Weather Newsflash World

Unusual heat in Africa and America

The fact that it gets hot in Africa is not really unusual. But the range of possibilities is shifting ever higher. In recent days, both the north and south of Africa have been experiencing exceptional heat that exceeds the usual level. As a result, countless records have been broken – and in some cases even pulverized. Not just selectively, but in many countries at the same time. At this point, we once again refer to Maximiliano Herrera, one of the best-known weather and climate statisticians with probably the largest global weather database.

A similar picture can be seen on the American continent. Important – The graphs do not show absolute temperatures, but the degree of anomaly, i.e. the deviation from the long-term average for this time of year. Taking North America as an example (see below), it was significantly colder than normal in Alaska, for example, but in some cases massively too warm over a much larger area.

 

 

 

Cyclone Filipo

In recent days, Cyclone Filipo has been soaking up moisture over the Mozambique Strait and becoming increasingly structured. Last night, it made landfall in Mozambique with the strength of a category 1 hurricane, but has since weakened and moved its center inland.

Filipo will move southwards over land in the coming hours, bringing large amounts of rain. It will reach the coast again tomorrow, Wednesday, and then move out to sea again, where it will intensify once more.

Record warm start to November in many places

New monthly records were set nationally in at least nine countries yesterday and today. So never before has it been so warm on a November day in these countries. The list includes the following states.

• North Korea: 27.3°C
• South Korea: 29.1°C
• Mongolia: 21.8°C
• Bangladesh: 35.8°C
• Philippines: 37.4°C
• Cyprus: 34.3°C
• Malta: 29.1°C
• Tunisia: 36.4°C
• UAE: 38.1°C

In addition to these records, several countries narrowly missed the warmest November day, including Mali, Algeria, Georgia, Nepal, Russia, Dominica and Myanmar.

Hundreds of records in China and Japan

In China alone, there were more than 900 new monthly records yesterday and today, but it wasn't enough for a national record. Also in Japan 122 monthly records fell so far, many more will follow in the coming days! Very impressive was also the minimum temperature of 29.7 degrees (!) in Ekawasaki, a record of the extra class.

 

Very cold in North America and Northern Europe

North America experienced a very cold start into the new month. At times, temperatures were around 20 degrees below normal, but we are still some distance away from a national record for the month. Also in Scandinavia and Western Europe, the temperature level is currently below normal, but records are not to be registered here either.

 

Cyclones Tej, Hamoon and Lola

Currently, there are three tropical cyclones in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific.

Cyclone Tej has meanwhile reached the Arabian Peninsula and has already weakened in terms of wind. However, it brought and continues to bring enormous amounts of rain to southeastern Yemen and Oman, which borders it to the east. From yesterday to including Wednesday around 500 mm of rain will fall, locally it is even 800 to 1000 mm! For illustration: In al-Ghaida, the capital of the governorate al-Mahra (southeastern Yemen) typically only about 50 mm of rain fall in a year. This event brings together the equivalent of 10 to 20 years within a short period of time. The bone-dry soil cannot possibly absorb these amounts; even much less would be too much. Devastating floods are the result!

Cyclone Hamoon is currently over the Bay of Bengal, has intensified significantly in the last hours and is moving towards Bangladesh. Also here there are large amounts of rain, in addition the wind in the flat and low-lying coastal area causes a heavy storm surge – it is the actual problem! A humanitarian disaster threatens.

Cyclone Lola is swirling in the South Pacific. It is an exceptionally strong storm and reached the lower category 5, making Lola the strongest storm in 50 years to form so early in the South Pacific cyclone season. It is now located just off Vanuatu. The island nation, which consists of 83 islands, has a population of around 300,000, and major destruction is imminent. The last time this was the case was in 2020 by Cyclone Harold, in 2015 the extremely strong Cyclone Pam destroyed or damaged 90% of the buildings in the capital Port Vila. Due to cyclones, severe earthquakes and active volcanism, Vanuatu is one of the countries most threatened by natural disasters in the world (number 1 in the World Risk Report).

