Friday, June 29, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. Then quit. There's no use being a darn fool about it.
W.C. Fields

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/28/07 -
5.2 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.0 SULAWESI, INDONESIA
5.1 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.0 KURIL ISLANDS
5.8 SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS
5.7 COQUIMBO, CHILE
5.1 CENTRAL PERU
5.2 NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL PERU
5.6 NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL PERU
6.7 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.

TSUNAMI / FREAK WAVES / ABNORMAL TIDES -
AUSTRALIA - Efforts were underway to evacuate hundreds of residents as a king tide threatens to further swamp a flooded town on Victoria's southeast coast. "With the expected high tide and the volume of flood waters running down into the Gippsland Lakes area, we believe it's prudent for them to leave now while they are able to in safety, rather than in the middle of the night when it will be much more dangerous and difficult." While most rivers swollen in recent rains had peaked and begun to recede, the waters now draining into the Gippsland Lakes region would be met by the expected high tide tonight. "In effect, the high tide is going to hold these waters in. They will have no chance to be released into the ocean and this could seriously affect a number of properties over a substantial area and potentially exacerbate the flooding situation."

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Cyclone 04B was 214 nmi SW of Calcutta, India.

INDIA - tens of thousands of people are fleeing an approaching storm. The monsoon season has brought storms and floods to much of South Asia, killing more than 500 people in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan over the past week. Hardest-hit has been Pakistan. Rescue workers in the country are struggling to reach communities cut off by floods affecting 900,000 people.
PAKISTAN - Victims of monsoon floods in southwest Pakistan rioted today, protesting the slow arrival of meagre aid to their villages. The protests come after Cyclone Yemyin dumped torrential rains in the area on Tuesday, causing widespread flooding. Police attempted to contain the crowd of several thousand in Turbat with tear gas and shots fired into the air, but with little effect. "We have been saved from the flood, but we may die of starvation." Protesters said they had waded through chest-deep water from outlying areas to voice their anger about the shortage of relief aid. The government said the official death toll in Baluchistan province was 14, with more than 24 missing. Local media reported much higher numbers. "Every family is looking for one or two members. They are all missing." Twenty people died in flash floods Thursday in the northwestern Khyber Agency tribal region. (photo)
AFGHANISTAN - this week's storm over the Gulf of Oman was an "absolute monster." "This storm is an anomaly in that it hit us. Much like how (hurricane) Juan hit Halifax, how the tornadoes in Edmonton hit in '87. On a climatological scale, these things don't happen - these areas aren't prone to getting hit." The storm swirled up on Tuesday, unleashing wind and rain throughout Afghanistan over three days, including a three-hour crackling thunderstorm that at times was hard to discern from the roar of military aircraft. The usual rainfall this time of year for southern Afghanistan is zero. By late Thursday night, 40 millimetres had fallen. In parts of Afghanistan, the impact of the storm was severe; Afghan National Police and coalition soldiers rescued 42 people Wednesday who were trapped on rocks in the province of Kapisa, in the eastern part of the country. Further east, in Pakistan, the provincial relief commissioner estimated that some 200,000 houses were destroyed or damaged. More than 800,000 people have been affected by floods from heavy rains and overflowing rivers and dams. In Kandahar City on Thursday morning, the storm cut off power and phone access for thousands of people, bogging down side streets and main arteries throughout the city. Farmers especially were worried about the UNUSUAL weather. One grape farmer mocked a westerner who was enjoying the respite from the heat, saying the rain would certainly ruin what had looked to be a bumper crop this season. The region is entering the season known as the Wind of 120 Days, an arid blast of air that sweeps over from Iran, and unstopped by the vast desert of southern Afghanistan, rips across the country with gale-force strength.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
BRITAIN - More than 3500 people have been rescued from this week's deadly floods by emergency services in Britain's biggest-ever peacetime rescue effort. Thousands more have been evacuated to safe areas after flooding in Sheffield and large areas of northern England and the Midlands. But forecasters are predicting more heavy rain in some of the worst-affected areas over the weekend. The death toll rose to five after Lincolnshire police divers searching for a missing 60-year-old man recovered a body from a canal. The Government had underestimated the scale of the flooding. “We have witnessed the biggest rescue effort in peacetime Britain by our emergency services and it's not over yet. We had a whole month's worth in a few hours in many places. It's the sort of event we would only expect to see perhaps one in 150 years. No amount of flood preparation can withstand these very extreme weather events.”

AUSTRALIA - Gippsland in south-east Victoria is on major flood alert after some of the HEAVIEST RAIN IN YEARS. Mount Wellington in the Snowy Mountains has recorded 312 millimetres in the past 24 hours and it is still raining. Further south in the Licola Valley, the Macalister river has flooded and cut off the town. The worst fires in decades, closely followed by less severe floods, swept through the valley just six months ago.

MALAYSIA - Traditionally, it is now the time for the start of the drought and haze season in Sarawak. But instead, it rains almost everyday here and in some other parts of the state. This is abnormal and the weather now has become very unpredictable. "Because of the El Nino, the weather pattern has changed. We [normally] expect the rains to be heavier towards the end of the year." Unpredicted heavy rains and thunderstorms have caused flash floods in Miri and other towns.

HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-
GREECE - Greek firefighters are battling a major forest fire which has threatened the suburbs of the capital, Athens. The strong winds fuelling the fire have dropped and firefighters have so far prevented the blaze from reaching the suburbs. The blaze, on the slopes of Mount Parnitha, is being contained, officials say, but a huge plume of black smoke is towering over the city. Electricity pylons, exploding after a RECORD HEATWAVE, have sparked some of the fires, but arson is also suspected. The fire near Athens is one of more than 100 blazes which have broken out across Greece in the last few days. On Thursday, two volunteer firefighters were trapped by flames and died of smoke inhalation in the centre of the country. Temperatures have now dropped below 40C, after peaking at 46C earlier in the week, but forecasters say another heatwave is expected next week.

INDONESIA - Scientists agree climate change has already begun unsettling the arrival of seasons and causing unseasonal fluctuations in temperatures, which are key to rice field cycles, agriculture and biodiversity. Climate change is causing the arrival of seasons to be more erratic and tends to produce shorter wet seasons with more rainfall and longer dry seasons with prolonged water shortages. As a result, Indonesia has much to lose given that rice is its staple food and most Indonesians work in the agricultural sector. Adaptation measures would include drawing up a dynamic plantation calendar for each plant and natural condition, creating new varieties of plants resilient to barren weather and implementing efficient irrigation methods and water conservation. New varieties of rice, corn and potato should have shorter harvesting lives to match shorter wet seasons. Global warming has already damaged Indonesia's rice-harvest cycle, leading to decreased production capabilities. "In Java, the cycle is 1.6 (harvests) per year compared to 2 some years before, meaning we no longer harvest rice twice a year. Outside Java, the cycle is even lower at 1.1 times." It is expected fish populations in Indonesia will move southward to Australia due to sea current changes. Global warming is destroying biodiversity in the world's seas, killing animals and plants and triggering the outbreak of viruses and bacteria that pose global threats to human health.

CANADA - Starving mountain pine beetles in central British Columbia have moved into spruce trees as the supply of lodgepole pines disappears. Although spruce are generally not nutritionally or chemically suitable for the beetles to reproduce, they still do enough damage to kill the trees. Last year, more than 9.2 million hectares of B.C. and Alberta forest were in an advanced stage of attack from the tiny, but voracious beetles. As they seek new food sources they are moving east. The worry is that the beetles will soon hit the mother lode of pine trees in the boreal forest. If the beetles jump from the lodgepole pine to the boreal forest's jack pine, an infestation could wipe out billions of trees all the way to the East Coast.

ANTARCTICA - An ice sheet that is the world's largest, with enough water to raise global sea levels by 61 metres, is relatively stable and poses no immediate threat, according to new research. "The East Antarctic ice sheet is the largest and the coldest, and is going to be the last to respond in any great way to global warming. Our research suggests changes in sea levels due to global warming will not be caused by changes in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet yet."

HEALTH THREATS -
RECALLS & ALERTS

A popular snack food sold nationwide is being recalled because of concerns about contamination. All lots and sizes of Veggie Booty Snack Food are being recalled, the company said, following a report of 51 cases of salmonella poisoning.

The US has added farm-raised fish and shrimp to a growing list of Chinese products deemed unsafe for US consumers. The US Food and Drug Administration said it would block the import of farmed Chinese seafood until importers could prove the shipments were free of unsafe contaminants. Broad import control was imposed after regulators repeatedly found seafood shipments contaminated with antimicrobial agents that are not approved for use in the US. It affected all farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace (related to carp), and eel from China. China is the third largest exporter of seafood to the US, which imports about 80 percent of its seafood. The move comes just days after politicians urged a recall of up to 450,000 Chinese tires because of safety defects and weeks after thousands of cats and dogs died because of tainted Chinese pet food. Dangerous toys, fake drugs, toxin-coated cosmetics, illicit pesticide-laden mushrooms, errant fireworks, tainted toothpaste and other Chinese products have led to recalls and bans and potentially more stringent import and food safety laws. "I think we have reached a point unfortunately where 'made in China' is now a warning label in the United States."

Thursday, June 28, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Mahatma Gandhi

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/27/07 -
None 5.0 or larger.

CHINA - On the morning of June 3, a violent earthquake struck the Pu'er region of southwestern China. The quake measured 6.4 on the Richter scale and over 90 percent of all homes and buildings in the region were badly damaged or destroyed in an instant. To date, 44,000 families have lost their homes and a further 58,000 will need to carry out major repairs before returning home. Amazingly with an earthquake of this magnitude, only three people were killed and a further 28 seriously injured. Since that first quake there have been over 30,000 recorded aftershocks, 30 of those scoring above 3 on the Richter scale. With so much seismic activity no one is taking any chances and most of the 190,000 local residents are choosing to sleep in tents despite heavy rainfall. The region is bracing for difficult times ahead. For a population whose annual average income is $80 dollars the economic loss will be devastating. Most of the buildings that "survived" the first quake look ominously unstable with huge cracks running through walls and windows smashed. The streets are strewn with rubble like a scene from a war zone and everyone is nervously waiting for the next strike. This is a place where insurance doesn't exist and many people are still coming to terms with the fact that years of hard work and investment were wiped out in a matter of seconds. Once the earth finally stops shaking, people will start rebuilding their homes. But where the bulk of the revenue for rebuilding will come from still isn't known and there is a long road ahead for the victims. (photos)

VOLCANOES -
HAWAII - On the Big Island, all is quiet at Kilauea volcano as officials try to determine if its safe for the park to re-open Chain of Craters road. After the recent activity, firefighters were examining the area near the lava breakout on the Napau trail. Most of the vegetation in the forest was scorched and fire crews found lava spatter plastered to vegetation more than 100 feet from the breakout.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
No storms.

