Around The World Latest Weather Events

[Ian Williams]

http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~brugge/world.html

World weather news, November 2008

1st-2nd The death toll from mudslides caused by heavy rain in southwest China has risen from 15 to at least 22, with 45 missing, state media reported. Torrents of mud and rock affected places near Chuxiong city in Yunnan province over the weekend, toppling or damaging nearly 1,000 houses. Yunnan is dominated by steep terrain, and many of its farmers live in villages on steep slopes. 4th Winter's cold has begun to clamp down over the "ice box" of north Asia, an area having the harshest winters of the inhabited earth. In October, this region, the northeast of Siberian Russia, shared in the relative warmth that otherwise stretched from Arctic to India and from Far East into eastern Europe. In the Siberian "pole of cold" the mean monthly temperature was about 306C above normal (eg. Verkhoyansk +3.8C and Yakutsk +5.2C anomalies). Four days into November and three of four mornings have seen the temperature break through -35C at Oymyakon (the November average is -32C). In fact much of Siberian Russia has seen mild weather linger on into November. The first three days have been an average of 10-12C warmer than usual eastward from the central Ural Mountains to the Western Siberian Lowland. And the above-normal warmth has stretched east to the Lena River and the Sea of Okhotsk in eastern Siberia. 4th-5th A cold blast of weather hit New Zealand's South Island Tuesday night, with Southlanders waking this morning to a scene more akin to the depths of winter. With the country now well into the throes of spring, the cold weather brought an unseasonable blanket of snow and hail across parts of Southland, Fiordland and Central Otago. The snow was heavy in places and not merely restricted to the mountains, but falling at lower levels too. As much as 20cm of snow fell across parts of northern Southland with locals describing it as the worst November snowfall they had seen in 30 years. 4th-6th Very hot over the Kalahari Desert this week. On the 5th and 6th temperatures have topped 100F over SW Botswana, NW South Africa and SE Namibia. Among the highest temperatures was 107F (41.7C) at Twee Rivieren, near the Botswana-South Africa border. 6th A wintry blast of wind and close to 4 feet of snow in places pummelled the Northern Plains (USA) on Thursday, stranding unknown numbers of motorists for a day or more and knocking out power to thousands. The Highway Patrol has responded to more than 400 calls for assistance, including 10 crashes. The storm already has dropped 45.7 inches of snow near Deadwood, in the northern Black Hills. Reports of 10 inches to 2 feet of snow were received from many West River counties. In some towns, residents reported drifts were blocking their doorways, and in the southwestern corner of the state, 20-foot snowdrifts were reported on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. 6th Forecasters say Hurricane Paloma is gaining strength, with winds increasing to 80mph as it approaches the Cayman Islands. A hurricane warning remains in effect for the Cayman Islands, and the Category 1 storm is expected to pass near there late Friday or early Saturday. The National Hurricane Center in Miami says watches and warnings may be issued Friday for parts of Cuba. At 4 a.m. EST, Paloma was about 110 miles south-southwest of Grand Cayman. The storm is expected to keep gaining momentum as it moves across open waters in the Caribbean. It could become a Category 2 hurricane later Friday and may reach Category 3 intensity by Saturday.