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|  | Climate/Weather Contractions
« Thread Started on Apr 7, 2005, 10:21am » | ![[Quote]](http://s2.images.proboards.com/buttons/quote.gif "[Quote]") |
Tornadoes and Thunderstorms Tear through South
By Joedy McReary
Associated Press
posted: 06 April 2005
05:29 pm ET
BRANDON, Mississippi (AP) _ Lines of violent thunderstorms rolled through the southern states on Wednesday, blowing apart mobile homes, snapping dozens of trees and power lines and ripping the roof off a school while classes were in session.
A tornado touched down in Mississippi during an hours-long storm siege. There were no immediate reports of deaths, but officials said at least eight people were injured, including one in critical condition. Gov. Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency in storm-damaged areas.
Image Gallery
Tornado Country
The hardest-hit section of Mississippi was rural Rankin County, southeast of Jackson. At least 17 homes were destroyed in the county and 15 others had major damage, said Amy Carruth, a Mississippi Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman in Brandon.
Along one street, it appeared that only one house escaped without major damage. Splintered pine trees and snapped power lines littered streets. Pink insulation, wood fragments and other debris dangled from the remaining trees. Several vehicles were smashed by fallen trees.
The National Weather Service confirmed that Rankin County was struck by a tornado but had not yet rated its intensity, said forecaster Brandon Henry.
Another tornado destroyed about eight homes and damaged about a dozen other houses, barns and workshops near Heflin in northwest Louisiana. One mobile home was torn down around a woman and her two sons.
"I just hit the floor with my two little boys and covered their heads as best I could,'' Jennifer Gray said. "And the next thing I know it feels like we're outside. There were no walls, no roof. It was still storming on top of us.''
Storm watches and warnings also were posted for sections of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, the weather service said.
East of Rankin County, high wind blew the roof off Mize High School while classes were in session, school district officials said.
School officials moved the 650 students onto the first floor of the two-story school before the tornado hit and no one was injured, said Superintendent Warren Woodrow. "The teachers did a good job of holding it together,'' he said.
more...
http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/ap_050406_tornadoes.html
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Sshining
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« Reply #1 on Apr 9, 2005, 3:29pm » | |
Flooding Forces Thousands Out of Homes
Tue Apr 5, 7:06 PM ET U.S. National - AP
By ROSA CIRIANNI, Associated Press Writer
TRENTON, N.J. - Thousands of people packed into shelters, hotels or friends' houses on Tuesday, forced from their homes by flooding that caused millions of dollars in damage in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.
AP Photo
Northeast Hit By More Flooding
(AP Video)
Nearly 6,000 New Jersey residents and another 5,715 in Pennsylvania evacuated their homes after the Delaware River surged out of its banks over the weekend, state officials said Tuesday. The flooding was blamed for at least one death.
Antonio Barnett, 27, stayed at a hotel after his Trenton apartment flooded but stopped to pick up a sandwich from The Salvation Army, which set up 50 shelters over the weekend to help flood victims.
"You can't do what you're accustomed to doing," he said. "Financial help, that's the main thing we really need."
In New York, a woman's body was found Monday about 500 yards from where her SUV flipped over into fast-moving water. Officials searched on Tuesday for two men missing from a van that was swept into a swollen creek.
New Jersey officials asked that the state be declared a federal disaster area, and officials in Pennsylvania and New York sought disaster declarations for affected counties.
"I've never seen devastation like this," New York Gov. George Pataki said after flying over flooded areas. "We'll do everything we can to help."
Some 3,200 homes were damaged in New Jersey, officials said, and hundreds more were damaged in Pennsylvania and New York, including at least 160 homes valued at some $16 million in the Town of Deerpark, N.Y. Many bridges and roads in Pennsylvania were impassable and dozens of schools and businesses were closed.
Many state employees in New Jersey remained off the job in Trenton, where the Delaware River flooded roads and the Statehouse garage.
New Jersey's acting Gov. Richard J. Codey estimated that property damage approached $30 million, about the same amount caused by remnants of Hurricane Ivan that swept through the state in September.
more...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st....d=519&ncid=1112
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Sshining
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« Reply #2 on Apr 10, 2005, 6:27pm » | |
Storms Bring Wind, Flooding Across Florida
Thu Apr 7,11:09 PM ET U.S. National - AP
By The Associated Press
Winds ripping through central Florida on Thursday flipped planes and trucks, damaged buildings, snarled traffic and left a trail of downed trees and blackouts.
Marion County officials reported that the storm had damaged at least 20 homes, some severely, and left more than 6,000 customers without power. At least four people, including a pregnant teen riding a school bus, were injured, officials said.
