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Never do this during a thunderstorm

<p><strong>Take a shower</strong></p> <p>In the case that lightning strikes your house during a thunderstorm, taking a shower can put you in danger. If your house gets hit by lightning, the bolt can travel through metal water pipes and electrify you in the shower, or even if you wash your hands.</p> <p><strong>Stand under a wooden object</strong></p> <p>Standing under a tree is considered an extremely risky place to be during a thunderstorm. Depending on where you are, trees are likely the tallest object around and will be hit by lightning before you. However, the lightning can jump from the tree to you because humans conduct electricity better than trees. With that said, you should probably avoid standing under or near any other tall wooden objects.</p> <p><strong>Stand in the open</strong></p> <p>Though you might be afraid to stand under a tree when there’s lightning, another thing you should never do during a thunderstorm is stand outside in the open spaces like porches, gazebos, golf courses, and parks. As soon as you notice thunder or lightning, you need to get inside as quickly as possible.</p> <p><strong>Touch concrete structures </strong></p> <p>Concrete walls, floors and buildings tend to have metal wires or bars through them. To keep lightning from striking you, don’t stand near or lean on these concrete structures.</p> <p><strong>Lie down</strong></p> <p>Lightning strikes the tallest object first, so it would make sense to make your body the smallest object around, right? That’s correct, but one thing you should never do during thunderstorms is lie down on the ground.</p> <p>Even at 30 metres away, the electric current from lightning that runs on the top of the ground can still be deadly. The best way to make yourself small is to crouch down in a ball-like position with your head tucked and hands covering your ears.</p> <p><strong>Go outside directly after a thunderstorm</strong></p> <p>If you’re outside and see lightning, you should start counting to 30. If you hear thunder before getting to 30, then you need to go inside. But when do you come back outside? Waiting at least 30 minutes is recommended before heading outside again after a thunderstorm.</p> <p><strong>Use a landline</strong></p> <p>Not many people use landlines these days, but if you still have one in your home, don’t use it during a thunderstorm. You shouldn’t even use your laptop or other electrical appliances because lightning can travel through electrical systems and zap anything connected to an outlet.</p> <p>Definitely don’t try unplugging devices during a storm either, as that’s also increases your risk of electrocution. The safest way to contact someone during a storm is to use a mobile phone – just make sure it’s not plugged into the charger.</p> <p><strong>Waste time removing metal </strong></p> <p>Metal conducts lightning but won’t necessarily attract it, according to the US National Weather Service. If you’re outside during a thunderstorm, don’t spend time trying to remove any metal that you’re wearing on your body, like belts or watches.</p> <p>Your main concern should be getting inside to safety, avoiding metal fences and railing along the way. However, the CDC says that you increase your chances of being directly hit by lightning if you carry a conductor (i.e. something made of metal) above shoulder level.</p> <p><strong>Stay in a huddled group </strong></p> <p>Another thing you should never do in a thunderstorm is stay close to your friends or have people near you. By separating from a group of people, you can lower the amount of people who are at risk of being hurt by ground currents and side flashes between people.</p> <p><strong>Touch anything wet</strong></p> <p>The US National Weather Service explains that water, like metal, doesn’t attract lightning, but it can conduct it. If you touch anything wet or are in water, you put yourself at a high risk of being shocked. Always remove yourself from the pool, lake, or any body of water during a thunderstorm.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://www.readersdigest.com.au/uncategorized/never-do-this-during-a-thunderstorm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reader's Digest</a>. </em></p>

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Floods, cyclones, thunderstorms: is climate change to blame for New Zealand’s summer of extreme weather?

