There is no snow in the forecast for Southern California this holiday season, but residents can expect heavy rain, flooding on roadways and creeks, and thunderstorms as a slow-moving winter storm system lingers over the region through Friday.
Forecasts show that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be warmer and dry.
A tightly-wound and well-defined low-pressure storm system about 300 miles off the coast of the San Francisco Bay Area is slowing making its way south, according to the National Weather Service.
Typically, winter storm systems are propelled by the Pacific jet stream, meteorologist Ryan Kittell from the National Weather Service in Oxnard said. But this holiday low-pressure system is cut off from the stream and merely wobbling its way toward Southern California in a cyclonic flow.
The National Weather Service issued a special marine weather warning for the Central Coast on Wednesday morning due to the potential for water spouts and strong winds. There is a slight chance that the current conditions will cause a tornado or water spout to form in the area between Point Conception in Santa Barbara County and Los Angeles County, according to the forecast.
There is a flood watch in effect for the next two days for most of Southern California. Residents in San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties should be on the lookout for debris flows, flash flooding, general flooding and overflowing rivers, the National Weather Service said.
Areas along the Santa Ynez and Santa Monica coastal ranges near isolated thunderstorms could see rainfall rates of an inch an hour Wednesday and Thursday. Other areas could expect to see 0.30 to 0.60 of an inch of rain per hour.
“It’s not a typical or classic winter storm that would drop rain for a few hours and then move along,” Kittell said.
The brunt of the storm is forecast to hit San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, according to the National Weather Service. Los Angeles County will also see heavy rainfall, but forecasters are a bit uncertain if the area will get the same drenching as is expected for the counties further north and west.
The storm is expected to bring flooding for most of the region through Thursday, according to the National Weather Service, which cautioned drivers to avoid driving on roads that appear to be under water.
Southern California residents can expect showers throughout Friday, which will give way to gusty winds on Saturday and slightly warmer temperatures by Sunday, according to the forecast.
The slow-moving storm is also a bit warmer than average, Kittell said, dashing any hopes for snow below the 7,500-foot mark.
“It’s going to be cold, but not terribly cold,” Kittell said.
An atmospheric river brought heavy rain, flooding and unseasonably warm temperatures to the Pacific Northwest, closing rail links, schools and roads as it shattered daily rainfall and temperature records in Washington state.
Amtrak said Tuesday that no passenger trains will be running between Seattle and Portland, Oregon, until Thursday because of a landslide. The National Weather Service issued flood warnings in parts of western Washington, including in areas north and east of Seattle and across a large swath of the Olympic Peninsula.
In Beaverton, a suburb of Portland, a man’s body was discovered in a creek Tuesday morning, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. The victim’s cause of death is under investigation, although officials said there were no signs of injury.
In Rosburg, Washington, near the Oregon border, the Coast Guard said it rescued five people who got trapped in floodwaters. Four of those were hoisted by a chopper when they became stranded in a home that was surrounded by four feet of water, the Coast Guard said. A fifth was hoisted from a truck that got trapped in a flooded roadway. Coast Guard video showed the victim sitting on the roof of the truck while a guardsman was lowered down to pull them to safety.
A stranded driver is rescued by the Coast Guard in Rosburg, Washington. Dec. 5, 2023.
U.S. Coast Guard
In Monroe, Washington, just northeast of Seattle, fire and rescue crews reported bringing to safety four people and a dog who had been trapped in a park by swollen waters.
Firefighters rescue four people and a dog who got trapped in a flooded park in Monroe, Washington. Dec. 5, 2023.
Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue
The wet conditions also brought warm temperatures to the region. At 64 Fahrenheit in Walla Walla in southwestern Washington, it was as warm as parts of Florida and Mexico, according to the NWS. Seattle reported 59 degrees F at 1 a.m. Tuesday morning, breaking its previous daily record high, the weather service said.
Atmospheric rivers, sometimes known as a “Pineapple Express” because the long and narrow bands of water vapor convey warm subtropical moisture across the Pacific from near Hawaii, delivered enormous amounts of rain and snow to California last winter.