Mary Krulikowski said she was in her van picking up her son from an Ocala high school when the storm "came out of nowhere."
"The sky darkened, tree limbs started hitting my van," she told the Ocala Star-Banner.
The Marion County Sheriff's Office said a tornado turned over planes and tore off hangar doors at Ocala International Airport. A National Weather Service spokesman said officials were investigating whether a tornado had touched down.
Earlier, rains flooded already saturated parts of the Panhandle.
A 100-foot section of Pensacola's landmark red clay bluffs was washed away as 7 inches of rain fell over a 24-hour period that ended Thursday morning. Part of Scenic Highway, overlooking Escambia Bay atop the bluffs, will be closed for several weeks while repairs are made, police said.
Thunderstorms also caused scattered power outages.
In Gulf County, nearly 150 miles east of Pensacola, about 65 homes and hundreds of secondary homes have been flooded since last week and the water was expected to stay high for several more days, said county Emergency Management Director Larry Wells.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st....d=519&ncid=1112
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Sshining
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« Reply #3 on Apr 11, 2005, 10:05am » | |
Indian Dam Flood Kills 52 Pilgrims, 8 Missing
2 hours, 16 minutes ago World - Reuters
By Sanjay Sharma
BHOPAL, India (Reuters) - At least 52 Hindu pilgrims in central India who had come for a dip in a holy river were drowned and eight were missing after a dam upstream released water for power generation, officials said on Monday.
The incident occurred early on Saturday in Dharaji village in Madhya Pradesh state, about 125 miles west of the state capital Bhopal, where about 300,000 pilgrims had gathered to bathe in the Narmada river, they said.
"Lifeguards on the banks of the Narmada rescued many people. Many were sleeping on the river banks when they were washed away," Swaraj Puri, Madhya Pradesh's police chief, said.
Others were caught up in the surging waters while they were taking a bath.
"Fifty-two bodies have been recovered so far," a state government official told Reuters, the toll rising as more bodies were located by divers and lifeguards.
The pilgrims had gathered on the banks of Narmada a day ahead of the new moon, a period which is considered auspicious by Hindus as they feel bathing in the holy river at this time would wash away their sins.
Police in Dewas district, where Dharaji is located, said dozens of frantic people were asking about missing relatives.
State authorities said the tragedy occurred after the gates of the Indira Sagar Dam, about 100 km (60 miles) upstream of Dharaji, were opened without warning.
more...
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st....d=574&ncid=1112
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| | Re: Climate/Weather Contractions
« Reply #4 on Apr 12, 2005, 5:22am » | |
5 inch hailstones
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/11/content_432923.htm
Hailstones 'as big as eggs' kill 18
By Di Fang (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-04-11 06:10
A hailstorm in Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality has left 18 dead, one person missing and 25 injured, the People's Daily reported yesterday.
The biggest hailstorm, which fell in Chongqing, reached 13 centimetres in diameter, according to local reports.
Chongqing's eight districts also experienced gales and 140 millimetres of rainfall in last Friday's storm.
According to the municipal Office of Disaster and Social Relief, about 458,000 residents in 80 counties and towns in Chongqing were hit by bad weather, leaving five dead and 25 injured.
It is estimated that 140 million yuan (US$17 million) of damage was caused.
Qianjiang District in Chongqing was the worst affected, with hailstones destroying more than 27,800 houses and local crops. In this district alone, there was damage worth 35 million yuan (US$4.2 million).
Many cities in Sichuan were also affected by strong winds and heavy rainfall. Some cities, such as Leshan, Dazhou and Yibin, were also hit by hailstorms.
Thirteen people died in the province.
Ye Sheng, deputy director of Gaoxian County's Party committee in Yibin, said he witnessed a hailstorm that lasted for about one-and-a-half hours on Friday.
He said some hailstones were as big as eggs, and even small ones were the size of peas. "Many houses were pierced by the hail. It is the most serious hailstorm for 20 years in the county," he was quoted by People's Daily as saying.
A large band of rising warm air resulted in the wind, rain and hail, the Provincial Office of Disaster and Social Relief said.
Measures have been taken to counter the hailstorm, including cloud seeding. In Chongqing alone, some 2,100 rounds have been launched to force hail to change into rain.
Sichuan Province has set up a special disaster and social relief group to guide the work, comfort affected residents, help them reconstruct their homes to get their lives back to normal.
Areas in Hubei Province adjoining Sichuan also experienced similar weather, injuring 15 people.
Last week, many regions in China were hit by sudden changes of weather.
