Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Sri Lankan floods pile on misery: UN

The United Nations said Tuesday that recent monsoon flooding in Sri Lanka had hit hundreds of thousands of victims who were forced from their homes just weeks ago.

"The impact on people of this second wave of floods is even greater than the first in large part as peoples' capacity to cope was already diminished," UN Colombo chief Neil Buhne said in a statement.

Attention

Southern Africa May Face Worst Flooding in Decades

In the coming months, parts of southern Africa may experience the worst flooding in the last 20 or 30 years. That's the warning Monday from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

It says the La Nina weather phenomenon has brought heavier than normal rainfall, destroying thousands of hectares of agricultural land and crops so far. The seasonal rainy season is only half over and the cyclone season is expected to peak this month.

Attention

U.N. Issues Alerts on Flood Damage in Southern Africa, Drought in China

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Monday issued an alert warning that "floods and heavy rains have significantly damaged whole areas of agricultural land across southern Africa and that the livelihood and food security of farmers and their families are at risk," the Associated Press reports.

According to the FAO, more damage is possible since the rainy season is only half over and the cyclone season is due to peak in February, Agence France-Presse writes. "Most countries in the region, including Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, are affected, [an FAO statement] said, quoting Cindy Holleman, FAO regional emergency coordinator. 'Food insecurity levels are already critical in the affected areas of some of these countries and floods will only further worsen the ability of poor farmers to cope and feed their families in the coming months,' Holleman added," the news service reports.

Igloo

Mississippi: Significant Snow Possible; Winter Storm Watch issued

The possibility of significant wintry precipitation from yet another winter storm across parts of Mississippi has prompted the National Weather Service to issue a Winter Storm Watch from Wednesday into early Thursday morning.

The Winter Storm Watch covers 24 out of 82 counties, including Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll, Coahoma, De Soto, Grenada, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Lafayette, Leflore, Marshall, Montgomery, Panola, Quitman, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tunica, Warren, Washington, Yalobusha and Yazoo in Western Mississippi.

A low pressure system is expected to develop and move east along the Northern Gulf Coast Wednesday into late Wednesday night, spreading moisture north over a deep cold airmass that will be firmly in place across the region.

Bizarro Earth

Growing Fears in Japan As Two Volcanoes Erupt Again

Two volcanoes on Japan's southern island of Kyushu erupted on Tuesday.

A volcano at Sakurajima, the Minamidake crater, erupted early Tuesday followed by an eruption at Shinmoedake in the afternoon.

Shinmoedake erupted for the first time in 52 years last month and has erupted more than ten times since.

Igloo

New York Weather: Heavy Fog, Rains, Dropping Temperatures Expected

The National Weather Service issued a special weather statement early this morning. They warn that light winds and and low level precipitation will work together to create heavy fog throughout the New York City area.

Visibilities of below one mile are expected this morning, creating dangerous conditions for drivers.

Bizarro Earth

Huge Yellowstone Volcano Rising

Image
© NPSHydrothermal fluids, just like the ones shooting from Old Faithful, could be pushing up the Yellowstone supervolcano.
The huge volcano under Yellowstone National Park has been rising at an unprecedented rate during the past several years, according to a new study.

In the ancient past, the Yellowstone volcano produced some of the biggest-known continental eruptions, but the recent rising doesn't mean another doomsday eruption is looming, scientists say.

The recent rising is unprecedented for Yellowstone's caldera - the cauldron-shaped part of the volcano - but it's not uncommon for other volcanoes around the world. The new study has simply revealed a more active caldera at Yellowstone than scientists realized.

"It's pretty exciting when you see something that's five times larger than what you've seen in the past," said Charles Meertens, director of the nonprofit UNAVCO facility in Boulder, Colo., which aids geoscience research. Meertens is a former postdoctoral fellow under one of the study's authors, Robert Smith of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

Bizarro Earth

Another Japanese Volcano Erupts

Image
© Yomiuri Online
And another volcano has erupted in Japan.

Minami-dake crater at Sakurajima, a volcano on Japan's southern island of Kyushu, erupted Tuesday, following volcanic explosions at Mt. Kirishima in the same region.

The volcano spewed plumes of smoke and ash up to 2,000 meters into the air.

Local authorities temporarily banned citizens from driving near the area due to the sheer amount of ash raining down from the volcano.

Bizarro Earth

Prolonged drought threatens China's food producing regions

drought
© Xinhua/Zhu ZhengThe dried cornfield is seen in the mountainous area of Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 18, 2011.
An extreme shortage of rain or snow this winter has blighted China's chief food-producing areas.

Agricultural production across four million hectares has fallen dangerously in what is the worst drought in six decades.Across the provinces which help feed cities of northern China, precipitation is at precariously low levels.

Shandong province has had only 12mm (½in) of rain since last September, 15 per cent of the normal level. Despite more than 4,000 pumping stations continuing to supply water, the situation remains severe.

The drought, which began in October, has hit the southwest parts of Shandong hardest, putting further pressure on politically sensitive food prices that have been surging for months.

Comment: According to Xinhua News Agency, "Data from the provincial meteorological bureau showed the drought would be Shandong's worst in 200 years if there were no substantial precipitation by the end of this month."

"It's hard to know when it will rain. We must prepare for the worst and do our best to combat the drought to ensure a good harvest," premier Wen Jiabao said during a new year visit to a reservoir in Qufu, one of the worst affected areas.

Bizarro Earth

Record Low Arctic Sea Ice Extent for January

Low Ice
© Earth Observatory, NASANASA image created by Jesse Allen, using AMSR-E data and sea ice extent contours courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

During the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2010 - 2011, unusually cold temperatures and heavy snowstorms plagued North America and Europe, while conditions were unusually warm farther north. Now the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has reported that Arctic sea ice was at its lowest extent ever recorded for January (since satellite records began).

This image shows the average Arctic sea ice concentration for January 2011, based on observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. Blue indicates open water; white indicates high sea ice concentrations; and turquoise indicates loosely packed sea ice. The red line shows the average sea ice extent for January from 1979 through 2000.

NSIDC reported that ice extent was unusually low in Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, and Davis Strait in the early winter. Normally frozen over by late November, these areas did not completely freeze until mid-January 2011. The Labrador Sea was also unusually ice-free.

NSIDC offered two possible explanations. One reason is the Arctic Oscillation (AO), a seesaw pattern of differences in atmospheric pressure. In "positive" mode, the AO includes high pressure over the mid-latitudes and low pressure over the Arctic, setting up wind patterns that trap cold air in the far North. In "negative" mode, air pressure isn't quite as low over the Arctic and isn't quite as high over the mid-latitudes. This enables cold air to creep south and relatively warm air to move north.