June - August 2004 Featured Disasters

January - May 2004

Tuesday, August 31, 2004
* Europe is due for another huge earthquake like the one which hit
Portugal in 1755 killing an estimated 60,000 people. New evidence
shows that the activity in the Earth's crust which triggered the Great
Lisbon quake is continuing. However it may be a few hundred years
before another disaster strikes, as powerful earthquakes are likely to
occur in the region at 1,000 to 2,000-year intervals.
*Japan's capital has a 90 percent chance of being devastated by a
major earthquake some time in the next 50 years, according to a study.
*A seismologist at the University of California Los Angeles, Vladimir
Keilis-Borok predicted months ago that an earthquake of at least
magnitude 6.4 would strike the southeastern portion of the Mojave
Desert in California by next Sunday. So far it hasn't happened.
*A 4.0 earthquake rattled parts of Monterey County, California
yesterday, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.
*Six days after Typhoon Aere struck Taiwan more than 700 people are
reportedly still waiting to be rescued, but landslides are making rescues difficult.
*The large and powerful typhoon Chaba has hit Hokkaido, Japan. Warnings
are out of heavy rain, strong winds, landslides and floods in
Hokkaido and northeastern Honshu. 164 people were injured, six houses
were destroyed, 17 structures were partially damaged and nearly
9,000 buildings were flooded across the country as a result of the typhoon.

Monday, August 30, 2004
*Powerful Typhoon Chaba struck southern Japan yesterday, unleashing
a downpour, strong winds and high tides that left 300,000 without power,
forced thousands to flee their homes and disrupted air and sea transport
links. At least 30 people were injured and four are dead. There are
warnings of flooding and landslides and Chaba has generated winds
measuring 210km/h (130mph) - reportedly a record high for the area.
*A typhoon watch may be required for portions of the Northern Mariana
Islands by this morning. Last night, Typhoon Songda was moving rapidly
and could affect all of the Marianas. The typhoon's closest point of
approach to Guam will be about 400 miles east of the island sometime
Wednesday - if it continues on its west-northwest track. Last week
Typhoon Chaba damaged hundreds of homes in the Mariana Islands.
* Tropical Storm Gaston left 125,000 residents in South Carolina without
power Sunday before heading toward North Carolina.
*A minor 3.8 earthquake rattled east-central Wyoming on
Sunday afternoon but apparently caused no damage.
*A minor 2.8 earthquake, the second this month, was reported in central
Alabama Saturday, but was smaller than the first one (3.5).
*A minor 2.1 earthquake shook southern New Hampshire
Saturday morning but caused no damage. New England sees
about six small quakes a year.
*The increasing acidity of the world's oceans could banish all coral
by 2065, a Danish marine expert warns.

Sunday, August 29, 2004
* Mount Vesuvius has been described as the world's most dangerous
volcano. Italian experts warn that by 2100, Vesuvius, the only active
volcano on the European mainland, will most certainly repeat its most
dramatic performance, which buried Pompeii Aug. 24, 79 A.D.
Vesuvius erupts dramatically in cycles, and has erupted about
three dozen times since 79 A.D.
*Almost all climate scientists, atmospheric chemists and oceanographers
say the greenhouse effect has arrived and that we should expect more
droughts, hurricanes, flash floods, forest fires and giant storms. The
kind of extreme weather that happened once in 100 years, they say,
could soon take place every 20 years. 2004 may be remembered for
its floods. Just eight months into the year, Bangladesh, and to a lesser
extent India and Nepal, have had some of the severest seen in decades,
with tens of millions made homeless. Less noticed have been major floods
in Hungary, Vietnam, Kenya, Romania, Lagos, Nicaragua, Iran, Siberia,
Bosnia and Papua New Guinea.

Saturday, August 28, 2004
*Hundreds of rescue workers have been airlifted to a Taiwanese
village hit by a huge mudslide Wednesday, triggered by Typhoon
Aere. Seven bodies have so far been found in the debris of Tochang
village, and rescuers are looking for another eight. At least 12 people
have now been confirmed dead on the island, while more than 20
others are missing, presumed dead. Typhoon Aere dumped a total
of 1,335mm (53.4in) of rain on the area in three days. The government
had issued a landslide warning to 80 towns across the island.
* Typhoon Aere killed two people and destroyed more than
10,000 houses on China's mainland this week.
* Typhoon Chaba is expected to bring heavy rain and high winds to
large areas in south-western Japan over the weekend.
*The death toll from recent floods has climbed to 25, with wide
swathes of the northern Philippines still under water.
* The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology is sending
a team of geologists to look into the sinking of a large land mass in Glan,
Sarangani Province. The phenomenon has already damaged at least
four hectares of coconut farm and 300 meters of the national road. At
least eight families, numbering at least 70 persons, have evacuated
the area since it started to collapse on August 18.

Friday, August 27, 2004
*Indian military helicopters have been plucking survivors out of the
water after flash-floods swept away 29 people on Thursday morning
in the northern Indian state of Uttaranchal.
*Six forestry workers were killed yesterday while battling a forest fire
in a rugged area of the southern Turkish province of Antalya.
* Hurricane Frances is east of the Lesser Antilles, moving northwest,
strengthening, and could become a category two hurricane today.
*Lawyers in South America are looking at the possibility of suing
industrialised countries for 'direct liability' over climate change. Britain
fears it could be sued for billions of pounds by countries suffering climate
change effects, the result - they say - of Britain pumping millions of tons
of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the past 200 years.
*On March 31st, a rock measuring less than 10m across zipped past
the Earth at the closest distance ever detected. It would not have
posed any threat if it had struck our planet because it would have
exploded in the upper atmosphere had it hit. Robot telescopes
operated by NASA in New Mexico under the Spaceguard Survey
to track potential threats from asteroids, spotted the object,
2004 FU 162, just a few hours before the flyby.

Thursday, August 26, 2004
*The world has barely begun to recognise the danger of setting
off rapid and irreversible changes in some crucial natural
systems, a scientist says. Twelve "hotspots" have been identified so
far, areas which act like massive regulators of the Earth's environment.
If these critical regions are subjected to stress, they could trigger
large-scale, rapid changes across the entire planet. But not enough is
known about them to be able to predict when the limits of tolerance will
be reached. Scientists have begun to realise that change could be sudden,
not gradual - in some cases it could happen within a few decades.
*Farmers are driving Asian countries towards an environmental
catastrophe, using tube wells that are sucking groundwater reserves
dry. Tens of millions of these wells have been drilled over the past
decade, many of them beyond any official control, and powerful
electric pumps are being used to haul up the water at a rate that far
outstrips replenishment by rainfall. Water tables are falling so dramatically
that within a short time, some landscapes could become arid or
even be transformed into desert.
*France, Spain and Italy are sending water-bomber planes to
Morocco to fight a major forest fire raging in the north of the
country. Morocco's government appealed for help from its neighbours
after more than 2,000 hectares of forest had been devoured by flames.
Mediterranean forest fires are common during the hot summer months,
but in Morocco they are rare, largely because it has fewer forests.
* Hurricane Charley destroyed 12,000 homes in Florida.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004
*China has evacuated 249,000 people from coastal areas as it
prepares for Typhoon Aere to hit the mainland after it killed at least
five people on Taiwan.
*Two people have died and another is missing after Super Typhoon
Chaba blasted the Mariana Islands. Authorities in the Northen
Marianas have asked the United States to declare it and the neighbouring
territory of Guam a major disaster. The typhoon is moving slowly
toward southwestern Japan.
*The Kenyan government Monday put residents of Mt Elgon District
and other parts of Western Province on high alert after emissions of
smoke and gases intensified in a cave on Mt Elgon volcano. The
move caused a major panic among the residents over a possible
volcanic eruption. The locals were further warned against using rain
water as it may contain poisonous substances from the emissions.
*A major 'landslide audit' of every road in Scotland is to be carried out
over two years to check the nation's roadside hills and soils.
*An earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale has jolted a sparsely
populated mountainous area in Tibet. It is the second earthquake to
rattle Tibet in little more than a month, after one measuring 6.7
on the Richter scale was reported in mid-July.
*A 4.5 earthquake rattled Olympic venues in and around
the Greek capital yesterday. Olympic venues built near the fault line
were designed to withstand a potentially massive quake.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004
*The tropical typhoon Aere is approaching Taiwan's capital, Taipei,
having already brought raging winds and heavy rain to the north of
the country and with four fishermen already reported dead.
Satellite image.
*Satellite image of Typhoon Chaba on August 23rd at 3:50 UTC,
about 8 hours after it struck the Northern Mariana Islands.
*In Sri Lanka, officials have been instructed to take swift measures to
relocate the Haldummulla town which is facing a severe landslide threat.
*15,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, catastrophic waters
roared over Dry Falls in Washington state. The spectacle dwarfed
Niagara Falls, its power 10 times greater than the force of all the
world's rivers combined. The cataclysmic water scoured away the
soils of Eastern Washington and carried house-sized boulders from
Montana as far away as Oregon. Now Congress is considering whether
to create a National Geologic Trail that would stretch from Missoula,
Montana, to the Willamette Valley in Oregon and tell the
story of the Ice Age Floods.

Monday, August 23, 2004
*The New Madrid fault line covers northern Arkansas, eastern
Tennessee, most of Missouri and parts of Kentucky and Illinois.
There is a nine in 10 chance that a magnitude six to seven earthquake
will hit the New Madrid seismic zone in the next 50 years. Geologists
have come to this conclusion based on the history of the zone and
current geological activity taking place in the Mississippi River Valley
area. Recently, geologists uncovered a series of deposits known as
liquid faction deposits that are formed from vigorously shaken sediments
that liquefy after a violent earthquake. The liquid faction deposits in the
Mississippi River Valley region are the largest in the world. "A major
earthquake – it will happen. We just don't know when."
*Researchers at Oregon State University are somewhat perplexed
after a close-to-shore earthquake rumbled across Lincoln County for
the second time in two months. Wednesday night's 4.7-magnitude quake
was called "very odd." It followed in the wake of a 4.9-magnitude
earthquake that briefly shook things up July 12. Off-shore earthquakes
are extremely common, but those with magnitudes higher than 4.0 are
"extraordinarily rare" so close to shore (within 20 to 35 miles). In fact,
they could find no record of any earthquake of similar magnitude that
close to the Oregon shoreline in the past 30 years. Even more mystifying
than its occurrence was its perceived strength. Most folks said this quake
shook them up much more than the previous one, yet scientific readings
revealed a slightly lower magnitude.

Sunday, August 22, 2004
*A half-ton boulder has crashed into a Virginia house, killing a
three-year-old boy as he slept in his bedroom.
*Residents of new homes built in San Bernardino County, California
since the October wildfires need to know that worst-case storms could
overwhelm the flood-control structures designed to protect them. But
post-fire flood potential is not listed in natural-hazard disclosure forms
required by law in home sales. Moreover, while local, state and federal
authorities prepare for the worst, no single agency has assumed
responsibility for overseeing the post-fire situation and its impact on
development. "No one wants to take responsibility. That way they
can keep building and call the next disaster an act of God." Severe
storms on slopes still recovering from October fires can unleash up
to 50 times the boulders, rocks and mud a similar storm
would generate in normal conditions.
*A lightning strike has killed 31 cows sheltering under a tree in
Jutland in rural Denmark, setting a gruesome world record for the
largest number of deaths of farm animals from a single bolt of lightning.
*Minnesota has had frost in August and some record low temperatures.

