Italian Island Hit By ‘Apocalyptic’ Storm As 17 Inches Of Rain Fall In 90 Minutes
Half a year’s worth of rain fell in an hour and a half Monday night in the Italian island of Sardinia, flooding streets and killing at least 16 people.
Sardinia was pummeled by 17.3 inches of rain Monday by Cyclone Cleopatra, a drenching that Franco Gabrielli, head of Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, called “an exceptional event.” According to Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, so far 2,500 people have been displaced by the storm and more than 10,000 have lost electricity. The Italian government has declared a state of emergency on the island and has allocated about $27 million in rescue and relief aid.
Marco Vargiu, councilor for tourism in Olbia, a Sardinian city, told CNN that the city had been among the hardest hit — in some places in the city, water levels reached 10 feet.
“The worst conditions are here in Olbia,” he said. “There are rivers of water in the town. In lots of houses the ground floors are full of water, one or two meters of water, and a lot of families have lost everything — their house, their car, their clothes, the furniture.”
Gianni Giovannelli, Olbia’s mayor, said the rain was so intense that it was like a “water bomb” and described the storm as “apocalyptic.”
Sardinia wasn’t the only region hit hard by flooding this week. Over the weekend, four people were killed when 0.79 inches of rain fell over 12 hours in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh. The rainfall tally may not seem like much, but it’s double the average November rainfall for the city. And since Riyadh has a desert climate, seemingly small amounts of rain can be cause for major concern.
“Typically, desert cities do not invest the same resources in drainage as do cities in wetter climates – much as warm-weather cities do not invest much in snowplows or road salt,” weather.com meteorologist Nick Wiltgen said. “As a result, rainfall amounts that might seem numerically insignificant in a place like Miami or New York can lead to major impacts in a desert metropolis.”
Climate change has been linked to extreme precipitation events — periods of short, intense rainfall that can cause major damage, like this year’s floods in Colorado did. As air heats up, it’s able to hold more and more water vapor — in general, every degree C of warming causes an atmospheric water vapor increase of 7 percent. Since warm air holds more water vapor, it takes longer for the water to condense and fall to the earth as rain — and when it does, there’s more of it available to fall. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/11/20/2972831/sardinia-flooding/
Here is what my oldest daughter Josie Taylor Wells And I experienced, I am so glad Kerry Gorman Wells and the other girls were out of town when this storm came through. Very thankful we were not injured.
This video was taken by Marc Wells all copy writes are owned by Marc Wells, use is unauthorized without permission.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFrgSVoJi1U [with comments] [note re the appearance of the tornado in the first part of that video: not surprisingly (. . .), that is indeed what one looks like when it's coming right atcha -- if it's not moving to one side or the other as it gets closer, . . .] [a copy of this one at/see (linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94362343 and following; this one's the original uploaded by the guy who shot the video, included here in case the copy in that other post doesn't last]
--
11-17-13 Adam Lucio Roanoke, IL Tornado
Published on Nov 17, 2013 by KDR Media
KDR Media chaser, Adam Lucio documented this tornado outside of Roanoke, IL, to the NE of Washington, IL this afternoon.
Violent Washington - Roanoke Illinois Tornado November 17th 2013
Published on Nov 17, 2013 by AeroStorm911
This is the violent tornado that struck Washington, Illinois on November 17th 2013. We got into position a few miles ahead of it near the town of Roanoke. This was a long track tornado that did ef-4 damage.
Tornado hits Illinois: National Weather Service rate tornado 'large and extremely dangerous'
Published on Nov 18, 2013
A fast-moving storm system triggered multiple tornadoes in Illinois and Indiana on Sunday (November 17), killing at least two people, injuring about 40 and flattening large parts of the city of Washington, Illinois as it crashed across the Midwest, officials said.
The city of Washington, Illinois, was hit hard by what the National Weather Service called a "large and extremely dangerous" tornado.
WATCH : Illinois Tornado Touchdown And Aftermath VIDEO - FULL EXCLUSIVE HD 17 Nov 2013
Published on Nov 17, 2013 by YelloPin
Dozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms swept across the Midwest on Sunday, unleashing powerful winds that flattened entire neighborhoods, flipping over cars, uprooting trees and leaving at least five people dead.
[Diamond,] Illinois Home Seen Literally Blowing Away In A Second's Time In Shocking Video Of EF-2 Tornado [sic - this has to be at least some kind of EF-3 damage, depending on just how well, or not, that admittedly modest-looking (prefab?) home was built (that sort of slab-clearing, of well-built homes, being the classic signature of an EF-5, of course)] 11/22/2013 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/21/illinois-home-blows-away-video_n_4319295.html [with embedded video, and comments]
--
Coal City/Diamond IL EF-2 Tornado 11-17-2013
Published on Nov 17, 2013 by TheVdp2012
Tornado in Coal City as seen from Berta Rd. near Spring Rd.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
