Disasters from March & April 2007 -

Monday, April 30, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.
- Japanese Proverb

QUAKES -
World map of the quakes in the past 7 days.
Quake list.

Largest quakes yesterday -
4/29/07 -
5.0 SIMEULUE, INDONESIA
5.0 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.
5.4 SOLOMON ISLANDS
6.5 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS.

SOLOMON ISLANDS - A strong 5.4 earthquake has rattled the northwest Solomon Islands - the same region devastated by a quake and ensuing tsunami earlier this month. The tremor struck 40km southeast of Gizo and caused little damage there, but there are reports of houses being toppled on the nearby island of Mono. Many people in Gizo are still too afraid to return to their seaside villages, where many houses lie smashed after the April 2 quake and tsunami.

ENGLAND - More than 70 families were unable to return to their homes yesterday after the strongest earthquake to hit Britain in five years left their properties unsafe. The 4.3-magnitude tremor - the epicentre of which was pinpointed to a spot 7.5 miles off Dover in the English Channel - was felt across the South-east at 8.19am on Saturday morning, and damaged 474 properties in Folkestone and Canterbury, Kent.

VOLCANOES -
WASHINGTON - More than 30 years ago, eruptions of steam and ash from Mount Baker prompted the evacuation of the Baker Lake area and sent jitters through Whatcom County. Before scientists could understand what was going on inside Baker, its sister to the south — Mount St. Helens — roared to life, stealing the show and their attention. Now geologists at Western Washington University are leading the effort to find out what's been percolating beneath the volcano's surface since its headline-grabbing antics in 1975. Baker is one of 27 major volcanoes in the Cascade Range, which stretches from British Columbia down to Northern California. "Among the Cascade volcanoes, I would say it's one of the more active That doesn't mean an eruption is imminent. But it means it's interesting. Something is happening there." These days, Baker trembles just once or twice a month with small earthquakes. By comparison, seismometers record up to 10 times that number each month at Rainier and thousands of small earthquakes at St. Helens.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
None.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
THAILAND - Twelve provinces, mostly in the South, were expected to be hit by heavy rains and a FREAK tropical storm between Sunday and Wednesday. A low pressure area is expected to pass through Thailand's lower South region with strong winds across the Central and Eastern regions, bringing heavy downpours and wind storms during the four-day period. Scattered rain was expected to cover about 60 per cent of Bangkok Sunday. The weather forecast warned that a new wave of high pressure from China is expected to cover Thailand's northeastern and eastern regions from Monday through Thursday and this might also bring heavy rain and strong winds. The Metereological Department urged residents in the upper North to be on alert for changes of weather during the period.

HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT/ CLIMATE CHANGE-
GERMANY - A brush fire disrupted main line train services and traffic on a stretch of highway in central Germany Sunday amid a severe lack of rain and unseasonably high temperatures. Rainfall in April across Germany has been 93 percent below average, prompting the nation's Society for Soil Science to call the situation "dramatic" and warn that many farmers could be threatened. No rain is forecast for the coming week.

ARIZONA - The temperature in Lake Havasu City inched past the RECORD HIGH over the weekend. The thermometer shot to 104.6 degrees at 4:10 p.m. Saturday. The previous record was 104 degrees, set in 2000. Normally at this time of year, it would be 15 degrees cooler. A high-pressure ridge over the southwest should keep temperatures over 100 until the middle of next week; the ridge is causing hot weather over the entire region. The RECORD HIGH temperature in Imperial, Calif. was also broken Saturday, when it hit 106 degrees. The old record was 101 degrees, set in 2004. Phoenix reached 101 degrees at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, short of the record 104 degrees set in 1992.

CLIMATE CHANGE EARLY WINNERS - a mosquito that can barely fly is emerging as one of climate change's early winners. The insect, which lives in the carnivorous purple pitcher plant, is genetically adapting to a warming world. By entering hibernation more than a week later than it did 30 years ago, the Wyeomyia smithii mosquito is evolving to keep pace with the later arrival of New England winters. Along with Canadian red squirrels and European blackcap birds, the mosquito - a non biting variety found from Florida to Canada - is one of only five known species that scientists say have already evolved because of global warming. The species best suited to adapting may not be the ones people want to survive. Scientists say species with short life cycles - Wyeomyia smithii lives about eight weeks - can evolve quickly and keep up with changing environmental conditions as a result. Rodents, insects, and birds, some carrying diseases deadly to humans, are genetically programmed to win. Polar bears and whales, which take years to reproduce, are not. Species that take longer than two years to reproduce will not be able to keep up with the current pace of climate change. Some of the laggards will probably become extinct, while others will migrate to new places. Some long-lived species may be able to adjust without genetic changes; humans, for example, can move from flood-prone areas as sea levels rise. Some short-lived species may die because their environment changes too greatly for them to survive. "Rapid climate change is actually now driving the evolution of animals - that is a dramatic event." Until now, the effects of climate warming had been most noticeable in the Arctic, as glaciers melt. But dramatic changes are also being seen in northern temperate zones such as New England, where the average winter temperature has risen 4.4 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 30 years. Growing seasons have lengthened, winter is arriving later, and the weather has become more erratic. "The world is going to be a very different-looking place. We are going to have very different sets of organisms living together."

CROP FAILURE / FOOD SHORTAGES -
FOOD PRICES are rising globally. - The heat wave experienced across the world last summer battered harvests, driving up the price of sugar, wheat, fruit and orange juice, while freak rain storms in Vietnam were blamed for coffee prices hitting a seven-year high. North America's love affair with ethanol - produced mainly from corn - has unleashed a surprising surge of inflation through the global food supply chain. The US Department of Agriculture has warned that record high corn prices, caused in part by the crop's diversion into ethanol production, is likely to produce a sudden drop in meat supply, with a resulting upward pressure on prices. The impact is far from being confined to the US. The biofuels boom is causing corn and soybean prices to start moving in tandem with crude oil prices. The higher corn prices even make corn production more expensive. Higher corn prices factor into higher energy costs that go into making fertiliser. Even corn substitutes in the food chain are getting caught in the updraft, forcing up prices of edible oils, meat, dairy and chicken. As a result, the IMF is forecasting that food price inflation is likely to remain high in 2007 and beyond. In addition, power generators are considering converting their oil-fired power stations to run on palm oil. But palm oil is found in one in 10 supermarket products. Thus, if the price of palm oil rises as a result of increased demand for power generation, it would also drive up costs for food and cosmetics manufacturers. Consumer products giant Unilever grew so concerned about rising demand for rapeseed oil from biofuel manufacturers that late last year it lobbied the EU to allow the use of straw and household waste in making biofuels. Non-food use of rapeseed oil became more important than food use for the first time in 2005 as biodiesel demand rose. The United Kingdom appears to be suffering food price increases much more than other countries. The price of food has risen in five of the past seven months, even while the price of non-food items has kept falling. Tesco raised the price of lettuce by 10.9%, smoked bacon by 13% and milk by 11% in the three months to October. Food prices in the UK have been rising at an annual rate of 5.6%.

VIETNAM - RUBBER - farm output fell due to a longer than expected dry season, and the situation is unlikely to improve. Natural rubber exports in the first three months of the year only reached 148,000 tonnes, down 9.8 per cent compared to the same period in 2006. Exports were valued at US$254 million, down 5.6 per cent year-on-year. The reduced output was attributed to unusual weather patterns. "This year, [the seasonal] drought came early and lasted longer than in previous years." The dry season has passed, but has already taken its toll on harvests.

CANADA - If you eat, be worried. Canada's thin slice of fertile land that can reliably produce crops is disappearing at an increasing rate - and Ontario is taking the worst hit, losing thousands of acres a year. For a province with more than half the country's best farmland, the pressures from urban sprawl are ringing more and more alarms. "People have become complacent because it is so easy to go to a grocery store and there is food from all over the world readily available at quite reasonable prices. People have become disconnected from the agricultural industry and the food system." Canada is the world's second-largest country in land area, yet only 11 per cent of its land is of any agricultural use. While there are no signs of an immediate food shortage, situations can change, especially in an era of global security concerns and terrorism. "If you can't grow food within your own region, you are really cutting off your independence. If you pave it over, you are cutting off all your options for the future." The loss of farmland also means consumers will have to rely on their food being transported greater distances, with that extra transportation adding to pollution.

TRINIDAD - International market forces are being blamed for shortages of some food items in Trinidad and Tobago. Peas, beans, certain kinds of meats, cheese and other dairy products are now in short supply. There has been an increase in the price of split peas by over 70 percent. Wheat has increased by almost 40 percent and powdered milk by almost 50 percent in the last three months. Trinidad and Tobago producers of regular peas and beans are now diverting their crops to the growing of corn, which is now being used in the making of ethanol. The removal of subsidies in the European countries and the low production in both the United States and New Zealand are other contributing factors to food shortages and rising prices.

AUSTRALIA - WINE - drinkers face price increases of $2 a bottle on table wines and rises of up to $8 on top-of-the-range wines as the fall in grape production hits home. With frost and drought affecting the grape harvest severely for the 2007 vintage, prices are predicted to rise for most types of wine from the end of the year. Drought and frost have halved the amount of grapes crushed this year to about 1 million tonnes.
APPLES - Thousands of lorikeets are damaging apple crops in the Harcourt and Elphinstone areas. A lack of eucalypt flowers this season is forcing musk lorikeets to eat apple crops for food. The birds are a protected species - it is an offence to kill musk lorikeets without a permit.

BANGLADESH - There are some recent alarming reports about sheaves of standing IRRI-Boro crops in a vast area of Brahmanbaria district having developed no corns. It is essential to ascertain why paddy sheaves of crops in some areas of Brahmanbaria have not developed corns. Could it be due to use of seeds collected by farmers from crops raised in the previous season with genetically modified (GM) seeds? The GM seeds are said to be so modified that crops raised from them contain no fully fertile seeds. Equally disturbing are the simultaneous news about these crops in several northern districts having been adversely affected by a persistent shortage of irrigated water.

SURINAME - Several Amerindian villages in the remote southern areas of Suriname are being threatened by serious food shortage. The situation in the villages is very serious after a bad harvest, due to extreme weather conditions and fiddling cankers. News of the imminent food shortage started trickling in two weeks ago when villagers informed the authorities over the failure of the cassava crop, the main staple food in the area, and which yielded less than average quantities, to sustain the local communities. As a result of the mass flooding of the same area just a year ago, villagers didn’t plant as much as they were accustomed to. Furthermore, fiddling cankers caused massive damage to cassava fields and other crops. The area is only accessible by plane, making transportation of regular food items such as cooking oil, salt, sugar, rice and flour very expensive.

