Sunday, March 24, 2013

A bright meteor briefly outshined the lights of New York City Friday evening (March 22), according to reports by witnesses. The dramatic fireball over the U.S. East Coast was caused by an asteroid just 3 feet long.

**The cost of a thing is the amount of life
which is required to be exchanged for it,
immediately or in the long run.**
Thoreau


LARGEST QUAKES -

Live Seismograms - Worldwide (update every 30 minutes)

This morning -
6.1 EAST OF KURIL ISLANDS
Cluster of small quakes continues in Canary Islands.

Yesterday -
2/23/13 -
5.0 EAST OF SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS
5.0 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
5.0 GUAM REGION
Cluster of small quakes continues in Canary Islands.

2/22/13 -
5.2 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
5.2 SOUTHWESTERN ATLANTIC OCEAN
Cluster of small quakes continues in Canary Islands.

6.1 quake off Kamchatka, far east of Russia. The quake, which hit at 0418 GMT at a depth of 9.7 kilometres (six miles), was centred 269 kilometres from the eastern Russian city of Ozernovsky, on the southern tip of the Kamchatka peninsula.

VOLCANOES -
Volcano Webcams

Nicaragua - At Telica volcano, hundreds of earthquakes, with magnitudes as high as 2.1, have shaken the volcano for the past week. Thus far, Nicaraguan authorities have not described other indicators of magmatic activity such as deformation or increased fumarolic activity.

Fuji eruption may displace 750,000 in Japan - Some 750,000 residents in 14 municipalities in Yamanashi and Shizuoka would need to evacuate in the event of an eruption of Mount Fuji, which straddles both prefectures, a recent estimate shows. The forecast was presented at a meeting Friday of a joint council of the two prefectures and Kanagawa Prefecture, which adjoins both Shizuoka and Yamanashi. The council plans to draw up evacuation plans by autumn. The estimated number of people who would be required to evacuate is the largest, at 130,000, in Shizuoka Prefecture areas, including the city of Fuji. The estimate was based on simulations of lava and pyroclastic flows, or a mix of high-temperature fragments of volcanic origin such as molten rocks, ash and gas, from Mount Fuji, an active volcano.

TROPICAL STORMS -

No current tropical storms.

SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -

Bangladesh - The death toll from a tornado that hit villages in Bangladesh on Friday has risen to 20. The tornado ripped through 20 villages in eastern Bangladesh, leaving 200 people hurt. The 15-minute storm destroyed many homes and shops, and toppled a large number of trees and electricity poles.
Video

HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -

Thousands of homes around the UK remain without electricity after severe weather disrupted supplies. Up to 18,000 properties in Northern Ireland, 10,000 in Scotland and 2,000 in Wales have been without power overnight despite efforts by energy firms to reconnect them. Weather warnings also remain in place across much of the UK after two days of wintery conditions. Two people are known to have died - one in Lancashire and one in Cornwall.
Numerous roads in many regions became impassable after snow on Friday and Saturday. For Sunday the Met Office has warned that lying snow in many areas will melt on roads and pavements by day, refreezing by night to give icy patches. Some places, mainly in eastern England, will continue to get light snow, possibly up to a couple of inches. Also, snow blowing off fields in strong to gale force winds will affect some roads, especially over high ground.
Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) said 7,000 homes were without power the Isle of Arran and on the Kintyre peninsular. Access was difficult after deep drifts of snow blocked many roads. "Severe ice loading damage" had been found on many of its wood pole lines in Kintyre and on Arran, as well as the collapse of three steel towers under the weight of ice on the conductors near Crossaig in Kintyre. Additional generators were sent to Arran when power was lost on Friday. In Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Power said it was trying to reconnect power to 3,000 homes overnight.
In Lancashire a man's body was found in deep snow in farmland near Burnley on Saturday afternoon. It followed the discovery of a woman's body in the debris of her house after a landslip in Looe, Cornwall early on Friday morning. The weather disrupted all calls to the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service when power cuts affected the communication network. During a three-hour period, all 999 calls had to be diverted to Scotland, then details were passed on to Northern Ireland via mobile phone.
Throughout Saturday a number of roads and airports were shut and many sport fixtures in England were cancelled. The prolonged cold snap has sparked fears that the UK will run out of stored gas. However, the National Grid has said there is "plenty of gas available", and the Department of Energy and Climate Change has said gas needs are being met.

U.S. Snowstorm takes aim at Plains, Midwest - Baseball-sized hail. An early spring snowstorm forced the cancellation of more than 100 flights at Denver International Airport and closed several roads Saturday as it moved eastward, dumping more than a foot of snow in some places.
The major early spring storm brought heavy snow, severe thunderstorms and floods as it moved east across the United States on Saturday, closing highways, forcing flight cancellations and causing a pileup involving dozens of vehicles. Blowing and drifting snow closed several roads in Colorado, including Interstate 70 in both directions east of Denver to the Kansas state line. "Travel on the eastern plains is strongly discouraged. It is snowing half an inch an hour with sustained winds of 25 miles an hour with gusts up to 40 miles an hour."
A chain-reaction crash involving some 50 vehicles and at least four tractor-trailers shut down Interstate 25 about 30 miles north of Denver for several hours on Saturday. A tanker involved in the accident burst into flames. Several injured people were taken to the hospital but no fatalities were reported. Some counties in far eastern Colorado had seen a foot of snow by mid-afternoon. Snowfall accumulations in the Denver metropolitan area could top 10 inches, with higher amounts in the foothills west of the city.
The snow was expected to move east to Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, over the next 24 hours, before moving into the mid-Atlantic states. Rough weather also was forecast in the Gulf Coast region from Florida to eastern Texas throughout Saturday, with large hail, damaging winds and possible tornadoes.In northern Florida, the National Weather Service in Jacksonville had reports of high winds and possible tornado touchdowns, though no twisters have been confirmed. The weather service also had reports of baseball-sized hail west of Lawtey, Florida, early in the afternoon. Lake City received two inches of heavy rain in 30 minutes.

Extreme weather to continue in China - Southern China has been warned to brace for more storms after extreme weather lashed southern China. At least 24 people died and more than 100 were injured after heavy rain moved through five provinces and a "super-tornado" dropped huge hailstones.
The extreme weather conditions in southern China resulted in not only 24 deaths, but also the disappearance of four people, 215,000 evacuations and economic losses of about 210 million USD.