CASA GRANDE, Ariz. -- A stream of thick, blowing dust crossing an Arizona highway led to a chain-reaction crash that killed three people in an area where gusting winds often stir up towering clouds of dirt that can reduce visibility to zero.
At least 12 other people were injured Tuesday in the 19-vehicle pileup on Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson.
Crews brought in portable lights as they worked past sunset to pry apart the 10 commercial vehicles, seven passenger cars, one tanker and one recreational vehicle that were involved, Arizona Department of Public Safety officials said.
Arizona DOT
A look at one of the crashes along westbound I-10 in Phoenix Tuesday afternoon.
Television footage showed at least one car pinned between two 18-wheelers and others wedged under big rigs near Picacho Peak in south-central Arizona.
Henry Wallace told KPHO-TV he got out of his car just in time before the chain-reaction crashes began.
"One truck hit another truck. Cars start piling into each other, and they pushed that one truck right into me and off to the side of the road," Wallace said. "I couldn't see anything because the (dust) was so thick, but I could just hear it, `Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.'"
Medical helicopters airlifted several of the injured to hospitals in Tucson and Phoenix, and DPS officials said at least one person was in critical condition.
Gordon Lee Smith, 76, of Mead, Wash., was identified as one of the people who died. Smith's wife was injured, DPS officials said, but her condition wasn't disclosed.
The names and hometowns of the other two killed weren't immediately available.
DPS investigators were interviewing survivors to determine the chain of events. (ALERTS: Arizona Weather Alerts)
"This could be three, four or even five crashes. That's where the interview comes in with the drivers and witnesses," DPS Officer Carrick Cook said.
"That area of I-10 is historically known for these blowing dust storms that come through," Cook added. "At the time of this crash, there were reports that there was zero visibility in the road, and with these dynamic systems that come through so quickly, people are often surprised by it."
The National Weather Service had issued a blowing dust advisory shortly before the crashes, with wind gusts of up to 30 mph reported in the area.
"A steady southwest wind created channels of dense, blowing dust," weather service meteorologist Chris Dunn told KPHO. "Unfortunately, one of those localized channels of dust ended up over a busy Arizona interstate."
DPS spokesman Bart Graves said Tuesday's crash was one of the worst chain-reaction accidents in that area in the past seven years.
Parts of westbound I-10 were closed for more than five hours.
The Arizona Department of Transportation recommends that motorists who find themselves in a dust storm pull completely off the paved portion of the road, turn off all lights including emergency flashers, set the emergency brake, keep feet off the brakes so others don't try to follow the tail lights, and stay in the vehicle with seat belts fastened.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – A strong earthquake hit eastern Taiwan on Thursday, shaking buildings over a wide area including the capital. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 8:02 p.m. and measured magnitude 6.3. It was centered in a remote mountainous area 45 kilometers (28 miles) south-southwest of the coastal city of Hualian at a depth of just 12 kilometers (7.5 miles), it said.
In the capital, Taipei, about 150 kilometers (95 miles) from the epicenter, buildings swayed for more than 10 seconds and startled residents ducked for cover.
Taiwan's railway administration immediately suspended train service while it checked for any possible damage to tracks. (VIDEO: How Earthquakes Happen)
Authorities reported scattered power outages in northern Taiwan. In at least two locations in the Taipei suburbs crews were working to extricate people trapped in stalled elevators.
Local TV channels reported that there appeared to be almost no damage in Hualian. However, it could take some time for the full impact of the quake to be evaluated because of the remoteness of the epicenter.
Newer buildings in Taiwan are built to withstand strong earthquakes, so damage in major cities tends to be limited. This is not the case for buildings constructed before the 1980s, when construction standards were less rigorous.
Earthquakes frequently rattle Taiwan, but most are minor and cause little or no damage.
However, a magnitude-7.6 earthquake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed more than 2,300 people.
The first of two of the top-10 deadliest earthquakes of the last 25 years that occurred in India was a 6.2 temblor that killed 9,748, according to the USGS. (DOUGLAS E. CURRAN/AFP/Getty Images)
The departure of Typhoon Krosa from Luzon Island will not mean the end of tropical troubles for the Philippines with two more tropical systems potentially in the works for next week.
