Strange and Violent Weather Around the World
From Ronnie H.
Normally, tornadoes become more intense as spring progresses, and changing climactic condition do suggest that extreme storms will be possible anywhere in the United States from Colorado to Maine this year.
In Australia, which has been experiencing a prolonged and extremely dangerous drought, summer thunderstorms of extraordinary intensity struck in Feburary, leaving as much as three feet of hail on the ground in Canberra. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology could not offer records of a more intense hailstorm in the area. And while Feburary thunderstorms are common in the area, more have been recorded this year than during any previous February on record.
In Mexico, a locust swarm of unprecedented size has devastated at least 5,000 acres of crops in Yucatan. Locust swarms are a cyclical phenomenon in many parts of the world, but this year's swarm, containing locusts as much as 5 inches long, has farmers trying and failing to remember when it was ever this bad.
The reason that the locust swarm is so intense is that ideal breeding and hatching conditions for the insects have been present in the area for about 5 years, during which time the weather has grown more humid and warmer in Yucatan.
During the latter part of January and early February, fierce storms swept Europe as cold air finally invaded the region after one of the warmest early winters on record. The storms killed over a hundred people and left extensive property damage from the United Kingdom to Poland.