WTF, mate? Tornado kills three in Northern France.

"Three people were killed overnight when a small tornado charged through towns in northern France, destroying houses and spewing debris over the area, the local government said.
Roughly 40 houses were hit by the freak meteorological event in the town of Hautmont, near the Belgian border. Three bodies were pulled from wreckage and six people were slightly injured. " LINK

Yup- we did break the weather.

"The frequency of downpours and heat waves, as well as the power of hurricanes, has increased so dramatically that "100-year storms" are striking some areas once every 15 years, and other once rare events keep returning like a bad penny. As a result, some climatologists now say global warming is to blame.
... In a warmer world, air holds more water vapor, so when cloud conditions are right for that vapor to form droplets, more precipitation falls. Man-made climate change is also causing more droughts on top of those that occur naturally: attribution studies trace droughts such as that gripping the Southwest to higher sea-surface temperatures, especially in the Pacific.
...Hurricanes have become more powerful due to global warming. For every rise of 1 degree Celsius (most of it man-made) in surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic, rainfall from a tropical storm increases 6 to 18 percent and wind speeds of the strongest hurricanes increase by up to 8 percent. As the new report acknowledged, "the strongest storms are becoming even stronger." Atmospheric conditions that bring severe thunderstorms (with hail two inches across and wind gusts of at least 70 miles an hour) and tornadoes with a force of F2 or greater have been on the rise since the 1970s, occurring about 8 percent more often every decade. Get used to it, and don't blame Mother Nature." LINK

Extreme weather unfolding exactly as predicted. No one can really claim to be surprised, here.

Good article- one poor guy was on his way to visit family in Cedar Rapids, and had to turn around to go back because his home was wiped out in a tornado. Damn, dude.

"Snowfall and ice storms have turned into rainfall, tornados and flooding, leading many in East Iowa to wonder what is next? Could the weather get worse?Extreme weather has become so common that if people haven’t been affected themselves, almost everyone knows someone who has.

Snowfall and ice storms have turned into rainfall, tornados and flooding, leading many in East Iowa to wonder what is next? Could the weather get worse?Extreme weather has become so common that if people haven’t been affected themselves, almost everyone knows someone who has.

...According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there was only a 0.2 percent probability of flooding of the magnitude seen in Cedar Rapids. The National Weather Service described it as an historic event with water levels never before seen.

“There is no question now that the climate is changing on a global scale,” said Gene Takle, an Iowa State University professor of geological and atmospheric sciences. “The evidence is so overwhelming.”

“If the climate is changing, you can’t stop it over the next 50 years,” Takle said. “What’s coming is coming and we better be prepared to adjust to it.” LINK

Cedar Rapids, Iowa - levees broke, town is flooded, power is out. No freaking way.

It looks so sadly familiar...

"Rescuers had to use boats to reach many stranded residents in the city of 120,000, and people could be seen dragging suitcases up closed highway exit ramps to escape the water. It wasn't clear just how high the river had risen because a flood gauge was swept away by the swirling water.


..."We are seeing a historic hydrological event taking place with unprecedented river levels occurring," added Brian Pierce, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Davenport. "We're in uncharted territory — this is an event beyond what anybody could even imagine."
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver said storm and water damage to infrastructure will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, as dozens of bridges have been damaged or destroyed. Nine rivers were at or near record levels, he said.


Cedar Rapids' power was out for most of downtown, complicating rescue efforts, city spokesman Dave Koch told NBC News.
The new evacuations follow a 150-foot breach in an earthen levee early Thursday.


A tornado in the western part of Iowa late Wednesday killed four Boy Scouts and injured dozens.
"This has been a remarkable onslaught of weather — everything from flooding, unbelievable rain and of course tornadoes — all descending at once," Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff told reporters near the scout camp.


