GLOBAL WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS

MAY 2023

EUROPE

Older and disabled people were trapped in their homes as rescuers worked under pounding rain throughout the night to save people in what has been described as the most severe flooding to affect Italy in 100 years. The floods in the northern Emilia-Romagna region have claimed 13 lives as of Thursday evening. An estimated 20,000 have been left homeless in a disaster that caused 23 rivers to burst their banks and 280 landslides, engulfing 41 cities and towns.  Roads remained blocked, including the A1, after a landslide in Sasso Marconi on Thursday afternoon, and trains were cancelled or disrupted. Among the dead were an elderly couple trapped inside their home in Cava, a hamlet in the province of Forlì-Cesena. “We heard their cries for help,” a neighbor told Il Messaggero newspaper. “We tried to get them out, but it was useless.” 

The Spanish government has advised people to take extra care as the drought-stricken country experiences record-breaking temperatures that could result in an  nprecedented April temperature of 39C (102F) in parts of Andalucía on Friday.  This week’s abnormally high spring temperatures – caused as a mass of very hot air from north Africa travels across the Iberian peninsula and the Balearic islands – have already led the regional government of Madrid to approve a plan to help hospitals, health centres and schools cope, and to order the opening of public swimming pools a month earlier than usual. In Seville, where temperatures were expected to hit 36C on Thursday, police were trying to establish whether a horse pulling a carriage of tourists had died of heatstroke.

AFRICA

At least 411 people are now known to have died in intense flooding and landslides that hit the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s South Kivu province last week. Efforts to rescue inhabitants and recover bodies in Kalehe, where the flooding happened, are continuing. Some houses, schools and hospitals have collapsed or become dilapidated or unsafe. Others were entirely swept away. “There are some places that had houses, but you look at them now and can’t imagine that there was anything there before,” said Ulrich Crepin Namfeibona, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency coordinator in South Kivu. The torrential rains wiped out entire villages, along with fields of crops and livestock, leaving communities reeling. About 5,500 people are still missing, and thousands of survivors have been left homeless.

May is the end of the rainy season for many parts of east Africa. However, this does not mean the devastation has ended.  Last week heavy rainfall, which started in the late afternoon on 2 May, led to flash flooding in parts of Rwanda and Uganda. These heavy downpours continued through to 4 May, with further wet weather following later in the week.  This rainfall caused Rwanda’s Sebeya River to burst its banks and also destabilized slopes. This led to several landslides across hilly Rwanda, with official reports counting 127 deaths, 5,100 properties destroyed, and a further 2,500 partially damaged.  Parts of Uganda were also affected by these flash floods, with a reported six deaths linked to a landslide. Heavy rain was also reported in west Africa earlier this week. Several storms affected northern parts of Sierra Leone on 9 and 10 May, leading to some flash flooding. The capital, Freetown, was one of the worst-affected areas, with several cars washed away in the deluge and buildings badly damaged. Six deaths were also recorded linked to a wall collapse, and a further 10 deaths associated with a landslide as a house collapsed.

TROPICAL

Rescuers have evacuated about 1,000 people trapped by seawater 3.6 meters (12ft) deep along western Myanmar’s coast after a powerful cyclone injured hundreds and cut off communications in one of Asia’s least developed countries.  Strong winds injured more than 700 of about 20,000 people who were sheltering in sturdier buildings on the highlands of Sittwe township such as monasteries, pagodas and schools, according to a leader of the Rakhine Youths Philanthropic Association in Sittwe.  Seawater raced into more than 10 low-lying wards near the shore as Cyclone Mocha made landfall in Rakhine state on Sunday afternoon, said the rescue group leader, who asked not to be named due to fear of reprisals from the authorities in the military-run country. Residents moved to roofs and higher floors, while the wind and storm surge prevented immediate rescue.