.
5th: As the death toll mounted along Vietnam's deluged Mekong Delta, officials said an unexpected flash flood killed at least 40 people in a remote mountain village of Lai Chauin the country's north. Lai Chau has been hit by flash floods in recent years. The flood, which occurred earlier in the week, destroyed several houses, injured 17 people and caused subsequent landslides. Elsewhere in Asia, flooding has claimed more than 1,000 lives and left more than 20 million people homeless in Bangladesh and India. Meanwhile, scores of others have been killed or marooned by flooding in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Many of the victims have been afflicted with diseases - including scabies, typhoid and dysentery. The floods have destroyed rice fields in 29 of Laos' districts, most of which would have been harvested later this year. Vietnamese officials said that two new threats faced the nation's flood victims - the spread of cholera and crocodiles swimming down river from Cambodia.
5th: The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica has stretched over a populated city for the first time, after ballooning to a new record size, New Zealand scientists said. Citing data from the US space agency Nasa, atmospheric research scientist Stephen Wood said the hole covered 11.4 million square miles an area more than three times the size of the United States. For two days, September 9-10, the hole extended over the southern Chile city of Punta Arenas, exposing residents to very high levels of ultra violet radiation. Last month, scientists expressed surprise when NASA data from September 3 showed the hole at just under 11 million square miles the biggest it had ever been. Record-low temperatures in the stratosphere are believed to have helped the expansion of the ozone hole during the southern hemisphere's spring season.
5th: President Bill Clinton admitted he felt ``a little jinxed'' when he became a victim of the torrential downpours that have flooded southeastern Florida First his bomb proof stretched limousine refused to start after he had attended a rally in Jacksonville. A secret service agent attempted to breath life into the engine with jump leads and when that failed Clinton used a back-up car. The president too was soaked by the non stop rainfall and then missed attending a Democratic fund raiser when Air Force One, the presidential jumbo jet, was grounded in Florida by the weather. Up to 18 inches of rain has fallen in Florida this week. Florida's record for the greatest amount of rainfall in a 24 hour period is 38.7 inches which fell on Yankeetown in 1950.
5th: Weather related disasters should be a warning sign to the world's leaders that climate change threatens the livelihoods of millions of people, says a report issued today by the Friends of the Earth environmental group. Severe events have included storms in Taiwan, Brazil and Canada, and flooding in Bangladesh, Japan, Vietnam and India. There have also been fires in the US, Italy and the Balkans, and droughts in Burundi, Croatia, Kenya and Iran. The environmental group said that no individual disaster could be directly blamed on man-made climate change. But scientists believe that the number of such events will rise as the effects of climate change are felt.
10th: The worst flood in the Cambodia's history has caused \$79 million in damage. The flood has affected more than 2.7 million people and nearly half of which are in urgent need of food, housing and medicine. In all, 252 people died in the flooding. 430 miles of national roads and bridges, and 925 miles of rural roads were destroyed or seriously damaged. More than 741,000 acres of rice paddies were destroyed. The Mekong River has been receding gradually for a week but most parts of southeastern Cambodia remain submerged.
11th: Clear skies under a high pressure system caused several record low October temperatures this morning in the southeast of Australia, with late frosts causing concern over frost damage to crops in Victoria's northwest. Nhill recorded a minimum of -2.0,C equal to its previous lowest October minimum in 38 years of computerised records. This followed a minimum of -1.6C on Monday morning. Laverton Airport, between Melbourne and Geelong, had its coldest October morning in 57 years with a minimum of zero. Local agronomists fear that some crops may have suffered damage. Field peas in the Hopetoun area of western Victoria appear the worst affected with damage rates between 15 and 75%. In South Australia, Parafield, north of Adelaide, broke a 38 year record with a minimum on 1.6C while Swan Island, off the northeastern coast of Tasmania, recorded a record low of 4.3C. Widespread light snow was reported across Tasmania overnight, with falls as low as Maydena in the upper Derwent Valley, and at Lake Leake in the northeastern highlands.
12th: A ferocious storm created havoc in Canterbury (New Zealand) today as many residents faced evacuation, thousands experienced power cuts, and road closures cut off access to outlying Banks Peninsula towns. Many Christchurch roads and all city parks were also closed because of danger from trees toppling in the saturated ground. Residents in Eketahuna were being advised to boil drinking water until Monday after the area's worst floods in 50 years.
14th: Heavy rains in southern Brazil swept away houses and flooded cities, killing at least six people and driving more than 5,000 from their homes, civil defense officials said Saturday. The rain, which began last Wednesday, lashed 33 cities and rural towns in Rio Grande do Sul state. The government and private groups distributed food and supplies to victims. Although the rain stopped Saturday and flood waters began to recede, weather forecasts predicted more rain in the area over the weekend.
