Showing posts with label Asmah Daoud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asmah Daoud. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Day of Reckoning: Comet ISON disappears in close pass around the Sun
November 28, 2013 – SPACE - A comet’s 5.5-million-year journey to the inner solar system apparently ended during a suicidal trip around the sun, leaving no trace of its once-bright tail or even remnants of rock and dust, scientists said on Thursday. The comet, known as ISON, was discovered last year when it was still far beyond Jupiter, raising the prospect of a spectacular naked-eye object by the time it graced Earth’s skies in December. Comet ISON passed just 730,000 miles (1.2 million km) from the surface of the sun at 1:37 p.m. EST/1837 GMT on Thursday. Astronomers used a fleet of solar telescopes to look for the comet after its slingshot around the sun, but to no avail. “I’m not seeing anything that emerged from the behind the solar disk. That could be the nail in the coffin,” astrophysicist Karl Battams, with the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, said during a live broadcast on NASA TV. “It’s sad that it seemed to have ended this way, but we’re going to learn more about this comet,” he added. At closest approach, the comet was moving faster than 217 miles per second(350 km per second) through the sun’s atmosphere. At that distance, it reached temperatures of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit(2,760 degrees Celsius) – hot enough to vaporize not just ices in the comet’s body, but dust and rock as well.
If the comet or any large fragments survived the close encounter with the sun, they would be visible to the naked eye in Earth’s skies in a week or two. The comet was discovered last year by two amateur astronomers using Russia’s International Scientific Optical Network, or ISON. Comets are believed to be frozen remains left over from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. The family of comets that ISON belongs to resides in the Oort Cloud, located about 10,000 times farther away from the sun than Earth, halfway to the next star. Occasionally, an Oort Cloud comet is gravitationally nudged out of the cloud by a passing star and into a flight path that millions of years later brings it into the inner solar system. Computer models show ISON was a first-time visitor. “I hope we see another one soon,” said Dean Pesnell, project scientist for NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. –Reuters
Major earthquake would collapse over a thousand buildings in Los Angeles
October 15, 2013 – LOS ANGELES, CA – More than 1,000 old concrete buildings in Los Angeles and hundreds more throughout the county may be at risk of collapsing in a major earthquake, according to a Times analysis. By the most conservative estimate, as many as 50 of these buildings in the city alone would be destroyed, exposing thousands to injury or death. A cross-section of the city lives and works in them: seamstresses in downtown factories, white-collar workers in Ventura Boulevard high-rises and condo dwellers on Millionaires’ Mile in Westwood. Despite their sturdy appearance, many older concrete buildings are vulnerable to the sideways movement of a major earthquake because they don’t have enough steel reinforcing bars to hold columns in place. Los Angeles officials have known about the dangers for more than 40 years but have failed to force owners to make their properties safer. The city has even rejected calls to make a list of concrete buildings. In the absence of city action, university scientists compiled the first comprehensive inventory of potentially dangerous concrete buildings in Los Angeles. The scientists, however, have declined to make the information public. They said they are willing to share it with L.A. officials, but only if the city requests a copy. The city has not done so, the scientists said. Recent earthquakes have spotlighted the deadly potential of buildings held up by concrete. A 2011 quake in Christchurch, New Zealand, more than two years ago toppled two concrete office towers, killing 133 people. Many of the 6,000 people killed in a 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, were in concrete buildings. In 1971, the Sylmar earthquake brought down several concrete structures, killing 52.
Twenty-three
years later, the Northridge earthquake wrecked more, including a
Bullock’s department store and Kaiser medical office. Seismologists said
a bigger quake is overdue. “We know darn well that if a bunch of people
die, there will be lots of stories, lots of reports, things will
change,” said Thomas Heaton, director of Caltech’s Earthquake
Engineering Research Laboratory. “But the question is, do we have to
have lots of people die in order to make this change?” In the Roaring
Twenties, concrete buildings helped transform the Los Angeles skyline,
as office towers and apartments rose from the city’s landscape. By the
1970s, canyons of concrete towers lined some of L.A.’s most famous
streets: Wilshire, Hollywood, Sunset, Ventura, Main and Broadway. They
include landmarks such as the Capitol Records tower, the Hollywood Plaza
apartments and the W Hotel in Westwood, according to city records. A
team of Times reporters mined thousands of city and county records to
identify older concrete buildings. The Times found more than 1,000
buildings in Los Angeles and hundreds elsewhere in the county that
appeared to be concrete. Reporters walked through seven L.A. business
districts to gauge the accuracy of the list. They pulled building
permits and sent questionnaires to dozens of property owners, asking
them to review the details. In these areas, The Times found 68 older
concrete buildings, according to public records. Of those, just seven
had been retrofitted, or strengthened to survive large earthquakes. The
reporters’ work covered a fraction of the older concrete structures in
the city. –LA Times
BYU geologists discover ‘supervolcano’ in Utah: past eruption superseded Yellowstone
December 10, 2013 – UTAH – Geologists at Brigham Young University have discovered what may be the world’s largest “supervolcano” that erupted in Utah’s own backyard. While there are a variety of volcanoes that blast away in different ways, super volcanic eruptions are the biggest that collapse into large calderas. Yellowstone Park is the remains of one of those calderas, and it’s still very much alive and active. But, geologists think they may have found an equally as big, if not bigger super volcano, one that shook up western Utah and eastern Nevada 30 million years ago. The eruption is hardly visible to the naked eye now, but underneath and in surrounding formations, the evidence was waiting to be uncovered. “As far as we know, the Wah Wah Springs eruption is the largest known explosive volcanic eruption,” said BYU professor of geology Eric Christiansen. The eruption and collapse of the super volcano released almost 6,000 square kilometers of magma.