Krosa will then set its sights on central Vietnam for early next week.
While Krosa heads toward Vietnam, there are signs that another tropical system will be impacting the Philippines around Monday of next week.
That system could be followed by another later in the week.
While more precise details of each will become clearer in the upcoming days, current indications point toward these systems taking a track south of Krosa and impacting central parts of the Philippines.
The nation's capital of Manila escaped being significantly impacted from Krosa, but the city may fare worse next week.
The first system could have time to strengthen into a tropical storm before reaching the Philippines around Monday. Even if it fails to reach that status, it should still be accompanied by heavy rain and the threat of flooding.
Hurricane Raymond in the eastern Pacific Ocean was the first major hurricane of 2013 in the entire Western Hemisphere.
Storm History
Raymond developed as Tropical Depression Seventeen-E on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 19.
From Sunday morning, Oct. 20, into early Monday, Oct. 21, Raymond rapidly intensified with top sustained winds increasing from 40 mph to 120 mph, becoming the first major hurricane of 2013 in the entire Western Hemisphere. Raymond peaked in intensity late Monday, Oct. 21, with top sustained winds of 125 mph.
Raymond brought heavy rainfall to the south-central Mexican coast. Acapulco, the largest city in Guerrero, reported nearly 10 inches of rain in the 72-hour period ending 7 a.m. CDT Wednesday, Oct. 23.
Raymond weakened to a tropical storm early on Wednesday, Oct. 23, as it lingered near the Mexican coast without making landfall. It then started to gradually move west away from the coast as a tropical storm before returning to hurricane strength in a second spurt of rapid intensification well offshore during the morning hours Sunday, Oct. 27. Winds increased to 105 mph late on Oct. 27, but then Raymond weakened significantly the next day.
Weakening continued thereafter until Raymond became a depression early on Wednesday, Oct. 30, and a remnant low later that same morning.
Hurricane Raymond in the eastern Pacific Ocean was the first major hurricane of 2013 in the entire Western Hemisphere.
Storm History
Raymond developed as Tropical Depression Seventeen-E on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 19.
From Sunday morning, Oct. 20, into early Monday, Oct. 21, Raymond rapidly intensified with top sustained winds increasing from 40 mph to 120 mph, becoming the first major hurricane of 2013 in the entire Western Hemisphere. Raymond peaked in intensity late Monday, Oct. 21, with top sustained winds of 125 mph.
Raymond brought heavy rainfall to the south-central Mexican coast. Acapulco, the largest city in Guerrero, reported nearly 10 inches of rain in the 72-hour period ending 7 a.m. CDT Wednesday, Oct. 23.
Raymond weakened to a tropical storm early on Wednesday, Oct. 23, as it lingered near the Mexican coast without making landfall. It then started to gradually move west away from the coast as a tropical storm before returning to hurricane strength in a second spurt of rapid intensification well offshore during the morning hours Sunday, Oct. 27. Winds increased to 105 mph late on Oct. 27, but then Raymond weakened significantly the next day.
Weakening continued thereafter until Raymond became a depression early on Wednesday, Oct. 30, and a remnant low later that same morning.
Photographer Marko Korosec risks his life capturing breathtaking images of some of the world's most brutal lightning storms. His secret? Getting absurdly close to the action.
“It’s often hard to understand the work we do and our interest in severe, dangerous storms,” Korosec said in an interview with Caters News Agency. “On the one hand, they are beautiful and photogenic. On the other hand they regularly kill people.”
Based in the small village called Zirje in southwest Slovenia, the 31-year-old storm chaser has narrowly avoided being struck by lightning, and gets so close that at times he gets knocked over by the lightning’s shock wave.
“I’ve been close to lightning strikes several times, especially when observing them over open fields or when I’m on the cliffs above the coastal areas,” Korosec explained. “It’s quite an interesting feeling when lightning hits next to you and you can feel the [shock] wave hitting your body."