INDIA, PAKISTAN - A new cyclone is building up in the Bay of Bengal south of Calcutta in India that could cause more flooding in coastal areas of Pakistan. It will enter the Arabian Sea while crossing the western coast of Bombay. It might cause destruction and flooding in coastal areas of Pakistan depending upon how intense it is once it enters the Arabian Sea. Low air pressure is likely to cause heavy rainfall in India.

PAKISTAN - Rescuers in southern Pakistan are battling to reach tens of thousands of people stranded after cyclone Yemyin struck the country's Arabian Sea coastline. Many people are clinging to trees and rooftops to escape floods. Bad weather and damaged roads, bridges and phone links, are slowing relief efforts. Thousands of people evacuated in the coastal areas of Ormara, Pasni, Gwadar and Jewani have lost their homes after the cyclone struck the coast of Balochistan province, west of Karachi. At least 20 people are reported killed. Out to sea, Pakistan's navy has rescued more than 100 fishermen from the storm. Residents of the port of Gwadar and of more than 100 villages in the districts of Kech inland have been evacuated. Hundreds of motorists were stranded on the coastal highway which links southern Balochistan with the rest of Pakistan. Parts of the road were washed away by the cyclone. The town of Turbat is amongst the worst hit. A number of people are clinging to the roof of a mosque - the navy's attempts to rescue them have so far failed. At least one small dam near the town of Pasni has broken, inundating dozens of villages. The floods are also threatening the Mirani dam in Kech district. One unconfirmed report said water from the dam had overflown into the area and drowned 12 people. "The situation is out of our hands, it's out of control. The entire town has been inundated and people have taken refuge in tall buildings and trees."

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
BRITAIN - Hundreds of families are still unable to return to their homes as floods continue to affect parts of England. Flood water is continuing to rise in some areas, although forecasters do not expect a repeat of Monday's deluge and the risk of a breach in a dam wall that could flood villages in Yorkshire has been "significantly reduced". The floods have been most severe in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the Midlands. The Environment Agency still has several severe flood warnings in place, and forecasters are warning that flood-hit areas could be hit by more rain at the weekend. The polar jet which steers their weather system is stuck further south than is usual for this time of year, so they are more open to low pressures. Last week saw intense thunderstorms, and on Monday a low-pressure weather front sat above the same parts of the country. As a result, a month's worth of rain fell in 24 hours in some parts of the country. Saturday and Sunday some two inches of rain could fall over some places which have already seen heavy rainfall.
Flood-battered Britain is on alert for further chaos and loss of life this weekend as fears grow that more heavy downpours are on the way. Forecasters say an “organised band of persistent showers” is set to sweep the country on Friday and Saturday. The worst of the deluge, expected on Saturday morning, could cause flooding on a national scale, with heavy rainfall likely to hit “almost anywhere”. Experts warned that many waterlogged areas were seriously at risk, as the water now has nowhere to go. There are already 245 areas across the country considered to be at risk of flooding after weeks of rain culminated in Monday’s unseasonal downpour. At 27 of the sites the threat is so severe that experts say there is an imminent danger to life and property. Forecasters called the FREAK conditions an “UNPRECEDENTED WEATHER EVENT” that would continue to get worse. “People around here can’t remember anything like this. The sheer amount of rain is unprecedented and it has never been on such a widespread scale. No one knows where the next rain will hit. We are monitoring river levels on a 24-hour basis." Eight regions across England and Wales – the North-east, Cheshire, Herefordshire, Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire, Yorkshire, Flintshire and the Isle of Man – have already had their WETTEST JUNE ON RECORD. “In each of the last 14 days there has been somewhere in the UK that has recorded more than one inch of rain.”
The WORST DELUGE SINCE RECORDS BEGAN burst the banks of the rivers Don and Sheaf, sending millions of gallons of water into homes in Sheffield.
"While it's not unusual to get isolated flash floods in the summer, it's UNPRECEDENTED to experience so many serious flooding incidents at the same time."

IRELAND - Kilkenny is experiencing the WETTEST JUNE EVER RECORDED ANYWHERE IN IRELAND. Kilkenny has seen 14.4 cms of rain so far this month compared with just 2.7cm for the same month last year and easily beating the previous high of 11.8cm in June of 1998. And unfortunately it looks as if the rain is set to continue. "It is certainly much wetter than normal. Already our weather station in Kilkenny has had its wettest June ever, and it looks like a number of others will be breaking their own records before the month is over."

CHINA - Lightning strikes have killed another six people in east China and pushed the death toll from a five-day flurry of electrical storms to 43, with more thunderstorms expected.

SOLOMON ISLANDS - Heavy flooding has forced more than 3000 people to flee to higher ground in the northeast of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Some 80 villages have been affected after torrential rains caused two rivers to break their banks, with waters rising up to 10m in some places. No casualties have been reported but local elders have called for authorities to arrange for relief supplies to be sent after flood waters destroyed food gardens.

AUSTRALIA - flood victims have had to be plucked to safety by helicopter and boats and an entire town is being evacuated as the levels of swollen rivers continue to rise in Gippsland. At least 30 people are being rescued at Newry, north-west of Maffra, with raging flood waters swirling into homes. The whole town is now being evacuated. (links to flood video)

TEXAS - the lastest series of UNUSUAL summertime storms dumped up to 18 inches of rain on Central Texas, sending floodwaters through several Hill Country towns Wednesday and leaving dozens of people on rooftops, cars and in trees. No fatalities were immediately reported in the latest series of summertime Texas storms, which have killed at least 11 people in the past week and a half. The downpour and winds were so treacherous early Wednesday that helicopters were forced to abruptly halt efforts to rescue people from rooftops. The flooding washed out three bridges and also tore the back wall off the funeral home in Marble Falls, about 40 miles northwest of Austin. There were 32 high-water rescues there. About two-thirds of the city was without water because of damage to the water treatment plant. Whitman Branch creek in Marble Falls, typically 2-3 feet wide, stretched at least 100 feet across. Down the creek, at least four Frito Lay trucks that had been loaded to make daily deliveries had washed away, spilling chips along the creek. Storm runoff is making its way to Central Texas lakes, causing major flooding in some areas. Rains drenched North Texas as well, creating flooding along some creeks and rivers and forcing the evacuation of at least 50 homes in a subdivision near Lake Granbury about 60 miles southwest of Dallas. There, about 30 homes were destroyed. About 25 people were rescued from the water, trees and rooftops. Eight people were injured when nearly 100 mph winds hit the Permian Basin in West Texas late Tuesday. A 320-foot radio tower collapsed onto the Agape Community Church in Seminole and crushed a bus. It's the WETTEST YEAR ON RECORD in Austin, where more than 30 inches of rain has fallen since January, and Dallas-Fort Worth, Waco and Wichita Falls have also received near record amounts. This much rain is VERY UNUSUAL for the end of June, going into July.

OKLAHOMA - Wednesday was the 15th consecutive day of rain in Oklahoma City, BREAKING A RECORD SET IN JUNE 1937. Heavy rain flooded homes and roadways.

CANADA - While it is tornado season in Canada, weather experts say the sudden rash of twisters touching down in the West is HIGHLY UNUSUAL. A funnel cloud was spotted Monday over Richmond, British Columbia, while another tornado east of Calgary destroyed a barn and downed a power line that electrocuted a horse in a barbed-wire pen on the property. On the weekend, residents in Manitoba were terrorized by a series of twisters that ripped through the province in less than 24 hours. "The fact that you've got almost a year's worth of tornadoes in less than 24 hours is UNUSUAL in that extent." The province typically experiences about nine tornadoes a year. Conditions need to be exact for a storm to become tornadic, much "like baking a soufflé." "A lot of things have to come together in the right amounts with the right timing." The Director of the NOAA Storm Prediction Centre in Okalahoma said abnormalities in the tornado season have also occured south of the border. "Where we're at is a VERY STRANGE year. What's happened is the cool season was well above normal. In March, we really had an extensive number of tornadoes. We had almost three times as many as normal." Canadian weather experts noticed there is a correlation between Prairie crops and the amount of tornadoes in the area. "When the wheat is growing in Alberta and Manitoba, the actual vegetation brings moisture into the air and then when you come out and chop the wheat, the tornado season is over. They (weather experts) have noticed a very pronounced relationship between when the harvest is finished out in the western provinces is when the tornado season ends." (photos)

SNOW / COLD -
SOUTH AFRICA - UNUSUAL heavy snowfall fell in Johannesburg for the FIRST TIME IN A QUARTER OF A CENTURY and was blamed for the death of a homeless man, and for delayed airline flights. While it snows frequently during the winter in more southerly mountainous regions of the country, the white wonderland that Johannesburg residents woke up to was a once-in-several-years occurrence. Semi-tropical gardens were topped with a powdery dusting of white crystals as residents reminisced about the last 'big snow,' dating back to the 1980s. The cold weather snap is expected to continue through today.
The last time it snowed in Johannesburg was on September 10, 1981. On top of the snow this week, a highly unseasonal and thunderous hailstorm had lashed the area on Tuesday night.

HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-
EUROPE - Dozens of people across southern Europe have perished in a blistering heatwave. Greece authorities said that the LONGEST HEATWAVE IN THE COUNTRY'S HISTORY had killed five people, but media said the death toll was at least ten people. “The weather conditions have been UNPRECEDENTED, we have never had a heatwave lasting for eight straight days.” Athens on Tuesday registered heat up to 46.2C (115.16) in the western district of Nea Filadelfia, the HIGHEST SINCE RECORDINGS THERE BEGAN in 1955. Dozens of wildfires have broken out in rural areas of northern, southern and central Greece and threatened homes before being brought under control. In Romania, the weather-related death toll climbed to 30 after a violent storm lashed the south of the country.
The heatwave has killed at least 35 people in parts of southeast Europe and hit wildlife and crops, from the humble toad in Greek lagoons to grain across the region, while fruit is ripening weeks early in Italy. Greece is experiencing its WORST HEATWAVE IN 110 YEARS that has already killed eight people, with temperatures reaching 46 Celsius (114.8 Fahrenheit) during five days of sweltering weather that showed no signs on Wednesday of letting up. In southern Italy, after the HOTTEST SPRING IN NEARLY TWO CENTURIES, this year's harvest of grapes and other fruit and vegetables is expected to be as much as a month earlier than usual, at the beginning of August. The heat is "literally cooking" Sicilian lemons on the trees, while watermelons, peppers, courgettes, peaches and tomatoes are also at risk. Greece's flora and fauna are suffering and environmentalists warned the scorching temperatures could have a long-term effect on animal populations and plants. "Birds, now in their nesting period, laying eggs in exposed nests are at a very high risk. The eggs are overheating if left uncovered so birds have to remain on the eggs for much longer." Swallows are having problems finding mud for their nests, forcing them to travel further in search for their building material while frogs, toads and salamanders are seeing their habitats dry up, shortening their life span and affecting in turn those animals who feed on them. "These are all linked to each other. With the frog and toad populations dropping, birds who feed on them have problems finding food as they stay in Greece until the autumn." Greece's unusually mild winter, coupled with a warmer than normal May and the current June heatwave, has already triggered changes that could be here to stay. Fish stocks in rivers and lakes are dropping as water is pumped out for agricultural use due to a lack of rain, threatening a rare Greek otter which feeds on them. "Flowers above the treeline on Mount Olympus that start blossoming in May have already competed their cycle, far too early. Among those are several rare, indigenous flowers." "This weather creates a web of problems that will have long-term effects if it persists or if it reoccurs in the coming years." A drought in southeast Europe has already threatened grain crops in countries including Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, where the Anatolian news agency quoted the head of a big cooperative as predicting a 50 percent drop in this year's cotton crop.

