Global Disaster Watch - Natural Disasters

Friday, November 20, 2009 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Once bitten by a snake, one is scared all his/her life at the mere sight of a rope.
Chinese proverb

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

Quakes this morning -
5.3 WESTERN XIZANG

Largest quakes yesterday -
11/19/09 -
5.0 NEAR N COAST OF PAPUA, INDONESIA
5.5 HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
5.0 PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDS REGION

MYSTERY BOOMS / SKYQUAKES -
MISSISSIPPI - 11/17/09 & 11/18/09 - Sonic boom’s source still a mystery. The boom that rattled windows in Pascagoula and Moss Point, swamped police phone lines and brought entire neighborhoods of people out of their homes to see what was happening was almost as much a mystery Wednesday as it was Tuesday night when it happened. There were four booms on Tuesday. One at 8 p.m. rattled the east side of Jackson County all the way up to the rural northern regions. Then there was a series of three booms about 9 p.m., felt and heard in parts of Ocean Springs and Gautier to the west and in central Jackson County, as well as Pascagoula and Moss Point in the east. Then on Wednesday evening at about 8 p.m. at least one boom was felt in Ocean Springs, Vancleave and Pascagoula. “You could hear the walls rattle it was so loud." A Moss Point resident said it moved pictures on her wall and caused her dogs to bark; a student at Trent Lott Academy in Pascagoula said his whole neighborhood came out of their houses and looked toward the Chevron Refinery. Another said the boom set off a neighbor’s home security alarm.
Keesler Air Force base told city police around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday the boom was caused by military jets on a training exercise in the Gulf, but that the jets were not from Keesler. On Wednesday security at the base reconfirmed the jets had contacted the tower Tuesday night and were told there was a training exercise. But what jets, and whose jets were flying at supersonic speeds over the Gulf at night? Keesler didn’t know. Pensacola Naval Air Station’s Air Operations on the base said they weren’t flying anything fast enough to cause a sonic boom at present. As it turns out, Eglin is the base that controls military training ranges - airspace over the Gulf of Mexico used for military maneuvers in this part of the Gulf. Eglin’s public relations office looked at the schedule for Tuesday night and said, “In our air space at those times all we had in the area were A-10s, and they’re not fast enough to break the sound barrier.” The A-10s were firing guns, but did not discharge any heavy explosives during the maneuver.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
No current tropical cyclones.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / UNUSUAL & OUT-OF-SEASON WEATHER -
SOUTH AFRICA - heavy rains, biting cold and strong winds battered the coastline. Roofs were blown off houses, and homes were washed away in parts of the province. A motorist was killed when a car was swept into a river in Port Shepstone. The SA Weather Service Wednesday issued a warning of rainfall exceeding 50mm in KwaZulu-Natal. It is UNUSUAL, but not unheard of, for KwaZulu-Natal to be hit by heavy rain at this time of year, and for there to be snowfall on the Drakensberg.
There was panic in KwaZulu-Natal after a hoax e-mail did the rounds, warning of a cyclone approaching the province. But Cyclone Roberta would not make landfall. "There is no tropical cyclone headed for the southern coastline."

EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-
AUSTRALIA - this month's heatwave was caused by a strong high pressure system over the Tasman Sea blocking cold fronts to the southeast. "Instead of getting good bursts of cool southerly air over the inland, it's received virtually no cool air from the south and it has just got hotter and hotter. The Spring time is characterised by rapidly moving fronts across the Southern Ocean and it's QUITE RARE to get a significant blocking event such as what we've had. You're more likely to get it in January or February or even early Autumn." A combination of unseasonally high temperatures, strong winds, bushfire smoke and thunderstorms caused flight delays around the country. A cold change swept through Melbourne today, bringing high winds. Gusts of up to 100km/h were recorded at Essendon Airport.

SPACE WEATHER -
Newly-discovered asteroid 2009 WJ6 is flying past Earth today only 110,000 miles away - about half the distance to the Moon. The time of closest approach will be 1100 UT.
The electric-blue "mystery cloud" seen twisting over Colorado and Utah at daybreak on Nov. 18th is no longer a mystery. It was asteroid debris. On Oct. 7, 2008, asteroid 2008 TC3 hit the atmosphere and exploded over Sudan, creating a cloud. On Nov. 18, 2009, a similar-sized asteroid hit the atmosphere and exploded over Colorado and Utah in a flash of light that startled onlookers across at least eight states. Hours later, daybreak revealed the "mystery cloud" which looks just like the debris from 2008 TC3. Both clouds resemble icy noctilucent clouds that form naturally around Earth's poles during summer or in the aftermath of rocket launches. Researchers have long suspected that space dust can prompt the formation of noctilucent clouds by acting as nucleation points for high-altitude ice crystals. (photos)

