Wild weather: Asperitas clouds, Brazil drought and damage from Hurricane Helene

Josh Classen recaps the week in wild weather Josh Classen recaps the week in wild weather across the world, including Hurricane Helene and some unusual clouds.

Here’s a look at some of the wild weather from around the world this past week:

Spectacular skies over the Ottawa area as asperita clouds rippled overhead.

These clouds tend to form in turbulent airmasses, but there’s still some uncertainty with exactly how the clouds form.

They can look fairly ominous and sometimes accompany storms. But, that’s not always the case.

Asperitas clouds were accepted into the International Cloud Atlas in 2017. They’re the first new entry to that list since Cirrus Intortus clouds in 1951.

Parts of Brazil are in the grips of an historic drought. All of the major rivers in the Amazon Basin are at critical levels and the Negro River is at it’s lowest level in 120 years of record-keeping.

The previous record low was set last October, but this year has been even lower. It’s been measuring just over 12.5 metres deep, well below the average water level of 21 metres.

Hurricane Milton will be the big story for us next week. But, many areas getting hit by Milton are still facing devastation from Hurricane Helene.

That category four hurricane is estimated to have caused up to 47.5 billion dollars in damage.

Roughly half of that is uninsured flood losses. Helene killed over 230 people, making it the second-most deadly hurricane to hit the United States mainland in the past 50 years.