Powerful wind kills hundreds of birds

Abstract

Extreme weather events are predicted to occur with increasing frequency as a result of global climate change. These extremes take multiple forms. This note reports an abnormal weather event in which winds, apparently Force 10 on the Beaufort Scale (90-100 km/hour), killed hundreds of birds at a farmhouse in the Karoo, South Africa. The wind was so strong that it removed birds from their roosts in trees and flung them against the walls of the farmhouse with such force that it killed them. There are no published accounts of comparable events in southern Africa.