Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Surprise Coral Killer Hits Florida: Extreme Cold

Andrea Mustain
OurAmazingPlanet
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:27 UTC
Coral Reef
© NOAADazzling life at a coral reef near Florida's Key West. The state's coral reefs have suffered steep declines in recent decades.
Temperature extremes and the destruction they cause have been big news this year, with large swaths of the southern United States in the grip of record-breaking heat waves that devastated flora and fauna.

Yet temperature extremes also take a toll on life that dwells in the ocean, where the results are far less accessible to TV news crews than the bone-dry landscapes and wildfires on display in Texasthis year.

Last year in Florida, it was the unusual cold that wreaked havoc. Researchers have begun to unravel the effects of the frigid weather on some of the Sunshine State's most vulnerable inhabitants. The damage apparently included one of the worst coral die-offs ever recorded in the United States.
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Cloud Lightning

Death Toll From Thailand Floods Climbs To 54

Mark Dunphy
Irish Weather Online
Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:52 UTC
Tropical Storm Nock-Ten
© NASA MODISTropical Storm Nock-Ten
The death toll as a result of flooding in various parts of Thailand reached 54 on Tuesday, the government said. Most of the casualties are a result of Tropical Storm Nock-Ten.

The remains of Nock-Ten, which is also known as Tropical Storm Juaning, made landfall in Thailand in late July, causing serious flooding and flash floods in parts of the country. Many regions remain flooded, both because of the storm and monsoon.

On Tuesday, the Thai government said the death toll as a result of the flooding had risen to 54. In addition, some 1.13 million households or about 3.87 million people in 36 provinces have suffered from flash floods and mudslides caused by monsoon and Nock-Ten.
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Attention

Uganda: Govt Calls Crisis Meeting As Floods Swamp Country

Tabu Butagira & David Mafabi
All Africa
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:41 UTC
Uganda mudslide
© AP / Stephen WanderaSurvivors of recent mud slides stand next to a body in the debris at Sisiyi Sub County in Bulambuli district, Uganda, Monday, Aug. 29, 2011.
The government will tomorrow host a special meeting with humanitarian agencies in Kampala to structure a sustainable response to different disasters ravaging the country, a minister said last night.

Separately, the Uganda Red Cross Society reported that mudslides and floods - which killed more than 50 people last month alone - have put the lives of 160,240 Ugandans at risk.

Up to 32,048 households across the country lack food and shelter, the humanitarian agency's spokesperson Catherine Ntabadde said.

She added: "The assessments indicate the current disasters include hailstorms, floods, landslides, food shortage, population movement and health related emergencies."
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Bizarro Earth

US: 20 inches of rain? Gulf coast warned for weekend


MSNBC /Associated Press
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:37 UTC
New Orleans initiated emergency procedures on Thursday after forecasters warned that a weather system in the Gulf could dump up to 10 inches on the flood-prone city over the next five days, and up to 20 inches elsewhere across the Gulf.

"High wind, a lot of rain and it's going slow," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in describing the system. "That's not a good prescription for New Orleans."

Image
© The Weather Channel
The system is likely to be come a tropical storm, the National Hurricane Center said Thursday, but even if it doesn't grow it will bring heavy rain.

"We've got a huge area of moisture, we've got a developing wind field ... we're probably going to see some tremendous rain amounts and the corresponding flooding that goes with that," NHC Director Bill Read told reporters in Miami.
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Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: 4.9 Shocker Wakes Christchurch

Paul Harper
New Zealand Herald
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:21 UTC
Chirstchurch Quake
© Mark MitchellSmoke rises from the collapsed CTV Building on February 22.
A shallow magnitude 4.9 earthquake has rocked Christchurch early this morning, GNS Science reports.

The quake struck at 3.29am, and was centred 10km east of Lyttelton, off the end of Godley Head, at a depth of 6km.

GNS Science said the quake could have caused minor damage, and had reports it was felt as far north as Hamner Springs and as south as far as Timaru.

Orion said all power had remained connected following the quake.