ZIMBABWE - Back-to-back dry years have drastically reduced Zimbabwe's crop yields, causing widespread hunger in rural communities, where residents are calling for immediate food aid. "This situation is worse than last year, even though the past season was also affected by drought...the majority of the land that was put under cereals are write-offs." The landscape is a dire picture of dusty maize fields, shrivelled before the tasselling stage, and villagers with little option other than to let cattle graze among the dry stalks at a time when they were expecting to gather the harvest ahead of the winter months. It is estimated that the country will produce about 600,000mt of cereals in the 2006-07 farming season, but the annual requirement is 1.8mt. Zimbabwe's official rate of inflation rate is now over 1,700 percent, although independent economists estimate that it has crossed the 2,000 percent threshold.

MOROCCO - A severe drought in combination with Morocco's poorly developed irrigation systems has devastated the country's agriculture this year. Rainfall levels this year are at 50% of the average and grain production is expected to reach only half of last year's levels. The drought has also affected livestock. Feed prices have risen beyond what livestock farmers can bear; a hay bale costs nearly twice as much as last year.

ETHIOPIA - food shortage this time has plagued one of the fertile parts of Ethiopia - Gambella. The flooded Gilo River in October and November, 2006, which destroyed all the crops at the river bank, is blamed for this natural disaster. In some villages, due to fears and political turmoil in the region, people failed to cultivate their farms.

SWAZILAND - In the last few months, Swaziland has suffered delayed rainfall, heavy winds and hailstorms, followed by scorching dry spells, which have all contributed to the WORST FOOD SHORTAGE IN 25 YEARS.

JAPAN - FISH - Like the blooming of cherry trees, the arrival of ikanago, or tiny sand eels, marks the start of spring in Japan. But this year, fishermen are reporting ikanago catches as small as one-tenth the volume of last year. What's more, the eels are larger than usual, posing a challenge for chefs who've had to adapt their menus to suit the bigger fish. Fishermen in Mikawa Bay and Ise Bay in Aichi Prefecture are also reporting poor ikanago catches, with volume down to about 40 percent of a regular year. There are few managatsuo butterfish from seas close to Japan and a marked decline in sardines this year. The changes are just some of the irregularities being reported by people in the seafood industry who say the unseasonably warm winter has produced some decidedly queer fish. In Osaka Bay, fishermen are catching oversized aji horse mackerel. During ordinary years, baby mackerel migrate to the bay during the spring and summer months then head off to outer waters during fall and winter. Specialists say full-grown mackerel that have wintered in the bay are very rare. "Maybe the mackerel got the seasons mixed up due to the warm winter and never left the bay." Local amagarei flounder were a lot bigger than normal this winter, and nori seaweed cultivated in local waters is thriving. The water temperature in the bay was consistently high since mid-January, with the temperature exceeding the average by over 3 degrees on some days. The water temperature in Tosa Bay during winter has been on the rise for more than 20 years. This year, when the temperature was measured in February, the surface water temperature was 18.9 degrees, the second-highest recorded since 1975. The normal average is 17.0 degrees. some fisheries are noticing a change in seasons, too. Yellowtail that are caught in the Hokuriku area along the Sea of Japan during the winter months of November through January have long been considered a winter delicacy. The kanburi haul was disappointing up to December, but soon after January, the catch began to increase, and the season continued until the end of February. This year, fresh hatsu-gatsuo, the first bonito of the season, has arrived late, and there are fewer fish than normal.

U.S. - LOBSTER - Restaurateurs and high-end grocers in the United States are scrambling to find any reserves of lobsters as an UNUSUAL shortage has left consumers paying RECORD-HIGH PRICES. Cold water temperatures and strong wind have forced U.S. retailers to raise their prices considerably, charging consumers about $30 Cdn per kilogram, nearly double the price from last year. "Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong." UNUSUALLY cold water has made the lobsters less hungry and less likely to venture out to seek food in traps. Prices are expected to ease as the weather warms up and the Canadian lobster season opens at the end of April.

U.S. EAST COAST - Farmers throughout the region are recovering from heavy rains, high winds and flooding during the storm of April 16. With two of the wettest springs in recent history, farmers have had to deal with conditions they haven't seen in decades. "I am concerned how this weather will affect our fruit buds. We really won't know how strong our fruit will be until the middle of June...The fruit's buds do not like large fluctuations in temperature. We hope the cold spell after January stabilized them but it is hard to tell." The past two winters have been very unique, creating abnormal weather conditions during the past two springs. "The past two Januarys have had long periods of abnormally warm weather sandwiched between cold weather before and after." This "double dip" winter has pushed colder and wetter weather to late winter and early spring. It is hard to pinpoint why the double dip winter is occurring. Many large weather systems around the globe, which exist over the oceans but affect land, influence each other and can often bring unpredictable weather to the region. Farmers dodged a bullet after the recent storm. "If the rain, wind, and flooding had come a week or two later we would all be in much more trouble." Farmers last year did not dodge the bullet, mainly because the rain came in May and washed away the crops that were already planted. This year, the rain came right before the major planting time for most farmers, delaying those plantings.

NEW YORK - Unseasonal weather has put the kibosh on many spring vegetables from local area sources, and for chefs that pride themselves on local ingredients, it’s a problem. “There are things that are delayed and may just be gone.” The list of missing vegetables includes: fava beans, fiddleheads, sorrel, nettles, peas, dandelion greens. The reason is obvious: “Put your finger in the dirt. It’s cold and wet. No one can plant.”

FLORIDA - HAY - Farmers across the South are hunting for hay. The extended drought has created an UNPRECEDENTED hay crisis "Everybody's horses are coming down with colic because there's no grass and no hay to give them.” Many of the coastal grasses that are normally cut to make hay have not grown in more than a year. According to the USDA, production of hay has fallen 16% in the last two years.

GEORGIA - TIMBER - Tree farmers must work just as fast as the wildfires racing across Southeast Georgia if they are to have any hope of salvaging timber burned by the massive infernos. "The hotter the fire, the shorter the time you've got to get it to the mill." At least $65 million of timber has been destroyed by Ware County wildfires sparked April 16 when wind blew down a power line. As little as 15 percent of that timber might be salvaged. "Burned wood can be used for brown paper bags. But charred wood, which has a lot of carbon in it, can't be bleached white enough to use for toilet paper or diapers in today's market." Hypothetically, if the burned areas are harvested immediately, they could be replanted in the fall. "But in practicality, it's going to be very difficult to get all that burned wood out of there quickly."

BARLEY - Malt supplies are expected to be in short supply this year, as European farmers shift their focus to grains for biofuel production.

POTATOES - Britain - "Because of the dry weather last summer, many farmers' crops were lighter than anticipated, which created a world shortage. When the rain finally came, the potatoes started to grow again, but they were very immature and were not frying properly." Since the shortage, the prices of potatos has gone up considerably (about double).

BEE DIE-OFF - the loss of bees will mean a shortage of honey. The bee loss also causes problems for other food producers. "The bees pollinate one-third of everything we eat." Some of the produce that honeybees pollinate are apples, tomatoes, almonds and alfalfa seeds, which are used to feed cattle. "They won't even be able to produce alfalfa seed without pollination from honeybees." The mysterious bee problem could mean the cost of other foods will rise. "I'm sure you'd miss eating strawberries, cucumbers, apples."

WATER SHORTAGES -
Water tension is getting worse - one of every six people on Earth doesn't have access to clean drinking water. Nearly 5 million people - mostly children - die each year from cholera and other preventable, water-related diseases that all but vanished from the United States 100 years ago. "The risks of conflicts over water are growing and not shrinking." A lot of people fear we're moving toward an era of bulk exports and water transfers. Canada, the most water-rich country, is expected to get wetter. Africa, India, and other parched regions - including the southwestern United States - are expected to get dryer. Competition for water will be fierce by people, agriculture, manufacturers, and energy suppliers.

CHINA - At least 200,000 people, about 2.5 percent of the population in south China's Hainan Province, are suffering drinking water shortages caused by persistent drought. Almost 100,000 hectares of crops are affected by the drought and more than 50,000 livestock have insufficient drinking water. Some 1,636 wells in 668 villages and 448 out of Hainan's 2,487 reservoirs have dried up. Water reserves in the province are dangerously low. The province's water conservation facilities are holding only 30 percent of the normal amount. Prolonged high temperature and a lack of rain have been blamed for the drought. Average monthly rainfall since January is 115 millimeters, 35 millimeters down on the provincial average.

AUSTRALIA - Water supplies to drought-ravaged Queensland towns are at risk because of a shortage of suitable tankers to deliver them. Trucking contractors and councils are warning that the logistical problems involved in carting water mean supplies cannot be guaranteed if towns run dry. A growing list of Queensland towns are at risk, such as Killarney and Leyburn on the Darling Downs. Leyburn was this week forced to confront the possibility of having to evacuate residents when one of its two bores ran dry, amid fears the second bore could soon follow.

PAKISTAN - Private water tanker owners have increased the rate of water tankers in the Cantonment areas and are exploiting the area’s severe water shortage.

BHUTAN - Hordes of men, women and children carrying jerry cans and utensils make their way back and forth from their houses to the nearest water taps to collect water twice everyday. Households that do receive water have huge drums to store the flow and to carry them through to evening when the tap flows again. During weekends washing and bathing is usually done by the riverside. This is everyday life for residents of the industrial town of Gomtu in Samtse, which has been facing an acute water shortage for the past year. Gomtu’s water supplier started the rationing of water from 6 to 8 am and 5:30 to 7:30 pm last year when the town and the neighbouring villages suffered an acute shortage because of scanty rainfall. However, residents said that they barely received an hour’s supply of water at both times. Some said that because of the low volume of water at the source, water from the tap could hardly make it to elevated water tanks.

