GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – New Zealand is snowed under: meteorologists in the country say the snowfall since the weekend is the heaviest in decades but blizzards are winding down and the storms should be gone by Wednesday. Wellington and Auckland have had their first snow in decades, in Auckland’s case the first snow in 7 years with record low temperatures, and services are cut in many areas, with electricity out, airports and roads closed.
Fast food stores that told workers their pay would be docked because they didn’t turn up for work due to the storm are under fire from unions.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Perth, in western Australia, became the latest victim of a cloud of ash from a volcano in Chile Wednesday, with the airport stopping flights as a precautionary measure, starting at 13:00 and lasting at least a day, with disruptions to international as well as national flights. Qantas, Virgin Australia and other airlines have been cancelling flights in and out of Australia and New Zealdn due to the ash from the volcano 9,000km away.
The disruptions to air travel throughout the country has many Australians puzzled, local media report: Puyehue volcano in southern Chile’s Andes mountains began erupting 4 June and shows no signs of a let-up, affecting air travel in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil, but also Australia.
The ash cloud takes about six days to reach Australia, but there are concerns that airlines will be hit just as families prepare for school holidays that start 1 July. The Meteorology Bureau in Australia notes that “Volcanic ash particles come in a range of sizes and while the biggest will fall to the ground quickly, very small particles take a long time to settle out of the atmosphere. This eruption ejected these small particles very high in the atmosphere, to a region of stronger winds known as the jet stream. The jet stream has then carried the ash particles great distances to the east.”
It is not unprecedented for volcanic ash to remain suspended for long time periods.
Perth’s situation is different from that on the east coast. “The base of the plume is at a lower level than the ash cloud that has disrupted air travel on Australia’s east coast, making it harder for pilots to fly around or below the danger,” reports the Sydney Morning Herald. “Airservices Australia spokesman Matt Wardell told AAP the plume approaching Perth covered a band between 15,000 and 35,000 feet (4.5km to 10.5km) and was approaching Perth from the southwest.
Links to other sites: Australian national weather service, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald
Michel Jarraud, WMO secretary-general
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The World Meteorological Organization, meeting in Geneva, Tuesday 24 May named Michel Jarraud to a third term as secretary-general, until December 2015. Jarraud won in the first round of secret balloting, out of a field of three candidates, winning over Mehmet Caglar, director general of the Turkish State Meteorological Service and Geoff Love, director of WMO’s Disaster Risk Reduction department.
Jarraud has held the job sincee 2003
The WMO will elect a president and vice-president Wednesday from a field of candidates: David Grimes from Canada, Ali-Mohammed Noorian from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tyrone Sutherland from the British Caribbean Territories, as well as first vice-president, Antonio Divino Moura from Brazil, second vice-president, Mieczslaw Ostojski, Poland, third vice-president, Abdalah Mokssit, Morocc.
The WMO is reviewing its programmes and priorities, and discussing the budget this week in committees. Decisions taken on a number of issues, including the proposed Global Framework for Climate Services, will be made in plenary sessions next week.
Homeless Haitians, post-earthquake, have set up tents on a golf course (photo: ©2010 Marco Dormino/UN)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva Tuesday 9 February made an urgent plea for another kind of aid for Haiti: weather services. The organization points out that “the rainy season with flood risk is due in early April and the hurricane season begins in early June. In order to prevent potential disasters related to natural hazards, which the country is prone to, the capacity of Haiti to produce and disseminate weather information and warnings needs to be developed without delay.”
More than 90 percent of the disasters in Haiti “are linked to frequently occurring meteorological, hydrological and climate-related hazards,” says the WMO.
The country’s meteorological services have operated only partially since the 12 January earthquake, so other WMO member countries have been providing weather information.
The UK is being warned to prepare for more icy roads and freezing temperatures, with motorists being warned to stay home if possible. The bright note is that it should soon warm up but, reports the BBC, “More freezing conditions are forecast, before a weekend thaw threatens floods.”Meanwhile, the “Met” has come under fire for failing to predict early enough heavy snow that fell Wednesday 13 January, particularly in southwest Britain. Wales had drifts of up to 7 feet.
Links to other sites: BBC, Telegraph, UK Meteorology Office
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The worst floods in decades in southern India have killed at least 250 people and left some 2.5 million people homeless. Aid workers from around the globe have “fanned out” across the region, reports the Press Association, to meet the urgent needs of people who only weeks earlier were suffering from severe drought. The torrential rains appear to have been caused by a low pressure zone over the Bay of Bengal and more rain is expected in the next 24 hours, say weather forecasters.
