ThunderSnow and Lightning

Hmmm. . .  "thundersnow" is a new term for me just noticed from this article in MalaysianDigest.com: entitled "THUNDERSNOW and Lightning very very frightening!"

STORM-HIT Britain was last night lashed by 50ft super-tides as 80mph winds and thundersnow battered the nation.
Massive waves clattered coastal towns while the screaming gales caused chaos across the UK.
The “weatherbomb” resulted in tragedy as one man was swept to his death off the seafront at Scarborough, North Yorks.
A freak wave dragged the man in his 30s into the water as he walked his dog along the seafront – despite desperate attempts by his pal to pull him to safety.
The friend was left clinging to the sea wall as a monster wave whipped up by gale force winds crashed against him. The other man was recovered unconscious from the water about 40 minutes later, but died in hospital.
More than 100 flood warnings were in place across the country yesterday with gales, lightning, thunder and snowstorms due overnight and into this morning.
Forecasters at The Weather Network warned of “further spells of wet and windy weather and snow on the higher ground”.
Meanwhile thundersnow – a rare phenomenon combining lightning with snow flurries – pelted down in western Scotland and Northern Ireland yesterday.
And there was road chaos in the Lake District as drivers lost control in treacherous conditions.
One incident saw two people cut out of a car after it ended up on its roof after a “number of collisions”, on one dangerous stretch. Volunteers from Langdale and Ambleside Mountain rescue service cared for the pair until ambulances arrived.
Leon Brown, forecaster at The Weather Channel UK, said another cold front will smash into the UK on Thursday, just in time for the weekend.

Good to noticed this article from the internet. It may be too much to expect US' reporters to understand that there's a whole wide world out there outside of Washington D.C., Whitehouse and Hollywood cesspool. This article reported a tragic case, being rescued is still not enough, so sad!

I must admit that I have never heard of thundersnow during lightning with snow flurries, it is frightening!  Nature seems never tired of surprising us mortal humans!

The deadliest wave on the planet

When one sees a title like "THE DEADLIEST WAVES ON THE PLANET" it most certainly screams for a click! It's an article from Sydney, Australia's Daily Telegraph, an article about surfer and surfing waves. The title may have succeeded  in generating shock feelings. But it's a compilation of world's dangerous surfing sites according to surfers.  Click it and be enlightened or entertained!

A video of freaque wave in action

Now here's an interesting News Video Segment from Australia's 9News that you can only feel it by watching it! What had happened was the real thing, may be you have to be right there at the right time to catch it.  Though the write-up says she can choose to run away. I doubt she had enough time really to get away. If you truly wish to avoid it, you have to be ran away much sooner. Luckily they just only got wet. If the power was somewhat larger they may not be showing us this demonstration. Anyway, that's the real life wave -- freaque wave -- in action. It's real you can't make it up!

Happy-ending story on Happy Valentine's day at Whirinaki Beach

Here's a heart warming happy-ending story published in yesterday's New Zealand Hearld written by Harrison Christian.  The article starts with this picture that everyone's rightfully smiling.  

HEROES: Rescuers David (left), Rex and Lisa Bateman with Matilda Kersjes and her father, Alex Kersjes, who were rescued from the surf at Whirinaki Beach, north of Napier, last Saturday.PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN

It is also a well-written story that needs to be read in full to appreciate what was happening. Here's the whole story:

Little Matilda Kersjes was standing in ankle-deep water when a rogue wave dragged her 20m out to sea.
Her father, Alex Kersjes, ran fully clothed into the surf and battled through the breakers to reach his 7-year-old daughter.
"We'd been collecting seashells on the shoreline," he said of the freak incident at Whirinaki Beach last Saturday.
"A wave knocked her over. This massive set just suddenly started coming in. The waves were rapid and they were big. The next thing I knew she was about 20m out there."
The Havelock North businessman left his three young sons on the beach and managed to swim out to Matilda.
"The first thing she said to me when I got to her was, 'Thank you, Daddy'. It's a moment I'll never forget."
But as he held Matilda above the water, he realised he was not going to make it back to the beach under his own steam.
"I had one free hand to negotiate the swell, it just wasn't working. [When the waves hit] I was in a line-out position to keep her above the water."
After treading water in the choppy seas for about 10 minutes, he saw two quad bikes driving along the beach.
It was Whirinaki local David Bateman and his family, going for an afternoon ride.
Mr Bateman said he did not see Mr Kersjes and his daughter at first, but stopped because he noticed the Kersjes boys unattended.
"We were asking them, 'Where's your Dad'? It turned out he was out there with his child beyond the breakers."
He jumped off his quad bike, ripped off his hat, shirt and glasses and dived into the water.
"I thought, 'I don't even know if I can make it to him', but then I thought, 'Just do it. It's a job - go and do your job'."
He had reached Mr Kersjes and grabbed hold of him. "I put my hand through his singlet. I said, 'Get on your back and kick'."
As they fought towards shore, a set of waves picked them up and dumped them in shallow water, but the only thing that stopped them being pulled out again was a 5m rope, thrown at them by David's brother, Rex Bateman.
A large wave caused Rex to fall over, injuring his knee. It also swept David's wife, Lisa, off her feet.
"What saved us is Alex grabbed the rope and my wife grabbed his daughter. I felt myself getting dragged back out. I thought, 'I won't make it back in, I haven't got the strength'.
"Then I saw Alex's ankle and I grabbed on to it."
The three exhausted swimmers clambered on to dry land. Soon after, Mr Kersjes collapsed and was taken to Hawke's Bay Hospital. He had swallowed a lot of sea water but has since made a full recovery.
Everyone involved is still coming to terms with the incident.
Rex is nursing his knee and David is having a break from work this week.
"[Alex] could have died. He was quite close," he said. "And quite frankly, I was very close, too. I didn't know if I was coming back in."
He has lived at Whirinaki for a year and wanted to stress it was "not a dangerous beach".
"You've just got to be wary. It's a steep beach, you go out 3m and you go from ankle to neck."
Mr Kersjes, too, was taking a step back.
"Even this morning in the shower I had a moment of panic at what could have been, and what nearly was. It's going to take some time."
He had since travelled back to Whirinaki to thank his rescuers, whom he described as "beyond heroic".
"The kindness of them just to stop because they saw unattended children - I'm forever thankful they were as selfless as they were."

One can clearly read in this story with God's hand and His angels are busy at work even they are not part of the casts. That part of the story that's truly of interest to this blog is the first sentence: "Little Matilda Kersjes was standing in ankle-deep water when a rogue wave dragged her 20m out to sea."  Even though there's not much more description as usual about the villain waves that's enough there to convince us that it was really a freaque wave occurred in the ankle-deep water that started the whole event. We thank God for the happy ending story reported on a Happy Valentine's day! (Do they celebrate St. Valentine's Day in New Zealand?)