Tag: weather

Category 5 Hurricane Beryl pummels Caribbean, hurtles towards Jamaica

By Chandan KHANNA BRIDGETOWN/ST. GEORGE’S, Barbados, July 2, 2024 (AFP) – Hurricane Beryl was Tuesday hurtling towards Jamaica as it strengthened into a record top-level Category 5 storm after sweeping across several islands in the southeastern Caribbean. Dumping heavy rain and unleashing devastating winds, Beryl was described as a “potentially catastrophic” storm by the US National Hurricane Center (NHC). One person was killed in the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the country’s government said, while […]

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URGENT: Hurricane Beryl makes landfall on Grenada island of Carriacou: US tracker

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, July 1, 2024 (AFP) – Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, slammed into the Caribbean island of Carriacou, which is part of Grenada, on Monday as a powerful Category 4 storm, the National Hurricane Center said. “The eye of #Beryl has made landfall on Carriacou Island,” the NHC wrote on X, warning residents in a separate bulletin of “life-threatening conditions” and that “winds will rapidly increase within the eyewall.” This […]

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Seven dead after storms lash France, Switzerland

GENEVA, June 30, 2024 (AFP) – Ferocious storms and torrential rains that lashed France, Switzerland and Italy this weekend have left seven people dead, local authorities said on Sunday. Three people in their 70s and 80s died in France’s northeastern Aube region on Saturday when a tree crushed the car they were travelling in during fierce winds, the local authority told AFP. A fourth passenger was in critical care, it added. In neighbouring Switzerland, four […]

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Caribbean braces as Hurricane Beryl strengthens to ‘very dangerous’ storm

By Chandan KHANNA BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, June 30, 2024 (AFP) – Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, strengthened into a “very dangerous” Category 3 storm Sunday morning as it threatened the southeast Caribbean with potential life-threatening winds and storm surge, US forecasters said. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Beryl — currently churning in the Atlantic Ocean about 420 miles (675 kilometers) east of Barbados — “continues to quickly strengthen this Sunday […]

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Hong Kong matches record for hottest summer solstice

HONG KONG (AFP) – Hong Kong matched on Friday its record for the hottest summer solstice as a subtropical ridge drove temperatures up to 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 degrees Fahrenheit). “The maximum temperature recorded at the observatory was 34C, the highest so far this year and equalling the record high for summer solstice set in 1980,” the city’s weather observatory said. The Chinese finance hub saw its hottest summer on record last year, with the […]

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Three missing after heavy Swiss flooding

GENEVA, June 22, 2024 (AFP) – Swiss authorities in the southeastern canton of Grisons said Saturday that they were searching for three people missing after heavy flooding the previous day in the region. Police said a woman feared to have been swept away had been found alive after being caught in torrential rain and thunderstorms that caused landslides and flooding in the Mesolcina valley and forces dozens of residents to be briefly evacuated. “Intensive searches […]

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Torrential rains kill 27 across Central America

SAN SALVADOR, June 21, 2024 (AFP) – Torrential rains across Central America have left at least 27 dead in landslides and flooding over the past week, mainly in El Salvador, but also in Guatemala and Honduras, officials said Friday. El Salvador’s Environment Minister Fernando Lopez said the deluge was a result of low pressure over the Pacific Ocean, with indirect influence from tropical storm Alberto which left four people dead in Mexico. “Unfortunately, the death […]

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Italy swelters in first summer heatwave

ROME (AFP) – Tourists and locals sweltered under Italy’s first summer heatwave on Friday, with the installation in Rome of potted trees for shade providing little relief. Temperatures were forecast to hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of the country, according to the official air force weather service, while the health ministry issued red alerts for Rome and Palermo among other cities. Weather website Il Meteo blamed an African anticyclone it dubbed […]

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New report warns of heat danger at Paris Olympics

PARIS, June 18, 2024 (AFP) – A new report backed by climate scientists and athletes warned Tuesday about the dangers of extreme high temperatures at this year’s Paris Olympics. The “Rings of Fire” report — a collaboration between non-profit Climate Central, academics at Britain’s University of Portsmouth and 11 Olympians — said conditions in Paris could be worse than the last Games in Tokyo in 2021. It warned that “intense heat at the Paris Olympics […]

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Power demand peaks in northern India heatwave

By Bhuvan BAGGA NEW DELHI, June 18, 2024 (AFP) – Searing heatwave temperatures in northern India pushed power demand to a record high, the government said Tuesday, with residents of the capital New Delhi also struggling with water shortages. Much of northern India has been gripped by a brutal month-long heatwave, with temperatures regularly soaring above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit). Northern India has “been experiencing high demand conditions due to a prevailing heat […]

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Four dead, over a dozen missing as extreme weather hits China

BEIJING, June 18, 2024 (AFP) – At least four people were killed when record rains hit parts of southern China, state media reported Tuesday, while more than a dozen were missing even as the north baked under some of its highest temperatures this year. Downpours “exceeding historical daily maximums” in some areas of Fujian province caused the four deaths, state news agency Xinhua said, citing the flood control headquarters of Shanghang County. More than 66,000 […]

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Early summer heatwave claims first victim in Cyprus

NICOSIA, June 14, 2024 (AFP) – A 91-year-old woman became the first death from an early heatwave gripping Cyprus as the island sweltered under record June temperatures of 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) on Friday. Health officials said a woman died at Nicosia General Hospital suffering from heatstroke; another five elderly patients were being treated in hospitals with severe symptoms of heatstroke. State health organisation spokesperson Charalambos Charilaou told reporters the woman suffered a cardiac […]

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