May & June 2008 Featured Disasters

Monday, June 30, 2008 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect.
Steven Wright

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

This morning there has been a 6.7 quake in the SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION.

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/29/08 -
5.0 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.9 PRIMOR'YE, RUSSIA
5.1 OFF COAST OF OREGON
5.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
5.2 WESTERN XIZANG
5.6 OFFSHORE CHIAPAS, MEXICO

VOLCANOES -
NEW ZEALAND - Lake temperatures and gas levels remain high on Mt Ruapehu. The mountain last erupted in September last year. GNS Science says the temperatures and levels usually return to normal after an eruption but they are still high, nine months later. The agency says another eruption is unlikely anytime soon but skiers and snowboarders should be aware of exit strategies in place. It says emergency management agencies met last week, to brush up on their eruption response plans.

FREAK WAVES / ABNORMAL TIDES / RISING SEA LEVELS -
DUBAI - FREAK weather could endanger the lives of anyone swimming in the sea or trekking in the desert, Dubai Police have warned. The Ports Police Station issued a “cautionary advisory” informing residents and visitors about potential weather changes and urged people to be careful when going to the beach or visiting the desert or hilly areas. They also warned people not to swim at night when the sea becomes rougher. People were advised not to go to remote, unsupervised beaches, which may have hidden dangers such as strong currents or whirlpools. Weather conditions are expected to change constantly over the coming days, meaning anyone going sailing should first inform the operations room at Dubai Police. “This will make it easier for the police to find them in case of any accident.”

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Tropical storm BORIS was 660 nmi SW of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Tropical storm CRISTINA was 1185 nmi WSW of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

PHILIPPINES - Fishing industry suffers after ferry tragedy - The government suspended all diving operations to recover bodies inside the passenger ferry which capsized during Typhoon Fengshen on June 21 with more than 850 people on board and banned fishing around the island on Friday after it was revealed the ferry was carrying a highly toxic pesticide. The crescent-shaped island has one of the country's most diverse marine eco systems. Should the chemicals leak into its pristine waters the impact on local marine life would be devastating. With their houses devastated by the typhoon and their livelihoods on the line, people are being forced to beg for food from relatives to feed their families. "We have no rice, no money. Now we can't even go out to sea to fish. That's all we have got. We are a poor people." Health officials are now conducting tests on samples taken from the area, and while initial results showed no contamination, experts are taking no chances. But in the meantime, already poor fishermen are wondering what will happen to them.

CHINA - The death toll in the last week's tropical storm Fengshen which struck south China's Guangdong province has mounted to 14 even as heavy rains continued to lash the city, triggering landslides and forcing cancellation of flights. At least 14 people have died till now and another nine are missing. Fengshen, which means "God of Wind", had brought downpours and caused the rivers to swell in most parts of the country's industrial powerhouse, Guangdong, after hitting the province's economic boom city of Shenzen on Wednesday last. Although the tropical storm had left Shenzen, strong rain continued to pound the city Saturday, triggering landslides and forcing cancellation of flights and stranding passengers. The rains affected 340,000 people, destroyed more than 1,200 houses and inundated more than 640,000 hectares of crops.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / UNUSUAL & OUT-OF-SEASON WEATHER -
PHILIPPINES - heavy rains have triggered a landslide that killed at least four people and injured 26 others in the central Philippines. The houses of six families were buried late Sunday in mountainous Samboan township, in Cebu province. Many of the people were sleeping when the earth crashed down. It had been raining heavily and villagers reported a squall that whipped up winds in the area before the landslide.

U.S. -
Well before record floods overwhelmed at least two dozen levees in the Mississippi River watershed, government officials at all levels have raised concern about the ability of such structures to protect property and lives. For millions of Americans living in flood-prone places, all that stands between the waters of mayhem and safety is a pile of dirt. Earthen berms, dikes and levees, identical to those overtopped and breached in dozens of places along swollen rivers in the Midwest during the past few weeks, make up the vast majority of flood protection efforts across the United States. A growing list of levees around the country are being found wanting as tougher scrutiny from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state regulators and private engineering firms reveals defects in design and maintenance. Even where levees are well-maintained, as those in the flood zone have been in most instances, officials note that the likelihood of flood levels rising higher than the tops of the berms seems to be increasing, because of a combination of more intense storms and changes in land use. Most of the levees that have been overtopped were built lower because they defend mostly farmland rather than cities. But places like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Iowa City saw rivers crest more than 10 feet higher than levels reached in the then record-setting flood of 1993 — making it impossible to pile sand bags high enough or fast enough on their levees to keep the water out. No one at any level of government knows where all the levees are, much less the condition of thousands of the structures. By some estimates, there may be 20,000 to 30,000 levees scattered across the country, but no one is sure. Maintenance of levees, even those operated by the Corps itself, is years and billions of dollars behind schedule. "The levees are already bad and they are going to get worse. This is not a joke. We know this is going to happen." (photos)

FOOD / WATER / SUPPLIES-
U.S. floods may boost food prices for years - Levees on the cresting Mississippi River held today as the worst US Midwest flooding in 15 years began to ebb, but multibillion-dollar crop losses may boost world food prices for years.

In the Philippines, a "food shortage" looms in the next one to two months after the massive floods due to typhoon "Frank" (international codename: Fengshen) devastated farm lands and livestock in the Western Visayas. One of the affected provinces, Iloilo, is one of the top three rice-producing provinces in the country. The floods destroyed 22 hectares or rice lands, equivalent to 66,000 metric tons of rice, and "almost wiped out" livestock and fisheries in the region. In Cadiz town in Negros Occidental, the storm destroyed half a billion pesos worth of fishing boats. Water systems destroyed by the storm have not been repaired.

HEALTH THREATS -
Latest bird flu news from the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.
Global Bird Flu Breaking News - updated every 10 minutes.

Sunday, June 29, 2008 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself;
he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/28/08 -
5.4 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
6.3 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.2 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.0 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.1 KEP. TANIMBAR REGION, INDONESIA
5.1 BOUGAINVILLE REGION, P.N.G.
5.4 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
6/27/08 -
5.1 TONGA
5.2 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
6.1 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
6.7 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.1 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
5.0 OFFSHORE SUCRE, VENEZUELA

INDIA - The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were again jolted by three successive tremors on Saturday, just a day after three other quakes shook the islands. The latest was 6.3 at 6.26 p.m [there has been a 5.4 since then] with the epicentre of the quake located 132 km south-west of Port Blair, 35 km beneath the sea. Two earthquakes of moderate intensity measuring 5.1 and 5.3 on the Richter scale shook the islands earlier at 8.56 a.m. and 10 a.m. respectively. No damage to property or loss of life was reported. This was the 6th tremor felt since Friday after the islands were hit by three earthquakes measuring 6.7, 6.1 and 6.6 on the Richter scale. The successive quakes have triggered panic among the people on the islands which were ravaged by the December 26, 2004 killer tsunami. [Site note - the magnitudes of these quakes change as seismologists examine the data.]

IRAN - four consecutive tremors measuring 3.2, 4.4, 3.2 and 3.2 shook Kerman province, Southeastern Iran Friday night. The city of Jiroft on Friday was hit at 19:26 hours local time (1456 GMT) for the first time and it was struck on Saturday at 06:03 hours local time (0133 GMT) for the last. The Office for Natural Disasters had informed people of the likely quake, calling for preparations to deal with it. The four consecutive tremors scared the people of the province who stayed outdoors in the streets and parks overnight.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Tropical storm BORIS was 566 nmi SW of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Tropical storm CRISTINA was 1079 nmi WSW of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Tropical Storm Boris has formed off Mexico's Pacific coast, but is not threatening land. Tropical Storm Boris and a depression were out at sea far from Mexico in the east Pacific on Saturday and moving away from land. Boris had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and was about 630 miles (1,015 kilometers) south-southwest of Baja California's southern tip. Tropical Depression Three-E had winds of 35 mph (56 kph) and was about 1,080 miles (1,740 kilometers) west-southwest of Baja California's southern tip. The depression became tropical storm Cristina later on Saturday.
Another broad area of disturbed weather is located several hundred miles south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec (southeast of the two tropical storms). Slow development of this system is possible over the next couple of days as it moves West-Northwestward.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / UNUSUAL & OUT-OF-SEASON WEATHER -
CHINA - Non-stop rain takes its toll in flood-hit south China - "It's been raining almost continuously for about two months, much longer than last year, and it's a lot of trouble." Inhabitants of the capital of Guangdong province - used to bad weather at this time of year - say they have had enough of the FREAK downpours that have caused deadly floods in nearby towns and hit business. They are the lucky ones, however, as the city was largely spared from the deadly floods that hit other towns in Guangdong this month. But the amount of rain, and the length of time the downpours have lasted, have taken their toll on locals here. The tropical storm that hit the city on Wednesday - the remainder of the typhoon that killed more than 1,000 people in the Philippines - sent yet more sheets of rain and caused chaos in the city. It forced the evacuation of more than 600 people from the southern district of Nansha, as landslides were reported in 14 different places and traffic slowed to a snail's pace. On Thursday, the rain had subsided from its tropical storm force, but was still pouring down on a sea of umbrellas in the city. The rain has also hit food prices. The bad weather could continue until the beginning of next week.

U.S. -
Iowa was one of 17 states whacked this year by an UNUSUALLY severe outbreak of storms, with financial, public safety, infrastructure and environmental repercussions that could take state officials years to resolve. Hurricane season started June 1, so more states could face disasters. But already 2008 has been UNUSUAL, meteorologists say, because of the frequency of fast-moving storms that have occurred at night in populated areas. About 60 people a year die in tornadoes, but this year 118 have been killed, the most in 10 years. The burst of violent weather began on Feb. 5 when 87 tornadoes swept across Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama, killing 56 people. Since then, tornadoes have struck Georgia, Virginia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. Multiple heavy thunderstorms have pelted Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, leading to flooding.
A new 182 page administration report on extreme weather warns that human-induced climate change is making heavy downpours more intense, with storms that used to occur every 20 years projected to occur every six by the end of the century. One of clearest trends in observed records is an increase in the number and intensity of heavy precipitation events. Over the last century, for example, days where it has rained more than four inches in the upper Midwest have jumped 50 percent. "That rise in global temperature has led to an increase in water vapor. That increase in water vapor is absolutely necessary for the production of heavy and extreme precipitation events." The report also says abnormally hot days and nights are likely to become more frequent, and there will be fewer colder days. "A day so hot that it is currently experienced only once every 20 years would occur every three years by the middle of the century over much of the continental U.S. and every five years over most of Canada." Droughts are likely to become more severe in the southwestern part of the U.S. as rainfall totals drop in winter. Warmer air also will help evaporate moisture from the ground, making droughts worse. "There is no safe haven. There is no place you can live that won't suffer the consequences of global warming."