"This is major flooding," weather service hydrologist Karl Sieczynski said of the Mississippi.
Meteorologist Bill Karins of NBC's WeatherPlus added: "We are in the middle of a historic flood event in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Most major Iowa rivers are cresting at all-time record levels and this water will soon raise the Mississippi River to its second highest levels in recorded history north of St. Louis.
"The Mississippi River predictions for Burlington, Iowa, call for the crest to be a one in 100-200 year flood, second only to the Great Flood of 1993, which was considered a 500-year flood event," he said. "On the consumer side, thousands upon thousands of acres of farmland will be flooded for weeks with incredible crop losses." " LINK

Atlanta - 14 tornados. Holy sh*t.

"ATLANTA -- The storms that hit metro Atlanta and north Georgia were even worse than most people thought.
There were four and possibly as many 14 tornadoes spawned over the weekend, officials at the National Weather Service said Monday afternoon." LINK

Fark's headline is unbelievably perfect so here it is: NOAA's official, scientific, statement on yesterday's crazy weather in Midwest: "Wow Crazy"

And how true it is. So glad that my friend in Missouri (Where "Tornadoes were reported or suspected Monday in southwest Missouri,") was not in the tornadoes way (only the flash floods, right?) ;)

But still- pretty ridiculous. It sounds like it was pretty, well, crazy, no? (seriously, so funny!)


"NOAA'S National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

Milwaukee/Sullivan Wisconsin

Wow - crazy weather over southern Wisconsin for January 6th & 7th!
If you think the weather can’t make up its mind, you’re correct. We seem to have a little bit of everything going on. Let’s try to summarize the recent crazy weather, and make some sense out of it.

Get ready, get set, go.....

1. The Milwaukee/Sullivan NWS office issued 3 different Severe Thunderstorm Warnings for 4 counties during the morning hours of January 7th due to the likelihood of penny-size hail stones. This is crazy - in the past 14 years, this office never had a reason to issue a Severe Thunderstorm Warning in the month of January. Winter storm warnings and blizzard warnings - yes, but not Severe Thunderstorm Warnings. Several severe weather spotters reported hailstones up to 1/2 inch in diameter, and an amateur radio operator measured hailstones up to penny size about 4 miles west-southwest of the Capitol Square in Madison at 10:30 A.M. The last time we experienced severe weather in a winter month was February, 1999, when storms in southern Wisconsin produced hail up to golf-ball size and wind gusts to 70 mph. Crazy.

2. Many streams and rivers in southern Wisconsin are running at near-bankfull or bankfull stage, and some have exceeded flood stage. Some rivers are forecast to exceed flood stage. Normally, river flooding is a spring-time event due to snow melt and heavy rains, or perhaps a summer event due to very heavy thunderstorm rains. But in January? Crazy. We’ve experienced a noteworthy warm up the past couple days along with some rain, which caused the 15 to 33 inches of snow that fell in December, 2007 to melt. The Fox River at New Munster in western Kenosha County is forecast to crest at 13.2 feet around the noon hour on Thursday, January 10th. Crazy.

3. We have areas of dense fog this morning which continues a period of several days of dense fog. The worst of the dense fog occurred on January 6th. There was a group of multiple-vehicle accidents (about 100 vehicles) on Interstate 90/39 about 2:25 P. M. just south of the interchange with State Highway 12/18, in which there were two fatalities and around 50 injuries that required medical treatment Dense fog was a factor and had reduced visibilities to 25 to 100 yards in that area. Crazy.

4. Temperatures over southeastern Wisconsin rose to the upper 50s to lower 60s in the early afternoon hours of January 7th, with dewpoints in the mid to upper 50s, while southwest winds gusted to 25 to 30 mph. This is spring-time weather - more typical of April. Milwaukee’s temperature reached 63 degrees, smashing the old record of 47 for January 7th set back in 2003. Madison reached 50, which broke their old January 7th record set back in 2003. Milwaukee tied their old record high for January 6th of 52 set back in 1933. Crazy.

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