Lightning expert Dr. Martin Uman states that the most common form of a shock wave happens when air heated intensely by the lightning to about 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit expands faster than the speed of sound, building up a pressure wave that’s perhaps 100 times normal atmospheric pressure.
“According to Uman, the shock wave [spreads] roughly … 10 yards away from the lightning channel,” Weather.com meteorologist Jon Erdman states. “Given the pressure difference, you can be knocked down by the shock wave, not to mention damage to your hearing from the initial clap of thunder.”
Korosec began photographing extreme weather in 1998, according to his website. He believes chasing and researching lightning using a ground point of view can “help others to be safer during deadly storms” and provides footage to assist meteorologists and other storm chasers. But Erdman explains that chasing lightning can be riskier than tornado chasing and discourages anyone from getting that close.
“It is very dangerous to attempt to position close to lightning,” Erdman explains. “You cannot predict precisely when and where the next cloud-to-ground lightning strike may occur in a thunderstorm. Furthermore, the lightning strike may hit a nearby object, then conduct to you if, say, you’re standing near an antenna, tree, or metal pipe.”
Though Korosec claims safety is his number-one priority, the daredevil has faced serious peril before, nearly escaping death while trapped in a car chasing a massive hail storm in Montana. “The road network was deadly and we couldn’t escape and got caught by the intense hail and winds,” Korosec recalls. “Baseball-sized hail and flying debris started to bombard our car. It was terrifying, the terrible sound of the hail slamming into the car was so loud we couldn’t even hear each other talk.”
Korosec walked out alive. Unfortunately, his car did not; it was completely destroyed. But despite his near-death experiences, Korosec doesn’t plan to give up this type of photography any time soon.
“I will never stop chasing storms,” Korosec told the news agency. “Mother nature fascinates me and makes me want to conduct more and more research to try and understand storms and make everyone safer against their deadly power.”
The collection above features several of Korosec’s stunning images with additional lightning shots snapped by other photographers. For more on Korosec’s nature photography, visit his website atweather-photos.net.
In the Mississippi River and The Ohio River Valley their are chances of tornadoes, high winds and hail for tomorrow. That might cause an impact on the people who were planning on trick or treating. This weather impact might cause Halloween to be cancelled.
Moisture has a lot to do with how easily the air can move. The way the air moves has a major contribution on how the storm is going to react. As a strong low-pressure ejects into the midsection of the country moisture will continue to stream north. The dew point is going to be in the upper 60's area wide. Dew points in the 70's closer to the coast aren't out the question. Energy is linked to moisture and determines the atmospheres instability.
Meteorologists watched as afternoon thunderstorms brewed in the mountainous region of central Guinea. By the evening of 22 October, the storms had intensified and were moving west towards the coast of Africa. At 8.20 p.m., the meteorologists received a thunderstorm alert, and for the next 45 minutes the 130,000 residents of the city of Fria were hammered by heavy rain, flash floods and winds of up to 77 kilometres per hour.
What happened that evening was not unusual. Similar storms blow through Fria and Guinea’s coastal capital Conakry regularly during the rainy season. Flash flooding is a common problem, and the country is frequently buffeted by tornadoes.
What was unusual was the way the storm was detected. Government meteorologists in Guinea lack the Doppler radar system that is usually used for this, and have struggled to track weather using rudimentary equipment. Europe and the United States provide free satellite data and forecasts, but these are coarse and infrequent. Only in recent months has Guinea turned to a new, simple proxy for storms: flashes of lightning.
Lightning-detection sensors installed atop just 12 mobile-phone towers now allow the country’s meteorological service to track storms nationwide as they develop. The project shows how lightning detection could provide a quick and relatively cheap way for poor countries to acquire basic weather services. Earth Networks, based in Germantown, Maryland, spent around US$1 million to deploy the current network.
While the preliminary tornado count for 2013 is historically low, severe weather will ramp up across the United States through Thursday.
Areas from Kansas City to Oklahoma City and Dallas will be at risk for violent thunderstorms into Wednesday night.
The strength of the winds could still be great enough to cause travel delays, power outages and downed trees.
