Weather tracker: Snowfall cuts power in Poland and flooding devastates Sri Lanka | Snow
Temperatures have fallen in the eastern half of Europe this week; Temperatures dropped to -20C in the Alps and -8.5°C in the town of Zakopane in Poland’s Tatras Mountains.
Heavy snowfall also affected other parts of Poland; 15-20 cm of snow fell in most of the central parts of the country, and more than 40 cm in the south towards the mountains.
This occurred when a low pressure area rising from the Balkans collided with cold Arctic air over Poland. Due to heavy snowfall, 2,900 firefighters were called and 75,000 homes were left without electricity in Rzeszów.
Adding to the chaos, an Embraer E170STD aircraft capable of carrying 80 passengers veered off the runway and into a grassy area during a flight from Warsaw to Vilnius, Lithuania. Air traffic was delayed for several hours and the return flight did not take place.
Heavy rains hit Sri Lanka this week. Sri Lanka usually receives between 250 and 300 mm of rain in November. More than 250mm of rain fell in many parts of Sri Lanka in a 24-hour period, causing widespread flooding, and more rain is expected in the coming days.
Nearly 425 houses were damaged due to landslides, 1,800 families were sheltered in temporary shelters, 40 people died and 10 people were injured. 18 of the dead were from the mountainous tea-growing regions of Badulla and Nuwara Eliya, 300 kilometers east of the capital Colombo.
The region’s unique topography increased rainfall through a process known as “orographic enhancement.” The air begins to cool as clouds are forced to rise over the mountains. When the air cools enough, it reaches its dew point and condenses. As a result, orographic clouds are formed. Continuous ascent and condensation leads to the formation of cloud droplets. Pre-existing rain from higher-level clouds falls through newer, lower-level orographic clouds and binds together through a process called accretion. This process causes each raindrop to become larger, resulting in higher rainfall in mountainous regions.
