Paris, France | AFP | Hurricane Irma, rampaging across the Caribbean towards the Bahamas and south Florida, is smashing not only homes and hotels but weather records as well. The Category Five super-storm has generated winds averaging 295 kilometres per hour (183 miles per hour) for more than 33 hours, longer …
Read More »US Senate approves Trump deal on hurricane aid, debt ceiling
Washington, United States | AFP | The US Senate passed a $15.25 billion relief package Thursday for victims of Hurricane Harvey, in an effort to fully fund federal emergency operations as another potentially catastrophic storm bears down on Florida. The package passed 80 to 17 one day after President Donald Trump …
Read More »So how do mega-storms get named, anyhow?
Paris, France | AFP | First there was Harvey, which put much of Houston under water. Now Hurricane Irma is rampaging across the Caribbean and closing in on Miami. Meanwhile, Jose — still a tropical storm — is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, while Katia in the Atlantic …
Read More »By any name, major tropical storms are bad news
HURRICANES: low-pressure systems that pack more power than the energy released by the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima. Paris, France | AFP | No matter what they are called — hurricanes, cyclones or typhoons — the giant tropical storms that form in oceans near the Americas and Asia can be …
Read More »Urban sprawl in spotlight after historic Houston floods
Washington, United States | AFP | Rapid, poorly regulated urbanization in Houston has exacerbated the impact of flooding from Hurricane Harvey, experts say, warning that local authorities must pay attention as global climate change threatens to intensify extreme weather events. A residential and commercial construction boom the Greater Houston area, even …
Read More »Melania Trump makes waves with ‘storm stilettos,’ FLOTUS hat
Washington, United States | AFP | First Lady Melania Trump is making waves … for her flood fashion. The former model is always elegantly turned out and perfectly coiffed, and Tuesday was no exception as she left the White House with her president husband for storm-ravaged Texas. Trump was photographed walking …
Read More »Texas storm Harvey breaks historic rainfall record
Miami, United States | AFP | Hurricane Harvey has set what forecasters believe is a new rainfall record for the continental United States, officials said Tuesday. Harvey, swirling for the past few days off Texas and Louisiana — at times as a hurricane and at times a tropical storm — has …
Read More »Houston battles massive floods, Trump set for Tuesday Texas trip
Houston floods spark chaos, much more rain to come Houston, United States | AFP | Massive flooding unleashed by deadly monster storm Harvey left Houston — the fourth-largest city in the United States — increasingly isolated Sunday as its airports and highways shut down and residents were rescued from their inundated …
Read More »Prepare for rain, Uganda’s meteorological authority warns
The Uganda National Meteorological Authority has advised district authorities to prepare for possible disasters linked to the impending rains. They confirmed that rains will resume in early March with a peak in May that will be characterized by a lot of lightning and thunderstorms. The director of the meteorological authority …
Read More »Uganda’s erratic weather
USAID’s warning system shows why you should prepare for more bad news this year On Jan. 17, the weather was extremely hot in Kampala. Godfrey Mujuni, the manager of the Data Centre at the Uganda National Meteorological Authority, says thermometer readings indicated it was 34.0ᵒC which is about six degrees …
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