“It moved over a flat landscape covering 12,000 square miles in western Utah and eastern Nevada. It would have been unimaginable devastation,” said Emeritus BYU geology professor Myron Best. The magma flow extended beyond current-day Panguitch and north almost to Delta and south almost to St. George. As the ash was caught up in the jet stream, it carried as far as Nebraska. “The magma is erupting explosively as the flow spreads across the landscape,” Best said. Compared to Mt. St Helens — which is a different kind of volcano — Utah’s super volcano was 5,000 times larger. Deposits left behind in southern Utah from the single eruption are 13,000 feet thick. Thousands of rock samples collected over 30 years currently reside inside a repository at BYU with drawers extending from floor to ceiling. 600 students, 30 summers of field work and a lot of geologic mapping and analysis were utilized to confirm the existence of Utah’s super volcano. However, unlike Yellowstone which is still an active caldera, Utah and Nevada’s shared super volcano will unlikely ever erupt again, according to geologists. –KSL
Are California’s giant dead oarfish a sign of an impending earthquake disaster?
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/are-californias-giant-dead-oarfish-a-sign-of-an-impending-earthquake-disaster/
Are California’s giant dead oarfish a sign of an impending earthquake disaster?
October 23, 2013 – CATALINA ISLAND, Ca. — Could the appearance of rare “sea serpents” washing ashore beaches in Southern California portend disaster? The question comes following the discovery of the carcass of a rare 18-foot-long oarfish off the coast of Catalina Island on Oct. 13, followed by another snakelike 14-foot-long oarfish found on Oct. 18 in Oceanside. Fishermen in Japan reported a sharp uptick in oarfish sightings in March 2010 following the massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake in Chile that same month, which marked almost exactly one year before the country was devastated by its own magnitude-8.9 quake in northeast Japan. Oarfish, which can grow to more than 50 feet in length, are considered the longest bony fish in the world. They typically dive more than 3,000 feet deep, which makes sightings rare and has fueled various serpent legends throughout history. According to traditional Japanese lore, oarfish rise to the water’s surface and beach themselves to warn of an impending earthquake, a notion that some scientists have speculated could be supported by the bottom-dwelling fish being more sensitive to seismic shifts.
Known as the “Messenger from the Sea God’s Palace,” over a dozen “ryugu no tsukai,” or slender oarfish, either washed ashore or were caught in fishing nets in the Ishikawa, Toyama, Kyoto, Shimane and Nagasaki prefectures near the quake’s epicenter months before the 2011 quake hit, according to several reports. Scientists, however, say there is no data to support an actual link between the two phenomena. “It’s probably just a coincidence,” said Rick Feeney, who has been studying fish for almost 35 years for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. According to Feeney, four sightings have been reported since 2010 from the Central Coast southward, including in Malibu in 2010 and Lompoc in 2011. “We think that they come inshore to die actually because they’re in distress for some reason, but we don’t know what the reason is,” said Feeney, adding that the fish could have been starving or disoriented. But the fish remain somewhat of a mystery to researchers because there have been few Oarfish caught over the years, he said. A record number of sea lion sightings were reported along Southland beaches earlier this year, including one declared “unusual mortality event” in April that saw hundreds of ailing sea lion pups washed ashore. –CBS
About 35 Volcanoes are currently erupting around the world
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/about-35-volcanoes-are-currently-erupting-across-the-globe/
About 35 volcanoes are currently erupting across the globe
November 27, 2013 – GEOLOGY – The volcano at Mount Sinabung at Jakarta, Indonesia, erupted six times early Monday, shooting volcanic ash 2,000 meters into the sky. Thousands have been evacuated from the region since the Sinabung volcano began erupting sporadically in September. 5,000 people were evacuated from the area the day before the eruption on Monday, bringing the total number of evacuees to 11,000. There have been no casualties so far. The Sinabung is just one of 35 active, erupting volcanoes in the world, according to a categorized list on Volcano Discovery. Of the 35 currently erupting volcanoes in the world, seven are in Indonesia. Most of Indonesia is situated along the “Ring of Fire” — a horseshoe shaped ring around the Pacific where most earthquakes and volcanic eruptions take place. About 50 to 60 volcanoes erupt during a year. – IB Times
BYU geologists discover ‘supervolcano’ in Utah: past eruption superseded Yellowstone
December 10, 2013 – UTAH – Geologists at Brigham Young University have discovered what may be the world’s largest “supervolcano” that erupted in Utah’s own backyard. While there are a variety of volcanoes that blast away in different ways, super volcanic eruptions are the biggest that collapse into large calderas. Yellowstone Park is the remains of one of those calderas, and it’s still very much alive and active. But, geologists think they may have found an equally as big, if not bigger super volcano, one that shook up western Utah and eastern Nevada 30 million years ago. The eruption is hardly visible to the naked eye now, but underneath and in surrounding formations, the evidence was waiting to be uncovered. “As far as we know, the Wah Wah Springs eruption is the largest known explosive volcanic eruption,” said BYU professor of geology Eric Christiansen. The eruption and collapse of the super volcano released almost 6,000 square kilometers of magma.