Christchurch residents turned to Twitter to share their experiences.
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Bizarro Earth

Virginia, US Shaken AGAIN: More Than 20 Aftershocks From 5.8 East Coast Earthquake Now Felt


The Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:28 UTC
Virginia Quake
© The Daily Mail, UKNew quake: The epicentre of this latest earthquake, measuring 3.4, was just four miles from Mineral, where last week's 5.8 quake started
Central Virginia has been shaken by another aftershock from last week's earthquake that rattled the East Coast.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 3.4 magnitude aftershock at 5.09am this morning.

The epicentre was four miles south-southeast of Mineral, the town that was the epicentre of last Tuesday's 5.8-magnitude earthquake.

More than 20 aftershocks ranging from 4.5 to 1.8 have followed the earthquake.
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Cloud Lightning

102 die in Nigeria after dam collapse, flooding


CNN
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:35 UTC
nigeria, dam collapse,flood
© NAHeavy rain caused the Odo Ona River to overflow and the Eleyele dam to collapse.
Flooding has claimed 102 lives in southwestern Nigeria, where a dam burst and a river overflowed near the city of Ibadan, officials said Wednesday.

A rain deluge from Friday night to early Saturday caused the Odo Ona River to overflow and the Eleyele dam to collapse, said Yushau Shuaib of the government's National Emergency Management Agency.

Several homes were swept away and temporary camps were set up, Shuaib said.
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Cloud Lightning

A bolt from the bleu... Dramatic moment thunderbolt lights up Eiffel Tower


Mail Onlilne
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:07 UTC
Illuminated in vivid blue and dwarfing neighbouring ­buildings, the Eiffel Tower's impact on the Paris skyline was already dramatic.

But Mother Nature clearly felt she could lend the scene a little added pizzazz.

This remarkable shot of a forked lightning bolt streaking through the sky behind the 1,063ft iron tower was ­captured by amateur photo­grapher ­Bertrand Kulik.

The 31-year-old from Paris - which is known as the City of Light - said: 'The weather was dry and the sky appeared to be completely clear, but suddenly it started to thunder.

'I quickly grabbed my ­camera and put it on a tripod by the window in the hope I could get an action picture - but I never thought I would get such a ­magnificent shot.'
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Igloo

Second Giant Ice Island Set to Break off Greenland Glacier

Ian Johnston
MSNBC
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:27 UTC
The Petermann Glacier seen in August, 2009.
© Jason Box / Byrd Polar Research Center, OhioThe Petermann Glacier seen in August, 2009. The cliffs on the left are about 3,000 feet high, about the same height as three Eiffel Towers or more than two Willis Towers.
Astonished scientist says he was 'completely unprepared for the gob-smacking scale of the breakup, which rendered me speechless'

New photographs taken of a vast glacier in northern Greenland have revealed the astonishing rate of its breakup, with one scientist saying he was rendered "speechless."

In August 2010, part of the Petermann Glacier about four times the size of Manhattan island broke off, prompting a hearing in Congress.

Researcher Alun Hubbard, of the Centre for Glaciology at Aberystwyth University, U.K., told msnbc.com by phone that another section, about twice the size of Manhattan, appeared close to breaking off.

In 2009, scientists installed GPS masts on the glacier to track its movement.

But when they returned in July this year, they found the ice had been melting so quickly - at an unexpected 16-and-a-half feet in two years - that some of the masts stuck into the glacier were no longer in position.
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Bizarro Earth

Katia Strengthens Into Hurricane Over Atlantic


Reuters
Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:09 UTC
Image
© Reuters/NOAATropical Storm Katia in a satellite image taken August 30, 2011.
Tropical Storm Katia strengthened into a hurricane over the Atlantic on Wednesday, while another mass of thunderstorms that could become a named storm this week triggered evacuations of some oil workers from the Gulf of Mexico.

Katia had sustained winds of 75 miles per hour and was the second hurricane of the June-through-November Atlantic hurricane season, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The Miami-based center said Katia was forecast to become a "major" hurricane with winds over 111 mph by the weekend but it was too early to tell whether it would threaten land.

At 11 p.m. (0300 GMT Thursday), Katia was about 1,165 miles east of the Caribbean's Leeward Islands. It was moving rapidly west-northwest and was forecast to turn northwest in a couple of days on a course that would keep it away from the Caribbean islands.

Hurricane Irene rampaged up the U.S. East Coast over the weekend and authorities on the U.S. Atlantic seaboard are keeping an eye on Katia to see which path it takes.
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