Areas in North China and Northwest China experienced sudden drops in temperature.
In Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the temperature slumped to 1 C below zero on Thursday from 26 C above the day before.
And in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the temperature dropped by 17 degrees between Wednesday and Thursday.
The region also had its most serious dust storm this spring on Friday.
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Sshining
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« Reply #5 on Apr 12, 2005, 9:05am » | |
China is very well known for human rights violations and persecution of Chjristians. There is no teling what elss they a re guilty of. Greater abortion rates than the U.S. etc.
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phil
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« Reply #6 on Apr 14, 2005, 5:28am » | |
US drought in western states to last another 5 years???
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2005/04/13/news/local/news02.txt
Drought may last 3 to 5 more years
By Steve Miller, Journal Staff Writer
RAPID CITY -- Based on past droughts in this region, the current drought in the West could easily last another three to five years, National Weather Service expert Matt Bunkers said Tuesday.
Bunkers, along with other scientists speaking at a hydrology conference in Rapid City, said that droughts in the West River region typically last 10 years or more.
"It's difficult to know exactly what's going to happen this year, but I would bet that over the next three to five years, we will tend to be drier, just by observing the past," Bunkers told more than 150 scientists, government agency officials, civic representatives and students at the third annual Western South Dakota Hydrology Conference.
Bunkers, science and operations officer at the NWS's Rapid City office, said that even in the past century, dry periods lasted from 1930 to 1940, from 1949 to 1961 and from about 1980 to 1990.
Bunkers said after his presentation that 10-year drought cycles prevail in western South Dakota, compared with five-year drought cycles farther east.
Bunkers and Dennis Todey, state climatologist based at South Dakota State University in Brookings, said the current drought, although severe, is not as severe nor nearly as long as some earlier droughts that gripped this region.
Todey said part of the reason that the current drought seems so severe is that it came on the heels of the soggy 1990s, the wettest period in the area since at least the 1920s.
Of course, that is little comfort for farmers, ranchers, water system managers and residents trying to keep lawns green in western South Dakota over the past five years.
Bunkers said a study of April-through-October (the growing season) precipitation in the region shows that Rapid City had 15.37 fewer inches of precipitation than average for the five-year period from 2000 to 2004.
Other sites below average for the five-year period included Colony, Wyo., 21.59 inches below average; Camp Crook, 5.65 inches below average; Gillette, Wyo., 9.18 inches below average; Hot Springs, 14.4 inches below; Cottonwood, 10.27 inches below; and Newcastle, Wyo., 5.4 inches below.
Bunkers said dramatic fluctuations are the norm for this area. During the wet 1990s, Rapid City was above the average amount of precipitation by 13.99 inches.
During the last 40-year period beginning in the early 1960s, the region had average growing season rainfall about 2 inches above that of the previous 40 years, Bunkers said.
But he said that upward trend probably won't continue. "It is likely that over the next 20 years, we'll see the average come down."
Bunkers, Todey and Dan Driscoll, hydrologic studies chief for the U.S. Geological Survey office in Rapid City, all cited tree-ring studies that indicated even longer lasting droughts than the dust bowl drought of the 1930s. A drought nearly as severe as the Dust Bowl years lasted from about 1840 to the 1860s, according to the tree-ring data.
Other multi-decade dry periods came in previous centuries.
"It's been well documented that the severity and extent of previous droughts have far exceeded the current conditions," Driscoll said. "Planning for a worst-case scenario may be the way to go for our water managers."
Todey said some studies indicate the region is due for another multi-decade drought.
"Will another one occur?" Todey asked. "Yes. But we don't know when."
Meanwhile, there is some reason for hope, at least in the short term. The NWS forecast now calls for a chance of cooler-than-average temperatures and above-average precipitation in South Dakota this summer.
But Bunkers, Todey and Driscoll all said one year of above-average rainfall wouldn't break the drought. Bunkers said aquifer levels don't begin rising until about a year after a wet period begins.
All three said water managers and other officials should prepare for drought because it is inevitable in this area.
Todey drought cycles are not regular. "We must always be prepared for drought because we live on the plains. It is not going to change. It will come back."
Bunkers said a drought as severe and as long-lasting as the 1930s drought could pose even more problems for the region because of the increased population and increased demand on water resources now.
"When we have a period when we have a lot of rain, we can't use it like there's no tomorrow," Bunkers said. "We need to really be thinking about the future."