“It moved over a flat landscape covering 12,000 square miles in western Utah and eastern Nevada. It would have been unimaginable devastation,” said Emeritus BYU geology professor Myron Best. The magma flow extended beyond current-day Panguitch and north almost to Delta and south almost to St. George. As the ash was caught up in the jet stream, it carried as far as Nebraska. “The magma is erupting explosively as the flow spreads across the landscape,” Best said. Compared to Mt. St Helens — which is a different kind of volcano — Utah’s super volcano was 5,000 times larger. Deposits left behind in southern Utah from the single eruption are 13,000 feet thick. Thousands of rock samples collected over 30 years currently reside inside a repository at BYU with drawers extending from floor to ceiling. 600 students, 30 summers of field work and a lot of geologic mapping and analysis were utilized to confirm the existence of Utah’s super volcano. However, unlike Yellowstone which is still an active caldera, Utah and Nevada’s shared super volcano will unlikely ever erupt again, according to geologists. –KSL
As earthquakes keep rocking North Texas, residents are rattled
As earthquakes keep rocking North Texas, residents are rattled
November 27, 2013 – TEXAS - On Tuesday morning, yet another earthquake rocked the small Tarrant County town of Azle. It was the sixth within a week in Tarrant and Parker counties. More than a dozen quakes have rattled North Texas in November. Azle residents are getting nervous and seismologists are trying to get to the bottom of what’s going on. Some point to natural gas drilling that’s happening in the Barnett Shale, a massive geological formation that covers about 20 North Texas counties. But a geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center says more testing is needed to make such a connection. Donna Luce is worried. “I was sitting there watching TV, and my house just shook, and I’ve never felt that before, ever,” she said. “Now, actually, I’m afraid of sinkholes.” Debbie Raub and her husband, Fred, described the big quake with a 3.6 magnitude as “real spooky. Real loud boom, and then it just started shaking the ground under our mobile home,” she said. “Just rocking it. And our dogs, they go totally insane. They know it before it happens.” Each time there’s a quake, their two-bedroom trailer has to be re-leveled. “You just have to get under there, and jack it up in spots, put a level on underneath the trailer, and level it,” Debbie Raub said. “It’s just pulling the ground out beneath our stands.”
Fred Raub, who was born in Azle, says he doesn’t think the quakes are natural. He blames local natural gas drilling. “They say it ain’t what happens, but till then, we didn’t have it,” he said. “You gotta drill about every mile. You just start looking around at all the drills they’re putting down.” Don Blakeman, a geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center, says the quakes could be the result of oil and gas production. But he says more testing is needed to know that for sure. ”Obviously, if it is oil and gas production related, they might continue until that activity stops,” he said. “The other possibility is that it’s just a natural swarm, because we do see that sort of thing occurring sometimes in areas where we haven’t had quakes before.” A natural swarm is a series of small quakes. And Blakeman says they aren’t as dangerous as quakes with bigger magnitudes – quakes at 5.0 magnitudes can produce structural damage. In the meantime, in case the ground starts to shake again, Blakeman advises individuals and families to be prepared if a bigger quake strikes North Texas. Scientists and other experts are reportedly teaming up with the U.S. Geological Survey to collect more data to learn more about why these quakes keep occurring in North Texas. –KERA
Small explosive eruption reported at Alaska’s Mt. Cleveland volcano
Small explosive eruption reported at Alaska’s Mt. Cleveland volcano
November 27, 2013 – ALASKA - Mt. Cleveland, an active volcano in the Aleutian Islands underwent a brief, small explosion Tuesday evening. The explosion, which took place at about 7:31 p.m. Alaska time, was detected by remote seismic devices and other monitoring equipment, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. “It is possible that a small ash cloud was generated but if so, it was too small to be observed in satellite data,” reported AVO. Cleveland, a stratovolcano (that’s the steeply-sided, symmetrical cone-shaped variety for lay folks) that comprises the western half of Chuginadak Island, is one of the Aleutians most active volcanoes. The AVO currently lists Cleveland at a yellow alert level; it has been at that level since being downgraded from orange following its eruption in May. That eruption threatened, but eventually failed, to disrupt the significant air traffic that travels in nearby corridors. After Tuesday’s explosion, the peak exhibited no further signs of what the AVO terms “eruptive activity.” –Alaska Dispatch
Frozen nation: At least 10 dead as cold, ice and snow grip U.S.