<p>The final months of New Zealand’s summer carried a massive sting, bringing “unprecedented” rainfalls several times over, from widespread flooding in Auckland at the end of January to ex-tropical Cyclone Gabrielle dumping record rains and causing devastating floods across the east coast of the North Island.</p> <p>After all that, New Zealand experienced spells of thunderstorms, bringing repeat floods to parts of Auckland and then Gisborne.</p> <p>The obvious question is what role climate change plays in these record-breaking rainfalls.</p> <p>Some answers come from the international <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/">World Weather Attribution</a> team, which today released a <a href="https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/102624/10/Scientific%20report%20New%20Zealand%20Floods.pdf">rapid assessment</a> which shows very heavy rain, like that associated with Cyclone Gabrielle, has become about four times more common in the region and extreme downpours now drop 30% more rain.</p> <p>The team analysed weather data from several stations, which show the observed increase in heavy rain. It then used computer models to compare the climate as it is today, after about 1.2℃ of global warming since the late 1800s, with the climate of the past.</p> <p>The small size of the analysed region meant the team could not quantify the extent to which human-caused warming is responsible for the observed increase in heavy rain in this part of New Zealand, but concluded it was the likely cause.</p> <h2>More energy in the atmosphere and ocean</h2> <p>Many factors add to the strength of a storm and the intensity of rainfall, especially for short bursts. A crucial factor is always the amount of energy available.</p> <p>Climate change is increasing that amount of energy in two main ways. First, everything is getting warmer. Rising sea surface temperatures provide <a href="https://sciencebrief.org/uploads/reviews/ScienceBrief_Review_CYCLONES_Mar2021.pdf">extra fuel for the development of tropical cyclones</a> because they grow by heating from below.</p> <p>Warmer seas mean potentially faster development of tropical cyclones, and stronger, more vigorous storms overall. Sea temperatures must be at least 26.5℃ to support the build-up of a tropical cyclone. So, as the oceans warm, these storms can reach farther from the equator.</p> <p>Second, warmer air can hold more water vapour. Every degree of warming increases the maximum amount of water vapour by around 7%. That extra water vapour tends to fall out as extra rain, but it also provides extra energy to a storm.</p> <h2>Driving waves further inland</h2> <p>The energy it takes to evaporate the water from the ocean surface and turn it into vapour is released again when the vapour condenses back into liquid water. A moister airmass heats the atmosphere more when clouds and rain form, making the air more buoyant and able to rise up more. This creates deeper, more vigorous clouds with stronger updrafts, and again more rain.</p> <p>Stronger updrafts in a storm mean more air will have to be drawn into the storm near the Earth’s surface, ensuring more “convergence” of air and moisture (water vapour). That’s why, even though a degree of warming translates to 7% more water vapour in the air, we can get 20% increases, or larger, in extreme rainfalls.</p> <p>All of this extra energy can contribute to making the storm stronger overall, with stronger winds and lower air pressures in its centre. This seems to have happened with Cyclone Gabrielle. Record low pressures were recorded at a few North Island locations as the storm passed.</p> <p>The low pressures act like a vacuum cleaner, sucking the sea surface up above normal sea level. The strong winds can then drive waves much further inland. Add in a bit of sea-level rise, and coastal inundation can get a lot worse a lot quicker.</p> <p>As the climate continues to change, storm intensity is likely to increase on average, as sea levels continue to rise. Those effects together are bound to lead to more dramatic coastal erosion and inundation.</p> <h2>Thunderstorms riding warming seas</h2> <p>These processes work for thunderstorms as well. A thunder cloud often starts as a buoyant mass of air over a warm surface. As the air rises (or convects), it cools and forces water vapour to condense back to liquid water, releasing heat and increasing the buoyancy and speed of the rising air.</p> <p>Again, that allows more moist air to be drawn into the cloud, and that convergence of moist air can increase rainfall amounts well above the 7% per degree of warming, for short bursts of very intense convection. The more intense the convection, the stronger the convergence of moisture and the heavier the resulting rainfall.</p> <p>Tropical cyclones have rings of thunderstorms around their eye during the time when they are truly tropical storms. As they transition out of the tropics into our neighbourhood, they change their structure but retain a lot of the moisture and buoyancy of the air. An ex-tropical cyclone like Gabrielle, moving over very warm water, can pack a devastating punch.</p> <p>Why has New Zealand had so much of this very heavy rain during the weeks from late January? Partly it’s the very warm ocean waters around Aotearoa (up to marine heatwave conditions) and farther north into the Coral Sea. That itself is partly related to the ongoing La Niña event in the tropical Pacific, which tends to pile up warm water (and tropical cyclones) in the west.</p> <p>But it is also related to ongoing global warming. As sea temperatures increase, it becomes easier to reach heatwave conditions. Warmer seas load the atmosphere with water vapour.</p> <p>Partly, too, the air over the North Island has been unusually “unstable” lately, very warm near ground level but cooler than normal higher up. That makes the buoyance in thunderstorms work even better and more strongly, encouraging very heavy rainfall.</p> <p>These conditions seem to have eased now, but severe thunderstorms continue to develop. As we move from summer into autumn, as the warmest seas move eastwards away from us and as La Niña fades in the tropics, the chances of a repeat event are diminishing. For now at least.</p> <p>But if we continue to warm the climate with more greenhouse gas emissions, we will continue to load the dice towards more very heavy rain over Aotearoa. Let us hope those regions and communities so badly affected by recent events have a chance to dry out, rebuild and recover before the next extreme weather.</p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/floods-cyclones-thunderstorms-is-climate-change-to-blame-for-new-zealands-summer-of-extreme-weather-201161" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