Saturday, August 21, 2004
* July was the coldest worldwide since 1992. That year's cool spell
was precipitated by the eruption of the Philippine volcano Pinatubo.
Scientists don't know why the Earth's thermostat has dropped this year.
Both the tropics and Antarctica showed a marked coolness that has
been going on since March.
*A band of wild summer weather has settled over Manitoba, Canada,
handing the province severe thunderstorms, snow pellets and frost.
*The death toll from a devastating mudslide in eastern China rose to 38
Thursday with nine people still missing.
*Five of a family are missing and one injured when a landslide
swept their house into the Bhote Koshi River in Nepal.
* Tropical storm Megi continued its deadly progress on Friday, killing
one man and cutting off electricity to thousands of homes as it
swept over northern Japan.
*Europe is warming up more quickly than the rest of the world, and cold
winters could disappear almost entirely by 2080 as a result of
global warming, researchers predicted. The average number of
European climate-related disasters per year doubled over the
1990s compared to the previous decade, costing
economies around $11 billion a year.

Friday, August 20, 2004
* Wildfires have scorched over 5 million acres in Alaska as of
Tuesday, forestry officials said, a new record that signals
possible changes in climate conditions and the future
composition of the vast forests. In a typical summer, 500,000 to
1.5 million Alaska acres burn. Fire managers are still waiting for
the heavy rains that usually douse Alaska's blazes by August.
*The amount of dust blowing around the world may have serious
environmental effects, geographers say. The world's primary
dust source is the Bodele depression in Chad, in central west Africa.
In parts of North Africa, annual dust production has increased
tenfold in the last 50 years. Dust storms transport large amounts
of material for long distances, for example from the Sahara to Greenland
and from China to Europe, which can cause problems
far from the dust's source.
* Heavy rains and fierce storms in parts of western Europe caused
more flooding, destruction and loss of life both offshore and on dry land,
after several days of freak weather and strong
winds left at least 15 feared dead.
*Death Valley National Park has been closed indefinitely because
of heavy flooding in the Mojave Desert that killed at least two people
and washed away stretches of road. Fierce storms that hit the desert
over the weekend triggered flooding that washed cars off roads and
sent mud, rock and debris cascading into the Furnace Creek Wash.
California Highway 190 - a main road between the eastern Sierra and
Nevada - was closed to through traffic for 130 miles as a 6-foot by
50-foot wide section has been completely washed away.
*Scientists have mapped enormous impact craters hidden under
the Antarctic ice sheet using satellite technology. The craters may
have either come from an asteroid between 5 and 11km across that
broke up in the atmosphere, a swarm of comets or comet fragments.
The space impacts created multiple craters over an area of 2,092km
(1300 miles) by 3,862km (2,400 miles). The impacts occurred roughly
780,000 years ago during an ice age. Early humans would have been
living in Africa and other parts of the Old World at the time of the strikes.
Impacts would have melted about 1% of the ice sheet, raising water
levels worldwide by 60cm (2ft).

Thursday, August 19, 2004
*More than 2,400 people have been evacuated as Typhoon Megi
lashes the southern shores of South Korea. Megi has already swept
through Japan, leaving at least seven dead in floods and mudslides, two
were swept out to sea.
*Health officials are worried there could be more deaths and injuries
in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley than during the storm itself. The
hurricane caused billions of dollars in damage across Florida, and power
outages and debris are creating hazards for residents. At least 21 U.S.
deaths have been linked to the storm. Charley also killed four people in
Cuba and one in Jamaica.
*Rescuers began airlifting drivers and passengers from a group of vehicles
trapped between two landslides on a central Scotland motorway which
was washed out by "a colossal band of rain sweeping up Scotland". The
landslides come amid roiling storms that have battered western Europe
this week, leaving four dead in southern France and a stretch of the
southwest English coast wrecked by flash floods.
*Rising sea levels, disappearing glaciers in the Alps and more deadly
heat waves are coming for Europeans because of global warming,
Europe's environmental agency has warned. Melting meant Europe's
glaciers lost a tenth of their mass last year, and harvests
fell by almost a third.
* Waves over 20m high are getting bigger, more frequent and are
eroding Britain's Atlantic coast, experts say. The waves rip huge
boulders from cliff faces and sweep them up to 50m inland in
exposed areas such as Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004
*Sydney, Australia, has been dumped with more rain in 24 hours
than it would usually get in a month, but the deluge has brought
no relief to dams or drought-stricken regions.
One man is dead and several people injured after storms and the
first substantial rainfall in three months caused havoc
in south-east Queensland, Australia.
*A severe storm battered central New Zealand overnight, cutting highways
and halting train, aeroplane and sea ferry services to the
capital city and nearby regions.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004
*The world's biggest international aid agency has warned that tens of
millions of the world's poorest people are threatened by an unprecedented
wave of freak and extreme weather. Clouds of locusts, cyclones, massive
floods and devastating droughts are wreaking havoc in many of the world's
poorest countries, and agencies don't have the resources to cope.
*Police in eastern India shot at about 500 rioting villagers who were
demanding more government assistance amid devastating
monsoon flooding, killing five people.
*Three people are missing after flash floods tore through a popular
tourist area in southwest England, sweeping dozens of cars into the
sea and leaving hundreds feared trapped.
*A five-year-old boy was electrocuted in a refrigerator at his family
home in Qena, Upper Egypt, after climbing inside to escape from
the heatwave raging in the region.
*About 500 residents in northwestern British Columbia, Canada
are on evacuation alert following weekend lightening strikes
that sparked more than 100 new wildfires in the area.

Monday, August 16, 2004
*The death toll from Hurricane Charley is now at 16. Florida officials
predict that damage from the Category 4 storm could top $15 billion
- as much as the earthquake in Northridge, California, in 1994.
*At least 25 people were killed and 22 others were missing after a
landslide destroyed 52 homes in China following Typhoon Rananim.
*The world's future water supply is a problem that's an entire order
of magnitude greater than we've begun to realise. Scientists say the
world will have to change its consumption patterns to have
any realistic hope of feeding itself.

Sunday, August 15, 2004
* Hurricane Charley killed at least 14 in Florida as it ripped through
the state and moved on to the Carolinas. Charley destroyed thousands
of homes, left more than one million people without power and
hundreds of thousands without water.
* Tropical Storm Earl grew from a tropical depression and gathered
strength as it neared several eastern Caribbean islands with heavy
rains and hazardous winds. The tropical storm, the fifth of the Atlantic
season, was forecast to churn over the Windward Islands on Sunday.
Forecasters said the storm could strengthen to a hurricane by Monday
once it is over the Caribbean Sea. It was expected to head in the general
direction of Jamaica, Hispaniola and eastern Cuba in the next three
to five days.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Danielle strengthened over the far eastern
Atlantic and was forecast to become a hurricane by Sunday,
although it wasn't expected to threaten land.
*Melbourne, Australia was whipped by an Antarctic blast, shivering
through its coldest day in six years yesterday and its coldest
August day in 26 years.
*Queensland, Australia Premier Peter Beattie admitted he was
"terrified" of the potentially massive damage huge bushfires could
cause in south-east Queensland this season.

Saturday, August 14, 2004
* Hurricane Charley has slammed into the coast of Florida,
ripping up trees and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands
of residents. Packing winds up to 145mph (230km/h), Charley hit
land south of Tampa and threatened to swamp the low-lying
area with a 15-foot (4.6m) tidal surge. Before reaching land, Charley
increased to "category four" - the second most severe. Meteorologists
say this could be the worst storm to hit the U.S. since 1992 when
Hurricane Andrew caused billions of dollars worth of damage in Miami.
A woman died when her car ran off a road in western Florida yesterday,
becoming the sixth victim of Hurricane Charley. Four were killed in Cuba.
*Climbers have been temporarily banned from Semeru Volcano in
Indonesia's East Java province after it erupted on Wednesday, throwing
sand, dust and stones into the air.
* Flooding in Nigeria has killed 23 and left 2,500 homeless.

Friday, August 13, 2004
*At least 63 people were killed and more than 1,800 injured as
powerful Typhoon Rananim hit eastern China. The typhoon is
thought to be the 2nd worst storm ever - the worst storm hit in 1997
and 236 people were killed. Officials have warned of flooding, landslides
and house collapses.
More than a million people in China have been relocated from their
homes this year because of extreme weather conditions. More than 650
people have been killed by natural disasters, which have cost more
than $4 billlion in damage, so far.
*Tropical storm Bonnie weakened as it reached north Florida's
western coast on Thursday afternoon. But with Hurricane Charley
approaching, 800,000 people have been told to evacuate. Charley was
expected to hit Cuba by Thursday night and pass almost directly over
the capital Havana, before reaching Florida early today. Storms have
not struck so close together in Florida since 1906.
*Three people have been reported missing after an avalanche
hit a main New Zealand ski-slope.
* Heat waves this century will be more intense, more frequent and
longer lasting, experts predict. Over the coming century, the number
of heat waves in Paris was expected to increase by 31%
and in Chicago by 25%.
*A severe drought has put at risk the nomadic lifestyle of 250,000
herdsmen in northern Somalia.
* Freakish storms moved through New York City all afternoon on
Wednesday and a young couple who leapt from their car as a flash
flood engulfed it at an intersection were electrocuted by a downed
power line.
*Seismologists are warning, on the basis of statistical analysis
and historical records, that a major earthquake is due to hit Israel
in the next 50 years.

Thursday, August 12, 2004
*More than 125,000 people have been left homeless after the
5.6 earthquake in south-west China that killed four
and injured nearly 600. 18,556 houses collapsed, 65,601 houses
were damaged, as were schools, factories, office buildings and
reservoirs. The earthquake was the third in a year to strike Ludian
county, one of the poorest in China. Quakes measuring 5.1 and
5.0 on the Richter scale on November 15 and 26 last year
killed four and injured 120.
*More than 25,000 people in Cuba's western Pinar del Rio province
and about 1300 foreign tourists on the Cayo Largo del Sur vacation
islet were evacuated to safer ground ahead of Hurricane Charley.
Charley is expected to hit the
Cayman islands today. It did not hit Jamaica directly, but rains from
the hurricane are believed to have caused mudslides
and flooding in parts of the island. It is expected to hit Cuba and
the Florida Keys by Friday.
* Tropical storm Bonnie, located in the Gulf of Mexico, has forced
the evacuation of more than 100 oil rigs and is now moving towards
Florida, which has declared a state of emergency. The storm is
thought to be accelerating and could turn into a hurricane later today.
*Iceland's capital experienced its hottest day on record overnight
as temperatures in Reykjavik hit 24.8 degrees Celsius. The unusually
warm weather was caused by slow-moving low fronts resulting from
Hurricane Alex, which hit the east coast of the United States last week.
*A war on locusts has been declared as the New South Wales,
Australia Government braces for the worst plague in 30 years.
*Chinese officials say that due to rain, fears remain high of a lake
overflowing in Tibet and flooding an Indian state. The lake was created
last July by a landslide in the Parechu river in Tibet. Thousands of
people have been evacuated from 50 villages that are likely to
be submerged if the lake overflows.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004
*A strong 5.6 earthquake rumbled through southwest China
yesterday, killing three people and injuring another 200. The extent
of damage was not immediately clear.
* Fire season came early this year in the U. S. Pacific Northwest.
Numerous wildfires are taking their toll in Oregon and Eastern
Washington, surprising communities west of the Cascades and
along the coast. Fires west of the Cascades are more rare, and
when these woods go up, they really go up. Weeks of unseasonably
warm weather have dried fuels and reduced humidity levels.
Densely wooded western forests once ignited, burn intensely
making traditional firefighting particularly hazardous.
*The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization warns the next
couple of months will be critical for the main crop season
in drought-stricken Sri Lanka.
*The annual Perseid meteor shower, which peaks tomorrow
morning, August 12, could provide a "spectacular" show this
year, experts have forecast. If you go out tonight and Thursday
(or even on Friday night) and find a dark location, you can expect
to see about one meteor per minute on average. A meteor surge
may occur tonight at 2200 BST, while another may be visible just
before dawn on Thursday.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004
*Giant tsunamis that can devastate coastal cities, super volcanoes
so big that their ash crushes houses 1,500km (932 miles) away, giant
earthquakes and asteroid impacts could pose a greater threat than
terrorism, scientists claim. The global community needs to monitor
these risks, and develop strategies to cope in the face of a catastrophe.
Careful preparation could potentially save thousands of lives. In any
one year the chances of one of these things happening is probably much
less than 1%. But in the longer term it is 100%. The potential threat that
scientists currently have their eye on is an insecure rock in the Canary
Island of La Palma. The rock is in the process of slipping into the sea
and when it finally collapses, the resulting tsunami will cause massive
destruction along the coasts of countries like the USA, UK and many
on the African continent, within a matter of hours.
*Two mudslides came crashing down a mountain in southeastern
British Columbia on Saturday, destroying at least three homes,
a garage and several cars.
*Firefighters on Sunday battled to contain several wildfires in California
that had blackened thousands of acres and forced scores of
people to evacuate their homes.
*At least 15,000 people are homeless after days of storms and
heavy rains around Cape Town in South Africa.
*Thousands of rare tortoises have died in forest fires across
south-eastern Spain, a nature group says.
*The erratic weather that has been battering the United Kingdom
this summer is set to continue into the week, forecasters have
warned. The beginning of the week saw sunshine turn to humid thundery
showers with flash flooding in places.

