Grand Ole Opry Flood

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0504/Grand-Ole-Opry-flood-and-other-crazy-weather-El-Nino-s-fault


The floods that have inundated Nashville, Tenn., nearly sank the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and the Grand Ole Opry, and killed at least 24 people may be part of a greater weather anomaly that has bedeviled parts of the South, Midwest, and Northeast since last fall.

The culprits? The famous El Niño warm-water effect in the Pacific Ocean sent moisture-soaked air up from the Gulf, even as a powerful phenomenon called the North Atlantic Oscillation put a linebacker block on the atmospheric jet stream off the East Coast, forcing Arctic air deep into the South. Tallahassee, Fla., broke its all-time cold record with 13 days straight of freezing temperatures in early January.

"Here's the story: The El Niño comes across, you get mudslides in California, snow in Dallas, tornadoes in areas you usually don't get them, and then as the low-pressure systems left the coast of the United States, the back side from the oscillation pulled all the cold air down," says Jim O'Brien, an El Niño expert at Florida State University in Tallahassee. "It's the ocean, baby."

Bad Weather Hampers Oil Skimming in the Gulf

June 28, is day 70 of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. To get a sense of the challenge involved in trying to clean up all that oil, one has to head out to sea.

Gulf coast residents had feared a tropical storm. Monday's weather wasn't that bad, but it was bad enough to bring relief efforts on the water to a halt.

Seven miles out to sea there were rolling seven-foot seas. It makes the skimming operations to recover oil much more difficult.



http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/28/eveningnews/main6627942.shtml

Bad Weather Slows Aid to Indonesia Tsunami Victims Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/29/shortage-boats-slows-aid-indonesia-tsunami/#ixz

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/10/29/shortage-boats-slows-aid-indonesia-tsunami/

A group of private aid workers battled fierce swells and driving rain that kept most craft on shore, managing to deliver food and other supplies to desperate survivors on the islands hardest hit by a tsunami that killed at least 413 people.

Hundreds of miles to the east, a volcano that has claimed 36 lives in recent days erupted again early Saturday, temporarily forcing shut an airport. Plumes of heavy gray ash poured from the crater's mouth as rocks and debris cascaded down its slopes.

The twin catastrophes, striking on different ends of the seismically active country this week, have severely tested Indonesia's emergency response network.

Government agencies pulled back boats and helicopters Friday that had been ferrying tsunami aid to the most distant corners of the Mentawai islands and resorted to air-dropping boxes of aid from planes.

On a borrowed 75-foot cruiser, aid workers faced rough seas and sheets of rain -- plus miserable seasickness -- to bring noodles, sardines and sleeping mats to villages that have not received any help since Monday's earthquake. In one village, most people were still huddling in a church in the hills, too afraid to come down even to get the aid.

Eiffel Tower is shut down.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11951703

Heavy snow in Paris brought buses to a halt on Wednesday, suspended flights at Charles de Gaulle airport and prompted the closure of the Eiffel Tower.

The Meteo France service reported that one of its Paris weather stations had recorded 11cm (4.5in) of snow. The French capital has not seen a larger one-day snowfall since 1987.

Although the Paris Metro and rail network were operating normally on Wednesday, Charles de Gaulle airport closed for part of the afternoon until workers were able to clear the runways of snow. The operators of the Eiffel Tower decided to close the monument as salt could not be used to tackle the snow and ice because of possible damage to the iron structure. The national centre for traffic information described secondary routes in the Paris region as "catastrophic". By mid-afternoon, the bus operator RATP declared that not a single bus was running.

Cold on the East Coast

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/12/01/us-east-weather001.html

Winds whipped across the U.S. East Coast on Wednesday as the region wrestled with yet another day of heavy rain and severe weather that knocked out power to thousands, slowed commuters and caused widespread damage.

