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U.S. tornado activity at 60-year low

Barbara Hollingsworth
CNSNews
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 11:07 UTC
Tornado
© cnsnews.com
Tornado activity in 2014 so far is at its lowest level since 1953, according to the National Weather Service's (NWS) Storm Prediction Center (SPC). "2014 has likely established a new low in tornado activity through the 21st of April," according to SPC warning coordination meteorologist Greg Carbin.

Carbin also pointed out that the time gap between the worst tornadoes is also the fourth largest since 1953. "At 152 days on April 18, 2014, the span between EF-3 or stronger tornadoes is the 4th longest span... in the last 60 years," Carbin noted. The longest gap was 249 days in 2004.

The NWS defines an EF-3 (Enhanced Fujita scale) tornado as one with winds between 158 and 207 mph capable of causing "severe damage," including blowing off roofs, overturning trains, and uprooting trees.

Between 2001 and 2010, 563 Americans were killed by tornadoes, which occur 1,200 times a year on average.

Although Texas experienced the highest number of twisters per year (142 on average) between 1981 and 2010, compared to less than five in 15 Northwest and Western states, Alabama had the nation's highest annual number of tornado fatalities (6 per year), the NWS reported.

The deadliest tornado day in U.S. history was March 18, 1925 when 695 people were killed by twisters in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
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Attention

Chile quake defies expectations

Alexandra Witze
nature.com
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 16:20 UTC
Image
© Ivan Alvarado/Reuters/Corbis
People walk along a road damaged in the 1 April Chilean earthquake.
Monika Sobiesiak wasn't expecting the morning of 2 April to start with such an adrenaline jolt. But as she scrolled through a list of earthquakes on her mobile phone, she saw that overnight a series of quakes had rocked the coast of northern Chile - almost exactly where she had installed a seismometer network a few years earlier. "I saw the 8.2," says the geophysicist, who works at the University of Kiel in Germany, "and I rushed to get to my desk."

That 1 April quake, which struck offshore near the village of Pisagua, was the largest in Chile since a magnitude-8.8 quake hit farther south in 2010. Although the Pisagua quake was not as big and not particularly damaging, it will still go down in the annals of seismology - as an intensively studied earthquake that upends some assumptions about how and when big quakes happen.

In one sense, seismologists knew it was coming. Northern Chile, near the border with Peru, was the only stretch of the country's coastline that had not broken in a large earthquake in the past century (see 'Under pressure'). In 2006, expecting it to go, a German - French - Chilean collaboration blanketed the region with seismometers, tiltmeters and other ground-measuring instruments, creating the Integrated Plate boundary Observatory Chile (IPOC). It captured the Pisagua quake in action, as did Sobiesiak's network.
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Phoenix

Grass fires total over 400 in March across South Wales despite cool temperatures

Cathy Owen
Western Mail
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 14:08 UTC
Image

The fire above Ogmore Vale
Fire crews caught on camera dealing with more than 400 fires, many of them started deliberately, across many parts of South Wales

Huge areas of grass and shrubland are a sea of charred black today after a wave of deliberately set fires swept through huge chunks of the Welsh countryside.

These dramatic pictures show firefighters trying to deal with the grass fires, including one which at one point was six miles wide.

The lone firefighter walking through the charred scrubland sums up the battle fire crews have had to deal with since the start of the month.

From March 1, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service alone has attended 215 grass fires and 283 deliberately set fires across huge areas of land. There were another 35 deliberately lit grass fires in the South Wales Fire and Rescue area yesterday damaging over 198 hectares of Welsh countryside
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Phoenix

Despite cool damp Spring fire crews tackle nearly 300 grass fires during April in Mid and West Wales

Roger Vince
South Wales Guardian
Wed, 23 Apr 2014 13:38 UTC
Image
© Roger Vince
Mid and West Wales fire crews were called into action to tackle a blaze on the Black Mountain at 7pm on Saturday. The service has faced 200 grass fires during the month of April.
The latest grass fire to strike the Amman Valley raged for more than five hours on the Black Mountain on Saturday night before being brought under control by emergency crews.

Amman Valley firefighters based at Gwaun cae Gurwen were called to tackle the blaze, which began above Cwmgarw Road on the Black Mountain, following reports of the fire at 7pm.

The incident is just the latest in what has become an ever increasing problem for emergency services.