Monday, August 9, 2004
*Forty Russian mountaineers remained unaccounted for as a
helicopter lifted out four survivors from the Central Asian peaks
of Kyrgyzstan, where avalanches have killed 11. Three days of
snow and fog hampered rescue attempts and there is virtually
no chance anyone would still be found alive.
* Emergency preparation guidelines - studies show that Americans
live in the most severe weather-prone country on Earth. In fact,
the United States is threatened by an average of 10,000 thunderstorms,
2,500 floods, 1,000 tornadoes and six deadly hurricanes each year.
* Japan is suffering unusual weather this year. In fact, it seems
downright abnormal this summer.

Sunday, August 8, 2004
*The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is asking
the U.S. government to fund a four-year, 7 million dollar study into
the island chain's nine active volcanoes. They would like a network
to monitor the volcanoes and attempt to provide early warning
of potentially hazardous activity. Very little is known about the
active volcanoes in the island chain ( about 3800 miles SW of Hawaii.).
*In New Zealand, anglers have reported changes in Lake Okataina's
color, a rise in water levels and now there are reports of bubbles
coming from the lake bed. Another rumour has ash floating on the
lake's surface. But experts are quashing fears of the "reawakening"
of the Okataina caldera (crater), saying they have seen
nothing to cause concern.
*A moderately strong 5.3 quake hit southern Mexico
- no damage was reported.

Saturday, August 7, 2004
*Colorado State University researchers have lowered their Atlantic
hurricane forecast for this season but said they still expect
above-average activity.
*The Red Cross in Nepal sought emergency aid today after a violent
monsoon triggered landslides and floods that have killed
at least 185 people.
*At least six Indian children drowned in a reservoir as they travelled
home from school, and mudslides killed 11 workers sleeping near
a shrine in Kashmir as the death toll from the
monsoon season across South Asia rose today.
*A powerful cyclone that came from the island of Sakhalkin hit
Kamchatka peninsula Friday with gale winds and showers. From
10 to 30 percent of the monthly precipitation norm fell in the
western part of the peninsula.
* El Nino weather conditions, which can bring drought to Asia and
cause flooding in South America, have returned.
*Semi-molten volcanic rock, rising from deep in the Earth's crust miles
beneath Lake Tahoe, has moved an entire mountain northeastward and
upward by nearly a half-inch and triggered a swarm of 1600 tiny
earthquakes that shook the north shore of the lake between
last August and early this year. The movement of Slide Mountain
was about four times greater and faster than it had been
during the previous four years.
*Fishermen from Tristan are reporting floating rocks all around the
Island. Tristan da Cunha is located near to the Atlantic Ridge on the
African Plate and could well receive pummace from eruptions. Beneath
the 1961 Volcano the rocks are still shaking. Indeed, there has been
other seismic activity along the Atlantic Ridge, which has contributed
to seismic instability in the South Atlantic.

Friday, August 6, 2004
*At least 10 persons were killed and several injured in India
in a major landslide that occurred in Kerala's Vannachichira village.
*Six mountaineers from Russia and the Czech Republic died yesterday
when they were caught in a series of avalanches in Kyrgyzstan.
At least 20 others, out of a group of 30, remain trapped at the
avalanche site.
*An earthquake measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale struck Tokyo
and its vicinity yesterday but there were no reports of injuries or damage.
*A magnitude 5.6 earthquake off the east coast of Kamchatka has
occurred 95 km (60 miles) SE of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy,
Russia (population 196,000). It was preceded by quakes measuring
4.8, 5.0, 4.7, & 5.0.
*Swedish geologists may have found a way to predict earthquakes weeks
before they happen by monitoring the amount of metals like zinc and
copper in subsoil water near earthquake sites. In water samples taken
in Iceland, the levels of manganese, zinc and copper all increased by
up to 1,000 percent before quakes.
*Emergency crews in Australia are worried that bushfires which
yesterday threatened homes over a vast area from central
Queensland to Brisbane might flare up again.

Thursday, August 5, 2004
* Earthquake swarms and large-magnitude tremors continue to rock
Batan Island, Philippines, recording 708 quakes in the 24-hour
monitoring period ending Monday at 6 a.m. Some 3,368 earthquakes
have been recorded since July 29. Residents have experienced
earthquake swarms in 1992, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2003.
*The Geological Survey Department warned that Accra,
Ghana was on the verge of experiencing an earthquake due to the
frequency of seismic readings in recent times. Small tremors have been
recorded at least once in every month or two. The last major tremor
in Accra was in October last year and measured 3.8 while the
last catastrophic earthquake was in 1939.
*As many as 450,000 British Columbia, Canada, schoolchildren
spend their days in buildings more likely than almost any other kind
of structure to collapse in an earthquake.
*A magnitude 5.5 earthquake in the Dodecanese Islands, Greece has
occurred 555 km (345 miles) SW of Ankara. It was followed by
aftershocks of 4.5, 5.4, 4.1, and 4.1.
*Increasing volcanic activities have been recorded on Mount Kerinci
in Indonesia since June, with the volcano sporadically emitting smoke
and noxious sulphur fumes that have even reached areas
around the foot of the mountain.
*In February 2005, nearly 300 Montserratians, who have been
allowed to stay in the U.S. since a 1997 eruption buried much
of their tiny Eastern Caribbean island in lava and ash, will be ordered
to leave the country. The volcano, which has chased more than half
the population from the territory, is still erupting. The southern half of
the island, an area that includes the capital, the hospital and the
airport, remains uninhabitable. The volcano erupted most recently
in March, and is expected to continue for decades.
*Coastal areas of eastern Australia have suffered a ``severe''
lack of rain since April, prolonging a drought that began more
than two years ago.

Wednesday, August 4, 2004
*New deaths raised the toll from six weeks of monsoons across
South Asia to 1627. Millions of people are battling hunger and
homelessness in flood-devastated Bangladesh and eastern India.
The devastation is far from over as weather officials predicted heavy
rains in northern and western Indian states over the next week.
*Romania floods have killed eight and damaged homes & roads.
* Floods have displaced 20,000 families in Mindanao, Philippines
with roads blocked by landslides.
*In Russia a landslide in the Kochubeyevskoye district was caused
by heavy showers on Monday. High ground water eroded a bank
of the Bolshoi Zelenchuk river which later collapsed. Water and
gas pipes, electric lines and communication lines were damaged.
22 homes are still threatened. Rescuers have evacuated 14 people
to safe paces, but other residents refused to leave their homes.
* Fears of widespread flooding continued today in Adelaide, Australia
as the city received its average August rainfall in just three days.
*A 14-year-old boy was killed by lightning as violent storms swept
across Britain, causing flooding in the capital and closing down
sections of London's underground train system.
* Freak weather has caused the collapse of some of the most famous
peaks in the Italian Dolomites in what some scientists say is an effect
of global warming. In little more than a month at least four massive
rock formations have fallen away. Scientists say the erosion process
was accelerated by a summer of violent storms and an unseasonably
cold and snowy winter that followed last year's
hottest summer in 250 years.
* Hurricane Alex flooded hundreds of homes and cars, sent water
swirling along roads and cut power to thousands of people in North
Carolina on Tuesday.

Tuesday, August 3, 2004
* Heavy rains drenched a broad swath of southern Japan, causing
flash floods and landslides that left one woman dead and two others
missing. About 2140 homes were flooded or levelled and at least
18 people were injured, including three seriously. Heavy rains were
expected to continue through tomorrow in parts of southern Japan.
*Alex, the first named storm of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season,
may become a hurricane within 24 hours as it moves toward
the North Carolina coast. Choppy seas off Tybee Island, Georgia,
Sunday caused injury to one boater and precipitated a rescue, all
while the tropical storm swept off the coast.
* The swarm of earthquakes on Tristan da Cunha on the nights of
July 28 and 29 have been confirmed. The main swarm lasted about
eight hours and was located 30km below the 1961 volcano. After the
main swarm, there were a few individual earthquakes. Seismic activity
tapered off since then, however, and there has been no report
of additional quakes since July 31.
*A pair of small earthquakes rattled the region around San Diego
on Sunday and Monday. The first was a 3.0 and the second 3.6.
*Retreating glaciers may spur Alaskan earthquakes. A study
examined the likelihood of increased earthquake activity in
southern Alaska as a result of rapidly melting glaciers.
As glaciers melt they lighten the load on the Earth's crust. Tectonic
plates, mobile pieces of the Earth's crust, can then move more freely.

Monday, August 2, 2004
* Torrential rains severely damaged crops in North Korea and
left hundreds of people homeless, reports say.
* Tropical Storm Alex, the first Tropical Storm of the 2004 hurricane
season, was upgraded Sunday from a Tropical Depression.
*The last three years are probably the driest in the 90-year history
of San Luis Obispo, California. Santa Margarita Lake, a vital drinking
water supply for the city, is just 31 percent full - the emptiest it has
been in a decade. A computer model has predicted the city will run
out of water in 4.5 years (January 2009).
*Reports from several sources have been coming in about seismic
activity around the 1961 volcano on Tristan da Cunha in the South
Atlantic Ocean. According to Tristanians, the 1961 volcano smokes
and even vibrates occasionally, but no one pays any attention to it.
Reports began to filter through on Friday, July 30, but at this stage,
they have not been proven.

Sunday, August 1, 2004
*Animals in a north-east China zoo are being recruited to help monitor
for possible earthquakes because of their innate ability to detect
major seismological changes. About one week before an
earthquake happens, animal behaviours would become obviously
abnormal and the more abnormal the animals act, the stronger the
earthquake would probably be.
* Typhoon Namtheum pummelled southern Japan with powerful winds,
heavy rains and huge coastal waves yesterday, disrupting transport
services, forcing dozens to evacuate their homes and leaving
at least one person injured.
* Wildfires in Washington state have burned more than 25,000 acres.
*The New South Wales, Australia, bushfire season officially begins
today, two months earlier than last year because of
the ongoing drought.
* Drought is bringing Cuba to its knees. Swathes of central and
eastern Cuba have been hit by the most serious drought in 40 years.
And still the drought deepens.
*A magnitude 4.7 earthquake off the coast of Oregon has occurred
350 km (215 miles) WSW of Salem.
*A magnitude 4.4 earthquake in Colorado has occurred.