Contact Steve Miller at 394-8417 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com
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phil
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« Reply #7 on Apr 17, 2005, 7:47am » | |
freak wave floods cruise ship
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/300826p-257523c.html
'Freak' wave rocks cruise
70-footer hits N.Y.-bound ship
BY JONATHAN LEMIRE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A "freak wave" more than 70 feet high slammed a luxury cruise ship steaming for New York yesterday, flooding cabins, injuring passengers and forcing the liner to stop for emergency repairs.
The Norwegian Dawn, an opulent ocean liner almost 1,000 feet long, limped into Charleston, S.C., yesterday afternoon after it hit vicious seas in an overnight storm off Florida - then was creamed by the rogue wave after dawn.
"[My room] was destroyed by stuff getting thrown all over the place," passenger James Fraley, of Keansburg, N.J., told NBC News before embarking on the 12-hour drive home because he didn't want to set foot on the ship again.
"It was pure chaos."
The ship, which sailed from New York last Sunday with 2,500 passengers, had been due back today.
It weathered most of a wild storm that featured gale-force winds and choppy seas. But then the vessel, longer than three football fields, was suddenly smacked by the "freak wave," said Norwegian Cruise Line spokeswoman Susan Robison. It broke a pair of windows and flooded 62 cabins, she said.
"The sea had actually calmed down when the wave seemed to come out of thin air at daybreak," Robison said. "Our captain, who has 20 years on the job, said he never saw anything like it."
The tidal wave wrecked windows on the ninth and 10th floors and wreaked havoc below decks, destroying furniture, the onboard theater, and a store that sold expensive gifts.
It also injured four passengers and terrified scores more, many of whom lost belongings and were being flown back to New York early this morning.
"My daughter said people were freaking out," said Mel Blanck, 74, whose daughter, Caren Hogan, 42, of Matawan, N.J., was vacationing aboard with her family. "She said some doors were ripped off and broken glass was everywhere."
In a message Hogan left on her parents' voice mail, she said her ship "feels like the Titanic" and described "water running everywhere, with people getting hurt and panicking."
"She felt lucky that she and her children weren't hurt," said Blanck, whose daughter had called from South Carolina last night. "She's calm now, but she said it was a nightmare."
The floating city of a ship, which was commissioned in 2002, left New York a week ago for Orlando, Miami and the Bahamas. It had started heading home when it ran into the wicked weather.
During the storm, one frightened passenger called a relative who relayed the information to the Coast Guard, which escorted the ship into Charleston yesterday.
"The ocean is unforgiving; it doesn't care who is out there," said Petty Officer Bobby Nash of the Coast Guard in Florida. "This could have happened to anyone."
Repairs were done last night, and the ship resumed it's voyage around midnight after a team of Coast Guard inspectors gave it approval.
Many of the Norwegian Dawn's passengers remained on the ship while it was readied for the sea again, Robison said. The battered vessel is expected to return to New York tomorrow.
All passengers would be given a partial refund, a credit for a future trip and access to the ship's open bar, Robison said.
Originally published on April 17, 2005
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heaven
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| | Re: Climate/Weather Contractions
« Reply #8 on Apr 17, 2005, 10:07pm » | |
Florida has to get it's act together. The wave said don't
come here for a good time, I think 
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phil
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| | Re: Climate/Weather Contractions
« Reply #9 on Apr 19, 2005, 7:27pm » | |
major sandstorm to hit Korean peninsula from China
http://au.news.yahoo.com/050419/3/u1f1.html
SEOUL, April 19 Asia Pulse - South Korea's state weather agency said on Tuesday it is considering issuing a nationwide alert from Wednesday as it forecasts a strong sandstorm will blow in from China over coming days.
The Korea Meteorological Administration said the "yellow dust" dust storm expected to be the heaviest one so far this year will likely hit South Korea on Wednesday morning.
The storm, which is approaching from China's inner Mongolian region, has a dust density of 9,068 micrograms per cubic meter, KMA said.
KMA issues a yellow dust alert when the dust density in the air surpasses 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter for more than two hours.
The alert advises senior citizens, children and people with breathing difficulty to stay indoors.
The yellow dust storms, which carry sand and industrial pollution, originate from the Gobi Desert in the Chinese-Mongolian border region and, driven by strong spring winds, affects regions as far west as Japan.
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« Reply #10 on Apr 20, 2005, 1:52pm » | |
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st....=1540&ncid=1112
New method predicts severity of US hurricane season
6 minutes ago
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PARIS (AFP) - British scientists say they have devised the first accurate tool to predict the severity of the US hurricane season, an innovation that could help save lives and cut costs for the insurance industry.
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The American hurricane season technically runs from June 1 to November 30.