CALIFORNIA - Firefighters tackling a massive blaze in northern California are nervously bracing for a backlash from the weather, with forecasted gusty winds threatening to spread the inferno. The fire has scorched 1254 hectares, destroyed more than 225 structures - including 176 homes - and forced the evacuation of around 3500 local residents. A further 950 residences and 350 commercial businesses were threatened by the fire, which is only 44 per cent contained. Firefighters suffered a setback yesterday when wind-driven flames leaped across containment lines before eventually being extinguished. Forecasted strong winds failed to materialise Wednesday but are expected later.

Tens of millions of people could be driven from their homes by encroaching deserts, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia. If action is not taken, some 50 million people could be displaced within the next 10 years. The study by the United Nations University suggests climate change is making desertification "the greatest environmental challenge of our times". Desertification is an environmental crisis of global proportions, it says, and one third of the Earth's population are potential victims of its creeping effect. The over-exploitation of land and unsustainable irrigation practices are making matters worse.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
That men do not learn much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.
Unknown

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/26/07 -
5.1 SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
5.9 SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
5.0 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
5.1 KURIL ISLANDS

BRITAIN - an awesome David and Goliath battle was waged two thousand years ago that shook the Roman Empire. And now, the riddle of Queen Boudicca's victory over her mighty foe on East Anglian soil has taken a new tumble and twist that could rewrite the history books. A study by a leading archaeologist has revealed that a previously unknown earthquake shook the southeast of England at the time the Iceni tribe led their rebellion - bringing a sign of divine approval for Boudicca and a bad omen for her opponents. Up until now, a series of bizarre events that allegedly took place at the time have been played down as exaggeration and allegory rather than taken at face value. But a British classicist has re-examined the ancient texts and concluded that they are not simply classical literary devices, but descriptions of a serious earthquake that hit the heart of the religious and political capital of Roman Britain - Colchester. The texts recall how the “statue of the goddess Victory in Colchester partly rotated and toppled over, how strange sounds were heard and how the sea turned blood red”. These three events are likely to occur during a strong earthquake. “The noise, a deep, dull sound could conceivably have been described as a strange moan or prolonged groan - often accompanies earthquakes. The seawater change could result from seismic waves causing cliff collapses or destabilising sloping mud deposits which can muddy the water and transform the colouring of the sea."

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Cyclone 03B.

PAKISTAN - Cyclone Yemyin made landfall in Balochistan province at about 1100 local time (0600 GMT) on Tuesday, bringing rain, flooding and winds of up to 80mph (130 kph). The cyclone is losing strength and has now hit Balochistan province, sparing much of Karachi. Heavy rain in Karachi in recent days has left at least 200 dead. Reports of damage to coastal areas near Karachi are still coming in. The navy is searching for a number of boats missing or sunk in the storms. Heavy flooding has been reported in and around the town of Pasni, about 400km (250 miles) west of Karachi, and water has also washed away part of the coastal highway linking southern Balochistan with the rest of the country. Fishermen say more than 200 fishing boats anchored along the coast have been destroyed in the storms. The cyclone killed at least 14 people, leaving dozens more missing and forcing tens of thousands to flee from their homes. Forecasters said a 7.6m storm surge was feared. Cyclone Yemyin is the second major storm of the north Indian Ocean cyclone season after Cyclone Gonu hit Oman, Iran and parts of southwest Pakistan early this month, killing more than 60 people.

Cyclonic storms in the Arabian Sea are RARE, but not unheard of. Two tropical cyclones in the space of a month, on the other hand, is QUITE RARE INDEED. Unlike its predecessor, Tropical Cyclone Gonu, Cyclone 03B originated on the opposite side of the Indian Peninsula in the Bay of Bengal. Tropical Cyclone 03B reformed in the Arabian Sea south of the Pakistan coast after having crossed over India. Storm surge from Cyclone 03B was predicted to be moderately high, even though the storm is not strong, since the offshore waters are shallow, similar to the northern Gulf of Mexico. Because these kinds of storms are rare, coastal communities are particularly vulnerable to storm surge damage.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
AUSTRALIA - Torrential rain pelting Gippsland has flooded roads and is flowing towards houses. The WILDEST WEATHER IN A DECADE has shut the Princes Highway. Rising waters are reportedly lapping at several houses in Bairnsdale. Heavy rain is also bolstering Victoria's biggest water catchment, the Thomson Dam. Gabo Island got 90mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am.
Residents of East Gippsland in Victoria are facing ONE OF THE BIGGEST FLOODS IN YEARS, as a big low pressure system dumps rain from Mallacoota through to the Latrobe Valley. The weather bureau is predicting rain tallies up to 200 millimetres of rain and driving snow in the high country. The bureau is warning wind gusts of more than 50 knots (close to 100 kilometres an hour) are expected.

BRITAIN - eyewitness accounts of the flooding. (photos)
Thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes amid severe flooding across England and Wales that is now believed to have claimed four lives. The Environment Agency labelled current weather conditions "PHENOMENAL". "We've had a sixth of the annual rainfall in 12 hours. Climate change experts tell us that this is the sort of thing we need to expect for the future." The Met Office had issued an early warning last Friday. It had correctly predicted that 50-100mm of rain would fall in the 24 hours from 2200 BST on Sunday, with the worst-affected areas being Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Finance chiefs are warning that the floods will cost small businesses millions, and insurers are expecting tens of millions in claims from homeowners. (flood map)
Hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes as heavy flooding threatens to burst a dam at a reservoir near Rotherham. Hundreds of people have left their homes in the villages of Whiston, Canklow, and Catcliffe and Treeton, amid fears the Ulley dam could collapse. There is a significant risk that the dam walls could collapse after UNUSUALLY HEAVY, torrential rains in recent days. By Tuesday morning, water gushing down the side of the reservoir had caused part of the earth bank on the dam to collapse. The nearby M1 motorway has been closed in both directions because of concerns about cracks in the dam wall. The dam is close to Sheffield, which was overwhelmed by rising flood waters Monday, and a power station that serves most of the city lies directly in the path of the reservoir.
Over the last few days Britain has been subjected to the “WORST RAIN FOR 50 YEARS” according to some national newspapers. The southeast is usually the driest region in the UK and has a lower rainfall average than Jerusalem and Beirut at between 450mm and 600mm per year. The wet weather has reportedly wiped out the nesting season for some of Britain's rarest wading birds, up to 1,000 pairs of waders and ground-nesting birds have lost their eggs or chicks after rain hit the Ouse Washes in East Anglia. This month Ipswich has seen nearly double the average amount of rainfall as a rare “European monsoon” descends on the Suffolk skyline. And this month has followed the wettest May on record over much of Suffolk. Only April was better than expected - there was virtually no rain for the entire month, prompting fears of a drought. “Two Junes in every ten years will see moist air travelling in from the Atlantic, resulting in torrential rain of a tropical intensity like the sort we have seen for the past few weeks. This May was one of the wettest for 100 years, with five inches of rainfall, which is three times more than what we should have had.” The four-weekly forecast predicts that while this week should improve, next week will see the return of unsettled weather and then more rain will fall during the middle of July.

CHINA - Lightning killed 37 people in eastern China in a span of three days, including a dozen farmers who were struck as they worked in a field.

SOUTH AFRICA - violent storms which lashed the province Monday night have left more than 500 people homeless in the city of Cape Town and carpeted the mountain ranges with snow. Gugulethu and Lwandle near Strand were hit hardest, with heavy flooding. Wind and flood damage displaced 500 people in the Lotus informal settlement in Gugulethu and 20 in Lwandle. Flooding also drove out 14 residents of Du Noon. The severe weather conditions stem from a cold front which swept in off the Atlantic. The cold front wreaked havoc across greater Cape Town with heavy rainfall and blustery conditions causing flooding, power cuts and extensive damage.

HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-
GREECE, ROMANIA, ITALY, TURKEY, BULGARIA, UKRAINE - Temperatures soared to 46C (114.8 F) in some parts of Greece on Monday, and authorities expected the heatwave to continue for at least another three days, making this Greece's HOTTEST JUNE EVER. In Romania temperatures on Tuesday hit 41C. In southern Italy, where temperatures were also above 40C, brush fires broke out. About 150 people have been admitted to hospital over three days in Turkey's Mugla province. Southeastern Europe was already suffering a drought, even before the latest heatwave. Bulgarian farm ministry sources said a week ago that the wheat crop might be down 30 per cent from last year. Grain producers say Romania might have to import a million tonnes of wheat this year to cover a domestic shortfall. And in Ukraine, the Government has imposed stringent limits on grain exports for three months in an attempt to keep down bread prices.

MALTA - The night between Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th was the WARMEST NIGHT RECORDED OVER THE LAST 30 YEARS. The lowest temperature registered by the Meteorological Office at Malta International Airport was 28.3 deg C. This was slightly more than a degree higher than the previous record of 27.2 deg C, which was measured at dawn on June 30th, 2003. The temperature recorded on Monday reached 39.5 deg C, almost as high as the record for the month, which however remained the 40.1 deg C recorded on June 13th, 1997. The high temperatures witnessed over the past days were produced by a ridge of high pressure over the central Mediterranean, which caused the air to descend from the higher levels of the atmosphere, compressing it and warming it in the process. This 'pumping' activity of the atmosphere persisted during the night giving them a very warm and dry night.

CALIFORNIA & ALASKA - Firefighters trying to contain a raging wildfire in California have suffered a setback, after the blaze jumped a defence line forcing hundreds to flee. The authorities have warned that strong winds forecast for the Lake Tahoe area today could fan the flames. The wildfire has so far destroyed 200 homes and forced 1,000 people to leave. Meanwhile, damp, cooler weather has also helped contain a wildfire on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. The blaze south of Anchorage has spread across 90 square miles (233sq km) and destroyed more than 80 homes.

UTAH - Fire restrictions in effect after early season rash of wildfires - Dry vegetation, soaring temperatures and the approach of the traditional fireworks season have promoted fire officials to issue extreme fire restrictions.

