Winter Storm Diego Leaves Four Dead, One Missing; Over 60,000 Without Power in Southeast

https://weather.com/news/news/2018-12-09-diego-snow-impacts-carolinas-georgia-texas

Winter Storm Diego unleashed its wrath on the Southeast over the weekend, leaving at least four dead, one missing and tens of thousands still without power across the region Tuesday.

Hundreds of schools in North Carolina remained closed for the second day in a row and Georgia government workers and schools announced delayed openings with the threat of black ice on the roads.

The storm is responsible for three deaths in North Carolina, including a man who was killed when a tree fell on his pickup truck in Matthews, North Carolina, Officer Tim Aycock, a spokesman for the police department told weather.com. 

1 weather-related death reported in North Carolina amid snow storm

https://kxlh.com/cnn-weather/2018/12/09/winter-storm-in-the-southeast-may-make-travel-impossible/

One weather-related death has been reported in North Carolina as a result of this weekend’s snowstorm.

Police in Matthews, about 12 miles south of Charlotte, said a tree fell on a vehicle. This led the vehicle to drive through the front lawn of a church until it hit the front of the building. The driver died and the passenger was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, police said.

A nasty mix of snow and ice gripped the Southeast this weekend, leading to treacherous driving conditions, canceled flights and thousands of people stranded at home.

“Over 20 million people are under winter weather alerts, over 8 million people are under a flash flood threat, and over 9 million people are under wind advisories,” CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said Sunday.

More than 12 inches of snow fell Sunday in the southern and central Appalachians, the National Weather Service said. The area with the highest snowfall total was Whitetop, Virginia, at the border of North Carolina, which had 2 feet of snow, according to CNN meteorologist Gene Norman.

winter storm diego

Warmer Side of Winter Storm Diego Triggers Flooding, High Winds, Tornado

https://weather.com/news/news/2018-12-09-diego-rain-flooding

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Florida

In Florida, an EF1 tornado caused minor damage in Pasco County on Sunday morning. Several trees were knocked down, including one onto a car, in New Port Richey, according to Pasco Fire Rescue. Falling tree limbs also knocked down a power line.  Thunderstorms continued to move across the Florida peninsula for much of the day.

The day before, flash flood warnings were issued for Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in the Panhandle. The Florida Highway Patrol said numerous roadways were flooded. 

Twitter Ads info and privaThunderstorms continued to move across the Florida peninsula for much of the day.. 

Sydney weather: second person dies as flooding causes chaos across region

Sydney weather: second person dies as flooding causes chaos across region



https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/28/sydney-storm-flooding-weather-chaos-commuters

A second person has died during the Sydney storms which have lashed the city and surrounding regions on Wednesday, delivering a month’s worth of rain in two hours.

On Wednesday afternoon a State Emergency Services volunteer collapsed and died while attending a job in the Illawarra.

“This is a tragic event and my deepest sympathies are with the man’s family and friends,” minister for emergency services Troy Grant said in a statement.

“My thoughts and prayers are also with the broader emergency services community,” he said.

Earlier on Wednesday another person died in a two-car collision in Thornleigh.

Queensland bushfires: Morrison pledges assistance amid 'catastrophic' conditions

 

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Ambulance paramedics were called to a two-car accident in heavy rain at Thornleigh on the city’s upper north shore at about 9am on Wednesday.

A male passenger in one of the vehicles died at the scene.

Past four years hottest on record, data shows

Past four years hottest on record, data shows



https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/29/four-years-hottest-record-climate-change

Global temperatures have continued to rise in the past 10 months, with 2018 expected to be the fourth warmest year on record.

Average temperatures around the world so far this year were nearly 1C (1.8F) above pre-industrial levels. Extreme weather has affected all continents, while the melting of sea ice and glaciers and rises in sea levels continue. The past four years have been the hottest on record, and the 20 warmest have occurred in the past 22 years.

The warming trend is unmistakeable and shows we are running out of time to tackle climate change, according to the World Meteorological Organization, which on Thursday published its provisional statement on the State of the Climate in 2018. The WMO warned that, on current trends, warming could reach 3C to 5C by the end of this century.

Queensland Bushfires bring Flooding

Queensland: severe storms bring flooding days after bushfires

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/05/queensland-severe-storms-bring-flooding-days-after-bushfires

Severe storms have swept across Queensland, bringing flash flooding – and much-needed rain – to communities that a few days ago were fighting bushfires.

At the height of the storm on Tuesday evening, more than 37,000 homes between Rockhampton and Gympie were without power as gales felled trees and damaged roofs. On Wednesday morning a few thousand people were still waiting for their electricity to be restored.

Further north, on the Atherton Tablelands, buildings and cars were damaged by hail.

Bushfires in the tropics: Queensland faces terrifying new reality

 

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Coastal and inland areas north of Gympie received widespread rainfalls of between 25 and 50mm, with some areas recording almost 100mm.

Queensland bushfire

Queensland bushfires flare up as strong winds test exhausted firefighters


https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/02/queensland-bushfires-heatwave-dry-lightning-and-cyclone-threaten-state

The bushfire emergency in central Queensland flared up on Sunday evening with residents in the path of the massive Deepwater blaze told to leave immediately.

Strong winds and high temperatures tested exhausted firefighters battling more than 110 blazes across the state throughout Sunday.

Authorities issued the warning for people in the Winfield area, south of Baffle Creek, where embers were expected to have an impact from the Deepwater fire burning to the north.