The threat for damaging wind gusts will reach farther along into parts of the Northeast Thursday night and Friday.
Since a major tornado outbreak is not expected, the severe weather this Halloween week will not change this year's preliminary tornado count from being historically low.
The below graphic from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center shows that the preliminary tornado count, on an adjusted scale, through Oct. 26, 2013 (656) is significantly less than the previous minimal value (776) observed during the same time.
The snowiest day on record for each state in the country covers a wide range from less than six inches to more than five feet.
On the following pages, you will find the highest single-day snowfall totals for all the states in the country starting with the lowest total in Florida and ending with the highest totals in the western states. The description under each image shows the exact location and date of each single-day snowfall record.
Homes built near a bridge sit destroyed due to Superstorm Sandy in Mantoloking, New Jersey October 31, 2012.
Earlier this month I stood outside the Babbio Center at the Stevens
Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., looking out over the Hudson
River toward Manhattan. When Hurricane Sandy struck the New York
area on Oct. 29 of last year, the storm pushed the river over its
banks, and the narrow streets of the New Jersey city filled with water
like a bathtub. Standing next to me that day were Alan Blumberg and Tom
Herrington, ocean engineers at Stevens. Before Sandy hit, Blumberg and
Herrington had predicted the massive extent of the flooding that would
result from the storm and the damage that would be done to Hoboken,
which at its border along the Hudson sits just 4 or 5 ft. above the
river — even less at high tide, which happens to be when Sandy made
landfall.
Today the scientists and their colleagues at Stevens are trying to
improve those coastal-flooding models to better predict the precise flow
of floodwater for the next storm, in an effort to aid future evacuation
plans. But Blumberg and Herrington are painfully aware that, thanks to climate change
and rising sea levels, coastal cities like Hoboken and New York will be
in even greater peril when the next Sandy hits. “Many of the bulkheads
and seawalls here are only about 3 ft. above the water,” says
Herrington. “If you raise the sea level and the bulkheads stay the same,
you have more and more flooding for your infrastructure. Everything
we’ve built is too low.”
Here’s a fact about Sandy that might surprise you: when the storm made landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29, it wasn’t actually
a hurricane. Its wind speed had fallen below the 74 m.p.h. sustained
velocity that’s needed to change a tropical storm into a hurricane.
Instead Sandy was officially a “post-tropical cyclone.” And while the
storm certainly dropped a lot of water
on the belt of heavily affected states between South Carolina and New
York — 7 in. or more in many places — it wasn’t the precipitation alone
that led to the devastating floods that followed in its wake, causing
more than $68 billion in damages. What made Sandy devastating was its
size, covering more than 1,000 miles, the coastal storm surges it
caused, and the way the force of the cyclone — which took an unusual
path almost directly at the East Coast — pushed the sea and rivers up
and over onto land, spilling out into streets and inundating nearby
infrastructure. At the Battery at the southern end of Manhattan, storm surges
of 9 ft. above normal were recorded. All told, Sandy broke 16 records
for the highest storm tide ever. Just about everything that followed —
the flooded homes and hospitals, the blackout that denied power to half
of Manhattan, the transportation mess — could be traced back to those
surges.
And that’s what makes the threat of another Sandy so grave. The storm
was the inevitable consequence of piling more and more people along
coasts that are threatened by rising seas.
(PHOTOS: Before and After Sandy, a Year of Recovery)
Scientists disagree on exactly how climate change will affect future tropical storms. (See this year’s hurricane season, which has featured virtually no storms after dire forecasts in the spring.) But here’s something we know for sure: 123 million Americans,
more than a third of the entire country, live in coastal counties, a
number that increased by 39% from 1970 to 2010. About 3.7 million
Americans live
within just a few feet of the sea at high tide, putting them at even
more extreme risk for coastal flooding. And the ocean they live next to
is rising. In New York, seawaters have risen by about 16 in. since 1778,
according to research by Tufts University geologist Andrew Kemp, while global sea levels have risen by a little over 7 in. on average over the past century. That translates to more devastating flooding. “For every inchfoot of sea-level rise, you have an additional 300 ft. of reach inland
for floods,” says Leonard Berry, director of the Florida Center for
Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University.