COLORADO - Wildfires near oil and gas drilling operations are raising concerns. The Cottonwood Creek fire near Parachute last week burned within 200 yards of gas wells. It was a stark reminder that the proliferation of mountain hideaway homes isn't the only booming development that's added to the challenge of wild land firefighting in recent years. Western Colorado's energy industry has set up natural gas wells and pipelines in many remote areas where wildfires are a threat. Fire manager for the Upper Colorado River Interagency Fire Management Unit says there are not a lot of rules yet on how to deal with this threat.
Sunday, Denver set a NEW RECORD when the temperature reached 100 degrees at the airport, beating the record from 1988 by one degree.

TENNESSEE - Monday the thermometer topped out at 94 degrees, BREAKING THE RECORD of 93-degrees set in 1940.

ALABAMA - Wildlife experts and pest control professionals say insect infestations are up as increased numbers of ants and cockroaches enter homes seeking water. Rodents and snakes - which typically prefer to avoid humans - are also venturing into more densely populated areas as their water sources dry up and food grows scarce. Pest control firms have also noticed a spike in rodent calls, UNUSUAL for this time of year. Rodents generally enter homes in October as temperatures fall, and homeowners usually report infestations in January and February when the first litters of baby rats and mice start running around. Usually, exterminators report very few, if any, rodent calls between May and October. "Rodents would prefer not to be around humans, but if they're hungry or thirsty enough, they'll put up with it."

Humans can significantly help stop global warming by adopting a vegetarian diet. Raising animals for food is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all vehicles in the world combined. Study after study has shown that animal agriculture contributes to global warming and environmental destruction, yet instead of urging people to go vegetarian, most U.S. politicians and environmental spokespeople just continue to hype hybrid cars, recycling, and fluorescent light bulbs as solutions to our spiraling environmental problems. According to Greenpeace, chickens raised for KFC, and other companies that "produce" chicken flesh, are fed crops that are grown in the Amazon rain forest. Carbon dioxide emissions aren't our only environmental concern, of course. There's deforestation, water and air pollution, world hunger, and more. But according to the U.N., raising animals for food is "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." More than 260 million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed farmed animals; farmed animals are fed more than 70 percent of the corn, wheat, and other grains grown in the U.S.; and almost half of the water and 80 percent of the agricultural land in the U.S. are used to raise animals for food.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Winston Churchill

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/25/07 -
5.0 ASSAM - NAGALAND REGION, INDIA
5.2 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.4 FLORES SEA
5.1 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS.
5.3 MORO GULF, MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES
5.1 OFFSHORE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Cyclone 03B (Yemyin) was 99 nmi W of Karachi, Pakistan.

PAKISTAN evacuated thousands of people from southern coastal areas yesterday ahead of a possible cyclone, two days after a storm killed at least 235 people in the port city of Karachi. The meteorological department issued an alert saying that a tropical storm forming in the Arabian Sea 150 km south of Karachi was likely to intensify into a cyclone in the next six to 12 hours. The new storm was expected to bring strong winds with "heavy to very heavy rainfall" in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, and neighbouring Baluchistan province. Fishermen were advised to stay ashore until Thursday in some areas because of the likelihood of "extremely" rough seas. At least 10 fishermen have been missing since the weekend.

U.S. - "Early-season storms have little or nothing to do with peak-of-season activity." Early-season Atlantic storms are often oddities, cyclonic anomalies with little connection to the real storm season. Subtropical Storm Andrea, which materialized May 9, was the first May storm in 26 years, a hybrid born as an extra-tropical storm off the south Georgia-North Florida coast that briefly adopted warm-water storm characteristics. During Barry's two-day life, June 1 and 2, it earned a tropical storm tag by generating thunderstorms near its center before sliding over land north of Tampa. "It's usual for June and July to be pretty quiet." Strong westerlies are typical of June and the upper-level westerly winds shear off the tops of the thunderstorms. That pattern is likely to continue for weeks. A large majority of the storms come in August, September and October. Seventy-seven percent, to be exact. Only 69 of 455 named storms since 1966 have swirled to life in June or July, an average of fewer than two a year. Since 1995, the Atlantic storm basin has averaged 14.7 tropical storms, 8.1 hurricanes and 3.9 major hurricanes a year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's forecast for this year is for 12 to 17 tropical storms, including seven to 10 hurricanes and three to five of Category 3 or stronger. "We're still expecting an active season."

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
INDIA & PAKISTAN & AFGHANISTAN are struggling to cope with the effects of three days of rain that left 350 dead. There are warnings that more bad weather - a cyclone and heavy winds - is imminent. More than 140 have been killed in the rains in India. There have also been a number of deaths in Afghanistan. A landslide in northern Afghanistan struck a wedding party, killing six children. Much of Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi - where 200 died - is still without power and water. Officials have been evacuating residents from shanty towns in Karachi, where badly built homes collapsed or were washed away by the torrential rain. In just one area of the city, Gadap in the north-west, more than 1,000 homes have been destroyed. For weeks before the weekend floods, Karachi had been hit hot weather and power cuts, leading to protests and rioting. The army has been asked to help evacuate people from coastal areas. Winds of up to 40 nautical miles an hour are predicted for the coastline of Pakistan. Fishermen have been told to stay on land because of the dangers of three-metre high waves. In India, the flood situation remains grim in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu and Orissa have been put on alert.

BRITAIN - Hundreds of people were told to flee their homes amid fears a reservoir dam was set to crumble after torrential rain brought chaos to South Yorkshire. Two people were killed in Sheffield as floods raged through the city. A man was swept away as he got out of his car and police hunting a missing teenager recovered a body from a swollen river. But hours later more disaster loomed as a dam holding back the Ulley reservoir threatened to break. "We have not seen anything like this before." Three RAF rescue helicopters were brought in to help pluck people to safety from their roofs. "These are UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS OF FLOODING."
The torrential rain which swept across Britain Monday, bringing flooding, tornados and death, created the WETTEST JUNE DAY ON RECORD. Four tornados were reported: in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire; Treeton, South Yorkshire; Cranwell, Bedfordshire; and Telford, Shropshire. A further deluge is forecast to sweep across the country from the South West at the end of the week.
Some parts of Britain had an entire month's worth of rain just in a few hours. The floods could cost the economy millions of pounds, as workers would likely turn up late at work in the coming days, if they manage to make it at all, due to disruptions on transport networks. The number of people in bad trouble was continuing to rise through the evening as reports came in of thousands of people being without power. Elsewhere in Britain rivers broke their banks, flooding roads and homes from Devon in southwest England, to Yorkshire in the north.

AUSTRALIA - Melon growers in Western Australia's Ord region are facing massive losses after unseasonable, unexpected rain. More than 100 millimetres has fallen across parts of the Kimberley in the past week at the height of the melon picking season. "Some of them [melons] are really heavy, so they seem to be waterlogged. There's no water inside but you just don't know what to expect, because we haven't had this before. We're actually scared of the sun coming out in full force and we don't know how the plants will react to that, we've just got no idea because we've never had this before."

TEXAS - Rainstorms accompanied by high winds swept across Texas on Monday, flooding streets, swelling creeks to near flood stage and damaging buildings. Three women died when their car slid on a wet highway and slammed into a truck in the hills west of Austin. Storms in North Texas were dropping five centimetres of rain an hour Monday afternoon. In Rhome, about 40 kilometres northwest of Fort Worth, straight-line winds blew over fences, damaged roofs and sent a metal pole crashing through the roof of one building. Sustained rainfall over the last month has left the ground saturated and parts of North, Central and East Texas are at high risks of flash flooding. The severe weather shows no sign of letting up, with chances of rain and thunderstorms as high as 90 per cent in some parts of Texas today.
More rain is bringing another week of mild weather. "This is a RARE event. We are more in a mode representative of May or September. This year is pretty special." The rains are causing much more green plant growth than is usual for this time of year, helping to lower temperatures.

HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-
Southern and eastern Europe & the Mediterranean - Temperatures were expected to reach 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) in some areas on Monday and will remain around that level during the week. Helicopters and specially adapted aircraft joined firefighters on the ground in southern Italy to fight a series of fires in Calabria and on the island of Sicily, as a heatwave there continued. The situation was particularly serious in Sicily, where according to media reports guests at a number of hotels near the northwest coast had to be evacuated. The fires were being fanned by the strong southerly winds known as the sirocco. A heatwave in Greece killed two pensioners at the weekend and pushed DEMAND FOR ELECTRICITY TO NEW ALL-TIME HIGHS. Hospitals around the country have been placed on alert and municipalities are keeping cooled public facilities open for those without air-conditioning at home, but heatstroke already claimed the lives of an 84-year-old woman in the western town of Egio and a 76-year-old man in Farsala, central Greece. On the island of Cyprus a 72-year-old woman died of heatstroke on Monday as the island sizzled in temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). The Mediterranean island is famed for its year-long sunshine but temperatures of 42 degrees now being recorded in the capital are EXTREME. In Romania the capital Bucharest and eight southern districts were placed on orange alerts as the temperature headed above 40 degrees Celsius. The heatwave that has already lasted several days has taken at least 25 lives. First aid tents have been erected in many cities while ambulance services have received thousands of calls.

HEALTH THREATS -
DENMARK - An outbreak of distemper has killed at least 41 seal pups, whose carcasses have washed up on a Danish island. There are fears that thousands of seals could die if the virus spreads. A distemper outbreak in 2002 killed about 30% of seals off Denmark, but the virus killed nearly 60% of seals in the area in 1988. The virus causes laboured breathing, fever and neurological problems. It does not affect humans.

Monday, June 25, 2007 -

Sorry, there was no update on Sunday.

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.
Charles Darwin

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

This morning there was a 5.1 quake off the coast of northern California.

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/24/07 -
5.0 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.0 FIJI REGION
5.2 FIJI REGION
5.0 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.9 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
6/23/07 -
5.0 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
5.2 FIJI REGION
5.1 FIJI REGION
5.0 FIJI REGION
5.0 FIJI REGION
5.3 FIJI REGION
5.1 FIJI REGION
5.2 NORTHWEST OF MADAGASCAR
5.2 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.4 MYANMAR-CHINA BORDER REGION
5.4 MYANMAR
5.1 SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS
5.1 SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS
6/22/07 -
5.2 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
5.5 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.3 TAJIKISTAN


CHINA - Thousands of villagers in southwest China were evacuated after a moderate earthquake struck neighboring Myanmar. No injuries were reported in China. The magnitude-5.8 temblor occurred Saturday afternoon and was felt in several villages bordering Myanmar in the Xishuangbanna region of China's Yunnan province. Some 16,000 residents were moved to safer grounds to prevent injuries from potential landslides.