COLD -
CANADA - unsettled weather conditions are prevailing throughout eastern Canada. That's because the jet stream is way below where it should be. It is south of New Brunswick, when it should be in northern Quebec. "It has been frustrating the last while because temperatures have been running about five degrees (Celsius) below normal and there have been showers or a chance of showers almost every day." Because of this unusual positioning of the jet stream, southeastern New Brunswick can expect showers and thunderstorms, along with below normal temperatures, from now to next Wednesday. The jet stream is expected to finally move north later in the week, resulting in sunny, mild, clear conditions on both Thursday and Friday. But the break in the weather pattern will be short-lived, because the jet stream is forecast to swing back south of New Brunswick again next Saturday, bringing a return next weekend to more dreary weather.

EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-

Warming world sends plants uphill - Climate change has resulted in many plant species moving an average of 29 metres uphill every decade. Climate change has caused plants to seek cooler conditions at higher altitudes. Smaller species such as ferns, which have shorter reproduction cycles, were the quickest to relocate. This suggests that long living woody plant species, such as trees, are likely to be more threatened by climate change than herb species like grasses. "This may imply profound changes in the composition and structure of plant communities and animal species that depend upon them."

CALIFORNIA - An UNPRECEDENTED outbreak of lightning strikes ignited more than 800 wildfires in a single day across Northern California. A RECORD-DRY SPRING followed by early summer heat and FREAK electrical storms were responsible for ONE OF THE WORST DAYS FOR WILDFIRES IN THE STATE'S HISTORY. A pall of thick smoke obscured the sky and reduced visibility to less than 3 kilometres in San Francisco and other cities of Northern California. The huge clouds of smoke were THE WORST IN LIVING MEMORY. Even with out-of-state firefighters brought in, the sheer number of blazes mean that many of them are left to burn out of control. Smoke from the fires also are creating unhealthful air quality.

HEALTH THREATS -
Latest bird flu news from the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.
Global Bird Flu Breaking News - updated every 10 minutes.

Salmonella source still a mystery as cases top 800 - no tomatoes have tested positive as the source of the outbreak.

Friday, June 27, 2008 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
When adversity knocks on your door, and you're in hot water up to your neck, how do you respond? Are you a carrot - you seem strong, but when things get hot and you're under pressure, you wilt and lose strength? Are you an egg - you appear not to change when the heat is turned up, but actually your heart becomes hardened? Are you a coffee bean - rather than succumbing to the heat, you change the water around you? If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, your very essence will change your environment for the better.

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

This morning there has been a 6.7 quake in the ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION.

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/26/08 -
6.1 TONGA
5.2 CENTRAL PERU
5.0 KEP. TANIMBAR REGION, INDONESIA
5.2 CENTRAL PERU

VOLCANOES -
ARCTIC - Researchers from an expedition to the Gakkel Ridge discovered, with a specially developed camera, extensive layers of volcanic ash on the seafloor, which indicates a gigantic volcanic eruption. "Explosive volcanic eruptions on land are nothing unusual and pose a great threat for whole areas. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and buried thriving Pompeii under a layer of ash and pumice. Far away in the Arctic Ocean, at 85° N 85° E, a similarly violent volcanic eruption happened almost undetected in 1999 - in this case, however, under a water layer of 4,000 m thickness." Previously researchers had assumed that explosive volcanism cannot happen in water depths exceeding 3 kilometres because of high ambient pressure. "These are the first pyroclastic deposits we've ever found in such deep water, at oppressive pressures that inhibit the formation of steam, and many people thought this was not possible." The Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean spreads so slowly at 6-14 mm/year, that current theories considered volcanism unlikely - until a series of 300 strong earthquakes over a period of eight months indicated the eruption. It was the largest swarm of earthquakes ever to occur along the planet’s system of mid-ocean ridges.

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

The death toll from Typhoon Fengshen, the storm that battered the Philippines last week, could go as high as 1300 if the missing passengers and crew of the capsized ferry are included. Rescue divers continued to search the overturned ferry Thursday but failed to retrieve any new survivors, raising the possibility that as many as 809 of the 865 passengers and crew had perished in the disaster. Since the ship capsized Saturday near Sibuyan Island, only 56 survivors have been found. The Philippine Coast Guard said 124 bodies had either washed ashore on nearby islands or had been found floating in the sea. Adding to the uncertainty of the situation was the way in which some of the recovered bodies were being handled. On some of the islands where bodies had washed up, television footage showed corpses being dumped from a truck into mass graves. Many of the bodies had not been examined by forensic experts for possible identification. Officials on Thursday raised the overall death toll from the storm to 498, excluding those still missing. The typhoon affected more than 2.4 million Filipinos in 42 of the country's 81 provinces. Estimated damage to property is at more than 5.5 billion pesos, or about $125 million.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / UNUSUAL & OUT-OF-SEASON WEATHER -
IRELAND - Limerick hit by torrential downpours - Commuters experienced monsoon-like conditions en route to work this Thursday morning as the heavens opened on top of them. The city streets were submerged during the downpour leaving pedestrians side-stepping large puddles which appeared suddenly on footpaths. The weather is in "a broken mood at the moment because of an Atlantic depression which can affect us at any time of the year, but it is dominating our weather pattern at the moment".

SWITZERLAND - On Wednesday night, hurricane-force winds of up to 140 kilometers per hour (87 mph) and a massive major storm hit the region, power was lost. "This is not normal summer weather for central Europe. It was exceptional."

EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-

PORTUGAL - The National meteorological institute has revealed that this summer is expected to be ONE OF THE HOTTEST IN THE LAST 25 YEARS. Temperatures for June, July and August are expected to be 0.5 degrees above average, with the highest likely to be recorded in central and southern Portugal. “If the predictions are correct then we could have a very serious situation, similar to that of 2003 when 1,953 people died because of the heat.” As well as high temperatures, the meteorological institute also alerts to high levels of ultra violet (UV) radiation, which is measured on a scale from the lowest level of one to the highest level of 11. The UV levels for the Algarve are expected to remain at a minimum of Very High (between eight and 10) this summer.

CALIFORNIA - Expert says drought to continue 9 more years - From measurements of the height of the Pacific from space, it tells him the climate here is in trouble. The scientist has gone beyond the annual fluctuations of El Nino and La Nina. He measures the changing height of the ocean over a five- to 20-year range and sees what he calls a Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Over about a 10-year period, the elevation of vast tracts of the ocean will change and where it was higher and warmer becomes lower and cooler and vice versa. This oscillation has a powerful bearing on global warming and can dramatically reinforce the behavior of El Nino and La Nina, dampening or reinforcing their behavior. The last nine years are consecutively THE NINE DRIEST IN A CENTURY, and that can be traced to the oscillation. "We haven't had a big El Nino in a decade." He predicted temperatures will continue to rise in the region. Even in cooler years such as the one they are in now, temperatures will spike for a few days, resulting in dangerous triple-digit temperatures and heavy water use. He says a crisis is looming, and the only solution is for all of us to reduce water consumption by 50%. Golf courses are a major culprit. They absorb heat rather than reflect it back into space. Global warming has pushed the jet stream farther north, and there is less snow pack. He hopes we can control our thirst, but he has reservations. "The world is getting dumber."

FOOD / WATER / SUPPLIES-
A lack of suitable flowers may be forcing bumblebees to seek out aphids to feed on their sugary secretions. The secretions offer a substitute for nectar, but do not contain the protein the insects need to stay healthy. It is a behaviour that appears to be becoming increasingly common in the United Kingdom. Images captured by the BBC Scotland news website show the bees visiting tree leaves covered with aphids. There have been warnings that bumblebee and wild bee populations around the UK are experiencing "catastrophic declines". Bees are important pollinators of flowers and crops. The bumblebees' behaviour of feeding on secretions from aphids could be a further sign of the problems facing the insects. "Although the aphid secretions provide them with a sugary solution, a substitute for nectar, they provide no protein. Bumblebees can only get their protein from pollen, which they feed to their growing young, so it is essential for a healthy population." Flowers from the pea and mint families seem to be particularly beneficial.

HEALTH THREATS -
Latest bird flu news from the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.
Global Bird Flu Breaking News - updated every 10 minutes.

RECALLS & ALERTS:
- Matterhorn Group Inc. Announces Voluntary Recall of Astro Pops and Missile Pops 3.5 oz Cherry Pineapple Frozen Novelty Pops in Arizona, Nevada and California due to Safety Hazard - they may contain pieces of hard plastic.
- Recall of the one-gallon Nestle Pure Life Purified Drinking Water sold ONLY in Shop-Rite stores in the five Northeast states of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Thursday, June 26, 2008 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Criminal: A person with predatory instincts
who has not sufficient capital to form a corporation.
Howard Scott

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/25/08 -
5.6 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
5.3 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
5.3 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
5.3 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.0 MOLUCCA SEA
5.3 SAMAR, PHILIPPINES

VOLCANOES -
NEW ZEALAND - Despite massive media coverage and a climber losing his leg, only a half of Ruapehu's visitors are aware of the mountain's eruption last year. And only 45 per cent were aware of the correct action to take in the event of an eruption or lahar. "Ruapehu is a fantastic place to climb, ski, hike and photograph but it's also a very active volcano where even small eruptions can be hazardous." The unpredictable nature of small eruptions mean anyone within the two-kilometre summit hazard zone near the crater is vulnerable. An estimated 100,000 people visit each winter.