VIETNAM - More jungles in the Mekong Delta region are turning saline and prone to fire, after 100,000 hectares of rivers and channels dried out, aggravating residents as the dry season comes to a close. The protracted drought has dried out 500km of canals in Dong Thap province, seeing the average water level up to 40cm lower than usual with districts of Tan Hong, Hong Ngu, and Tam Nong hit hard. About 12,000 ha of irrigation canals at the Tram Chim National Park, based in Tam Nong district, have reportedly gone dry, placing the park under an extreme blaze alert.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO - Tobago taps have begun to run dry, even as WASA is promising that water will flow once more to South and Central Trinidad. Electrical and other maintenance problems at the desalination plant were completed, and have ended “nagging problems” at the plant which culminated in its complete shutdown on April 13. Wells which were recently drilled have been supplying Tobago with 60 percent of the water supply while the remaining 40 percent is obtained from the rivers. But water levels at the majority of the rivers are diminishing with the exception of Richmond. “This dry season is ONE OF THE WORST THAT WE HAVE SEEN, even the cracks in the ground are bigger than usual.”

CALIFORNIA - With California on track to have the fourth-driest winter in history, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager urged customers to curtail their water consumption in an effort to avoid mandatory rationing in the Bay area during the summer months. In order to avoid a water shortage the SFPUC will need to decrease water usage by 20 percent. Such drastic water saving measures have not been required by the utility since the drought between 1987 and 1992. The Sierra snow pack, which represents 65 percent of the utility's water storage in the utility's reservoirs, is at 46 percent of normal for the season.

Sunday, April 29, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder.
- Ćschylus

QUAKES -
World map of the quakes in the past 7 days.
Quake list.

Largest quakes yesterday -
4/28/07 -
5.2 KURIL ISLANDS
5.9 EAST OF SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS
5.0 GUERRERO, MEXICO
5.2 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
4/27/07 -
6.3 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.8 SOLOMON ISLANDS

BRITAIN - Hundreds of people in Kent are assessing the damage done to homes and businesses by a 4.3 earthquake. Homes in Folkestone were evacuated and one woman suffered a neck injury when the tremor struck on Saturday morning. Events of this kind are RARE in the south east. Its epicentre was nine miles off the Dover coast but it was also felt across East Sussex, Essex and Suffolk. And 140 miles away in Hampshire, a 1,000-yard long and 6in wide crack opened up in a seaside clifftop. The Marine and Coastguard Agency evacuated beach huts at Barton-on-Sea for fear of a landslide. A spokesman said: We do not know if it is linked to the earthquake but it is too coincidental to ignore.' The first warning may have come from a dolphin nicknamed Dave, which is spotted regularly by divers and fishermen off the Kent coast. A man who was walking along the beach in Sandgate when he noticed the dolphin, said: "I saw Dave jumping in and out of the water and thought it was strange. Then there was a massive tremor. It was like Dave was trying to warn us." Police cordoned off the five worst-hit streets in Folkestone to stop passers-by being injured by dislodged bricks and tiles. There were unusual scenes as panicked residents filled the streets, many in their nightclothes. In nearby Lympne, 'wheelie bins were rolling down the hill one after another. It was surreal.' "It is a miracle that only one serious injury was sustained." The Dover Straits has tremors about every 200 years. One was recorded in 1382 and a quake in 1580 killed two people in London. There were smaller tremors in 1776 and 1950. The Kent incident is the largest recorded in Britain since a 5.0 earthquake in Dudley in 2002. (photo)
In pictures: Kent earthquake

The amount of monsoon rainfall the subcontinent receives in summer directly affects the frequency with which earthquakes take place in Nepal during the winter, a new study has revealed. Himalayan earthquakes are more common in winter because the weight of summer's heavy monsoon rains suppresses tremors. There were 40 percent fewer tremors in the summer than in the winter. Tremors were suppressed by the weight of water dumped on the south side of the Himalayan mountain chain during the summer monsoon. "These regions can receive up to six metres of rainfall per year - concentrated in the monsoon season - and the water accumulates in aquifers, or groundwater reservoirs. Moreover, the period when tremors were at their lowest each year corresponded to when rainfall was heaviest." "There is another explanation, which we cannot rule out. It could be that the water from the monsoon is trickling through the fissures in the rock - slowly reaching the region about 10 kilometres down where two segments of the Earth's crust overlap - and generating these tremors. If it takes six months for the water to penetrate to 10 km, which is possible, then the water could lubricate the segments." The second possibility does not seem likely because it would be "very fortuitous" if the trickling water always reached its destination deep in the crust exactly at the peak of the winter earthquake season.

VOLCANOES -
MONTSERRAT - The chances that a collapse of the dome of the Sourfriere Hills volcano could impact people in the safe zone is minimal and there is no reason to expand the no-go area in Montserrat, the government said, so they are maintaining the alert level at 4 - the second highest. There is over a 50 per cent likelihood that a dome collapse would go to the east and the chances of a gravitational collapse of more than 20 million cubic materials of material impacting the inhabited areas are minimal. As a result the EPG said that there was no need to extend the unsafe area, because under present conditions the boundaries of the now existing unsafe area are adequate to protect against the current threat posed by the volcano.

RUSSIA - The Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula has spewed a powerful vapour column to a height of up to 1.5 kilometres above the summit on Saturday. The eruption of the giant mount that began on February 15 “so far is considerably weaker than the 2005 eruption, but the volcano activity is intensifying.” This manifests itself in the constant intensification of seismic activity registered on the volcano. The amplitude of the volcanic tremor is growing. Two lava flows of over one kilometre each came down from the crater of Klyuchevskaya Sopka. One of the flows stopped and “is gradually cooling down” and the other continues to flow. The lava, heated up to 1,000 degree Celsius, is melting the glacier. “Phreatic explosions” have been registered in the area of the lava contact with ice. “Major energy outbursts are taking place in a short period of time, their nature has not been definitely explained so far. Such an explosion today caused a vapour outburst to a height of up to three kilometres.” Flows of water and mud have been coming down the volcano slope.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
None.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
U.S. - Storms with high winds rushed across four states Thursday, spawning tornadoes in Tennessee and Illinois and tossing a patrol car over a 3-foot-high fence in Indiana. At least seven people were injured. Three days of rain this week soaked Iowa, causing major flooding of some rivers. As much as six inches of rain fell. "It's not unusual to have big spring storms, but when you have these amounts. .. it's QUITE UNUSUAL." In New Tazewell, Tenn., at least seven people were injured by debris after an apparent tornado touched down. The tornado destroyed at least three mobile homes, two houses and downed trees and power lines. In Plainfield, Ill., a small tornado tore off parts of a nursing home's roof, flipped over a minivan and damaged several homes but no injuries were reported. Meanwhile, the Northeast was getting more of what it didn't need Friday morning: rain. "Philadelphia has seen 7.6 inches so far; normal is 3. Providence has received 6.7 inches; normal is 3.3, and New York City has gotten a whopping 11 inches with 3.3 inches being the norm." Several New Jersey communities that experienced flooding earlier in the week had more Friday morning. The ground was too saturated to absorb any more water.

HEAT / DROUGHT/ CLIMATE CHANGE-
UNITED KINGDOM - this month is likely to be the WARMEST APRIL SINCE RECORDS BEGAN IN 1943. The provisional mean temperature for the UK is 10.0C (50.0F), beating the previous historical high of 9.2C (48.6), recorded in 1943. Forecasters say this month is on course to set new records in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The average temperature for the UK over the past 12 months is also shaping up to RECORD A NEW HIGH of 10.4C (50.7F) Meteorologists also expect this month to be the WARMEST APRIL IN CENTRAL ENGLAND FOR MORE THAN 300 YEARS. The provisional mean figure in the region for April 2007 is 11.1C (52.0F) - that is 3.2C (5.8F) above the long-term average. The data has been compiled from observations that go into the Central England Temperature record, which covers a triangular area stretching from the west of London across to Bristol and south of Lancashire. This series, which dates back to 1659, is the world's longest running temperature series. Ecologists say the unseasonable weather could leave wildlife vulnerable if the dry spell continues into the summer. Researchers have found that spring is beginning on average six to eight days earlier than it was 30 years ago. "We have seen lots of things leafing or flowering a lot earlier that we would expect to see them appear. The most obvious sign of this at the moment is that oak trees have come out into leaf very well, but many ash trees are still quite bare." This could present problems for local food chains. "You may have a situation where an insect relies on a particular plant, and birds or other animals rely on that insect further up the food chain. If there is a breakdown in the synchrony between them then it could be disastrous."

Earth is nearing the climate change 'tipping point' - Mexican butterflies fluttering around Austin, Texas could be harbingers of a global apocalypse caused by climate change, scientists warned a congressional committee last week. Global warming is reaching a point at which flooding, pestilence, fire, disease and starvation could threaten human existence. "Human health is already being affected. Just as we're seeing birds and butterflies coming up from Mexico, human parasites and their wild animal vectors are likely to be shifting northward as well." "Glaciers are melting. Sea level is rising. Hurricanes are stronger. Heat waves are more deadly. Forest fires are more intense. Entire species are disappearing." The Earth's temperature rose more than 1.25 degree Fahrenheit over the 20th century and more than half of all plant and animal species showed a measurable response. With predictions of a further temperature increase of up to 12 degrees over the coming century, the changes will be much more dramatic, and even disastrous. "This represents a climate the Earth hasn't seen in several million years and an Earth that humans, as a species, have never seen." "For humanity itself, the greatest threat is the likely demise of the West Antarctic ice sheet as it is attacked from below by a warming ocean and above by increased surface melt." If the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets were to melt, the world's oceans would rise to where Florida and many East Coast cities would be engulfed, as would almost all of Bangladesh and areas of China occupied by 250 million people. "We are either going to solve this problem or we are going to destroy the planet. The time to act is now."

CROP FAILURE / FOOD SHORTAGES -
EUROPE - Drought has hit Hungary's key grain regions and may severely reduce grain and oilseed crops. "In mid-April the average temperature was 5-6 degrees Celsius higher than usual." In Italy, the Po River, which waters a region accounting for one-third of the country's agricultural production, fell on Sunday to 6.53 metres below its normal level at one control point, having dropped 80 centimetres in a week. The Netherlands has had no rain since March 22 and April will be the DRIEST IN AT LEAST 100 YEARS. Farmers have started pumping water from canals and rivers – also depleted – to irrigate their crops. Germany has also recorded the highest April average temperature – 12 degrees – and the most hours of sunshine – more than 276 – since record-keeping began in 1901. The lack of rainfall prompted several German states to issue warnings about the risk of forest fires which have hit neighbours Switzerland and Austria. This month is about to become the warmest April in Britain since records began nearly 350 years ago. Britain's Met Office said there was a one in eight chance that temperatures in the three summer months – July, August and September – will repeat the 2003 and 2006 heatwaves. "In meteorological terms, that is really quite a high probability." Temperatures from Belgium to Italy are averaging more than three degrees above the 30-year norm.