15th: Some high rainfall totals in SE France on Friday night and Saturday. 24 hrs to 18.00 GMT on Saturday - Marseille 50 mm, Bastia on Corsica 57 mm, Montelimar 88 mm. Montelimar already had 30 mm in the previous 12 hrs - total thus 118 mm in 36 hrs. 24 hrs to 06.00 GMT on Saturday - Le Puy 46 mm, Orange 88 mm. 12 hrs to 06.00 GMT on Saturday - Carpentras 70 mm, Bec de l'Aigle 110 mm. At Nice and Antibes warm air from the south caused a rise in temperature from 19\B0C at 22.00 on Friday evening to 22\B0C at midnight.
16th: Flash flooding has claimed the lives of 47 people in Vietnam in the past 10 days. Storms this past weekend have left villages in Cambodia knee-deep in water. Since July, the death toll in Vietnam from massive flooding has risen to 463 as a result of tropical storms and flash floods. Floods claimed 31 lives in central Vietnam, where the rains have since stopped and waters have dropped to near normal levels, officials said. Sixteen more died in four southern coastal provinces.
16th: 11 individuals died on Monday as temperatures in northern Kyrgyzstan fell below zero. According to meteorologists a cold cyclone from Siberia and Kazakhstan has been hitting the northland and capital city Bishkek with heavy snowfall. On Monday, the highest temperature was just 2 degrees Celsius during the day. The average temperature in the country in October is reportedly 15C.
16th: Rescuers were resuming their searches across Switzerland and Italy today for at least 21 people missing after a weekend of mudslides and torrential rain. Seven people were missing in the Val D'Aosta region of Italy, one of the hardest hit by the rains, as a state of emergency was declared in the worst-hit areas. The death toll has now reached 10. In Switzerland, rescuers with sniffer dogs combed the mountain village of Gondo, a third of which was destroyed in a landslide on Saturday. Twelve people are missing, feared dead. In the Italian city of Turin, the Dora Baltea river burst its banks overnight, flooding several of the city's main streets with about 20 inches of water and mud. At least 250 people were evacuated from their homes. The Caselle airport was also shut down, while the road connecting Piedmont and Lombardy was cut off. The Rhone river receded slightly as the rain eased today. But much of the Swiss state was still cut off by road, and rail links were expected to remain closed for several days. On the other side of the Alps, Lake Maggiore was at its highest level in a century.
18th: Nearly 15,000 people were evacuated in the northern Italian plains Tuesday as two raging rivers - the Po, Italy's longest river, and the Ticino that feeds into it from the Alps - took aim on the region.
18th: Floods in southwest Bangladesh inundated new areas, damaging or destroying homes in nearly two dozen villages. "New areas are being flooded with water released from other areas after the army had cut through dykes and roads," said Bhabesh Chanda, a local administrator in worst-hit Satkhira district. The floods, which struck usually dry southwest in the last week of September, have killed more than 130 people, left over two million homeless and caused huge losses to the impoverished nation's economy
19th: Late-season Hurricane Michael slammed into southern Newfoundland late Thursday, knocking down power lines, disrupting ferry service and damaging homes. The hurricane evolved into an extratropical storm and weakened as it moved inland. Forecasters said it was packing winds of 85 mph late Thursday, down from almost 100 mph - Category 2 hurricane intensity -earlier in the day when it was still over the Atlantic. On land, winds blew at a measured 80 mph, forecasters said, stripping siding from homes in Seal Cove. Nearby, the village of McCallum bore the brunt of the storm. No injuries have been reported so far. Michael was the 13th named storm of this year's Atlantic hurricane season; eight have been hurricanes. The average year has 10 named storms and six hurricanes.
21st: The flood death toll in Italy and Switzerland rose to 37 Saturday after search teams found another body. Several people are still missing and at least 23,000 people are still unable to return to their homes. On Saturday, the water level of the Po was reported to be dropping by about two inches an hour. In Comacchio, where the Po empties into the Adriatic, animal carcasses, tree trunks, and other flood debris clogged the port, hindering navigation. Damage to roads, bridges and tunnels have snarled traffic in much of the affected region. In some areas, however, life was slowly returning to normal.
22nd: Thick fog, strong winds and rain threatened to curtail operations to recover the bodies of 118 sailors inside the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk. A cold front was forecast for late Sunday, raising the possibility of gale force winds in the Barents Sea that could complicate the work of divers in the area.
23rd: Thunderstorms continued to soak West Texas and eastern New Mexico during the evening, after Sunday thunderstorms reportedly produced flooding and at least one tornado. Parts of Edwards and Real counties flooded after as much as six and a half inches of rain fell on Monday. Storms stretching across the Texas Panhandle Monday afternoon produced a tornado near the eastern edge of Amarillo. No injuries were reported.
