©Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Santa María eruption of 1902 was a volcanic eruption of Santa María, a volcano in Guatemala, which lasted from October 26 to 31, 1902. It caused the formation of a large volcanic crater in which the Santiaguito appeared in 1922, and killed about 6,000 people, making it one of the deadliest eruptions in historical times.
©Image tweeted by Juliana Ramirez
More than 23,000 people have been evacuated from their homes since an initial landslide on April 28, which blocked a tunnel used to regulate water flow between the dam’s spillway and the Cauca river in northwestern Colombia. The incident briefly caused the river to burst its banks, destroying bridges, medical centers, schools and dozens of houses. Around 600 people have been left homeless, newspaper El Espectador reported.
In February 2019, massive forest fires broke out in many parts of Bandipur National Park in the state of Karnataka, India. The National Remote Sensing Center of the Indian Space Research Organization conducted an assessment of the total area affected by the fire.
©By Justin1569 on English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5943918
The Elie tornado in Manitoba on June 22, 2007 was the first F5 tornado, the maximum on the Fujita Scale, ever reported in Canada. This tornado was also one of the strongest tornadoes in North America between 1999 and 2007, with only one other F5 tornado reported during that time. The Elie tornado touched down for about 35 minutes and traveled about 5.5 kilometers along a 300-metre wide path.
Generating winds between 420 and 510 km/h, it caused approximately $1 million CDN in damage. The village of Elie, located 40 kilometers west of Winnipeg, took the brunt of the damage. There were no serious injuries or deaths as a result of the tornado. Several buildings were destroyed, including a solidly built house that was completely lifted into the air and torn apart.
© Mark Moran/NOAA
Hurricane Katrina was a large Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 deaths and $125 billion in damage in August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the costliest tropical cyclone on record, and is now tied with 2017’s Hurricane Harvey. The storm was the twelfth tropical cyclone, the fifth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, as well as the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record to make landfall in the contiguous United States. Katrina originated on August 23, 2005 as a tropical depression from the merger of a tropical wave and the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten. Early the following day, the depression intensified into a tropical storm as it headed generally westward toward Florida, strengthening into a hurricane two hours before making landfall at Hallandale Beach on August 25. After briefly weakening to tropical storm strength over southern Florida, Katrina emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and began to rapidly intensify. The storm strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico[2] before weakening to Category 3 strength at its second landfall on August 29 over southeast Louisiana and Mississippi.
The North American blizzard of 2005 was a three-day storm that affected large areas of the northern United States, dropping more than 3 feet (0.9 m) of snow in parts of southeastern Massachusetts, as well as much of the Boston metropolitan area. While this was by far the hardest hit region, it was also a significant snowstorm for the Philadelphia and New York City areas, which both suffered occasional blizzard conditions and 12-15 inch (30–38 cm) snow accumulations .
© ATON CHILE, ALEJANDRO PIZARRO VIA AP
The September 16, 2015 Chile earthquake refers to an 8.3 magnitude earthquake that struck central Chile on September 16, 2015, at approximately 2300 UTC. A strong tsunami hazard was also declared. Its epicenter was located about 46 kilometers off the coastal town of Illapel.
The February 2021 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that brought record cold temperatures to a significant portion of Canada, the United States and parts of northern Mexico during the first half of February 2021. The cold was caused by a southern migration of the polar vortex, likely caused by a sudden stratospheric warming event that occurred the prior month. On 7 February 2021 Uranium City, Saskatchewan, equaled their all time coldest temperature of −48.9 °C (−56.0 °F) previously recorded on 15 January 1974. In Winnipeg, Manitoba, the high temperature did not rise above -20.0 °C (−4.0 °F) for 9 consecutive days, the longest period since 1996. On 7 February 2021, the International Airport weather station in Edmonton, Alberta, recorded a low temperature of -43.6 °C (−46.5 °F) with two consecutive lows below -40.0 °C (−40.0 °F).
Meulaboh city in Indonesia’s West Aceh after the tsunami hit (File photo 2004) © Jefri Aries/IRIN
On December 26, 2004, the most powerful and deadly tsunami ever recorded by man swept across the entire coastline of the Indian Ocean with waves reaching 35 m in height. The death toll was around 230,000, including 168,000 in the province of Aceh (or Atjeh), the northernmost administrative division of the Indonesian archipelago, in northern Sumatra.
© AFP /BOUREIMA HAMA
Several neighborhoods in Niamey, the capital of Niger, have been engulfed by water since June 2020. The heavy rains that have been falling since June 2020 on Niger, a poor and very dry Sahelian state, have caused 45 deaths. It has been recorded throughout the country 25,834 affected households totaling 226,563 people as of August 24, 2020, said the Nigerien Minister of Humanitarian Action and Disaster Management in a statement.