December 7, 2013 – ARKANSAS - At least 10 deaths — including three in California — were blamed on the deep freeze that continued to grip the U.S. on Friday, canceling hundreds of flights and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. The Santa Clara County, Calif., Sheriff’s Office said hypothermia — an extremely low body temperature — had killed three people since frigid conditions rolled in late Wednesday, NBC Bay Area reported. An earlier report from the medical examiner’s office said four people had died, but it included a person who was found dead last week, before the current weather system hit the region. With icy conditions stretching almost coast to coast, the cold blast was blamed for deaths as far east as Indiana, where a woman died in a four-vehicle crash in Wayne County, and as far south as Arkansas, where an ice-coated tree fell on the camper housing a 62-year-old man in Pope County, authorities told NBC News.
By midday, five states had
recorded at least 2½ feet of snow since Wednesday. The highest total
was 35 inches, near Two Harbors, Minn. Winter storm warnings covered
parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and
Ohio. The manager of a Home Depot store in Dallas concluded: “It’s
almost like a Black Friday. But I guess we’ll call it an Ice Friday.”
Only a slice of the East Coast was spared the winter blast. Elsewhere,
the story was ice, snow and brutal cold. Big Sky Country woke up to
double-take temperatures. It was 23 degrees below zero in Laramie, Wyo.,
and felt like 41 below. In Helena, Mont., the mercury fell to 10 below,
with a wind child of minus-29. The big chill extended to parts of the
country much less accustomed to it. Parts of Nevada were at 18 below
zero, and parts of Oregon were at 9 degrees. In Flagstaff, Ariz., the
temperature just before dawn was 7. Even “sunny” Southern California
wasn’t being spared — the National Weather Service issued winter storm
warnings for Riverside and San Bernardino counties beginning Saturday
morning. Farmers pumped water into the soil to keep it from freezing and
used wind machines to blow mild air across the citrus crop, most of
which is still on the vine. Citrus in California is a $2 billion
industry. Lettuce and avocados were also in danger. –NBC
Kamachatka’s Klyuchevskoi volcano spews out 6 km high ash cloud
December 7, 2013 – KAMCHATKA – The highest active volcano in Russia has thrown out an enormous ash cloud up to six kilometers high, the Emergency Services Ministry said Saturday. The Klyuchevskoi volcano in the tectonically active Kamchatka region in Russia’s Far East has been erupting sporadically since August. “We have observed the latest ash eruption from the Klyuchevskoi volcano,” the local branch of the Emergency Services Ministry said in a statement. “The ash cloud is moving in a north-east direction.” The highest mountain in the Kamchataka region, Klyuchevskoi has erupted in 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2012, spewing out lava and ash over the surrounding area. The Emergency Services Ministry said in the statement that a red aviation warning was in place around Klyuchevskoi and cautioned tour companies not to take tourists near the volcano. –RIA
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/12/07/kamachatkas-klyuchevskoi-volcano-spews-out-6-km-high-ash-cloud/
Climate Chaos: Killer winter storms predicted to impact UK for next 30 years
December 9, 2013 – LONDON - KILLER freezes, floods and heat-waves will devastate Britain during the next 30 years, climate experts have warned. Many people could die as extreme weather becomes common. There will be more freak winds like the October storm, which killed four people. Heat-waves will be lethal and the sea level will rise, leaving coastal towns at risk of being swamped by storm surges. Sir Brian Heap, president of the European Academies Science Advisory Council, said he felt “obliged” to issue the warning after a new study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It comes on the back of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, which has killed more than 5,000 people. Sir Brian said: “Given the tragic events this year in the rest of the world and the recent IPCC report, EASAC feels obliged to draw attention to the growing impact of extreme weather in Europe.” The continent’s leading experts had made a detailed study of likely extreme weather, he said. Sir Brian warned: “From the major loss of lives in heat-waves to the economic and human costs of floods and storms, the implications are worrying. “They present the European Union and Member States with significant challenges in preparing Europe for a future with greater frequency of extreme weather.” –Daily Star
Winter blast rewrites Oregon history:
The record cold temperatures throughout Oregon continues to rewrite the
history books, or at least add new chapters to them. The city of
Portland has not had a day with temperatures in the single digits since
1989 — a quarter-century ago. KOIN 6 News meteorologist Sally Showman
said Portland stands a good chance of dropping into the single digits
early Sunday morning. The high in the city on Saturday was only 30, the
third day in a row with highs in the 30s. Sunday will also be cold, and
the record low for December 8 is 8 degrees, set in 1972. The city of
Portland opened up warming shelters for people to stay warm and keep
warm. But the biggest problem is there is not enough space. JD Dilts is
one of the people living on the streets since he lost his job. He’s
thankful for the help of the Red Cross. “Man, it’s cold,” he said. “You
take you gloves off your hands hurt.” That city-funded center helps
hundreds of people stay warm, but it can only open when the temperature
dips below 25. “It’s 26 degrees. When you start getting in the 30s,
that’s cold,” Dilts said. Will Harris is the associate director of JOIN,
a non-profit organization that helps people get back on their feet. He
and others have been out helping people stay warm. “The main job is to
keep them alive. We’ve been out the last six days helping people get the
gear they need,” he said. “If they don’t, we will make sure they do.”
