Weather Signs

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Landslides and floods killed at least 62 people in northern Vietnam, covering the homes of some victims as they slept in their beds, disaster officials said Saturday. Dozens more were reported missing and officials feared the death toll would rise as they struggled to reach isolated communities. With heavy rain continuing Saturday, rescue workers were trying to move people to higher ground.

ASHLAND, N.H. — A 7-year-old girl was killed after two small brooks merged into a raging torrent and swept her family's SUV 100 yards downstream at a campground. The girl's father escaped from the car and screamed for help, and her mother and brother were rescued after clinging to a tree in the raging water Thursday evening. About 29 people were evacuated from the campground and put up in hotels. Farther south, heavy rain and flooding caused a sink hole about 50 wide and 12 feet deep in the Weirs Beach section of Laconia. It washed out part of the boardwalk at the tourist attraction and nearly 200 feet of railroad track was undermined and left suspended, said state Emergency Management spokesman Jim Van Dongen.

High winds from Thursday's violent monsoon thunderstorm felled 69 power poles and left about 3,700 customers without electricity in the Buckeye area, according to Arizona Public Service Co. At the height of Thursday's storm, nearly 21,000 APS and 20,000 Salt River Project customers Valley-wide lost power, though most had their power restored by Friday. The storm delayed flights at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for the second night in a row.

Add heavy rainfall to the litany of expected bad news due to climate change. Along with the likelihood of more intense heat waves, wildfires, and hurricanes, a new study released today reports that extreme precipitation events are already increasing as the globe warms. This is the first actual, observed evidence that scientists say confirms the link between global warming and more powerful rainstorms. "A warmer atmosphere contains larger amounts of moisture, which boosts the intensity of heavy downpours," reports study co-author Brian Soden of the University of Miami. What's worse, the measured increase in extreme rainfall is much larger than the increase that current climate models predict, which likely means the amount of additional rainfall due to climate change is seriously underestimated. Based on 20 years of satellite observations, the scientists found a direct link between tropical rainfall extremes and temperature, with heavy rain events increasing during warm periods and decreasing during cold periods.

· JJ Commentary: Whether human-caused or not, these changes in global weather are all part of the emerging end-time scenario.