On the Olympic Peninsula, the small town of Forks — whose claim to fame is being the rainiest town in the contiguous U.S. — saw its rainfall record for Dec. 4 more than double after it received about 3.8 inches of rain, the NWS said. By early Tuesday morning, it had recorded 4.7 inches of rain over 24 hours — more rainfall than Las Vegas has received in all of 2023, according to the agency.
About 100 miles farther south, the daily rainfall record for Dec. 4 was broken in Hoquiam, which received about 2.6 inches of rain on Monday, the NWS said. Seattle also set a new rainfall record for that date with 1.5 inches, said Kirby Cook, science and operations officer at the NWS office in Seattle.
“We’ll continue to see significant impacts, especially with river crests and rises on area rivers” through Wednesday morning, he said.
A section of Washington State Route 106 was closed as rising water levels in the Skokomish River overflowed onto the roadway, state transportation officials said.
The NWS said it expected to see precipitation and temperatures climb to record-breaking heights in western Washington on Tuesday.
In Granite Falls, Washington, about 45 miles north of Seattle, video posted on social media by Kira Mascorella showed water surrounding homes and flooding driveways and yards. Mascorella, who lives in nearby Arlington, said it was “pouring down rain” when she woke up Tuesday and was still raining hard late in the afternoon. She said she called out of work because of water on the roadways and wasn’t sure if they would be passable Wednesday.
A landslide closed parts of a Seattle trail popular with walkers, joggers and cyclists, the city’s parks department said. Crews were assessing the damage to the Burke-Gilman Trail and working on setting up detour routes.
Heavy rains also battered Oregon. Parts of coastal U.S. Highway 101 were closed because of flooding, including in areas around Seaside and at the junctions with U.S. Route 26 and Oregon Route 6, the state’s transportation department said.
At least three school districts along the Oregon coast shuttered for the day because of flooding and road closures.
Officials have urged drivers to use caution, avoid deep water on roadways and expect delays.
After a blistering summer of record heat, raging wildfires and unpredictable storms, federal scientists on Thursday said a warm, wet winter driven by El Niño is in store for California and much of the rest of country.
The first winter outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that a strong El Niño will remain in place through at least the spring, with further strengthening possible over the next couple of months.
El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño-La Niña Southern Oscillation pattern — sometimes referred to as ENSO — and is a major driver of temperature and precipitation patterns across the globe.
“The anticipated strong El Niño is the predominant climate factor driving the U.S. winter outlook this year,” said Jon Gottschalck, chief of the operational prediction branch at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science.
Temperature forecasts for December, January and February favor warmer-than-average conditions across the northern tier of the U.S. and much of the West, with the highest chance of above-normal temperatures expected in Northern California, the Pacific Northwest and northern New England. Odds are tilted toward warmth in Central and Southern California as well.
The forecast also favors wetter-than-average conditions in many regions of the country, including nearly all of California, the southern Plains, Texas and the Southeast. Widespread drought will persist across much of the central and southern U.S., but not in California, where the Central Valley and San Francisco Bay area have the highest odds in the state of above-normal rainfall.
Warmer-than-average temperatures are favored across the northern tier of the U.S. and West Coast, according to a new winter outlook from NOAA.
(NOAA)
The outlook conjures the specter of another soggy season for the Golden State, which was pummeled by 31 atmospheric river storms, deadly floods and record-setting snow last winter.
Gottschalck said the combination of wetness and warmth means more precipitation is likely to fall as rain instead of snow. But he and other experts also said it’s too soon to say whether California will see a repeat of the atmospheric rivers it experienced at the start of this year.
Wetter-than-average conditions are likely across much of California, as well as the central Rockies, the southern Plains, Gulf Coast, Southeast and lower-mid-Atlantic and northern Alaska, according to a new winter outlook from NOAA.