Donations are necessary — blankets, coats, other winter items. Call 211
for more information on a drop center. –KOIN
Summer snow in Australia: This is just the beginning. The really cold air and the really heavy snow is due later in the day, but snow is already falling today across the high country of New South Wales and Victoria. And yes, it’s December 5. The fifth day of summer. Your calendar is not wrong. Snow is not a freak event in southern Australia in the warmer months. A small dusting usually appears on the higher parts of the Australian Alps at least once each summer. –News
Nasa discovers coldest place on earth december 2013
NASA Spots Coldest Place on Earth in Antarctica at a Record -94.7C
December 10, 2013 – ANTARCTICA – NASA announced the discovery of the coldest place on Earth after examining global surface temperature data collected over a period of 32 years by remote sensing satellites including the new Landsat 8. The coldest spot identified is a high ridge located on the East Antarctic Plateau where the temperatures drop below -133.6 degree Fahrenheit during winters. This new record temperature on the icy plateau was set on Aug.10, 2010. The research team was led by Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., who discovered that the temperatures dropped to a record of low, several times, in clusters of pockets near an ice ridge located between Dome Argus and Dome Fuji, two ice summits on the East Antarctica Plateau. “We had a suspicion this Antarctic ridge was likely to be extremely cold, and colder than Vostok because it’s higher up the hill,” Scambos said in a statement. “With the launch of Landsat 8, we finally had a sensor capable of really investigating this area in more detail.” The new record is in fact several degrees colder than the previous low of -128.6 Fahrenheit that was set at the Russian Vostok Research Station in East Antarctica in 1983.
Scientists discovered this coldest spot on Earth while studying the large snow dunes formed by winds blowing across the East Antarctic Plateau. On a closer look they spotted cracks present in the snow surface between the dunes that most likely form when the temperatures during the winter fall so low that the snow layer present on the top shrinks. This ignited a curiosity in the scientists to estimate the range of temperatures and pushed them to look for coldest places on Earth using two kinds of satellite sensors. “The record-breaking conditions seem to happen when a wind pattern or an atmospheric pressure gradient tries to move the air back uphill, pushing against the air that was sliding down,” Scambos said. “This allows the air in the low hollows to remain there longer and cool even further under the clear, extremely dry sky conditions,” Scambos said. “When the cold air lingers in these pockets it reaches ultra-low temperatures.” The two sensitive instruments namely, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on the NOAA satellite have the capacity to identify the thermal radiation that is emitted from the surface of the Earth, even in those regions that lack heat. -SWR
Amish Woman killed by Lightening 2012
Mary H. Yoder, a pregnant Amish woman picking berries in
the woods near her Garrett, bad news, Pennsylvania, home, was killed by
lightning on her due date. The fetus also died.
State police say 36-year-old Mary H. Yoder was with her husband and two children late Tuesday morning when a storm moved in. Yoder took shelter under a pine tree while her husband and the children ducked under a different tree.
Police say lightning struck a few minutes later, killing Yoder and her fetus. Trooper Steven Limani tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that Tuesday was the due date.
Police are investigating.
Garrett is about 75 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
Winter forecast 2013-2014
Autoplay
On
Off
Chief Meteorologist Dr. Todd Crawford of Weather Services International (WSI), a part of The Weather Channel Company, says, "As the first shot of significant cold air spurs above-normal heating demand across much of the eastern United States, there are many questions regarding its staying power in the weeks and months ahead."
Crawford adds, "While we do foresee colder-than-normal temperatures across the Midwest into the mid-Atlantic and Southeast in November and potentially into early December, there is a risk of much milder temperatures heading into the New Year, especially across the western and southern United States."
