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Wildfire risk extreme on Canada's Pacific Coast

The following is a brief excerpt from an article by the Reuters News Agency.  Click here to access the full article from Reuters.

"VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 31 (Reuters) - Residents on Canada's Pacific Coast were warned on Friday that the hot, dry summer has left the region facing the greatest wildfire threat "in memory."

The forest fire risk was rated as high or extreme in about 85 percent of British Columbia, a province that is about 1-1/2 times the size of Texas, which has already had more than 1,800 mostly small fires this year, Premier Gordon Campbell said."

NASA: Two Satellites Take In TD#6-E's Transformation into Tropical Storm Lana

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This is a combined satellite image of Tropical Storm Lana from the GOES-11 satellite and QuikScat. It shows Lana's wind speeds in different colors and wind direction are indicated by small barbs. White barbs point to areas of heavy rain. The highest wind speeds, are shown in red indicate winds over 50 knots (57 mph)
Credit: NASA/NRL/JTWC The sixth tropical depression in the eastern Pacific strengthened into Tropical Storm Lana this morning, and is expected to reach hurricane strength by the weekend. Lana will pass far to the south of the Hawaiian Islands over the weekend.

NASA satellites provide a great deal of information to forecasters, and seeing how the clouds organize in a storm or the ability to peer through them and actually clock how fast the winds are spinning, help forecasters to know if a storm is strengthening or weakening. That's exactly what the GOES-11 satellite and NASA's QuikScat satellite have done this morning with the latest image created by the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC).

GOES-11, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite provided infrared imagery of Lana's cloud cover at night. It showed that the storm has become well-organized. QuikScat uses microwave technology to measure winds in a storm, like x-ray vision.

The JTWC combined both the GOES-11 and QuikScat images from the early morning hours of July 31 to get a comprehensive look at Lana. The image revealed that Lana's winds were up to 50 knots (57 mph) and pressure was 997 millibars.

Flooding affects 160,000 in south Philippines

Photo: Contributor/IRIN

Villagers gather on a highway in the southern Philippine town of Pigcawayan as floodwaters which swamped the road bring debris. About 160,000 families have been affected in the southern island of Mindanao because of flash floods

MANILA, 30 July 2009 (IRIN) - Heavy rains across the southern Philippines have resulted in massive flooding in many low-lying areas of Mindanao Island, with villagers either marooned inside their houses by waist-deep waters or forced to evacuate, according to disaster relief officials on 30 July.

Large swathes of farmland covering more than 2,486ha in the central Mindanao towns of Pigcawayan, Alamada, Libungan, Midsayap, Aleosan, Pikit and Tamontaka have also been damaged by floods, according to the Office of Civil Defence in Manila.

Some 40 houses were destroyed in the town of Sultan Mastura in Maguindanao province, where tens of thousands have already been displaced by almost a year of fighting between government forces and separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels.

Sixth Tropical Depression Forms in Eastern Pacific

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This combined GOES-11/ASCAT image shows TD#6-E's clouds organizing, and sustained winds near 30 knots (34 mph). The image was created at 2:17 a.m. EDT
Credit: JTWC/NRL The sixth tropical depression formed in the Eastern Pacific late in the morning hours on July 30, Eastern Daylight Time. The depression, "TD#6-E" containing showers and thunderstorms associated with a tropical wave, organized before it crossed into the Central Pacific Ocean today.

The U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center created a composite satellite image that combines infrared imagery of TD#6-E's clouds from the Geostationary Operational Environmental satellite, GOES-11 with wind data from the European Space Agency's "ASCAT" scatterometer. ASCAT is an advanced scatterometer instrument aboard the European Space Agency's MetOps satellite, and is similar to NASA's QuikScat instrument. Its primary function is to provide measurements of wind velocity over the world's oceans using radar. The image shows the cloud cover of the tropical depression organizing, and the sustained winds near the center of circulation near 30 knots (34 mph). The image was created at 2:17 a.m. EDT.

At 11 a.m. EDT on July 30, TD#6-E's center was located near 12.0 north latitude and 139.7 west longitude, about 1,155 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii. It has sustained winds near 35 mph, and is expected to strengthen into a tropical storm later today or tomorrow. Its moving westward near 18 mph and will continue in that direction. Estimated minimum central pressure is 1008 millibars.