AUSTRALIA - Drought-hit Australia may offer a warning of how climate change threatens core human needs, as the continent's food bowl faces the prospect of having irrigation cut off. Canberra has said it will halt irrigation to an area that usually grows over a third of the country's farm produce, if heavy rain does not fall in the next few weeks. "If that happens, that is not just an economic blow to Australia, it will do significant damage beyond Australia because of its effect on world food prices."

CANADA - A severe log shortage made worse by nine months of extreme weather conditions on the B.C. coast is pushing up log prices and pitting log exporters against local sawmillers who say they need the wood to keep operating. As the winter snowpack melts, and loggers can get back up to higher-elevation stands, they are discovering the damage from last winter's storms was worse than they expected. The winter weather came on the heels of a dry summer that kept loggers out of the woods because of the risk of fire. "With fewer logs being harvested for a series of reasons, you've essentially got consumers of logs fighting over a shrinking pie."

U.S. - Halfway through, it was the COLDEST APRIL IN 24 YEARS. "The year-over-year change is AS EXTREME AS WE HAVE EVER SEEN." The extremes were especially noticeable two weeks ago, when a major nor'easter engulfed the mid-Atlantic and New England states. In New York's Central Park, 7.5 inches of rain fell - a record for one day in the month of April. The warm weather in March caused fruit trees in Ohio to bloom. But the snow in April severely damaged the crop. Some growers have lost their entire crop of apples. A weather-impact research firm in Pennsylvania issued a report that found soil temperatures are much lower than normal. "Optimistically, we're looking at May 5 before the planting can be completed. This could affect corn prices, which could even impact the price of gasoline since corn is used in making ethanol [now used as a blend in gasoline]."

BIRD DIE-OFF -
AUSTRALIA - The drought has slashed numbers in bird species, including endangered varieties, a peak birdwatching group has said. The water shortage in the Central West and Riverina is threatening fairy wrens, thornbills and turquoise parrots. The birds live in woodland undergrowth. Persistent drought meant plants have died off, destroying habitat. Larger birds were able to fly elsewhere in search of water but small resident populations were less mobile and more susceptible to local conditions. Other species seriously affected by the drought included scrub wrens, red-capped robins, Gilbert's whistlers, grey-crowned and white-browed babblers and peaceful doves.

U.S. WEST COAST - For a third straight year, seabirds have been starving to death and washing up on beaches in California, Oregon and Washington state. Scientists are at a loss explain the phenomenon. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials found 175 dead auklets and 68 dead puffins over a three-day period in late March near the mouth of the south shore of the Columbia River. Auklets and puffins have also died in RECORD NUMBERS in coastal areas in Washington`s Long Beach. The birds have no body fat and there`s nothing in their digestive systems. Scientists can`t say for sure if climate change explains the deaths. But warm oceans have caused the food web to be 'unproductive.' Summer should bring colder water that will 'kick-start' the food chain.

FISH /SEA DIE-OFFS -
CASPIAN SEA - Hundreds of dead seals washed up on Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea coast in the first two weeks of April. The cause is still a mystery, but it is a blow to the already dwindling Caspian seal. The Caspian seal is the Caspian's lone mammal species, and can be found nowhere else in the world. Officials in Kazakhstan now say 363 dead seals have been found on the Caspian Sea coast of the Mangystau region. The number of reported dead seals in the area has been growing daily since the first carcasses were found - most of them pups. Pollutants accumulate in seals, weakening their immune systems and causing infertility. Such pollutants originate in heavy industry and enter the Caspian Sea via rivers. Kazakhstan's Environment Ministry says preliminary data suggests that abnormally warm temperatures prevented the formation of ice sheets in the northeastern Caspian. Ice floes allow newborns time to gain strength before they must take to the water. Massive deaths occur on an almost annual basis in the Caspian region. A year ago, hundreds of dead sturgeon and seals washed ashore near the Kalamkas oil field.

CALIFORNIA - FISH, SEALS, BIRDS - Hundreds of seals, dolphins and marine birds have been killed in recent weeks by an upsurge in a sea toxin linked to overfishing, the destruction of wetlands and pollution. The report was triggered by the sight on local beaches of sick and dead pelicans, sea lions and dolphins. Scientists believe that the toxin, domoic acid, is produced by microscopic algae that are flourishing because of overfishing, marine farming and other man-made causes. "I have been doing this work for 35 years and I have NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS as far as the number of species affected, other than an oil spill," said the director of the International Bird Rescue Research Centre in San Pedro. Domoic acid, which accumulates in shellfish and fish and is then passed on to the birds and animals that eat them, has occurred each spring over the past decade as ocean water warms and algae bloom. But this year's algae are "especially virulent." Dead birds, including grebes, gulls, cormorants, American avocets and loons, began littering Southern California beaches in March while dozens of sea lions, dolphins and even whales have also washed ashore in recent weeks. Scientists believe the explosion of harmful algae causes toxins to move through the food chain and concentrate in the dietary staples of marine mammals, causing poisoning that scrambles the brains of the animals and leads them to wash ashore.
In the past week, 40 birds have been taken to the International Bird Rescue Center in San Pedro with symptoms of domoic acid poisoning, which attacks the brain and can cause seizures. In previous seasons, the center might see seven birds a week.
Birds and animals have been washing up on shores from San Diego to San Francisco Bay. This year's bloom seems early, extensive and "very, very thick." "In five years of study I have not seen a bloom this large at this particular time of year. It's having an extraordinary impact on pelicans and many other species. There are conceivably thousands of animals being affected." The Wetland and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach had received 73 sick or dead birds since last Sunday. The toxin has been swifter and deadlier than usual. "The concentration of the toxin is so great this year that we haven't had a chance to react to it. Normally we're able to flush out the toxin with a treatment regimen ... This year they're just coming in dead."

OREGON - Oregon State Police and Department of Fish and Wildlife Officials are still trying to figure out what toxic substance killed dozens of fish in Griffin Creek earlier this month. Officials have been chasing tips for more than a week to no avail. The dead fish, including federally protected wild Coho salmon, turned up in lower Griffin Creek near where it flows into Bear Creek.

FLORIDA - Red tide may kill marine life even after it dissipates - When 27 manatees died from red tide poisons near the Caloosahatchee River in March and April, there were no signs of a red tide bloom. But toxins from an earlier bloom settled into sea grass beds near Fort Myers and the grasses stayed poisonous for weeks. As the weather warmed, manatees migrated out of their river wintering grounds and ate the deadly grass. Manatees frequently perish when a red tide bloom creeps into Charlotte Harbor's estuaries during their spring migration, but it's UNUSUAL for so many to die in the absence of a bloom. With the help of researchers, scientists have begun to realize that sea grasses can remain poisonous to marine life for weeks, even months, after red tide has passed. When red tide is present near shore in the dry season, the toxic algae can start to proliferate in the river. Red tide algae usually thrives in oceanic waters, not rivers and bays. Fish are usually the first victims of a bloom, but the poisons go on to kill birds, dolphins and manatees. A RECORD 417 manatees died in Florida waters last year, about 50 due to red tide exposure in the summer and fall. Reducing pollution from fertilizers, septic tanks and sewers could help keep red tide at bay. Some scientists say man-induced nutrient pollution is contributing to long-lasting blooms that stretch into the dry season.

VIRGINIA - New fish deaths in Shenandoah watershed - The Department of Environmental Quality has received reports this past week of dead fish on the North and South Forks of the Shenandoah River. Dead and dying smallmouth bass and sunfish were found in at least three areas. A number of live fish with skin lesions or abnormal behavior were observed. Fish kills have begun in the Shenandoah River system during the spring of each of the past three years. The causes of these fish kills remain unknown. The kills have occurred at low rates, have lasted for extended periods, and have affected primarily adult smallmouth bass and redbreast sunfish. In some areas adult smallmouth bass and redbreast sunfish numbers have been reduced by an estimated 80 percent. Except for two small, isolated, short-term incidents, no notable fish kills have been found here this spring until now.

NEW YORK - Preliminary findings point to stress rather than starvation as the cause of the dolphin deaths inside East Hampton’s Northwest Creek in January. The finding also indicate that those that succumbed were “young of the year.” Eleven died during a weeklong rescue effort. The dophins grazed for fish, two by two, in the creek. As January grew cold, reaching 12 degrees on Jan. 16 when the dolphins were in the creek, fish became scarce, and it became clear that many of the 20 or so could not, or would not, go through the creek’s narrow channel into Northwest Harbor, where others were seen. When, on Jan. 21, the last of the dead dolphins was carried away, at least some witnesses were beginning to wonder if the attempt to get them into open water — which involved using a line of boats to herd them along, with boaters beating on metal pipes, boat hulls, or anything else to make noise — had harmed the effort rather than helped. Necropsies performed on the dead animals during the intervening months, suggest that it was not for lack of food that the animals died, as had been assumed. Instead, stress, and the inability of the pod’s younger animals to handle it, apparently caused the deaths.

GEORGIA - Weather has had a big effect on the wildfires in south Georgia, but it's also having an effect on lakes and ponds. On Wednesday, fishermen noticed lifeless large-mouth bass and gizzard shad. The DNR came to test the waters earlier in the week to find out what was going on with all the fish and why they were dying. What they found was that cooler temperatures could be to blame. "We'll have a storm like the one that just came through here and those cooler temperatures can kill out the phytoplankton and that decomposing material can take oxygen out of the water. Which is what we think happened." The weather did not kill out the entire population of fish in the pond, so they expect the pond to make a full recovery.

LOUISIANA - the fish kill from Hurricane Katrina in the Pascagoula River alone was in the hundreds of thousands. The storm's surge removed most of the oxygen from the rivers, which in turn spawned a fish kill the area HAD NEVER SEEN BEFORE. "The Pascagoula River was pretty much wiped out, a total kill." There were parts of the Pascagoula River where gar were the only living species. Gone were largemouth bass, blue gill, crappie and catfish. Efforts are underway to restock the rivers. "We are trying to jumpstart the rivers because the storm was so devastating. The rivers would have eventually recovered like they have in the past. This wasn't the first storm and won't be the last. But we were able to fill a void with more fish this time around."

