World weather news, February 2010

27th

Haitian officials say eight people are dead and two missing after heavy rain pounded the southwest and caused widespread flooding. Rain fell around Les Cayes on the country's southern peninsula. The civil protection department says a prison flooded and more than 400 prisoners were evacuated.

28th

During February the US would expect to see an average of 22 tornadoes hitting the ground. Despite 2010 being an El Nino year, which raises the risk of tornadoes forming, none were seen. Tornadoes form in the US when cold air over the northwest collides with warm tropical air coming in from the southeast and Gulf of Mexico. With the jet stream blocking the warm air pushing north, the residents of the Great Plains have had a quiet month.

28th

A section of the outer wall of Rochester Castle (Kent, UK) has collapsed after heavy rainfall. Staff discovered the crumbled bailey wall, which surrounds the Kent castle's medieval walls, when they arrived for work on Monday.

27th-1st 28th

Rainfall accumulations for December, January and now February have all far outstripped the mean monthly rainfall in Gibraltar, February by over 500%. Winter 2009-2010 has now set a new record for the wettest winter ( records began in 1947 ). From the beginning of December 2009 to 09Z on 24 February, Gibraltar has accumulated 1366.8mm. The previous wettest was the winter of 1962-1963 which saw 931.6mm.

World weather news, March 2010

1st

Many of the more than 1 million Northeastern (USA) homes and businesses plunged into the dark by a storm were running on electricity Monday, three days after the hard-hitting combination of snow, rain and hurricane-force winds. New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch called restoration efforts "the most rapid" he's ever seen after a storm. On Friday, at the height of the storm, 360,000 residential and business customers were without electricity — more than half the state. By Monday afternoon, the number was about 40,000.

1st

A landslide triggered by torrential rain has buried entire villages and left more than 300 people missing in eastern Uganda, where at least 55 people have been killed. Rescue workers began pulling bodies from the mud after the landslide on Monday evening, while the Ugandan Red Cross reported widespread flooding and damage. The landslide happened after days of torrential rain. Uganda is currently experiencing unusually heavy downpours in the annual rainy season. Local markets were destroyed, schools were forced to close and roads were blocked by heaps of earth that slid from higher ground.

2nd

Heavy rains in the Gulf desert state of the United Arab Emirates caused flooding, traffic jams, car accidents and school closures, after four weather-related deaths at the weekend. Some residents of the emirate of Sharjah were trapped in their homes by high waters. A major thoroughfare, the Dubai-Sharjah sector of the Emirates Road bypass, was closed due to the flooding. A woman also died on Saturday and 13 other people were injured in the collapse of the entrance to the "Global Village" annual shopping fair as heavy wind and rains lashed Dubai.

3rd

Two people have been killed and six injured as giant waves slammed into a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, the ship's owners have said. The 8m high waves hit the Cypriot-owned Louis Majesty off the coast of north-east Spain. A spokesman for owner Louis Cruises said three "abnormally high" waves broke windows in the front of the ship. The Louis Majesty was heading to Genoa on a 12-day Mediterranean cruise but has now returned to Barcelona.

4th

Dozens of ships are stuck in the ice in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden. One of the ships is a ferry boat carrying 900 passengers. Ice-breakers are currently working to free it so it can finish its journey to the Swedish capital Stockholm. Coast guards say the ships ignored ice warnings. Strong winds and freezing temperatures are making it difficult for the ice breakers to free the trapped vessels. As soon as the ice is broken, the water very quickly freezes again. Sweden has suffered an unusually harsh winter this year, with temperatures across the country almost continuously far below freezing since December.