Falling iguanas, killer spiders and unprecedented locust swarms — all fueled by weather extremes. Not to mention an epic blizzard in Canada, a deadly, days-long storm in Europe and a rare January tornado in the Pacific Northwest. You’d be forgiven for thinking these are signs of the apocalypse. As far as we can tell, it was just the week in weather — a very wild one. Here’s a look back:
Frigid Florida weather prompts falling iguana alert
“Florida” and “freezing” are not two words typically heard in the same sentence during this or any time of year. However, frigid conditions throughout the state this week had many Floridians and snowbirds shivering in their flip-flops as some spots became colder than the often-chilly capital cities of Juneau, Alaska, and Denver, Colorado.
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A cold-stunned iguana waits to warm up in Dreher Park after temperatures dropped overnight in West Palm Beach, Fla., on January 22, 2020. (Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post via USA TODAY NETWORK) |
“Some weather stations in South Florida observed wind chills in the 20s, leading to wind chill advisories,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bill Deger. The cold weather impacted a few of local creatures as well. Just like the Northerners that flock south for the winter, iguanas aren’t native to Florida. It’s why they have a hard time maintaining their core body temperatures when the mercury drops.
The result? A struggling and stiff reptile that’s much more likely to thump an unsuspecting person on the head as the frigid lizard falls from a tree. The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Miami issued an unofficial falling iguana alert Tuesday night to warn residents of the potential threat of frozen iguanas.
The creatures were seen tumbling from trees, where they usually sleep, overnight into Wednesday, but the morning sunshine helped thaw the iguanas, allowing them to regain consciousness — quite a sight to behold.
Florida manatees also struggled to keep warm this week amid chilly conditions and did so by huddling together in shallow water, something that caught the attention of onlookers. At Tampa’s Apollo Beach, the marine mammals were seen clumping themselves together in the warm water near a power station on Jan. 22.
Farther north in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about 95 sea turtles were left stunned off the coast due to Tuesday’s cold weather. Cape Hatteras National Seashore posted to Facebook that they were all taken to a rehabilitation center for recovery.
Weather fuels rise of deadly spiders, locust swarms
Creatures in the southeastern U.S. were hardly the only animals impacted by weather extremes this week. Across the globe, the rise of deadly spiders was linked to extreme weather in Australia, and the explosion of locusts across several countries in Africa was tied to unusually heavy rains.
Catastrophic bushfires have been ravaging parts of Australia for months — and now, authorities warn, people there have another threat to be concerned about: the deadly funnel-web spider. The increased risk of the spider this year has been exacerbated by some of the same conditions fueling the fires in Australia — prolonged heat. The heat combined with recent rains has resulted in what experts describe as the “perfect conditions” for the dangerous arachnids to thrive.
Unusually heavy rain is being cited as a factor in one of the worst outbreaks of desert locusts in decades across parts of East Africa and posing what officials say is an “unprecedented” threat to crops in developing nations. The rare outbreak is destroying crops and pastures across eastern Ethiopia and neighboring areas of Somalia, parts of Sudan, Eritrea and northern Kenya as it risks spreading further due to the continuation of favorable ecological conditions for locust breeding.
It’s been 25 years since people in Kenya and Ethiopia have seen swarms of this magnitude and 70 years since Kenya last encountered such an invasion of locusts — and the photos of people trying to deal with them really tell the whole story.
Rare January tornado touches down in Oregon
A twister is not something Oregonians see very often at the start of the year. In fact, the NWS office in Portland tweeted Wednesday that since 1876, only five tornadoes have touched down in northwestern Oregon and southwestern Washington during January.
That’s what made the EF0 tornado that hit the town of Manzanita on Jan. 21 so unusual. It reportedly caused only minor damage like blown-out windows as it struck on Tuesday.
Death toll climbs after Storm Gloria pounds Spain
The southern and eastern coasts of Spain were battered by Storm Gloria’s harsh impacts from Sunday through Wednesday. At least 13 people were killed due to impacts from the severe storm, with several others still reported missing, officials said.
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Waves hit a partially-damaged bridge during a storm in Badalona’s beach, outskirts of Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu) |
Locations including Murcia, Valencia, Barcelona and the Balearic Islands were pounded by the heavy rain, powerful winds, snow and flooding. One of the stronger reported gusts resulted from the 84-mph winds that slammed Xàbia, along Spain’s eastern coastline on Monday.
In Tossa de Mar, Catalonia, streets were inundated by feet of foamy floodwaters as Storm Gloria hit the region on Jan. 20. The following day in Portocolom, Majorca, gigantic walls of waves lashed the coast, drenching residents in nearby homes in the midst of the ferocious storm.
Record-setting blizzard prompts state of emergency in Newfoundland
People in parts of Atlantic Canada were stuck in their homes after being hit with a record-smashing blizzard that dumped heavy snow over the region, leading the government to order the military to help out in the most impacted locations. Days after the storm, a state of emergency remained in effect in St. John’s, Newfoundland. It’s their first state of emergency declaration in almost 36 years.
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At the corner of Liverpool and Hamel in St. John’s, snow had piled high enough to reach the stop sign at the intersection. (Twitter photo/@MegNFLD) |
Last Sunday, around 300 troops began arriving to assist with transportation, helping the elderly and those with health issues and removing snow. The storm left grocery stores shut for days, and St. John’s officials said on Monday that people could only fuel up at gas stations in emergencies.
St. John’s International Airport recorded a new all-time daily snowfall record of 30 inches, eclipsing the previous record of 26.9 inches, set on April 5, 1999. And one woman’s car also collected a record amount of snow. Lola Parson inadvertently left her car window open during the blizzard and video of her making that discovery after the storm went viral.
She appeared on the AccuWeather TV network and discussed the unique experience with Bernie Rayno and Laura Velasquez. Watch the full interview here.
3 US firefighters killed in Australia plane crash
Tragedy struck in Australia as the battle continued against the raging bushfires. Just weeks after American firefighters arrived to a round of applause in an Australian airport, three U.S. firefighters were killed when a plane carrying fire retardant crashed Thursday in Canberra.
The fiery wreck of the C-130 Hercules aircraft happened in the mountains south of Australia’s capital near a wildlife sanctuary, according to the New York Times.
The victims, all military veterans, are 44-year-old Ian McBeth of Great Falls, Montana, 42-year-old Paul Hudson of Buckeye, Arizona, and 43-year-old Rick DeMorgan of Navarre, Florida.