Saturday, July 31, 2004
*Chaos erupted as a 4.7 earthquake jolted Turkey. It said a
16-year-old youth suffered head injuries in the panic following
the tremor, and died later in the hospital. Reports from rural villages
suggested some houses there had toppled in the quake. Six people
were injured while jumping off balconies or out of windows.
* Forest fires in British Columbia are shaping up to be much more
destructive even than last year's disastrous fire season, the province's
forestry minister said Friday.

Friday, July 30, 2004
*The government of Bangladesh puts the cost of the devastating floods
at $7 billion, and the number of those killed is approaching 500.
*Farmers in southern Spain say the summers are getting longer and
dryer. The rains, when they come, they are heavier and shorter. Climate
change could turn southern Spain into a dust bowl.
* Greenland ice-melt is 'speeding up'. The edges of the ice-sheet
are melting up to 10 times more rapidly than earlier research had
indicated. Many more icebergs falling into the sea will cause two
things to happen - the sea-level will rise and the injection of freshwater
could disrupt the ocean currents, including the Gulf Stream.
* Within 100 years the Maldives could become uninhabitable, since
80% of its 1,200 islands are no more than 1m above sea level and
sea levels around the world are rising.
*Recent efforts to improve hurricane tracking and intensity predictions
have focused on the effect the ocean has on the movement of hurricanes.
Ocean roughness and breaking waves affect hurricane predictions.

Thursday, July 29, 2004
*Two people burnt to death after their car was engulfed in a huge
forest fire in Spain, as firefighters battled blazes in many parts
of sweltering southern Europe. Three firefighters have been injured,
and dozens of homes have been destroyed in Portugal since the
wildfires began over the weekend.
*Nearly 400 wildfires are burning in southern British Columbia, Canada
with a forecast of hot, dry weather leading firefighters to fear another
devastating August will blacken the province.
*Last fall was the most disastrous fire season in California history.
Gigantic blazes burned across more than 750,000 acres, destroying
3,650 homes and killing 24 people. Firefighters fear the unprecedented
early onslaught of wildfires this summer could foretell a replay of
last year's catastrophic fire season.
* Mount Spurr, the volcano on Anchorage's doorstep, is kicking up
once again, the first time since it erupted 12 years ago. Tiny earthquakes
by the hundreds have been rumbling beneath the mountain. The recent
activity began slowly in February and intensified on July 4. An average
of 20 quakes are now occurring every day, a rate higher than at any
time since 1992. It's gone on long enough and intensely enough for
the color code to have been raised to yellow.
*Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii continues to flow - track it online.
* Typhoon Namteun is churning ever closer to Japan.
* Tropical Storm Darby strengthened into a hurricane Wednesday,
but was drifting far out into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico,
presenting little danger to North America.
*Built on the edge of the Gulf of Finland and on the banks
of the mighty Neva River, St. Petersburg, Russia is
surrounded by and threatened by water. A prominent
Moscow geologist and oceanographer gives the city as
little as another 20 years before rising seas caused
by global warming overwhelm it. Not only St. Petersburg,
but also Venice, Amsterdam, Hamburg, London and other cities
located below or just above sea level may go under.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004
*Some 1,400 people have fled the slopes of Mount Egon volcano
in the eastern Indonesian island of Flores after it began rumbling
and spewing fumes and ash late Sunday night. The volcano already
has begun to calm down again and there has been no renewed
surface volcanic activity. Sunday's eruption was the third this year.
*Scientists were closely watching one of the Philippines' most destructive
volcanos, Mayon, on Monday after it spewed ash on two villages,
but they said an eruption was not imminent. Mayon has
been showing signs of restiveness since October 2003.
*Hundreds of firefighters continued to battle against wildfires in
Portugal on Monday after scorching weekend weather triggered
blazes across southern Europe.
*Residents of Dhaka waded through sewage and rowed boats through
the flooded city of 10 million people, as 109 more people died, bringing
the toll from monsoon rains in South Asia to 1187. The new deaths
in Bangladesh were caused by drowning, lightning, snakebites
and outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Flood waters that have
submerged two-thirds of Bangladesh and left 30 million people
cut off or homeless will not recede for at least a week, experts say.
*A mounting body of scientific evidence is beginning to link dirty air
and pollution to drought.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004
*Over the last two decades more than 200 super-carriers - cargo
ships over 200m long - have been lost at sea. Eyewitness reports
suggest many were sunk by high and violent walls of water that rose
up out of calm seas. During a three week period two satellites detected
10 giant waves, all of which were over 25m (81ft) high. Figures show the
waves exist in higher numbers than anyone expected. Further
research plans to create a worldwide atlas of freak wave events
to find out how these strange cataclysmic phenomena may be
generated, and which regions of the seas are most at risk.
*Concern is growing about the spread of disease in Bangladesh's
flooded capital, Dhaka. About 40% of the city is under water
and in places the sewage system has failed. Flood forecasters
say there is no relief in sight.
*A university report suggests an earthquake along the southern end
of the New Madrid Seismic Zone could cause more than
$3 billion in damage in Mississippi.
*Every year, the National Hurricane Center releases a list of
potential hurricane names for the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season.
*Global warming is melting Peruvian peaks.

Monday, July 26, 2004
*A 7.2 tremor was felt in Sumatra and neighboring Singapore.
There has been no immediate report of fatalities but land cracking
was found in the area.
*One nomad is dead, 10 injured as giant hailstones the size
of billiard balls struck Iran on Friday.
*Beaches and homes were evacuated in Portugal as wildfires rage.
*The ground in the Las Vegas valley is less stable than previously
thought and more prone to shaking in the event of a powerful earthquake
which could make quakes in the area more damaging.
*The application of an emerging satellite technology "could advance
earthquake science towards a better predictive capability."
*Fresh data on sprites, jets and elves - strange flashes of
colored light in the Earth's upper atmosphere - is being returned
to Earth by a new satellite which is studying the high-altitude
phenomena. They are believed to be discharges of electricity from
above thunderstorms, part of a global electrical circuit.

Sunday, July 25, 2004
*The weight of floodwater in the eastern Bay of Plenty on North
Island of New Zealand is believed to have triggered the swarm of
earthquakes that have rocked the region. Since last Sunday, the
area has experienced hundreds of earthquakes.They began after
more than 250mm of rain fell in 48 hours.
*In poorer areas of the world, such as parts of Iran, Turkey or the
slums of Mexico, cheaply built housing can collapse almost
instantly during an earthquake, killing thousands.
* Natural disasters in China have killed 659 people this year and
caused losses of about 39.26 billion yuan ($4.75 billion). An estimated
388,000 houses collapsed and 2.4 million were destroyed. Precipitation
in central and south China has been 20 to 50 percent higher than
average since June, while the northern provinces are suffering chronic
drought. Three typhoons are forecast to hit China next month
bringing devastating floods.
*The death toll from nearly a week of torrential rain in
Vietnam's mountainous north has risen to 31, but another 22
people are missing and feared dead.
*At least 46 children have died in Peru during one of the coldest
spells in the Andes in 30 years.
*Nearly 2,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the
south of France as firefighters battled to control widespread wildfires.
*From Juneau to Nome, it was really, really, really hot last
month in Alaska.

Saturday, July 24, 2004
*A listing of this week's largest wildfires in California.
*India is on the brink of declaring drought. The deficiency of monsoons
in this crucial month of July is alarmingly close to the levels in 2002,
when India faced its worst drought in three decades.
*A magnitude 4.2 earthquake rattled towns in extreme Northern
California and Oregon. The quake, latest in a series, rattled the area
around Lakeview. No damage or injuries were reported. A 4.4
magnitude earthquake hit the same area on June 30.
*Celia became the first hurricane of the season in the northeastern
Pacific on July 22.
*A small volcano eruption in southwest Colombia sent smoke
and ash into the sky and raised concerns for the safety
of neighboring villagers. (linked site requires registration, free)
*The state of emergency in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand has
been extended through the weekend after a series of slips continued
to threaten roads and houses. Another small earthquake rocked the
district on Thursday night and was coupled with a major road
slip that closed a State Highway for 12 hours. Along one 117 kilometre
stretch of road alone 488 slips were counted.
*A strong 6.4 tremor shook the southern Japanese Ryukyu Islands.

Thursday, July 22, 2004
*Hundreds of California residents fled their homes north of Los
Angeles as a vicious new wildfire that has ravaged 4000ha of land
bore down on them. Officials are facing an unprecedented challenge
as three separate blazes burn in the area three months ahead
of the usual peak of the annual fire season.
*A fresh and major landslide occurred yesterday in India at a place
lying between Mao and Tadubi, in Senapati district,
destroying about 90 houses.
*Bill Gray, a noted hurricane forecaster at Colorado State University,
predicts a 71 percent chance of a major hurricane
hitting the United States this year.
*The National Hurricane Center is continuing to watch a tropical
wave speeding westward in the Caribbean Sea. The tropical
system could dump heavy rains on Hispaniola.
*What happens if New Orleans suffers one of its worst nightmares:
a slow-moving hurricane that would flood much of the below-sea-level
city? Louisiana is vulnerable to a major hurricane, and a federal
emergency official says Louisiana doesn't need a "perfect storm"
to suffer catastrophic losses.
*A small 3.1 earthquake rumbled beneath Summerville, South Carolina
early Tuesday but there were no reports of damage and most
people didn't even notice.

Wednesday, July 21, 2004
*The temperature in central Tokyo hit a record 39.5 degrees
celsius yesterday as a heatwave continued to scorch many parts of Japan.
A short rainy season in many parts of the country and the hot and
humid weather have claimed several lives and caused more than
300 people to collapse and require hospital treatment so far this month.
*The heavy rains have left flood-ravaged South Asia reeling. Most of
the rivers are overflowing and fast changing course, submerging
large areas of human population.
*A magnitude 4.6 earthquake off the coast of Oregon has occurred
410 km (255 miles) WSW of Salem.
* Smoke which originated from the intense fires burning in Alaska has
been observed by satellite blowing eastward over the Atlantic Ocean
off the Canadian coast. Smoke from the fires has also been observed
blowing over the southeastern U.S down to Louisiana.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004
*A magnitude 6.3 earthquake and a 4.5 quake have occurred
in the Vancouver Island region, 280 km (175 miles) West of
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A magnitude 5.8 quake
hit the same area last Thursday.
*A big wildfire fanned by shifting winds has prompted an
evacuation of hundreds of people in northern Los Angeles
County. More than 600 homes near Santa Clarita were at risk as
the fire grew in size. California has been hit by a series of fires
over the past week.
*A tornado lashed four villages in Araihajar upazila, Bangladesh,
leaving over 500 people wounded and innumerable houses
and trees flattened.
*The death toll has reached 80 from the recent landslides and floods
in various districts of Nepal.
*The government of Mauritania has issued an urgent appeal for help
in what could be the worst locust outbreak in 15 years.
*New earthquake sensors are being deployed in Charleston, South
Carolina. Charleston has known earthquakes in the past, including the
magnitude 7.7 quake of 1886 which caused 60 deaths, widespread
injuries and millions of dollars in damages.
*Australia is shaken by about 200 tremors each year, but most
register only about 3 on the Richter scale and usually occur in the
sparsely populated outback. But scientists say a major earthquake
could strike Australia's largest city, Sydney, population 4.5 million.
Every five years or so a potentially disastrous earthquake of 6.0 or
more rocks Australia and a quake as high as 7 is expected
to occur every 100 years.

