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Extreme StormsExtreme storms in northern France during August 2008 spawned a tornado, which collapsed several homes and uprooted trees. The tornado was blamed for the deaths of three people and for leaving 13 others injured. In the United States, severe storms ripped through parts of Illinois and Indiana from August 4-5 2008, producing 10 preliminary tornado reports, damaging winds, and hail. The storms damaged 25 homes, prompted the cancellation of more than 350 flights at O'Hare International Airport, left nearly 288,000 residents without power, and were blamed for the deaths of two people.
In China, a severe storm produced a deadly tornado that affected the Anhui province on the 21st. The tornado destroyed 650 houses and damaged nearly 1,000. More than 20,000 people were affected, with 1 fatality and 45 injuries reported. According to reports, the tornado caused $2.7 million in losses.
The worst hit states were Missouri, Oklahoma, and Georgia. The storms claimed the lives of 23 people, 14 in Missouri, 7 in Oklahoma, and 2 in Georgia. The event was described by the U.S. President George W. Bush as a sad day and emergency federal aid has been promised to the affected states. According to reports, the number of tornado-related fatalities caused thus far in 2008 has made this year the deadliest year to date since 1998 and the seventh deadliest since records began in 1950. If such rate continues, 2008 could be the most tornadic year since 1950.
Numerous bouts of extreme storms affected the contiguous U.S. since the start of the year 2008, and May was no exception. Severe storms ripped through the central U.S. on May 1-2 2008, spawning over 90 tornadoes, hail, and hurricane-force winds. Arkansas, the worst hit, was affected by eleven tornadoes that caused havoc across the state. The tornadoes damaged or destroyed nearly 400 homes and left about 20 counties with electrical and telephone disruptions. The severe weather caused 7 fatalities.
A second strong storm system affected the central, midwestern, and eastern United States on April 9-11, producing damaging winds, heavy rain, hail, and a total of 62 reported tornadoes. The extreme storms affected Texas and Oklahoma, causing nearly 180,000 homes and business to be without power in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and more than 11,000 homes in Oklahoma. These dangerous conditions also resulted in two fatalities. During the week of April 20 2008 severe storms affected parts of the U.S., causing widespread damages across parts of the nation. A severe tornadic storm affected the Washington, D.C. area, specifically parts of Prince George's and Charles counties, on the 20th. The tornadoes were rated an EF-0 and EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Severe storms brought heavy rain across Iowa on the 21st, along with hail and lightning. On April 23, severe weather lashed northern Texas with 113 km/hr (70 mph or 61 knots), baseball size hail. Power lines and trees were uprooted and several buildings had damage. On April 24, severe storms swept through Kansas. The storms spawned a tornado, produced 129 km/hr (80 mph or 70 knots) winds, and 4.5 inch hail. A major outbreak of extreme storms and tornadoes occurred overnight on February 5 2008 (Super Tuesday) across the southeastern U.S. and the Ohio Valley region. There were 131 reported tornadoes on the 5th Feb 2008, along with many reports of hail and wind damage. These extreme storms caused widespread damage across Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Two of the 5 affected states (Arkansas and Tennessee) were participating in the "Super Tuesday" election event, but some locations were forced to close early due to the severe weather. For the second time during the 2007/2008 winter, devastating tornadoes struck the U.S. and caused 57 fatalities. This was one of the 15 worst tornado death tolls since 1950 and the deadliest tornado outbreak since the 31 May 1985 outbreak where 76 people lost their lives across Ohio and Pennsylvania. 
In Alabama, 5 people died and around 500 homes were damaged in extreme storms. Arkansas had at least 13 fatalities with 133 injured people. This was Arkansas's deadliest event since 1 March 1997, when 25 people were killed. Also, Arkansas recorded a tornado that tracked 123 miles, the longest recorded tornado track since 1951. Kentucky reported 7 fatalities and Mississippi had at least 18 reports on injured people. Meanwhile, Tennessee had 32 fatalities and suffered the deadliest tornado outbreak since 1974, when 47 people died. According to reports, Madison County in Tennessee suffered an estimated $47 million in property damages.
Across the southern U.S., a second round of severe storms swept through on the 17th, producing 49 reported tornadoes, damaging winds, and hail. In Alabama and in the Florida Panhandle, many homes were completely destroyed with many others severely damaged. Although there were no reported fatalities, there were nearly 50 people injured.