23rd: Rescue workers searched for several people believed to be missing after their trailers were swept away by fierce flooding in two western Arizona (USA) towns. Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate the neighbouring towns of Wenden and Salome after a little more than an inch of rain triggered major flooding on Sunday. Witnesses saw at least two people carried away in a torrent of water.
24th: At least five people have been killed and three are missing in floods that have been sweeping through eastern Spain since the weekend. Rescuers have been using helicopters and mechanical diggers to reach people trapped near the River Ebro in Catalonia, one of the regions worst affected by storms and torrential rain. Towns and villages along Spain's Mediterranean seaboard have been inundated. Further down the coast, in Valencia and Murcia, dozens of roads and railway lines have been cut. In all, states of emergency have been declared in 11 provinces, with Zaragoza, Teruel and Albacete also badly hit. In Valencia 149 mm fell in the 24 hrs to 1800GMT on Tuesday, including 109 mm overnight. Valencia has had 227 mm between Sunday morning and Tuesday evening.
25th: Naval commandos rescued trapped families from their balconies as rain-driven floods swept across the Tel Aviv area, temporarily closing the city's main highway and driving hundreds of residents from their homes. A little more than 3 inches fell in 24 hours. Almost 600 people in the Tel Aviv area had to be evacuated. The Ayalon Freeway, Tel Aviv's main traffic artery, was blocked for hours on its northbound lanes after the rain swept tons of mud onto the road.
28th: The death toll in weekend rainstorms in Bangladesh was at least 28. At least 200 people were injured and more than 100 fishermen missing after strong winds and heavy rains lashed the Bangladesh coast on Saturday.
29th: Tropical storm Xangsane whirled away from the Philippines on Sunday, leaving at least 12 people dead and 25 missing in its wake. More than 26,600 people were evacuated from flooded villages in southeastern portions of Luzon Island, the worst-hit area. Most of those who died either drowned or were killed by falling trees or collapsing walls. Among the missing were 19 fishermen who had been out in eight motorboats off Borlongan on the eastern island of Samar.
30th-31st: The Met Office UK said the weather in southern England was the worst for more than a decade, recalling the storm of October 1987. At least four people were killed on wet and windswept roads in England and Wales, and a Dutch ship's captain was found dead after falling into the hold of his vessel anchored off Torbay. There were four deaths in France and one in Ireland, most of them caused by falling trees. The Eurostar train service, linking London with Paris and Brussels, was suspended until 1500 GMT on Monday, and in France the speed of the TGV high-speed trains was cut to half, as high winds brought trees down across railway lines. Air France cancelled 140 flights in total, 30 of them long-haul, and British Airways cancelled 88 flights on Monday morning alone. Ferries between Denmark and Sweden were also disrupted, and light traffic - motorcycles and cars with trailers - were prevented from travelling on the new Oresund bridge connecting the two countries. Several towns on Norway's southern coast were flooded, with abnormally high tides, driven by wind and rain, flooding the centre of Kristiansand and Arendal. As gale-force winds lashed the Atlantic coast of France, an Italian cargo ship carrying toxic chemicals sent out distress signals, and all 14 aboard were taken ashore by helicopter. In N Holland, 24-hour rainfall totals to 0600GMT on the 30th included West Terschelling 81.2 mm, Midsland 82 mm, Formerum 91.3 mm. The village of Oost-Vlieland on the island of Vlieland had 85.5 mm - giving a total of 114 mm there between Friday and Monday morning. Five passengers were slightly hurt when a train caught fire near Utrecht - probably as a result of wind damage to the overhead wiring.
31st: Rescue efforts were halted Tuesday evening on Indonesia's main island as heavy rains continued to pound sites where landslides killed at least 34 people. In the Central Java province town of Cilacap, 21 bodies were found after seven rain-triggered landslides early on Monday and nine people were missing and feared dead.
31st: Worsening Drought in Southeast US: In the U.S., drought conditions have worsened across the southeast, with many areas in moderate to extreme drought. Some locations, including the Greenville-Spartanburg airport in South Carolina, have recorded no rainfall for the entire month of October. The 2000 drought, affecting agricultural regions of the south and southeast since spring, has caused well over $2 billion in losses. This includes significant losses to the corn, cotton, and soybean crops.

World weather news, November 2000

1st: A tornado hit the North Dakota capital city of Bismarck Wednesday afternoon. More than 40 homes were damaged and shoppers at the city's largest shopping mall had to take cover. It was one of several twisters reported in North Dakota. It was the first time a tornado had struck the state in November since official record-keeping began in 1916.