 

Hurricane Lidia hits Mexico

Over the northern eastern Pacific, tropical activity has been fairly quiet for a while. The last tropical storm to reach hurricane status was Jova on September 9. So it took about a month for a tropical system to be upgraded to a hurricane today with Lidia. In the last 50 years or so (since detailed satellite monitoring began in 1970), there have only been three other years that have not recorded a hurricane between September 10 and October 8 (1998, 2002, and 2010).

Currently, Lidia has a mean wind speed of 121 km/h with 1-minute gusts of up to 145 km/h, making it equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane (out of 5) on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The hurricane is expected to strengthen to a Category 2 storm the rest of its path to the Mexican coast. Wind peaks of 200 km/h are not unlikely.

According to current models, Lidia will make landfall late Tuesday night or Wednesday night (local time) in either the state of Nayarit or Jalisco. The major city around Puerto Vallarta is likely to be particularly in focus.

The expected effects of Lidia are multifaceted. In addition to wind and heavy rain, there is also a local risk of flash floods and generally flooded roads. In slightly elevated areas of Nayarit, in the south of Sinaloa and in the coastal areas of Jalisco, debris flows could occur. Storm surges and dangerous currents are also warned near the coast.

Large temperature contrasts in Europe

For several days now, there has been an impressive air mass boundary across Europe. This is expressed not only in the degree of cloudiness, but above all in large temperature contrasts. While Western Europe is heading for a record warm first half of October, temperatures in large parts of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe are in part well below the usual seasonal norm.

Below are a few figures that support this contrast. Since the beginning of the month, several hundred (!) monthly records of maximum temperatures or highest daily minima have been set in Central and Western Europe. Some stations have beaten the previous October record several times in the past few days. In Eisenstadt, Austria, the temperature did not drop lower than 21.3 degrees during the night of October 8, a tropical night par exellence and a pulverization of the previous record by more than 4 degrees (17.0 degrees in 1975). In Piedmont, a maximum temperature of 34.5 degrees was measured on the same day, and Slovenia even set a new national October record with 31.3 degrees in Cronomelj. In France, there were no less than 211 new monthly records, with Le Luc being the hottest with 33.9 degrees. Yesterday it continued in a similar style; 146 new October records in France, 28 degrees in Austria(Haiming, Tyrol). The Italian provinces of Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia, Tuscany and Venice also all set new monthly records at the provincial level.

In contrast, some of the highest values in Eastern Europe were far below average. In Moscow, for example, it should be enough today at a maximum of about 4 degrees even for one or the other snowflake. Normal there at this time of year would be about 10 to 12 degrees. Also in the Ukraine, in Moldavia and Belarus only scarcely double-digit maximum values are registered. That is, 5 degrees and more below normal. These mentioned contrasts over Europe will slowly decrease at the end of the working week, then the "heat bell" will gradually shift to the east.

Daniel also causes flooding in Libya

Last week, Storm Daniel brought extreme amounts of rain to Greece. In recent days, it has moved south across the Mediterranean Sea, taking on tropical characteristics. Yesterday Sunday, the "Medicane" hit Libya, with some large amounts of rain being measured, especially along the coast. In Al Marj, not far from Libya's second largest city Benghazi, 142 mm of rain were recorded within one day. Typically, just 270 mm of rain fall there in a year, with it usually being completely dry between May and September.

In Greece over 750 mm of precipitation so far!

As expected, the storm Daniel in Greece since Monday brought enormous rainfall totals and partly stormy gusts. According to the Greek weather service Meteo, it is one of the strongest storms ever to hit this country. By 8:45 p.m. local time on Tuesday, a daily precipitation total of 754 mm was recorded inZagora in Pilio (Fig. 1), far surpassing the daily precipitation record of 644.7 mm set in Paliki in Kefalonia in September 2020! From midnight tonight to 8:30 am local time,194 mm was recorded at Kofi in Magnisia . For comparison, Athens receives an average of 400 mm of precipitation within an entire year!

However, measured values are missing, since due to the extreme precipitation most weather stations in Magnisia and on the Sporades no longer send data due to a power outage.