“It’s important to stress that even though we see these general patterns during El Niño and La Niña years, there is still a lot of variability and not every event is going to follow the general pattern,” Julie Kalansky, a climate scientist at the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in a recent El Niño update.
Kalansky noted that last year’s La Niña was a perfect example, as the state received a deluge of moisture despite the pattern’s association with drier conditions in Southern California.
“So, the declaration of an El Niño doesn’t guarantee that Southern California is going to have a wet, stormy winter, but it does stack the deck in that direction,” she said.
Global average surface temperatures in June, July, August and September were the highest they’ve ever been, marked by sizzling heat waves in Europe, China and the southwestern U.S. — including a record 31 consecutive days of high temperatures at or above 110 degrees in Phoenix.
September was so hot — 2.59 degrees above the 20th century average of 59 degrees — that it also broke the record for the highest monthly global temperature anomaly, or the largest difference from the long-term average, NOAA officials said.
Timothy Koelkebeck hikes an Eaton Canyon trail as temperatures reach 100 degrees and above.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The September data and winter forecast make it 99% certain that 2023 will end up as the planet’s hottest year on record, according to Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Currently, 2016 and 2020 are tied for that record.
Schmidt said this year’s monthly heat records are particularly remarkable because they are occurring before the peak of the current El Niño event. Other hot periods, including in 2016 and 2020, happened after the peak of El Niño.
That doesn’t bode well for what might be in store next spring, he said.
“I would anticipate that 2024 is still going to be warmer than 2023, even given the ‘gobsmackingly bananas’ anomalies that we’ve had this summer,” Schmidt said. “What we would predict for next year, based just effectively on the long-term trend and the predicted level of ENSO going into next year, is that it will be warmer again — and by quite a lot.”
Schmidt said he was surprised by the unusually high temperatures this summer. Persistent climate warming driven by the burning of fossil fuels is to be expected, as are warmer global temperatures linked to El Niño, but scientists are still seeking answers about why 2023 has been so off-the-charts.
Some theories include a recent change to shipping regulations concerning aerosols, which reduced the upper limit of sulfur in fuels. The change was geared toward cleaner air in ports and coastal areas but may have had an unintended planetary warming effect because the aerosols were reflecting sunlight away from Earth.
A dearth of Saharan dust, possibly linked to weakened trade winds from El Niño, could also be a warming factor since the dust normally has a cooling effect on the North Atlantic, Schdmit and other researchers said.
Residents check out the damage after the fast-moving and swollen Tule River crumbled parts of Globe Drive in Springville, Calif., in March.
“But all of the quantitative estimates of how big those effects are are way too small to explain what’s going on,” Schmidt said. “This is not a neat story. It could be the long-term trends, plus ENSO, plus a little bit from the volcano, plus a little bit from the marine shipping emission changes, plus quite a large chunk of internal variability.”
Indeed, he said that while the long-term trends point to continued warming, there are likely to be years in the future that are cooler than 2023.
What is indisputable, though, is that people are already experiencing the effects of warmer temperatures — including extreme rainfall, extended droughts, heat waves and sea level rise — through their impacts on infrastructure, coral reefs, fishing, crop yields and other sectors, Schmidt said.
NOAA experts said this year’s El Niño probably won’t be as severe as the one in 2015-16, which ranked as a “very strong El Niño,” but that it would still be wise for the West Coast to ready itself for more El Niño-fueled moisture. This month, state officials said they are taking steps to prepare for such a possibility, including assembling flood control material and sandbags, and providing funds for critical levee repairs.
Though the winter storms significantly eased drought conditions in California, the soggy winter was among dozens of billion-dollar climate disasters in the U.S. this year, with flooding in the state between January and March causing about $4.2 billion in damage, according to NOAA. In August, Tropical Storm Hilary dropped more than a year’s worth of rain in a single day in several regions of the state.
“So far this year we’ve had 24 confirmed billion-dollar disasters, which is already a record-breaking amount,” said Tom Di Liberto, a climate scientist with NOAA. “And we still have October, November and December to go.”
Parts of New York City and the metro area were left paralyzed Friday as torrential rain overwhelmed city streets. Residents were urged to stay home or shelter in place. Errol Barnett reports.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Some estimates say over 11,000 people in eastern Libya have died following catastrophic floods this week. Ciarán Donnelly, the senior vice president for crisis response, recovery and development at the International Rescue Committee, joins CBS News to discuss the challenges facing recovery efforts.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
The exact death toll from Libya’s devastating flooding remained unclear Thursday. However, the Libyan Red Crescent aid organization estimated that at least 11,300 people have been killed and more than 10,000 remain unaccounted for.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
With survivors still desperately hoping to find the bodies of lost loved ones in debris-choked towns and cities, the United Nations said most of the thousands of deaths from floods in Libya could have been avoided. Kasim Mahjoub, a civil engineer on the ground in Libya, joined CBS News to discuss why the death toll is so high.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
The New England area this week has faced torrential rain, flooding, sinkholes and a possible tornado — all as residents prepare for the impending arrival of Hurricane Lee.
Lee, now a Category 2 storm, continued to creep up along the Northeast coast on Thursday, spawning a hurricane watch from Stonington, Maine to the U.S.-Canadian border. Areas including Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are also under a tropical storm watch while a storm surge warning has been issued for Cape Cod Bay and Nantucket.
With wind speeds topping 100 mph, Hurricane Lee was churning some 265 miles southwest of Bermuda and about 795 miles south of Nantucket, according to the National Hurricane Center’s most recent update. It noted that “tropical storm conditions” are already impacting Bermuda while “dangerous surf and rip current conditions are affecting much of the east coast and the United States.”
Though the storm is expected to weaken as it trudges northward, forecasters warned that winds could begin to buffet New England as early as Friday. Lee’s center is expected to pass close to the region’s southeast before ripping across or near Maine, and then moving over Atlantic Canada over the weekend as a “large and dangerous cyclone,” according to the National Hurricane Center.
NOAA via AP
Hurricane Lee looks poised to wallop New England later this week even as the region still deals with the impact of days of wild weather that produced torrential rain, flooding, sinkholes and a likely tornado.
The hurricane’s arrival is only the latest weather woe for New England, where residents for the last two weeks have been drenched with rainfall levels more than 300% above normal, according to weather service data.
The National Weather Service in Boston said radar data and videos showed an apparent tornado roaring through Rhode Island and Connecticut on Wednesday. Just 24 hours earlier, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued a state of emergency following the “catastrophic flash flooding and property damage” across two counties and several nearby communities. It came as certain regions experienced 10 inches of rainfall — unrelated to the hurricane — over the course of just six hours. She added that the state’s emergency management agency is watching the weather as well as the conditions of dams.
In Leominster, Mass., the rainfall resulted in several sinkholes, including one at a car dealership that swallowed several vehicles. What’s more, the soggy soil paired with Lee’s raging winds will also increase the likelihood of downed trees, which in turn could knock out essential power lines.
The number of people killed by the devastating flash flooding in northern Libya remained unclear Thursday, due to the daunting scale of the catastrophe and political chaos that’s left the African nation divided between two governments for years, but it was undoubtedly well into the thousands. With survivors still desperately hoping to find the bodies of lost loved ones in debris-choked towns and cities, the United Nations said most of the thousands of deaths could have been avoided.
With better functioning coordination in the crisis-wracked country, “they could have issued the warnings and the emergency management forces would have been able to carry out the evacuation of the people, and we could have avoided most of the human casualties,” Petteri Taalas, head of the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization, told reporters.
An area damaged by flash floods is seen in Derna, eastern Libya, Sept. 11, 2023.
AFP/Getty
An enormous surge of water, brought by torrential downpours from Storm Daniel over the weekend, burst two upstream river dams and reduced the city of Derna to an apocalyptic wasteland where entire blocks and untold numbers of people were washed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Hundreds of body bags lined its mud-caked streets Thursday, awaiting mass burials, as traumatized and grieving residents search mangled buildings for the missing and bulldozers worked to clear streets.