As well as taking up time and manpower, the grass fires are also proving a massive drain on financial resources.
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Phoenix

Another large forest fire breaks out in New Jersey despite cool Spring temperatures


6abc.com
Thu, 24 Apr 2014 08:02 UTC
Image
A forest fire continues to grow in Downe Township, Cumberland County, fanned by strong winds.

As of Thursday morning, officials said about 1500 acres have been consumed in a remote area of the Edward G. Bevan Fish and Wildlife Management Area.

So far, no structures or people have been threatened.

At least 50 firefighters were battling the blaze, which started Wednesday as a Red Flag warning went into effect in New Jersey.

      Read More...
Attention

Unprecedented plagues hit oranges and bananas

Michael Snyder
The American Dream
Wed, 23 Apr 2014 08:10 UTC
oranges
© unknown
What is causing all of these plagues to hit our food supply? Have you heard of citrus greening disease? Probably not, but it has already gotten so bad that it is being projected that Florida's orange harvest will be the smallest in 30 years. Have you heard of TR4? Probably not, but it has become such a nightmare that some analysts believe that it could eventually wipe out the entire global supply of the type of bananas that Americans eat. In addition, another major plague is killing millions of our pigs, and a crippling drought that never seems to end is absolutely devastating agricultural production in the state of California. Are we just having bad luck, or is there something else to all of this?

Citrus greening disease has been a steadily growing problem that has reached epidemic levels this year. Because of this disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is projecting that orange production in the U.S. this year will be down 18 percent compared to last year. Here is more on this horrible plague from Yahoo News...
A citrus disease spread by a tiny insect has devastated Florida's orange crop, which is expected to be the worst in nearly 30 years, and sent juice prices soaring on New York markets.

The culprit? The gnat-sized Asian citrus psyllid, which is infecting citrus trees across the Sunshine State with huanglongbing, or citrus greening disease, which causes fruit to taste bitter and fall from trees too soon.

"It feels we are losing the fight," said Ellis Hunt, the head of a family-run citrus farm spread over about 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) in the central Florida town of Lake Wales.
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Water

60% of China's water "too polluted to drink"

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Wed, 23 Apr 2014 20:36 UTC
Forget bank-runs, the water run has begun in China. Residents of the western city of Lanzhou rushed to buy mineral water earlier this month after local tap water was found to contain excessive levels of the toxic chemical benzene. But that is the tip of what is a massive problem facing the Chinese people.

Not only do they suffer choking smog day after day, but, as The Business Times reports, sixty per cent of underground water in China which is officially monitored is too polluted to drink directly, state media have reported, underlining the country's grave environmental problems.

Water Wars
© Zero Hedge
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Bizarro Earth

USGS: Earthquake Magnitude 6.6 - 94km S of Port Hardy, Canada


US Geological Survey
Wed, 23 Apr 2014 23:32 UTC
Port Hardy Quake_240414
© USGS
Event Time
2014-04-24 03:10:12 UTC
2014-04-23 19:10:12 UTC-08:00 at epicenter

Location
49.846°N 127.444°W depth=11.4km (7.1mi)

Nearby Cities
94km (58mi) S of Port Hardy, Canada
159km (99mi) W of Campbell River, Canada
177km (110mi) W of Courtenay, Canada
202km (126mi) WNW of Port Alberni, Canada
336km (209mi) WNW of Victoria, Canada

Technical Details
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Red Flag

Renowned NYU Professor: GMOs could literally destroy the planet

John Deike
Eco Watch
Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:19 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
What effects will the genetic manipulation of nature have on our worldwide ecosystem?
Nassim Taleb, a renowned New York University (NYU) professor recently raised eyebrows when he said genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have the potential to cause "an irreversible termination of life at some scale, which could be the planet."

Taleb, who specializes in risk engineering, has outlined the dangers of GMOs in The Precautionary Principle, a paper recently made available to the public.
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Question

Loud boom in Florida blamed on military aircraft


pnj.com
Wed, 16 Apr 2014 00:00 UTC
Two Eglin Air Force Base jets were the source of explosion-like booms heard in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties this morning, according to Eglin officials.

The 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron is conducting a training mission in the county this morning, officials said.

A spokesperson for Eglin confirmed the booms this morning were most likely a pair of F-16s performing a close air support test mission.

Comment: Another mysterious boom in Ocean City, Maryland reportedly caused by sonic boom

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