But Mark Saunders and Adam Lea of Britain's Benfield Hazard Research Centre looked at US weather records from 1950 to 2003 and found that 86 percent of hurricane strikes -- and 96 percent of the worst ones -- occurred after August 1.
Their most important discovery was that, in July, anomalies in regional wind patterns give a clear pointer as to whether the hurricane season from August onwards will be severe or calm.
Tested on historical data of winds and hurricane costs from 1950-2003, the model was 74 percent accurate in predicting whether a season in any year would be above average or below average in severity.
It was also spot-on in its first real-life run last year, predicting accurately that the 2004 season would be above average in harshness.
"We forecast high activity and this was the case," Saunders told AFP. "If companies had bought extra insurance cover on the basis of this forecast, they would have reduced their losses."
more...
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« Reply #11 on Apr 20, 2005, 9:21pm » | |
Looks like the West to get a much needed dousing.
----------------------------------------------------------------
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=st....herpage_weather
Rain Falls in Midwest As West Gets Snow
Wed Apr 20, 4:57 PM ET
Storms brought rain and high wind to the Midwest on Wednesday, while several inches of snow fell in the West and fog dotted the Southeast.
Wind gusting to more than 60 mph swept through parts of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.
In the nation's midsection, rain dampened parts of Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Missouri. Some thunderstorms threatened quarter-sized hail.
In the West, a mix of snow and rain lingered over Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Idaho. Snow accumulations were heavier at higher elevations.
The Southeast was affected by patches of dense fog and low clouds. Visibility was as low as one-eighth of a mile at Evergreen, Ala. Most fog had lifted by late morning.
Wednesday's temperatures in the Lower 48 states ranged from a low of 19 degrees in Bryce Canyon, Utah, to a midday high of 88 in Culpeper, Va., and Frederick, Md.
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phil
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| | Re: Climate/Weather Contractions
« Reply #12 on Apr 21, 2005, 6:18pm » | |
Antarctic is melting and shrinking
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050421/D89JUVFG0.html
LONDON (AP) - The first comprehensive survey of glaciers on the Antarctic peninsula has shown that the rivers of ice are shrinking, mostly because of warming of the local climate.
It is unclear, however, whether the increased temperature causing the shrinkage is a natural regional effect or a result of human-influenced global warming, said the scientists who conducted the study, published this week in the journal Science.
Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed more than 2,000 aerial photographs dating from 1940 and over 100 satellite images from the 1960s onwards.
They calculated that 87 percent of the 244 glaciers going out to sea from the peninsula have retreated over the last 50 years and that the pace of shrinkage has accelerated over the last decade. Until now, scientists were uncertain whether the glaciers were growing or melting.
"Fifty years ago, most of the glaciers we look at were slowly growing in length but since then this pattern has reversed. In the last five years the majority were actually shrinking rapidly," said the study's leader, Alison Cook of the British Antarctic Survey. "However, 32 glaciers go against the trend and are showing minor advance. Had we not studied such a large number of glaciers we may have missed the overall pattern."
The Antarctic peninsula is a small segment of the Antarctic continent, located at the South Pole, and the behavior of the ice on the peninsula is not necessarily a reflection of what's going on elsewhere in Antarctica, said another of the investigators, David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey.
Temperatures seem to be much warmer there than on the rest of the continent.
Evidence from the main Antarctic ice sheet is mixed, with some areas of the continent showing shrinkage and others showing thickening.
Ice shrinkage has also been documented in Alaska and the North Pole.
Scientists worry about the melting of the ice sheets because the extra water may increase sea levels, which in turn could mean more flooding damage to coastal areas during storms.
Sea levels have risen by 10 centimeters to 20 centimeters over the last 100 years and experts predict it could rise by a meter over the next 100 years. However, the study was not able to tell whether the shrinkage is having a meaningful impact on sea levels.
It is also unclear whether changes in the larger ice sheet in Antarctica are contributing to sea level rise, Vaughan said.
"This is another piece in the jigsaw that tells us how climate change is affecting the planet. It may not be a significant piece, but there's a million-piece jigsaw out there to be filled in ... and this is one piece in it," Vaughan said.
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phil
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| | Re: Climate/Weather Contractions
« Reply #13 on Apr 24, 2005, 10:31am » | |
Holy snowcaps!
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/A....AI&SECTION=HOME
Interior could undergo dynamic breakup this spring
FAIRBANKS (AP) -- The National Weather Service is warning that conditions are right this spring for a dynamic breakup in Alaska's Interior.
Computers are telling meteorologists and hydrologists that breakup this year could involve flooding, ice jams and significant erosion in fire-ravaged areas.
