New Zealand, Madagascar, Brazil Pummeled By Separate Intense Storms

Destruction in New Zealand after recent
 Cyclone Gabrielle 

The United States isn't the only place experience strong, dangerous storms lately. Intense storms have also hit New Zealand, Brazil and parts of eastern Africa. 

NEW ZEALAND

In New Zealand, at least eight deaths have been reported after Cyclone Gabrielle struck earlier this week, (MONDAY 2/13)

Reports the BBC:

"New Zealand's prime minister says he expects there to be more deaths from the violent storm which killed eight people and cut off hundreds of communities.

More than 4,500 people have yet to be contacted after Cyclone Gabrielle hit on Monday, causing significant flooding and landslides across the North Islands.

Many cities and towns are also without power and clean drinking water. A national state of emergency has been declared, only the third in New Zealand's history. 

"This is undoubtedly the biggest natural disaster that we've seen probably this century," Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said."

Most of the 4,500 people who haven't been found are almost surely alive, but are cut off from the rest of the world by cell towers and equipment that have damaged by the storm. Still, Hipkins told the nation to be prepared for the death toll to rise.

At least one body was found in an attic crawl space. The person tried to get as high as possible to avoid the water, but the inundation was so incredible it reached the attic

New Zealand's new prime minister did not mince words describing the chaos. As The Guardian reports: 

"'Cyclone Gabrielle is the most significant weather event New Zealand has seen in this century. The severity and the damage that we are seeing has not been experience in a generation,' the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, said on Tuesday. 'We are still building a picture of the effects of the cyclone as it continues to unfold. But what we do know is the impact is significant and it is widespread.'"

Just to make matters worse, a 6.0 earthquake was felt in New Zealand in the immediate aftermath of the storm, though damage from the earthquake was light. 

Before Gabrielle, Northern New Zealand, including Auckland, had its wettest day and wettest month on record in January, with serious flooding in an area usually known for its calm summer weather. (It's summer in the Southern Hemisphere, as you are probably aware). 

As Bob Henson and Jeff Masters wrote in Yale Climate Connections earlier this month: 

"Climate change is exacerbating the wet setup, as a freight train of rainmaking systems from the tropical western Pacific draws on unusually high seas surface temperature.. associated with a marine heat wave. Intensified short-term rains and warming oceans are two of the most clearly established effects of a human-warmed planet."

Speaking of those intensified short-term rains..........

BRAZIL

Flooding in parts of Brazil in the past few days have led to at nearly four dozen confirmed deaths, and at least 40 people remained missing at last report. 

Photo shows extensive damage from flooding and landslides
in Sao Sebastiao, Brazil. 

As the AP tells us: 

"Precipitation in San Sebastiao had surpassed 23.6 inches during a 24-hour period over the weekend, among the largest such downpours ever in such a short period in Brazil." 

The flooding hit a scenic area with ocean beaches flanked by mountains. The torrential downpours created walls of water that swept down the hillsides. Other slopes collapsed into landslides amid all the water. 

Many others were evacuated from near saturated hillsides as more landslides threatened amid continued downpours. 

CYCLONE FREDDY

Small but intense Cyclone Freddy shown here in a 
satellite photo heading toward Madagascar this week. 

An intense cyclone named Freddy traversed east to west across the Indian Ocean and smacked into Madagascar this week, (Hurricanes in the Indian Ocean are called cyclones). Freddy was a category 5 hurricane when it was out in the open Indian Ocean. That's the strongest possible hurricane with winds of 157 mph or more.  

Luckily, Freddy weakened to a strong Category 2 with winds of 110 mph when it made landfall in Madagascar.  Despite the fact that Madagascar averages at least one tropical cyclone per year, the infrastructure can't handle these storms all that well. 

So, Cyclone Freddy has created a path of destruction across central Madagascar, killing at least four people, creating a storm surge and blowing roofs off of numerous homes. This comes a few weeks after another cyclone killed 33 people on the island off the east coast of Africa, according to the BBC.

In one hard hit town, deaths were minimized because people living near a river were ordered out before the storm hit. 

Cyclone Freddy was at last report heading westward across the Mozambique Channel. It was expected to lash Mozambique and Zimbabwe with floods in the coming days. 

 

Epic, Wild New Zealand Flood Kills At Least 4

 

 Floods happen around the world all the time, but some of them just make you stop and go "Wow!"

Inside of a Auckland, New Zealand
supermarket during the recent 
extreme floods there. 

One of those "Wow" floods just hit Auckland, New Zealand, dumping nearly as much rain that falls in a typical summer in just 15 hours.

 It was easily the wettest day in the city's history. In some areas, up to six inches of rain blasted down in  just three hours. 

The floods on Friday went so far as to invade the Auckland Airport, shutting it down, canceling all domestic and international flights and causing massive damage. International flights resumed Saturday, though cancelations and delays were expected to continue for several more days.