Access to Derna remained severely hampered five days after the floods struck, as roads and bridges were destroyed and power and phone lines cut to wide areas.
How many are dead and missing in Libya?
There have been wildly varying figures provided by authorities in Libya, but The Associated Press quoted eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, as saying Thursday that more than 3,000 bodies had been buried in Derna alone, while another 2,000 were still being processed. He said most of the dead were buried in mass graves outside the city, while others were transferred to nearby towns and cities.
A damaged vehicle is seen stuck in debris after floods caused by Storm Daniel, in Derna, Libya, Sept. 12, 2023.
Abdullah Mohammed Bonja/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Authorities in the east put the death toll in Derna alone at 5,100 as of Wednesday, but that number was widely expected to keep climbing as the grim search through the flood debris continued, and a spokesman for an ambulance center in eastern Libya told the AP that at least 9,000 people were still missing.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said earlier in the week that some 10,000 people were missing.
An official with the U.N.’s World Health Organization in Libya told the AP the number of fatalities could reach 7,000, given how many people were still missing, adding that “the numbers could surprise and shock all of us.”
Speaking to the Al Arabia television network, Derna’s Mayor Abdel-Raham al-Ghaithi said the final death toll could even be as high as 20,000.
Aid starts to arrive, with more help promised
The U.N., United States, European Union and multiple Middle Eastern, North African and European nations have pledged to send rescue teams and aid including food, water tanks, emergency shelters, medical supplies and more body bags.
Among the first aircraft to arrive in Benghazi, a 180 mile drive from Derna, were eight Emirati planes carrying rescue teams, hundreds of tons of relief goods and medical aid.
Teams from Turkey’s State Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) join search and rescue operations following devastating floods in Libya, Sept. 13, 2023.
AFAD/ Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty
The Tripoli-based government has declared a national emergency and deployed aircraft, rescue crews and trucks filled with aid.
The United Nations has pledged $10 million in support.
The need is huge, with at least 30,000 people made homeless in Derna and eastern areas, where other towns and villages were also hit by floods and mudslides, according to U.N. agencies.
Impacts of climate change and conflict combined
Climate experts have linked the scale of the disaster to the impacts of a heating planet, combined with years of chaos and decaying infrastructure in Libya.
“Storm Daniel is yet another lethal reminder of the catastrophic impact that a changing climate can have on our world,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
While the floods were caused by hurricane-strength Storm Daniel, the damage was compounded by Libya’s desperately poor infrastructure. The country descended into chaos after longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi was toppled and then killed in a NATO-backed 2011 uprising.
Libya remains divided between two rival blocs — the U.N.-backed, internationally recognized government in Tripoli, and a separate, rival administration based in the disaster-hit east.
According to one report by a regional news outlet Thursday, citing an official with a Libyan “unity” government that has been recognized by only a handful of other nations, all maintenance on both of the burst dams stopped in 2011, when Libya started descending into the civil war that continues today.
Cars are stuck on a bridge surrounded by floodwater as storm Daniel hits central Greece, in the village of Flamouli, near Trikala, September 7, 2023.
STRINGER/REUTERS
The U.N.’s Turk called on all sides in Libya “to overcome political deadlocks and divisions and to act collectively in ensuring access to relief… This is a time for unity of purpose: all those affected must receive support, without regard for any affiliations.”
In an additional threat, landmines left over from the war may have been shifted by the floods, warned Erik Tollefsen, head of the weapon contamination unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Torrential rain and winds caused by an extratropical cyclone have left at least 21 people dead in southern Brazil, officials said Tuesday, warning more flooding may be coming.
The latest in a string of weather disasters to hit Brazil, it is the deadliest ever in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Gov. Eduardo Leite told a news conference.
“We were deeply saddened to get the news that as the water recedes… 15 more bodies were found in the town of Mucum, bringing the death toll to 21,” he said.
Close to 6,000 people were forced from their homes by the storms, which started Monday, dumping hail and nearly 12 inches of rain on the state in less than 24 hours and triggering floods and landslides, officials said.