Record-setting snow depths and water-content measurements have hydrologists warning of the potential for spring floods along several major Interior rivers.
"They should be getting prepared," said Scott Lindsey, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service's Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center. "There is a potential for what the villages call 'spring flooding,' when the snowmelt ends up causing flooding after the actual breakup."
A significant amount of water, most of it locked away in ice and snow, sits in the drainages of several Interior rivers, including the Yukon, Koyukuk and even the Chena. The same is true for much of the huge Susitna River drainage in Southcentral.
Scientists describe the two kinds of breakups as "thermal" and "dynamic."
A thermal breakup, as described by Larry Hinzman of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, occurs when temperatures warm gradually over several weeks, allowing the river to thaw slowly as the ice rots.
The Interior this spring is more likely to undergo a dynamic breakup. That occurs when temperatures are relatively cool - such as experienced in the Interior over the last month - and then become very warm.
Conditions like those on Friday, with the temperature hovering at or above freezing at night, then soaring as high as 60 under increasingly sunny skies, are just right for a dynamic breakup. String together a week of conditions like that and water is streaming over frozen ground into rivers that are still locked in ice.
Rick McClure, who oversees the cooperative snow survey project for the Natural Resource Conservation Service, said hydrologists are able to predict the amount of water locked in a particular drainage.
The numbers coming out of their formulas are striking. For instance, the "volume flow forecast" for the Yukon River around Stevens Village is 116 percent of normal for April through July, McClure said. That means enough water will flow by the village to cover 48.2 million acres of land with 1 foot of water, a measurement hydrologists call acre-feet.
"Forty-eight million acres is about the size of South Dakota," McClure said.
McClure said some of the most impressive measurements came along the Yukon River near the Dalton Highway crossing, where water content was measured at 180 to 190 percent above normal, and in the White Mountains, where water content was 150 percent.
The Chena River basin also has significant water content, according to John Schaake of the Chena River Lakes Flood Control Project. Schaake said there is enough water contained in snow and ice to cover the basin to a depth of 6 1/2 inches
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Sshining
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| | Re: Climate/Weather Contractions
« Reply #14 on Apr 29, 2005, 5:49pm » | |
Heavy Floods Hit Romania Making 3,700 Homeless By Radu Marinas
Fri Apr 29, 9:03 AM ET
BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Heavy rains in western Romania have flooded hundreds of villages, forcing 3,700 people to abandon their homes and disrupting rail and road traffic, the Environment Ministry said on Friday.
Television stations showed army helicopters and national guard dinghies arriving at disaster areas to evacuate shivering victims from what authorities called the worst floods in 50 years.
"I lost everything. My pigs drowned and I couldn't rescue them after my house crumbled in the water," said an elderly peasant from Otelec, where floods were two meters deep.
Up to 2,000 people, mostly from Timis county at the border with Serbia and Montenegro, were displaced to temporary shelters on nearby highlands. They are likely to stay there until at least Sunday, the Orthodox Easter.
But TV reports said many were risking their lives to defend saturated homes from looters by taking refuge in their lofts, which were liable to collapse at any moment.
In the city of Arad, near the border with Hungary, apartment blocks and streets were flooded, with stranded residents forced to use dinghies for transport.
The Environment Ministry said the floods were partly caused by broken 300-year-old dams on the Timis river but that waters were now beginning to ebb.
"There's no one else awaiting evacuation and the situation is improving as meteorologists predict no rains for the next week," said ministry official Olga Lefter.
Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu, who visited the flood-affected areas, said the government would rebuild destroyed houses with materials from the state reserves. The houses are expected to be ready by the winter.
The government has allocated 500 billion lei ($18 million) to repair the collapsed railway infrastructure and 280 billion for the dams. Some 30 billion will also go toward vaccines to prevent epidemics spreading, emergency food and basic supplies.
"We will also hold talks with the World Bank for a loan of 49 million euros, for safety works along rivers in the counties hit by floods," Environment Minister Sulfina Barbu told state news agency Rompres.
The government had yet to present an overall assessment of the damage, but the farm ministry said 110,000 hectares (271,800 acres) of wheat, barley, sunflower and vegetables fields had so far been damaged at an estimated financial loss of 300 billion lei.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/romania_flood....NlYwMlJVRPUCUl
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phil
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| | Re: Climate/Weather Contractions
« Reply #15 on Apr 29, 2005, 6:27pm » | |
flash flooding in Arabia???
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4497443.stm
Flash floods leave 30 Saudis dead
More than 30 people have been killed in flash floods in Saudi Arabia, say newspaper reports.
Heavy rains and high winds combined to sweep cars off roads and destroy houses in the southern Asir province and the city of Jeddah, the reports say.
