August's Supermoon is the First of Four Lunar Spectacles

A sturgeon moon, the first Supermoon of the year, rises next to the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore August 19, 2024. REUTERS/Edgar Su
A sturgeon moon, the first Supermoon of the year, rises next to the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore August 19, 2024. REUTERS/Edgar Su
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August's Supermoon is the First of Four Lunar Spectacles

A sturgeon moon, the first Supermoon of the year, rises next to the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore August 19, 2024. REUTERS/Edgar Su
A sturgeon moon, the first Supermoon of the year, rises next to the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore August 19, 2024. REUTERS/Edgar Su

Monday's supermoon is the first of four this year.
During a supermoon, the full moon inches a little closer than usual to Earth. A supermoon isn’t bigger, but it can appear that way in the night sky, although scientists say the difference can be barely perceptible.
September’s supermoon will coincide with a partial lunar eclipse. October’s will be the year’s closest approach, and November’s will round out the year, The Associated Press said.
More a popular term than a scientific one, a supermoon occurs when a full lunar phase syncs up with an especially close swing around Earth. This usually happens only three or four times a year and consecutively, given the moon’s constantly shifting, oval-shaped orbit.



Austria Battles Major Flooding after Record Downpours

 A view of the sunset during a heatwave as temperatures reached more than 36 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country, at Lake Zicksee, Austria, August 15, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of the sunset during a heatwave as temperatures reached more than 36 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country, at Lake Zicksee, Austria, August 15, 2024. (Reuters)
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Austria Battles Major Flooding after Record Downpours

 A view of the sunset during a heatwave as temperatures reached more than 36 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country, at Lake Zicksee, Austria, August 15, 2024. (Reuters)
A view of the sunset during a heatwave as temperatures reached more than 36 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country, at Lake Zicksee, Austria, August 15, 2024. (Reuters)

Heavy rains lashed Alpine regions of Austria and left parts of Vienna under water at the weekend, causing severe damage in parts of the country and disrupting road and rail transport, authorities and local media said.

Fast-moving torrents of muddy water swept cars through the ski resort of St. Anton, in western Austria, on Friday, footage posted on social media showed. Meanwhile record rainfall hit parts of Vienna in the east of the country on Saturday, state broadcaster ORF said.

A woman was dragged under a bus by the force of flooding in the Doebling area in the north of the city on Saturday, ORF said. She was taken to hospital in a critical condition, it added.

Fire services in the capital were called out more than 450 times on Saturday as the downpours caused traffic chaos and disrupted rail transport, according to ORF.

"Heavy storms have done great damage in many parts of Austria," Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on X, thanking officials who were working to clear up the damage.

In Vienna's Doebling district, officials registered 110 liters of rain per square meter, which ORF Vienna meteorologist Kevin Hebenstreit said was a record for August rainfall in the city.

A large proportion of Vienna's average summer rainfall hit on Saturday in just one hour, according to weather data firm UBIMET.

On average in August it rains a total of 68 liters per square meter, with the all-time record being 139 liters on May 15, 1885, according to ORF.