OKLAHOMA - at a small pond near Oak HIll Cemetary "there were dead fish everywhere. They’d just all floated up to the top and they were all over.” Little fish, fairly large fish, sunfish, catfish, carp — dead. Some floated off down a little overflow stream leading from the pond. Ducks and turtles were feasting on others. “The ducks and turtles were fine, but all the fish were dead." Usually fish kills happen in the fall, but they have been known to happen at other times of year. The most common cause is when algae, microscopic plants, die for some reason. The death of the plants depletes the oxygen level in the water, causing fish to basically suffocate. Another reason is simple overpopulation, when a pond’s food or oxygen supply is not great enough to support the number of fish in it.

WASHINGTON - Hood Canal, known for a series of rapid fish kills in recent years, has lived through a natural cycle of high and low oxygen levels dating back more than three centuries, a new study shows. One potentially alarming result is that the last 50 years may have been a time of relatively high oxygen levels in Hood Canal, despite the recent fish kills. What that foretells for the future is anybody’s guess. "The system in Hood Canal is in a delicate balance and that any additional input from man can upset that balance." The new study shows periods of very low oxygen levels in the early 1700s, early 1800s and early 1900s. Winds coming from the south in Hood Canal tend to blow away surface waters and force low-oxygen water out of the depths, leaving fish no place to go. As a result, fish can die from lack of oxygen even near the surface. "We can’t say whether there were fish kills during any period of time in the past."

CANADA - A number of dead fish washed up along the shores of Wascana Creek last week. The dead fish in Wascana Creek followed a rash of dead fish washing ashore around Wascana Lake. The cause of death was a lack of oxygen. The process is known as "winter kill." When ice gets a few inches thick it prevents sunlight from getting to underwater plant life. Plants need sunlight for photosynthesis, which creates oxygen in the water.

NEW ZEALAND - The water in some of New Zealand's most photographed lakes in the picturesque Southern Lakes region is so toxic it is killing fish. Algal blooms are blighting several southern lakes, forcing scientists to admit fish in the worst affected lake have "nowhere to go to stay healthy". The bloom is creating a dense brown cloud in Lake Hayes, near Queenstown, and has also been detected in Lake Hawea, near Wanaka, and tiny Lake Johnson, near Lake Wakatipu. The problem follows the discovery of invasive and unsightly didymo in Lake Wakatipu late last year. "It's been three months of these harsh conditions and they are succumbing to it. We are likely to see more fish deaths than we've seen already."

BELIZE - hundreds of dead fish have been washing up on the waterways surrounding Crooked Tree. "All the tilapias are just floating down the lagoon. In Black Creek, the banks are littered with fish. The trees that are across the creek are full with dead tilapias.” The sudden mass death of fish in the waters occurred after a U.S. scientist used an electric stunning device to collect fish samples for his research. Villagers were concerned that the device, which paralyzes the fish in the lake, could have caused the kill - ”that gentleman was out, even at night in the back lagoon, and he was out in the lagoon all day just zapping fish. And to take samples, a few samples of fish you don’t need to be out there all day and all night filling up iceboxes and taking them to Orange Walk to sell them before Easter for seven dollars a pound.” "The fish didn’t die before the research started and no more fish die after he finished." "From the Audubon Society, from BAHA, from all the organisations there [at a meeting], they were all blaming the oxygen in the water, which is nonsense. This is four to five feet of water out here and we never had a problem like this before when the water is that deep.” "When you cut them open the guts just red inside and the brains like they fry or something.”
BELIZE - The sudden mass death of fish in the waters surrounding Crooked Tree has been blamed on low oxygen levels. “Algal bloom is one of the probable causes why the dissolved oxygen would drop, algal bloom, there are some correlations with temperature. As you are aware last week we had some peak in temperatures and so that could be one cause." "There have been past fish kills in the Crooked Tree Lagoon and we really need to find out what is the reason behind these fish kills." There have also been reports of fish deaths in Maskall and the government officials say they will be looking into that incident as well.

JAMAICA - The National Environmental and Planning Agency has yet to release the finding of a report on what caused a massive fish kill in the Black River in St. Elizabeth last month. In March, officials at the agency said that it was fast tracking its investigations after residents claimed that Dunder, a by-product in the making of rum, was being released into the river that runs close to the Appleton Estate. The agency has declined to say if it found Dunder in the water. However they disclosed that whatever substance was released into the river caused a reduction of oxygen levels in the water resulting in the death of marine life.

ODD ANIMAL BEHAVIOR -

AUSTRALIA - Marine experts fear global warming is to blame for an alarming change in fish behaviour. They say higher than average water temperatures have altered fish habits and delayed migration of some species. They believe climate change and cyclone activity could be behind a late run of fish, such as snapper and tailor. Fishing enthusiasts had reported UNUSUALLY high water temperatures and unseasonal fish behaviour. "We've had reports from people throughout Queensland with winter fish experiencing a late run and others behaving unusually." Some species that preferred cooler water were yet to hit the Queensland coast. Water temperatures were well above normal.

DISEASE THREATS -

RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - A bunch of pet foods and treats from American Nutrition, Inc. - certain samples of rice protein shipped to its production facility have been contaminated with melamine, the industrial chemical used to make plastics and fertilizers.
-RECALLED - Diamond Pet Foods has announced it is withdrawing a limited number ofcanned products manufactured by American Nutrition. This action islimited to three specific canned products.
-RECALLED - Blue Buffalo Company pet foods. "We have just learned that American Nutrition Inc., the manufacturer of all our cans and biscuits, has been adding rice protein concentrate to our can formulas without our knowledge and without our approval. This is product tampering, and it apparently has been going on for some time. The can formulas that we developed, and trusted them to produce, never contained any rice protein concentrate. It appears that only an FDA investigation of ANI's rice protein concentrate supplies forced them to reveal this product tampering to us...while no BLUE or Spa Select canned product has tested positive for the presence of melamine, and there has been no reported illness due to any of our canned products, we simply cannot be sure of what ANI has been including in our formulas."
-RECALLED - Because of the pet food recall initiated by American Nutrition Inc., Natural Balance Pet Foods has announced it is issuing a nationwide recall of a number of canned products manufactured by American Nutrition. It should be noted that the products being recalled were not formulated or labeled to contain rice protein concentrate. While the FDA is investigating this, current information indicates this error is a result of a manufacturing deviation by American Nutrition.

Canada's food inspectors have issued border lookouts for vegetable proteins coming from China to prevent melamine from contaminating the human food chain. Inspectors will seize wheat gluten, soy proteins, corn glutens and rice proteins from China — ingredients already found to contain melamine and other contaminants in hundreds of pet-food products. "We will subject the shipments to testing and the shipment will be held until the results of the test clear it in terms of the absence of the contaminant." Vegetable proteins are impossible to avoid. They're found in everything from baby formula to pizza dough and wieners. The government doesn't know if ingredients contaminated with melamine have made it into human food before. Last July, the same Chinese company that supplied melamine-contaminated wheat gluten for pet food also shipped wheat gluten to a British Columbia feed mill, which turned it into food for fish farms, whose fish have since been consumed by people. It's unknown why melamine was ever in vegetable proteins, though American officials have speculated it was added deliberately. The presence of melamine makes it appear that the ingredient contains more protein than it actually does.

The same food safety net that couldn't catch poisoned pet food ingredients from China has a much bigger hole. Billions of dollars' worth of foreign ingredients that Americans eat in everything from salad dressing to ice cream get a pass from overwhelmed inspectors, despite a rising tide of imports from countries with spotty records. When U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors at ports and border checkpoints look, they find shipments that are filthy or otherwise contaminated. They rarely bother, however, in part because ingredients aren't a priority. Over the past five years, U.S. food makers prospecting for bargains more than doubled their business with low-cost countries such as Mexico, China and India. Those nations also have the most shipments that fail the limited number of checks the FDA makes. By its own latest accounting, the FDA had only enough inspectors to check about 1 percent of the 8.9 million imported food shipments in fiscal year 2006. Topping the list were products with past problems, such as seafood and produce. Unlike rotting fish or moldy vegetables, ingredient testing often requires a laboratory. Analyzing samples takes days and can irk importers.

Friday, April 27, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Talk doesn't cook rice.
- Chinese Proverb

QUAKES -
World map of the quakes in the past 7 days.
Quake list.

Largest quakes yesterday -
4/26/07 -
5.3 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
5.0 SHIKOKU, JAPAN
5.0 KURIL ISLANDS
5.5 ATACAMA, CHILE
5.2 LUZON, PHILIPPINES
5.0 MASBATE REGION, PHILIPPINES
5.0 VANUATU REGION
5.4 VANUATU REGION

VOLCANOES -
4/27/07 -
INDONESIA - Workers were racing Thursday to repair a massive wall holding back sludge spewing from Indonesia's "mud volcano" that has already flooded hundreds of homes. Cracks started to appear in the man-made embankment around the disaster area in east Java on Wednesday, prompting authorities to declare the area off limits. The cracks sparked panic among workers charged with reinforcing the embankment. It was built months after the volcano started spewing sludge last May, in an attempt to reduce the disastrous impact on surrounding areas. The flow has damaged roads and swamped farms, factories and homes, displacing 15,000 residents and causing millions of dollars worth of damage. Experts have already dropped hundreds of chains, each comprising four concrete balls, into the crater, aiming to narrow the funnel, obstruct the sludge and curb the flow. Experts are unsure how long the crater will spew mud if left unchecked, with some suggesting it could be years. (photo)

RUSSIA - Two lava flows of over one kilometer each are coming down from the crater of Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano on Kamchatka peninsula. There was no threat for the nearby Klyuchi settlement with some 5 thousand people located 32 kilometers away. Some 100 local tremors were registered at the volcano on Thursday. The volcano threw clouds of steam, gas and ashes to a height of 500 meters. Clouds of ashes have moved 200 kilometers to the east of the crater. Temperatures in the volcano are beyond the measurement limits. The volcano woke up on February 15 and scientists predicted the eruption will intensify.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
4/27/07 -
None.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
4/27/07 -
TEXAS - the monster tornado — described as a meteorological FREAK — that hit Tuesday night "was an extremely strong and EXTREMELY RARE tornado. We haven't had one like this in this area for 50 years. Its maximum wind speed was 150 miles an hour, and only about 5 percent of tornadoes reach that level." The twister touched down about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, cut a ragged swath of destruction nearly a mile long and a quarter-mile wide through the Rosita Valley neighborhood about six miles southeast of Eagle Pass. "It looked like a war zone." The storm dropped at least two tornadoes. On the U.S. side, the twister killed seven people, sent about 80 to area hospitals and nearly 700 more to five emergency shelters. A half-hour earlier in Mexico, a tornado left at least three people dead in the working-class Villa de Fuente neighborhood in Piedras Negras, across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass. Eighty-seven people were treated at the town's main hospital. There was criticism of the city's failure to use newly installed sirens designed to warn residents of such dangers. The sirens were among improvements made following the April 2004 floods that killed more than 35 people. Accustomed to dealing with severe floods, Maverick County leaders were caught off-guard by the powerful twister. "This isn't tornado country."

