GLOBAL WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS

OCTOBER 2023

UNITED STATES

Torrential downpours across north-eastern parts of the US caused significant flooding and disruption last Friday. New York City was particularly badly affected, with flash flooding reported across many of the city’s subway stations and streets. One of the three terminals at LaGuardia airport was forced to close temporarily, and a sea lion briefly escaped from its enclosure at the Central Park zoo. The city’s governor, Kathy Hochul, declared a state of emergency, describing the situation as “life-threatening”, with millions of people put under flood watches and flash-flood warnings. No deaths or injuries have been reported.  A number of locations reported new record daily rainfall totals, with 226mm recorded at JFK airport and 150mm in Central Park since last Thursday. It was the wettest day ever recorded at JFK airport, with records dating back to 1948. The National Weather Service also confirmed that it had been the wettest September for New York City in 140 years.

EUROPE

Gusts of 70mph were recorded as the first named storm of the autumn, Agnes, swept across Britain and Ireland, damaging buildings, causing travel delays and leaving homes without power.  The Met Office issued severe weather warnings covering much of the UK, where strong winds and heavy rain were expected on Wednesday evening and into Thursday.  Named after the Irish astronomer and science writer Agnes Mary Clerke, the storm brought winds of 70mph to south-west Ireland with gusts of up to 80mph in coastal areas and 60mph inland predicted for parts of Britain.

Ten people have been airlifted to safety after heavy rainfall across Scotland caused flooding and landslides.  Weather warnings remain in place across the region and there is widespread travel disruption. The Met Office has warned that the extreme weather could present a danger to life.  HM Coastguard said one of its helicopters was used in a Police Scotland operation after a number of vehicles became stuck after landslides on the A83 and A815 in the western region of Argyll and Bute.  Police said there were no reported injuries but that both roads remained closed.  A number of other roads, including the M9, were hit by flooding on Saturday morning and numerous train services have been suspended.  The Met Office issued a yellow rain warning covering much of Scotland with rainfall of 50-75mm forecast in low-lying areas and close to 100mm on higher ground.

Fresh danger-to-life flood warnings have been issued as water levels continued to rise in the wake of Storm Babet, while cleanup operations got under way in some of the worst-hit areas. Flooding was expected to last for days and two severe flood warnings, signalling danger to life, were later issued for Retford in Notinghamshire. Nottinghamshire county council declared a major incident – with about 200 properties evacuated in the town as the River Idle reached record levels. Severe flood warnings in place on the Idle – and on the River Derwent in Derbyshire – were lifted on Sunday evening, but the Environment Agency warned that flooding would continue along the River Severn into Wednesday.

Ferocious bomb cycloneStorm Claran slammed parts much of Europe Thursday with hurricane-force winds topping 100 mph in several locations, leaving at least 12 dead and over a million power outages across the European continent.

Reuters reported a truck driver died just outside of Paris when a tree fell into his vehicle while another died in Le Havre. The storm left at least 16 others injured in France, according to Gerald Darmanin, France's Minister of the Interior. One of the injuries was reported as serious while the other 15 were minor injuries, Darmanin posted. Seven of the injured were firefighters, officials said.  Damaging wind gusts even reached to other nearby nations, where five others died in storm-related deaths, including two in Belgium, and one each in Spain and the Netherlands, Reuters reported. Another death was reported in Germany. 

TROPICAL

This week the powerful Super Typhoon Bolaven developed in the western Pacific Ocean. It began forming on Saturday and gradually strengthened as it tracked north-east, passing between Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands on Tuesday as a category 1 equivalent storm.  Bolaven subsequently underwent a process known as rapid intensification, with sustained wind speeds increasing from 90mph to 160mph (145km/h to 255km/h)– the equivalent of a category 5 hurricane – in just 12 hours. It continued to strengthen into Wednesday, reaching a peak intensity of sustained winds of 180mph, making it the second strongest storm of 2023, just shy of the 185mph achieved by Super Typhoon Mawar in May.  The process of rapid intensification is defined as an increase in sustained winds of 35mph within 24 hours, a mark Bolaven easily surpassed, and it was not the only tropical storm to do so this week. Hurricane Lidia formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean last week and, despite an initially slow development, on Tuesday sustained winds increased by 65 mph in 24 hours. Lidia then ploughed into the west coast of Mexico as a category 4 storm, bringing sustained winds of 140mph, alongside heavy rain that resulted in landslides and some flash flooding.

Typhoon Koinu made landfall in southern Taiwan on Thursday morning, reaching the country as a category 4 typhoon on the Hengchun peninsula as the storm’s eye crossed over Eluanbi for about five minutes. At this stage, the maximum sustained winds were recorded at 135mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. By Thursday afternoon, the storm was 62 miles off the western coast of Eluanbi, with maximum sustained winds of 89mph. Despite weakening, Koinu is expected to reach coastal areas of southern China this weekend, and the city of Guangzhou has already cancelled some flights and trains. Heavy rain and intense winds caused damage to trees, billboards and homes across Taiwan. Most business and cities declared days off from work and school from Wednesday to Thursday, and 310,000 homes experienced power outages. Taiwan’s two main domestic airlines, UNI Air and Mandarin Airlines, cancelled most flights, and ferries to outlying islands were also stopped.

At least 27 people died due to Hurricane Otis and four others were still missing, Mexico’s government said after one of the most powerful storms to hit the country smashed into the Pacific resort city of Acapulco a day before.  President Andres said the government was working to re-establish power and clean up the devastation wrought by the category 5 hurricane that tore through the southern state of Guerrero, and left Acapulco incommunicado.   “What Acapulco suffered was really disastrous,” López Obrador said at a regular government press conference on Thursday.

Otis flooded streets, ripped roofs off homes and hotels, and severed communications and road and air access. Downed phone service and electricity lines made it hard for officials to quickly assess the extent of the damage.

CANARY ISLANDS

Authorities on the Canary Islands have ordered the temporary closure of schools due to scorching temperatures on the archipelago that have set records and helped revive a huge wildfire on Tenerife.  The Spanish archipelago off the north-west coast of Africa typically experiences spring-like conditions all year, but temperatures have recently soared to about 38C (100F) in some parts.  The mercury hit 38.5C in Adeje in the south-west of Tenerife on Monday, and 37.8C in Arucas in the north of the neighbouring island of Gran Canaria, according to Spain’s meteorological agency, Aemet.  With high temperatures forecast to continue, the archipelago’s education minister, Poli Suárez, announced classes would be suspended on Wednesday and Friday. Thursday is a public holiday in Spain.  “We want to prioritise the safety of boys and girls at all schools in the Canaries,” he told reporters.  Local media said there had been several cases of students fainting or suffering heatstroke in recent days in the Canaries.  The high temperatures helped to rekindle a wildfire in the north-east of Tenerife, which has already ravaged about 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of woodland over the summer.