Monday, July 19, 2004
*Parts of New Zealand's central north island remain under water
after once-in-a-century flooding and more than 100 minor
earthquakes hit the region. Two people were killed, one by a tree
knocked down by a 5.4 quake and the other in a landslide that swept away
two houses. The main danger from serious flooding in the eastern
Bay of Plenty appears to have passed and the swarm of
earthquakes is tailing off. Swarms of shallow earthquakes are reasonably
common in the area, although this one was unusual in that the
magnitudes of the largest earthquakes were bigger than normal.
*Dry temperatures and strong winds have fanned a wildfire toward
hundreds of houses in northern Los Angeles County, forcing
about 1000 people to flee their homes.
*The death toll from flooding that has swept through northern Japan
since last week rose to 18, as four bodies were found and
more rainstorms added to the chaos.
*In 1914, the quietest hurricane season ever recorded,
only one tropical storm emerged - and that was on Sept. 14.
Although the tropics have been tranquil so far this year, experts
predict several systems will emerge by mid-September. Historically,
the first tropical storm forms by July 11. But in the past 100 years,
the first system has surfaced 26 times in August and five times in
September. Records show that there is virtually no correlation between
when a season starts and how busy it will be. On the other hand, if
two hurricanes form in the deep tropics before Sept. 1 then the entire
season is likely to be active. On average, four hurricanes arrive
between mid-August and October, the most active part of a season.
* Drought and weird weather have combined to create a witch's
concoction of poisonous plants on Montana rangelands this year,
killing cattle and sheep and increasing the chances for deformed calves
next winter. Lupine poisoning has been a problem in Washington and
Idaho with incidences of "crooked calf," reaching 15 percent in some
herds.

Sunday, July 18, 2004
*Authorities in Arizona are investigating the cause of a fissure north
of Willcox that spans a quarter mile, is up to five feet wide at some
points, is too deep to see the bottom and appears to be expanding.
The fissure was discovered Wednesday morning by a resident who
awoke to loud rumbling and crackling overnight. Gas and power
lines run in the area, but there are only two houses nearby. Willcox
is about 80 miles east of Tucson.
* Floodwaters are continuing to rise in South Asia, where more
than 20 million people have been left stranded and hungry
in scores of ravaged villages.
*A tornado lashed Sunamganj, Bangladesh. At least 100 persons
including women and children were injured and 200 homes damaged
when it hit six villages of the district in the early hours.
*Nine people were killed or are missing after torrential rains hit
South Korea for three days last week.
*One person was feared dead and 2,000 people were evacuated
as floods swamped parts of the east coast of New Zealand's
North Island.

Saturday, July 17, 2004
*Hundreds of people in the U.S. states of California and Nevada
face being evacuated from homes as firefighters
battle to control wildfires. Firefighters kept an explosive wildfire from
destroying more homes in Carson City, Nevada, but warned the flames
were still so intense they were burning through
retardant dropped by tankers.
*Officials in Dawson City were working on evacuation plans Friday
in case the forest fires burning near the Yukon town move much
closer. Dozens of forest fires were burning across the territory, and
the forecast was calling for dry weather and lightning.
*Officials in Bangladesh say flood problems have worsened in
central areas as monsoons continue to disrupt large areas
of Bangladesh and India. Action is needed to prevent epidemics
of dysentery and cholera in affected areas. More areas around the
capital, Dhaka, could be flooded this weekend. Bangladesh suffers
annual monsoon floods but officials say the extent of this year's
flooding caused by torrential downpours and melting ice
from the Himalayas, has been unusual.
*An earthquake measuring five on the Richter scale has jolted
northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. A spokesman told the Associated
Press news agency that the town of Abbotabad, about 150 kms
northeast of Peshawar, had been badly hit on Thursday.
*A minor 3.5 quake shook parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky
at about 10:25 Thursday night.
*A minor 3.3 earthquake rumbled across parts of Nebraska, Missouri
and Iowa early Friday, shaking houses but not causing major damage.
*A strong storm system closed down Hong Kong, bringing with it
heavy rain and forcing millions of people to rush home after the
government issued its third highest weather warning. But the territory
appeared largely spared by tropical storm Kompasu which made
landfall in the northeast of Hong Kong on Friday afternoon.
* Severe cold and heavy snow caused destruction across much of
South America in early July, particularly in the Andean highlands
of southern Peru.

Friday, July 16, 2004
*Relief efforts for millions of people in South Asia affected
by floods are being badly hit by continuing bad weather and
organisational problems. Up to 80 more people were reported
missing on Thursday in separate incidents in India and Bangladesh.
Scores have already died in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
* Europe's weather is out of whack - Snowball fights in July. Mulled
wine instead of wine coolers. Thermostats set on high. Spring has
come and gone, autumn approaches - and Europeans from Oslo
to Budapest are still waiting for the northern summer.
*An out-of-control wildfire in Nevada destroyed at least six luxury
homes and came close to the governor's mansion. Four firefighters
and a television reporter were injured. Ten other homes, businesses
and outbuildings were also destroyed yesterday, and about 550 more
were threatened by the blaze. "The trees are just exploding."
Other significant wildfires are burning in California and Alaska.
*A moderate 5.9 quake hit Vancouver Island, British Columbia,
Canada. The quake was felt as far away as Vancouver. There have
been nine quakes of similar magnitude in the region in the past 30 years.
There are unlikely to be aftershocks from the quake.
* Natural disasters are more frequent than before, says a U.N. official.
Natural disasters affect up to 10 times more people per year than war
and global conflict. The Bam [Iran] earthquake and the Algerian
earthquake killed 30,000 people in seconds. That is more than
most wars kill in a decade.

Thursday, July 15, 2004
*Tajikistan's capital, Dushanbe, is without drinking water, following
Tuesday's landslide that left some 400 people trapped in a mountain
resort after heavy rainfall.
*A magnitude 7.1 earthquake in the Fiji region has occurred
205 km (130 miles) SE of Lambasa, Vanua Levu, Fiji.
*The close-to-shore 4.9 earthquake in Oregon has been deemed an
'extraordinarily rare event' by a researcher and seismologist who
could find no record of any earthquake of similar magnitude that
close to the Oregon shoreline (33 miles out) in the past 30 years.
*Kenya in Africa has declared their drought a national disaster
and on Wednesday appealed for $76 million to fund emergency
relief operations to help 3.3 million people affected by the drought.
*A storm is brewing in China as drought-plagued regions accuse
one another of stealing clouds for rain-seeding.
* Wildfires that forced 1,000 people from homes and campgrounds
raged out of control Wednesday in three Southern California counties.
*Officials are assessing the damage done by wildfires that have burned
nearly 30-thousand acres in the southeast Arizona mountains.
*Mississippi and Louisiana officials hope a hurricane evacuation
exercise next week will answer some questions about how to
evacuate the New Orleans area during a major hurricane.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004
*At least seven people were killed and 20 others injured when
a hurricane lashed China's largest city, Shanghai, triggering
more than 180 building collapses.
*Torrential rains and flooding in north-western Japan killed at least
five people and forced the evacuation of thousands. One
person is missing.
* Five dams collapsed in New Jersey and emergency workers
used boats to rescue people trapped in their cars after more than
300 millimetres of rain fell in several northeastern American states
Monday night. About 500 people were evacuated from their homes.
Some residents said the flood damage was worse than that of Hurricane
Floyd or Tropical Storm Isabel.
*Concern is growing that India could be facing drought in significant
parts of the country this year even as the death toll rose on
Tuesday from flooding.
* Tropical Storm Blas is growing off Mexico's Pacific coast.
Wind speeds are about 58 mph and are expected to strengthen
further before moving over cooler water and starting to fade.
*A magnitude 4.1 earthquake shook the central California coast
near where a deadly quake struck Paso Robles in December.
A separate 4.0-magnitude quake shook the Riverside County
desert south-east of Los Angeles. No reports of damage or injury.
*In Oregon, officials from around the state are urging all residents
to start preparing 72-hour emergency kits in case a major earthquake
strikes. On Monday, two earthquakes struck off the Oregon Coast,
the largest registering magnitude 4.9. On Tuesday there were 3 more
quakes: 3.3, 3.3, and 3.1.
* Wildfires that prompted the evacuation of dozens of homes in
Southern California remained out of control Tuesday after
burning 8,400 acres.
*Clouds of ash and steam were billowing from the Nyiragongo
Volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo when it
erupted on July 12.

Tuesday, July 13, 2004
*A wildfire near a village of about 60 residents almost tripled in
size Monday as warm, dry weather gave new life to it and dozens
of other fires in Alaska's Interior. 71 fires are already burning and
fires have scorched more than 2.3 million acres so far.
*A 5.2 earthquake in Slovenia also provoked fear in Austria and
the north-eastern regions of Italy. According to the Slovenian
media, some houses collapsed and two mountaineers are reported
missing in quake-caused landslides.
*Only slight damage was reported Monday morning as the result
of a pair of small earthquakes reported off the central Oregon coast.
The largest was magnitude 4.9.
*More than 10 million people across South Asia have been hit
by what officials are calling the worst monsoon floods for
over a decade. More than 50 people have been killed in India in
the past few days and millions have left their homes as the annual
rains continue to cause problems. A third of Bangladesh has been
affected, with three million people marooned and several people killed.
The worst is yet to come, with more low-lying areas of the country
likely to be severely flooded.
In Nepal, flash floods have killed at least 50 people in the past week.
*In India, 10 landslides, covering an area
of more than 300 metres, have occurred and following heavy rains
yesterday a major landslide occurred at Sonapur.

Monday, July 12, 2004
*Dozens of people were killed and large parts of northeastern India,
Nepal and about one-third of Bangladesh were flooded, after annual
monsoon rains caused several regional rivers to burst their banks.
* Extreme temperatures, which have killed at least 22 people in
Romania in the space of a week, continued to plague Europe yesterday,
with Greece sweltering in a heatwave and parts of Germany
under a blanket of snow.
*More than 87 per cent of New South Wales, Australia is now
officially in drought, the worst position in nearly a year.
*A pair of wildfires had merged Sunday in Arizona as firefighters
fought back flames near a mountaintop observatory and nearly
100 summer homes.
* Wildfires continue to burn in western Miami-Dade County,
where smoke-obscured roadways may have caused
accidents that left one man dead.
*A earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale rattled through
Tibet today, but there were no immediate reports
of casualties or damage.

Saturday, July 10, 2004
* Wildfires ignited earlier this week by lightning strikes continue to
burn in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, roughly doubling in
size compared to the day before.
*Firefighters in Arizona and New Mexico Friday were on alert for
new wildfires that could be triggered by lightning.
*The flood situation in Assam, India, yesterday deteriorated, with
the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries rising alarmingly
following incessant rains. Over two million people are affected.
*High atmospheric pressure has caused high temperatures in
Florida and is elevating anxiety about wildfires and about
hurricanes that might approach from the Atlantic. An offshore
high pressure system called the Bermuda High is a permanent
atmospheric presence over the Atlantic and is usually found near
the island of Bermuda. But this year, the system has demonstrated
a particular affection for the region east of Central Florida. For
months, it has been suppressing the formation of thunderstorms. If
it remains in the same general location, it could be treacherous to
Florida as it could drive hurricanes towards them.

Friday, July 9, 2004
*Firefighters battled wildfires around Athens into the night today after
more than a dozen homes were destroyed. Fires fanned by high winds
killed a man before being halted yesterday within four km of the
newly built Olympic Village. Fire warnings for greater Athens have
been issued for the next three days - with searing temperatures
and gale force winds expected.
*Costa Rica's Arenal volcano, one of the Central American
country's key tourist attractions, erupted on Tuesday. Although
there have been no eruptions since then, the National Emergency
Commission has issued warnings about further eruptions and is
preparing evacuation orders for nearby residents.
*British Columbia, Canada, is experiencing its worst drought in
400 years. Prolonged drought conditions have created a once-in-400-year
fire threat for coastal forests.