That rise has already had an effect on storms. A recent study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society found
that existing sea-level rise had already doubled the annual probability
of a Sandy-level flood in the New York region since 1950, and areas
outside the city, including the New Jersey shoreline, face an even
higher risk. “Today’s coastal infrastructure … is steadily losing ground
due to relative sea-level rise,” said William Sweet, an oceanographer
at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a co-author
of the study. As temperatures continue to rise thanks largely to
man-made carbon emissions, so will sea level. In its most recent report,
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted
that sea level could rise 20 to 38 in. by the end of the century if
nothing is done to slow the pace of carbon emissions. Absent better
coastal protection, higher seas make even relatively weak storms a
danger — and turn big storms like Sandy into catastrophes. “It’s like
you’re trying to dunk a basketball, and someone just raised the court by
a few feet,” says Blumberg. “That’s how sea-level rise works.”
The costs will add up, especially if we keep adding people and property to those threatened coasts. A recent study in Nature Climate Change
predicted that average global flood losses could rise from
approximately $6 billion per year in 2005 to $60 billion to $63 billion
per year by 2050, thanks to the multiplying effects of population and
economic growth as well as climate-change-driven sea-level rise.
“There’s been just remarkable development along the coast,” says Scott
Knowles, a professor at Drexel University and author of The Disaster Experts: Mastering Risk in Modern America.
“It’s not that the storms are necessarily worse in any objective way.
It’s that we have put more people and property in harm’s way.”
(MORE:As Tropical Storm Karen Dissipates, the Debate Grows Over a Quiet Hurricane Season)
The easiest way to reduce the danger from future storms is to reverse
that shift to the sea, and move people and property away from the
coast. That’s happening in some places. New York City’s $648 million
Build It Back program will support
homeowners of flooded properties who don’t want to rebuild, and instead
want to move, while New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has a separate plan
to buy out property
in hard-hit Staten Island and return it to nature. But so-called
coastal retreat is likely to remain a last-resort choice, though the rising cost of flood insurance
could change the calculation for some. We’re not moving New York City
or New Orleans, and threat of floods doesn’t seem to be enough to
overcome the temptations of living by the water, even after Sandy showed
how destructive that water can be. “Let me be clear,” New York City
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said
in Sandy’s aftermath. “We are not going to abandon the waterfront. We
are not going to leave the Rockaways or Coney Island or Staten Island’s
South Shore.”
So if we’re going to keep living in harm’s way, we have to do our
best to reduce the harm. That means prioritizing resilience, which has
replaced adaptation as the term of choice for city planners. Resilience
means understanding that disasters like storms and floods will happen —
there’s no adapting them away — and what we need to do is build homes,
communities, cities and countries that can take the punch of a Sandy
without hitting the canvas for the count. It means being creative about
the challenges we’ll face, knowing that they’ll evolve in the future.
“Cities have a tendency to prepare for the thing they got hit by in the
past,” says Mitch Landrieu, mayor of New Orleans. “We have to be ready
for anything that might come our way, and be flexible about what we’ll
need to respond.”
New York City, which absorbed some of the worst of Sandy’s wrath, has taken that challenge seriously. Bloomberg proposed a
$20 billion plan earlier this year meant to toughen the city against
floods and storm surges. Much of that money would go to build flood
walls, levees and bulkheads — though nothing as extensive as the massive
seawalls that protect Dutch cities like Rotterdam,
which would likely be too expensive and too disruptive for New York.
But funds would also go to softer defenses like sand dunes, as well as
reinforcing the city’s power grid, which was shown to be vulnerable to
storms after Sandy. “If we’re going to rebuild, we should build back new
and better,” says Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation
and a co-chair of NYS 2100, a New York State panel tasked with
providing recommendations for Sandy recovery. “If we spend more on
prevention, we can avoid the billions we need to spend on recovery.”