Jeddah was reportedly pelted with hail, power lines collapsed and metre-deep waters surged through the streets.
Local media have described the storms, on Wednesday and Thursday, as the worst in more than a decade.
Okaz, a Jeddah-based Saudi newspaper, said four people died when their house collapsed on Thursday.
Others, including a child, were killed by lightning strikes. On Friday, municipal workers were out in Jeddah cleaning up after the floods.
A Civil Defence official put the total killed at 30 people.
In January heavy rain and flash floods killed 29 people in Saudi Arabia's western city of Medina.
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The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. |
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phil
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| | Re: Climate/Weather Contractions
« Reply #16 on Apr 30, 2005, 6:35am » | |
Earth absorbing more heat than it dissipates
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7321
Earth absorbing more heat than it radiates
19:00 28 April 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Fred Pearce
The Earth is absorbing more energy from the Sun than it is emitting to space, according to a new modelling study. The difference amounts to 0.85 watts for every square metre of the planet’s surface. That is equivalent of 7 trillion 60-watt light bulbs - or the energy output of almost half a million thousand-megawatt power stations.
Most of the extra heat is warming the oceans - the ultimate repository of most of the solar radiation reaching the Earth, says Jim Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, US, and a leading climate change scientist for the past two decades.
The findings are the result of modelling studies of the atmosphere’s “energy budget” by a US team, headed by Hansen. The calculations are supported by precise measurements of ocean temperature over the past 10 years, he says.
The conclusion provides evidence both of planetary warming and of the lag in the response of the planet to the warming created by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - gases which trap infrared heat, preventing it from dissipating into space.
Hansen calculates there is currently 0.6°C of warming already “in the pipeline”. This is as much again as the warming actually experienced over the past century. Half of it is likely to be manifested in the next 30 to 40 years, with the rest over succeeding decades, he says.
The time lag occurs because it takes decades to warm the oceans - a process that happens gradually through mixing colder deep waters with the warmed surface waters.
Iceberg armada
Hansen says the lag represents a ticking time-bomb: “If we wait for more overwhelming empirical evidence of climate change [before acting], still greater climate change will be in store,” he says. But it also provides an advantage. If we act now to halt climate change, he says, it gives the world time to head off the worst predicted consequences.
Climate sceptics will not be convinced. Richard Lindzen, a meteorologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, says: “Frankly, we can't measure such [thermal] imbalances. So the results must be based on suppositions.”
But Peter Cox of Britain’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Dorset, UK, says the calculation of the energy imbalance should help scientists gauge the sensitivity of the climate system to the “forcing” effect of greenhouse gases. In other words, how much warming we can expect from a given increase in concentrations of the gases.
And this could be critical for staving off dangerous climate change. In a recent paper in Climatic Change (v 68, p 269), Hansen argues that any warming in excess of 1°C - measured from today - could trigger runaway melting of the world’s ice sheets. The process might start with Greenland unleashing “vast armadas of icebergs” into the oceans and sea levels rising by many metres, he said.
If his new assessment is correct, the Earth is already well on the way to having that amount of warming “in the pipeline”.
Journal reference: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1110252)
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The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. |
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heaven
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| | Re: Climate/Weather Contractions
« Reply #17 on Apr 30, 2005, 8:37pm » | |
cbsNew York.com
National Hurricane Center warns that New Jersey is
over due for a powerful storm. New Jersey has not
been hit by a major hurricane since 1944. 
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phil
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| | Re: Climate/Weather Contractions
« Reply #18 on May 2, 2005, 10:05am » | |
Ethiopian floods
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4505859.stm
The death toll from flooding last month in a remote area of south-east Ethiopia has risen to at 134 and may go higher, officials say.
Crocodiles are reported to have eaten at least 19 people during the floods.
Rescue teams are working to bring in much-needed emergency supplies but are still unable to reach many survivors.
Tens of thousands of people have been unable to return home because of floods and the fear of crocodiles, said the top local emergency official.
'Emergency'
Many people were sleeping when the banks of the Wabe Shebelle river burst during the night of 23 April.
People, housing and livestock were washed away and survivors were forced to flee their homes for the safety of higher ground.
"Thousands of people are unable to return to their homes because of flooding and crocodiles," said Remedan Haji Ahmed, who heads the government's emergency response in the area.
"We are going to declare an emergency," he told the AP news agency.
Red Cross and Red Crescent workers are bringing in emergency shipments of blankets, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils and medical supplies.
Flooding occurs frequently at this time of the year in the Somali region, around 700km (440 miles) east of the capital, Addis Ababa.