HEAT / DROUGHT/ CLIMATE CHANGE-
4/27/07 -
EUROPE - Since the start of April, the temperatures and dryness have SET RECORDS in parts of France and Germany. Large swaths of northern France have been so cloudless, there have been about 11 hours of sunshine a day for the last few weeks, nearly double the usual amount. There also has been a lack of rain in Italy, the Netherlands and Britain. There are fears that droughts and electricity shortages are just around the corner. For some climate-change experts, the unseasonably high temperatures are a reason for anxiety. They foresee restrictions on water use and a growing likelihood of infestations by insects and pests. "Four seasons of warm weather in a row can create quite a shock to our ecosystem." This month will probably be the warmest April on record in France. "We've had an exceptionally warm month with temperatures more than 10 degrees above the seasonal averages, and we expect the next three months to be above normal." There was barely a drop of rain in some parts of France during much of April, something that is "VERY, VERY RARE." British forecasters also say April is very likely to set a new record in terms of highest mean temperature. They predict the heat to continue. "Signals for the rest of the summer indicate another warmer than average summer." Northern Italy and pockets of central Italy experienced RECORD-SETTING heat in April. In Germany, the Wednesday edition of the newspaper Bild carried a front-page headline predicting a "Sahara summer." Temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) are predicted in some regions, including Frankfurt this weekend, and the German weather service is "quite certain" April will be the warmest, sunniest and driest since 1901, when weather monitoring began. In a sign of changes under way in Europe, clement conditions have led people to experiment with vineyards and olive groves in parts of Devon and Cornwall in Britain. Oil seed rape, the third biggest crop grown in Britain, is flowering two weeks earlier than usual and might yield a better harvest because of the sunnier weather. Around Paris the sunshine and heat were exacerbating the effects of tailpipe fumes and other emissions, and could trigger respiratory and eye conditions and other disorders. Airparif issued its EARLIEST EVER OZONE-ALERT this year on April 15, beating a record of May 30, which was set in 2003. "Everywhere looks nice" but "in the back of my mind there is a feeling that it's just not right."

AUSTRALIA - Climate change is affecting the growth of fish, with those living in warmer, shallow waters (above a depth of 250 metres / 825 feet) growing faster and species in cooling deep ocean waters (below 1000m) growing slower. "These observations suggest that global climate change has enhanced some elements of productivity of shallow-water stocks but at the same time reduced the productivity and possibly the resilience of deep-water stocks. Growth rates in the deep-water fish are slowing because water temperatures down there have been falling, apparently for the last several hundred years." The study found sea temperatures off east Tasmania had risen nearly 2C, while a southerly shift in South Pacific winds had strengthened the warm, southerly flowing East Australian Current which runs down Australia's east coast.

CANADA - VANCOUVER ISLAND - In the past year they and their salmon have experienced what global warming will throw at us in cycles of ever more extreme weather: excessive rain and wind in the winter and excessive drought and sunshine-induced high water temperatures in the summer. Take a logging road anywhere on the Island and you will find blown down forests and huge boulder run-off events that wiped out backroads, and even Highway 19 north of Sayward, creating moonscapes of rock and thousands of tons of logs. Weather events have many effects on salmon. Sockeye delay entry to rivers over 18 degrees C and they die from disease while waiting around. They die in freshwater at 20 degrees, too.

CROP FAILURE / FOOD SHORTAGES -
4/27/07 -
World wheat prices flared on Thursday on fears that dry weather from Europe to Australia will damage crops and hit already tight supplies at a time when their use in biofuels is also on the rise. Continued lack of rainfall in Europe and Australia, both big wheat growing regions, rattled markets. French prices have now risen by 15 percent this month. Australia, which can grow up to 25 million tonnes of wheat a year, faces another bad season - last year drought decimated its harvest with production barely exceeding 10 million tonnes. In Europe, a lack of rain across the main wheat growing regions from France to Ukraine has dented earlier optimism that harvests this summer would be good. Analysts estimate ethanol distillers will use 2.15 billion bushels of US corn, or 20 percent of the 2006 crop, in making the alternative fuel, and the total might reach 3.1 billion bushels for 2007 crop. World wheat stocks are at their LOWEST LEVEL IN 25 YEARS.

Thursday, April 26, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.
- Lee Iacocca

QUAKES -
World map of the quakes in the past 7 days.
Quake list.

Largest quakes yesterday -
4/25/07 -
6.2 VANUATU
5.1 VANUATU
5.6 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
5.1 KURIL ISLANDS
5.0 SOUTHERN IRAN
5.0 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE

4/26/07 -
INDIA - There is a possibility of a massive earthquake striking the Indo-Bhutan border in Assam in the near future, a scientist of the Geological Survey of India has said. Heavy plate movement in the Himalayan foothills, the reverse flow of hill water streams in Ultapani, and the creation of tectonic ponds at Toporjhana, Majbhandar and Magarbeel are significant indications of an earthquake. A team of GSI scientists have been conducting studies in the area since 2005, when there were the first indications of such a temblor. The GSI has alerted authorities in Kokrajhar district to stop the felling of trees and to ban constructions across the area as a precautionary measure. On Wednesday the scientist announced that a "quake with a magnitude of more than seven on the Richter scale could hit the area on the foothills of Bhutan in Assam's Kokrajhar district and it might extend north up to Kamrup disrict".

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
4/26/07 -
None.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
4/26/07 -
TEXAS-MEXICO - the tornado death toll has reached 10. At least 80 were injured and hundreds left homeless when it struck along the US-Mexico border yesterday and cut a six kilometre swath of damage. Seven people were killed when the storm ripped through Eagle Pass, Texas, and three people died in Piedras Negras, Mexico. In Mexico, rescue officials said the army was searching for survivors and victims. Wide sections of the stricken area have yet to be searched. "Hundreds of houses are damaged, 700 or 800 people are in shelters and we've begun looking for people who may be trapped in the rubble." Many of the people in Rosita Valley have little beyond their homes and belongings and often lack insurance. (photo)

INDIA - A cyclone wreaked havoc on several villages in West Khasi Hills and Ri Bhoi district last night. Over 100 houses and property worth several lakh rupees were destroyed when the cyclone lashed through villages in Umroi under Ri Bhoi district and Nongriangtang and Malangkona villages under West Khasi Hills district. About 33 houses were uprooted and razed to the ground in Riang Kang, Nongriangtang and Malangkona villages, while nearly 100 houses were destroyed in Umroi. More than 20 persons were injured in the storm.

IOWA - Mud and trees roared down upon Interstate 29 on Tuesday as heavy rain triggered a landslide on Sioux City's west side. No injuries were reported. The landslide ripped out a hillside at about 2 p.m., completely blocking the railroad tracks and the northbound lanes of I-29. No vehicles were driving through the spot when the mudslide happened. More rain is forecast for Wednesday, meaning more landslides could occur.

HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT/ CLIMATE CHANGE-
4/26/07 -
At a time when climate change impacts are accelerating, our ability to observe those impacts from space is deteriorating. Cuts in US government funding for Nasa programs will dramatically weaken scientists' capacity to monitor and understand the planet's climate. If present trends continue, by 2015 the number of U.S. Earth-observing satellite missions will be reduced by half, putting the scientific systems they support "at risk of collapse." Such a loss would severely hamper the ability of scientists to collect basic information about the Earth's climate system, to monitor changes - including those that directly affect human health, such as disease outbreaks and water contamination - and provide accurate weather forecasts. Programs involving measurements of temperature, ozone, ocean winds, water vapour, and solar radiation are among those expected to be curtailed. The substitution of more economical but less capable instruments on some missions will worsen forecasts of El Nino, hurricanes and coastal weather. Due to a series of cancelled or delayed missions, ageing satellites and instruments, and decline in funding for new projects, the nation's space-based observing programme is in disarray. A committee of more than 100 leading American scientists and policy-makers authored the NRC report. "To do the entire programme would cost the American public $2 per person per year." Yet none of the recommended new missions is slated for funding under President Bush's proposed 2008 budget. ""By 2012 we go to a 20-year low and Earth sciences goes in the tank."

GERMANY has already heated up by 0.9 degrees Celsius in the past century and could rise another 2 to 5 degrees by 2100. German meteorologists say that the country must start preparing for extreme weather that could cause numerous deaths due to global warming. Germany can expect heavy storms and intense heat waves. Germany experienced the warmest decade of the 20th century from 1990 to 1999 as well as seeing a 9-percent rise in precipitation. Farmers in particular will be forced to deal with the effects. The changing climate will also unleash greater risks for people's health, such as infectious diseases and skin cancer. As a result of the higher temperatures, Germany would be subject to more rain and less snow in winter. "German cities will increasingly become 'heat islands' and there will be a growing need for fresh air corridors into cities..We have to do all we can to ensure that the earth does not become uninhabitable."

CROP FAILURE / FOOD SHORTAGES -
4/26/07 -
Britain's "Noah's Ark" for plants has just collected its billionth seed in a race against time to save the world's plants from global warming wipe-out. Part of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, the bank already stores material from 18,000 species, some of which have become extinct in the wild. Seed banks are seen as an essential part of plans to curb the rapid loss of biodiversity in Britain and worldwide. By 2010, Kew plans to have amassed seeds from 30,000 species, representing 10% of the world's plants. "If policymakers are serious about funding adaptation to climate change, seed banks are a key part of that." Some seed will last for millennia, others for decades; these will be planted and germinated before their expiry date comes up, and the seed of their offspring collected and stored anew. "With threats not only from climate change but also deforestation, changes in land use and so on, seed-banking is the bare minimum."

