Major flooding affecting West Java, Indonesia since April 30, 2020, submerged 21 888 houses — affecting up to 81 088 residents — in five sub-districts of Bandung District, according to the West Java Disaster Mitigation (BPBD). The flood-hit areas are Dayeuhkolot,…
More than 75 000 people evacuated their homes in the border areas of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan following a reservoir dam failure, which resulted in widespread flooding on May 1, 2020. The Sardoba Reservoir Dam on the Uzbek side broke early Friday, causing the Syr…
Intense rains accompanied by powerful winds and sandstorms wreaked havoc in Qatar over the past few days. On May 1, severe storms destroyed a field hospital at the Umm Salal area, north of Doha. It was constructed just two weeks ago, specifically for accommodating…
A cold front is sweeping across Australia following its fifth warmest April on record, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said. Parts of Victoria are set to experience their coldest start to May; New South Wales is being hit with blizzard conditions and below-freezing…
Melbourne recorded 138 mm (5.4 inches) of rain in April 2020, making it the city's wettest April since 1960 when 195 mm (7.8 inches) was recorded. Unseasonably low temperatures were also recorded and almost 50 cm (19.7 inches) of snow across Victoria's ski…
Bouts of hailstorms since the past weeks have wreaked havoc in various parts of India. In Mizoram, hail lashed about 795 houses as confirmed by disaster management and rehabilitation minister Lalchamliana on April 29, 2020. In Haryana, more than 250 000 ha (618 000…
A bright fireball exploded over the French Antilles at 00:40 UTC on April 27, 2020 (20:40 LT on April 26), lighting up the night skies between Martinique to as far north as Anguilla and as far west as Puerto Rico. The American Meteor Society (AMS) received seven…
Ongoing floods in Kenya have claimed at least 116 lives and displaced 100 000 families, Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa reported Wednesday, April 28, 2020, as he addressed the media. Some 29 counties have been affected by the severe weather, and…
Approaching Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) has become bright enough that it is already visible to the naked eye. As of 14:30 UTC on April 30, 2020, the comet is 115 million km (71 million miles) away from Earth, with a magnitude of 6.0. The comet appears like a bright fuzz…
A new study by an international team of geoscientists shows that a strange reversal of ground motion occurred prior to two of the biggest earthquakes in history– the M8.8 great Maule quake in 2010 and the M9 Tohoku-Oki quake in 2011, which triggered a catastrophic…