FREAK WAVES / ABNORMAL TIDES -
MALAYSIA - On Tuesday, UNUSUALLY strong winds wreaked havoc in Penang and parts of Kedah, toppling trees, blowing off roofs, capsizing boats and forcing four flights to be diverted from the international airport in Bayan Lepas. The winds peaked at Bayan Lepas at 43 knots per hour while it reached 32 knots per hour in Alor Star. The normal wind speed at these places is between five and 20 knots per hour. Giant waves of up to 2m high hit the sea wall at the Esplanade in George Town before pounding onto cars parked along the road. Some tiles and a metal railing along the sea wall were dislodged by the might of the waves. A 10m stretch of the concrete path near the Astaka Medan Renong food court there was broken by the pounding waves. At Pantai Bersih in Butterworth, fishermen said 3m-high waves caused more destruction than the 2004 tsunami, with 14 boats damaged compared to one during the tsunami. At least four of the five restaurants along the beach were damaged by the waves. In Kedah, five fishermen from a boat that capsized 2km off Tanjung Dawai were rescued, while two more fishermen had to be rescued from a capsized fishing boat off Batu Ferringhi on Penang island. (photos)

MALDIVES - Last week was the second time in six weeks the Maldives has experienced extensive flooding. Sea wall defences, constructed for millions of dollars, have been destroyed on islands in both cases. And on Wednesday, the 20th, the entire population of seventy three islanders on Hathifushi in Haa Daal had to be evacuated. High seas and rains flooded over thirty islands in the north of the Maldives in three days, the affected atolls have reported no further flooding since Thursday. Every inhabited island in Haa Aliff was flooded at some point last week. Raa is the most recently effected atoll with eight islands flooded on Thursday by rainwater alone, without waves breaking onto the islands.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
No storms.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
PAKISTAN - Torrential rains and gale-force winds have led to the deaths of more than 200 people in the coastal city of Karachi in southern Pakistan. Some 43 people were killed by the storms on Saturday afternoon, while the other bodies were recovered on Sunday. Dozens more were injured as heavy winds uprooted trees and brought down power lines, electrocuting people. The FEROCITY OF THE STORM WAS UNPRECEDENTED IN RECENT MEMORY. Karachi residents were already suffering from power cuts which have led to riots in the city. The storms came after temperatures reached 40C (104F) in Karachi. Another storm is brewing off the coast. In India, heavy rain and floods have killed at least 45 people in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. (photos) (Additional photos )

INDIA - The season’s first monsoon showers over the weekend left Mumbai struggling to stay afloat. Five persons were killed — two in a Saturday night building collapse in South Mumbai, two in a landslide in Chembur, and a six-month-old girl in a wall collapse in Govandi’s Rafiq Nagar on Sunday. Chronic spots like Milan subway got flooded, trains ran late, trees were uprooted and at least 6 flights could not land due to poor visibility. During 24 hours — from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon— the city received 10 per cent of its annual average rainfall of 2,300 to 2,800 mm. Colaba Ward recorded 237.1 mm, Dadar (East) 239.2 mm, Kurla Kamani 262.2 mm (10.3 inches), Vikroli 233.2 mm, Tulsi Talav 291.3 mm, Vile Parle 215.2 mm. And the monsoon season has only just set in.
The temple town of Srisailam, which is also the site of a massive hydro-electric project, created a record of sorts by receiving 40 cm (16 inches) of rainfall on Friday and Saturday. This is the highest rainfall recorded by any place during the current monsoon. Following floods in its tributaries and heavy rains in Maharashtra region, the Krishna River is rising and similarly, the Godavari, Penna, Nagavali and Vamsadhara.

BRITAIN - Severe floods have affected many parts of the UK over the past week, with more storms in store. Around the country, over 750 properties have suffered extreme damage from flooding from both water crosses and surface waters. With some areas receiving more than a month's rainfall in just 24 hours, fatalities include a young soldier who died during a 'routine exercise' on the north Yorkshire moors when he fell into a stream swollen by heavy rainfalls. The storms have also resulted in a large number of people who have been evacuated from their homes. "This isn't freak weather, but we do have a consistent area of low pressure." With more storms in store over the coming days, the low pressure is moving from northern England to the south. "[Over time] what we'll expect to see is more of the short, sharp storms that are extreme with lightning and thunder. Under climate change predictions, the heavy summer rain is something we're going to continue seeing."

HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-
CALIFORNIA - At least 165 homes and other structures were destroyed and as many as 500 more were threatened after a wind-whipped wildfire broke out Sunday afternoon just outside of South Lake Tahoe. “This thing is raging out of control, and there’s no estimate as to when that may change." The 450 firefighters battling the blaze are having a tough time getting close to the fire because the terrain is rugged. The fire has scorched 750 acres and is only 5% contained. Winds as high as 50 mph have fanned the flames throughout the day. The fire has also forced the closure of Highways 50 and 89 leading into the area. Both routes are now being used to evacuate residents. State and federal fire officials had warned of a potentially active wildfire season in the Sierra Nevada following an unusually dry winter. The annual May 1 snow survey found the Tahoe-area snowpack at just 29 percent of normal levels, the lowest since 1988. The U.S. Forest Service recently launched a 10-year program to thin and burn 38,000 acres of forest in the Lake Tahoe Basin to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. The fire’s intensity and quick pace is an indication that a 10-year plan was not enough. “The Forest Service calls for a 10-year plan to remove forest fuels, but this fire didn’t wait 10 years. We need to be in a position to remove fuels faster, sooner."

AUSTRALIA - The drinking water crisis in the South-West has been further highlighted with some of the Western area’s main dams at RECORD LOWS. Millstream Dam just outside Bridgetown has dropped to an alltime Statewide low of 9 per cent capacity. The dam’s current condition was the worst seen in more than 20 years in the region. “It looks like we’ve drained it for maintenance — I’ve never seen it this low. It’s terrible." The Water Corporation would usually start transferring water from Millstream Dam to other dams at this time of the year. No relief is in sight because three fronts arriving within a week are expected to bring only light rains to agricultural areas. Some farmers in the north-west who need 350mm of rain before the end of the year had received only 10mm to date. Farmers around the Geraldton area were losing topsoil to high winds because of the lack of rain.

EUROPE was experiencing mixed weather this past week. Southern areas are baking in a heatwave while the west has been hit by heavy rainstorms that have killed two Austrians. Temperatures in Istanbul, the capital of Turkey in southern Europe are above seasonal norms. The scorching heat has started to affect daily life in the city. The heatwave has already killed 19 people in southern Europe and emergency service phone lines are running hot. Over in western Europe, Germany has been drenched by a heavy rain storm leading to widespread floods. People have been forced to wade through deep floodwaters and push their vehicles out of the water. And in Austria, a sudden storm mixed with heavy rain killed two people in the capital of Vienna. Hail fell in some areas across Austria, stalling regional train services and leading to power outages and many traffic accidents. (video)

HEALTH THREATS -
BIRD FLU -
TONGO confirmed its first H5N1 outbreak.

INDONESIA reported its 100th human H5N1 case.

CZECH REPUBLIC has reported its first poultry H5N1 outbreak.

GERMANY - The highly pathogenic bird flu virus H5N1 has been found in two dead swans in Germany.

EGYPT - A four-year-old Egyptian boy has tested positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus, becoming the 37th human case in the country.

Friday, June 22 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful, than a life spent doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/21/07 -
5.1 NEAR WEST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.2 COQUIMBO, CHILE
5.3 KURIL ISLANDS
5.0 TAIWAN REGION

CHILE - Photo of the mysteriously vanished lake, due to a quake??

VOLCANOES -
PAPUA NEW GUINEA - Mount Tavurvur volcano has been experiencing a high level of activity for the past few days. However, the acting director of Rabaul Volcanic Observatory says there is no indication of any build-up that might lead to a big bang like last October. The October 7th blast caused windows some 12 kilometers away to shatter. The latest activity between Tuesday and Thursday saw four main explosions which produced shockwaves that rattled windows of houses in Rabaul town and surrounding areas. They also caused five high-frequency earthquakes and dozens of low-frequency tremors. The explosions showered the flanks of the volcano with lava fragments. The ash clouds from the explosions rose about two kilometres before being blown out to the northwest, resulting in moderate ash fall in Rabaul areas like Ratavul, Volavolo and Nonga villages.

HAWAII - A third large crack has formed on Kilauea, park officials said Wednesday. The fissure, spotted in an area a few miles southeast of Kilauea’s summit, is near two others found since hundreds of small earthquakes were recorded in the area Sunday. The fissure was spewing steam, but was not oozing lava as the others did. Heat from the fissures could spark a fire.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Cyclone 03B was 528 nmi ESE of Bombay, India.

OMAN - A damaged trail of coral left behind in the wake of Cyclone Gonu has changed the underwater landscape of some of the UAE’s favourite diving spots. In some areas, large areas of coral – which provide food and shelter to marine life – were damaged or wiped out. Dibba Rock has lost more than half its coral. A large, shallow area which was earlier covered by coral was damaged, but there is still a lot of marine life left. The damage at Dibba was “like someone had ground the coral”. In other areas, like Snoopy Island, the damage was less severe as rocks protect much of the coral. Still, casualties of the storm exist even at Snoopy Island, where some coral was ripped from the seabed. Soft corals suffered the most, particularly at sites like Martini Rock. However, being a fast-growing species, it will recover if the conditions are right. “Divers who are familiar with the area will notice changes caused to the marine life. We know for a fact that marine life recovers, but it depends on many factors. If there are additional industrial pressures, this will further delay the recovery period.”

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
FLORIDA - Lightning killed a man beneath a cloudless sky. A Dade landscaper died after being struck by an UNUSUAL TYPE OF LIGHTNING that's stronger, hotter, lasts longer and strikes from clear skies. With no rain or even clouds to warn him of the danger, death came literally out of the blue Thursday. When he was hit, a typical afternoon storm was forming, but nowhere near the area. The fair-weather bolts pack a bigger, deadlier punch and form differently. Most lightning bolts carry a negative charge, but 'bolts from the blue' have a positive charge, carry as much as 10 times the current, are hotter and last longer. The bolts normally travel horizontally away from the storm and reach farther than typical lightning, then curve to the ground. Protecting yourself from such unexpected lightning is difficult. "They are very unpredictable and very dangerous. We urge people to stay indoors even if you hear thunder only faintly in the distance. If you're close enough to hear thunder, you're close enough to be struck by lightning." In August 1988, a Norwegian couple vacationing in South Florida were struck while standing on a Fort Lauderdale beach. Witnesses said the sky was cloudless. Florida is the U.S.'s lightning capital. Five of the 47 people killed by lightning across the country last year were in Florida.