Further west, residents in Lowmead were told to leave now with the same blaze expected to hit the rural community of 225 people.

paradise wildfire reoccurring

The new abnormal: why fires like Paradise will happen again and again

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/10/the-new-abnormal-why-fires-like-paradise-will-happen-again-and-again

Nine in 10 homes in Paradise have been reduced to clumps of ash, mixed with twisted metal, as if the settlement has been carpet-bombed by a brutal invader. Chimneys, like tombstones for a lost town, are the only things left standing. The birds fled along with the humans leaving Paradise an eerily quiet place with a lingering smell of charcoal.

The visceral trauma of having a town wiped off the map is the nadir in an astonishing burst of recent wildfires – of the 10 most destructive fires in California’s recorded history, five have occurred since October last year.

wildfire death poll

Death toll rises in California’s worst ever wildfire outbreak– video report

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2018/nov/13/camp-fire-deadliest-wildfire-california-history-video-report

The Camp fire in northern California has killed 56 people, making it the deadliest wildfire in state history. It is also the most destructive, incinerating the town of Paradise and displacing more than 50,000 people. Other blazes continue to rage further south

wildfires

Wildfire scientists brace for hotter, more flammable future as Paradise lies in ashes

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/10/us/california-wildfires-climate-weir-wxc/index.html

Every man-made thing that burned, burned all the way.

That is the powerful first impression driving into Paradise after America's deadliest wildfire in 100 years.

There are a few scorched-but-recognizable husks of gas stations or curio shops but most of the 14,000 homes that caught an ember burned with such blowtorch intensity, only railings and the fireplace remain.

Windows and car parts melted, hardening into bizarre puddles of glass and aluminum along a main drag where entire blocks of stores are gone.

Heavy Rain, Mudslides and Evacuations in California as Winter Storm Diego Gets Started

https://weather.com/safety/floods/news/2018-12-07-california-floods-mudslides-winter-storm-diego-photos

Before sweeping across the country, Winter Storm Diego turned deadly in California, with heavy rains causing mudslides, collisions and sparking evacuations. 

At least one person was killed on Thursday in a vehicle accident on Interstate 5 south of Hollywood Way in Burbank, as torrential rains struck the area. No other details have been released. 

A Southwest Airlines plane slid off the wet runway, crashing its landing gear into a barrier at Hollywood Burbank Airport on Thursday. The plane was carrying 112 passengers and five crew members, none of which were reported injured.

Deadly Winter Storm Diego Strands Virginia Drivers For Hours; Over 100,000 Remain Without Power in Southeast

https://weather.com/news/news/2018-12-09-diego-snow-impacts-carolinas-georgia-texas

More than 108,000 customers remained without power Monday night after Winter Storm Diego unleashed its wrath on the Southeast over the weekend, killing at least three people in North Carolina, another in Tennessee and stranding drivers for hours on a Virginia interstate. 

Authorities urged residents to remain home on Monday as the storm continued to dump paralyzing snow, sleet or freezing rain across North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

"This storm dropped staggering amounts of snow, ice and rain across our state, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday. "A year's worth of snowfall, or more, fell in some places in little more than a day."

It was a traffic nightmare for motorists stranded for up to 12 hours Sunday on I-81 near Bristol, Virginia, the Bristol Herald-Courrier reported. Bristol officials requested assistance from the National Guard to help clear the roadway.  The highway has since cleared.

Climate change directly responsible for some extreme weather events, study finds

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-influencing-and-causing-extreme-weather-says-annual-american-meteorological-society-report/

Many of the world's most extreme weather events in 2017 were made more likely and, in some cases, even caused by human activity and greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report published Monday.

Hurricane Harvey that pummeled southeast Texas, severe drought in the Northern Great Plains of the U.S., catastrophic flooding in Bangladesh, the "Lucifer" heat wave across southern Europe and the Mediterranean and massive wildfires in Australia were among the extreme weather events examined in new research published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS).

At least one of those extreme weather events — intense marine heatwaves in the Tasman Sea off Australia in 2017 and 2018 — would have been "virtually impossible" absent human-caused climate change, scientists said.

Weather drama on the way: Lots of rain in Seattle, snow in the Cascades, wind at the coast

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/weather/weather-drama-on-the-way-lots-of-rain-in-seattle-snow-in-the-cascades-wind-at-the-coast/

You’re going to need your rain gear this week. Starting Tuesday, Seattle’s weather forecast returns to normal: a lot of rain.

It’s not typically big news when a “jet stream” — a ribbon of air high up in the atmosphere — comes into the area from over the Pacific Ocean. But after a period of unusually calm weather for Western Washington, it’s coming in full force, bringing rain, wind and snow.

After Dumping Snow on the Rockies, The Next Eastern Storm Will Likely Be More Wet Than Wintry

https://weather.com/forecast/regional/news/2018-12-10-next-eastern-storm-more-wet-than-wintry

A new storm system will sweep from the Northwest to the Rockies into midweek before emerging over the central and eastern United States, where it will likely produce more rain than snow or ice late this week into the weekend.

Rain and mountain snow, heavy at times, are expected in the Northwest Tuesday, with snow then spreading into the Rockies by Wednesday.

The system will emerge over the Plains and Midwest Thursday before slowly moving toward the East Coast Friday into the weekend.

Energy from a disturbance farther south may also track into the central U.S., likely resulting in a strengthening area of low pressure. Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico will surge northward, increasing the amount of precipitation that may fall with this system.

JESSICA SERNA