That’s the goal, anyway. But the truth is that there’s no guarantee
that Bloomberg’s ambitious vision for a more resilient New York will
ever become a reality. The billionaire mayor will be leaving office
soon, and the money that plan requires — while much of it would come
from federal funds — could hold back his successor. And what’s scary is
that New York is far from the only coastal city to face such threats.
Low-lying Miami has more than $416 billion in assets at risk to
storm-related flooding and sea-level rise, the largest amount in the
world. As Jeff Goodell described in an excellent piece for Rolling Stone earlier
this year, Miami as it is now may be doomed. “Superstorm Sandy is a
measure of the way things will happen,” says Berry, of the Florida
Center for Environmental Studies.
A year after Sandy, the risk from coastal living just keeps rising,
while we struggle to keep pace. And we’ll pay the price — one way or
another.
Gregory KatzPublished: Oct 29, 2013, 11:48 AM EDTAssociated Press
Scheveningen, Netherlands
Hikers walk during a storm on the beach of Scheveningen, Netherlands on October 28, 2013. (Lex Van Lieshout/AFP/Getty Images)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- The Europe storm death toll has risen to 15
after Danish police say a driver was killed when he crashed into a tree
knocked down by violent gusts.
Monday's storm was one of the worst
in years in western and northern Europe. Authorities said Tuesday that
dozens were injured in Denmark as wind gusts up to 194 kph (120 mph)
swept across the country.
In Denmark, train passengers spent the
night in a sports facility due to fallen trees on the tracks. The storm
left a trail of uprooted trees, damaged buildings and collapsed
scaffoldings across the country.
Germany had six deaths, Britain five, Denmark two and France and the Netherlands had one each.
Tens of thousands of people were without power Tuesday in Sweden, Denmark, Estonia and Latvia.
Gusts
of 99 miles per hour (160 kph) were reported on the Isle of Wight in
southern England, while gusts up to 80 mph hit the British mainland.
Later in the day, the Danish capital of Copenhagen saw record gusts up
of to 120 mph (194 kph) and an autobahn in central Germany was shut down
by gusts up to 62 mph (100 kph).
All across the region, people
were warned to stay indoors. Hundreds of trees were uprooted or split,
blocking roads and crushing cars. The Dutch were told to leave their
beloved bicycles at home for safety's sake.
Despite the strength
of its gusts, the storm was not considered a hurricane because it didn't
form over warm expanses of open ocean like the hurricanes that batter
the Caribbean and the United States. Britain's national weather service,
the Met Office, said Britain does not get hurricanes because those are
"warm latitude" storms that draw their energy from seas far warmer than
the North Atlantic. Monday's storm also did not have an "eye" at its
center like most hurricanes.
London's Heathrow Airport, Europe's
busiest, cancelled at least 130 flights and giant waves prompted the
major English port of Dover to close, cutting off ferry services to
France. (MORE: Hurricane Central)
Nearly
1,100 passengers had to ride out the storm on a heaving ferry from
Newcastle in Britain to the Dutch port of Ijmuiden after strong winds
and heavy seas blocked it from docking in the morning. The ship returned
to the North Sea to wait for the wind to die down rather than risk
being smashed against the harbor's walls, Teun-Wim Leene of DFDS Seaways
told national broadcaster NOS.
In central London, a huge building
crane near the prime minister's office crumpled in the gusts. The
city's overburdened transit system faced major delays and cancellations
and did not recover even once the weather swept to the east.
A
nuclear power station in Kent, southern England, automatically shut its
two reactors after storm debris reduced its incoming power supply.
Officials at the Dungeness B plant said the reactors had shut down
safely and would be brought back once power was restored.
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The storm left Britain in the early afternoon and roared across the
English Channel, leaving up to 270,000 U.K. homes without power.
Trains
were canceled in southern Sweden and Denmark. Winds blew off roofs,
with debris reportedly breaking the legs of one man. Near the Danish
capital of Copenhagen, the storm ripped down the scaffolding from a
five-story apartment building.
Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport saw
delays as strong gusts prevented passengers from using boarding bridges
to disembark from planes to the terminals.
In Germany, in addition
to widespread rail disruptions, both Duesseldorf and Hamburg airports
saw many flights cancelled, stranding more than 1,000 passengers.
