World Weather
We tend to take a very UK-centric view of the weather; if it doesn’t affect us directly, we don’t care. This is wrong on two counts.
Firstly, the weather has huge impacts around the world. Forget the wars, the bombings, the suicide attacks – weather affects far more people’s lives. Whether it be flood, drought, wind-flamed wildfires, typhoons or hurricanes, the weather dominates the lives of millions – no, make that billions – of people.
Secondly, we may get a huge variety of weather in the UK, but the really big stuff, with the exception of the occasional autumn storm, occurs elsewhere. If you take an interest in weather – and most of us do – then it is a shame to miss out on what is happening around the globe.
So on an irregular basis, I’ll try and round up the main weather stories from around the world.
And don't forget there are lots of weather stories and great photo galleries to be found at www.aljazeera.com/weather
Tuesday 31st January
High pressure is centred over Russia. The latest analysis gives a central pressure of 1061 millibars. That's only 3 millibars off the highest ever recorded in Europe, 1064 mb over the eastern Baltic back in 1922.
The effect of this anticyclone is that extremely cold air is circulating from inside the Arctic Circle, all the way across Europe. Forecast temperatures for Moscow and Kiev on Wednesday are some 12 and 15 degrees respectively below average.
More than 30 people are known to have died as a result of the cold weather across Europe and that death toll is likely to rise dramatically over the next couple of weeks as the high pressure - and therefore the cold air - will take some shifting.
Monday 30th January
Phew! Just back in time from the Dubai Marathon to deliver the line, "Where will Tropical Cyclone Iggy pop up next. Geddit! Oh, I'm so funny.
Friday 20th January
A low pressure system over the Sahara caused quite a dust storm on the 18th:
By the following day the dust was well out over the Atlantic Ocean:
[Pictures from NASA]
Much of this dust is likely to fall over the Canaries or Cape Verde Islands but some of it finds its way over to the Americas. This from NASA's excellent Earth Observatory website:
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Saharan dust is a mixed blessing. The dust carries chemicals, such as pesticides, and disease-causing bacteria and fungi, that have degraded coral reefs in the Caribbean. On the other hand, the Caribbean Islands support vegetation thanks to dust from the vast desert; without regular dustings, the islands would probably be barren rock. Saharan dust has also played a crucial role in the development of the Amazon Rainforest.
In addition to corals and soils, Saharan dust might impact weather. After the severe hurricane season of 2005, some forecasters expected another severe season in 2006, but the 2006 season was milder than expected. A study released in 2007 suggested a link between large amounts of Saharan dust over the Atlantic in 2006 and less severe hurricanes.
We are also watching Tropical Cyclone Funso which has developed towards the Mozambique Channel. The sea conditions in the region must be awful as Funso is producing sustained winds of 210 kph (110 knots). There is likely to be considerable flooding across Mozambique and Zambia and Zimbabwe could also see some large amounts of rain.
The biggest weather story this week was the snowstorm which hit the Pacific Northwest. Seattle saw around 17 cm of snow when it usually ony sees about 7 cm in the whole winter. And snow totals were in excess of 120cm in the Cascade Mountains.
Dreadful winter weather in Seattle wasn't bad news for everyone [Picture: Dobrina Okron]
There were power cuts as freezing rain then brought down electricity cables and exceptionally cold weather was experienced across the snowfields with temperatures of Minus 25 across Minnesota and North Dakota. There's more snow in the forecast too!
2nd January 2012
2011 ended with the UK recording its second warmest year on record. Only 2006 was warmer. All but one of the top ten warmest years on record have happened since 1997 and all of the UK’s seven warmest years came in the last decade. And you still don’t believe in global warming?
Northern India has seen some very cold weather this winter. As pressure builds over the Tibetan Plateau to the northeast, northeasterly winds become established and cold air drifts down from the Himalayas. This year, the cold air is more severe than usual and there have been more than 100 deaths as a result of the cold, mainly amongst India’s homeless population.
TS Thane before it made landfall south of Chennai
It was a miserable Chrismas for some in southern India. Tropical Storm Thane produced winds of 130 kph before it made landfall close to the lovely French colonial town of Pondicherry on the 28th. The death tioll from Thane is at least 27.
20th December 2011
The death toll from Tropical Storm Washi is now approaching 1000. This makes it the most devastating storm to hit the Phillipines for many decades.
A conventional satellite image of Tropical Storm Washi (Picture: NASA)
What has emerged in the last few days is that NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite was able to show the potential for exceptional rainfall in the northern Mindanao region.
3-D image showing the depth of cloud and rainfall intensity [Picture: NASA]
The image above is a computer model interpretation of the received imagery. It clearly showers some exceptionally large cumulonimbus cloud tops in the area that was badly hit.
NASA claim that this is a forecasting tool but I'm not sure any forecasts were issued far enough in advance to be of any use.
Criticism has been aimed at the Philippines Meteorologica service but I'm not sure that is fair. I do know that the operational forecast models that we use did not suggest anything so severe. But if NASA can use this system to give timely warnings, then hopefully this awful event will be the last of its kind.