2nd: Typhoon Xangsane whirled away from Taiwan and closer to southern Japan, leaving 54 dead and 32 missing in the island's worst flooding in three decades. The storm also killed 40 people and left 66 others missing in the Philippines last week. It caused the worst floods in Taiwan for 30 years.
2nd: As a blizzard dumped snow across the Northern Plains (USA), a tour bus carrying dozens of Canadian tourists flipped over in southwestern North Dakota and landed upside down. Many of the 56 people aboard the bus Thursday suffered broken bones and a few were flown to Bismarck with more serious injuries. The central and northern Black Hills area of South Dakota was hit the hardest, while Lead, South Dakota, set a single-day accumulation record, with 31.9 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
1st-3rd: Heavy rain in Hawaii. The rains were the heaviest and most persistent across the eastern half (windward side) of Hawaii. Hilo reported 27.24 inches of rain in a 24-hour period from approximately 1 PM HST on November 1st, 2000. This broke the previous 24 hour rainfall record of 22.30 inches set on February 19th and 20th in 1979. Deep tropical moisture was pulled northward over parts of the Hawaiian Islands fueling strong convection and flooding rains. The rainfall from the thunderstorms flooded numerous homes, forcing dozens of families to evacuate. In addition, several landslides were reported on Hawaii Belt Highway, and schools and most businesses were closed. Kapapala Ranch on the island of Hawaii reported 27.49 inches of rain for a 24 hour period ending at 2AM HST on November 3rd, 2000. The Hawaiian state 24 hour rainfall record is 38.00 inches at Kilauea Plantation on the island of Kauai and occurred on Jan 24-25, 1956.
3rd: Typhoon Bebinca affected the northern Philippines on Friday, killing at least 26 people, triggering landslides and flooding many areas. Packing winds of up to 95 mph when it hit, the storm was about 260 miles west-northwest of Manila midday Saturday, moving toward southern China at 12 mph with top winds of 65 mph. Bebinca is expected to re-gain strength as it moves across the South China Sea. Typhoon Bebinca arrived a week after Typhoon Xangsane swept through the northern Philippines and left 54 people dead, 249 injured and 66 missing.
2nd-6th: Heavy rains and thunderstorms associated with the slow passage of a cold front and upper-level low pressure system through Texas state was responsible for flooding that claimed six lives.
6th: Alpes-Maritimes in SE France had hours of heavy rain and strong winds - leading to flooding and landslips. Gusts of 85-95 km/hr in Nice. In Nice a 60 year-old man was killed by a landslip. The seaward side of the Promenade des Anglais seafront road was closed to traffic on Monday evening because of shingle blown from the beach. Nice Airport was also closed for a time. A 34 year-old man was killed by a mudslide in the town of Gap as he was helping a driver whose car had got stuck in the mud. Rainfall totals in the 24 hrs to 19.00 local time on Monday - Ajaccio on Corsica 46 mm, Bordeaux 49 mm, Marseille 54 mm, Nice 111 mm, Cannes 116 mm. Vence in the hills above Nice had 143 mm between 18.00 local time on Sunday and 12.00 on Monday - including 98 mm between 04.00 and 10.00. Amateur site at Besse-sur-Issole NE of Toulon had 93 mm between 22.00 on Sunday and 12.00 on Monday. Cap Ferret near Arcachon reported 83 km/hr gusting 130 km/hr and Pointe du Raz in Brittany 91 km/hr gusting 120 km/hr. Earlier in the day mean winds/gusts reported included Ouessant 83/111 km/hr, Ile d'Ol\E9ron 60/110 km/hr, Belle Ile 70/120 km/hr and Ile d'Yeu 70/120 km/hr.
5th-6th: On Sunday night Switzerland was swept by violent f\F6hn winds - electric poles and trees were blown down and some houses suffered damaged roofs. Gusts of 200 km/hr were reported on the highest peaks.
6th: Rain-triggered landslides killed at least 52 people. As many as 14 villages in Central Java province were hit on Sunday after two days of heavy monsoon rain. In the village of Pacekelen, 14 people were buried alive. Ten are still missing. Police and soldiers are working to find survivors. Last week, landslides killed 36 people in the same region, about 280 miles from Jakarta.
6th-7th: In northern Italy storms caused floods and landslides, forcing scores of people to evacuate their homes. Three people, including an elderly man who drowned in his home, died on Monday in Liguria, the area around Genoa which has been hit hard by recent bad weather. Another man died in Val D'Aosta. In the centre-southern Abruzzo region, a man was missing after his fishing boat went down in a storm off the coast of Vasto, in the Adriatic Sea. Another man aboard has been rescued. 24-hour rainfall totals included - Turin 36 mm, Rivolto 43 mm, Piacenza 52 mm, Genoa 94 mm, and in the Giovi Pass 130 mm. Locarno in Switzerland had 91 mm.