Thousands
of homes in northwestern France also lost electricity, while in the
Netherlands several rail lines shut down and airports faced delays.
Amsterdam's central railway station was closed due to storm damage.
Amsterdam
was one of the hardest-hit cities as the storm surged up the Dutch
coast. Powerful wind gusts toppled trees into canals in the capital's
historic center and sent branches tumbling onto rail and tram lines,
halting almost all public transport. Commuters faced long struggles to
get home. (MORE: Safety Tips for All Weather Events)
Ferries
in the Baltic Sea, including between Denmark and Sweden, were canceled
after the Swedish Meteorological Institute upgraded its storm warning to
the highest possible level, class 3, which indicates "very extreme
weather that could pose great danger."
Trains were canceled in southern Sweden, and many bridges were closed between the islands in Denmark.
London
Mayor Boris Johnson praised emergency workers for doing an "amazing
job" trying to keep London moving. He said his thoughts, along with
those of all Londoners, were with the victims and their loved ones.
LONDON — A savage coastal storm powered by hurricane-force gusts slashed its way through Britain and western Europe on Monday, felling trees, flooding lowlands and snarling traffic in the air, at sea and on land. At least 13 people were reported killed.
It was one of the worst storms to hit the region in years. The deadly tempest had no formal name — and wasn't officially classified as a hurricane due to a meteorological standard — but it was dubbed the St. Jude storm (after the patron saint of lost causes) and "stormageddon" on social networks.
Gusts of 99 miles per hour were reported on the Isle of Wight in southern England, while gusts up to 80 mph hit the British mainland. Later in the day, parts of Denmark saw record gusts up of to 120 mph and an autobahn in central Germany was shut down by gusts up to 62 mph.
"This was not just a British storm," said weather.com meteorologist Nick Wiltgen. "The core of powerful winds marched relentlessly east, raking northern France and the Low Countries before slamming into northern Germany, Denmark, and southern Sweden. That latter phase in particular was exceptionally intense, with a 105-mph gust in extreme northern Germany and many many places gusting over 85 mph in the surrounding area."
Wiltgen warned the high winds would sweep across the southern Baltic Sea and into the countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Monday night.
All across the region, people were warned to stay indoors. Hundreds of trees were uprooted or split, blocking roads and crushing cars. The Dutch were told to leave their beloved bicycles at home for safety's sake.
At least thirteen storm-related deaths were reported, most victims crushed by falling trees. Germany had six deaths, Britain had five and the Netherlands and Denmark had one each. One woman was also missing after being swept into the surf in France.
Two people were killed in London by a gas explosion and a British teen who played in the storm-driven surf was swept out to sea. A man in Denmark was killed when a brick flew off and hit him in the head.
Despite the strength of its gusts, the storm was not considered a hurricane because it didn't form over warm expanses of open ocean like the hurricanes that batter the Caribbean and the United States. Britain's national weather service, the Met Office, said Britain does not get hurricanes because those are "warm latitude" storms that draw their energy from seas far warmer than the North Atlantic. Monday's storm also did not have an "eye" at its center like most hurricanes.
London's Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest, cancelled at least 130 flights and giant waves prompted the major English port of Dover to close, cutting off ferry services to France.
Nearly 1,100 passengers had to ride out the storm on a heaving ferry from Newcastle in Britain to the Dutch port of Ijmuiden after strong winds and heavy seas blocked it from docking in the morning. The ship returned to the North Sea to wait for the wind to die down rather than risk being smashed against the harbor's walls, Teun-Wim Leene of DFDS Seaways told national broadcaster NOS.
In central London, a huge building crane near the prime minister's office crumpled in the gusts. The city's overburdened transit system faced major delays and cancellations and did not recover even once the weather swept to the east.
A nuclear power station in Kent, southern England, automatically shut its two reactors after storm debris reduced its incoming power supply. Officials at the Dungeness B plant said the reactors had shut down safely and would be brought back once power was restored.
The storm left Britain in the early afternoon and roared across the English Channel, leaving up to 270,000 U.K. homes without power.