Tornado watches were issued for parts of the Virginias, and officials in Washington, D.C., handed out sandbags to protect homes from flooding. Thousands of customers were without electricity in the mid-Atlantic area and New York, and some schools delayed openings. The storm system has brought suspected tornadoes to several southeastern states since Monday, from Louisiana to South Carolina. The system was headed toward the Northeast, with colder air turning the rain into snow.

Severe weather causes over $700 million in damages.

Damage estimates related to severe weather events and one earthquake in Canada likely topped $700 million in 2010, extrapolating from information contained in Aon Benfield's November 2010 Monthly Cat Recap report.
The report lists damage estimates, both insured and uninsured, related to 10 specific severe storm events and one earthquake in Canada in 2010.
When known damage estimates for the above events are added together, all of these events caused at least $700 million in damages.
However, the total is likely much higher, and may have even approached $1 billion.

http://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/issues/story.aspx?aid=1000395447

Severe Weather causes deaths all over Europe

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6298036,00.html

After an unusually early and severe start to winter which has killed more than 60 people, temperatures are beginning to rise across Europe. However the mercury has remained below freezing point in many areas.

In Poland, five more people died as temperatures early on Sunday fell to minus 24 degrees Celsius (minus 11 Fahrenheit). This brought the death toll there to 36 since the beginning of the month and 51 since the start of September. Most of the victims were homeless people seeking shelter in unheated abandoned buildings or garden sheds. The deaths overnight of a man and woman in Prague brought the number killed in the cold snap to six in the Czech capital.

Band on Hunting in Scotland

The shooting of ducks, geese and waders is to be suspended in Scotland for the second time this year because of severe weather. From one minute past midnight on the morning of Friday 10th December it will become illegal to shoot ducks including reared mallard, geese, woodcock, snipe and golden plover. The suspension could last for up to two weeks, but will be reviewed after seven days and could be lifted if there is an improvement in conditions. The last such suspension was in January 2010.

"The legal suspension of the shooting of wildfowl and wading birds offers extra protection when an extended period of severe weather is likely to disrupt the birds’ feeding and roosting patterns. BASC has already issued advice to people who shoot to exercise restraint over the last week."

http://www.farminguk.com/news/Cold-weather-brings-legal-restrictions-on-shooting_19369.html

Too much snow in Scotland

http://www.channel4.com/news/snow-heads-south-as-severe-weather-cripples-scotland

A band of sleet and snow is set to move south from Scotland across northern England this afternoon, the Met Office has forecast, while northern parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland will battle further snow showers.

With temperatures expected to fall to -20C tonight in the Highlands, the Met warned motorists of more black ice on the roads. Misty low cloud is due to develop in the south tonight, but it will remain clear across the north. There will be plenty of wintry sunshine tomorrow, the Met said, but will be another cold day with temperatures struggling to hit highs of 3C.

Temperatures are expected to climb by Thursday, rising to above zero in most places across the country. MeteoGroup has forecast a change in the wind from easterly to north-westerly, bringing milder conditions. However, the group warned that respite from the cold will be brief – with air temperatures cooling again next week.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid601325122001?bctid=702036918001
(LINK TO VIDEO)

Deadly Floods in Australia

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/hundreds-cut-off-by-deadly-floods-20101208-18pxi.html

Yesterday, 140 people were stranded in Pilliga, northern NSW, due to flooding.

Last night, a severe weather warning for damaging winds and flash flooding was issued for parts of central and western NSW as a trough of low pressure travelled across the state.

Flood warnings were in place for all western-flowing NSW rivers from the Namoi to the Murrumbidgee and the Bureau of Meteorology issued a watch for major flooding in the Namoi, Castlereagh, Macquarie, Lachlan and Murrumbidgee catchments.

The heaviest rain was likely to fall overnight and into today, a bureau forecaster, Michael Logan, said.

An average of 50 millimetres of rain was likely to fall across central NSW but severe thunderstorms could result in falls of more than 100 millimetres in some areas.