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Severe thunderstorm and mini tornado damage Sydney properties

<p>A severe thunderstorm and mini tornado that struck Sydney on Wednesday afternoon has caused damage to many Sydney properties.</p> <p>The State Emergency Service received more than 300 calls for assistance due to ripped off roofs and fallen trees.</p> <p>Some Sydneysiders even called in because their trampolines had blown onto their roofs.</p> <p>The thunderstorm also left more than 35,000 homes without power and some traffic lights were out in peak hour traffic.</p> <p>The streets of Paramatta and Picton were hit by flash flooding as people tried to navigate the roads and make their way home.</p> <p>Public transport was also impacted all over Sydney as Paramatta Weir overflowed and buses were forced to replace ferries in some areas of Sydney.</p> <p>Sydney residents can expect little relief from the rain with the weather expected to continue throughout winter.</p> <p>Weatherzone meteorologist Rob Sharpe said, “Autumn is one of the wettest times of the year but what has been unusual is how many days of rain there have been already in March – almost every day has seen showers,' he said.</p> <p>“It has been quite a bit wetter than usual along the New South Wales coast.”</p> <p>“The reason why it's been so wet is because there has been a very high pressure system sitting in the Tasman Sea for the vast majority of the past three weeks. We've had lots of low pressure systems which haven't been moving as easily and frequently. But for the next few months, we are more likely to have these fronts move along the south of the country more freely.”</p> <p><em>Image credit; NSW Ambulance via Twitter</em></p>

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Thunderstorms and hail expected across the country

<p>New Zealand is well into summer but thunderstorms are threatening to saturate the country barely more than a week before Christmas.</p> <p>MetService meteorologist Emma Blades said every area across the country would experience showers on Wednesday.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, Eastern Bay of Plenty, Canterbury and Marlborough should brace for thunderstorms and hail the size of marbles, Blades said.</p> <p>"It's like this little blast of winter in the middle of summer."</p> <p>Blades said MetService had issued a thunderstorm outlook alert to warn Kiwis of the risk of severe thunderstorms and moderate-sized hail.</p> <p>The fronts would also bring rain to the main centres, with Auckland expecting heavy showers in the afternoon, and showers in Wellington and Christchurch throughout the day.</p> <p>Chilly air from the Southern Ocean would offer no reprieve to summer sunseekers, Blades said.</p> <p>Dunedin was forecast to make it to a less-than-impressive high of 13 degrees Celsius.</p> <p>Wellington and Christchurch are heading towards a high of 16C, while Auckland would hit a balmy 20C.</p> <p>Blades said the fronts bringing the cold, wet weather would stick around for Wednesday and Thursday but things were expected to warm up later in the week.</p> <p>Written by Laura Walters. First appeared on <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.Stuff.co.nz" target="_blank">Stuff.co.nz</a></strong></span></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/news/news/2015/12/kangaroo-wants-to-be-friends-with-cat/"><strong>Kangaroo desperate to be friends with cat</strong></a></em></span></p> <div class="grid_4"> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/news/news/2015/12/tricks-for-christmas-decorating/"><strong>10 tricks for the perfect Christmas celebration</strong></a></em></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><a href="/news/news/2015/12/artist-creates-real-life-gingerbread-house/"><strong>Artist creates real-life gingerbread house for Christmas</strong></a></em></span></p> </div>

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