Extreme Weather News

Last week Tasmanian's were evacuated, businesses were flooded and cars washed away as extreme rainfall accompanied a strong cold front and a low pressure system that spawned violent storms. Hobart city, located in southeastern Tasmania, received record breaking rainfall of more than 100 mm (3.93 inches) in a single day. A strong pressure gradient developed between the complex low pressure center over Tasmania and high pressure that was moving eastward over the Great Australian Bight (Southern Ocean). This strong pressure gradient resulted in destructively high south-easterly winds over

This past week, something rather unusual happened off the coast of Chile: a rare subtropical storm formed in the Southeast Pacific Ocean. Cyclone season is winding down in the Southwest Pacific near Australia where it is common for several tropical storms to form every year, but in the Southeast Pacific tropical storms are unheard of. This particular storm is a subtropical storm, which is a sort of a hybrid between a tropical cyclone like a hurricane, which gets it energy primarily from the condensation of humid air that forms over warm ocean waters, and an extratropical storm, which has a

The Eastern Pacific hurricane season officially starts on May 15, 2018. A low pressure center located well to the southwest of the Baja California Peninsula may develop into this area's first tropical cyclone of 2018. Low vertical wind shear and warm ocean temperatures in the vicinity of the low are providing favorable conditions for this low's development into a tropical cyclone. If it develops it will be called Aletta. The GPM core observatory satellite passed over the center of the most intense convective storms in this potential tropical cyclone. Rainfall data collected by GPM's satellite

Heavy seasonal rainfall has recently caused flooding in Kenya resulting in displacement of over 244,000. This deluge follows the severe drought that afflicted East Africa in 2017. The estimated death toll from flooding and mudslides has recently been increased to about 100 people. Rainfall accumulation estimates from NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data are shown here for the period from April 27 to early May 4, 2018. During this period heavy seasonal precipitation fell over Kenya. Rainfall totals in some areas near the Indian Ocean coast were estimated by IMERG to

Until yesterday tornado alley was experiencing a drought of spring tornadoes. The eighteen tornadoes reported in the area yesterday may be a sign of things to come. Moisture laden air from the Gulf Of Mexico is having a more normal interaction with dry air flowing from the desert south-western states (dry line). Wind speed and wind direction change (shear) with height results in thunderstorms that spawn rotation and tornadoes. The GPM core observatory satellite passed over tornado alley in the early morning of May 1, 2018 at 6:28 AM CDT (11:38 UTC). Tornadoes were not observed until the