AFRICA faces dire water shortages for between 75 and 250 million people in addition to crop shortages during the current century. The continent, already plagued by decades of desertification, faces even worse challenges as the areas suitable for growing, the rainy seasons and crop yields shrink. "This would further adversely affect food security and exacerbate malnutrition in the continent." Rising temperatures in Africa's large lakes - a major source of fish protein - could erode the fisheries.

CARIBBEAN - A new report says Caribbean food security, health and economic fortunes are under threat by global climate change. The implications of the findings are frightening. According to the report, in the last decade there has been an increase of stronger hurricanes; the seas in the region are becoming warmer and storms are becoming more intense; there have been changes in the annual levels of rainfall; salinisation of coastal zone waters; outbreaks of vector borne diseases such as dengue at unseasonal times; and migration of fish. The report urged action as procrastination could result in prolonged future drought; difficulties managing growing demands for depleting water resources; erosion of beaches due to rising sea levels and a decrease in agricultural output at the subsistence and commercial levels.

ARKANSAS - April’s RECORD-SETTING EARLY COLD SNAP and big freeze is taking an increasingly bigger chunk out of Southeast Arkansas’ agricultural production. Jefferson and Lincoln were among four counties added Tuesday to the disaster proclamation that now includes 52 of the state’s 75 counties. In Jefferson County, 30 percent or more of the wheat crop has been lost and corn and rice yields will be lessened. Soybeans may have been damaged too. 50% of the tomato crop there was feared destroyed and the remainder damaged. However, 80 percent of the tomatoes struck by the freezing temperatures “may be coming back.” The first crop may be a lower grade than normal and the tomatoes that are rebounding for a later yield won’t be ready until late in the season. The freezing temperatures earlier this month damaged crops across the state. “It is more severe than I anticipated. It’s much wider spread and much farther south than I thought.” Corn and wheat were particularly affected by the cold temperatures. “Both were caught in VERY UNUSUAL timing. We had warm weather in March and everything took off, then we had the freeze.” Before the cold snap, 70 percent of the state’s wheat crop was “rated as good to excellent.” The rating is now 14 percent at “good to excellent,” 22 percent very poor, 42 percent poor and 22 percent fair. Many farmers around the state have reported losing entire fields of corn and wheat. Farmers have also lost peaches, berries and grape crops in the freezing temperatures.

WATER SHORTAGE -
4/26/07 -
GEORGIA - The state of the water situation is getting worse. Georgia's climatologist announced it's gone from severe to extreme in nearly 24 southern Georgia counties. "The maximum recorded was 14 in 1955 so we're SETTING A RECORD today." Temperatures are on the rise across the state while water flow is reduced. Water experts and climatologists are worried. They hope things don't dry up even more. The Flint River is now only at 25 percent of normal flow. Soon, farmers will begin irrigating their cotton and peanut crops which could cause even more problems. "The lower Flint Basin has about 900,000 irrigated acres. That's a lot of demand on the resource." It's a resource that's been used overtime lately to fight raging wildfires in Southeast Georgia. "Those streams, a lot of them, are essentially dry. Just a fraction, one percentile of what normal flow is this time of year." The aquifers are still in good shape and although the Flint is low, it still has a good flow. If the drought gets worse though, endangered aquatic life in the streams could be in jeopardy.

AUSTRALIA - Drought towns could be forcibly evacuated - Residents of two drought-stricken towns on the Darling Downs could be forced by the government to move as water becomes increasingly scarce. State bureaucrats have reportedly considered moving residents out of Leybum, population 200, and Killarney, population 1500. Water is currently being carted to Killarney, located at the source of the Murray Darling river system, at the cost of $8000 per week. "The reality is with no water, you can't live anywhere for long."

THE NETHERLANDS - Much of the Netherlands has not had rain in 33 days. That is an exceptionally long period, meteorological institute KNMI said on Tuesday. Long dry periods like this have only occurred four times in the past. Though even those did not last 33 days. There was a smattering of rain in De Bilt on 3 April, which keeps the past period from qualifying as a drought. The dry weather is starting to cause problems for crops and various animal species. At least nine species of butterfly are suffering because of the dry warm weather. "Caterpillars need leaves, leaves need water. A lot of water has evaporated because of the warm period." "Summer hasn't even started yet and the water shortage will become even greater then."

CALIFORNIA - The East Bay Municipal Utility District's board of directors declared a water shortage Tuesday and asked its 1.3 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties to voluntarily reduce their water use until further notice. The conservation plan calls for residential customers to only irrigate three days a week, never on consecutive days, and only at night or early morning before dawn. Large irrigators are being asked to reduce their water consumption by 25 percent. The water district said it's urging greater conservation because the winter of 2007 has been ONE OF THE DRIEST IN ITS 84-YEAR HISTORY, yielding less snow and rain than necessary to fill its water supply reservoirs next fall. There's less than half of the normal runoff this year. District officials say that if the winter of 2008 also is dry, it could lead to further dwindling of water supplies and create a drought scenario that would require mandatory rationing.

ODD ANIMAL BEHAVIOR -
4/26/07 -
Robins in urban areas are singing at night because it is too noisy during the day, researchers suggest. Scientists say there is a link between an area's daytime noise levels and the number of birds singing at night. Until now, light pollution had been blamed because it was thought that street lights tricked the birds into thinking it was still daytime. It was thought to prevent the birds from roosting, leading to them remaining active through the hours of darkness. "Night-time light had a small effect, but very much smaller than the impact of noise levels." This led the team to conclude that it was an active decision by the birds to sing at night rather than passively responding to light levels. "The birds appear to be singing at night to avoid competition with high noise levels caused by our cities during the day. Noise levels were 10 times higher in places where birds were singing at night."

ARCTIC - Inuit elders in Nunavut's western Hudson Bay area say more polar bears need to be hunted, as their populations are rising — contrary to scientific data that suggests a decrease. Elders and hunters from the territory's Kivalliq region say that they and others have noticed more encounters with polar bears in recent years. The government is concerned that polar bear population is declining, citing data from the Canadian Wildlife Service indicating the number has dropped below 1,000 bears, as their health and survival are being threatened by shrinking ice. An Inuit elder from southern Nunavut says that the Inuit don't agree the bear population is decreasing, and they dosn't want to see anyone get killed because there are more bears than people may think. Many elders gave examples of frightening encounters with the bears — encounters they say are happening more often.

DISEASE THREATS -

4/26/07 -
BIRD FLU - In a paper in the May issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, an international team of researchers report the first ever large-scale sequencing of western genomes of the deadly avian influenza virus, H5N1. Their study of 36 genomes of the virus collected from wild birds in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Vietnam confirms not only that the virus has very recently spread west from Asia, but that two of the new western strains have already independently combined, or “reassorted,” to create a new strain. Several samples also contained the mutation associated with the form of the “bird flu” that caused several human deaths in 2006. "Our study shows that the virus is spreading west, and that there have been three separate introductions of H5N1 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.”

Wednesday, April 25, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Keep your faith in all beautiful things; in the sun when it is hidden, in the spring when it is gone.
- Roy R. Gilson

QUAKES -
World map of the quakes in the past 7 days.
Quake list.

Largest quakes yesterday -
4/24/07 -
5.2 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5.4 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.2 COLOMBIA

Cluster -
This morning -
4.8 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5.0 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
Yesterday -
4.8 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5.2 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.7 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.9 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.8 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.8 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.9 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.7 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.7 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE

4/25/07 -
CALIFORNIA - A magnitude 4.0 earthuqake was recorded Tuesday afternoon in The Geysers area, a remote section of Lake County. The strongest quake the USGS ever recorded in The Geysers area was a magnitude 4.6 on May 29, 1987. The second-strongest quake was a magnitude 4.5 that registered on Oct. 20, 2006. "There are usually many shallow and low magnitude quakes at The Geysers, but there have been several more quakes in the 3-4 magnitude range in about the last five years." If it were not for efforts to generate electricity out of the geothermal field at The Geysers, the region would barely be seismically active at all. Power plants there generate electricity from the heat of steam by drilling into the ground and extracting hot water. This process creates seismic activity because when the water is removed it causes the rocks underground to constantly compress and contract. "In order to get big a earthquake, you need a big fault. Here all we see are small cracks."

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
None.

PHILIPPINES - the navy began preparations Tuesday for new typhoons which are expected to hit the country later this year. More than 1,000 people were killed by a series of super typhoons which hit the Philippines from October till December last year. A mudslide caused by storm also buried alive some 1,000 people in southern Leyte, southeastern Philippines one year ago. Disaster readiness initiatives will be taken at various naval forces nationwide to ensure that they will be ready to respond and provide the necessary assistance to civilians once natural disasters strike.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
4/25/07 -
CHINA - Sudden torrential downpours in China's southeastern province of Guangdong destroyed more than 1300 houses and forced 20,000 people from their homes. The rainfall and thunderstorms also delayed flights to the province's largest airport and destroyed thousands of hectares of crops. Nearly 20cm of rain were recorded in some areas over Monday and Tuesday. A recent national assessment of the likely impact of global warming said the country's south could face more flooding as temperatures rise. Last year, China's warmest since 1951, the country was struck by an unusually high number of natural disasters, including a series of storms and typhoons. Every year, 400 million people and 50 million ha of farmland are affected by natural disasters in China, with economic losses reaching 1-3 per cent of gross domestic product.

VIETNAM - A fierce cyclone and heavy rain cut a swath through a southern Vietnamese province Monday afternoon, killing a young girl and destroying 500 houses. Thousands of people were stranded after losing their homes. (photo)

UGANDA - Residents of Wanale sub-county have appealed to the Ministry of Relief and Disaster Preparedness to assist 10 families whose homes and crops were destroyed by a landslide on April 14. The landslide also blocked the road to the upper side of the sub-county. The blocked road had cut off more than 15,000 people and hampered the transportation of fresh food to Mbale town and other parts of the country. “Health services have also suffered as patients referred to Mbale Hospital cannot be transported.” A bulldozer deployed last week to clear the road had by Sunday failed to push away a huge boulder. An explosive is needed to blow away the massive stone. The soil from the cliff that overlooked Mbale town also rolled down and affected villages in Bungokho South constituency. Travelers on the Mbale-Wanale road are now forced to walk along the stiff Bugayeme cliff to reach their destinations.