Thursday, July 7, 2004
* Flooding and landslides set off by heavy summer rains have killed
288 people and destroyed thousands of homes in the past week
in central and southern China.
*3 were killed after a hurricane hit Eastern China. The hurricane hit
the Xiao region of Anhui province early Tuesday, uprooting trees,
destroying homes, and injuring livestock.
*A landslide has swept a busload of Hindu pilgrims into a river in
northern India killing at least 18 people and leaving 2500 stranded.
*Six people in India were killed when a landslide caused their vehicle
to roll down a deep gorge in West Bengal's Darjeeling hills.
* Mount Egon Volcano in Indonesia is active again after Monday's
calm. An earth tremor lasting about one minute, followed by a huge
explosion, occurred on Tuesday night, after the volcano had
temporarily showed decreasing signs of activity. More than five
centimeters of sulfuric ash has descended on areas around the
volcano. Most trees and roads are covered in ash.
* Small earthquakes, 50 since June 24, persist near Lakeview, Oregon.
Scientists with the National Earthquake Information Center upgraded
the largest of the quakes to a magnitude 4.7 from a magnitude 4.4.
A similar flurry of earthquakes occurred in 1968 about
30 miles east of Lakeview.
*Arizona is in one of their worst droughts on record. It's definitely
the worst drought for a five-year period in their hundred years
of recorded history.
*Typhoon Mindulle brought several days of heavy rain to southern
Taiwan, triggering the worst floods the country has seen in 25 years.

Wednesday, July 6, 2004
* Mudslides and flooding triggered by torrential rains killed at least
17 people in China's south and north-west.
*Miners have been ordered out as wildfires rage in the Yukon. More
than 160 forest fires in the Yukon have burned 5,000 square
kilometres of land in Canada so far this season.
*A strong 5.8 quake rocked Taiwan as the island struggles
with massive flooding.
*More than 16 earthquakes have been detected in south-central
Oregon in the past few days, which has local officials on edge. The
epicenters have been just a few miles east of the southern
Oregon town of Lakeview.
* Sunspots are reaching a 1000-year high - the Sun is more active
now than at anytime in the past 1,000 years, according to an analysis
of ice cores and sunspots by Swiss-based researchers. This latest
analysis shows that the Sun has had a considerable influence on the
global climate in the past, causing the Earth to warm or chill.

Tuesday, April 6, 2004
*At least 30 people have been washed away in flash floods
in India's north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. The
victims were swept away while trapped inside trucks as they
were working on the Bordikrai river late on Monday. The flash
floods also inundated more than 15 villages.
*Two wildfires on a mountain in the southeast corner of
Arizona threatened an observatory that houses the $120 million
Large Binocular Telescope and nearby cabins.
*In Colorado firefighters tackled blazes in three areas of the Western
Slope on Sunday as hot, dry conditions increased the potential for
a forest fire outbreak that is threatening homes.
*Firefighters in Washington state made progress in their battle
with wildfires. Lightning has sparked most of the state's wildfires
so far this season.
*People displaced by the Alaska wildfires began returning home as
cool, humid weather on Sunday helped slow the advance of a fire
that had caused the evacuation of hundreds of homes and businesses.

Monday, April 5, 2004
*At least 53 people were killed as tropical storm Mindulle swept
through the Philippines, Taiwan and southern China.
*Hundreds of residents in Indonesia fled their homes on Sunday
for safer areas on Flores island in East Nusa Tenggara after
Mount Egon volcano erupted again.
*A magnitude 5.0 earthquake in southeastern Alaska has occurred
85 km (50 miles) WSW of Craig (population 1,300) -
1005 km (630 miles) NW of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Sunday, April 4, 2004
*Fire crews in British Columbia, Canada are hoping they'll get
a hand from Mother Nature over the next several days in their
battle against the more than 440 fires burning across the province.
*The flood situation in Bangladesh improved as water levels of
most rivers were fell during the last 24 hours.

Saturday, April 3, 2004
*A 5.1 earthquake killed 18 people in Turkey. Several aftershocks
were reported. The quake was centered near the town of Dogu
Beyazit, but also affected Agri, Igdir and the village of Yigimcal.
50 people were reported injured, 20 of them seriously.
*A 53-year-old woman has died of heat exhaustion in southern
Spain, becoming the fifth victim of the heatwave that has gripped
the country for the past week.
* Continuous drought and heat have nearly depleted water resources
in south China's boomtown Shenzhen,which neighbors Hong Kong.
* Wildfires just west of Reno, Nev., are causing smoke problems
in the city. In Arizona the 43,000-acre Willow wildfire is still only
5 percent contained. Huge wildfires continue to scorch Alaska.
Hundreds of residents from small communities north of Fairbanks
were still evacuated as the 225,000-acre Boundary fire crept closer
to homes. The smoke from some 60 wildfires across the state
is visible even from space.
*Rivers in Mississippi are reaching their flood stage as
a tropical air mass continues to fuel rain over the region.

Friday, April 2, 2004
*The Lakeview, Oregon 4.4 earthquake early Wednesday morning
was the latest and largest of about three dozen quakes to rattle the area.
*A noontime lightning storm touched off a pair of serious wildfires
west of Reno, Nevada that charred as much as 900 acres.
* Heavy rains in Southwest China killed 15 people. A landslide in
the city of Yibin killed six people and left seven missing.
*Nine months after Hurricane Juan touched down in the Maritimes,
residents and city workers are still cleaning up a potentially dangerous
mess, with complete clean-up years from completion.
* Typhoons Tingting and Mindulle spin side by side in
the Pacific Ocean.

Friday, April 1, 2004
*Queensland, Australia is fast becoming a tinderbox just waiting
to ignite, with about two thirds of the state rated a high bushfire risk.
Dry conditions are already two or three months ahead of what
could normally be expected for this time of year.
*The early morning earthquake in Illinois is unlikely to signal that the
big one is on the way, geologists say, even though the Midwest is
riddled with ancient faults, which have the power to set off
a quake at any time.
And it is their third earthquake in just more than 30 years, so
researchers are looking a little closer at a geological anomaly
known as the LaSalle Anticline. In an anticline, instead of rocks
breaking as they do at a fault, the rocks fold or bend downward.
*Trends from 45 points along the U.S. Gulf and East coasts, from
South Padre Island, Texas, to Eastport, Maine, show three spots
that are facing significant hurricane risk - south Florida, North Carolina
and the northern Gulf Coast.
*A quake in Lake County in Northeast Ohio registered at a
3.3 on the Richter Scale. Their last earthquake was
in March 2003, and it registered 2.4.

Wednesday, June 30, 2004
* Wildfires have grown in Eastern Washington. Meanwhile, wildfires
are burning on more than a half-million acres of remote forest in Alaska,
which is experiencing dry weather and near-record heat.
*The 2004 fire season has not yet truly begun in the West, and already
three fire-fighting pilots have died in crashes.
* Typhoon Mindulle was located approximately 450 miles south-southeast
of Tapei, Taiwan yesterday.
*The latest estimates say the Aral Sea in central Asia is receding
so rapidly it could vanish within the next 15 years. The region has
abnormally high cancer rates and high levels of DNA damage.
The sea was once the world's fourth largest inland body of water.
Now there are vast stretches of desert, laden with heavy doses of
salt and burdened with a toxic mix of chemical residues washed
down over the decades from the farms upstream.
* Global warming could have a severe effect on rice production,
say scientists working in the Philippines. Yields dropped by 10%
for each nighttime degree of warming, an alarming trend since rice is the
staple diet for most of the world's expanding population.
*Chinese meteorologists predict China's "north drought and south
flood" climate pattern will last for at least ten years.

Tuesday, June 29, 2004
*At least 16 people died and 24 are missing after heavy rains
lead to mudslides in Nicaragua.
*A magnitude 6.7 earthquake in southeastern Alaska has occurred
365 km (225 miles) south of Juneau. The quake shook residents
out of their sleep and seemed to last about 20 seconds.
*A magnitude 4.5 earthquake in Illinois has occurred, 120 km
(75 miles) WSW of Chicago. (population 2,896,000) The quake
shook homes and rattled windows early Monday morning, awakening
sleeping residents and prompting alarm in many areas. The quake
rumbled residents in northern Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin,
Indiana and Missouri.

Monday, June 28, 2004
*Seven passengers were killed in a landslide that interred the bus they
took on Saturday afternoon in Lingyun County, China. Nine were injured.
*1 person is dead, two missing in rainfall-led flooding in Yunnan, China.
Another 18 people were injured during the flood that has affected
at least 3,000 people and damaged 1,000 houses.
*The flood death toll in Bangladesh has risen to 19. About
40,000 others were marooned in rain-soaked hamlets as rising
rivers engulfed thatched huts, rice farms and muddy roads in
the flood-prone country.
*The flood situation in Assam, India remained grim yesterday as
rising waters in the Brahmaputra and its tributaries inundated vast
tracts of human habitation and agricultural land taking the
death toll in the state to nine.
*Authorities have evacuated seven homes at the top of a cliff in
eastern Tasmania after heavy rains caused a landslip and flooding.
* Lightning struck a group of villagers taking shelter under trees
during torrential rain in China's south-east, killing at least 17 people.
*In New Zealand a South Island radio station is being swamped
with reports of a meteor strike in the Mackenzie Country.
*330 homes were damaged by a rare tornado in Saga, Japan
on Sunday. 13 people were injured.
*Colorado's drought history and future are written, in large part,
by the fickle nature of oceans that lie thousands of miles away.

Sunday, June 27, 2004
* Monsoon floods have killed six people this week, marooned at least
half a million others in their villages and destroyed crops, roads
and railway lines in Bangladesh. Flood waters may still rise as
monsoon rains continue to lash Bangladesh.
*Eight people drowned in rising waters across India, bringing to
29 the death toll from annual floods that began this week and
which have already displaced 300,000 people.
*Fire officials say there are now more than 400 wildfires burning
in British Columbia. Reports say the Canadian province was hit
by 14,000 lightning strikes.
*Dangerous wildfires are still expanding in Alaska after their
record amount of lightning strikes.
*Several wildfires are still burning after lightning sparked numerous
small fires in the Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests this
week in Washington state.
*Researchers are using new space radar to track even the tiniest
fractions of the earth's movement, including San Francisco Bay Area
landslides. With new satellite radar measurements, very large areas
can be surveyed very quickly to find likely trouble spots. For the
first time, researchers are able to see the landslide from space,
and measure its movement.

Saturday, June 26, 2004
*Rising temperatures are shrinking all but two of the main
glaciers that give Europeans clean water, scientists say. The
current rate of glacier retreat is now reaching levels higher than
those of the last 10,000 years. Climate change is affecting the
whole environment, from the plight of glaciers to plants' growing
seasons. The European Environment Agency is developing a
continent-wide internet information system to help people to
prepare for extreme weather.
*Alaskan wildfires kept 90 miles of highway closed Friday,
stranding at least 150 people and dozens of RVs.
*Australia announced on Friday a national plan to save the
country's rivers, hit by the worst drought in 100 years.
*A tornado in Madison, Wisconsin was the first to
strike there in more than a decade.
*The flood situation continues to be grim in Tripura, India.
Authorities said they have opened more relief shelters in the
worst-hit areas. The total number affected by the flooding is
over 300,000 people.

Friday, June 25, 2004
*Twenty-seven people were confirmed dead and another 27 were
missing after huge rainstorms lashed central China's Hunan
province, forcing the evacuation of 168,000 people.
*There are 298 wildfires burning in British Columbia, almost triple the
number that were raging in the province at this time last year.
*Malaysia is worried that the haze caused this week by wildfires
from the nearby Indonesian island of Sumatra may be a prelude
to an unhealthy smoggy summer.
*As the Brahmaputra river in Assam in India continues to rise,
two persons including a seven-year-old boy have perished
in the flood waters.
*A flood watch is being maintained on river levels in parts of Scotland
after heavy rainfall continued overnight.
*A powerful cyclone has brought a windstorm and heavy rains
to Kamchatka, Russia's southern coast.