HEALTH THREATS -
Latest bird flu news from the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.
HealthMap - Global disease alert map.
SWINE FLU BREAKING NEWS

CHINA has promised severe punishment for officials caught concealing deaths from H1N1 flu after a medical expert said suspect cases may have been held back by local governments and that he did not believe the national H1N1 death toll of 53. The Health Ministry said China had adopted a new H1N1 accounting method earlier this month. If a person was confirmed with H1N1 and then died, the case should be reported as death from H1N1, whether or not there was another condition. The H1N1 flu strain affects the respiratory tract. Patients who become severely ill or die typically suffer from pneumonia, either brought on directly by the virus or due to secondary bacterial infections. A ministry official said it would no longer issue cumulative tolls, only new cases and deaths. That will make it difficult to determine the actual extent of H1N1 deaths in China, which based on previous figures had been statistically much lower than in other countries.
H1N1 cases in China have risen sharply, despite aggressive quarantine measures, the World Health Organization's top official in China said. He said the 70,000 cases and 53 deaths cited by the government are only "minimum numbers." But China's health minister said the control measures helped buy time to develop a vaccine, which is now being given to 1.5 million people a day in an effort to cover 90 million - 7% of the population - by the end of the year.

Spike in cases prompts Hungary to declare epidemic - Hungarian officials declared a flu epidemic yesterday after illness reports rose more than 30% in a week, putting cases above the country's epidemic threshold. The number of flu hospitalizations rose to 172. Hungary launched a pandemic vaccine campaign in October using its own vaccine, which is based on a mock-up produced for the H5N1 virus.

Thai official says second wave starting - The second round of the H1N1 epidemic has begun in Thailand. 30% of 200 students tested in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima were infected. An estimated 8.4 million Thais were infected in the first wave of the outbreak, and the death toll reached 185 yesterday. The government bought 2 million doses of vaccine from France and is considering buying 800,000 more.

Analysis reveals two genetic clusters of H1N1 viruses - German researchers report that a genetic analysis of 300 pandemic H1N1 viruses isolated earlier this year shows that "two closely related but distinct clusters" circulated in most countries simultaneously. Differences were found in the genes for the two surface proteins and four internal proteins. None of the differences involved parts of the genome responsible for known biological functions, and the importance of the findings remains to be determined.

RECALLS & ALERTS:
The Procter & Gamble Company is voluntarily recalling three lots of its Vicks Sinex nasal spray in three countries: the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. The company is taking this precautionary step after finding the bacteria B. cepacia in a small amount of product made at its plant in Gross Gerau, Germany.

Thursday, November 19, 2009 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Once on a tiger's back, it is hard to alight.
Chinese proverb

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

Quakes this morning -
5.4 HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
5.0 PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDS REGION

Largest quakes yesterday -
11/18/09 -
5.6 SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
5.4 BOUVET ISLAND REGION

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Cyclone ANJA was 590 nmi ESE of Port Louis, Mauritius.

The 2009-2010 cyclone season has started in the Indian Ocean, with the appearance of the first cyclone called "Anja" on Wednesday. The designated names for the hurricanes that will form within the cyclone basin of the Indian Ocean during 2010 are Anja, Bongani, Cleo, David, Edzani, Gelane, Hubert, Imani, Joel, Kanja, Lunda, Mohono, Nigel, Olympe, Pamela, Quentin, Rahim, Savana, Themba, Uyapo, Viviane, Walter, Xangy, Yemurai and Zanele.

Tuesday morning, Cyclone Anja was a powerful Category 4 cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Wind shear then gave Anja a strong "punch in the gut" as the storm has weakened to a Category 1 cyclone. At 1500 UTC (10 a.m. ET) on November 17, Anja's maximum sustained winds were sustained at 75 knots (86 mph). The storm seems to be spreading out as it is weakening, as tropical storm force winds extended out to 115 miles from the center (earlier Tuesday, they only extended 75 miles out from the center). Anja is predicted to continue weakening and move harmlessly toward the southeast over the open waters of the south Indian Ocean.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / UNUSUAL & OUT-OF-SEASON WEATHER -
Flooding warnings for parts of UK - People in north-west England and south-west Scotland face a high risk of their homes being damaged by flooding, the Environment Agency is warning. There are 25 flood warnings in place across the UK, but Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway are at greatest risk today. North Wales has already been hit by heavy rain and has had some flooding. The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings, with up to 250mm of rain (9.8in) possible on higher ground. An Environment Agency spokesman also warned of a possible tidal surge today in the northern Irish Sea which could increase the flood risk along the west coast from Aberystwyth northwards. The winds will gust up to 70mph (112km/h) in some areas, but the extremely wet weather is the main concern.