Hundreds of people had to spend Friday night at the airport, as there was no way in or out. 

This little announcement from the Auckland Airport surely did not warm the hearts of many travelers: "Unfortunately, due to earlier flooding in the baggage hall, we are currently unable to return checked luggage to you....Your airline will make arrangements for its return at a later time." 

Scheduled Elton John concerts in Auckland Friday and Saturday were canceled. 

The torrents flooded hundreds of homes, blocked most major highways in and around Auckland and prompted at least 2,000 emergency calls, the Associated Press reported, 

Though  heavy rain had ended in Auckland Saturday, more waves of heavy rain were forecast to continue at least into Tuesday. 

Auckland, on New Zealand's North Island, is the nation's largest city, with a population of more than 1.6 million,

It's tough to quickly and easily assign a particular weather extreme like these New Zealand floods to climate change. However, it does fit in with a trend with more and more extreme precipitation events and floods created by that climate change. 

VIDEOS:

Views of the Auckland Airport. I caught a glimpse of a "Caution, Wet Floor" warning sign in this video, which was a nice touch: 

News clip of the New Zealand floods:

Extreme Flooding, Storms Keep Popping Up

Extreme flooding in Zhenghou, China this week.

 Massive storms and flooding keep popping up in various parts of the world as extreme weather events become the new normal.  After the cataclysmic flooding in Germany, new big water disasters occurred this week in China, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Turkey and Arizona. 

CHINA

Enormous floods in China this week killed at least two dozen people, mostly in Henan province, In that regions capital, Zhengzhou,   The amount of rain that normally falls over the course of a year came in just three days, the BBC reports.  

Two feet of rain fell there just on Tuesday, which is the same amount as Zhengzhou's normal rainfall for an entire year. Eight inches of that coming within just one hour.  

According to meteorologist Minghao Zhou on Twitter, it's a record for any of the 2,400 reporting stations in China, and might be a world record for the most intense downpour in a city of more than 10 million. Zhengzhou is home to about 12 million. 

This is another case of extreme weather this year far exceeding previous records. Happening a lot, isn't it?

 The inevitable result was a catastrophic flood that sent deep water through most of the city.   There's harrowing video circulating on social media of subway passengers in Zhengzhou trapped in chest and neck deep water inside rail cars. 

Twelve people died in the subways and stations, though another 1,000 or so were rescued from train cars and underground stations, according to The Guardian. 

As the Guardian notes, China has pretty bad flooding every summer, but rapid urbanization, paving over farmland and climate change have all conspired to create a worsening, deadlier trend in the nations' flooding issues. 

TURKEY

Extreme flooding also hit the Black Sea region of Turkey over the past week or so, causing at least six deaths. Video showed deep rushing water swirling around high rise buildings and cars bouncing along in the rapids. Other video showed houses toppling into raging rivers. 

Floods are common in this part of Turkey in the summer, but again, these were much worse than usual. 

NEW ZEALAND

Parts of New Zealand have also been afflicted by record setting floods this month. Rivers in the Marlborough region of the nation hit record crests after nearly a foot of rain fell over two days last week. 

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the floodwaters.  New flood control walls and dikes did help prevent damage in some areas along the flooded rivers. 

ARIZONA

Flash flooding is also common in Arizona in mid to late summer, as monsoon moisture flows into the state, setting off intense desert thunderstorms. 

The state was looking forward to this year's monsoon season, as the area was deep in severe drought and monsoons in recent summers have been lackluster at best.  

Now, Arizona is getting too much of a good thing. 

Deep in drought, Arizona welcomed a more robust monsoon season this month which has dumped rain on the parched state. But suddenly, parts of Arizona are getting too much of a good thing. 

Flash flooding has really become a serious issue out there. You might have seen the video of the Prius being swept away in a dramatic Flagstaff, Arizona flash flood last week, for instance. The city of Flagstaff has declared a state of emergency because of the flooding. 

It's going to get worse today. NOAA's Weather Prediction Center says there's so much moisture pooling in Arizona that rainfall rates could reach two to four inches per hour in the worst thunderstorms.  This would cause some pretty extreme flash flooding in a part of the nation where an inch of rain can set off pretty big floods and debris flows.

A weather disturbance moving westward from Texas will help intensify today's desert rains. 

The flash floods that have already hit the Flagstaff area were made much worse by debris flows from areas hit by flooding. 

Today, the areas at biggest risk are in and near where large wildfires burned this year and last. Massive debris flows are likely. 

Floods have always occurred and will always occur.  But in general, they're generally worse than in the past because of climate change. 

Warmer air can hold more moisture. That means, if other factors come together to produce storms, chances are the rainfall rates will be higher than if climate change were not a factor. 

For us Vermonters watching all this bad news, at least we have nothing exciting coming up in the next few days.  It might rain, especially Saturday night and maybe Sunday, but no flooding is in the forecast.