To see a breakdown of the forecast details, watch the video above or scroll down for more information.
November Forecast
November Temperature Forecast
From the southern Plains to the Desert Southwest and Pacific Northwest, warmer-than-average temperatures are forecast in November. The greatest probability for above-average temperatures will be from Texas to portions of Arizona, California and Nevada.
New England is also expected to see a warmer-than-average November.
(INTERACTIVE: When Does Snow Typically Arrive?)
Winter Forecast
Winter Temperature Forecast
For the Northeast, the best chance for extended cold temperatures is expected to be late in the winter.
In the southern U.S., below-average temperatures are forecast to be confined to the Southeast states, particularly early in the winter.
The strongest signal for a warmer-than-average winter is from the the Desert Southwest into the south-central states.
For more details and expert analysis on the winter forecast, watch the video forecast at the top of this article or click here.
(MORE: America's Most Extreme Temperature Ranges)
The Weather Channel Seasonal Forecast is produced at WSI's Global Forecast Center in Andover, Mass. As part of The Weather Channel Companies (TWCC), WSI provides premier business-to-business weather services to media, aviation and energy industries, as well as specialized forecasts for public distribution on The Weather Channel and weather.com. More than 200 meteorologists at TWCC Global Forecast Centers in Atlanta, Andover, Houston and Birmingham, England, produce pinpoint daily forecasts for more than 60,000 locations worldwide and other specialized forecasts and visualizations utilizing state-of-the-art and proprietary computer modeling, analysis and distribution systems developed by TWCC scientists and engineers.
Unusual cold spell
http://host.madison.com/news/local/ask/weather-guys/ask-the-weather-guys-is-this-early-december-cold-spell/article_03e92347-7506-5213-9e88-29034609e21e.html
ember 09, 2013 5:15 am
ember 09, 2013 5:15 am
(15) Comments
Is this early December cold spell unusual?
Though the first really nasty cold snap of the year is already underway, by the middle of this week we should be in the depths of a deep freeze, flirting with a daily high temperature no higher than 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Such cold maximum temperatures, though not unprecedented for early December, are also not common in Madison. In fact, only 18 of the last 40 Decembers in Madison have had at least one daily maximum temperature of 10 degrees Fahrenheit or colder.
Upon dividing the month into early December (Dec. 1-10), mid-December (Dec. 11-20) , and late December (Dec. 21-31), we find that seven of these years had at least one such cold day in early December (1976, 1977, 1978, 1985, 1991, 1995, and 2009). Six of the years had the first such day in mid-December (1983, 1989, 1999, 2000, 2004, and 2008) while the remaining 5 didn’t get that cold until late December (1973, 1980, 1990, 1993, and 1996).
So about every third December we can expect to get this cold before Dec. 21, and we might just do that again this week. Our chances will be enhanced thanks to the several inches of snow that blanketed the area on Sunday.
With a fresh snowcover on the ground, a number of effects that can deepen a cold spell come immediately into play. First, the snowcover is an excellent insulator and, if as deep as 3 inches, it effectively eliminates the vast amount of heat stored in the ground from helping to warm the air.
Second, snow is very good at cooling overnight, and that helps to lower the surface air temperature. Third, the snow is very good at reflecting sunlight during the day, which helps to minimize the daytime heating of the air near the ground.
Though the first really nasty cold snap of the year is already underway, by the middle of this week we should be in the depths of a deep freeze, flirting with a daily high temperature no higher than 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Such cold maximum temperatures, though not unprecedented for early December, are also not common in Madison. In fact, only 18 of the last 40 Decembers in Madison have had at least one daily maximum temperature of 10 degrees Fahrenheit or colder.
Upon dividing the month into early December (Dec. 1-10), mid-December (Dec. 11-20) , and late December (Dec. 21-31), we find that seven of these years had at least one such cold day in early December (1976, 1977, 1978, 1985, 1991, 1995, and 2009). Six of the years had the first such day in mid-December (1983, 1989, 1999, 2000, 2004, and 2008) while the remaining 5 didn’t get that cold until late December (1973, 1980, 1990, 1993, and 1996).
So about every third December we can expect to get this cold before Dec. 21, and we might just do that again this week. Our chances will be enhanced thanks to the several inches of snow that blanketed the area on Sunday.
With a fresh snowcover on the ground, a number of effects that can deepen a cold spell come immediately into play. First, the snowcover is an excellent insulator and, if as deep as 3 inches, it effectively eliminates the vast amount of heat stored in the ground from helping to warm the air.