Thursday, June 24, 2004
* Wildfires are flaring up all over the Alaskan Interior. Wildfires
started by lightning last week are growing and new fires are cropping
up and spreading through the dry wildlands, outpacing
firefighting resources.
*12 central coastal provinces in Central Vietnam are at high risk
of wildfires due to their long hot spell.
*Three persons were buried in a landslide in Mong Sen village,
in a northern province in Vietnam.
*Scientists are studying a new fault in Colorado. So far they believe
the fault, found under farmland about 6 miles northeast of Anton,
could trigger an earthquake that could cause nearly $3 billion in damage.
*More than 110 glaciers have disappeared from Montana's Glacier
National Park over the past 150 years.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004
*West and Central Africa are on the brink of the largest polio
epidemic in recent years, experts have warned.
*Hot weather is hindering fire crews in Alaska, where wildfires
started by lightning have burned more than 80,000 acres.
*After a 15-year drought, Cuba's land looks like the handiwork
of arson - as if someone took a torch and set fire to all the
pastures and meadows in sight.
* Several quakes have occurred off the coast of Northern
California 580 km (360 miles) WNW of Sacramento:
magnitudes 4.0, 3.7, 4,6, 4.5 & 3.8
*A moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1
shook northern Japan on Tuesday. There were no reports
of injuries or damage.
*There are differences in the level of preparedness for earthquakes
among some of the Japanese prefectures that are likely to be hit by
an expected Tokai earthquake.
* Tornado touchdowns are running ahead of last year in North
Dakota. June and July are considered the most active months
of North Dakota's tornado season, forecasters say.

Tuesday, June 22, 2004
*Powerful Typhoon Dianmu lashed western Japan with heavy rains
and strong winds, grounding airplanes and forcing hundreds to
evacuate their homes. The three people drowned in stormy seas in
stormy seas over the weekend as the typhoon approached Japan's
main islands, while two others were missing. Seven people were
injured. Typhoons generally hit Japan during August and September,
and it is rare for them to make their way across the archipelago in June.
*A tornado tore through eastern Bangladesh, injuring at least
20 people and leaving about 300 villagers homeless.
*A worldwide experiment to test the plausibility of the disaster
movie 'The Day After Tomorrow' starts today. Computer users
across the world are being invited to download and run a climate
model of what may happen this century. The test will see how
predictions may change if the behaviour of the Gulf Stream
is affected, as the film shows.
*Glacier scientists trying to understand more about how the
huge bodies of ice behave have made use of innovative
wireless "electronic pebbles" to help. It is the first time such
sensors have been put in glaciers to collect information and transmit
it instantly over the net to computers elsewhere. The low-powered
pebble probes are placed near the bottom of the glaciers and move
with the ice, recording temperature, pressure, speed and the
makeup of the glacier's sediment.

Monday, June 21, 2004
*Tests on patients with probable Sars suggest the deadly virus
can be detected in, and transmitted by, tears.
*Residents living along the Mississippi River are watching rising
waters. East Dubuque, Iowa may flood worst than first predicted.
*Crews in British Columbia are battling to keep a forest fire from
getting any closer to homes near Lillooet, 300 km north of Vancouver.
*A car-sized meteor rocked Missouri residents on Friday morning.
The likely culprit was a "sizable" meteor ripping apart as it blasted
through the atmosphere at 100,000 mph.

Sunday, June 20, 2004
*Since Thursday, Mount Ijen volcano in Idonesia has shown
increasing activities so the area has been closed to tourist visits.
There have been sulphuric rocks coming out of the edge of the
crater, the fluid in it has turned from green to white, and it has
emitted hot foam. There are also increasing tremors. Ijen is
about four hours from Mount Bromo, which erupted on June 8
killing 2 people.
*The eruption of the Bezymyanny volcano has started on the
Kamchatka peninsula (Russia's northeast). Its eruptions are strong
but short and occur once or twice a year. The last were Janaury 14 & 15.
* Record-breaking lightning ignited Interior Alaska wildfires.
Lightning struck forests and tundra almost 15,000 times over
a few days this week, setting a record for the most bolts in a
single day while sparking 47 new wildfires.
*The drought in the Western U.S. could be the region's worst in
500 years, and the arid conditions may persist for several decades.
*The continuing drought has become worse than the Dust Bowl
and will likely lead to a drought emergency in southern Nevada
by the end of the year.
* Cuba's worst drought in a decade has dried up reservoirs and
stunted crops, including sugar cane for next year's harvest.
*Some 1.4 million Kenyans are threatened with hunger because of
food shortage, especially in regions affected by prolonged drought.
*A freak tornado killed at least three people, injured 14 others and
caused widespread damage in a small town near the Turkish capital.
* Storm tours capitalize on the public's thirst to confront Mother
Nature's fury. "Storm tours" are typically weeklong ventures for
which people pay in the neighborhood of $1,600 to traipse
across Tornado Alley.

Saturday, June 19, 2004
*The three-month monsoon period officially began on Tuesday
and flood-prone Bangladesh has since experienced
virtually ceaseless rain.
*Korea will see rain over the weekend, as hurricane Dianmu is
headed north accompanied by rain clouds.
* Flood damage in Wisconsin is at $6 million and still rising.
*Following more than 10 hours continuous rainfall, most parts
of Lagos State in Africa were yesterday taken over by flood.
*An urgent landslide warning sent residents in Thailand along the
border of Phrae and Phayao scurrying yesterday to move their
belongings out of harm's way.
*Current wildfire prevention strategies are giving Californians a
false sense of security and don't go far enough to eliminate the
threat of catastrophic wildfires, says the "father" of
restoration forestry, Thomas M. Bonnicksen.

Friday, June 18, 2004
* The world is turning to dust, with increasingly vast
areas becoming desert wastelands every year and threatening to
send millions of people fleeing to greener countries, the U.N. said.
The transformation into desert seems to be picking up speed -
doubling its pace since the 1970s. One third of the earth's surface
is now at risk. Entire parts of the world may become uninhabitable.
*The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects
drought conditions to persist across the western Plains through September.
* Drought continues to plague the upper Missouri River basin, despite
spring rains, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.
*The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China and
neighboring northeastern provinces are sustaining the severest
drought since New China was founded in 1949.
*Three separate wildfires are burning in southern Utah - all
are lightning caused.
*A landslide caused by continuing torrential rains killed at least
three people in southern Kyrgyzstan earlier this week.
*In Fiji a landslide threatens livelihoods. Nawi villagers say
they are finding it hard to transport their produce to the
market because of the landslide near the village.
* Hurricane Isabel may be long gone, but her effects are still being
felt on the Outer Banks in North Carolina.
*NASA data shows hurricanes help plants bloom in 'ocean deserts'.

Thursday, June 17, 2004
*The possibility of aftershocks from a magnitude-5.2 earthquake
centered about 46 miles offshore of Baja California are "not very
probable," a seismologist said Wednesday. The first quake struck
at 3:29pm on Tuesday. It was followed by a magnitude-3.6
aftershock at 5:43 p.m. The first quake was felt in San Diego,
Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Had it been centered
closer to dry land it would have caused some "localized damage."
There is only a 5 percent chance that the quake was a foreshock
to a larger quake.
*The U.S. is on pace for a record tornado year.
It may be one of the most active tornado seasons in U.S. history.
*Millions of people still continue to suffer food shortages due to
ongoing drought in parts of the south and east of Afghanistan.
*Claims that wind turbines are responsible for the three-year
drought blighting parts of the sub-continent are being investigated
by a group of India's most eminent scientists.
*If all the concrete structures in America's 48 contiguous states
were added up, they would cover a space almost as big as Ohio.
The replacement of heavily vegetated areas by concrete cover
reduces the depletion of carbon dioxide, which plants absorb
from the atmosphere. This can speed up global warming. It can
also alter the water cycle and disrupt aquatic ecosystems. The
population of the US is increasing by three million a year.
Concrete cover is spreading to match.

Wednesday, June 16, 2004
*A passenger train derailed when it hit boulders washed on to a
river bridge by heavy monsoon rains in western India and 14
people are feared dead and 115 injured.
*An offshore earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale swayed
buildings in city of San Diego, California and was felt across the region.
*A small earthquake shook southeast Missouri in the area of the
New Madrid fault early Tuesday, rattling dishes but causing
no damage or injuries.
*A strong 5.9 earthquake has struck southern Chile, but there
are no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
*A strong earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale
struck under the Greek-Turkish sea border Tuesday.
*An earthquake measuring 3.9 hit the city of Takestan in Qazvin
province, in northern Iran, early Tuesday.
*The devastating 6.5 earthquake at Bam, Iran, in December 2003
was caused by a rare, hidden fault that is invisible at the surface,
researchers have claimed.

Tuesday, June 15, 2004
*A 5.6 earthquake shook Mexico City yesterday, swaying
skyscrapers, panicking residents and temporarily knocking
out power to some neighborhoods.
*A system in the Gulf of Mexico is being watched today for any
development that could turn it into the season's first tropical storm.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami has been checking the
Gulf system over the weekend and found much disorganization.
*Representatives from Hawaii and 16 Pacific nations and territories
are meeting in Hawaii this week to plan a regional strategy for
helping island economies recover from natural disasters.
* Severe thunderstorms swept across the midwestern U.S. during
the weekend, spinning off tornadoes, causing power outages and
delaying travel for airline passengers. Two people were killed in
storm-related accidents in Missouri.
* Three wildfires broke out around the San Franciso Bay Area
in California on Sunday afternoon, all within the same hour.
*Nearly one month old, the Peppin Fire in New Mexico continues
to elude firefighters' complete control due to rugged, inaccessible
terrain, drought, high winds, and abundance of dead trees
and other fuel.
*Seven pilgrims were killed on Sunday in a landslide at Baldora, India.
*Global warming has caused a sharp rise in sea levels around
Hong Kong and could make the city of seven million people
more vulnerable to floods during severe storms.

Monday, June 14, 2004
*Vulcanologists downgraded the alert on Indonesia's northern
Mount Awu volcano, saying it had cooled after an eruption
several days ago.
*The number of people vulnerable to floods around the world is
expected to double to at least two billion by 2050, particularly in Asia,
due to climate change and population growth, a U.N. expert warns.
*Three fishermen have drowned and about 200 others are missing
after a powerful sudden storm sank at least 18 trawlers off
Bangladesh's southern coast. The storm was spawned by a
monsoon depression in the Bay of Bengal. It is moving
toward India's eastern coast.
*Efforts are under way to try to control an aquatic plant which
is threatening to choke one of South America's largest bodies
of water. "Dog weed" or water lentil - a floating green plant - already
covers a quarter of western Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo. Officials
have declared a state of emergency as the lake is turning green at an
astonishing rate. Experts believe it may be linked to recent heavy
rains, which contaminated the water.
*Iran has dropped the idea of moving their capital from Teheran
to a less quake-prone area. Experts predict that Teheran could
be hit by a quake measuring more than 7 on the Richter scale
within the next few years. More than 11 million people live in or
commute into Teheran during daytime. Considering the capital's
fragile residential buildings, a 7 degree quake would be catastrophic.
*Arizona could be in the grips of a mega-drought, and the
temperature of the North Atlantic Ocean could be partly to blame.
* Four years of drought have shrunk "Big Mac," once the largest
lake in the four-state region of Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and Kansas.