HAWAII - A new vent that erupted to life in mid-March 2008 atop Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island shows no signs of shutting down. At times a billowing white steam plume has blasted thousands of feet into the air, so high it has been picked up on satellite imagery. Other times the vent has glowed a ghostly bright orange or shot out a sooty rusty cloud of ash, hurtled rocks out of its throat and several small explosive eruptions, THE FIRST OF THOSE TYPE IN OVER 80 YEARS, have occurred. (photo)
It's nature's one-two punch - Halemaumau crater's explosion and Kilauea's leaking of lava give the Big Island not one, but two outlets for venting sulfur dioxide. "Experts told a House vog task force that over time the toxic gas could wreak havoc with all sorts of things. One of the possibilities is prolonged activity at Halemaumau." The longer vog particulates are injected into the air, the greater the chance for less rainfall. "No individual droplet is able to accumulate enough mass to actually precipitate." That's bad news for Big Island farmers. They are already seeing crop damage from the toxic air. Less rainfall would be devastating. Another concern is breathing problems. Doctors at Kau Hospital are seeing more respiratory infections that may be linked to vog. On the south side of the Big Island you can't escape it. "One of the emergency room physicians told me he has come into the hospital on high vog days and actually seen a layer of vog down the hallway." "The eruption rate of lava is on the average of a half a million cubic meters per day. That's a lot of lava." And it's not going to stop anytime soon. With Halemaumau also venting toxic gas, scientists and medical experts say it's time to do more than watch and wonder.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Tropical depression FENGSHEN was 65 nmi NW of Hong Kong.

BURMA - Nearly three quarters of those who survived Burma's devastating cyclone lack enough food to last more than a week and remain in desperate need of help, according to the United Nations.

CHINA - Tropical storm Fengshen hit the southeast coast of China early on Wednesday, bringing about heavy rains and strong winds. The storm made landfall in the coastal area of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, at 5:30 a.m. with winds of up to 83 kilometers per hour. One crewman was injured and another is missing after falling into the sea as their container ship made an emergency mooring off Shanwei City, Guangdong, at around 4 a.m. on Wednesday. More than 13,000 ships in Guangdong returned to harbor ahead of the storm's arrival. Heavy rains and gales have already hit central and southern parts of the province. The storm will continue to move north at a speed of 15 km per hour and lose strength. Within an hour of landfall, monitoring stations in Shenzhen had reported rainfall of up to 38 millimeters. The Shenzhen meteorological station forecast downpours of up to 200 mm would hit the city Wednesday and today. The storm was forecast to hit Ganzhou City, in Jiangxi, late on Wednesday and was expected to affect the province for 36 hours. A flood prevention emergency plan was activated on Wednesday in eastern Jiangxi Province. Heavy rains of 80 mm to 200 mm were forecast in the province's eastern and southern areas from Wednesday through to Saturday.

HONG KONG - Schools were closed, ferries tied up and dozens of flights cancelled or delayed Wednesday as Hong Kong was sideswiped by its first severe tropical storm of the year. Tropical storm Fengshen, downgraded from a typhoon after crossing from the Philippines where it caused heavy loss of life, brought Hong Kong to a virtual standstill early Wednesday. Heavy rains and gale-force winds lashed the territory and there were 23 reports of flooding but no serious injuries as a result of the storm. Hong Kong's typhoon season runs from June to September but it is RARE for a typhoon to score a direct hit on the wealthy high-rise city, with storms usually taking their greatest toll elsewhere in China.

PHILIPPINES - Egg prices were expected to increase as Typhoon “Frank” destroyed around 70% of poultry farms on Bantayan Island. Bantayan Island, the 'egg basket' of the Visayas and Mindanao, is the major supplier of eggs in Cebu, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Mindanao and even the National Capital Region.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / UNUSUAL & OUT-OF-SEASON WEATHER -
COLUMBIA - a landslide has killed at least 10 people from one family. Strong rains have triggered the landslide near the town of Hacari in northeastern Colombia. Colombia's rainy season began in the middle of March. The seasonal rains already have claimed at least 48 lives and injured another 68 people.

U.S. -
A new round of storms dumped a half foot (15 cm) or more of rain across parts of the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, dealing fresh trouble to a region already struggling with billions of dollars in flood damage. The bad news came as a key farm group estimated U.S. crop damage this year had hit $8 billion nationwide, most of it in the key Midwest growing areas of the world's biggest grain and food exporter amid the worst flooding in 15 years. The new storms that soaked Missouri on Wednesday closed roads and sent smaller streams out of their banks, pushing more water into the basin that feeds both the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, just as the Mississippi was cresting, or about to, in areas upstream from St. Louis. A new flood warning was issued for parts of the Missouri River in parts of Missouri from Jefferson City east to St. Louis. Lack of flood waters on the Missouri has been one of the key reasons this month's flooding was rated not as bad yet as the record flooding levels seen in 1993. A railroad bridge near Columbus Junction, Iowa, collapsed late on Tuesday, injuring one rail worker. A locomotive and two rail cars fell into the still-flooded Iowa River. The cars had been placed on the bridge to stabilize it during flooding. Fears about the short supplies of basic food and feedstuffs have ignited more alarms about rising world food inflation even as oil and energy prices also set records. Since late May when heavy rains hit Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin, about three dozen levees have failed along the Mississippi River, covering rich and valuable bottom land and emerging crops with muddy water. More than 13 million sandbags have been handed out in the region, a quantity that if placed end-to-end would stretch from San Francisco to Washington, D.C.

HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -
TIBET - At least six Sikh pilgrims were killed and 10 others injured when an avalanche struck Ghangharia area near Hemkund Sahib shrine in Chamoli district Tuesday evening. The avalanche washed away the road on which they were trekking to reach Hemkund Sahib, situated at the dizzying heights of the Garhwal Himalayas.

WASHINGTON - The bodies of three snowboarders who have been missing since early December were found Saturday northeast of Mount Ranier in Washington State by friends of the missing men. Friends of the snowboarders went to the area on an intermittent basis hoping to find them. With the snow beginning to melt last week, they decided to try again. That's when one of them spotted the top of a tent. Inside were the three bodies. They are believed to have died after being smothered by an avalanche. Last winter's avalanches hit particularly hard as heavy snow fall quickly accumulated. In avalanche deaths, 95 percent of those buried by avalanches die within two hours, with half perishing within the first 25 minutes. Three-quarters die from asphyxiation, caused by breathing their own carbon dioxide. Others die from trauma on the way down a mountain if they are swept away by the avalanche. Two percent die from hypothermia.

CANADA - Chilliwack, British Columbia - “It’s been so cold. Right from December it’s been ODD. And not getting above 12C in (early) June is EXTREMELY UNUSUAL. I can’t remember a spring like this.” It’s been tough on berry farmers throughout the Fraser Valley. Not only has the abysmal weather delayed growth but honey bees, essential for pollination, have been equally devastated by the cold as well as succumbing to the varroa mite and the Nosema fungus. Over last winter, Fraser Valley beekeepers lost about 26 per cent of their beehive stock. This is one of the latest start dates for strawberry picking. The season will be correspondingly short. “We were delayed this spring. April was cold. May picked up and the flowering period for strawberries and blueberries was reasonably good. But June has been so cold and the delay in growth is huge.” Temperatures in early June were consistently 3C to 8C below what they should be. Sunshine was virtually absent. “In the first nine days of June you had 20 hours of sun compared to the normal 70 hours. Precipitation was 43 mm while the normal amount is 16 mm. That’s three times the (usual) amount of rain.” This year has been one of very stubborn, cool overhanging cloud, drizzle, and cold air. This stuff is expected to blow out with a high pressure from the south. Typically the weather turns around somewhere in the first week of July and the long range forecast is for a hot summer as the cooling influence of the cyclic La Nina current is dead. “La Nina was strong in February but the latest models show that it has now gone.”

EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-

BALKANS (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia) - Heatwave scorching the Balkans - Two people have died and hundreds have sought medical assistance as a summer heat wave grips the western Balkans. A period of extremely warm temperatures started as of this weekend and will last at least three weeks, meteorologists in the region said. They warned that temperatures – even above 40 degrees Celsius – may be set, creating TEMPERATURE HIGHS NOT SEEN IN THE LAST 100 YEARS. To make the situation even more difficult for the population, this period will also be marked by so-called “tropical nights” where temperatures will remain above 20 or even 30 degrees Celsius overnight. Medical workers warned the population to remain indoors between 11:00 and 17:00 and drink plenty of water. The heat wave in Macedonia has led the national Crisis Management Centre there to warn of possible wildfires due to the tinder dry conditions.

CALIFORNIA - In less than a day, an electrical storm unleashed nearly 8,000 lightning strikes that set more than 800 wildfires across Northern California — a RARE example of "dry lightning" that brought little or no rain but plenty of sparks to the state's parched forests and grasslands. The weekend storm was UNUSUAL not only because it generated so many lightning strikes over a large geographical area, but also because it struck so early in the season and moved in from the Pacific Ocean. Such storms usually don't arrive until late July or August and typically from southeast of California. "You're looking at a pattern that's CLIMATOLOGICALLY RARE. We typically don't see this happen at this time of summer. To see 8,000, that's way up there on the scale." Despite the many lightning strikes that hit the ground on Saturday alone, the weekend thunderstorm brought little precipitation because the rain evaporated in hot, dry layers of the atmosphere before it hit the ground. The lightning storm struck California when the state was experiencing one of its driest years on record. From San Francisco to Los Angeles, cities have only seen a tiny fraction of the rainfall they normally receive in a typical year. In the Central Valley, the cities of Sacramento, Modesto, Stockton and Red Bluff have recorded their driest March-to-May periods since at least the 19th century. Even before the lightning struck, California had already seen an UNUSUALLY large number of wildfires, although the fire season typically does not start until July and does not peak until late summer or early fall. "This doesn't bode well for the fire season. We're not even into the meat of the fire season at this point, and the brush is extremely dry. It's not going to get any better, it's going to get worse." The weekend's lighting storm combined with extremely dry conditions to spark about 840 separate blazes. By contrast, 574 lightning-sparked fires blackened about 55,000 acres in Northern California in all of 2007. The weather service has said more dry thunderstorms could strike Northern California later this week. The weather pattern "could happen again across Central and Northern California."

HEALTH THREATS -
Latest bird flu news from the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.
Global Bird Flu Breaking News - updated every 10 minutes.