PUERTO RICO, VIRGIN ISLANDS - Torrential rains provoked flooding in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, blocking roads and forcing schools to close on Tuesday. Almost eight inches of rain have fallen since Friday in parts of Puerto Rico. Days of near-constant rainfall damaged dozens of homes around the island and caused minor flooding. In the mountainous British Virgin Islands, rain triggered landslides that blocked several roads in Tortola, the main island.

AUSTRALIA - Wollongong has received its heaviest rainfall in more than six months. In the 30 hours to 3pm yesterday, 180mm - or more than seven inches - of rain fell at Bellambi. A total of 112mm was recorded at the University of Wollongong during the same period. Wollongong's average rainfall for the entire month of April is 127.1mm. The rain caused traffic chaos on Illawarra roads, with police critical of drivers who failed to reduce their speed and take greater care behind the wheel.

TEXAS - Six people were killed when severe storms spawned a tornado that struck a small community near Mexico yesterday. The tornado hit unincorporated areas of Maverick County known as Loma Linda and Chula Vista. The six fatalities were reportedly in one residence. An unknown number of people were also injured.

U.S. - The National Weather Service office reported flash flooding throughout Northwest Kansas, Southwest Nebraska and Northeast Colorado, with hail up to an inch in diameter and tornadoes reported by law enforcement personnnel.

An active tornado season is in store for parts of the US, according to storm chasers at Texas-based Tempest Tours, Inc., a company known for successfully forecasting and intercepting dozens of tornadoes since 2001. "The latest analysis indicates a continuation of an active jet stream across the south central U.S. We believe the southern branch of the jet will continue to send storm systems from the Southern Plains into the lower and middle Mississippi Valley region for the next several weeks. The systems look like ripples or valleys moving down a rope. As the air over this region continues to warm and moisten, each new system will have a greater chance of producing severe weather." "The lifeblood of severe weather systems and tornadic storms is water vapor and heat energy, and the most significant severe weather outbreaks on the Plains are associated with warm and humid air that has surged northward off of the Gulf (of Mexico) waters. Thus, it appears straightforward that global warming would favor a corresponding increase in severe weather and tornadoes on the Great Plains."

SNOW / COLD -
4/25/07 -
RUSSIA - Vehicles are not being allowed to travel on the Transcaucasian Highway, connecting Russia with Transcaucasia, because of an avalanche danger. “Snowfalls have continued for already 24 hours in the mountainous part of the Alagir Gorge, and the snow cover is over 70 centimetres high, which increases the danger of avalanches. So far visibility is zero in the mountains, and we have no information whether avalanches have hit the highway. However, our specialists are already moving on the road to make sure that nobody stayed on the highway at night.”

HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT/ CLIMATE CHANGE-
4/25/07 -
ITALY - the government is meeting to discuss emergency measures to counter the effects of an impending drought this summer. Weeks of dry weather have followed an unusually mild winter, and with a hot season predicted, water levels in the country's reservoirs and rivers are likely to continue to plummet. The shortages could affect the production of Italian staples like parmesan and prosciutto, as crops for feeding cattle wilt and fail. For homeowners, this could mean cut-backs and even electricity blackouts.

MASSACHUSETTS - Despite torrential rains a week ago, the ground has dried out enough that RECORD TEMPERATURES, low humidity and strong winds combined to promote a rash of brush fires in the region. The state Bureau of Forest Fire Control issued a "red flag warning" for brush fires in Western Massachusetts. At Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, the temperature reached 87 degrees in mid-afternoon, beating the previous record for the date, 83 degrees, set in 1996. Combined with humidity that has been between 10 and 20 percent for the last several days, and winds that frequently gusted to 20 mph yesterday, any spark or flame in the outdoors has the potential to start a brush fire.

CANADA - A one-day temperature spike had Maritimers sweating Monday, but weather experts credit a system of tropical air rather than a sign of disastrous climate change. Each Maritime capital BROKE ITS TEMPERATURE RECORD on Monday by a significant margin. Charlottetown, Halifax and Fredericton all experienced temperatures in the mid- to high-20s, shattering some long-standing records. Fredericton's 28.1 C broke the 1984 record of 22.6 C; Charlottetown's 21.7 C bested the 1956 high of 15.6 C; and 23.7 C in Halifax topped the old mark of 18.3 C, a record set in 1913. Other Maritime areas saw record temperature jumps Monday. Czernkovich noted Miscou Island, N.B., which was 21.6 C, had a previous record high of 13.9 C.

The earth is approaching a collision with climate change that can‘t be avoided, but that doesn‘t mean we shouldn‘t try to make the hit as soft as possible, says a leading global environmentalist. “I think if you‘re driving an automobile on the freeway, and you realize you‘re going to have a collision or hit something, to not put on the brakes would seem to be madness. Because the chances are if you can slow the impact, you‘ll be less damaged." Scientists are worried about climate change because they‘ve seen what it can do. “(We) know damn well what climate change does, it wreaks havoc on this planet. Thus far, no species, really, has escaped the consequences of climate change - including our own." Two million years ago, climate change forced our ancestors to use tools, and to start bonding over the need to share food. Ten thousand years ago, we were forced to begin growing crops and breeding animals. “This climate change that has beset us - whether we caused it or not - is irrelevant. It‘s going to have a hell of an impact. We need to start figuring out how we‘re going to cook with it and what it‘s going to mean." Tropical regions such as Africa may be the first affected, while cooler regions such as Canada will be alright for longer. Within a decade Mount Kilimanjaro will have no ice for the first time in 10,000 years. Rising sea levels could put almost one billion people out of their homes in 50 years. “What is Canada and the United States and Britain and Europe going to do about a refugee population of a billion people? Who‘s going to feed them? What‘s going to happen to security? These are real issues."

DISEASE THREATS -

4/25/07 -
RECALLS & ALERTS:
-RECALLED - ResMed announced a worldwide recall of approximately 300,000 of its early production S8 flow generators used for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. In S8 devices manufactured between July 2004 and May 15, 2006, there is a remote potential for a short circuit in the power supply connector.
-RECALLED - LiveSmart Weight Management Chicken and Brown Rice Dog Food, due to rice protein concentrate likely contaminated with Melamine.

Some of the melamine contaminated pet food was sent as feed to hog farms in California, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and possibly Ohio. Urine of some of the hogs tested positive for melamine, according to the FDA. Officials said they do not know whether any hogs had entered the human food supply but were still investigating. "Food-borne illnesses and pet food contamination demonstrate serious flaws in our food safety net. With more and more of our food, fruits and vegetables being imported, there appears to be less and less government inspection or oversight."

Bird flu has largely flown off the radar of the Western world, but people are still dying from it nearly every week in Indonesia. Since the first case was reported two years ago, government officials have reported 74 deaths from the H5N1 strain in Indonesia - more than a third of the world's total. Indonesia has refused to share its samples of bird flu virus with the World Health Organization since January. Jakarta fears a vaccine produced from its specimens would be out of reach for its own citizens - too expensive and controlled by wealthy nations. Some global health officials have accused Indonesia of holding the virus hostage and keeping experts from monitoring whether the bug is mutating into a dangerous form that could potentially spark the next pandemic that kills millions.

As barbecue season gets underway, a new study suggests a class of toxic chemicals released by grilling, broiling and frying meat may increase the risk for life-threatening diseases.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers

QUAKES -
World map of the quakes in the past 7 days.
Quake list.

NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE Quakes this morning -
4.9 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.7 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.8 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.9 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.7 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.7 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
Yesterday -
4.7 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.7 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
4.8 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE

Largest quakes yesterday -
4/23/07 -
5.1 VANUATU
5.2 BANDA SEA

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
NONE.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
INDIA - A forty-five-year-old woman was feared to have been washed away in the gushing waters of a drain in Ulsoor following heavy rain in Bangalore this past Saturday. Torrential rain left a trail of havoc across the City inundating several houses and apartments and uprooting over a dozen trees and electricity poles. There has been heavy damage to both public and private property. Hundreds of houses in the low-lying areas have been flooded. Thundershowers are expected to continue for a few more days. (photos)

SPAIN - A landslide of 150,000 cubic metres of earth has destroyed part of the municipal sports stadium in the town of Macael. The slide began at 9 o’clock on Saturday evening, as the nearby hillside began to give way, and by late Monday afternoon had spread to affect 20 metres of an adjacent industrial estate: the foundations of one company’s office area were left uncovered, 100 metres of the southern spectator stand in the stadium itself were affected, with the earth also spreading onto the athletics track which encircles the football field. The Mayor said he believed the soaked clay soil of the hillside gave way due to the past month of rainfall.

SNOW / COLD -
CANADA - Twenty-one ships carrying commercial seal hunters have been rescued by the Coast Guard from crushing ice off the coast of Canada's eastern Newfoundland province, but most of the fleet remains adrift or trapped after shifting winds and two storms stranded them in a massive ice pack offshore. There are still 43 boats trapped in the ice. About 35 ships managed to wiggle free themselves, but they remain adrift in the Atlantic, waiting on the edges for an ice-free route to open up to return to port.

HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT/ CLIMATE CHANGE-
Archaeologists are uncovering a huge prehistoric "lost country" hidden below the North Sea. This lost landscape, where hunter gatherer communities once lived, was swallowed by rising water levels at the end of the last ice age. This large plain disappeared below the water more than 8,000 years ago. It serves as a warning for the scale of impact that climate change can cause. Human communities would have lost their homelands as the rising water began to encroach upon the wide, low-lying plains. As the temperature rose and glaciers retreated and water levels rose, the inhabitants would have been pushed off their hunting grounds and forced towards higher land - including to what is now modern-day Britain. "In 10,000 BC hunter gatherers were living on the land in the middle of the North Sea. By 6,000 BC, Britain was an island. The area we have mapped was wiped out in the space of 4,000 years." "At times this change would have been insidious and slow - but at times it could have been terrifyingly fast. It would have been very traumatic for these people."

GUYANA - A disastrous impending drought is expected to soon be upon them. On their low-lying agricultural bread-basket coastland a drought of the scale implied is a fairly RARE occurrence. Their weather recently has been doing at least one strange thing. Miles from the low-lying coastal area, flood conditions at Lethem were such that some citizens were forced to leave their homes - this was thought to be a quite unlikely happening because it is an upland area. Those who feel disi