8th-9th: Powerful thunderstorms moved across Alabama overnight and spread into Georgia, soaking Atlanta's morning rush hour. The storm system battered parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Wednesday and generated at least thirty-two tornado warnings. A warning means that a tornado either has been sighted or has been indicated on radar.
9th: Snow moved into the Dallas-Fort Worth (USA) area overnight and iced roads and bridges. The snow was heaviest in western portions of the state. The city of Sweetwater reported 10 inches of snow. Five inches of snow fell on San Angelo, which tied the city's record date for the earliest snowfall.
12th: Powerful thunderstorms battered the Houston (Texas, USA) area Sunday night. High winds tore the roofs off apartment buildings, knocked down trees and left thousands of people without electricity. Five people received minor injuries, when the winds ripped the roofs off five apartment buildings in south Houston. A wind gust of about 78 mph was recorded at Houston's Hobby International Airport. At one point, 23,000 customers were without power in Harris, Fort Bend and Wharton counties. The storm also generated golf-ball sized hail in some areas.
12th: The Leonid meteor shower is expected next weekend and once again, NASA will offer a stratospheric view of the annual show. As many as 100 shooting stars per hour could streak across the sky on Nov.17 and 18, as the earth passes through debris from the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The best viewing is expected from the eastern United States, Canada, Africa and Europe. However, weather conditions, city lights and uncertain meteor forecasts can disappoint Leonid fans, so the best view may be on your computer screen. NASA plans to launch a camera-equipped weather balloon 100,000 feet above the earth and then offer live pictures of the meteor shower on the web at LeonidsLive.com. The balloon is scheduled for launch early Saturday morning, Nov.18 and should reach maximum altitude during the last of three meteor stream encounters.
15th: The native people of the Canadian Arctic are seeing something unknown in their oral history - thunder and lightning. Electric storms in the upper Arctic are among the evidence of climate change being reported in a new study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The study lists various environmental changes, including melting permafrost and thinning ice. And some more subtle changes, such as the appearance of robins and barn swallows that allegedly weren't previously seen so far north.
16th: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared a state of emergency in 10 states after days of incessant heavy rains left at least three people dead and 2,400 homeless in the northern coast. The rains have raised fears of a recurrence of last year's massive floods and mudslides that killed at least 15,000 people, left tens of thousands homeless and wiped out entire towns in the northern coastal state of Vargas. The capital city of Caracas, Vargas and eight other states on the northern coast and to the west were declared in a state of emergency. Two people died after mudslides buried their homes and one man drowned after he was swept away by an overflowing river. Rivers swelled, streets became streams and mudslides buried hundreds of shanty homes this week as rains poured down on the northern coast and west of the country.
16th-17th: Yet more heavy falls of rain in parts of SE France and Northern Italy. Rainfall totals in the 24 hrs ending 0600 GMT on Friday included Nice 40 mm, Le Luc 53 mm, Hy\E8res 55 mm, Cap C\E9petn 93 mm and Locarno 68 mm. Near gale force N-NW mistral in Marseille on Friday afternoon and evening with gusts to 91 km/hr. Toulon and St Tropez had gusts to 110 km/hr; Cap B\E9ar near Collioure reported 125 km/hr. 24-hour rainfall totals ending 1800 GMT on Friday included Piacenza 47 mm, Turin 49 mm, Genoa 84 mm. Oran on the Algerian coast had 45 mm in the 24 hrs ending 0600 GMT on Saturday.
19th: Two avalanches swept away groups of skiers at separate resorts in the western province of Tyrol, killing four people. The first avalanche roared down a mountain at the ski resort of Obergurgl, 215 miles west of Vienna, killing three German skiers. The search using helicopters and dogs was concentrated on the Rosskar ski area, where witnesses said skiers had ventured onto runs that had been closed due to avalanche warnings. A second avalanche struck hours later in Goelbner, another tiny Tyrolean resort 260 miles southwest of Vienna. It swept away a group of seven skiers, killing an Austrian man.
19th: Torrential rain sweeping across parts of western and central Greece flooded thousands of homes and left motorists stranded, from Athens to the holiday island of Corfu. Many districts in Athens were blacked out for several hours, as rain water flooded central roads and buildings in the capital. One woman was killed when her car was hit by falling rocks on a southbound Athens highway. In Corfu, fierce gales damaged homes, lifting the roofs off many properties.