Aids epidemic a 'global disaster' - The Aids epidemic is so severe that it should be classified as a disaster, the Red Cross and Red Crescent warns. The crisis fits the UN definition of a disaster as an event beyond the scope of any single society to cope with. The IFRC's annual report on world disasters usually focuses on specific natural disasters such as earthquakes. This year, it is departing from tradition with its world disasters report, to focus on what it says is one of the most long term and complex problems facing the world: the HIV/Aids epidemic. By any standard, the epidemic is a global disaster: 25 million deaths, 33 million people living with HIV/Aids, 7,000 new infections every day.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.
Benjamin Disraeli

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

This morning there have been several more quakes in Indonesia -
5.6 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
5.3 NIAS REGION, INDONESIA
5.3 SAMAR, PHILIPPINES

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/24/08 -
5.2 PAPUA, INDONESIA
5.3 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.0 EASTERN UZBEKISTAN

JAPAN - A rift extending for about 15 kilometers has appeared on the surface of the ground in five districts following the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck Japan's Tohoku region on June 14, it has emerged. In the Mochikorogashi district of Koromogawa-ku in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, a zigzag fault has appeared in the surface through two rice paddies, with the land on the west side about 45 centimeters higher. Across four of the five points, a rift extending for about 10 kilometers has appeared along an old fault on the border between Iwate and Miyagi prefectures. "There's a possibility that this fault caused the earthquake, but with an earthquake of this size it wouldn't be unusual for a step of about 2 meters to appear on the surface. There is also a possibility that another fault caused the earthquake and the effects of that caused this rift to appear on the surface." (photo)
The temperature of a hot spring near the epicenter of the Iwate and Miyagi earthquake sharply changed before the temblor struck. A similar phenomenon was observed with other earthquakes, including one that struck Hokkaido in 1993. Seismologists are paying close attention to the phenomenon as it could help predict earthquakes. The temperature of the hot spring water at the Kamikura Hot Spring Inn in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, which had been 42 degrees Celsius, began to rise in mid-May - about a month before the quake, its owner said. It reached 47 degrees one week before the temblor. The Kamikura inn is situated about five kilometers away from the epicenter of the earthquake that struck on Saturday last week. Furthermore, the temperature of hot spring water at an inn in the Akinomiya area of Yuzawa, Akita Prefecture, declined from 70 degrees Celsius to 60 degrees in mid-May. The hot spring area is located about 30 kilometers from the epicenter. The water temperature at five hot spa areas in southern Wakayama Prefecture declined 0.1 to 0.3 degrees Celsius about a month before a quake hit the area in 2004. Furthermore, the temperature of hot spring water on Okushiri Island, Hokkaido, rose 10 degrees about a month before a powerful quake jolted Hokkaido in 1993. Some scientists believe that underground rocks hit each other before a powerful earthquake, creating huge pressure. The pressure causes the level of subterranean water to rise, which changes the temperature of hot spring water.

TSUNAMI / FREAK WAVES / ABNORMAL TIDES / RISING SEA LEVELS -
CANADA - a weekend drowning in southern Alberta occurred during a family camping trip to Payne Lake on Saturday evening when a FREAK wind storm that produced two- to three-foot waves that capsized a small boat, causing a 60-year-old man to fall overboard and drown. A sudden and powerful wind storm such as occurred Saturday is UNUSUAL for the area. “Two- to three-foot waves is not normal for this area at all. It was a real freaky thing he got caught out there at that time.”

BANGLADESH is set to disappear under the waves by the end of the century. There is spreading misery and destruction as the ocean reclaims the land on which 150 million people depend. Ten years ago, the village of Munshigonj began to die. First, many of the trees turned a strange brownish-yellow colour and rotted. Then the rice paddies stopped growing and festered in the water. Then the fish floated to the surface of the rivers, gasping. Then many of the animals began to die. Then many of the children began to die. The waters flowing through Munshigonj had turned salty and dead. Bangladesh is a flat, low-lying land made of silt, squeezed in between the melting mountains of the Himalayas and the rising seas of the Bay of Bengal. As the world warms, the sea is swelling – and wiping Bangladesh off the map. Deep below the ground of Munshigonj and thousands of villages like it, salt water is swelling up. This salt water will keep rising and rising, until everything here is ocean. "We are facing a catastrophe in this country. We are talking about an absolutely massive displacement of human beings." The seas are rising, so land is being claimed from the outside. (The largest island in the country, Bhola, has lost half its land in the past decade.) The rivers are super-charged, becoming wider and wider, so land is being claimed from within. (Erosion is up by 40 per cent). Cyclones are becoming more intense and more violent (2007 was the worst year on record for intense hurricanes here). And salt water is rendering the land barren. (The rate of saline inundation has trebled in the past 20 years.) "My best understanding of the evidence is that this will probably happen towards the end of the lifetime of babies born today."

KIRIBATI - After years of fruitless appeals for decisive action on climate change, the tiny South Pacific nation of Kiribati has concluded that it is doomed. It's President has requested international help to evacuate his country before it disappears. Water supplies are being contaminated by the encroaching salt water and crops destroyed. Beachside communities have been moved inland. But Kiribati – 33 coral atolls sprinkled across two million square miles of ocean – has limited scope to adapt. Its highest land is barely 6 feet above sea level. Along with other low-lying Pacific island nations such as Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and Vanuatu, it is regarded as one of the places most vulnerable to climate change. Even the coconut trees are dying – casualties of an UNPRECEDENTED drought. The country has had next to no rain for the past three years and meanwhile the freshwater table is being poisoned by salt. New Zealand already has a substantial population of Pacific Islanders, but absorbing another 97,000 would strain its generosity. New Zealand is already experiencing significantly increased levels of migration from affected countries. The worst case scenario suggests that Kiribati will become uninhabitable within 50 to 60 years.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Tropical storm FENGSHEN was 45 nmi NW of Hong Kong.

Tropical storm Fengshen struck south China on Wednesday, after tearing through the Philippines last week, bringing driving rain, uprooting trees and closing schools, markets and businesses in Hong Kong.

PHILIPPINES - The number of fatalities from Typhoon Fengshen has reached 291 in the Philippines.
Philippine investigators opened an inquiry Wednesday into the ferry disaster believed to have killed 800, as rescuers ended slim hopes of finding survivors in the stricken vessel.

Tropical wave may bring more rain to Central Florida, more wet weather by midweek. The tropical wave was near the Dominican Republic on Tuesday. "It's going to get spun up into the Florida Straits and the Gulf of Mexico, and with it comes the tropical moisture." The system is not expected to strengthen into a depression or storm, but forecasters said it should help Central Florida's ongoing drought. Orlando is about 3 inches above the yearly rainfall average, Daytona Beach reports a 9-inch rainfall deficit, and Melbourne is almost 5 inches below normal.

BURMA - After the fury of Cyclone Nargis, a new disaster looms in Burma: packs of rats that swarm through the hills once every 50 years have consumed everything in their path, reducing thousands of poor farmers to the verge of starvation. Burma's latest human disaster is unfolding almost unseen by the outside world in the jungle-covered mountains of Chin State, far to the north of the Irrawaddy Delta where 134,000 people died last month. The plague of rats happens twice a century when bamboo forests produce flowers and seeds, then wither and die for five years in a phenomenom locally known as mautam or bamboo death. Villagers believe the bamboo seeds are a kind of aphrodisiac for the rodents, whose numbers explode until all the seeds have been eaten. Then they turn on villagers' rice stocks, stripping ripening corn and paddy in the fields and even digging up seeds at night after farmers plant them. Villagers roast rats they catch on sticks, but that food source rapidly disappears when the rodents have eaten everything in the village and move on. In Mizoram State in India and the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, similar rat plagues in the last few months have also stripped fields bare after the flowering of the Melocanna Baccifera bamboo.

BELIZE - Damage caused by torrential rainfall from tropical storm Arthur has prompted the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office to issue a warning about travelling in Belize. The FCO advises holidaymakers to "exercise caution" when travelling in the south of Belize - particularly in the districts of Stann Creek and Toledo. A number of bridges have been washed-out and some places may only be accessible via temporary bridges. Flooding has led to villages being evacuated. Seven people have been reported dead and around 10,000 affected by the storm, which lashed the country in early June and saw up to ten inches of rain fall across Belize within a 36 hour period.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / UNUSUAL & OUT-OF-SEASON WEATHER -
CHINA - Continuous rain is driving up the water level in East China's lakes posing a threat to the economic powerhouse in the Yangtze River Delta region. The water level in Taihu Lake in Jiangsu province reached 3.88 meters, 0.38 meters above the danger level, Tuesday. Water, however, is expected to rise slowly during the next couple of days because no heavy rain has been forecast till Friday and efforts to drain out the lake's excess water are on. It is feared, though, that a couple of heavy showers can raise the water level in Taihu, the country's third largest freshwater lake, very fast. More heavy rain could cause more misery to the millions of people in the region, which was hit by thunderstorms and heavy downpours only last week. The threat to dams cannot be ruled out either if the area between the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers and Taihu get more heavy rain in the next few days. Water in Anhui province's Chaohu Lake has risen above the danger level too. The flood season is not over but the lakes and rivers are already full because of the heavy downpours. Fengshen, a severe tropical storm, has hit Zhejiang, bringing more rain to a province already threatened by rising waters.

SOUTH AFRICA - More than 5000 people have been left homeless or had to be given emergency assistance after heavy rain lashed their shacks in Cape Town.

CANADA - A lazy cold low system squatting over northern Ontario “spinning around like a roulette wheel” is spitting out UNUSUAL weather. Normally at this time of year, the system would have moved further north, making way for sunny, humid conditions. Instead, it continues churning out cool weather tinged with shafts of sunshine. “This one has been sitting out there. It's just been very persistent, it's just stuck. It's like summer re-runs all the time. It's spinning around there, bringing the same weather day-after-day-after-day.” Toronto had another taste of the unstable weather Monday, as a severe thunderstorm pelted the city with rain and pea- and nickel-sized hail early Monday afternoon. Several funnel clouds were reported in the Markham area, though there were no confirmed reports of touch down. A storm-gazing teenager was bowled over by the pressure wave from a bolt of lightening that struck the North York park where she and a friend took cover during the thunderstorm that swamped Toronto Monday afternoon. The day's sudden outburst was the latest in the mixed bag of weather. And experts are predicting even fickler than normal skies ahead. “It's frustrating. You can't plan your day based on the kind of weather we've had. On the same day it's the whole suite of rain, thunderstorm, some coolish temperatures, lots of sun, clean air. You throw a dart and anything can happen.” Already this June, Toronto has seen 11 rainy days – double the month's usual amount. But every day has had sunny bursts, too. Sunny skies were forecast for Tuesday, with temperatures expected to hit 26 degrees. But the tempestuous weather is expected to come back, with thunderstorms predicted for the rest of the week.

EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-

NEVADA - Health officials declared the air quality “unhealthful” for the Reno-Sparks area on Tuesday due to thick smoke in the region from hundreds of wildfires.

CALIFORNIA - Wildfires raging across California are being blamed for unhealthy air quality throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Saturday, an UNUSUAL weather pattern sent dry lightning flashing to the ground - at least 8000 strikes hit the ground.

FOOD / WATER / SUPPLIES-
Biofuel use 'increasing poverty' - The rush to use biofuels in rich countries has dragged more than 30 million people worldwide into poverty, an aid agency says.

Soaring steel costs will force consumers worldwide to pay higher prices for automobiles in the coming years, Nissan Motor Company's chief executive has warned.

WISCONSIN - TART CHERRIES - Extreme weather has virtually wiped out Door County’s cherry crop for this year. This will reduce the total U.S. crop output by about 30%.

HEALTH THREATS -
Latest bird flu news from the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.
Global Bird Flu Breaking News - updated every 10 minutes.

Poor people in the United States are increasingly at risk from tropical diseases such as dengue fever and Chagas disease, says a new report. Researchers blame climate change and increasing poverty for the increased spread of these infectious illnesses. The study warns that while these diseases are not always fatal, they are severely debilitating. Consequently, they perpetuate poverty, affecting child development and worker productivity. 36 million people in the US who live below the poverty line are most at risk from these parasitic and bacterial diseases. Most vulnerable are minority groups such as the African American community living along the delta of the Mississippi River, but also disadvantaged white people who live in the Appalachian mountains and immigrants who live along the US-Mexico border. While the US spends more than a billion dollars a year preparing for outbreaks of diseases that have yet to occur such as small pox, avian influenza and anthrax, these other diseases continue to affect millions with little or no attention paid to them.

Lifesaving equipment in hospitals may be switched off by radio-frequency devices used to track people and machines, Dutch scientists claim. Radio frequency identification devices are on the rise in healthcare, helping identify patients, and reveal the location of equipment. But they could interfere with machines. In some tests, RFIDs either switched off or changed the settings on mechanical ventilators, completely stopped the working of syringe pumps, caused external pacemakers to malfunction, and halted dialysis machines. The device did not have to be held right up to the machine to make this happen - some "hazardous" incidents happened when the RFID was more than 10 inches away.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
Joseph Chilton Pearce

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/23/08 -
5.7 KURIL ISLANDS

CHINA - Pandas living in an earthquake-hit part of southwestern China have been evacuated to temporary shelters due to the continuing threat of landslides and other hazards. The area's annual rainy season starts in June, and rivers routinely overflow their banks. Landslides are a particular concern because the quake caused steep hillsides to shear away and crash into valleys below. Many of the slopes remain unstable and at risk of being washed away by rainstorms. It's not clear if all the pandas will eventually be relocated. Along with Wolong Nature Reserve, the quake damaged 48 other reserves created in the province to protect the pandas and other endangered species. Officials at Wolong have said they want to find a new home for the reserve but cannot do so until geologists have completely assessed the damage. It was not known how many wild pandas died in the quake.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Tropical storm FENGSHEN was 137 nmi SSE of Hong Kong.

Tropical Storm ‘Frank’ (international codename: Fengshen) is expected to strike southeast China on Wednesday. Both southeastern China and Taiwan will see heavy rain and thunderstorms due to the tropical storm. Japan will experience some lighter rain as a result of this system.

PHILIPPINES - Typhoon “Frank” hit Metro Manila and the Central Luzon region by surprise early last Sunday morning. It was expected to smash into the Bicol region after slamming Samar Island on Saturday and exit to the Pacific. CNN’s early weather updates showed that Frank would not make a landfall there but move along their Pacific shores. But it suddenly cut across to Iloilo province from the Eastern Visayas region and then swerved upward to the islands of Romblon and Mindoro all the way to Central Luzon, exiting through the province of Pangasinan. A lot of blame is now being heaped on the Philippine Coast Guard and Sulpicio Lines for the sinking of MV Princess of the Stars off Romblon, but it’s clear that last Friday the ship was given the go-ahead by the PCG because only Signal No. 1 was hoisted over the Central Visayas region, for which a ship of that size was cleared. Nobody knew that Frank would be so unpredictable. The weather bureau chief on Monday noted Frank’s MOST UNUSUAL PATTERN. He said that normally upon hitting land a storm would weaken, but Frank gained strength. Moreover, typhoons don’t normally hit Luzon in June.
"The Philippines joins many places recently visited by natural calamities, such as the Mississippi area in the United States, Burma, many provinces of China, including the recent earthquake zone in Sichuan province, India, Australia and parts of Europe. Yet, in other parts of the world, such as California and New York, a heat wave was taking its toll. All these developments are part of a world climate gone berserk due to global warming. But what I really worry about are the terrible effects these disasters will wreak on the global food situation, which was already precarious even before these calamities struck."

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / UNUSUAL & OUT-OF-SEASON WEATHER -
UNITED KINGDOM - RECORD WINDS battered the Fylde coast - Unseasonal gale force winds swept in across much of the UK from the Atlantic Sunday bringing trees down and causing disruption to road and rail travellers. A gust of 63mph was recorded at Blackpool airport, with winds of up to 55mph on the Lleyn Peninsula in north Wales and gusts of 50mph in Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Trees were damaged in Shropshire and Derbyshire. The strongest winds - force 10 - have been reported on Irish Sea coasts. Weather forecasters say such strong winds are RARE in summer. The south of Scotland had been warned to expect bad weather but escaped the worst of the storms. However, in the north gusts of 54mph were recorded at Stornoway.

NIGERIA - No fewer than 300 families have been cut off from the rest of Amakor, Nanka community in Orumba North local government area of Anambra State following a landslide that occurred in the area at the weekend. The area is one of the communities that have been ravaged by gully erosion over the years in Anambra State, with several lives and property worth millions of naira already lost. Though no life was lost during the landslide that happened on the weekend, a Catholic priest escaped the disaster by whiskers as the incident occurred barely seconds after he drove pass the erosion site. An eyewitness said that seconds after the priest drove past the spot where there was a gully by the side of the road for over 20 years, he heard a loud noise and behold, the land behind him caved in creating a gully that was more than 20 feet deep. Bamboo and other economic trees in the area fell into the gully and families living on one side of the village have been cut off from the rest of the community. The traditional ruler of Nanka said the latest incident has led credence to his earlier statement that if serious attention was not paid to control the erosion menace, the entire community might be wiped out in no distant time. He called on the state and federal governments to do something urgently to save his people, adding that with the rainy season coming to its peak, the community is at a great risk of being submerged by gully erosion.

CANADA - More violent weather hits GTA - It is hard to remember a time when there have been so many violent thunderstorms in the GTA in such quick succession. But it happened again Sunday afternoon, as forked lightning and the sound of loud thunder mixed with a deluge that brought heavy rain and hail to some parts of the city. It's the latest in a long series of similar storms over the past few weeks. Last Monday, parts of the GTA were pelted by extreme conditions, including high winds, flooding rains and golf ball sized hail so fierce, it stopped traffic in some areas. In what's been a difficult and unsettled transition from spring to summer, there has been precious little real warmth and an UNUSUAL amount of precipitation. And it's not over yet.

U.S. -
FLORIDA - The Tampa Bay area received RECORD RAINFALL over the weekend, with some areas reporting as much as 7 inches of rain.

WISCONSIN - Waukesha county had another RECORD-BREAKING EVENT in the midst of the heavy rains when a RECORD hailstone fell just west of Pewaukee Lake on June 7. The National Weather Service initially reported it was the third largest in history, but another picture of the hailstone indicates it might be bigger than 5 inches in diameter and may be closer to 5.5 inches, rivaling those currently in first and second places. The state’s largest hailstone measured 5.7 inches in diameter and fell on May 21, 1921, on the north side of Wausau in Marathon County. The second-largest fell last year, also on June 7, in Port Edwards in Wood County and measured 5.5 inches. The National Weather Service is analyzing the hailstone pictures with other severe weather authorities to determine the exact measurement of this year’s hailstone.

IOWA - Recalling 1988's drought disaster, farmers say this year's deluge is not as bad - Five summers ago the worst drought in half a century left the fields around Iowa as dry as bleached bones, stunting corn, killing soybeans and driving farmers out of business. Farmers are recalling that dry summer with some measure of longing this week as the Middle West continues to be pelted by the heavy rain that has flooded the upper Mississippi River. But the fond memories stopped there. The 1988 drought destroyed 45% of the nation's corn crop, causing losses of more than $10 billion and forcing thousands of farmers out of business. No one is predicting those kinds of losses from this year's flood, despite weeks of heavy rains this spring and summer that have cut the production of corn and soybeans in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and northern Illinois by 10% to 20% from what had been expected. Moreover, experts say that while the flooding is pushing up the prices that farmers are paid for their commodities, it should not significantly increase consumer prices for food, if the agricultural damage does not grow worse.

EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-

NORTHERN EUROPE - Heatwave - On the calendar, Scandinavian summer starts on June 21 in 2008, but summer temperatures had already settled over much of northern Europe by early June. The image at this link shows land surface temperatures — how hot the ground is to the touch, a measure that is different than the air temperatures reported in the news. The image compares the average temperature between June 2 and June 8, 2008, to average temperatures recorded during the same period in June 2000 through 2007. The heat that dominated the weather in northern Europe in early June is evident in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and parts of Germany and Poland. Southern Europe experienced cooler than average temperatures during the period. The intense heat and dry weather led to dangerous fire conditions in Scandinavia. Both Norway and Sweden were plagued with several forest fires in early June. A fire that burned for several days in southern Norway was THE LARGEST IN THE COUNTRY'S HISTORY, causing an estimated ten million dollars worth of damage.

ITALY - A heat wave continues to roast Italy. Eight Italian cities are baking under temperatures approaching 40 degrees Celsius.

CYPRUS - New heat wave this week - Temperatures are forecast to rise again this week following a brief respite over the weekend.

CHINA - Scorching sun replaced pouring rain at the weekend, as a heat wave hit southern parts of the country.