Aerial view of the area affected by an extratropical cyclone in Mucum, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil, on Sept. 5, 2023. Torrential rain and winds caused by an extratropical cyclone have left at least 21 people dead in southern Brazil, officials said Tuesday.
MATEUS BRUXEL/AGENCIA RBS/AFP via Getty Images
In Mucum, a small town of 5,000 people, hundreds had to be rescued from their rooftops as the Taquari River flooded more than 85 percent of the city, according to local news site GZH.
“There are still people missing. The death toll might climb higher,” Mayor Mateus Trojan told Radio Gaucha.
“The town of Mucum as we knew it no longer exists.”
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sent a message of solidarity with those affected, saying the federal government is “ready to help.”
The victims included a man killed by an electrical shock in the town of Passo Fundo and a couple whose car was swept away by a river as they tried to cross a bridge in the town of Ibiraiaras.
The storms hit 67 municipalities in all, affecting more than 52,000 people, authorities said.
The neighboring state of Santa Catarina also recorded one death, according to news site G1.
Hundreds of firefighters as well as military police and civil defense personnel were dispatched as part of rescue operations, with helicopters sent to reach areas cut off by flooding.
“There are many isolated families, many people still at risk,” said Communications Minister Paulo Pimenta, who is planning to travel to the region with a government delegation Wednesday.
With more rain forecast from Thursday, authorities warn more flooding is possible.
It is the latest in a string of deadly weather events to hit Brazil, which experts say are likely being made worse by climate change.
Unchecked urbanization and irregular housing built on hillsides are also making such disasters deadlier, officials say.
An estimated 9.5 million of Brazil’s 203 million people live in areas at high risk of flooding or landslides.
In June, another cyclone left 13 dead in Rio Grande do Sul and forced thousands of people from their homes.
And in February, 65 people died in landslides caused by record flooding in the southeastern resort town of Sao Sebastiao, on the coast of Sao Paulo state.
Greece is being hit with another round of extreme weather after weeks of experiencing drought, wildfires and intense heat. Within the span of just hours, some areas of the country received more than two feet of rain and at least one person was killed as the storm continued to move toward the Mediterranean Sea where it could transform into what’s known as a “medicane.”
In Zagora, there was a “jaw-dropping” rainfall of 21 inches from the storm, named Daniel, within just 10 hours on Tuesday, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility researcher Nahel Belgherze posted on social media.
“An additional 300-500 mm, locally up to 600 mm, of rain could fall by Thursday,” he said. “A historic flooding event is underway!”
That amount of rain is equal to just under two feet.
My goodness! Zagora, Greece recorded a jaw-dropping 528 mm (21 inches) of rain in just 10 hours – an additional 300-500 mm, locally up to 600 mm, of rain could fall by Thursday. A historic flooding event is underway! pic.twitter.com/7swtHuCFVI
Data from French weather and climate monitor Keraunos shows that since Monday, Zagora has received 889 millimeters – nearly 3 feet – of rain. Several other cities have also received at least a foot of rain within that time.
The rain seen in Zagora is more than 55 times higher than the average rainfall for September across Greece, which has an average rainfall for the month of 16 millimeters, according to the U.K. Meteorological Office.
A fallen tree is seen in a flooded river during a storm in the city of Volos, Greece, September 5, 2023.
Sevina Dariotou/Eurokinissi via REUTERS
Videos posted by Greece’s meteorological office show fast flooding across several cities on Tuesday. In Skiathos, the office said that the situation was “getting worse” throughout the afternoon. Other images show cars halfway submerged under floodwaters. And in Volos, the office said that some areas lost electricity and the Athens News Agency reported that one man was killed when flooding caused a wall to fall on top of him as he was trying to get to his sheep. Another man in the city is missing after being swept away by the waters, the agency said.
Reuters confirmed the two men’s situations, but local officials provided no further details.