Devastating floods, deaths and severe infrastructure damage have been the result so far. Greece's national weather service warns of intense rainfall and gale-force winds through Thursday. Depending on the model, from 2 a.m. today until 2 a.m. Friday, September 8, up to 300 mm (Fig. 2) are again expected, according to the high-resolution model RACE even 400 to locally 600 mm (Fig. 3)! The situation is expected to calm down until Friday.

Devastating rains in Greece - great danger of severe weather!

An Omega high has built up over Europe. The name is derived from the Greek letter Omega (the last letter of the Greek alphabet), because it has a similar shape "Ω", as the high, which has inflated like a balloon. The lower approach of the high is flanked by two lows. One of them is over the Atlantic, the other low is between southern Italy and Greece. The latter will bring torrential rains to Greece over the next few days. Individual high-resolution models simulate locally with up to 1000 mm of rain in the period from Monday afternoon (4.9.) and Wednesday evening (6.9.)! Due to these gigantic rain masses in some areas of Greece with devastating floods or landslides must be expected - there is very big danger for life and limb! Especially the region of Thessaly with the capital Larissa should be strongly affected by the storms. Here much points to a true natural disaster! Only marginally affected will be, for example, the capital Athens.

Typhoon Saola hits Hong Kong

As a tropical depression, Typhoon Saola has its "birth date" on August 23, 2023. In the days that followed, the storm rapidly developed into a typhoon and looped around in the Pacific east of the Philippines, but has never made direct landfall. On August 29, the super typhoon moved west between the Philippines and Taiwan with winds peaking at over 300 km/h. Now the typhoon is heading for Hong Kong, where it will also arrive in a few hours. The center of the typhoon will pass only a few kilometers south of Hong Kong.

Thus, uncomfortable hours lie ahead for the nearly 8 million residents in Hong Kong. Even if Typhoon Saola weakens slightly now, wind peaks of 100 to 130 km/h, locally even more, are to be expected in Hong Kong. In addition, locally up to 200 mm of rain will fall in 2 days. Also strongly affected will be the region of Macau and other cities along the coast to Zhanjiang. However, the typhoon will also weaken further over the weekend.

Over 43 degrees in France - new records

In France today, on this August 23, 2023, five official measuring stations measured 43 degrees or more. Puy-Saint-Martin was the hottest with 43.5 degrees, followed by Salindres with 43.3 degrees. Various new monthly and all-time records were thus broken. In Orange, for example, the previous maximum temperature was exceeded by 0.1 degrees. The previous record from the century-hot summer of 2003 was 42.6 degrees.

An overview of the official measuring stations in France that measured over 42 degrees today is shown in the following hit list. Tomorrow Wednesday and also on Thursday there will be again 40 degrees and more in various places in southern France – the heat wave still continues!

Highest temperature (as of 20:54)

Considered time period of the hit list (France) from August 22, 2023, 06:00 to at 20:54 (duration 14h 54min).

Measuring stations	Highest temperature (in °C)
Puy-Saint-Martin	43.5
Salindres	43.3
Moulès-et-Baucels	43.2
Grospierres	43.0
Siran	43.0
Orange	42.7
Saint-Christol-lès-Alès	42.7
Cardet	42.6
Saint-Barthélemy-de-Vals	42.5
Uzès	42.5
Durban-Corbières	42.5
Argeliers	42.4
Lapalud	42.4
Soumont	42.3
Cadenet	42.3
Montségur-sur-Lauzon	42.2
Vinsobres	42.2
Carpentras	42.2
Lagrasse	42.2
Générargues	42.2

 

Rain record in "Death Valley"

Death Valley is located in the Mojave Desert in the west of the USA. The largest part lies in the US state of California. The region is very dry, rain falls here only on a few days a year. Over the whole year there are about 30 rainy days and about 120 mm of rain. Yesterday, August 20, 2023, 55.88 mm of rain fell within one day, more than ever before on a single day since measurements were taken in 1911, as the National Weather Service NOAA writes on X.