19th: At least 11,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Sri Lanka's northeast after floods swept through three cities. The displaced people were rushing to safer areas from Batticaloa, Ampara and Polonnaruwah towns and taking refuge in schools, hospitals and public buildings, the broadcast said. Heavy rains lashed the region, damaging huts, harming crops, lagoon fish and prawn yields.
20th: Flooding triggered by torrential downpours derailed a train, caused rivers to overflow their banks and submerged rice fields in central Vietnam. At least 31 people were killed. An average of 12 inches of rain fell on nine coastal provinces from Thursday to Sunday, causing the region's rivers to swell. One train and three carriages derailed near the resort city of Nha Trang when a culvert was washed away Friday night, killing the engineer and injuring his assistant.
20th: Fueled by two weeks of heavy rain, floodwaters cut off villages and destroyed crops Monday in two eastern Australian states. About 50 homes in the village of Woolomin, about 150 miles north of Sydney, were evacuated as the Peel River burst its banks. The swollen river also threatened the nearby provincial town of Tamworth. At least 12 rivers in northern New South Wales state were reported to be flooding. To the north in Queensland state, damage in the town of Mackay was being assessed after torrential rain forced the evacuation of homes and damaged fields of sugar cane. Flood warnings also were in force for rivers across eastern Queensland.
20th: Rising floodwaters disrupted rail and road travel in western Sweden. A graveyard in the town of Arvika was reportedly submerged, as rivers flowing south from the Norweigen Mountains, through western Sweden, reached record levels. Sweden's largest lake, Vanern is reportedly so full that the state controlled utility Vattenfall has been forced to release an unprecedented 1,000 cubic metres of water per second in to the Gota Canal system leading towards Gothenburg.
21st: All schools in Vladivostok were closed as snowstorms raged in the area for more than 24 hours. Many streets were reportedly under 1.5m of snow.
21st: Rescue workers pulled out the bodies of four people who died when a mudslide hit their house in the Tuscan countryside. One other person was missing and presumed dead. The mudslide hit the village of Vinchiana, located about 6 miles north of Lucca, on Monday. Heavy rains have caused floods in northern and central Italy, forcing scores of people to evacuate their homes.
22nd: Buffalo (New York) was moving again as tow truck drivers, police officers and snow plows worked through the night to clear roads blanketed by a 25-inch snowstorm. Stuck schoolchildren were reunited with their parents, and a 65-mile section of the New York State Thruway reopened on Wednesday morning. The monthly total as of 7 AM LST on the 21st was 42.20 inches, which is a new monthly November record
22nd: A storm that has been raging since the weekend has killed nine people in Mozambique. Five of those killed in the recent rains were in the central province of Zambezia and four were in the northern province of Nampula.
23rd: 1,800 individuals remained in makeshift shelters in Canada de Gomez after a severe storm hit the city Wednesday night and early Thursday causing a river bordering the city to overflow. Two deaths have been reported, and more than 1,000 homes were damaged as 150mm of rain fell on the city in a few hou
24th: An elderly couple died when their home was swept away in a mudslide on the Italian Riviera and hundreds of people were evacuated after fresh torrential rains hit the region. The town of Imperia and villages in the mountainous hinterland were isolated by landslides and mudslides that also disrupted rail traffic on Thursday and Friday morning on the coastal line between Genoa and the French border, and closed down roads.
27th: Torrential rain and strong winds wreaked havoc in Paphos (Cyprus). A total of 40-43mm of rainfall accumulated in Paphos as property was damaged and power was disrupted. However, the highest rainfall total recorded was 96mm in Athalassa.
28th: Bad weather downed power lines, forcing two more Ukrainian nuclear reactors to shut down and leaving millions of people without electricity. Driving rain, snow, ice and heavy winds have swept across Ukraine since the weekend, causing widespread power failures. Nuclear plants provide 50% of Ukraine electricity. Half of its 14 reactors were down on Tuesday.
29th: Cyclone 03B uprooted hundreds of trees and demolished mud huts on India's southern coast, killing six people and injuring 12. The storm's 75 mph winds struck the mainland from the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday at Cuddalore, a port town in Tamil Nadu state/ The cyclone weakened and later dissipated after it hit the coastline.
30th: The six-month Atlantic hurricane season officially ends today with a tally of 14 named storms, of which eight became hurricanes and three reached major hurricane status with steady winds faster than 110 mph. Despite the busier-than-normal season, the USA escaped without a hurricane strike. The last time that happened was in 1994.
30th>: A late-season tropical storm brought heavy rain, high waves and flooding to parts of the southern Philippines, forcing residents to flee coastal villages. The storm affected Siargao island, a popular surfing spot 470 miles southeast of Manila. Nine towns were flooded in northern Mindanao, forcing 1,640 people to flee their homes by rising floodwaters and big waves that threatened coastal villages in the region. Elsewhere, more than 1,500 passengers waiting for ferry rides from the main island of Luzon to central Philippine islands were stranded after authorities halted ferry services.