Second, snow is very good at cooling overnight, and that helps to lower the surface air temperature. Third, the snow is very good at reflecting sunlight during the day, which helps to minimize the daytime heating of the air near the ground.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
warm alaska weather
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-997630
With
temperatures hitting 81 degrees recently, Yakutat Alaska is experiencing
a very warm summer. In fact, this is the third warmest temperature ever
recorded for this location where the average June extreme temperature
is 64 degrees. Sunscreen is sold-out for the first time at local stores,
and insect repellent is in short supply also as bugs are thick when the
breeze calms. Local surfers are bummed because the Gulf of Alaska has
been more like a calm lake than a tempestuous ocean.
extreme weather
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/10/world/unusual-world-weather/index.html
(CNN) -- A map of significant climate events for the United States in June looks almost apocalyptic: hellish heat, ferocious fires and severe storms leaving people injured, homeless and even dead.
Baby eagle 'Phoenix' survives wildfires
Heat Wave: Triple digits
Fighting fires: From ground or air
Death toll rises in Russian flooding
(CNN) -- A map of significant climate events for the United States in June looks almost apocalyptic: hellish heat, ferocious fires and severe storms leaving people injured, homeless and even dead.
That followed a warm
winter and early season droughts. News came Monday that the mainland
United States experienced its warmest 12 months since the dawn of
record-keeping in 1895.
And on Tuesday, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a report
calling 2011 a year of extreme weather.
Remember Hurricane Irene?
Or the floods in Thailand and southern China and the deadly drought in
the Horn of Africa? Heavy rains in Brazil caused massive landslides and
much of Europe suffered through a sweltering heatwave.
Baby eagle 'Phoenix' survives wildfires
Heat Wave: Triple digits
Fighting fires: From ground or air
Death toll rises in Russian flooding
It's tempting to simplify things and blame it all on global warming.
After all, nine of the top 10 warmest years globally have occurred since 2000, according to NOAA.
But weather can be complicated.
The real challenge is
figuring out whether a particular storm or flood was due to climate
change or natural variables, said Chris Field, founding director of the
Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology.
The NOAA report, for
instance, noted some events that were exacerbated by other factors.
However, climate change increases global risks, Field said.
"As we change the climate, we're shifting the odds for extreme weather," he said.
It's sort of like upping your chances of a car accident if you're speeding.
The four classes of
extremes -- high heat, heavy precipitation and floods, duration and
intensity of droughts and extremes related to higher sea levels -- have
changed in the last 50 years, Field said.
"Increasingly, we are loading the dice towards these very damaging kinds of extremes," he said.
But that's not to say every weather event is related to warming temperatures.
Southern Greenland,
northern Russia, and the eastern two-thirds of North America have felt
the greatest warmth in 2012, but many places -- Alaska, Mongolia and
most of Australia -- have been cool anomalies.
The men's final at the Wimbledon
tennis tournament Sunday was stopped briefly for rain. Rain, in
Britain? Although it has a reputation for sogginess, it's been cooler
and wetter than normal for the last few months in the British isles.
America's northwest has also escaped the heat. The state of Washington just marked its seventh coolest June ever.
"When you've got a
planet that's nearest warmest levels on record, that doesn't mean every
part of the world is going to be the warmest ever," said Jeff Masters,
director of meteorology for Weather Underground.
"The U.S. has been unlucky enough to be in that sort of pattern," he said.
Jake Crouch, a climate
scientist at the National Climatic Data Center, said weather patterns --
including the jet stream or the ocean-atmosphere systems in the Pacific
known as El Niño and La Niña -- have a great effect on weather.
In 2011, two
back-to-back La Niñas, each characterized by cooler-than-average water
temperatures in the eastern Pacific, affected significant weather events
-- including droughts in the southern United States and northern Mexico
and in east Africa.
There is debate over how
climate change affects such weather patterns but the NOAA-led "state of
the climate" report said La Niña-related heat waves are now 20 times
more likely to occur than 50 years ago.
Scientists also analyzed
the United Kingdom's very warm November 2011 and a very cold December
2010. They said that cold Decembers are now half as likely to occur
versus 50 years ago, whereas warm Novembers are now 62 times more
likely.
The report pointed out that some weather events, like the Thailand flooding, are influenced by humans in other ways.
"Although the flooding
was unprecedented, the amount of rain that fell in the river 'catchment'
area was not very unusual," the report said. "Other factors, such as
changes in reservoir policies and increased construction on the flood
plain, were found most relevant in setting the scale of the disaster."
The 2012 hurricane
season has gotten off to a robust start, though meteorologist Thomas
Downs of Expert Weather Investigations attributed that to a cyclical
warming of Atlantic waters.
"We've had a tremendous start to the system. We are in the middle of a warm phase," he said.
Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was devastating, but it was also the first named storm of that year -- in August.
By contrast, this year,
the United States has already lived through four named storms -- two in
May and two in June. The last was Tropical Storm Debby, which flooded Florida.
The warmer waters can lead to warmer temperatures on land, Downs said. So can extended drought.