NEW YORK - Police were searching Wednesday for four people missing after a flash flood in the southern edge of the Catskill Mountains. Up to 8 inches of rain fell in two hours late Tuesday night, washing out roads and homes and slamming trees into bridges in this rural area. Details about the search were sketchy, in part because phone lines were down and cell service is spotty in the mountains 100 miles northwest of New York City. The downpour came as a series of storms tore through the state Tuesday, killing at least one person, an ATV driver along the Genesee River who died when a tree top fell on him. (photo)

NEPAL - A landslide at Mantewa, a remote VDC in Sankhuwasabha district, continuing since yesterday, has swept away dozens of heads of livestock. Over 20 houses are also at risk. The landslide has swept away arable land in wards 1, 4, 6 and 9 of the VDC. The risk of landslide has increased in Mantewa-3 after the edges of the pond at Salpa Pokhari crumbled yesterday. The movement of people has also been disrupted after the landslide swept away a suspension bride over the Chongduwa River. Red Cross workers have not been able to reach there yet. Police have been deployed at the site since yesterday. The landslide swept away land belonging to farmers. A report from Solukhumbu said 24 families are at risk due to a landslide that has been occurring for three days. Land and a three-storey house was swept away, causing a loss of Rs 5 lakh. A report from Phidim said some 20 houses in wards 4 and 6 of Chyangthapu VDC are at risk due to landslide following incessant rain. Some 200 ropani of cultivatable land at Samrjung was swept away by the landslide. People living in some 20 households at Chyangthapu-3 and 9 are thinking of shifting to their relatives' houses due to fear of landslide. Six houses were displaced and some 100 ropani of cardamom fields in the area were swept by landslides last year. "A primary school located in the area is also facing the risk of being swept away. "There will be dangerous consequences if the landslide continues."

CHINA - Damage photos from the landslide in Zhenxiong, South China's Yunnan Province. Hundreds of families were evacuated to safe places after the landslide destroyed their houses on Monday, June 18.

METEOR STRIKES -
MASSACHUSETTS - June 20 - At Gerrity Stone in Woburn, a rock punched a hole through a warehouse roof the other day. Experts are examining the object, trying to determine exactly what it is. "No one around here has ever seen anything like this. A real mystery." Workers were surprised to find the unusually heavy object on the floor. "Then we looked up at the ceiling and, 'Oh my God. It fell through the ceiling." "I'm suspicious that it's rusty and it shouldn't be rusty." The object weighs about 1.24 pounds. "This is interesting. It's clearly got some metal in it. The magnet does attract." There is a chance the object could be a meteorite. "The only one known meteorite to have fallen in Massachusetts and that was in Northampton in 1963. That was iron, as this appears to be." Meteorite or not, it's a mystery how the object fell from a warehouse ceiling. (photo)

TEXAS - June 13 - Wednesday night many people saw the beginning of a minor meteor shower, named after the constellation Bootes. What's causing this meteor shower? The Earth is passing through the tail of a comet. "It's like going through an oil streak left by the comet." Wednesday's show was just the beginning. It will last until June 27, peaking about next Wednesday. Look due south after midnight. The shower moves from west to east. In 2004, the same shower yielded 20 to 50 of the streaks an hour.

SRI LANKA - June 10 - The strange objects that lit the night skies on June 10 have now been confirmed as meteors. “This is the FIRST TIME THAT METEORS OF SUCH MAGNITUDE HAVE FALLEN IN SRI LANKA.” The shockwaves and vibrations have been heard throughout the country, from Galle to Puttalam. A Senior Consultant believes that two large meteoroids entered the atmosphere, the larger one splitting into two and the smaller one into about 25 fragments. The loud explosions were some of the particles exploding, probably about 50 to 100 km above the ground. The PECULIARITY of this incident is that there was very little trace of the meteoroids even where extensive damage occurred, such as in Dehiwala. The meteoroid was travelling at such high momentum that all the particles must have dissolved or vaporised by the heat on impact. Residents of Andiambalama say that they had noticed UNUSUAL movement of the stars for about two weeks continually prior to the falling of the meteor. “We saw many shooting stars, the children started gathering at about 8 p.m. every night just to watch this." In Kovinna, Andiambalama, at 9.05 p.m. on the 10th, a woman had noticed something unusual in the western sky. A bright light, almost as large as the full moon, appeared to be moving towards her in a wide arc. Alarmed by thoughts of terrorist air attacks, she called out to her neighbour. Together they watched fearfully as the glowing object drew closer, landed on the roof and vanished completely. A few minutes later the air vibrated with a loud explosion. The next day they discovered that parts of the asbestos sheets on the roof were charred and cracked. A few pieces of rock and sand were scattered around the damaged area. Similar incidents were reported around the country that night. Several people in areas such as Puttalam, Maho and Bingiriya also noted the appearance of the bright light in the sky as well as the loud explosion. In Kimbulapitiya a woman watched a flaming object land on a house and heard the booming sounds soon afterwards. In Campbell Place, Dehiwala, the roofs of two buildings were damaged, and a loud noise was heard. “24 asbestos sheets were broken.”

The same meteor impact that wreaked havoc with dinosaurs may have been the making of 162 species of Caribbean frogs, which descended from a single South American species, according to a new study. All of the frogs are an odd sort — having no tadpole phase, instead hatching complete out of eggs. The 800 or so species of these Eleutherodactlus frogs make up a fifth of all living frog species. The very large number of frogs on Caribbean islands evolved there in the last 50 million years, after an initial invasion of a single species from South America. It's interesting that there were no later invasions of frogs from the mainland. That could be because the frogs found the islands freshly wiped clean of predators by a mile-high, meteor-made tsunami. "That may be why we're not finding old Caribbean groups." The gigantic wave, triggered by the same meteor impact which created the Chicxulub crater off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, is believed to have scrubbed the Caribbean islands clean of life 65 million years ago. That ancestral good luck of the Caribbean frogs is now apparently running out in the face of a force almost powerful as a tsunami — deforestation. Just as biologists are beginning to understand how the Caribbean came to be, many of the species included in the study have already been driven to extinction.

Were ancient Americans wiped out by a meteor strike? - New scientific findings suggest that a large, extraterrestrial rock may have exploded over North America 13,000 years ago, explaining riddles that scientists have wrestled with for decades, including an abrupt cooling of the atmosphere and the extinction of large mammals. The extraterrestrial rock must have been about five kilometers across, and either exploded in the atmosphere or directly hit the Laurentide ice sheet located in the Northeastern section of North America. Wildfires across the continent would have resulted from the fiery impact, killing off the vegetation that was the food supply of many of the larger mammals like the woolly mammoths, causing them to go extinct. Since the Clovis people of North America hunted the mammoths as a major source of their food, they too were affected by the impact and their culture died out. The scientific team visited over a dozen archaeological sites in North America where they found high concentrations of iridium, an element that is rare on Earth, and is almost exclusively associated with meteors. The team concluded that the impact of the space rock melted a large portion of the Laurentide ice sheet, causing enormous amounts of cool, fresh water to flow into the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. This would have caused a major disruption of the circulation of warm and cold water in these oceans, leading to a cooler atmosphere and the glaciation of the Younger Dryas period. The scientists found evidence for the impact as far west as the Santa Barbara Channel Islands.

Thursday, June 21, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure.
Mark Twain

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/20/07 -
5.2 NORTHERN COLOMBIA
5.1 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.0 SOLOMON ISLANDS

CHILE - A lake in southern Chile has mysteriously disappeared, prompting speculation the ground has simply opened up and swallowed it whole. The lake was situated in the Magallanes region in Patagonia and was fed by water mostly from melting glaciers. It had a surface area of between 4 and 5 hectares, about the size of 10 soccer pitches. "In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal. We went again in May and to our surprise we found the lake had completely disappeared. The only things left were chunks of ice on the dry lake-bed and an enormous fissure." One theory is that the area was hit by an earth tremor that opened a crack in the ground which acted like a drain. Southern Chile has been shaken by thousands of minor earth tremors this year.

FREAK WAVES / ABNORMAL TIDES -
MALAYSIA - As the people of Penang cleaned up after a freak storm on Tuesday, residents at this fishing village felt the wrath of tidal waves across a one-kilometre stretch of coastline yesterday. The strong winds began at 10pm and broke into a storm at midnight. The villagers, who earn their living as traditional fishermen, had barely recovered their losses after the last floods and now had to put up with another disaster. One of the victims had depleted her savings rebuilding her kitchen after it was washed away in floods in December last year. Since wood is expensive, she made do with recycled wooden planks, taking three months to reconstruct the cubicle-sized kitchen and replace the gas stove, crockery and utensils. In the blink of an eye, her kitchen was gone once again. She was one of 30 families of Kampung Orang Asli Pontian Besar, who escaped by the skin of their teeth when the waves pummelled their homes. Her house was on stilts facing the Straits of Malacca. A decade ago their houses were not built on stilts and the village was bordered by mangrove swamps. In the past eight years, erosion has caused the entire swamp to disappear and only late last year the Drainage and Irrigation Department built a barrier to curb the erosion. "Without the swamp, our houses are directly facing the sea and there is nothing to protect us." The tidal wave struck during low-tide, which was a STRANGE PHENOMENON. "It was unexpected."

VOLCANOES -
HAWAII - Lava has oozed from a new location on Kilauea. Researchers on the island of Hawaii — the Big Island — had been looking for a new lava breakout point after hundreds of small earthquakes were recorded Sunday, suggesting that underground lava was shifting beneath the surface. The small outbreak oozed about 150 feet, from a 600-foot-long fissure, in a forest about eight miles southeast of Kilauea’s summit.
This latest phase of Kilauea's eruption could possibly endanger some plant and animal species native to Hawaii. The area where the lava flow surfaced contains the park's 2,500 acre East Rift Rainforest. The area is home to the endangered I'o, or Hawaiian Hawk, found only on the island of Hawai'i. The lava flow also threatens a number of rare plant species including Hawaiian lobeliads, mints, ferns, and a rare jewel orchid.
Map of the new lava area (Episode 56) and the areas where cracking has occurred.
Earthquakes within Hawaii's Mount Kilauea have slowed but underground lava movement is making the Big Island slightly bigger. A brief eruption of lava on Tuesday along the island's southeast coastline moved land an inch or so farther seaward as a result. A series of earthquakes last weekend alerted scientists of underground lava movement and an 825-foot fissure opened about 8 miles from the summit. Observations made from helicopters showed "the whole crater floor itself is sort of collapsing inward. It must be due to the lack of support from the magma." The floor of the crater dropped about 65 feet. Portions of Hawaii Volcano National Park were closed and park crews repaired cracks caused by the hundreds of small earthquakes - one 3 inches wide - on the Chain of Craters Road.

INDONESIA - experts are dealing with a massive water spray from the ground near a mud volcano on Java. The five-metre high spray began before dawn on Saturday at a restaurant in Jatirejo village, near the mudflow area. A team is trying to channel the water to a river to prevent it from flooding the area because it may submerge the village, highway and railway. There have been about 60 incidents of water or gas spurting from the ground near the so-called mud volcano, which erupted in May last year, inundating an area of some 600 hectares, but this spray is the biggest so far.