World weather news, December 2000

1st: The lower 48 states (USA) had the second coldest November on record (since 1895), mostly due to the cold in the West. For instance, Denver's mean temperature of 28.9F was 8.7F below normal, and was only surpassed back in 1880. See here for more figures.
2nd: Reported on the radio this morning, New Zealand experienced the coolest November for 50 years. This was attributed to the number of south westerly weather systems passing over the country. It was colder then usual in central and eastern areas of the North Island and drier and more sunny in the north and west of the South Island.
2nd: Floods have killed at least 14 people and left thousands homeless in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province. Days of monsoon rains caused the city's three rivers to burst their banks late on Thursday. Flooding and landslides have killed at least 200 people in Indonesia in the last month. Environmentalists say widespread deforestation - the result of timber cutting by logging operations and villagers looking for firewood - has been a contributing factor in the devastation.
2nd: A river swollen by heavy rains overflowed its banks near the gold fields of northwestern Tanzania, killing at least 26 people and injuring 17 others. More than two hours of heavy rainfall on Friday caused the Mirongo River to swell on the outskirts of the Lake Victoria port of Mwanza. It was the first time in memory that such heavy flooding hit the region, which is the East African nation's breadbasket and center of gold mining activities.
2nd: Floods subsided in much of the central and southern Philippines as tropical storm Rumbia moved away from the country, but the storm left at least 12 people dead and seven missing
6th: Early snow storms in Mongolia have killed almost 16,000 head of livestock and thousands of families are migrating to save herds from another devastating winter, the State Emergency Commission.
7th: The 2001 Atlantic hurricane season will be quieter after six years of record activity, said hurricane forecaster William Gray Thursday. Gray and his team of forecasters expect nine named storms, five hurricanes and two major hurricanes in 2001. Between 1950 and 1990, the Atlantic Basin, which includes the North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, averaged 9.3 named storms, 5.8 hurricanes and 2.2 major hurricanes per year.
8th: Cyclone Sam was upgraded to a category five severe tropical cyclone early on Friday - the top of a five-point scale - as it moved closer to Australia. At 4 a.m. WST (2000 GMT on the 7th) Sam was located 93 miles west of Broome, Western Australia
10th: A trough crossing Belgium on Sunday afternoon gave heavy showers with thunder in many places and hail in some. Alsemberg near Brussels reported 1 cm diameter hailstones. Gusts recorded included 70kn at Li\E8ge-Bierset. In St G\E9rard near Namur one person was killed and another injured when they were hit by roof tiles blown off by the wind. In Wortegem-Petegem in East Flanders, the roofs of 3 houses were badly damaged. In various other places the fire brigade were called to deal with blown down trees, snapped electric cables and damaged roofs and chimneys. In Puurs near Antwerp several cars were damaged when part of the roof of a block of flats blew on to them. Around 14.00 the village of Houdain south of Lille in Northern France suffered what might have been a small tornado. A number of house roofs were severely damaged and a man was hurt by debris. Storms affected Germany later in the evening. In Trier roofs were blown off stalls in the Christmas market - 5 people were hurt by flying debris. Nuremberg Airport registered wind force 10 and around 40 calls were made to the fire brigade there to deal with wind damage.
11th: Cold air from Canada, combined with a storm system that probably was born near the Rockies, created ice and snow that coated much of Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana (USA). The cold reached south to Texas and as far west as California, Washington and Oregon. By midday, United Airlines had cancelled 364 of its 434 planned departures from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and 334 of its 434 planned arrivals. O'Hare is United's biggest hub
13th: The monsoon trough, extending NE from ex-TC Sam across the Gulf of Carpentaria (Australia), continues to produce isolated heavy falls. Abington Downs, near Georgetown, southeast of the Gulf, recorded 136.6mm to 9am. Over 400mm has fallen to the south and east of the Gulf in the past week, with river systems, including the Gregory, in flood. Two people were airlifted from their home near Lawn Hill National Park today as floodwaters rose.
14th: A group of up to 163 illegal immigrants feared drowned while trying to reach Australia from Indonesia likely sailed into a massive cyclone, Australia's immigration minister said. Australia has said the 163 immigrants, probably from the Middle East, were thought to have died after leaving Indonesia late last week in two boats for Ashmore Islands, an outcrop of reefs about 600 km (370 miles) off Australia's remote northwest. The two boats -- one carrying 87 people and another with 80 aboard -- left while Tropical Cyclone Sam was building in intensity off Australia's northwest near the Timor Sea. Four survivors were picked up by a Japanese tanker.