CANARY ISLANDS - Tuesday, heavy rain in Las Palmas on Gran Canaria flooded residential areas. Tenerife was also badly effected by the extreme weather. Some schools on the island have closed. The authorities are calling it the WORST RAIN IN 40 YEARS. In some places 100 litres of rain has fallen per square metre, causing traffic chaos. Cars have even been washed off the roads by the flooding.

HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -
NEPAL - The lingering after-effect of Cyclone Phyan, which lashed off the western coast in India last week, is being felt in the Kathmandu Valley. As per the forecast, the FREAK weather - overcast sky coupled with appreciable dip in daytime temperature and intermittent drizzle - will persist over the next few days. The mercury will plunge lower than normal. A meteorologist explained the causes behind the freak weather pattern. “Usually, the onset of winter brings in the domineering Westerly wind, which triggers rainfall. Besides, we’re still reeling under the residual impact of Cyclone Phyan.”

SPACE WEATHER-
WESTERN U.S. - 11/18/09 - something exploded in the atmosphere above the western United States. Witnesses in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho say the fireball "turned night into day" and issued shock waves that "shook the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time. The fireball was so bright it actually turned the sky noontime blue. Although the fireball appeared during the Leonid meteor shower, it was not a Leonid. Infrasound recordings of the blast suggest a small asteroid hitting Earth's atmosphere and exploding with an energy of 0.5 to 1 kiloton of TNT. Experts liken the event to the Park Forest fireball of 2003, which scattered dozens of meteorites across a suburb of Chicago. Meteorites are likely from this fireball as well.
Approximately 6 hours after the fireball, people in Utah and Colorado got another surprise. As the sun rose over those states, a twisting electric-blue cloud appeared in the dawn sky: "They were strangely bright relative to the rest of the sky." The cloud strongly resembles artificial noctilucent clouds formed at high altitudes by rocket and shuttle launches. Yet there was no (officially reported) rocket launch at dawn on Nov. 18th. Could the cloud be associated with the fireball? The geographical coincidence is certainly striking. Debris from the fireball should have dissipated by sunrise, but the cloud remains unexplained and a connection to the fireball cannot yet be dismissed. (photos)

HEALTH THREATS -
Latest bird flu news from the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.
HealthMap - Global disease alert map.
SWINE FLU BREAKING NEWS

With 6.6 million doses of H1N1 vaccine given so far, Canada has seen only 36 serious adverse reactions. One person died of an anaphylactic reaction, but it was not yet certain if the vaccine caused it. Serious events have also included fevers and convulsions. 20% of Canada's 31 million people have been vaccinated, the highest proportion of any country.
Diverse public health programs in Canada, such as support groups and food inspections, are being postponed or suspended as officials redirect staff to H1N1 vaccination efforts, a plan that has been in the works for months. Health authorities in several provinces have postponed non-flu vaccination programs.

Santa workers and volunteers are seeking ways to prevent novel H1N1 infection during the holiday season. One trade group urged its members to use hand sanitizer and take vitamins and the public to keep sick children home. The president of another group asked state lawmaker to consider prioritizing Santa for H1N1 vaccine, given that many are exposed to sick children and are obese, which has been identified as a high-risk condition.

The World Health Organization says that preliminary tests reveal no significant changes in pandemic H1N1 viruses taken from patients in Ukraine. Genetic sequencing done in Britain and the US on 34 samples shows that the virus is similar to the one used to make novel H1N1 vaccine, reconfirming the vaccine's efficacy.

US Department of Agriculture researchers report that the pandemic H1N1 virus does not easily infect poultry or spread among them. The researchers inoculated chickens, turkeys, ducks, and quail with the virus. Most of the birds showed no sign of infection; some quail were infected but did not pass the virus to other quail. Two turkey flocks in Chile were infected earlier this year, but those may have been isolated events.

Even as drug makers promise to support Washington's health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation's drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years.

CURRENT WORLDWIDE NATURAL DISASTERS