I know that this story is a bit old but when I found it I was very surprised. I knew that Minnesota got more snow then we did but I did not realize how much more they got than us. They saw as much as 11 inches of snow while our ground has barely been covered by snow! I am very surprised by this figure because Minnesota is not very far away. The most shocking highlight was that there was 401 accidents reported! While there were only 45 with injuries. I could not beleive that there were 400 accidents. A girl that I work with said that she had to go to the airport to get a friend and said that there were a lot of vehicles in the ditch but she did not say it was to this extreme. I think there were that many accidents because it was the first snow and everyone has to get use to driving in snow again, but I do not think it took them long to clean up because we are use to dealing with these kind of conditions in this area.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/13/minnesota.snow/index.html
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tornado in Mississippi
Severe weather has been hitting Mississppi the past few days and they have reported tornadoes that have touched down. The tornadoes have caused a lot of distruction and have left 30% of the effected area without power. This causes a lot of problems in mitigation because without power it is hard to communicate and and get things done. Also, there are 17 people that are injured, and there are already emergancy crews that are trying to determine the amount of damage that the tornadoes have caused. While there has been a lot of damage I think this area will be very resilient because they already have help which is important in the "Golden Hours".
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/30/mississippi.tornado/index.html?hpt=Sbin
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/30/mississippi.tornado/index.html?hpt=Sbin
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Snow in Washington
This storm has created a lot of problems in Washinton State. They have found at lease 57 abandoned cars on the road. There have been 119 reported collisions and they have helicopters with infra-red cameras that are attempting to find people stranded in their cars. Usually the first snow of the winter causes problems because people ahve to get use to driving in the bad conditions. When the first storm is heavy than that causes many more problems. If this storm would ahve occurred in Feb. I do not think it would have created as many collisions. The mitigation efforts include getting everyone off teh roads safely, and clearing the roads of the snow as quickly as possible. I think it will take a lot of time to clear the roads because they have to get all the cars off the roads before they can completely clear them. It will be a slow process but I think the majority of the people will be ok as long as they are not stuck in their vehicles.
http://www.kirotv.com/weather/25850281/detail.html
http://www.kirotv.com/weather/25850281/detail.html
Tornadoes in Wisconsin!
There was at lease one tornado that went through the south east corner of the state Monday afternoon. There are no reported deaths but there are three children injured and 15 homes damaged. I do not think this would be a very big deal but it is very rare for Wisconsin to have a tornado at the end of Nov. so I am sure that not many people prepared for it to occur. Also, the temperature has dropped a lot today so hopefully the people's homes that were effected had a place to say or hypothermia would be a huge factor. Mitigation will have to occur quickly or people in that area will ahve a very rough winter.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/23/wisconsin.severe.weather/index.html?hpt=T2
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/23/wisconsin.severe.weather/index.html?hpt=T2
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Flooding in Pakistan
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=46983
The flooding in Pakistan is caused from heavy monsoon raining. The thing i found surprised about this story is that the flooded waters could stick around Pakistan for another 6 months! That is such a long time. I could not even imagine having to deal with that. When the Chippewa River it was only for a couple of days and made a big difference, so I could not imagine having to deal with having that extra water around for 6 months. I have no idea what kind of mitigation can occur or how the people in the immediate area are going to deal with it. It will be interesting to hear what happens to this area as the 6 months occur because if there is any more rain they will be in even more trouble.
Volcanic Eruption in Indonesia
This volcano has been erupting for the past six days and is said to be increasing in intesity. The activity is becoming more frequent and more disasterous. In the video it shows volcanic ash layering the near by city. I could not image dealing with that much ash. Around here we have to deal with snow, but that is only for a few months out of the year and then it melts. Ash does not just melt, so it makes me wonder what they actually do with it. There are three small craters and a big crater formed from the eruption but I think there will be much more damage before this event is over because the activity is getting strong. I think the worst is yetot come and I really hope the people in this area take all mitigation steps necessary to protect themselves properly.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2010/11/16/Indonesian-volcano-still-erupting/UPI-98511289927516/
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2010/11/16/Indonesian-volcano-still-erupting/UPI-98511289927516/
Monday, November 8, 2010
Volcanic Eruption in Indonesia
Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- Deaths in Indonesia mounted on Saturday from the volcanic eruption spewing scorching ash and gas, and the country's leader is stationed near the scene to coordinate relief efforts.