GOES-11 is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NASA's GOES Project that creates GOES imagery is located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Dhaka sees heaviest rain in 53 years

Dhaka sees heaviest rain in 53 years

Dhaka sees heaviest rain in 53 years courtesy of NowPublic.com

Firefighting Water Bomber Plane Crashes in Okanagan Lake

Firefighting Water Bomber Plane Crashes in Okanagan Lake

Firefighting Water Bomber Plane Crashes in Okanagan Lake, courtesy of NowPublic.com

Hottest-ever Temps Roast Pacific Northwest

'Brutal' temperatures are predicted for the Seattle area on Wednesday as a record heat wave afflicting the Pacific Northwest continues to bake everything west of the Cascades, a National Weather Service meteorologist said.

Raw Video: Landslides Cause Train Ax in China

A landslide has caused a train to derail in southern China on Wednesday, killing at least four people and injuring at least 50 others.

And Then There Was One…Possibility in the Eastern Pacific

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GOES-11 captured the area of thunderstorms on July 29 at 11:00 a.m. EDT. The large cluster of clouds in the lower left side of the GOES satellite image is the area that has a "less than 30 percent chance" of development.
Credit: NASA GOES Project On Tuesday, July 28, there were two areas of showers and thunderstorms being watched for potential development in the eastern Pacific Ocean. A day later, on July 29, the only area that has a slim chance of development now lies 1,500 miles east south-east of the Hawaiian Islands.

The area that lost its chance for development was located several hundred miles from Manzanillo, Mexico on July 28, and wind shear has wiped that chance away.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental (GOES) satellite, GOES-11 captured an image of the thunderstorms and clouds associated with the area of clouds and showers further out to sea, that has a chance of development. GOES-11 passed over the area on Thursday, July 29 at 11 a.m .EDT. The disturbance is part of a tropical wave moving westward between 10 and 15 mph. The National Hurricane Center gives the area "less than a 30 percent chance" of developing into something tropical.

GOES is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NASA's GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. creates some of the satellite images from the GOES satellites.

Elsewhere in the eastern Pacific tropical cyclone formation isn't expected for another two days.

Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA: First Image from GOES-14

 

First image from GOES-14. Credit: NASA/GOES Project

From approximately 35,786 km (22,236 miles) in space, NOAA's newest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – GOES-14 – took its first full-disk visible image of the earth on July 27, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. EDT. GOES-14, launched on June 27, 2009, from Cape Canaveral, Fla., joins three other NOAA operational GOES spacecraft that help the agency's forecasters track life-threatening weather and solar activity that can impact the satellite-based electronics and communications industry. After five more months of tests, GOES-14 will be placed in orbital storage mode, ready for activation if any of NOAA's operational GOES spacecraft experiences trouble.

Water supply still a concern in recovering Myanmar

Photo: Lynn Maung/IRIN Access to potable water is a key concern in Myanmar's cylone-affected Ayeyarwady DeltaThe following article is provided courtesy of IRIN:

YANGON, 29 July 2009 (IRIN) - In a significant improvement on the situation a year ago, survivors of Cyclone Nargis will have sufficient access to potable water during the next dry season, specialists say.

During the critical dry season - running from November to April - residents depend on whatever water they have been able to store during the rainy season.

"We are not expecting a water shortage in the next dry season," Daniel Collison, director of emergencies for Save the Children in Myanmar, told IRIN in Yangon, the former Burmese capital.

Access to potable water was a key health concern in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which killed some 140,000 people and affected two million more when it struck southern Myanmar in May 2008.

Traditional water sources, including ponds, tube and open wells, were either polluted or completely destroyed after a 3m high tidal surge inundated much of the low-lying area with sea-water and debris in the country’s worst natural disaster.

Raw Video: Turkey Floods Cause 'disaster Zone'

Turkish officials and news reports say flash floods have inundated more than 100 homes and workplaces, and damaged several roads in the Black Sea province of Giresun.