CALIFORNIA - UNUSUAL lightning storm started series of wildfires Friday - Fire crews already spread thin fighting blazes across California were dealing with a flurry of new fires on the North Coast caused from an unusual and powerful lightning storm that struck on Friday. As of Saturday evening, CAL FIRE reported that approximately 37 lightning-caused fires were started during 24 hours in widely scattered areas of its Humboldt-Del Norte Unit. Meteorologists called Friday’s thunderstorm “a huge event and VERY UNCHARACTERISTIC for this area. These episodes usually occur in late July when the monsoon moisture arrives." The unusual North Coast’s lightning storm was a result of a combination of moisture funneled from the tropics and an upper-air disturbance of colder air. There were approximately 2,000 cloud-to-ground lighting strikes that were first recorded in the opening shots of the storm at 4:22 p.m. on Friday. On Saturday the California National Guard was ordered to assist in combating the wildfires burning in Northern California - an estimated 400 fires were sparked from lightning from Monterey and Fresno counties to the Oregon-California border. FREAK thunderstorm outbreaks like Friday's usually only occur in July and August - and then only because of their association with monsoon season.
Firefighters battled fires throughout Northern California on Tuesday, from Mendocino County south to the Big Sur area in Monterey County, after an "UNPRECEDENTED" lightning storm sparked more than 800 wildfires. Thousands of firefighters battled the blazes on the ground and from the air and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday that he was alarmed by the number of fires that kept erupting. "This is an unprecedented lightning storm in California, that it lasted as long as it did, 5,000 to 6,000 lightning strikes." The governor declared a state of emergency in Monterey and Trinity Counties on Monday.

NASA expert wants climate change liars tried - The heads of major fossil fuel companies who spread disinformation about global warming should be "tried for high crimes against humanity and nature," according to a leading climate scientist. He sounded the alarm about global warming in testimony before a US Senate subcommittee exactly 20 years ago. "Special interests have blocked the transition to our renewable energy future. Instead of moving heavily into renewable energies, fossil fuel companies choose to spread doubt about global warming, just as tobacco companies discredited the link between smoking and cancer. Methods are sophisticated, including funding to help shape school textbook discussions of global warming...In my opinion, these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature." He said urgent action was needed to cut carbon dioxide emissions that are warming the globe and are already causing arctic ice to melt. He said world leaders had only one or two years to act before the Earth reaches a "tipping point" with major consequences to the global climate and species survival. "We have reached an emergency situation." He said the US Government should not keep the proceeds from any carbon tax they may levy, but refund the money to taxpayers to help them pay for more fuel efficient technology.

HEALTH THREATS -
Latest bird flu news from the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.
Global Bird Flu Breaking News - updated every 10 minutes.

RECALLS & ALERTS:
Fresca Italia is recalling Burrata, a type of cheese, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Monday, June 23, 2008 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.
Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Scott Adams

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/22/08 -
5.9 NORTHEASTERN SAKHA, RUSSIA
5.2 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.0 CHIAPAS, MEXICO

GREECE - The Peloponnese was rocked by three quakes on Saturday, the strongest of which measured 5.9 on the Richter scale, striking at about 2.30 p.m. The epicenter of the quake was in the sea, south of Methoni. No injuries or damage were reported. The other two quakes measured 5.4 and 5 Richter. Two people were injured and dozens of homes destroyed when a 6.5-magnitude quake struck the northern Peloponnese on June 8.

CHINA - The number of people missing from China's massive earthquake has risen abruptly by more than 1,000. The overall toll reached 18,522 on Sunday, an increase of 1,125 from the day before. The reason for the steep rise was that migrant workers have started reporting their relatives missing to authorities, after gradually returning to their homes in Sichuan province from elsewhere in China. The latest confirmed death toll from the devastating May 12 earthquake was 69,181 on Sunday, unchanged from the day before.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Tropical storm FENGSHEN was 265 nmi SSE of Hong Kong.

PHILIPPINES - 598 people are dead or missing after Typhoon Fengshen roared through the Philippines, the Red Cross and civil defence said today, dramatically raising the number unaccounted for. Landslides, severe flooding and the loss of dozens of fishing boats had left at least 224 dead and 374 missing, mostly in central areas which bore the brunt of the storm. The figures do not include passengers and crew from a ferry which sank carrying more than 800 people. So far, only 32 survivors have been found. More than 200 people were still missing in the central island of Negros, while 63,000 people are still in evacuation centres after flash floods and landslides forced them to flee their homes. Flooding had not yet receded in many parts of Bulacan province, just outside the capital of Manila. Power was restored in Manila but had not yet returned in some areas outside the capital where lines had been toppled. Typhoon Fengshen slammed into the central Philippines late on Saturday before changing course and moving north across much of the archipelago. It left through the northwest side of the main island of Luzon before dawn today, moving northwest at 15km/h towards southern China. As of 10am (midday AEST) today, the typhoon was charted 300km northwest of the country, packing maximum winds of 110km/h near the centre.
Hopes faded today that more survivors would be found in what could be one of the worst Philippine sea disasters as rescuers failed to find signs of life inside the capsized ferry. Rescue officials said only 38 people had been rescued, including 28 passengers and crew members who came ashore today after drifting at sea since Saturday. A total of 13 bodies believed to be from the ferry Princess of the Stars have been recovered, including 9 that washed ashore today. Divers who beat against the hull of ferry Monday in search of survivors heard nothing that indicated life. Elsewhere, officials tried to assess the losses from the typhoon. Iloilo, a central Philippine province, was the worst hit, with fatalities approaching 100 as of today. It was too early to determine damage to agriculture and infrastructure, but officials said it could run up to millions of dollars. Another concern was the welfare of the nearly 70,000 people throughout the country who were displaced by the typhoon and are now living in evacuation centers. Coast guard officials said that they had cleared the ferry to leave Manila for Cebu, a city in the central Philippines, on Friday night because the initial forecast for Fengshen showed that the storm would only hit the eastern part of the country, away from the ferry's route. But the typhoon changed direction Saturday, moving toward the center of the country, running right into the ferry's path. Coast guard officials said they had advised the ferry to seek shelter, but that the boat's engine had failed after the ship was battered by strong winds and waves, thus leaving it even more vulnerable to the intensifying storm.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / UNUSUAL & OUT-OF-SEASON WEATHER -
CANADA - Officials in a remote Baffin Island community said Saturday conditions appear to have stabilized after a flash flood looked as though it might wash the community away from underneath. Core sampling done Friday showed water from the swollen Duvall River is no longer eroding away at the ground under homes near the town's edge. Heavy rain and UNUSUALLY WARM 13-degree temperatures produced rapid snow melt in the surrounding mountains and hills and led to a flood last weekend. So much water blasted down the Duvall that it carved a 10-metre channel through the permafrost, right down to bedrock. It damaged both of the town's bridges sufficiently that a majority of the community's 1,600 residents were cut off from the water reservoir, sewage lagoon and garbage dump. Fears of subterranean erosion were then raised as large cracks and sinkholes began to appear between the town and the river. "More large cracks (were) appearing, more sinkholes. We had a telephone pole that literally, before our eyes, dropped 15 feet into the ground." With more rain and warm temperatures forecast, Mongeau is unsure whether the current stability will last. The town administrator believes the root cause of this occurrence, and many other in the eastern Arctic, is global warming. He said ice patterns have been shifting and locals are noticing the arrival of new species to the area, like capeline - a small fish used to catch cod. "Fishermen have been fishing these waters for 40 years and they've never seen one. We're pulling them out in large numbers right now."

U.S. -
Floodwaters breed hidden health dangers - West Nile, E. coli among deadly concerns in swamped Midwest. Now that the waters are beginning to recede after this month’s devastating floods in the Midwest, state and federal officials are warning of a widespread secondary risk from dangerous bacteria and disease-bearing mosquitoes. They expect this season’s mosquito population to be especially big, nurtured by hot summer temperatures and large pools of standing water that make an ideal breeding ground. “We know we have mosquitoes right now in the state that are testing positive for the West Nile virus.” Stagnant water carries numerous other risks, health officials said. For any number of dangerous bacteria and parasites, hot, fetid pools left over by swamped septic systems are the perfect home. The raging waters also seeped into countless wells, affecting drinking water for thousands of homes and businesses across the region.
The worst of the flooding that has ravaged the midwestern United States is nearly over, but it will be weeks before the murky water recedes in many areas. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Indiana due to the heavy rains and deadly storms which swept through the region in recent weeks. Early estimates place the damage in the billions as roads were washed out, rail and barge traffic shut down and millions of acres of crops were swamped. Scores of levees collapsed or were overtopped by the rushing waters which swallowed entire towns. The extreme weather which began May 25 and included a series of deadly tornadoes claimed the lives of 22 people, 17 of whom were in Iowa. More than 11 million people in nine midwestern states were affected by the flooding and extreme weather. All the tributary rivers of the Mississippi above St. Louis, Missouri have now crested, but it will take three more days before the towns down river know whether their levies will hold. The river is expected to rise by about another six inches (15 centimeters) in areas up to 150 miles (240 kilometers) downstream. "A lot of these rivers won't go back below flood stage until mid-July."

EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-

CALIFORNIA - Hundreds of wildfires have blazed across northern California, threatening thousands of homes as the region bakes under a ferocious heatwave.

HEALTH THREATS -
Latest bird flu news from the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.
Global Bird Flu Breaking News - updated every 10 minutes.

Water may be suspect in salmonella tainted tomatoes. - Pick a tomato in the blazing sun and plunge it straight into cold water. If that happened on the way to market, it might be contaminated. Too big of a temperature difference can make a tomato literally suck water inside the fruit through the scar where its stem used to be. If salmonella happens to be lurking on the skin, that is one way it can penetrate and, if the tomato is not eaten right away, have time to multiply. This newest salmonella outbreak is the 14th blamed on tomatoes since 1990. There is a growing lists of nasty outbreaks in raw vegetables and fruit: E. coli in spinach and lettuce. Hepatitis A in green onions. Cyclospora in raspberries. Salmonella in cantaloupe. Shigella in parsley. Water sources, worker hygiene and wildlife or domestic animals near fields are frequent culprits because they involve points where safety systems can easily break down. The FDA wants the authority to set mandatory safe-handling rules, what it calls "preventive controls," for growers and suppliers of foods linked to repeated outbreaks of serious illness, such as tomatoes and leafy greens. Congress hasn't yet acted on that request. "We need them, we've asked for them, and we don't yet have them." Budget woes mean the FDA's inspections of food-producing facilities have plummeted by 56 percent between 2003 and last year. But the FDA "is not arguing that you can inspect your way out of these problems. The critical point is to build safety upfront, not load up inspection at the end."