Sunday, June 13, 2004
*Some residents of a Missouri suburb lost their lakeside views this
week when a 9.3-hectare manmade lake drained down a sinkhole.
Lake Chesterfield, once home to sailboats and waterfowl, was
reduced to a muddy crater filled with rotting fish after heavy
rain fell for several days and eroded the underground limestone.
*A meteorite has crashed through the roof of a house in Auckland,
New Zealand, much to the surprise of the home's owners.
*The U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
is amassing evidence showing that Kilauea Volcano can erupt
with greater force than previously believed.
*Sydney, Australia's main source of drinking water, Warragamba
Dam, has dropped to its lowest level in more than 20 years.
*U.N. officials say drought in Eritrea has been so intense people
are migrating in search of new water sources and fresh
grazing lands for their animals.
*While Haiti grapples with the results of devastating floods
along its border with the Dominican Republic, a new report by
the humanitarian organisation CARE International is warning
of a potential catastrophe due to drought.
*A Chinese scientist living in California claims he can predict
earthquakes by cloud formations apparently caused by the heat
given off by strained seismic faults.

Saturday, June 12, 2004
*A 4.8 earthquake rattled northeastern Japan.
* Wildfires burning in New Mexico destroyed two houses and
jumped across the Rio Grande, forcing evacuations.
*Film crews from around the world are rolling into Hawai'i
Volcanoes National Park for that red-hot shot of lava oozing
into the ocean from Kilauea volcano.
* Global climate patterns stretching back 740,000 years have
been confirmed by a three-kilometre-long ice core drilled
from the Antarctic. Analysis of the ice proves our planet has had
eight ice ages during that period, punctuated by rather brief warm
spells - one of which we enjoy today. If past patterns are followed
in the future, we can expect our "mild snap" to last another 15,000 years.

Friday, June 11, 2004
*For the second time this week a small earthquake (2.9, 3.7) has
been reported in southern Oklahoma.
*Concerns about the safety of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant
following the San Simeon Earthquake in California dominated a
town hall meeting of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
*The man hailed as the world's leading earthquake predictor, who
has proven his ability forecasting quakes in California and Japan,
now wants to help Israel become the forecasting center for the
Middle East. His four symptoms that might point to an eventual
large quake: small quakes in an area - becoming more frequent,
becoming more clustered in time and space, occurring almost
simultaneously over large distances within a seismic region, and
the ratio of medium-sized quakes to smaller quakes increasing.
If the symptoms fall in line, a nine-month alarm is given.
*A tornado has ripped through a town in the central Philippines,
destroying hundreds of flimsy houses and killing at least two people,
while typhoon "Gener" brought flooding.

Thursday, June 10, 2004
* Mt. Bromo volcano, in East Java, shot out a shower of rocks and
stones the size of footballs yesterday, killing 2 tourists - a 13-year-old
boy and an Indonesian, and injuring five others. Search and
rescue teams planned to scour the slopes for any further victims.
*A major eruption shook Mount Awu volcano in northeastern
Indonesia today, hurling stones and spewing smoke, but causing
no injuries because the thousands of villagers living along the
mountains slopes already were evacuated.
*There may be a connection between dry Mays and hurricanes
striking Florida. Since 1912, 16 hurricanes have affected the
Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County region. The average
May rainfall totals recorded at the three major airports in those
counties was below normal in years when 15 of those storms struck.
Last month was the 13th-driest May on record in Florida. Eight of
the 12 driest Mays produced a tropical storm or hurricane that
struck the three-county region. The driest May on record was 1965,
when Hurricane Betsy struck; the second-driest was 1992, the
year of Hurricane Andrew.
*For millennia, it seems, almost nothing has been safe from
the summer hurricanes - not World War II warships,
not treasure-filled galleons, perhaps not even the dinosaurs.

Wednesday, June 9, 2004
*Mount Awu in Indonesia continues to show indications that it will
erupt. There is continuous smoke and small stones being thrown up
to 2,000 metres high. Earthquakes are also happening continuously,
although they are still not very strong. As of mid-morning on Tuesday,
20,000 villagers had been evacuated and the island's airport had been
closed. One of Indonesia's most famous volcanoes, Mount Bromo,
on the main island of Java, also began belching smoke 1.8 miles into
the air on Tuesday, prompting officials to raise the alert level there.
*Taiwan has issued a warning of landslides and torrential rain as
tropical storm Conson approaches the island's south.
*Utah's drought is the worst in 6 years.
*Millions of Tehranis fear the Iranain capital will be hit by an
impending earthquake of biblical proportions as rumours
keep making the rounds and dates are predicted of when the
killer quake will strike. But scientists say the faults under Tehran have
not moved since March. A quake measuring over 6 degrees on the
Richter scale could kill more than one million people.

Tuesday, June 8, 2004
*About 20,000 people have been evacuated from the slopes of
Mount Awu volcano in northern Indonesia which has begun
showering hot ash on villages. The vulcanology office on Sunday
raised the status on the volcano to "beware", the highest alert level.
*A fresh earthquake measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale jolted the
mountains north of Tehran in Iran on Monday, just over a week after
a quake in the region left 35 dead and hundreds injured. On May 28
a quake measuring between 5.5 and 6.1 on the Richter scale hit the
Elburz mountain range, followed since then by 297 aftershocks.
*Twelve mountain climbers will ascend the erupting Shiveluch
volcano on Kamchatka, a peninsula in northeastern Russia.
Presently, the volcano's activity has decreased, however it is still
erupting. Seismologists are registering a series of earthquakes
in the area of the cupola.
*The drought in New South Wales, Australia continues to worsen,
according to the latest State Government figures.
*Colorado's populous Front Range faces an above-average
risk of wildfire this summer, says an updated risk assessment
by an interagency team.

Monday, June 7, 2004
*A wildfire in Southern California scorched more than
5,000 acres Saturday and forced the evacuation of hundreds.
*Vents have been found in the Nordic Seas that may have released
enough methane to cause massive global warming 55 million years ago.

Sunday, June 6, 2004
*The toll of dead and missing has risen to more than 3300
two weeks after floods that raged through Haiti and the
Dominican Republic wiped out entire communities.
*A landslide killed three people and buried at least 21 others
under rubble yesterday afternoon in a mountainous
area of southwestern China.
*After five years of drought in southwest Kansas they have
had their driest May on record.
*Plants in wet tropical forests adapt to changes in precipitation
and become as efficient in their water use during droughts as plants
in arid deserts. There is a point beyond which plants may not
be able to acclimate to precipitation changes.
*Two small earthquakes (2.2 & 2.4) have rolled through
Central Oregon in the past two weeks. Both were in areas
not known for quake activity.

Saturday, June 5, 2004
*One of the UK's best-known scientists says only a catastrophe
will prompt the world to tackle the threat of climate change. He
thinks the Earth's attempts to restore its equilibrium may
eliminate civilisation and most humans. He wants a rapid end to
the destruction of natural habitats, which he says are key to
planetary climate and chemistry.
* Flood warnings in Fiji - torrential rains that have already
forced the evacuation of hundreds of villagers could cause sudden
flash flooding on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu today. Two months
ago rainstorms caused major damage and killed 11 people.
*A meteor about the size of a computer monitor flashed across
the U.S. Northwest sky early Thursday, setting off booms
that stunned witnesses. It was the most dramatic celestial light
and sound show over Puget Sound in decades. The speeding
meteor - estimated to be the size of a large garbage can -
was spotted for about three seconds at 2:40 am, when it broke
into pieces.

Friday, June 4, 2004
*No injuries or damage were reported after earthquakes rattled
the Lake Tahoe, Nevada area - the largest was 4.5.
*In Iran, quakes continue to hit the city of Bam.
A 3.4 hit on Thursday. A devastating earthquake with a
magnitude of 6.3 rocked the historical city of Bam on December 26,
2003, killing over 30,000 people. That quake was the fourth
largest in terms of victims since 1970.
*It was an event people in Northern New York never thought
would happen - a tornado touched down Tuesday evening.
*June in Darwin, Australia, is normally dry, but this year, the first
two days brought more rain than the city normally
sees in the entire month.
* U.S. DROUGHT :
-Moderate drought conditions have returned northeast Georgia.
-May rains have washed northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas
off a national drought map for the first time in almost two years.
-Drought emergency areas were declared in three more Idaho
counties, bringing the statewide total to 16.
-The Western U.S. drought probably will spread this summer, government
forecasters say, and warmer than normal temperatures are expected.
- Western forests may be on the brink of epochal change, driven to
permanent retreat in lower elevations by years of drought and
decades of fire.
-After six years of drought in much of the West, sagebrush lands -
critical to wildlife, agriculture and underground water supplies - are dying.
- Summer forecasts call for more heat and drought in parts of
Washington and Oregon. There's also high potential for drought
in Oklahoma and north Texas.
-Runoff in all of Colorado's Western Slope rivers peaked two to
three weeks early, portending another summer of
low rivers and drought.
-Despite recent rain and snow, most of Teton County in Montana,
is still either at an "extreme" or "exceptional" drought rating.
-Dry weather has increased the risk for wildfires in Florida.
- A cold, rainy May at least put a damper on drought concerns
in Minnesota. Whether Minnesota is really past drought
concerns will depend on rainfall events through the summer.

Thursday, June 3, 2004
* Heavy rains in the northeast Brazilian state of Alagoas have left
20 people dead and 2100 homeless, mainly from mudslides in
hilly slums around the state capital, Maceio.
*A wildfire forced the evacuation yesterday of about 60 families in
northern Florida after growing rapidly during the night, and a huge
blaze in a New Mexico forest jumped containment lines.
*Natural disasters, drought, civil conflict and disease have left
35 countries with serious shortages of food.
*In Hawaii, the Kilauea Volcano is sparking high concern. Streams
of lava are pouring into the Pacific. It is the first time the lava has
reached the ocean since July of last year. But so far, there have
been no noticeable tremors from the volcano. Eruption updates

Wednesday, June 2, 2004
*There is a widespread misconception that in natural disasters,
dead bodies pose public health risks and cause epidemics, but
the bodies do not pose a threat to health, according to a
study. They should be treated with dignity and treated in line
with local customs and traditions.
*A landslide triggered by torrential rains buried a village
in China's southwest, killing eight people.
*There are hundreds of thousands of mud volcanoes
scattered all over the globe. Most of the time they just bubble
away gently, but when a mud volcano suddenly ejects large amounts
of gas, there is a risk of asphyxiation for humans and animals in the
immediate vicinity. Most mud volcanoes are found on the sea floor
where they cause little harm.
*Massachusetts sees about one earthquake a year and none have
caused major damage in the Boston area since one at
Cape Ann in 1755.
*Plans are under way in California to put 10,000-gallon portable
tanks in strategic locations in the Angeles National Forest, and
several other locations, to help firefighters better control
wildfires this season.
*Australia's agricultural economy is facing a sharp decline over
the next 12 months amid fears the worst drought in the
country's history is back after a brief respite.

Tuesday, June 1, 2004
* Hurricane season begins today, and 60 percent of those
most at-risk are unprepared, according to a national poll.
* Tornadoes and severe weather in the midwestern United
States have destroyed hundreds of homes and killed at
least eight people. Tens of thousands of homes have been left
without power as high winds swept through eight states. Heavy
rains also caused flooding in Illinois, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
At least 84 tornadoes were spotted in the last 24 hours in Indiana,
Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa. The worst of the storms
appear to be over, although Louisiana, Texas and the mid-Atlantic
states could still see some severe weather.
*Scientists have found firm evidence for a global winter following
the asteroid impact that is thought to have killed off
the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
*Mount Nyamulagira and Mount Nyiragongo volcanoes were both
erupting on May 25th in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.