“At least 19 people have been killed and about 100 more injured in flash floods in southern Iran.
“Dramatic footage showed crumpled cars piled up deep in mud and water and people clinging to lamp posts after floods swept through the city of Shiraz, where most of the deaths occurred on Monday.
“Pirhossein Kolivand, head of Iran’s emergency medical services, said four children were among those who died, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reports.
“High water is said to have damaged thousands of houses in the city and other towns, and 26 out of 31 regions are on high alert for imminent flooding because of torrential rain forecast for the coming days.
“The spread of flooding to the south comes after days of floods in the north which affected more than 56,000 people living in 270 villages and small towns in the regions of Golestan and Mazandaran on the Caspian Sea.”
“A border crossing linking Syria’s Kurdish-administered areas to Iraq’s northern Kurdish region has been flooded due to heavy rains.
“The Semelka crossing was shut Monday as flooding rendered two pontoon bridges across the Tigris out of order.”
https://apnews.com/38db2f8d27ce486293f4510d1b3fa265
“It’s not even peak summer season yet, but Mumbai was sweating it out at 40.3 degrees Celsius on Monday… seven degrees above normal, according to the IMD’s Santacruz observatory.
“Many Mumbaikars took to social media to share news of the heat, some even sharing screenshots of temperatures in their localities.”
“Homes in Boodarie near the WA Pilbara town of Port Hedland are being evacuated after the suburb was cut off by rising floodwaters following ex-Tropical Cyclone Veronica.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-26/homes-near-port-hedland-cut-off-by-flooding-as/10941438
“A Cape York grazier has fears thousands of cattle stranded in floodwaters could be dead in the aftermath of Cyclone Trevor…
“The cyclone swept through the cape on its way to the Northern Territory early last week, but flooding rains continued to fill the river systems into the weekend.”
“As gale-force winds create huge dust storms in Victoria’s Central Gippsland [Australia], farmers say it is time to call the drought a natural disaster as the little remaining topsoil is blown away from paddocks.
“Winds of more than 100 kilometres per hour battered bare paddocks across Giffard and Seaspray yesterday, causing sandy topsoil to build up along fences and roads.”
“A state of emergency has been declared in Westland [NZ] as torrential rain brings flooding to the region, with the Waiho Bridge, south of Franz Josef Glacier, totally washed away.
“The heavy rain raised rivers to record levels, closed roads and prompted evacuation warnings in the area. Some parts of Westland face up to 800 millimetres of rain [31.5 inches] during the downpour. The town of Haast is experiencing a one-in-100-year flood…”
“Intense rains in Ecuador killed 20 people and left more than 20,000 homeless…
“…the National Risk and Emergency Management Service reported.
“At least eight of the 24 provinces of Ecuador were affected by heavy rains and bad weather caused a lot of damage in the Ecuadorian capital.”
https://mundo.sputniknews.com/america-latina/201903261086301165-intensas-lluvias-en-ecuador/
“Heavy downpour caused several emergencies in Medellín [Colombia]; Heavy downpour caused several emergencies in Medellín.
“The floods occurred mainly in the center and northeast of the capital of Antioquia.
“The heavy downpour that fell on Medellín and three other municipalities of Antioquia caused tree falls, floods and chaos in mobility.”
“The Sunday evening hail storms that left parts of Frisco, McKinney and Allen with a trail of broken windshields will likely be a $300-$400 million storm.
“Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the industry trade group, the Insurance Council of Texas, said a 4 square-mile area in Collin County sustained the the most serious damage and that early projections place the amount of insured losses at $300-400 million.”
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/article228370299.html
“…Kevin Low, a hydrologist with the National Weather Services’ Missouri Basin River Forecast Center, said streams running into the Missouri are high. Two major rivers in South Dakota, the Big Sioux and the White River, are flooding. He said the snowpack was heavy, and it’s held on later than normal into the spring.
“What’s more, the soil across the upper Midwest is too wet to absorb much more water. And to top it all off, forecasters are predicting a better-than-average chance for major thunderstorms this spring.”
https://www.kcur.org/post/missouri-river-now-primed-catastrophic-spring-floods#stream/0
“The sudden squall followed soaking, record-challenging rains the previous day [Washington DC].”
“Atlantic City International Airport recorded more than 68 inches of precipitation in 2018, breaking a 70-year record.”
“Last week’s record warmth in Alberta will shortly give way to a return to winter-like form, with a storm set to bring messy weather, including heavy snow in some areas.”
“Ant invasions are on the rise due to Ireland’s warmest winter on record.
“While ants typically invade during summer time, the country’s record-breaking winter temperatures saw a spike in the number of homes and businesses experiencing ant infestations.
“With such high invasion numbers, pest controllers Rentokil has seen a massive increase in the number of ant callouts in the first two months of this year, compared with the same period last year.”
https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/ant-invasions-rise-ireland-after-14184784
“Asian hornets are set to invade Britain as the country faces a sizzling three-month heatwave.
“Nests have been found in New Alresford and Brockenhurst in Hampshire’s New Forest tourist hotspot, leading to fears that families could be attacked.
“The hornets have already killed five people in France and hibernating queens will soon be waking up in the UK. Christine McClellan, of the Isle of Wight Beekeeping Association, told the Daily Star: “It is vital that we increase the urgent awareness to this impending disaster.””
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8719536/killer-asian-hornets-invade-britain-three-month-heatwave/
“In 2018, record drought across Germany caused crop failures and left farmers struggling. Germany’s meteorological office says the droughts were not a once off and is setting up an early warning system to help farmers…
“The grain farmer hopes 2018 was an exception not soon to be repeated, otherwise he says the outlook for German agriculture is grim.”
“About 1.85 million people have now been affected by Cyclone Idai and its aftermath in Mozambique alone, U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said on Tuesday, as aid workers raced to fathom the scale of the disaster and determine what help is most urgently needed…
“At least 686 people have been killed by the storm and its aftermath across the three countries, a figure that could rise as relief workers prepare for what they say are inevitable outbreaks of diseases including malaria and cholera.”
“Australian researchers have discovered huge underwater lakes beneath the largest glacier in east Antarctica.
“The lakes were detected by scientists setting off small explosives 2m below the surface of the Totten glacier and listening to the reflected sound.
“The Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Dr Ben Galton-Fenzi said the research was critical to helping scientists predict how the melting of Antarctic glaciers would change the world’s oceans.”
“Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the production of energy reached a new record in 2018, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report on Tuesday.
“CO2 emissions are the main driving force behind global warming, which scientists fear could spiral out of control unless drastic action is taken to reduce global emissions.”
https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-energy-linked-co2-emissions-hit-record-high-in-2018/a-48060649
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