MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

By Kristina Pydynowski – “A powerful storm that resembles a hurricane with snow, a ‘snowicane’, continues to pound western Alaska. ‘The potentially historic ‘superstorm’… is making ‘landfall’ in Alaska today with a pressure equivalent to a Category 4 Hurricane,’ said AccuWeather.com’s Jesse Ferrell.

Part of this fierce storm will dive into the contiguous United States on Friday, once again revving up the Northwest’s storm train.

‘For people in the Bering Sea region, including shipping and fishing interests, this is considered to be a life-threatening storm situation,’ warned Accuweather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

The powerful storm is unleashing damaging winds, blizzard conditions, huge waves and coastal flooding. A 7-foot storm surge hit Nome, Alaska with water reportedly reaching the base of buildings. There have also been reports of roofs in Nome being blown off.

One incredibly impressive observation with this storm came from a coastal station that measured ice accretion of 23.5 inches per hour Tuesday night, according to Ferrell, who has more statistics on this historic storm in his blog.” Read more.

“VICTORIA’S State Emergency Service has responded to more than 1000 calls for help overnight after one of the wildest storms to lash the state this year.

SES rescuers responded to cases of flash flooding, hail damage, people trapped in cars, unroofed homes and fallen trees.

In one of the worst-hit areas, Frankston received 30 millimetres of rain in 20 minutes yesterday. Residents made more than 200 calls for help, including 150 about flooding and 40 about building damage.

In Croydon several people had to be rescued from their vehicles after they became stuck in flood waters.

There were another 150 reports of fallen trees, many in towns northwest of Melbourne including Castlemaine, Woodend and Maryborough.

The northeast endured the worst of the storm, where 65mm of rain fell – the highest rainfall for the state. In Wodonga, several houses had their roofs ripped off. There were also reports of flooded backyards and falling trees.” Read more.

Update: “Initial reports from towns along Alaska’s northwest coast early Wednesday indicated that a massive Bering Sea storm had tossed rocks onto roads, eroded beaches and blown off roofs — and that’s before water surges expected to peak Wednesday night. In Nome, the largest town with 3,600 residents, the main street was closed due to rock and log debris. Residents were told to stay off streets due to live wires from downed power lines, and a highway was feared cut by beach erosion. Roofs were also blown away overnight, when the height of snow and hurricane-force winds hit at about 2 a.m.” Read more.

By Jason Samenow – “A ferocious, dangerous storm in the north Pacific is on a collision course with the west coast of Alaska. Referred to as the ‘Bering Sea Superstorm’ by the National Weather Service Office in Fairbanks (NWS), damaging winds, severe beach erosion and major coastal flooding are expected. In some locations, heavy snow and blizzard conditions are also forecast.

‘This will be one of the most severe Bering Sea storms on record,’ the NWS wrote today.

The storm is predicted to deepen at an incredible rate, with its central pressure crashing from 973 mb this morning to 945-950 mb tonight.

‘This storm has the potential to produce widespread damage,’ the NWS in Fairbanks said.

Sustained winds of 80 mph (with gusts to 90 mph in some locations) may impact an area the size of Colorado with offshore waves to more than 40 feet according to the NWS Facebook page. A storm surge of 8 to 10 feet is predicted along the coast. The combination of wind, waves, and high sea levels will create many hazards as described by the NWS in a Special Weather Statement:

THE HIGH SEA LEVELS COMBINED WITH HIGH WAVES WILL PRODUCE SEVERE BEACH EROSION AND MAJOR COASTAL FLOODING ALONG THE NORTHERN AND EASTERN SHORES OF NORTON SOUND AND ALONG THE BERING STRAIT COAST. HIGH WATER LEVELS WILL PRODUCE COASTAL FLOODING ALONG THE SOUTHERN SHORE OF NORTON SOUND. STRONG WINDS AND WAVE ACTION MAY PUSH ICE IN NORTON BAY ON SHORE.

Blinding snow is another big concern. NWS cautioned:

THE STORM WILL ALSO PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS OVER ALMOST ALL OF THE WEST COAST TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY. SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF AS MUCH AS 14 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ALONG THE SOUTHERN SEWARD PENINSULA COAST AND IN PARTS OF THE INTERIOR SEWARD PENINSULA.

A direct hit is forecast for Nome, Alaska where the conditions will resemble a snow hurricane.” Read more.

By Chris Dolce – “A tropical storm has formed in the Mediterranean Sea. No, this isn’t a typo. Take a look at the satellite imagery from early Tuesday morning below. Circled in white is the tropical storm south of France and to the west of Italy. Click here to view real-time satellite imagery of the system.

Although rare, this is not an unprecedented event. According to the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA, low-pressure systems resembling tropical storms and hurricanes have occurred in September 1947, September 1969, January 1982, September 1983 and January 1995. Due to their rarity, they have not been fully studied so there is some question as to whether these systems have the same structure as tropical storms found over the tropical waters in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The tropical storm is forecast to weaken as it moves slowly near the southern coast of France and northwest Italy. This is the same region of Italy which has been hit hard by flooding in recent weeks, so any additional rain from this tropical storm would be a very unwelcome sight.” Source – Weather.com.

“Santiago – Chile said on Wednesday that it was evacuating residents from around a volcano in the country’s far south after it spewed a jet of steam a kilometre into the air and seismic activity triggered an avalanche.

However, the government said the Hudson volcano, which lies around 1 600km south of the Chilean capital Santiago, comes in the wake of a string of eruptions at other volcanoes in Chile.

The Hudson volcano last erupted in 1991, melting part of the glacier that sits on the crater and triggering mud flows.

‘We can’t rule out that this volcanic activity could increase in the coming hours and produce an eruption,’ said Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter.

He said state emergency office ONEMI was on red alert and the government was evacuating around 100 residents from the sparsely populated area as a precaution.

In June, a volcano in the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic chain, about 920km south of Santiago, erupted. It had been dormant for decades.

It belched an ash cloud kilometres high that blew over the Andes, carpeted a popular ski resort in neighbouring Argentina and caused havoc for air traffic for months, hurting airline profits. The ash grounded planes as far away as Australia and New Zealand.

That eruption in turn came after Chile’s Chaiten volcano erupted spectacularly in 2008 for the first time in thousands of years, spewing molten rock and a vast cloud of ash that reached the stratosphere. The ash swelled a nearby river and ravaged a nearby town of the same name.” Read more.

“Sicily’s Mount Etna is erupting again. The volcano in Italy, which is the tallest and most active volcano in Europe, is spewing lava for the 17th time this year, according to BBC News.

The current eruption has not caused injuries or property damage, according to the Associated Press.

Ash from the eruption has caused a closure at the airport in nearby Catania, Sicily’s second-largest city.

According to BBC News, Etna was shooting lava 300 feet (100 meters) into the air.” Read more.

“The Thai government says it will be impossible to protect all of the capital from flooding because of a build-up of water to the north.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said sluice gates would be opened to allow a controlled release of water through parts of Bangkok.

Describing the flooding as a ‘national crisis’, she said officials were doing all they could to solve the problem.

Over 320 people have died in the floods across the country since July.

Central Bangkok is protected by flood barriers which have been reinforced by troops in recent days.

But the run-off from severe flooding in central parts of the country has built up to the north of the capital, and several northern suburbs are already under water.

‘Every direction’

On Wednesday, officials urged residents in seven Bangkok districts to move their possessions to higher ground in preparation for possible flooding.

Ms Yingluck said that every way of slowing the water entering the city had been tried.

‘We cannot block the water forever,’ she said. ‘We need areas that water can be drained through so water can flow out to the sea.'” Read more.