"The biggest thing of
this year is the cumulative effect of the last two seasons. Some parts
of the United States have been under drought conditions for the past two
years," he said, and did not have much rain in April and May. Less
solar energy is absorbed by hot, parched land.
"The drought amplifies temperatures -- 90 becomes 100. 100 becomes 105."
"The reality is when you
do have extreme weather, it is highlighted," Downs said. "People want
to attribute it to one factor or another."
The other reality is
that Americans and others will likely be paying a lot more for cereal,
sweeteners and meat as the price of corn goes up because of failed
crops.
"The crops are hurting," said Chad Hart, a grain market specialist at Iowa State University.
The eastern part of the
Corn Belt is especially hard-hit. In states like Iowa, farmers are in
the critical stage of corn pollination.
"We need a good inch of moisture this week," Hart said. "And there's no rain in the forecast.
"That means we are looking for a much lower yield for crops we produce in the Midwest."
That means farmers will
be devastated and consumers could see higher prices at the grocery store
for corn, soy and wheat products, as well as meat from animals raised
on corn feed.
They will also be paying more to utility companies for running air-conditioners as the sizzling summer continues.
"In July, August and September, there's an above-average chance of warmer-than-average temperatures," Crouch said.
The hottest year on record for the United States is 1998. Crouch said 2012 is on track to beat it.
Perhaps people should get used to hotter temperatures, experts say, because the trends point that way.
A heatwave that occurred every 20 years will, by the year 2080, occur every one to two years, Field said.
The extreme weather the
world is seeing now is a precursor to more, he said. And it paints a
picture of what global warming looks like.
"There are a lot of
steps that can be taken to prepare people for climate extremes," he
said. "It's kind of a situation that warrants very serious thought."
In releasing the state
of the climate report Tuesday, Deputy NOAA Administrator Kathryn
Sullivan said 2011 will be remembered for extreme weather. This year
seems to be on the same track.
From now on, she said, every weather event takes place in the context of a changing global environment.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
5 Waterspout Hot Spots Around the World
Becky Kellogg
Published: Aug 30, 2013, 9:58 AM EDT
weather.com
Amazing iWitness Waterspout Photos
iWitness weather user twojbutlers826 wrote:
This appeared after a storm had been rolling through on my drive down to
Key West...the rain cleared from the roads and off to my left this
amazing waterspout formed. My first experience, and it was AMAZING!!
Unlike a tornado, these swirling vortices of water seem to float over oceans and lakes. Waterspouts are generally weak, so they cause little or no damage.
This summer, it seems waterspouts have formed with increasing frequency. That led us here at weather.com to wonder if we’re seeing a surge in waterspouts or if, perhaps, the U.S. is a hot spot for waterspouts.
(MORE: 6 Things You Didn't Know About Waterspouts)
“The perfect conditions for waterspouts are instability (cool air over warmer water) and source of spin or, what we call in meteorology, vorticity,” said director of the International Centre Waterspout Research Wade Szilagy. “You need a combination of the two.”
Szilagy started tracking waterspouts 19 years ago and is considered an expert on the subject. He says we’re in the middle of waterspout season.
Huge Waterspout Churns up Sea
Autoplay
On
Off
Szilagy said waterspouts are most frequently reported near the coast and near cities, where the population is higher and the waterspouts are more likely to be seen, photographed and videotaped.
Like tornado alleys, there are places where waterspouts are more likely to occur, Szilagy said.
The top spot is taken by a U.S. island chain that has been weather-battered for generations.
http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-central/severe-weather-tracker-page
A strong cold front will bring a chance of severe storms to parts of the Midwest through the end of the week.
Thursday, areas from the western Great Lakes and
Upper Mississippi Valley to the Lower Missouri Valley will be at risk
for a few severe storms. This may include Minneapolis, Minn., Des
Moines, Iowa and Kansas City, Mo. Localized damaging wind gusts, large
hail and locally heavy rainfall will be the main concerns.
Friday, a few severe storms will continue to be possible ahead of the cold front from the eastern Great Lakes southwestward to the Ohio Valley and Middle Mississippi Valley.
(LIVE: Radar, Watches and Warnings)
A strong cold front will bring a chance of severe storms to parts of the Midwest through the end of the week.
Thursday's Threat
Friday's Threat
Friday, a few severe storms will continue to be possible ahead of the cold front from the eastern Great Lakes southwestward to the Ohio Valley and Middle Mississippi Valley.
(LIVE: Radar, Watches and Warnings)
Severe Weather Live Ticker: Latest Updates
All tornado warnings, along with other relevant tweets from The Weather Channel and local National Weather Service offices in current threat areas, will appear here. Information updates automatically; no need to reload or refresh your browser. Time stamps on the left are in Eastern time; subtract one hour for Central time and two hours for Mountain time. For complete warning information and radar links, look below our live ticker.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)