NASA: GOES-11 Eyeing Two E. Pacific Areas for Tropical Development

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GOES-11 captured two low pressure areas on July 28 at 11:00 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC). The satellite image is marked "Area 1" for the showers associated with the tropical wave near mainland Mexico, and "Area 2" for the other area over 1,000 miles farther west.
Credit: NASA GOES Project Two areas of thunderstorms in the eastern Pacific developed today, July 28, 2009 and both have less than a 30 percent chance of developing into a tropical depression.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental (GOES) satellite, GOES-11 captured a satellite snapshot of the two areas of thunderstorms on Tuesday, July 28 at 11 a.m. EDT. The satellite image shows the two clusters of showers and thunderstorms in the eastern Pacific. The first area is near mainland Mexico and the other far to the west in the open waters.

The first area of showers and thunderstorms that the National Hurricane Center is keeping an eye on is closest to land, although still several hundred miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. Those showers are associated with a tropical wave. Currently there are no signs of organization, and if it happens it is expected to be slow to develop. That tropical wave is moving west to west-northwest near 10-15 mph.

The second cluster of showers and thunderstorms that have a low chance of development are much farther from land. In fact, they're located about 1,400 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. That cluster of storms is also poorly organized, and it continues moving westward near 10-15 mph.

Tropical waves are elongated areas of low pressure, also called a "trough." They consist of clouds and thunderstorms and stretch from north to south and move west across the eastern Pacific Ocean. They can lead to the formation of tropical cyclones in the northeast Pacific basin.

GOES is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NASA's GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. creates some of the satellite images from the GOES satellites.

Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

El Nino Conditions Set in Across Pacific Ocean

download large image (3 MB, PNG) acquired July 26, 2009

Recommend this image

In July 2009, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center reported that ocean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific had shifted into El Niño—anomalously warm—conditions. El Niño conditions are evident in this sea surface temperature anomaly image based on data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on July 26. THe current data are compared to long-term average temperatures (1985-1997) measured by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers that have flown on several NOAA missions.

Places where temperatures were near normal are cream-colored, places where temperatures were warmer than normal are red, and places where temperatures were cooler than normal are blue. An area of dark red occupies the eastern Pacific off the coast of Peru and Ecaudor (north of Peru), indicating temperatures were much warmer than average. Meanwhile, across the Pacific, ocean temperatures around Indonesia were slightly cooler (light blue) than usual.

Babe Ruth ballplayers held in dugout, struck by lightning

The following is an excerpt from the Sun Journal, a local newspaper in Lewiston, Maine.  Especially bothersome in this story for those in the meteorological community is the statement from the Babe Ruth State Tournament Director that children were held in the dugout during a severe thunderstorm to avoid having them walk across a parking lot in metal cleats.

Excerpt below.  Click here for the full article.

By M. Dirk Langeveld, Staff Writer
Published: Jul 28, 2009 12:00 am

HARRISON — Two baseball players escaped serious injury Monday afternoon after apparently getting struck by lightning during a severe thunderstorm.

Matt Woodbury, 16, of Fairfield and Travis St. Pierre, 15, both members of the Central Maine All Stars, were in a dugout at the Field of Dreams recreation complex off Route 117 when the storm hit. Woodbury said he was leaning on St. Pierre, who was up against an electrical outlet. The current apparently traveled through both boys and exited through Woodbury's lower back. (click here to read full article)

Bangladesh capital sees biggest rain in 53 years

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Flood relief underway in southeast Niger

Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN

Children in Zinder, Niger (file photo). Authorities say flooding has destroyed at least 187 homes in a village 110km from Zinder city

The following article is provided courtesy of IRIN:

ZINDER, 28 July 2009 (IRIN) - The Niger government is distributing cereals, mosquito nets and blankets for hundreds of people affected by flooding in the southeast region of Zinder. Local authorities reported 187 homes destroyed in Moa village on 18 July in this year’s first substantial rainfall.

Aboubacar Gogé, Zinder’s representative of the national early warning system and regional director of agricultural development, said he will travel from the city of Zinder to Moa – 110km northeast – to oversee distribution.

