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Hurricane Rick builds to Category 5 off Mexico


Associated Press
Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:59 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/NOAA
This image provided by NOAA shows Hurricane Rick taken at 11 p.m. EDT Saturday Oct. 17, 2009.
Hurricane Rick grew Saturday into the strongest storm in the eastern North Pacific Ocean in more than a decade.

The 'extremely dangerous' Category 5 hurricane had sustained winds of 180 mph (285 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami reported, though it said Rick was likely to lose some of that punch before hitting land.

The hurricane was projected to stay well off the Mexican coast for several days before bending east over cooler waters and hitting the Baja California Peninsula as a Category 1 or Category 2 hurricane sometime Wednesday.

Authorities in the resort city of Acapulco closed the port to small craft after Rick kicked up heavy waves and gusts of wind.

Acapulco's Civil Protection Department had warned that rains from the outer bands of the storm could cause landslides and flooding in the resort city, but no such effects were reported.
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Cloud Lightning

Pacific storm Rick strengthens to hurricane


Agence France-Presse
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:39 UTC
Washington - Pacific storm Rick reached hurricane strength on Friday and was forecast to become a powerful category four storm by early next week, the US national weather service said.

The hurricane was churning off Mexico's southern coast Friday, with maximum sustained winds nearing 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour.

At 8:00am Pacific time (1500 GMT) Rick's center was about 290 miles (470 kilometers) south of Acapulco, Mexico.
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Cloud Lightning

Looming Storm Prompts Philippines Evacuation Call

Teresa Cerojano
The Associated Press
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:29 UTC
Flood
© AP Photo/Pat Roque
Residents use an elevated footbridge built on a road intersection as others ride on a makeshift outrigger passing below the bridge on a flooded street Friday, Oct. 16, 2009 in Pasig City, east of Manila, Philippines.
Manila - Officials told residents still reeling from mudslides that recently buried hundreds in the northern Philippine mountains to be ready to abandon their homes again if a storm approaching Friday becomes the third typhoon in a month to hit the country.

The warning came after back-to-back storms since Sept. 26 caused the worst flooding in 40 years in and around the capital Manila and unleashed landslides in the Cordillera mountains in the north of the country, killing 773 people and affecting more than 7 million.

Tropical Storm Lupit may intensify into a super typhoon by the time it makes landfall next week with winds up to 143 miles (230 kilometers) per hour, forecasters said. It was expected to enter Philippine waters late Friday.
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Evil Rays

Java earthquake causes minor damage


RNW
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:05 UTC
Indonesia was hit by its second earthquake in just over two weeks earlier today when a quake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale struck in the Sunda Strait off the coast of Java, around 200 kilometres to the west of the capital Jakarta.

Buildings in the capital swayed for several minutes, but there appears to be little damage and so far there are no reports of casualties. The earthquake on 30 September which measured 7.6 on the Richter scale killed at least 1,115 people on the island of Sumatra.
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Cloud Lightning

Lucky strike: San Francisco photographer captures dramatic lightning on early morning drive

Claire Bates
The Daily Mail
Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:00 UTC
If woken by a tumultuous storm outside, most of us will wisely pull the covers over our heads and try to go back to sleep. For one plucky photographer though, it was the chance to dash outside and capture some truly electric images.

Frank Fennema, 56 from California made the trip from his home in Tiburon, north of San Francisco, down to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Image
© Frank Fennemma
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Bizarro Earth

Satellite Data Look Behind the Scenes of Deadly Earthquake


ScienceDaily
Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:00 UTC
Surface
© Jianbao Sun; ALOS data: JAXA
An ALOS Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) interferogram that shows the surface deformation associated with the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.
Using satellite radar data and GPS measurements, Chinese researchers have explained the exceptional geological events leading to the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake that killed nearly 90,000 people in China's Sichuan Province.

"One of the very fundamental issues for understanding an earthquake is to know how the rupture is distributed on the fault plane, which is directly related to the amount of ground shaking and the damage it could cause at the surface," said Dr Jianbao Sun of the Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration (IGCEA).

To learn this, Sun and Prof. Zhengkang Shen of IGCEA and Peking University's Department of Geophysics, and collaborators acquired two kinds of satellite radar data: Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) data in C-band from ESA's Envisat satellite and Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data from Japan's ALOS satellite.

Applying a technique called SAR Interferometry (InSAR) on the data, the researchers produced a set of 'interferogram' images covering the entire coseismic rupture region and its vicinity. This interferometric map revealed the amount and scope of surface deformation produced by the earthquake.
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Bizarro Earth

5.7 Earthquake Hits Andaman, Santa Cruz Islands


Bernama
Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:27 UTC
A moderate earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale hit Andaman Islands region at 5.29pm on Wednesday, the Malaysian Meteorological Department said.

In a statement, it said the quake's epicentre was 65km northeast of Little Andaman, India and 908km northeast of Langkawi, Kedah.

Meanwhile, a weak 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck Santa Cruz Islands at 5.35pm.

The earthquake's epicentre was 751km southeast of Honiara, Solomon Islands and 5,627km southeast of Kunak, Sabah.
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Bizarro Earth

Philippines: 4.1 Earthquake Hits Batangas


Inquirer
Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:09 UTC
A 4.1 magnitude earthquake shook Batangas province at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The inland tremor struck 55 kilometers northwest of Batangas and 65 kilometers south-southwest of Manila at a depth of 217.7 kilometers.

The Philippines sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
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Cloud Lightning

Weather Geeks Champion New Armageddon-Worthy Cloud

Mike Olson
Wired
Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:24 UTC
undulatus asperatus
© Danielle Maxwell
In hill country from Iowa to the Scottish Highlands, sky-gazers have reported some strange, ominous-looking clouds of late. Dubbed undulatus asperatus (turbulent undulation), the atmospheric anomaly could be headed where only 80-odd clouds have gone before: into the International Cloud Atlas. If it makes the cut, asperatus will be the first new addition in more than 50 years.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Southern California storm menaces neighborhoods near burn

Raquel Maria Dillon
Associated Press
Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:34 UTC
California storm
© Associated Press/Russel A. Daniels
A person walks with an umbrella in San Francisco as the first major storm of the season hits the area on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009. Residents across California worried Tuesday about possible flash floods and mudslides as a storm began showering areas devastated by wildfires
A powerful fall storm packing strong winds, drenching rain and heavy snow has moved into Southern California where residents near fire-scarred hillsides braced for possible mudslides and debris flows.

The storm prompted evacuation warnings earlier Tuesday near Santa Cruz and disrupted power across the state.

Officials urged residents to evacuate from about 60 homes in the town of Davenport in the Santa Cruz Mountains, 50 miles south of San Francisco, where more than six inches of rain fell on an area that burned in August.

Residents in the area of the massive Station Fire in Los Angeles County were on guard. The wildfire burned into the backyards of foothill homes in September, and stripped the steep mountains of vegetation that holds the soil to the slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains.
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