RUSSIA - Kamchatka Peninsula's Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano, that has been erupting since February 15, has shown signs of growing activity. About 00:00 hours local time Wednesday /11:00 hours GMT Tuesday, the Klyuchevskaya Sopka ejected a spout of ash to the altitude of 9,000 or so meters. The spouting could not be observed visually, as the crater of Eurasia's largest active volcano is coated in dense clouds, but data from satellites confirmed that a trail of the spout spread 80 kilometers westwards at the altitude of about 7,000 meters. Also, the fallout of ash precipitation was registered in the town of Kozyrevsk located 45 kilometers away from Klyuchevskaya Sopka. Surveyors have registered 124 seismic events near the volcano since Tuesday morning, including volcanic tremor of up to 83.9 mkm per second. Klyuchevskaya Sopka's activity has made it difficult to do correct seismic monitoring of two neighboring volcanos - Shiveluch and Bezymyanny.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
No storms.

The British predict a mild storm season, citing a cooling Atlantic. They say we can expect a mere 10 more named storms this year, in addition to the two that already have gone pffft. But the British aren't predicting how many will become hurricanes. The reason for fewer storms is a cooling trend in the Atlantic's surface sea temperature. NOAA, William Gray, Accuweather and Tropical Storm Risk all have predicted 13 to 17 named storms this summer, including Andrea and Barry. UK Met is using a "dynamical" global climate computer model for its prognostications, rather than statistical models used by American forecasters. "Our method ... uses models of the climate that include all the laws of physics and supercomputers together to predict what's going to be happening over the coming season." The British say their forecasts for the 2005 season and the sudden drop-off in 2006 were more accurate than others.

AUSTRALIA - Wind gusted to 100km/h as 10m waves, pushed ashore by a cyclonic depression, pounded the NSW coast yesterday. But a forecast cyclone failed to eventuate, the worst of the depression centering about 50km out to sea and losing its cyclonic strength 10-20km off shore. June 8 storms killed nine people, including five members of one family, and drove the bulk coal carrier Pasha Bulker ashore at Newcastle's main beach. Fears of cyclonic wind and torrential rain sparked widespread alerts on Tuesday from the South Coast to the Hunter Valley, with residents warned to "batten down the hatches" for a category two cyclone. (photo)

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
INDIA - Army and paramilitary troops have been put on standby in Assam as flash floods triggered by monsoon rains have displaced thousands of people. 'The overall flood situation is grim with all the rivers and their tributaries in full spate. We have asked the army and other security and civil agencies to be on standby to rescue marooned villagers as and when required." More than 20,000 people were displaced overnight in parts of eastern and southern Assam. 'About 170,000 people from 200 villages have been hit by the floods so far in five districts with a total land area of 7,000 hectares affected in the first wave of floods that began last week.' The Brahmaputra river is flowing above the danger level in at least 12 places in Assam, and still rising. The 2,906 km long Brahmaputra is one of Asia's largest rivers that traverses its first stretch of 1,625 km in China's Tibet region, the next 918 km in India and the remaining 363 km through neighbouring Bangladesh before converging with the Bay of Bengal. Every year, floods leave a trail of destruction, washing away villages, submerging paddy fields and drowning livestock, besides causing loss of human life and property. The monsoon was scattered in Assam last year thereby sparing millions of people from the ravaging floods.

AUSTRALIA - Camden has already experienced its WETTEST JUNE IN 16 YEARS with 185.6 millimetres of rain recorded up to Monday, with more rain expected in the next week. 186.2mm of rain fell on Camden in June 1975. "This is a huge turnaround from June last year when only 50.6mm of rain was recorded in Camden for the entire month of June. In fact Camden could well be on target to record its highest annual rainfall in more than seven years with the total for the year to date already at 593mm and we are not even halfway through the year. The highest annual rainfall recorded in Camden over the past seven years was 669mm in 2005." Camden also experienced its COLDEST DAILY MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE in seven years last Thursday when the thermometer hit a daily high of 12.4 degrees. It dropped to minus 0.6 degrees at the day's coldest point.
Another 19 millimetres of rain has fallen across Mount Isa, in north-west Queensland, in the past 24 hours, bringing the RECORD TOTAL FOR THE MONTH to more than 100mm. The temperature has also plummeted to its LOWEST LEVEL IN 42 YEARS.

MALDIVES - Flooding has struck every inhabited island in the country’s northern-most atoll of Haa Alif, and several other islands in the north of the country. No loss of life or serious injury has been report but homes on several islands have been flooded out. Didhoo, the capital of Haa Aliff, is worst effected with at least seven homes flooded and two still submerged. Several people have been made homeless and the island’s water supply has been salinated. In Kulhudhuffushi, the capital of Haa Daal a large section of the harbour has been washed away. Flooding was first reported on Monday and intensified on Tuesday. The Maldives has been battered by wind and rain for over a week and there was no sign of improvement in the weather. Flood waters were reported in every inhabited island in Haa Alif on Monday. On Tuesday flooding was also confirmed in several Haa Daal islands. Miadhu reports over thirty islands have been effected, with flooding also reported in Raa and Shaviyani. Last month up to a hundred islands were flooded, mainly in the south, and the country is still assessing damage from those floods. Unlike in the May floods, this time resorts have been effected too. The flooding is not yet on the scale of early May, which was the worst flooding in the country’s history apart from the 2004 tsunami. But the situation could yet get worse. The MET Office is unable to provide medium or long range forecasts, but they say conditions will not improve for the next twenty four hours.

MEXICO - There is a "high possibility" a huge underground drainage tunnel in Mexico City could soon fail, flooding parts of this metropolis 15 feet deep in sewage. Officials have been puzzled for years by the gradual decrease in capacity of the approximately 20-foot-wide tunnel built in the 1970s to drain waste water from the valley, which is home to 20 million people and has no natural outlet. They have speculated that the tunnel may be partially clogged or that its walls could be decaying. But because it is constantly filled with water, officials have not been able to travel through the structure to inspect it or perform much-needed maintenance. "A failure ... could cause severe floods reaching five meters in the city's historic center, the international airport" and other boroughs on the city's east side. Poor drainage and flooding has been a historical problem for the city, especially during the rainy season that runs typically from late May through October. The Mexico Valley, where the city is located, was largely covered by lakes when the Aztecs founded the city on an island in 1325. The Aztecs built dikes to try to keep out flood waters. The Spaniards who conquered Mexico in 1521 tried to drain the lakes, which have disappeared under the urban sprawl.

SNOW / COLD -
AUSTRALIA - Northern Territory residents are stocking up on jumpers and blankets as they shiver through the COLDEST JUNE ON RECORD. The wild weather further south has brought UNPRECEDENTED COLD and steady rain to much of the Top End in what is meant to be the sunny, dry season. With temperatures under 23 degrees Celsius, locals used to wearing shorts all year round have been wearing fleece-lined jackets. Tennant Creek and Katherine have had their COLDEST JUNE DAYS ON RECORD. The chilly conditions also playing havoc with the digestive system of salt water crocodiles. They cannot even eat. "It's tough for crocodiles when it gets cold, because they can't digest food."

HEAT / CLIMATE CHANGE-
EUROPE - Last autumn-winter season was Europe's WARMEST FOR MORE THAN 700 YEARS. The last time Europeans saw temperatures similar to those of the autumn and winter of 2006-07, they were eating strawberries at Christmas in 1289. European climate measurements and temperature records stretch back several hundred years to 1659. Estimating historical temperatures beyond then involves scrutinising contemporary documents and diaries. Separately the temperatures experienced during autumn 2006 and winter 2007 are likely to have been the warmest in 500 years. But the sequential combination of two such warm seasons is a still RARER event – probably the first since 1289. In that year, people in western and central Europe wrote accounts of what they viewed as EXTREMELY UNUSUAL events. "Documents report for instance that strawberries were eaten at Christmas, and the [vineyards] produced leaves, stock and even blossoms in the middle of January, and in Vienna fruit trees were flowering like in May. This was really extreme, so maybe it can be compared to today in western and central Europe." Similar UNUSUAL events have also been noticed in this recent warm period. For instance, hazel trees and snowdrops in Germany blossomed a full 30 days earlier than at any time in the last 50 years in spring 2007. And in 2006, horse chestnut trees in Switzerland blossomed twice instead of their usual once. "This is really an EXCEPTIONALLY RARE event." The 1289 temperatures may have been caused by a large volcanic eruption in the tropics. The warm autumn and winter in 2006-07 were due to warm air moving up from the Atlantic off the coast of North Africa.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
Herm Albrig

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/19/07 -
5.2 SAMOA ISLANDS REGION
5.0 ROTA REGION, N. MARIANA ISLANDS

PHILIPPINES - since June 15, the Department of Health Eastern Visayas Regional Office has been sending teams to Hinunangan, Southern Leyte to look into the needs of the stress/anxiety-stricken residents who were affected by the frequent aftershocks which followed the intensity 6.5 earthquake which shook Southern Leyte and the nearby provinces on the evening of June 14. Many people are suffering from mental shock and many can't sleep.

FREAK WAVES / HIGH TIDES -
INDONESIA - The Geophysics and Meteorology warned Tuesday that a high tidal wave would hit Arafuru waters, eastern Indonesia, on Thursday and Friday. "The tidal wave could reach three to four meters high." Different pressure between northern Australia and eastern Indonesia was likely to cause the high tidal wave in Arafuru waters.

SOUTH AFRICA - The Red Bull Big Wave Africa 2007 surfing contest was postponed on Monday, the 18th. Some waves were solid 20 to 25-foot sets, but they were far from ideal for running the event. "It was really difficult out there. It was definitely the right decision not to go with the event. The waves were big, but WEIRD and coming from all directions." Tuesday morning (19 June) dawned with a marked drop in swell, to almost half the size of Monday, and the competition was called off again, in order to wait for the next storm.

VOLCANOES -
HAWAII - Kilauea Volcano's vents at Pu'u 'O'o continued their dramatic collapse Monday while the earth nearby expanded, both clues that an underground flow of magma has probably been diverted and might burst to the surface in a new area. The pace of earthquakes, likely caused by the shifting magma, slowed overnight. "For that much magma to be intruding or forced into the rift zone, something's got to give as the magma makes room for itself." Parts of the Pu'u 'O'o crater rim to the southwest that have been collapsing during the past several years suddenly dropped an estimated 30 to 50 feet, and the level of lava within the East Pond in the crater has also dropped to "a much lower elevation." That collapse at Pu'u 'O'o and the apparent stall in the lava flows from the crater area to the ocean strongly suggest the magma flowing into Pu'u 'O'o has been blocked or diverted elsewhere in the East Rift Zone, much as it was during similar events in 1997 and 1999. The deflation of the Kilauea summit continued, which combined with the ongoing earthquakes suggests magma is still leaking out of the summit magma reservoir into the upper East Rift Zone.
Scientists on the Big Island observed a new lava eruption at Kilauea volcano's upper east rift zone Tuesday morning following another swarm of small earthquakes. The small outbreak of lava oozed from a fissure in the forest nearly four miles west of Puu Oo and eight miles southeast of the Kilauea summit. "The outbreak appeared to be a short one that had been over for at least a few hours by the time it was seen this morning. This may be related to the abrupt eastward migration of earthquake epicenters into this area noted between 3:45 and 5 p.m. yesterday. Small earthquakes continue to occur in the area at low levels."