“This was truly an extraordinary rainfall,” he told IRIN. “Normally this area gets at most 200mm of rain a year, and almost 150mm fell in just one night.”

Moa farmers had not yet started planting due to delayed and insufficient rains.

Gogé told IRIN it took more than one week to react because Moa officials were not able to assess damage until days after the rainfall. “Access was a problem in the flooded area,” he said.

On 25 and 26 July, with financing from UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) distributed mosquito nets, plastic sheeting for temporary shelters, 374 blankets, 374 packages of high-protein biscuits and 561 jerry cans, according to MSF’s director in Zinder, Kalil Hamadoun Touré.

pt/np

Western New Yorkers Clean Up After Tornado

Officials in Western New York estimate a tornado that touched down Saturday caused $500,000 in damage. Meanwhile, residents spent the weekend cleaning up the mess.

Lillooet Fire Seton Lake Side

Lillooet Fire Seton Lake Side.

Lillooet Fire Seton Lake Side | Courtesy of NowPublic.com

Tornado/twister ravages through Tatebayashi, Guma, Japan. Update!

Tornado/twister ravages through Tatebayashi, Guma, Japan. Update!

Tornado/twister ravages through Tatebayashi, Guma, Japan. Update! | Courtesy of NowPublic.com

In Texas, drought means conserving every last drop

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Moderate earthquake strikes eastern Taiwan

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Raw Video: Tornado Hits Western New York

The National Weather Service says a tornado with wind speeds as high as 110 mph touched down in Corfu, about 30 miles east of Buffalo Saturday afternoon.

Raw Video: Landslide Kills 6 in China

A landslide in China's southwest killed at least six people and damaged a bridge that is a key link for reconstruction in areas hit by a devastating earthquake last year, a state news agency said.

Raw Video: Storms Kill 7 in Poland

Authorities in Poland say seven people have died in violent storms. Fire officials said Friday the storm's heavy winds felled trees, killing the victims late Thursday.

Cool summer disappoints tourists, delays crops

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Giant Low Over Northern New England Today

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GOES-12 captured the huge low pressure area on July 24 at 10:31 a.m. EDT (1431 UTC). The satellite image shows the huge low over the U.S. northeast. It is expected to move into the Canadian Maritimes this weekend.
Credit: NASA GOES Project The two areas of thunderstorms that combined over the Caribbean earlier this week are now in the form of a huge low pressure area, currently over northern New England and bringing heavy rains to central and southern New Hampshire, and Maine today, July 24. Rainfall in excess of 2 inches are possible, triggering a flood watch in those areas.

Although it never became tropical, forecasters were keeping a close eye on it. Now, it's raining over eastern Maine. In fact, there's a coastal flood watch up for all of Maine, as a strong northeast flow will cause tides to run about a foot above astronomical tides today. The low will exit into the Canadian Maritimes on Saturday. For live radar of the Maine Coast: http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=GYX&product=NCR&overlay=11101111&loop=yes.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental (GOES) satellite, GOES-12 captured a satellite snapshot of the clouds and thunderstorms on Friday, July 24. GOES is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NASA's GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. creates some of the satellite images from the GOES satellites.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, tropical cyclone formation isn't expected over the weekend.

Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Raw Video: France Fires Force Evacuations

Fires in the back country of southern France that spread to the city of Marseille, forcing hundreds of evacuations, are now under control. Police say the fire was sparked by tracer bullets fired by Foreign Legionnaires at a military camp.

Two Atlantic Disturbances Merge into One

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GOES-12 captured the merged area of shower and thunderstorms on July 23 at 7:01 a.m. EDT. The satellite image shows one huge comma-like cloud formation east of Florida's east coast.
Credit: NASA GOES Project The two areas of thunderstorms in the Atlantic have now merged into one huge area of clouds and showers. It is located north of the Bahamas. The National Hurricane Center said that there is a low chance (30%) of the storms organizing into anything of a (sub) tropical nature. It would be considered subtropical, because it would take on tropical characteristics outside of the tropics.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental (GOES) satellite, GOES-12 grabbed another satellite snapshot of the two areas of thunderstorms on Thursday, July 23 at 7:01 a.m. EDT (1101 UTC). The satellite image shows one huge comma-like cloud formation east of Florida's east coast and trailing into the northern Bahamas.