“Daniel is developing into one of the most powerful storms that our country has experienced, with the daily rainfall in Central Greece far exceeding previous records, at least since 2006,” the country’s meteorological office wrote on Tuesday, saying that along with the man’s death, the storm has also caused “significant infrastructure problems.”
The last daily rainfall record of 2.1 feet during Mediterranean Cyclone Janus in September 2020.
The office said Monday that more than 7,000 lightning strikes were observed from the weather system, which they classified as a “category 5 precipitation event,” meaning it’s an “extreme” weather situation.
And it may only be getting worse for the region in the coming days. Weather forecasting site Severe Weather Europe says that Daniel could lead to the development of a medicane, a “tropical-like cyclone” in the Mediterranean. Weather models show such a system could form over the Ionian Sea this week, the forecasters said, as an ongoing marine heat wave fuels extreme weather.
Medicanes usually need ocean temperatures of 26 degrees Celsius, just under 79 degrees Fahrenehit, to form, the forecasters said, and there has recently been “more than enough warmth in place to support the sub-tropical development.” Weather models show that if it does form, it could bring wind gusts of roughly 62 miles per hour. It’s unclear if it would be closer to Sicily and Malta or the Libyan coast.
Warmer ocean temperatures are known to create conditions that can lead to more extreme weather. As temperatures increase, so does evaporation, putting more precipitation in the air that allows for storms to form.
The flooding comes as Greece has been battling the European Union’s “largest wildfire ever recorded.” Just last week, Greece’s fire service said the fire was “still out of control” in a nature reserve as the country continues to recover from the dozens of fires that broke out over the summer.
Heavy flooding left thousands of people stranded at the iconic Burning Man festival in the Nevada Desert over the weekend. Authorities are also investigating a death at the festival. Elise Preston has more.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
The entrance to the Burning Man counterculture festival in the Nevada desert was closed and attendees were urged to shelter in place Saturday as flooding from storms swept through the area.
The entrance will be closed for the remainder of the event, which began on Aug. 27 and was scheduled to end on Monday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Black Rock Desert where the festival is being held. Organizers urged festivalgoers to conserve their food, water and fuel.
The Black Rock City Municipal Airport, a temporary pop-up airport used by festival goers every summer specifically for Burning Man, was closed as of Saturday afternoon, the festival said.
“All event access is currently closed,” the festival said, and no driving was permitted except for emergency vehicles.
About 6 inches of rain is believed to have fallen on Friday at the festival site, located about 110 miles north of Reno, the National Weather Service in Reno said. There was a chance of showers and thunderstorms Saturday night and Sunday, the festival said on its website, with a quarter-inch of rain forecast for Sunday.
Superstar DJ and music producer Diplo shared a video to social media Saturday afternoon that showed several people riding on the back of a truck, one of whom appeared to be comedian Chris Rock.
“Just walked 5 miles in the mud out of burning man with chris rock and a fan picked us up,” Diplo wrote.
Spencer Brown, another DJ, posted to social media Saturday that there was “absolutely crazy flooding right now, but I, along with my camp, am safe with plenty of water, food, and shelter. Turning off the Starlink to conserve power.”
Due to recent rainfall, the Bureau of Land Management and the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office officials have closed the entrance to Burning Man for the remainder of the event. Please avoid traveling to the area; you will be turned around. All event access is closed. pic.twitter.com/BY8Rv7eFLD
Portions of Tennessee and Kentucky saw nearly a foot of rain fall in just 24 hours, forcing emergency evacuations and rescues. This comes as the South and West brace for more severe heat. Omar Villafranca has more.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
The dangerous heat blanketing parts of the U.S. hasn’t shown any signs of letting up. The Weather Channel meteorologist Chris Warren tells us when people can expect relief.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Several people were killed in flash floods in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, over the weekend. A 9-month-old and a 2-year-old are still missing. Lana Zak reports.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Much of the Western U.S. is enduring ongoing extreme heat and wildfires. In Death Valley, the temperature reached 128 degrees Sunday. Jonathan Vigliotti has more.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
