GLOBAL WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS

NOVEMBER 2023

EUROPE

An amber weather warning is in place for parts of north-west England on Monday (13^th) as Storm Debi hits the UK, bringing heavy rain and severe gale-force winds – while much of the Republic of Ireland is covered by red and orange wind warnings until mid-morning.  The alert for England is active from 10am until 4pm and has been issued for areas north of Liverpool up to Whitehaven and west to areas that include Blackpool. The Met Office has warned people should be wary of solid and disruptive winds with the possibility of flying debris. Damage to buildings and structures is likely and heavy items such as tiles blown from roofs may present a potential danger to life.  The Met Office also warned that roads and bridges are likely to close, meaning longer journey times and public transport and other cancellations are possible, with road, rail, air and ferry services to be affected.

A seventh person has been found dead and another is still missing more than a day after rivers burst their banks following torrential rain in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the Ansa news agency reported.  The body of a 69-year-old man was found in the town of Campi Bisenzio, about 9 miles (15km) north-west of Florence, the news agency said. Officials earlier said six people had died in the deluge that started late on Thursday.  There had been fears that the Arno River could flood Florence after nearby towns were swamped by the southern edge of Storm Ciarán, but the high water point passed in mid-morning on Friday without major incident in the historic city.  Ciarán was driven by a powerful jet stream that swept in from the Atlantic, unleashing heavy rain and furious winds that caused heavy flooding in parts of the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and France.  About 300 people have been forced to evacuate their homes in Tuscany, while many others have had their water and power supplies cut, the region’s president, Eugenio Giani, was quoted as saying by Ansa on Saturday.  The disaster had caused €300m (£260m) of damage based on initial estimates, he added.  Another person, a firefighter, was missing in the north-eastern Veneto region, the governor there was quoted as saying by Sky TG24 on Friday.

A storm in the Black Sea region has caused coastal flooding and left residents without power. Russia’s state news agency, TASS, reported that three people were killed in the storm, including one person in the resort city of Sochi and another in the Russian-held Crimean peninsula. Ukrainian authorities said a snowstorm in the southern Odesa region caused power outages and forced the closure of motorways.

ASIA

In the past couple of days devastating floods have affected Somalia and surrounding countries, leaving 29 people dead and more than 300,000 people displaced from their homes, with figures expected to rise further as many remain trapped by flood waters.

Kenya also experienced flooding, with 15 deaths recorded. Nazanine Moshiri of the International Crisis Group said the cause of these devastating floods was the combined effect of two weather phenomena: El Niño and the Indian Ocean dipole.  With both of these causing warmer than average sea surface temperatures in their current phase, there has been an increased amount of rainfall during east Africa’s monsoon season, resulting in the worst floods for many decades. These floods follow the region’s worst drought in 40 years, which has exacerbated the effects, with a high amount of surface water runoff than would otherwise have been expected.

AFRICA

The regions of Tigray and Amhara in northern Ethiopia have continued to experience severe drought conditions with more than 50 people dead, as well as 4,000 cattle.

While northern Ethiopia suffers from droughts, the southern and eastern parts of the country, along with Kenya and Somalia, have been hit by flooding. Somalia suffered the worst of the flooding, with 50 people reported dead. According to the Somali disaster management agency almost 700,000 people have been forced to leave their homes.

Across east Africa a total of 130 people have died because of the flooding. The town of Beledweyne in Somalia was badly affected as the Shabelle River burst its banks, destroying many homes. According to Save the Children, an estimated 250,000 people (about 90% of Beledweyne’s population) were forced out of their homes. The flooding is expected to continue to affect east Africa with the UN warning that 4.3 million people (a quarter of Somalia’s population) are at risk of “crisis-level hunger or worse”.

UNITED STATES

Parts of Alaska have experienced considerable snowfall this autumn, with the state’s largest city on track to surpass its November record by some margin.  The city of Anchorage, which typically receives about 5 inches (12cm) of snow during the first two weeks of November, has so far had an impressive 37.9 inches. Several daily records have been broken, most starkly on 8 November, with 9 inches of snow within 24 hours. That was part of a larger three-day snowstorm that brought more than 20 inches in total. A state of emergency was declared in the city during this event, prompting the closure of schools, suspension of public transport, and increased efforts to find shelter for the homeless population, with four deaths reported among people living outdoors.

AUSTRAILIA

A dozen people have been rescued from flood waters as further heavy rainfall and strong winds are expected along the east coast, and emergency crews prepare to assess property damage.  The New South Wales State Emergency Service conducted 12 flood rescues on Wednesday, spread across eight communities in the state’s south-east.  It responded to 1,056 calls statewide in the 24 hours to 5am Thursday morning, with 505 of these along the south coast region. There were 269 calls in the Sydney area, 158 in the Hunter and mid north coast and 94 in the wider Riverina.

TROPICAL

In the small hours of Wednesday 25 October, Josefina Maldonado, a grandmother of two in her 60s who lives in the Renacimiento district of Acapulco, watched as the corrugated metal roof of her home flew into the sky, ripped off by 165mph (270km/h) winds. The family home and everything and everyone in it, including two terrified small children, were prey to the torrential rain and the horrors of the hurricane. Most of the furniture, including the beds, was swept away.  “It wasn’t that the wind or the water was stronger. Both were working together,” Maldonado says. “We were up all night trying to save what we could, and the children screamed and cried for hours.”  Hurricane Otis was the strongest storm ever to hit Mexico’s Pacific coast, damaging more than 200,000 homes and killing at least 45 people, with dozens reported missing. The failure to warn of its intensity is widely accepted as one of the biggest shortcomings in recent meteorological prediction. Just two days before it made landfall, the United States National Hurricane Center classified Otis as category 1 – but changed its prediction to category 5 just hours before the storm hit, by which time few in Acapulco had time to evacuate.  According to the centre, the climate crisis has altered water temperatures in the Pacific, making these kinds of quick accelerations more likely.  In Renacimiento the day after the storm, residents used scavenged rakes and shovels to pile the debris, including refrigerators, mattresses, food containers, bent street signs and children’s tricycles, in front of their homes, and created a pathway for people to walk through the plots of destroyed properties.