The area is associated with a weak surface trough (an elongated area of low pressure), and that's interacting with an upper-level low. The National Hurricane Center noted that "there are no signs of a surface circulation and upper-level winds are forecast to become less favorable for development. This activity is expected to move northward or northeastward at about 20 mph over the next day or so."

GOES is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NASA's GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. creates some of the satellite images from the GOES satellites.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, tropical cyclone formation isn't expected fro another 48 hours.

Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Naked girls plough fields in India for rain

The following is an excerpt from an article from Reuters News Agency.  Click here to view the full article.

"PATNA, India (Reuters) - Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plough parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said on Thursday."

Still a Low Chance of Development for Two Lows

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GOES-11 captured the lows on July 22 at 10:31 a.m. EDT (1431 UTC). The satellite image shows two comma-like cloud formations, one east of Florida's east coast, and the other with its "tail" over Hispaniola.
Credit: NASA GOES Project The two areas of thunderstorms in the Caribbean from yesterday, July 21, are on the move. One area is now moving into out of the Caribbean and into the eastern Atlantic Ocean while the other is now moving over the southeastern Bahamas and Hispaniola on a northwest track.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental (GOES) satellite, GOES-11 grabbed another satellite snapshot of the two areas of thunderstorms on Wednesday, July 22. The satellite image shows two comma-like cloud formations, one east of Florida's east coast, and the other with its "tail" over Hispaniola.

Showers and thunderstorms that are closest to the U.S. mainland are showing less of a chance of developing into something tropical. They're located from the northern Bahamas northward into the Atlantic Ocean and span several hundred miles. That group of storms is associated with a weak surface trough, that is, an elongated area of low pressure. The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla. says that there is a low chance of development, less than 30 percent now, of any further development into something tropical because the air pressure on the surface is high. This area of showers and thunderstorms is forecast to move along the U.S. East coast bringing showers to the coastline from Delaware north to New England before it moves to sea.

Arctic sea ice extent tracking below 2008

During the first half of July, Arctic sea ice extent declined more quickly than in 2008, but not as fast as in 2007. As in recent years, melt onset was earlier than the 1979 to 2000 average. International sea ice researchers expect another low September minimum ice extent, but they do not yet know if it will fall below the 2007 record.

Note: This mid-monthly analysis update shows a single-day extent value for Figure 1, rather than the usual monthly average. While monthly average extent images are more accurate in understanding long-term changes, the daily images are helpful in monitoring sea ice conditions in near-real time.

Figure 1. Daily Arctic sea ice extent on July 21 was 8.28 million square kilometers (3.20 million square miles). The orange line shows the 1979 to 2000 median extent for that day. The black cross indicates the geographic North Pole. Sea Ice Index data. About the data.
—Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

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Small town grapples with $5M bill to fix dam

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Raw Video: Solar Eclipse Covers Parts of Asia

The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century pitched a swath of Asia from India to China into near darkness as millions gathered in the open to watch the once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.

Drizzle causes emergency in Chilean desert city

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Canadian wildfires ease, 6,000 people head home

The following is an excerpt from a Reuters News Agency article.  To view the entire article, click here.

"VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 21 (Reuters) - About 6,000 people evacuated because of wildfires that threaten a western Canadian community returned to their homes on Tuesday as crews made progress containing the blazes."

4 Spanish fireman die in forest blaze

The following is an excerpt from a Reuters News Agency article.  To view the entire article, click here.

"MADRID, July 21 (Reuters) - Four Spanish firemen died and two more were seriously hurt battling a forest blaze in the northern region of Catalonia on Tuesday, a local official told state radio."

NASA: GOES Satellite Eyeing Two Areas of Thunderstorms in Eastern Caribbean

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This GOES-11 satellite image shows two areas of thunderstorms that each has a 30% chance of developing into something tropical. One area is in the lower right corner, the other just to the northeast of Cuba.
Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project Two Geostationary Operational Environmental (GOES) satellites keep a weather eye on the eastern and western U.S. While GOES-11 watches the west, GOES-12 is watching the east, and two areas of thunderstorms in the eastern Caribbean for possible tropical development.

