Italy Slammed By Ferocious Storm; Damage $Billions, Other Destructive Storms In France, Britain

A massive landslide left this Sicilian town hanging
on a big precpice. Heavy rains from what was likely
the severest storm the region's history contribute to
the landslide. 

While we in the United States have been distracted with its own mega storm, another intense storm has caused havoc and severe damage in Italy this month. 

The storm, named Harry by meteorologists swept Italy from January 18 to 21. 

The storm was likely the worst in the region's history. At the very least, it was the worst in recent memory. 

It hit hardest in Sicily and Calabria.  Huge waves towering to over 30 feet smacked into shorelines, blasting through beachside restaurants and other businesses.   

Waves off the coast of eastern Sicily reached to nearly 40 feet, which is said to be unprecedented for the Mediterranean Sea. Waves (10 meters) in height battered coastal buildings. 

"The force of the waters swept away protective barriers, debris, and large quantities of sand onto the public roads of Catania. The receding tide on the Sicilian coast only began to be observed around 3 a.m. Wednesday," Italianismo.com reported. 

 Surprisingly but happily, there's been no reported deaths so far. Officials said evacuation warnings ahead of the storm and rescue crews helped a great deal. 

There were some close calls. According to Italianismo.com, waves struck the mayors of two cities as they were jointly doing a live broadcast on social media to report on the bad weather.

 Locals and officials were stunned by the storm. 

"The Calabria regional director of the civil protection department, Domenico Costarella, described the cyclone as a 'once in a century event,'" according to WantedinRome.com, an English language Italian news site. 

Damage in Sicily alone was over 500 Euros, or about $590 million U.S. dollars. Total damage in Italy is estimated at $1.7 billion.  

On land, torrential rains caused extreme flooding and landslides. San Sostene in Calabria had more than 22 inches of rain in three days. 

A couple days after the storm tapered off, a huge landslide struck the town of Niscemi, Sicily. The slide is about two and half miles long and is carving out a drop of about 150 feet. The slide at last report was still active and additional houses have fallen in the past 24 hours and more will probably go. About 1,500 people have been evacuated.

Separately, Storm Ingrid hit hard in parts of the UK and France on Saturday. Huge waves damaged a sea wall on a main railway around Devon and Cornwall. A historic pier was washed away and coastal homes were heavily damaged when waves smashed into them. . 

Storm Ingrid hit less than a month after Storm Goretti left widespread wind damage in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. A new system, called Storm Chandra is now moving into the United Kingdom with strong winds, heavy rain and higher elevation snow. 

Storm Ingrid also caused damaging floods in parts of France. 

Videos:

Huge ways crash into the Italian Coast in last week's Storm Harry. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on tbgat

 Waves crash through the window of a seaside restaurant in Italy. As always, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

You have to be careful these days about AI slop, but I believe the images of the storm are the real deal in this summary video. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.

One more: Destruction on the coast in Messina. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Video shows houses and buildings teetering on the edge of a huge landslide in Sicily. Aerial view shows how huge slab of land sloughed away, leaving a huge cliff that is eating away at the hilltop town. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on the arrow within the image. 

 

Even Highest Altitude European Glaciers Can't Escape This Summer's Heat

A Swiss glacier with blankets over it in a last ditch effort
to slow melting during heat waves. A new heat wave is
breaking records for the highest elevation of above
freezing air over Europe. 

 Swiss meteorologists said that Monday night, you had to reach an elevation of 17,381 feet before you encountered subfreezing air. below 32 degrees, or 0 degrees Celsius. 

That's the highest elevation on record in which above freezing air reached. 

That sounds esoteric, until you consider that Switzerland's vaunted glaciers are all below that elevation, subjecting even the highest glaciers to melting. 

According to the Associated Press:

"MeteoSwiss meteorologist Michael Schwander said it marked only the third time such readings had been tallied above 5,000 meters (16,404 feet) - and that the level was generally around 3,500 (11,483 feet) to 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) in a typical summer. 

'With a zero degree far above 5,000 meters, all glaciers in the Alps are exposed to melt - up to the highest altitudes,' said Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at the federal technical university in Zurich, ETHZ in an email. 'Such events are rare and detrimental to the glaciers' health, as they live from snow being accumulated at high altitudes.'

'If such conditions persist in the longer term, glaciers are set to be lost irreversibly,' he said."

Switzerland has about 1,400 glaciers, the most in Europe. They've lost at least half of their total volume since the early 1930s. They've lost 12 percent of their volume in just the past six years, the Associated Press reports.

The high elevations hot spell in Switzerland is part of an intense heat wave now hitting much of Europe. It's being caused by a "heat dome," which is intense area of oddly warm high pressure sitting over parts of the continent. A similar heat dome is afflicting the central United States with record heat. 

In France, people are being told to avoid high elevations in the Alps, because melting ice is opening new crevices in glaciers and causing rock falls. 

Four regions in France are under a rare red alert, which allows local officials to cancel outdoor events and take other measures to protect people from the dangerous heat.

The most tragic news from the European heat wave so far comes from Greece, where 18 charred bodies were found after a wildfire made possible by the record heat swept through. The dead were believed to be migrants. 

For once, we in Vermont are lucking out with the weather.  The heat in the Midwest and Plains is not forecast to spread east. Our temperatures should remain near or a little cooler than normal for at least the next week. 

Climate change, acting in concert with El Nino, has caused numerous record heat waves acros s the world since June. The month of July was the hottest on record for the world as a whole. Many climatologists expect August to be the world's hottest on record, too.