Elsewhere, thunderstorms ripped through the eastern parts of Australia. in New South Wales and Queensland on the 7th February 2008. Winds gusting over 90 km/hr (55 mph or 50 knots) brought down trees on houses, power lines and roads. The city of Perth, Western Australia had its wettest February since 1992 when more than 40 mm (1.6 inches) of heavy rain fell and caused a 50 day drought to end. Severe thunderstorms, described as a one in 20 year event, affected parts of New South Wales on the 26th February 2008, producing torrential rain, golf ball size hail, and damaging winds. According to reports, flash floods were caused when as much as a months worth of rain fell in less than an hour. Across Sydney, some regions received as much as 17 mm (0.7 inches) of rain in just 15 minutes while other places had as much as 44 mm (1.7) in just 30 minutes. Last year in the first week of June 2007 extreme storms hit New South Wales in Australia. A natural disaster was declared across a large area of NSW after the devastating storms. High winds and flash floods damaged buildings and brought down trees, cut electricity across the Hunter, Newcastle and Central Coast and demolished roads. At least eight people died and a coal tanker ran aground on the NSW coast, with a number of other ships damaged. The cost of repairs from the storm ran into billions of dollars.
On top of the May 2007 extreme storms in the United States, where tornados killed at least 10 people, severe thunderstorms affected eastern Iowa on June 1 2007 producing a tornado that resulted in the destruction of 39 homes and approximately $2.7 million in infrastructure damage. Across the Upper Midwest of the contiguous U.S., severe thunderstorms produced damaging winds, more than 6 inches (152 mm) of rain, tornadoes, and in some areas 4 inch hail on June 7 2007.
A tornado struck the New Orleans area on February 13 2007, affecting some of the same neighborhoods impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There was one fatality and 29 injuries. About 21,000 electricity customers in the greater New Orleans area lost power during the storm.
In Swaziland, severe thunderstorms produced strong winds and hail during February 4-5 2007, causing damage to 500 houses and producing widespread power outages. The Shiselweni and Lubombo regions were affected
acoording to the the Bureau of Meteorology, a thunderstorm that struck the Australian capital city, Canberra on February 27 2007 was a rare and highly destructive type of extreme storm. Canberra was hit with a rare rotating storm called a supercell thunderstorm so rare that Canberra has not experienced one for at least a decade. Supercell storms are dangerous and powerful, and can cause tornadoes, winds of 200km/h, torrential rain and huge hailstones. Hailstones were created in the minus 30 degree temperatures as the storm grew to a height of 8km. When the hailstones fell to the ground in Canberra, they were up to 5cm in diameter. A huge damages bill and disruption to the city centre were among the fallout of the storm which forced the closure yesterday of schools, government departments, the Australian National University and the city's biggest shopping precinct. The extreme storm damage bill will run into many millions of dollars.
Info - How does a thunderstorm form? Three basic ingredients are required for a thunderstorm to form: moisture, rising unstable air (air that keeps rising when given a nudge), and a lifting mechanism to provide the "nudge." The sun heats the surface of the earth, which warms the air above it. If this warm surface air is forced to rise -- hills or mountains, or areas where warm/cold or wet/dry air bump together can cause rising motion -- it will continue to rise as long as it weighs less and stays warmer than the air around it. As the air rises, it transfers heat from the surface of the earth to the upper levels of the atmosphere (the process of convection). The water vapor it contains begins to cool, releasing the heat, and it condenses into a cloud. The cloud eventually grows upward into areas where the temperature is below freezing. Some of the water vapor turns to ice and some of it turns into water droplets. Both have electrical charges. Ice particles usually have positive charges, and rain droplets usually have negative charges. When the charges build up enough, they are discharged in a bolt of lightning, which causes the sound waves we hear as thunder.
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January-May 2008 has been very active for tornadoes across the continental U.S., and the month of June 2008, seems to be no different. During the first two weeks of June, numerous severe and tornadic storms formed across the central and eastern states of the contiguous U.S. These extreme storms brought widespread floods, strong winds, hail, and more than 300 preliminary reports of tornadoes. The severe weather across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic caused extensive blackouts, damaged many homes, and was responsible for 10 fatalities. The most deadly incident occurred on June 12 when a tornado struck a Boy Scout camp in western Iowa, killing 4 and injuring nearly 50. Deadly twisters also impacted Kansas that day, killing two people and destroying and damaging 60 homes. Damages are estimated to be $20 million.
Extreme storms progressed through the eastern U.S. producing severe thunderstorms and tornadoes across portions of the south-central and southeastern states on April 3-4 2008. On the 4th, the system affected the southeastern states, resulting in 21 reported tornadoes across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North and South Carolina. In Mississippi, the tornadoes brought down nearly 400 electric poles, leaving 94,000 homes without power.