Thunderstorms associated with a tropical wave over the eastern Caribbean Sea have increased in activity today, and they're bringing locally heavy rainfall and gusty winds to parts of the Lesser Antilles, Virgin Islands, and parts of Puerto Rico today. Upper level winds are keeping a tropical low pressure area from developing. The storms area associated with a tropical wave that continues to move northwesterly near 15-20 mph. The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla. gives this area a 30 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next two days.

Meanwhile, closer to the U.S., showers and thunderstorms have become more concentrated near the Northern Bahamas Islands. That area also has only 30 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours as well, but it's because surface pressure is high in the area and currently, there is no sign of organization.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GOES-12 captured the two areas of low pressure in a visible satellite image on July 21 at 10:31 a.m. EDT. GOES satellites are operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The image was created by NASA's GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Japan Floods Leave 5 Dead, 5 Missing

Japanese media report at least five people died and five others were missing after heavy rain triggered mudslides and swelled a river in the Japanese city of Hofu, in Yamaguchi Prefecture on Tuesday.

Storms knock out power, uproot trees in Denver

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Typhoon Isang (a.k.a. Molave) Made Landfall Near Hong Kong

NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Typhoon Isang (Molave) on July 19 after it made landfall near Hong Kong. Credit: NASA's MODIS Rapid Response Team
› Larger image On Saturday, July 18 at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) Isang (Molave) strengthened to typhoon strength with sustained winds near 74 mph and made landfall near Hong Kong after midnight July 19 with sustained winds near 90 mph.

According to press reports from China Daily.com, Molave made landfall specifically at Nanao town in Shenzhen City of Guangdong Province at 12:50 a.m. Sunday, Beijing Time. At landfall, it had maximum sustained winds near 90 mph, making it a Category One Typhoon. It brought gusty winds and heavy rains to Shenzhen City creating some street flooding. The largest rainfall recorded from Molave was 10.04 inches (255 millimeters) over three hours in Dianbai County, China.

NASA's Terra satellite flew over Molave on Sunday July 19 at 11:20 a.m. local time (03:20 UTC) about 18 hours after the storm made landfall. The Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer captured a visible image of the storm's clouds as it continued to move west-northwest near 16 knots (18 mph). At that time, its sustained winds had dropped down to 40 knots (46 mph) and it was located near 23.0 north latitude and 112.4 east longitude) in China's Guangxi Province, about 110 miles west-northwest of Hong Kong.

Molave's remnants are dissipating today, July 20.

Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Quake, tsunami potential high on US west coast-study

The following is an excerpt from a Reuters News Agency article.  To view the article in its entirety, click here.

"WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - Scientists have underestimated the potential for a giant quake and tsunami that could swamp much the U.S. northwest and Canadian west coasts, British and U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Geological evidence suggests there have been earthquakes in the past that were even stronger than a magnitude 9.2 quake -- the second-biggest ever recorded -- which caused a 42-foot-high (12-metre-high) tsunami in the Gulf of Alaska in 1964, they said."

Fire Forces 11,000 Canadians Out of Homes

Canadian authorities announced that approximately 11-thousand people threatened by a forest fire in southern British Columbia had fled their homes.

Rain deluges Pakistan's largest city, leaving 26 dead and cutting electricity

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Great Lakes water levels rebound after long slump

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NOAA: Global Ocean Surface Temperature Warmest on Record for June

The world’s ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for June, breaking the previous high mark set in 2005, according to a preliminary analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. Additionally, the combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for June was second-warmest on record. The global records began in 1880.

Global Climate Statistics

• The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for June 2009 was the second warmest on record, behind 2005, 1.12 degrees F (0.62 degree C) above the 20th century average of 59.9 degrees F (15.5 degrees C).
• Separately, the global ocean surface temperature for June 2009 was the warmest on record, 1.06 degrees F (0.59 degree C) above the 20th century average of 61.5 degrees F (16.4 degrees C).
• Each hemisphere broke its June record for warmest ocean surface temperature. In the Northern Hemisphere, the warm anomaly of 1.17 degrees F (0.65 degree C) surpassed the previous record of 1.12 degrees F (0.62 degree C), set in 2005. The Southern Hemisphere’s increase of 0.99 degree F (0.55 degree C) exceeded the old record of 0.92 degree F (0.51 degree C), set in 1998.
• The global land surface temperature for June 2009 was 1.26 degrees F (0.70 degree C) above the 20th century average of 55.9 degrees F (13.3 degrees C), and ranked as the sixth-warmest June on record.