14th: Residents from the Plains to the Northeast (USA) coped with power outages and treacherous travel as a winter storm that rampaged across the nation moved out to sea. Nearly 500,000 homes and businesses in Arkansas and Texas alone were without electricity after Wednesday's ice storms caused power lines to fall. Slick roads and heavy snowfall caused at least 11 traffic deaths from Texas to Indiana.
14th: One person was seriously injured and others were feared buried under rubble Thursday after a portion of a snow-covered roof collapsed in a suburban shopping mall in Sarnia, Ontario (Canada). Much of central and eastern Canada have been under a blanket of snow since Monday, with two winter storms dumping 40 to 50 centimeters (16 to 20 inches) of snow over the region.
15th: Winds gusting up to 90 mph left at least 100,000 homes and businesses without electricity in western Washington State (USA) as snow snarled traffic in other parts of the state. One death was reported on snowy roads.
15th: Freezing rain affected much of Arkansas (USA) today, closing more than 100 schools throughout the state.
16th: Tornadoes killed 12 and injured over 50 when they hit Tuscaloosa and other parts of Alabama (USA).
17th: Thousands of people waited for the electricity to be turned back on today as the latest in a series of storms blew blinding snow and bitingly cold air across the USA. Police urged travellers to stay off the roads in parts of the northern Plains as blowing snow cut visibility to near zero. Highways had been shut down in parts of Wyoming, cutting off access to one town, and winds gusting to 41 mph have produced wind chills as low 47 degrees below zero at Fergus Falls, Minn.
19th: Floods and mudslides triggered by two days of heavy rain killed 13 people and drove more than 2,000 from their homes in southeastern Brazil, civil defense officials said Tuesday. Although the torrential weekend rains that pounded the states of Espirito Santo, Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo have subsided, some cities and towns remained isolated because of damaged bridges and flooded highways.
25th: Mudslides caused by heavy rains in southern Brazil killed three people and blocked roads. Two toddlers and an unidentified third person were buried in collapsed homes Sunday night in the city of Alto Feliz, said Ricardo Andre Lanius, a highway patrol officer in Rio Grande do Sul state. He said heavy seasonal rains caused flooding in the northern part of the state and washed out parts of a major state highway near Porto Alegre, some 700 miles southwest of Rio de Janeiro.
27th: Workers cleared rocks and branches from Havana's major thoroughfares today after heavy weekend rain killed two people and damaged 135 homes. The deluge - an average of 6.9 inches - took its toll on Havana's older neighbourhoods, collapsing 25 dilapidated buildings. Local administrator
28th: Exceptional extremes in temperature continued today, with both minimum and maximum temperatures 10C to 15C above and below normal reported. It was an unusually cold start to the day in southeastern Australia as the cold air that has been sweeping Tasmania over the past few days made its presence felt. Canberra recorded its coldest summer morning since 1987 when the thermometer dropped to 3C, while Omeo, across the border in Victoria, recorded -1.2C, 9.5C below normal, and Scamander on Tasmania's east coast recorded 3.8C, its lowest December minimum in a 17 year record. Meanwhile, towns in southwestern WA had a hot night with temperatures not dropping below the mid-20s, around 11 or 12C above average. Today, cloud again kept much of Central Queensland 10 to 15 below, while Western Australia's heatwave moved east somewhat, giving Albany Airport a top temperature of 40.9C, only 2C shy of its December record, and towns in the Great Southern tops of around 40C.
30th: Nearly a week after a Christmas ice storm devastated the southern Plains (USA), tens of thousands of homes and businesses in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas remain without power. About 135,000 homes and businesses in the state remained in the dark. Some communities have also been without water and sewer service for days. In Oklahoma, about 104,000 people remained without power, and some areas weren't expected to get service restored for five to 10 days.
31st: A rare snowfall up to 4 inches deep made roadways slick and sent numerous cars and trucks spinning off the road throughout northern Louisiana on New Year's Eve. It was the largest accumulation in the state in 15 years, as temperatures dipped down into the 20s overnight. By nightfall, Interstate 49 and the eastbound lanes of Interstate 220 were closed. Traffic was at a standstill along state Highway 3 after two 18-wheelers collided and three others slid off the roadway. I-20 between Ruston and Monroe was also clogged.
31st: At east one runway is open in each of the New York area's airport as the region begins cleaning up from a record snowstorm. As much as 29 inches of snow plastered New York, New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast USA on Saturday, cancelling hundreds of flights and slowing motorists in and out of some of the nation's major cities to a crawl. New York's Central Park recorded 12 inches of snow, a record for Dec. 30.

If you have a snippet of weather news that you feel merits inclusion, then please feel free to email it to me.

Last updated 28 September 2015.