The floods have also hit parts of Somalia and Yemen.
Forecasters fear there could be further heavy rain and thunderstorms in the days to come.
The area is also repeatedly hit by drought. Millions of people, particularly around Gode, faced the threat of starvation during droughts in 2000.
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The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. |
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phil
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| | Re: Climate/Weather Contractions
« Reply #19 on May 2, 2005, 10:07am » | |
effects of climate changes
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/04/08/earth.past.future/index.html
(CNN) -- Climate change could have drastic consequences.
Just ask the ancient Egyptians.
Harvey Weiss, professor of archaeology at Yale University, says climate change was a fact of life for earlier civilizations. From pharaohs to the medieval Vikings, swift and sometimes violent changes in weather patterns sparked mass migrations and technological innovations like irrigation.
"Those episodes proved to be the single most important stimulus for the major transformations in human history," said Weiss, who digs through the traces of vanished empires for evidence of these climatic events.
Climate change was first proposed as a consequence of human activity in 1895. A Swedish chemist theorized that burning fossil fuels like coal might emit enough carbon dioxide to warm the planet. But natural climate variation, caused by fluctuations in the Earth's orbit and other natural cycles, wasn't thought to occur on a time scale perceptible to humans -- until recently. (The science debate)
Climate scientists now say warming and cooling events during the past 10,000 years brought about significant swings in rainfall and temperature in remarkably short periods. The climate record -- stretching back more than 750,000 years -- can be read in the sediments and ice layers from Asia to Greenland. These records, carefully analyzed by scientists, reveal a mercurial climate.
Periodic ice ages going back 10,000 years show extreme temperature swings, exceeding 6 degrees Celsius within 50 years in some cases, said Richard Sommerville, meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
By contrast, human-induced climate change is thought to have raised global temperatures just 0.6 degrees Celsius during the past 150 years. The United Nations predicts the next century could bring temperature increases as high as 5.8 degrees Celsius (10.4 F).
As high-resolution data about prehistoric climates accumulates, archeologists are looking for connections between climate change and human development.
The collapse of early Bronze Age civilizations in modern-day Greece, India and Greece have been theoretically linked to abrupt climate changes about 4,200 years ago.
According to research published in the journal Science, the Anasazi -- the ancestors of modern Pueblo Indians, who built elaborate stone and adobe structures in the American Southwest -- also may have succumbed to decades of intense drought and cooler temperatures during the 13th century, in addition to factors like warfare and religious turmoil. Today, only the sand-swept ruins of their pueblos and cliff dwellings remain.
Ultimately, not all climate change may have been destructive.
Weiss is dusting off evidence in the region known as the Fertile Crescent, including much of modern-day Iraq and Syria, indicating that a human revolution in irrigated agriculture occurred after an extended drought and cold spell.
A 200-year cooling period about 8,000 years ago slashed precipitation levels in the region by thirty percent, according to marine and geological records. Weiss believes this climate change initiated a mass migration away from dry-land farming to the creation of irrigated fields along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, allowing the people to build some of the earliest institutions of civilization.
Weiss says he has found evidence that the drought drove farmers in ancient Mesopotamia to build irrigation channels. Eventually, this allowed farmers to grow enough surplus food to feed the writers, priests, artists, politicians and architects who lived in cities.
More modern examples
The ancients are not the only ones to be influenced by weather, though. More modern -- and far colder -- examples exist.
Scientists from the University of Colorado used ocean sediment cores collected off the coast of Iceland to produce an almost weekly record of temperature changes in the region during the past 2,000 years.
Their findings -- announced in March -- show that in Iceland during what is known as the Little Ice Age (from about 1350 A.D. to 1850 A.D.) there was an increase in cooler winters, colder summers and increased temperature variability. According to the research, these changes influenced the population greatly, as a 1-degree drop in average summer temperatures may have meant a 15 percent drop in crop yields.
Not all scientists regard climate change as the predominant force in the rise and fall of early civilizations, but some researchers believe it may teach the present world about the possibilities of the future.
"The historical lesson ... is that those societies had no knowledge of what was happening to them and certainly no historic knowledge of what could happen to them, where we have both," Weiss said.
Today, scientists are improving predictions and narrowing down some parameters of climate change with new technology.
But no one can say with certainty what the future will bring. The inherent complexity of the climate system means computer models will likely give scientist a broad range of temperature possibilities only.
"The problem is that we don't understand how the climate system works well enough to understand where the thresholds might be," said Woody Hickcox, senior lecturer in environmental studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. "But we're racing towards them, if they're there."
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