Notable Developments and Events

• El Niño is back after six straight months of increased sea-surface temperature anomalies. June sea surface temperatures in the region were more than 0.9 degree F (0.5 degree C) above average.
• Terrestrial warmth was most notable in Africa. Considerable warmth also occurred in Siberia and in the lands around the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Cooler-than-average land locations included the U.S. Northern Plains, the Canadian Prairie Provinces, and central Asia.
• Arctic sea ice covered an average of 4.4 million square miles (11.5 million square kilometers) during June, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. This is 5.6 percent below the 1979-2000 average extent. By contrast, the 2007 record for the least Arctic sea ice extent was 5.5 percent below average. Antarctic sea ice extent in June was 3.9 percent above the 1979-2000 average.
• Heavy rain fell over central Europe, triggering mudslides and floods. Thirteen fatalities were reported. According to reports, this was central Europe's worst natural disaster since the 2002 floods that claimed 17 lives and caused nearly $3 billion in damages.

NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the oceans to surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources.

Tsunami Symposium Sees NOAA Research Forecast in Action

NOAA’s Internet-based tsunami research forecast system.

Download as Quicktime (Credit: NOAA)

During a session on tsunami forecasting during an international meeting in Russia on July 15, scientists saw NOAA’s Internet-based tsunami research forecast system in action.

A tsunami was generated by a large earthquake off the southwest coast of New Zealand. Vasily Titov, of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, Wash., and session chair, immediately accessed the web-based NOAA tsunami forecast system and demonstrated, before a live audience of 60 international tsunami scientists, a real-time tsunami forecast.

His demonstration included real-time access to tsunami data from a nearby deep-ocean detection buoy, part of the DART® (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis) real-time tsunami monitoring system, developed by PMEL. The buoys are positioned at strategic locations throughout the ocean.

Grasshopper Infestation Taking over entire Farms in Alberta

Grasshopper Infestation Taking over entire Farms in Alberta.

Grasshopper Infestation Taking over entire Farms in Alberta; provided courtesy of NowPublic.com

Amtrak bus fire on SoCal freeway ignites wildfire

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NASA: A NASA Two-for-One: Carlos and Dolores in one Satellite Image

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The TRMM satellite captured the fading rainfall in Tropical Storms Carlos (lower left) and Dolores (upper right) on July 15. The center of Carlos is false-colored green and light blue. Dolores' center has heavier rain as seen in red.
Credit: NASA/SSAI, Hal Pierce

It's not too often that two tropical cyclones are close enough to each other to be within a satellite's view as it tracks far above the Earth, but it happened this week with Carlos and Dolores in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, which is managed by NASA and JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency captured a two-for-one image of both tropical cyclones in one satellite image!

The image was created using data from the TRMM satellite as it saw both tropical storm Carlos (on the left) and Dolores on July 15, 2009 at 7:44 p.m. (2344 UTC).

TRMM images from TRMM's Precipitation Radar instrument show the horizontal pattern of rain intensity within storms. The false-colored areas in yellow and green indicate rainfall between 20 and 40 millimeters (.78 to 1.57 inches) per hour. The false-colored red area indicates moderate rainfall over 50 mm/hour or ~2 inches per hour.

It was a rare "photo opportunity," because less than 24 hours later, by 5 p.m. EDT on July 16, Carlos had weakened into a remnant low pressure area and appeared as a "poorly-defined low-level swirl in the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (known as the ITCZ). The remnant that was Carlos will continue moving westward and fade away later today, July 17. Meanwhile, Dolores had also already faded to a tropical depression and will be a memory later today as well.

Text Credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Hal Pierce, NASA/SSAI