Trains were canceled in southern Sweden and Denmark. Winds blew off roofs, with debris reportedly breaking the legs of one man. Near the Danish capital of Copenhagen, the storm ripped down the scaffolding from a five-story apartment building.
Copenhagen's Kastrup Airport saw delays as strong gusts prevented passengers from using boarding bridges to disembark from planes to the terminals.
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In Germany, the death toll hit six, with four people killed in three separate accidents Monday involving trees falling on cars, the dpa news agency reported. A sailor near Cologne was killed Sunday when his boat capsized and a fisherman drowned northeast of the city.
In addition to widespread rail disruptions, both Duesseldorf and Hamburg airports saw many flights cancelled, stranding more than 1,000 passengers.
Thousands of homes in northwestern France also lost electricity, while in the Netherlands several rail lines shut down and airports faced delays. Amsterdam's central railway station was closed due to storm damage.
In France, maritime officials were searching for a woman who was swept into the turbulent Atlantic by a big wave Monday as she walked on Belle Isle, a small island off the coast of Brittany.
"We are focused on the search," Yann Bouvart, of the Atlantic Maritime Prefecture told BFM-TV. He said a helicopter, a boat and an inflatable Zodiac were looking for the woman.
Amsterdam was one of the hardest-hit cities as the storm surged up the Dutch coast. Powerful wind gusts toppled trees into canals in the capital's historic center and sent branches tumbling onto rail and tram lines, halting almost all public transport. Commuters faced long struggles to get home.
Ferries in the Baltic Sea, including between Denmark and Sweden, were canceled after the Swedish Meteorological Institute upgraded its storm warning to the highest possible level, class 3, which indicates "very extreme weather that could pose great danger."
Trains were canceled in southern Sweden, and many bridges were closed between the islands in Denmark.
London Mayor Boris Johnson praised emergency workers for doing an "amazing job" trying to keep London moving. He said his thoughts, along with those of all Londoners, were with the victims and their loved ones.
Thanks to a round of "Indian Summer" in the South, parts of the Midwest and East, coupled with a powerhouse jet stream, the threat of severe weather has returned in time to round out the month of October.
The jet stream – the band of winds some 30,000 feet aloft that influences large-scale weather patterns – has plunged southward across the western states the last few days and is now headed for the nation's midsection. Meanwhile, southerly winds have imported moist air from the Gulf of Mexico northward into the southern Plains, Lower Mississippi Valley, and eventually will do so in parts of the Ohio Valley and East.
Let's break down the day-by-day severe weather forecast.
Wednesday, the greatest chance for severe thunderstorms will be from eastern Kansas and western Missouri to Texas. Damaging wind gusts, hail and isolated tornadoes will be possible in this corridor.
In addition, heavy rainfall could contribute to flash flooding, particularly in southeast Oklahoma, northeast Texas, southwest Arkansas and northwest Louisiana.
Thursday, the corridor we are watching is from the Ohio Valley to the lower Mississippi Valley and western Gulf Coast. Once again, damaging wind gusts, isolated tornadoes and torrential rainfall are all concerns. The greatest threat for severe weather will be from southern Indiana to northern Mississippi.
If you have outdoor plans for Halloween, be alert of any potential for severe weather in your area.
In addition, a threat for damaging straight-line winds, possibly not associated with thunderstorms, exists overnight Thursday night from the eastern Great Lakes and Appalachians into the upper Ohio Valley. Some downed trees or limbs, and power outages are possible in these areas. High wind watches have already been posted for parts of western and central New York.
Friday, some severe storms may continue along the southern end of the front in the Southeast. Farther north, a band of heavy rain moving through the Northeast could also contain strong wind gusts with little or no lightning.
This is particularly the case Friday morning over southern New England and the eastern Great Lakes, possibly including New York City, Boston and Buffalo. Again, power outages, downed trees, limbs and powerlines are possible in these areas.
We will continue to update this situation on this page as it unfolds. You can find the initial day-by-day details by checking out our TOR:CON analysis from Dr. Greg Forbes.
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