 

Great Britain Braces For Hottest Day Ever As Another Extreme Heat Wave Roasts Western Europe

A man carries a sheep on his back as they flee a wildfire in
Letria, Portugal during record heat this past week. Photo by
Paulo Cunha/EPA via Shutterstock/NBC News

 What is described as a "national emergency" is about to engulf Great Britain. It's an unprecedented heat wave that could cause a significant death toll in a nation not equipped for the type of heat in the forecast for the beginning of the week.   

The British Met Office says it is now likely that at least one city in England will reach 40 degrees Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit. 

If that happens, it would shatter England's record for all time hottest temperature, which was 101.6 degrees on July 25, 2019.

London currently is expecting a high temperature of 100 degrees Monday and 97 degrees on Tuesday.

By American standards, these forecasts don't seem too, too bad. Torrid, yes, but these are temperatures that have been experienced frequently outside the northern tier of states.

However, Great Britain isn't built for heat waves. And they were pretty rare in the past. You'd get a few years, like 1976, that were horribly hot. But England's damp, cool reputation held until recent years. Climate change is rewriting the rules of British summers.

The average high temperature in most of Great Britain this time of year is in the mid-70s. So who needs air conditioning? As you can see, since most places there don't have air conditioning, this is an especially dangerous situation for the elderly and for people already dealing with health problems. Estimates are that only three percent of British households have air conditioning. 

And the fit are at risk too, apparently.  The Met Office has declared the impending heat wave a Level 4 Red Alert. According to Reuters:

"On the Met Office website, a Level 4 red alert is defined as a national emergency, and is used when a heat wave 'is so severe and/or prolonged that its effects extend outside the health and social care system. At this level, illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups."

As the Washington Post reports. the UK Met Office, which is the equivalent of the National Weather Service in the United States, doesn't usually use strong language in even the most noteworthy weather events. This time, though, at least compared to past performances, the people at the Met Office are pulling out their hair. Especially since there's a connection to climate change.

"'The chances of seeing 40 degree C days in the U.K. could be as much as 10 times more likely in the current climate than under a natural climate unaffected by human influence,' said Nikos Christidis, a climate attribution scientist at the Met Office. 'The likelihood of exceeding 40 degrees C anywhere in the U.K. in a give year has also been rapidly increasing, and, even with current pledges on emissions reductions, such extremes could be taking place every 15 years in the climate of 2100."

The British torrid spell is part of a heat wave that blossomed in Morocco moved north in recent days into Portugal, Spain and France.

Pinhao, Portugal on Thursday reached 47 degrees Celsius or 116.6 degrees Fahrenheit, for the hottest July temperature on record for that nation.

Several cities in Portugal have set all time record highs in recent days. The hot, dry weather has set off huge forest fires in Portugal and adjacent Spain.

As of Friday morning, the number of deaths associated with the heat continued to rise. At least 281 heat-related deaths were reported in Spain and Portugal and the heat intensified and spread. There could be well over 1,000 deaths before this is over. 

Thankfully the heat is forecast to subside, at least for now,  by midweek in much of Great Britain and France. Highs from Tuesday onward through the rest of the week in London are forecast to be in the reasonable mid to upper 70s, with 80s forecast in places like Paris. 

Of course, it's only mid-July.  Deadly heat could re-assert itself through August. The current heat in Europe is making many people remember, and fear a repeat of, the catastrophic European heat wave of 2003.

The longer a heat wave lasts, the worse things get and the more people die. The 2003 heat wave started in June, and pretty much continued through August, culminating in all time record highs in much of western Europe during August.

About 30,000 people are thought to have died during that long 2003 heat wave. 

Deadly heat waves have gotten more likely with climate change world wide. The expected heat in the next few days in Great Britain is just one more example of that. 

Here in Vermont, we continue to be one of the few places spared so far this summer. It will turn very warm and humid for most of the upcoming week, but we won't come close to record highs. However, the weather pattern does look very active during the week, so expect bouts of thunderstorms and locally heavy rain. 

 

"Storm Alex" Brings Extreme Floods To France, Italy

 It's not just us in the United States that has been experiencing bouts of extreme weather lately.  Parts of Europe is being nailed, too. 

Extreme damage from Storm Alex in France. 
Photo from AFP via BBC.

Storm Alex, as it's called, slammed into France a couple days bringing near hurricane force winds and especially nearly unprecedented rains. 

In some areas near the southern Alps, up to 17.7 inches of rain fell with the storm, an amount that would normally fall over the course of four months.  

The result was historic flooding and landslides. At least four people died, and others are missing. Villages in the southern Alps are cut off. Images on social media show buildings falling into raging rivers and entire hillsides collapsing in landslides.

On the coast near Brittany, winds gusted to 112 mph. 

Similar destruction slammed northwestern Italy, with more bridge collapses and towns cut off from the outside world. 

Alex was not a tropical storm or hurricane. It was a regular mid-latitude storm, but weather patterns allowed it to rapidly grow into an incredibly intense storm.  Strong ridges of high pressure, one over northern Europe and the other over the North Atlantic Ocean, created an opportunity for a strong upper level storm  to form between the two ridges.

This in turn, allowed Alex to become an intense storm. 

There's no way I can accurately pin Storm Alex on climate change. However, scientists do say that a warming overall climate can lead to stronger, more intense storms, so Alex as consistent with that idea. Here are some videos:

The first half of this video in particular is especially harrowing:

Some of the destruction in France, via The Telegraph:

One of many  houses in France being destroyed by the flooding from Alex in this video: