Global Weather Highlights

August 2023

UNITED STATES

Multiple evacuations are underway on several Hawaiian islands as the influence of Hurricane Dora to the south of the islands and a strong ridge of high pressure to the north fuel dangerous wildfires. Fire crews battled brush fires on Maui and the Big Island on Tuesday as wind gusts of more than 70 mph helped spread the flames.  One of the larger fires burning on the northern part of the Big Island charred more than 1,800 acres. Hawaii's acting governor issued an emergency proclamation promising resources to hard-hit Maui and Hawaii counties.

A wave of destructively strong storms moving through the US north-east has left two people dead, caused thousands of flight cancellations and left more than 1.1m homes and businesses without power (7^th).  The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the greater DC area, lasting until 9pm, as well as a flood warning extending through Tuesday morning. A special statement warned: “There is a significant threat for damaging and locally destructive hurricane-force winds, along with the potential for large hail and tornadoes, even strong tornadoes.” The storms’ spread was massive, with tornado watches and warnings posted across 10 states from Tennessee to New York. The National Weather Service said the area of greatest concern centered in the Washington-Baltimore region.

The global average temperature has hit record high marks recently, with some estimates that Earth is warmer now than it has been in hundreds of thousands of years. It’s been hot in Alaska, too, even after a cool start to summer for much of the state.  National Weather Service climate researcher Brian Brettschneider, back for our Ask a Climatologist segment, says about a quarter of Alaska had its warmest July on record.  And while the state has been spared from even worse heat, , like the 90-plus degrees seen in parts of South America, where it’s supposed to be the middle of winter right now, Brettschneider says Alaska could easily end up back in what he calls “the bullseye.”

When the Mendenhall River started rising from this year’s glacial outburst flood,  John Loverink was watching from the balcony of his Riverside Drive condo. It’s something he does most summers.  But this year, things were different. By late Saturday evening, the river had swollen drastically.  “I had no concerns yesterday morning,” Loverink said. “Then I came back after a while, and it was four times as wide as it’s ever been.”  Juneau’s glacial outburst floods have happened every year since 2011, but this year was the worst by far. The Mendenhall River eroded the bank in a matter of hours, undermining some homes and sending at least one into the river. 

MEDITERRANEAN

The bodies of 18 people have been found in an area of north-east Greece where firefighters are battling a major wildfire, authorities have said, as a record-breaking late summer heatwave continues to sear swathes of continental Europe.  Hundreds of firefighters were struggling on Tuesday to contain dozens of outbreaks, including several that have burned out of control for days and forced widespread evacuations, in the second deadly wave of blazes in Greece in a month. The bodies were found near a shack in the Avanta area north of the city of Alexandroupolis near Greece’s borders with Turkey and Bulgaria, authorities said, and a disaster victim identification team was working to identify them.  A fire service spokesperson, Ioannis Artopios, said that since no reports of missing people had been filed in the area, where a major forest fire has been burning for four days, it was possible the victims were migrants who had entered from Turkey.  The discovery brings the overall toll from this week’s fires in Greece to 20, after the body of another person thought to be a migrant was found in the same area on Monday and an elderly shepherd was found dead at the site of a blaze north of Athens.

EUROPE

Forecasters have warned there will be more torrential downpours and thunderstorms on Wednesday owing to an unseasonably deep area of low pressure crossing Britain.  The UK had an average of 140.1mm of rain last month, the sixth highest total for July since records began in 1836, according to provisional data.  The year 1988 holds the record for the UK’s wettest July, with an average of 150.5mm of rain.  Northern Ireland had an average of 185.4mm of rain last month, just above the previous record of 185.2mm set in July 1936.

A powerful storm has brought destruction to Norway, causing landslides and leaving an entire town stranded, as meteorologists warned of the strongest rainfall in a quarter of a century.  The storm – named Storm Hans – has killed two people, ripped off roofs and caused widespread disruption across northern Europe in a summer that started with wildfires across much of the region.  The Norwegian meteorological institute issued a red danger warning – the highest level of risk – on Tuesday for extremely heavy rainfall across parts of southern Norway. “In many places, the event will be among the strongest in the last 25 years,” it warned.  On the east coast, north of Oslo, in parts of western Norway and the southern part of Trøndelag, as much as 80-100mm of rain in 24 hours was forecast.

A summer hailstorm in Reutlingen led to winter-like scenes and temporarily interrupted traffic, with about 39cm of hail falling in some areas.  Authorities deployed snowplows to clear the streets as people used shovels to help clean-up.

Torrential rain in Germany has turned the grounds of the world’s largest heavy metal festival into a mud bath, forcing organizers to turn many ticket holders away.  Wacken Open Air in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany, opened on Wednesday and by the same evening the festival said newcomers would be refused access to the site due to what it called unmanageable conditions. “It does sometimes rain at festivals, but rarely so much as we’ve seen,” a statement said. Thhe four-day festival’s lineup features about 200 bands from across the world, from Ukraine to Japan. Headliners Iron Maiden are scheduled to perform on Friday evening, along with Megadeth. Other acts include Uriah Heep, Heaven Shall Burn and Dropkick Murphys and the local community’s firefighter band, the Wacken Firefighters, who waded through the mud to get to the stage on Wednesday, to huge applause. Six bands were believed to have cancelled.

TROPICAL

About 166,000 households in south-western Japan’s Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures were without power as Typhoon Khanun continued to hit with heavy rain and gusty winds, prolonging the damage potential (3^rd).  The storm in the East China Sea was heading north-west at a slow speed with gusts of 222km/h (138mph), according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. It was projected to change direction to move east towards the country’s mainland until Tuesday, but its path was not determined, public broadcaster NHK said. Two people were reported dead in Okinawa, a popular tourist destination about 1,600km (1,000 miles) south-west of the Japanese capital, Tokyo, as of Thursday morning, NHK said.  A total of 41 people in Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures were injured, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

Typhoon Doksuri has continued to wreak havoc across northern China, with days of severe rainfall across Beijing and the neighbouring Hubei province leaving entire cities inundated with flood water. At least 21 people have been killed and an estimated 30 are missing across the affected region. Beijing recorded 74.48cm (29.3in) of rain between Saturday and Wednesday, the Beijing meteorological bureau said on Wednesday, the heaviest rain since records began almost 140 years ago. The city of Zhouzhou in the Hubei province, south-west of Beijing, is one of the worst-hit cities. Footage on state media showed rescue workers using rubber boats to pass throughout submerged streets to help people stranded by the floods. President Xi Jinping has urged rescue workers to make 'every effort' to help people affected by the storm.

Tropical Storm Hilary pummeled the west coast of Florida with historic amounts of rain and strong winds.  The storm downed trees, flooded streets and left cascades of mud and debris in its wake/ 

Hurricane Idalia struck northern Florida on Wednesday, bringing damaging winds and torrential rain. It made landfall near Keaton Beach on Florida’s Big Bend during the morning as a high-end category 3 hurricane, bringing sustained winds speeds near 125mph (200km/h) and a storm surge of 16ft along Florida’s north-west coastline.  Due to very warm sea surface temperatures, the storm strengthened rapidly over the Gulf of Mexico to category 4 status, before weakening to category 3 as it made landfall. It brought extensive flooding as it passed through and damaged power lines, leaving thousands without electricity.  The Florida highway patrol attributed two deaths from car crashes during heavy rainfall to the hurricane. On Wednesday afternoon, Idalia had weakened into a tropical storm as it descended through Georgia and South Carolina. The storm moved across the coast of North Carolina through Thursday, bringing heavy rain and coastal flooding, before gradually clearing to the Atlantic on Thursday night.