Sunday, June 22, 2008 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism. The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance...
Recent natural disasters around the world dwarf anything afflicting the U.S. Consider that more than 69,000 people died in the China earthquake, and that 78,000 were killed and 56,000 missing from the Myanmar cyclone. Americans need do no more than check the weather, look in their wallets or turn on the news for their daily reality check on a world gone haywire...Just ask the people of New Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina. They are living in a city where, 1,000 days after the storm, entire neighborhoods remain abandoned, a national embarrassment that evokes disbelief from visitors.
Food is becoming scarcer and more expensive on a worldwide scale...The can-do solution to energy needs — turning corn into fuel — is sapping fields of plenty once devoted to crops that people need to eat. Shortages have sparked riots. In the U.S., rice prices tripled and some stores rationed the staple.
Residents of the nation's capital and its suburbs repeatedly lose power for extended periods as mere thunderstorms rumble through. In California, leaders warn people to use less water in the unrelenting drought...
Why the vulnerability? After all, this is the 21st century, not a more primitive past when little in life was assured. Surely people know how to fix problems now. Maybe. And maybe this is what the 21st century will be about — a great unraveling of some things long taken for granted.

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/21/08 -
5.4 SOUTHERN GREECE
5.2 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.1 SOUTHEAST OF LOYALTY ISLANDS
6/20/08 -
5.1 SOUTHWEST OF SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.0 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.0 BISMARCK SEA
5.0 TONGA

JAPAN - Landslides occurred at 48 locations in Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, after last week's earthquake, and quake lakes could form at 15 of these sites. The landslides measured between 100 and 300 meters high and 50 and 100 meters wide. Sensors to monitor possible landslides were being installed at those sites in the prefecture hit hardest by the June 14 Iwate-Miyagi Inland Earthquake. In addition to 10 quake lakes already confirmed in the Yunokura Onsen district and other locations, such lakes could form at 15 other locations because "sediment shaken loose by the earthquake could flow into rivers and block them." Eighteen of the 48 landslides are blocking National Highway Route No. 398 and prefectural roads, cutting off some small communities. These areas were at risk of being engulfed by mud and dirt washed down by rain.

VOLCANOES -
NEW ZEALAND - scientists are continuing to monitor Ruapehu. Elevated gas output and high lake temperatures continue, while volcanic tremor has declined. Unrest continues at Ruapehu and it remains unclear if this is a sign of further eruptions. The volcano last erupted on September 25, 2007. The Alert Level remains at Level 1. The emission rates of both SO2 and CO2 gases have shown significant increases since April 2008, being about ten times above the typical background. The Crater Lake temperature has remained elevated and fluctuates between 34 and 37 °C. The latest measurement was 35.2 °C (June 12). Sustained heat from depth is required to keep the temperature this high for this length of time. It is believed that the source of this heat is magma within the volcano conduit. This magma is also producing the higher than normal gas flow and other chemical changes in the lake. The volcano remains in a state of unrest and the possibility of further activity remains at the volcano. If further eruptions occur, they may occur without warning.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Typhoon FENGSHEN was 14 nmi NNW of Manila, Philippines [will be heading for Taiwan next].

TYPHOON FENGSHEN has killed 155 people in the Philippines in a torrent of flash floods and landslides. Philippines ferry hit by typhoon - Fears are growing for more than 700 people on a ferry which capsized in the central Philippines after a typhoon. The ship has been out of radio contact for more than 24 hours and gale force winds are hampering rescue efforts. The upturned ferry could be seen from shore with its bow jutting out of the water. Officials on a nearby island have reported three survivors. They also said four bodies had been recovered. According to officials the ferry was carrying 626 passengers and 121 crew. However, local reports put the figure on board as high as 820.
Most of the victims of the typhoon on land were killed as a result of flooding caused by the storm. "Yesterday there was hardly any villages and communities which were not under water, and where the people were literally stranded on rooftops with no food and no water, and chilling in the cold. Right now the floodwaters have receded, and we are shifting our efforts to bringing food, water, medicine and clothing." At its peak, the storm was packing gusts of up to 93mph (150 km/h). It changed course on Sunday, hitting the capital Manila with heavy rainfall at dawn. Thousands of people across the country have been evacuated from their homes. Many roads are blocked and there are widespread power cuts. (photo)

TRINIDAD - A tropical wave in the Caribbean Friday led to showers and thundershowers in Trinidad and Tobago, and in one case gusty winds damaged two homes in Couva. It may take a billion dollar drainage plan to address the annual flooding which takes place in Port-of-Spain. Trinidad and Tobago experienced cloudiness and showery periods as a result of the tropical wave. So too did the Leeward Islands, especially, Dominica and Guadeloupe which experienced intense rainfall.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - The Emergency Operations Center issued an alert in 13 provinces for an approaching tropical wave that could reach the national territory early Saturday. The alert is from the provinces of La Vega in the country’s center to La Altagracia in the extreme east, on the wave detected near the Lesser Antilles, heading west at about 30 kilometers per hour. Meanwhile, the National Meteorology Office predicted the scattered showers will bring between 40 and 60 millimeters around the country through Saturday. Residents in the provinces under alert and those living in vulnerable zones are warned of mudslides, flooding and overflowing rivers, streams and gorges. (satellite photo)

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / UNUSUAL & OUT-OF-SEASON WEATHER -
BRITAIN - People across the UK are being warned to brace themselves for UNUSUALLY stormy weather as high winds and heavy rain are forecast for today. The storms - with winds which could reach 65mph across parts of Britain - are expected to peak at about midday. The worst affected areas are expected to be north Wales and northern England, but Northern Ireland and southern Scotland may also be affected. The weather was ABNORMAL for June. It is more likely to be the sort of weather that is seen in the autumn. "Although it's not unusual to have this kind of weather during the winter it's RARE to see this kind of gale this time of year. The vicious gusts of wind will not only be reserved to coastal districts but may happen further inland too. Cities such as Manchester and Leeds are in the path of the heavy weather. Irish Sea coasts will be affected with heavy waves." Strong gusts are also expected as far south as the Bristol channel, Wales, the Midlands and parts of East Anglia.

NEPAL - Two dead, hundreds displaced by flooding in Nepal. At least five districts in western and southern Nepal were hard hit by flooding following days of heavy rain.

INDIA - The death toll from monsoon flooding in eastern India climbed to 26 on Friday, with hundreds of villages cut off and an estimated four million people displaced. Bridges were washed away and roads and railway tracks submerged by the swirling waters in West and East Midnapore districts. "Telephone lines were snapped and electric poles uprooted. Nearly 2.5 million people were forced from their homes by flood in over 300 villages during the past four days." Thousands of people were taking shelter on rooftops and elevated areas but were running short of food and drinking water.

RUSSIA - 300 houses inundated in Astrakhan after heavy rain on Thursday. The rainstorm damaged roofs of some constructions, and the flood caused by the rain inundated houses and electric power stations.

U.S. -
KANSAS - The National Weather Service recorded 18.04 inches of rain for the three-month spring period that ended May 31, a total topped only by 1904's 19.01 inches.
IOWA - A Record Winter Becomes a Record Spring... What's Next? Snowfall and ice storms have turned into rainfall, tornados and flooding, leading many in East Iowa to wonder what is next? Could the weather get worse? Extreme weather has become so common that if people haven’t been affected themselves, almost everyone knows someone who has. There have been 16 storm-related deaths in the state since the tornado on May 25. It seems the 100-year floods are coming about every 10 years or so. What was thought to be the flood of the century in 1993, has been eclipsed beyond anyone’s imagination today. This was a 500 year flood. But not everyone has been surprised by recent events. In 1998, the United States Environmental Protection Agency published a report entitled, Climate Change and Iowa. In it, the EPA predicted a 20 percent increase in summertime precipitation - and also stated that an increase in the frequency and intensity of summer thunderstorms is possible. Based on the events of a decade later, that report seems ominously accurate. Over the past 30 years, summers in Iowa are less intense in terms of heat, the winters are warmer and, like the 1998 EPA report stated, overall precipitation has increased. “There is no question now that the climate is changing on a global scale. The evidence is so overwhelming.” In Cedar Rapids, people have shifted from speaking of a 100 year flood plain to a 500 year flood plain and, more recently, to a 3,000 year flood plain." According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there was only a 0.2 percent probability of flooding of the magnitude seen in Cedar Rapids. The National Weather Service described it as an HISTORIC EVENT WITH WATER LEVELS NEVER BEFORE SEEN. “If the climate is changing, you can’t stop it over the next 50 years. What’s coming is coming and we better be prepared to adjust to it.” For many in Cedar Rapids and other Iowa communities, there was simply no way to be prepared for what happened. Perhaps now there will be. So what’s next is anyone’s guess. In the end, however, it’s not the end of the world - it’s just weather. Our ancestors were often victimized by it and lately our technology appeared to have triumphed over it. But now nature has re-shuffled the deck. Since weather doesn’t have the capacity to respect us, we need to learn a newfound respect for it. What’s coming is coming. (photo)
The Farmers’ Almanac is predicting a warmer-than-normal summer across much of the nation, and an extremely active hurricane season. In addition to the blistering heat, the Farmers’ Almanac warns that sections of the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic could continue to see occasional bouts of very heavy rain, with heavier than normal precipitation also affecting portions of the Plains and Rockies. In contrast, the Pacific Coast is expected to be much drier than normal during the coming summer. The Farmers’ Almanac has predicted an active tropical storm season, with the Gulf Coast directly in the crosshairs for hurricanes in mid-July, mid-August, and mid-September. The associated tropical moisture from such systems is likely to flow northward, creating threat of excessive rainfall over many eastern locations. After accurately predicting a “two-faced winter,” consisting of colder-than-normal temperatures to the east of the Mississippi and warmer weather to the west, the Farmers’ Almanac advised loyal readers that spring would have only one face: a cold, rainy one. The Farmers’ Almanac also warned of an exceptionally active tornado season in the Midwest. Those predictions were borne out as a record-breaking number of deadly twisters – more than 700 in all – descended on the region between February and early May. Readers of the Farmers’ Almanac estimate that its annual weather forecast is accurate between 80 and 85 percent of the time.

HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -
U.S. - it appears as if there might be yet another chilly, late-season storm system in the Pacific Northwest in about 5 days. Temperatures have been much cooler than normal so far in June, and there will be significant warming for a time before the storm in about 5 days. By then, though, temperatures will again be cooler than normal with showers - if the current long-range model is correct. By the way, this might not be the last storm - another storm might approach the coast around July 1; however, this storm might remain far enough to the west to not have much of an effect, allowing interior areas, at least, to turn warm. (forecast map)

EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-

CALIFORNIA - Lightning sparked as many as 400 fires around Northern California, as officials farther south were close to containing a blaze that had destroyed more than a dozen homes and forced thousands to evacuate.

HEALTH THREATS -
Latest bird flu news from the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy.
Global Bird Flu Breaking News - updated every 10 minutes.

Friday, June 20, 2008 -

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -
Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.
Bertrand Russell

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

Largest quakes yesterday -
6/19/08 -
5.0 MINAHASA, SULAWESI, INDONESIA
5.0 SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
5.0 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
5.3 VANUATU
5.3 NEW IRELAND REGION, P.N.G
5.2 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.

VOLCANOES -
FIJI - scientists have discovered two mineral-rich, active volcanos more than a kilometre under the sea near Fiji, with mining companies already lining up to try to exploit the sites. Measuring 50 kilometres wide by almost 4,000 metres tall, the volcanoes are bubbling away at 1,100 metres and 1,500 metres below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in an area known as the North Lau Basin, between Tonga, Fiji and Samoa. They are within the Pacific rim of fire, an area of high earthquake activity, and are spewing into the sea black smoke containing precious minerals. The volcanoes are quite remarkable - "Some of the features look like the volcanic blisters seen on the surface of Venus." The two volcanoes have been named Dugong and Lobster. Though they are in a seismologically unstable area, the volcanoes are not likely to trigger a Tsunami. The real danger is not eruption but rather collapse. Any eruption though would be a hazard for the neighbouring Pacific nations. The black smoke pouring out of the calderas leaves behind minerals containing lead, zinc, copper and gold.

TSUNAMI / FREAK WAVES / ABNORMAL TIDES / RISING SEA LEVELS -
AUSTRALIA - A man from Fairbanks, Alaska, is the subject of an ocean search by Australian authorities off the coast of central New South Wales. The twenty-three-year-old on Monday was swept into the Pacific by a FREAK wild wave in the Munmorah State Conservation Area. He was sightseeing on his day off from Youth With A Mission. He and a co-worker were walking along rocks when a freak wave washed them into heavy seas. A helicopter pulled one to safety but the other has not been found.

TROPICAL STORMS -
Map.
Projected storm paths .
Typhoon FENGSHEN was 109 nmi NE of Cebu City, Philippines.

The Philippines placed army units on alert on today as Typhoon Fengshen swept into the centre of the archipelago with gusts of up to 140 kph (87 mph). Fengshen, the sixth typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country this year, was expected to dump rains over the Philippines' eastern islands before heading back out into the Pacific Ocean south of Okinawa. Nine provinces were put on alert to stockpile medicines, food and fuel and to stop small ferries from leaving ports.

HEAVY RAINS / FLOODING / LANDSLIDES / UNUSUAL & OUT-OF-SEASON WEATHER -
CHINA - On June 15, southern China suffered from the fourth round of heavy rainfall since the end of May. The flood, caused by repeated heavy rain, is worse than expected. Due to the nature of this storm - the wide coverage, intensity, duration, and magnitude - 130 hydrological stations in over 40 rivers nationwide have reported dangerous water levels. In the past three weeks, the rainfall volume in Guangdong province has doubled compared to the same period last year. The flood in neighboring province Guangxi killed 25 people and caused 830,000 people to evacuate. In east central China's Jiangxi province 100,000 people were evacuated. Because of a weather forecast indicating local showers for the next two days, the authorities have upgraded the flood warning from level two to level three. In Chongqing City, having recently recovered from the earthquake damage, heavy rainfall in 17 counties have affected 260,000 people. (photos)

INDIA - Flood victims in eastern India took refuge on treetops as monsoon rains swamped homes and continued to spread misery among millions. Swelling rivers continued to break through mud embankments in the country's east and northeast today, killing at least 50 people in the past 10 days and affecting more than three million. Air force helicopters dropped food packets in the eastern state of Orissa, as hundreds of villagers climbed trees, hoping to be rescued as their homes got washed away. Heavy monsoon rains also had an impact on coal mining in eastern Jharkhand state, with production at the state-run Central Coalfield Limited down by over 50 percent. In West Bengal, trains services came to a halt in many flood-hit areas and a bridge was destroyed in West Midnapore. Although the army has been called out to provide aid, people in many villages were angry at delays. "We have not got any relief so far, we are homeless and starving for the past three days." Prices of essential commodities have shot up across the region as flooding blocked many highways and trucks carrying food and medicine were stranded.

SOUTH AFRICA - A child died and three are missing, scores of homes were flooded and a plane skidded off the runway at Durban International Airport as heavy rain lashed the KaZulu Natal south coast yesterday. The downpour damaged scores of homes. At least 40 people in Umzinto and 60 in Ifafa were evacuated, some from rooftops. “There were a lot of washaways last night, rivers burst their banks, bridges were washed away and a lot of structural damage was done around the south coast. Right now water levels at all the rivers are extremely high.”

U.S. - The floodwater has gone down in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and people are beginning to get a look at just how bad things are.
Now Missouri is ground zero as flood waters move south along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and tributaries.
Three Mississippi River levees broke north of St. Louis in Missouri's Lincoln County, sending a wave of water toward the town of Foley and raising concern in nearby Winfield. The river was overflowing 90 percent of the levees in eastern Lincoln County, and at least four more breaks were expected early today. The breaks mean the Mississippi won't reach record crest levels downstream. Authorities predict the river will crest at 37.3 feet (11.4 meters) today in St. Louis, short of the 49.6 feet reached during flooding in 1993.
American meteorologists are citing an UNUSUAL late spring weather pattern for the spike in extreme weather. The jet stream, a narrow column of fast-moving winds in the mid-levels of the atmosphere which heavily influences temperature and precipitation, has been blamed for much of the widespread extreme weather across the United States. The jet stream has been stationary in an ABNORMAL position, dipping in the mountain west and rising in the east, with the heart of the stream flowing through the center of the country. The dip in the west has allowed cold weather to filter through and bring extreme cold and even snow to parts of Montana and Idaho, while the rise in the east has brought extreme heat from the Gulf of Mexico, and minimal precipitation has fallen over the southeastern US. From Miami to Seattle to Boston to Las Vegas, serious drought, historic flooding, sweltering heat and bitter cold have hit the country - and almost all of it during the months of May and June. But it's been the jet stream's flow through the center of the country that has produced the most damage.

EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-

CALIFORNIA - A spring heat wave sent Southern California TEMPERATURES TO RECORD LEVELS Wednesday with 100 degrees plus readings in the worst areas. The mercury reached a record 107 degrees in Woodland Hills, beating a previous record of 106 degrees set in 1989. The Long Beach airport set a record with a 93 degree peak reading. Temperatures were expected to climb today as a strong high pressure system hovers over the region.
Southern California roasted again on Thursday in a RECORD-BREAKING, end-of-spring heat wave that sent temperatures soaring past 100 degrees in many areas.
Near-record heat scorched San Diego County on Wednesday, and it's about to get worse before it gets better.

ARIZONA - Yuma County will continue to bake as there appears to be no end to the current heat wave.

TEXAS - the high temperature climbed to 101 degrees Fahrenheit in Austin Thursday afternoon. It was the 15th day where temperatures have reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, in a 33-day heat wave. The average number of 100-degree days in Austin is 11, for an ENTIRE summer. RECORD-HIGH TEMPERATURES HAVE BEEN REACHED ON 16 OF THE PAST 33 DAYS.

A massive dust cloud hovers over the Middle East, stretching from Iraq to India, and spreading south past the Arabian Peninsula. Some of the thickest dust is concentrated over the Arabian Sea. Besides the heavy band of dust south of Oman, the storm creates a faint dusty haze covering almost the entire region. The shamal — a northwesterly wind blowing over the floodplain of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq — had been active several days before a massive storm on June 18. The shamal caused a mild dust storm on June 16, but by June 18, the persistent wind had spread dust over southern Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and eastern Saudi Arabia. A June 18 report predicted that dust would linger over the Arabian Peninsula for another 48 hours, thanks to low wind speeds over the area. Winds were expected to pick up in a day or two, bringing warmer temperatures with them. (satellite photo)

GREENLAND - Extensive spruce forests used to cover the southern half of Greenland, according to a Canadian study that gives a remarkable glimpse of the icy island's green past and possible future. The work shows the impact of PAST CLIMATE WARMING ON THE MASSIVE ICE SHEET WAS MUCH GREATER than previously believed. And it "should increase concerns about its fate" as the global climate warms. The shifts happened so quickly it is "as if someone had pushed a button." There were two huge temperature spikes in the Northern Hemisphere at the end of last ice age - one 14,700 years ago associated with a 10-degree Celsius rise in temperatures over 50 years. Then icy conditions returned before another abrupt warming about 11,700 years ago. The ice core points to a "reorganization" of atmospheric circulation over one or two years in the Northern Hemisphere before each temperature spike, say the scientists. The abrupt transitions they see occurred at the end of the last ice age as the planet warmed up from extremely cold conditions. It is not clear if such sudden changes could occur in today's relatively warm climate. But the scientists say there is a "pressing" need to find out if such abrupt change could be triggered by the greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere today. If all of Greenland's ice were to melt it would raise the global sea level close to seven metres - "that's enough to submerge all of Bangladesh, the Pacific Islands and much of Florida." A second report shows how North America's climate suddenly flipped from a cold to a warm state at the end of the last ice age, with dramatic changes in atmospheric circulation in as little as a single year.

RUSSIA fears climate catastrophe in Arctic - Global warming could bring “terrible destruction” in the Russian North, the country’s Ministry of Emergency Situations admits. He says global warming could bring “catastrophic destruction” in the northern parts of country by 2030. The melting of the permafrost could pose a major threat against northern airports, as well as underground reservoirs of oil and gas. A warming of only one-to-two degrees will reduce the firmness of the permafrost by as much as 50 p