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
No storms.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
JAPAN - The rainy season may set a record as the latest ever. Ever since weather officials announced the start of the Kanto region's rainy season last Thursday, people have been scratching their heads as they look up at blue skies. Central Tokyo had not seen any rainfall from Friday morning to Tuesday evening. Elsewhere in the region, the sun has stubbornly stayed out, prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to consider revising the starting date. Officials said the unexpected spell of fine weather was due to a seasonal rain front that has remained inactive. But the front is expected to be active later this week, bringing some rain to the region. The latest start of the season so far was June 22, recorded in 1967.

BRITAIN - A weather expert is predicting more freak flooding, torrential downpours and hailstorms next week as this month turns from flaming June to mid-summer mayhem.The wet weather is due to persist throughout this week but another wave of rainstorms will batter Britain from the weekend and leave tennis’s showpiece event, Wimbledon, a washout. He predicts the storms would peak between June 24 and 26. “Another wave of rainstorms will hit Britain - especially the south - from around June 20, but especially June 24 to 26 when dramatic thunderstorms will surpass expectations of TV forecasters and probably whack Wimbledon.” Intensities will be significantly greater than that suggested by TV forecasts even 12 hours ahead, the weather expert said. But he dismissed the idea the FREAK mid-summer weather conditions are a result of global warming. “Of course we can all expect the usual drivel from the global warming lobby who will doubtless suggest these floods are caused by mankind’s CO2. They have no evidence for such alarmist nonsense. The fact is that extreme weather events and rapid changes in weather types tend to come in waves roughly every 20 to 24 years due to magnetic changes on the sun. There will be more serious extreme events in the coming 12 months.” He added that many businesses and operations were caught out by last week’s flooding due to a lack of warning because they relied on the traditional meteorology approach which he says uses science that has reached its limits of accuracy.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
"Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.”
-Voltaire-

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/18/07 -
5.1 COMOROS REGION
5.5 CENTRAL IRAN
5.6 VANUATU
6.3 NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G.

TSUNAMI / FREAK WAVES / HIGH TIDES -
INDONESIA - (last year) 7.8 quake and tsunami on July 17, 2006 - Though categorized as magnitude 7.8, the earthquake could scarcely be felt by beachgoers that afternoon. A low tide and wind-driven waves disguised the signs of receding water, so when the tsunami struck, it caught even lifeguards by surprise. That contributed to the death toll of more than 600 persons in Java, Indonesia. "The general assumption was that if you were near the coast where the earthquake took place, you would feel it and be able to run to higher ground. This event caught people by surprise and showed that it's not always that simple." The earthquake was slow rupturing, so it didn't produce strong ground shaking on Java that might have alerted people on the beach. No local warning was issued for the tsunami waves, which arrived only tens of minutes after the earthquake. Fortunately, the event took place on a Monday. Had the massive waves hit the day before, which was a major national holiday, the popular beach would have been much more crowded - and the toll higher. "Warning systems typically don't work very well for locations near earthquakes, where there are only tens of minutes between the earthquake and the tsunami's arrival." In the July 2006 Java tsunami, lifeguards did not notice the withdrawal of ocean water from the beaches because the water was receding anyway because of a normal low tide - and because of large wind-produced waves. Beyond the quiet nature of the catastrophe, scientists have discovered evidence of a 21-meter (65-foot) wave that hit a portion of the coastline near the island of Nusa Kambangan, indicating a second event that may have added to the severity of the disaster. Elsewhere along the 300 kilometers of coastline studied, the waves ranged from 5 to 7 meters (16 to 24 feet). "The runup was unusually high along one portion of the coast, too much for a 7.8 magnitude earthquake. The only explanation we could think of is that a submarine mass movement triggered by the earthquake could have added to the effect of the earthquake, given the essentially straight coastline with little room for large-scale tsunami focusing."

VOLCANOES -
HAWAII - Hundreds of small earthquakes that suggest that magma is on the move under the surface of the Kilauea volcano sent scientists and national park officials scrambling over the weekend and prompted the RARE closure of most of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The earthquake swarm began at 2:15 a.m. Sunday, with more than 260 recorded in 17 hours. Another nine were reported on the island of Hawaii between midnight and 4 a.m. Monday, as well as one 26 miles offshore. The largest of those registered a 3.2 magnitude. Eleven campers and some livestock were evacuated from portions of the park as rangers monitored the UNUSUAL earthquake activity for signs of a shift in the ongoing Kilauea eruption. Fresh cracks were reported in nearby roads. A Park Ranger said it was the first time she could recall since about 1999 that seismic activity caused by underground magma movement prompted the park to take such extensive precautions. The center of the earthquakes was about a mile southwest of Mauna Ulu, but during the day, the hub of the seismic activity migrated about 3 miles down the east rift zone toward Pu’u ’O’o, the source of an ongoing eruption. At the same time, the summit area of Kilauea volcano began to deflate or contract, another clue that magma is shifting from beneath the summit to some other part of the volcano. All the activity raised concerns for the National Park Service, which closed the 18-mile Chain of Craters Road that visitors normally use to reach lowland areas where lava flows into the sea. With the apparent new movement of magma, the concern was that if lava suddenly burst to the surface in an unexpected area, it could cut roads and trails, spew poisonous fumes or start brush fires that could pose a threat to visitors. “Assuming that our inference is correct” — that the earthquakes signal magma movement — “the magma could head to the surface at any time.”
The earthquake swarm near Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has slowed to fewer than 10 small tremors an hour from 100 per hour Sunday morning. National Park Service rangers opened the 11-mile Crater Rim Road and summit trails in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Monday. The 18-mile Chain of Craters Road remains closed after cracks opened across it on Sunday. The earthquakes, which data indicate are being caused by magma moving underground, are occurring mostly between Pauahi and Makaopuhi craters near the volcano's East Rift Zone. At least 10 of the quakes Sunday morning were magnitude 3.0 or stronger. "She seems to be calming down. It's a very young volcano. We've had ongoing eruptions for 25 years." "The summit is continuing to deflate, but that is slowing as well. We think it may mean magma is sort of readjusting itself." Measurements show steady deflation of Kilauea's summit and a wider rift zone to the east near the Makaopuhi crater.
Tiltmeters in the summit area recorded steady deflation for a second day on Monday, more than 40 microradians since early Sunday, and the observatory said the rate of deflation increased "slightly" following a Monday afternoon quake swarm. Monday afternoon's increase in earthquake activity between Makaopuhi and Napau craters, farther east than previous quakes, lasted about an hour. All data indicate that an intrusion of magma started in the Mauna Ulu area early Sunday morning and moved slowly 5 km (3 miles) east along the rift zone throughout June 17. Monday afternoon, the intrusion moved a bit farther east in a burst of earthquake activity starting at about 3:45 p.m. USGS personnel inspected the Puu Oo vent, source of lava for years, and reported that the crater floor had dropped about 20 meters. One route for the lava, called the Petunia tube, was found no longer to be active. It should be noted that Puu Oo lava flow stopped after similar seismic activity in 1997 and again in 1999, only to resume days or weeks later. GPS receivers near the most intense seismic activity recorded further widening across the rift zone near Makaopuhi crater. Total widening was 28 inches since all of this began early Sunday. An observatory field crew spotted new cracking between Mauna Ulu and Makaopuhi. On Sunday afternoon, observers noted many rockfalls from the south wall of Pu`u `O`o cone and collapse of the crater floor around the vents. January vent collapsed at 4:30 p.m. Monday morning after the sun rose, Pu`u `O`o crater was steaming; the floor was still there but the January vent and Drainhole pits had enlarged.
Live panorama webcam of Pu`u `O`o vents, Kilauea Volcano.



TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
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HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / WIND -
TEXAS - Torrential rains flooded several towns and cities in northern Texas on Monday, killing at least four people and destroying homes and buildings.

CANADA - RECORD-BREAKING RAINFALL - Saskatoon residents were busy clearing out their basements on Monday, a day after more than 80 millimetres of rain fell in ONE OF THE HEAVIEST ONE-DAY DOWNPOURS THE CITY HAS EVER EXPERIENCED. One of the worst areas to be hit was the city's northwest - a part of Saskatoon that was still feeling the effects of a major flood two years ago. Flooding problems last year meant that about 2 million acres of farmland never got seeded. Even more land could be left unseeded this year. The crops are slightly behind where they normally would be this time of year, due to cloudy, overcast days.
Residents living near Calgary have been placed on notice after tributaries of the Bow River surged with as much as 70 millimetres of rain over the weekend. The deluge of rain across southern Alberta is BREAKING DECADES-OLD PRECIPITATION RECORDS. Springbank, northwest of Calgary, recorded a whopping 38 millimetres of rainfall over an 18-hour period by 6 p.m. Sunday night. The total BEAT THE PREVIOUS 110-YEAR-OLD RECORD of 29.5 millimetres set back in 1897. Calgary has already seen 149.2 millimetres of rain so far this June, which is normally the city's wettest month. "The normal for the entire month is 79.8 millimetres."

AUSTRALIA - Emergency crews stand ready as residents of New South Wales coastal areas brace for what threatened to be the most dangerous of three major storms to hit the state this month. Cyclonic winds up to 125km/h and huge waves are forecast to batter the coastline from tonight and into tomorrow, starting at Moruya in the state's south and moving north. Forecasters warned of cyclone-strength winds whipped up by an intense low pressure system. The state already faces huge damage costs. "Estimates are that the damage bill will ultimately top $1 billion, larger than either the (1999) Sydney hailstorm or the (1989) Newcastle earthquake." The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service also announced the 24-hour closure of popular areas within national parks in the Blue Mountains area, west of Sydney. Following the rescue of backpacking campers during the earlier storms, bushwalkers have been advised to postpone all back-country travel until conditions improve. NSW Maritime was urging boat owners to secure their boats and stay off the water from later today. The dumping rain and violent storms were further evidence of a developing and hopefully drought-busting La Nina, a weather expert said.

NETHERLANDS - Exceptionally heavy rain on Thursday night caused damage around the country, with the Drenthe town of Hoogeveen particularly badly hit. ‘Extremely heavy ra