Powerful tornadoes that struck Poland Sunday have left at least one person dead and another 10 injured in their wake.
The twisters struck northern and western Poland in the regions of Kujawy-Pomorze and Wielkopolska, where some 100 homes were wrecked, the BBC News website said.
A potent cold front, associated with a storm over Norway, pushed through Poland on Saturday, triggering stormy weather. Unstable conditions remained in place on Sunday with very moist air.
Abundant moisture is crucial for storms to produce tornadoes, because moist air is more buoyant. When buoyant air rises and cools with height, condensation occurs. Heat is released during condensation, which in turn lowers the atmospheric pressure and increases the strength of storms.
Cooler air high in the atmosphere also reduced the instability and helped to set the stage for isolated showers and storms to erupt on Sunday.
One of the tornadoes may have reached 1,000 meters (over 3,000 feet) in width, according to a BBC reporter Adam Easton.
About 550 hectares (1,360 acres) of forest near Tuchola was flattened, Reuters said.
Witnesses saw a camper flying through the air with a family of three inside. Luckily, the occupants were not seriously injured, according to a local news channel.
The one reported fatality happened in the village of Wycinki, where a 60-year-old man was caught in a collapsing building.
Easton indicated on the BBC website that even though tornadoes are "not unknown" in Poland, weather events in the country this summer have been particularly dramatic.
Video credit: polishchaser1/YouTube.com
So far this year California has seen 1,569 wildfires, 85 percent more than in an average year.
The Memorial Day weekend will begin cool, windy and rainy in New England and part of the mid-Atlantic.
GOES-East failed again late Tuesday. It is one of the main satellites meteorologists use for the eastern part of the United States and the tropical Atlantic.
The tornado tore through a path 17 miles long on Monday and had wind speeds as high as 200 mph.
On the two-year anniversary of the EF-5 tornado that leveled Joplin, Mo., the town has deployed assistance to Moore, Okla.
The same system that spawned deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma will reach the Northeast on Thursday.
| Extreme | Location | |
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Northeast (1989)
More rain in an already wet month. Monthly
totals topped 11 inches at New York City,
9 inches at Bridgeport, CT and 8 inches at
Baltimore (all three records for May).
Iowa (1882)
Late May snowstorm blanketed eastern part of
state with 4 to 6 inches.
International Falls, MN (1992)
Late season snow flurries.
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