At least 81 people are now dead after the powerful Friday eruption at Mount Merapi, in Central Java, bringing the total number of deaths to about 120 people since the volcano began erupting October 26, hospital officials said.
Friday's flare-up is being called Merapi's largest so far, unleashing ash clouds and gas that have reached villages in areas many thought were safe from the volcano's eruptions.
Volcanic ash has also hindered air travels with delays, cancellations and altered flight paths. International airlines have canceled at least 50 flights on Saturday from the capital, Jakarta, about 280 miles away from the volcano.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has temporarily moved to the nearby big city of Yogyakarta to help direct relief operations.
"Our burn unit has been working overtime to handle the volcano's victims," Banu Hermawan, a spokesman for Dr. Sardjito Hospital in Yogyakarta. "The forensic team is also working hard to identified bodies with severe burns."
Another hospital official said only 11 people have been identified because many of the victims were severely burned.
Yudhoyono has instructed the military to assist relief efforts by building facilities and field hospitals in the area. He has also ordered the Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare, which oversees several ministries, to coordinate faster and more efficient relief.
The president announced that residents will receive compensation for livelihoods and animals lost to the eruptions. The government will buy endangered cows on the volcano, he said. Many of those who live on its slopes raise cattle and risked their lives by staying or returning to feed their cows.
The children's charity Plan International has launched an appeal to help 20,000 people fleeing the mountain.
"People were fleeing in panic and only have what they could carry," said Nono Sumarsono, acting country director of Plan International, said Friday.
He said there is an urgent need for food, water, mats, blankets and hygiene kits -- items that the group is already distributing. Workers are also in the process of getting emergency latrines and setting up temporary schools for children.
Mathias Eick, regional information officer with the European Commission's humanitarian aid department, said Friday that many residents were expecting a minor outbreak, but the eruptions had become much worse.
Lava balls have rained down on villages and houses have burned, Eick said. Streets and cars are covered in ash, and people are wearing face masks.
"This is a major humanitarian crisis," he said.
Merapi continues to spill hot ash cloud and rumbles consistently, according to data from the Indonesian Volcanology Technology Development and Assessment Agency.
The data also indicates the hot ash cloud that hit a village near the crater was around 450-600 degrees Celsius (842-1,112 degrees Fahrenheit).
The 3,000-meter (9,800-foot) Merapi is famously unpredictable. An eruption killed two people in 2006 and another killed more than 60 villagers in 1994. About 1,300 people died when Merapi erupted in 1930.
At least 81 people are now dead after the powerful Friday eruption at Mount Merapi, in Central Java, bringing the total number of deaths to about 120 people since the volcano began erupting October 26, hospital officials said.
Friday's flare-up is being called Merapi's largest so far, unleashing ash clouds and gas that have reached villages in areas many thought were safe from the volcano's eruptions.
Volcanic ash has also hindered air travels with delays, cancellations and altered flight paths. International airlines have canceled at least 50 flights on Saturday from the capital, Jakarta, about 280 miles away from the volcano.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has temporarily moved to the nearby big city of Yogyakarta to help direct relief operations.
"Our burn unit has been working overtime to handle the volcano's victims," Banu Hermawan, a spokesman for Dr. Sardjito Hospital in Yogyakarta. "The forensic team is also working hard to identified bodies with severe burns."
Another hospital official said only 11 people have been identified because many of the victims were severely burned.
Yudhoyono has instructed the military to assist relief efforts by building facilities and field hospitals in the area. He has also ordered the Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare, which oversees several ministries, to coordinate faster and more efficient relief.
The president announced that residents will receive compensation for livelihoods and animals lost to the eruptions. The government will buy endangered cows on the volcano, he said. Many of those who live on its slopes raise cattle and risked their lives by staying or returning to feed their cows.
The children's charity Plan International has launched an appeal to help 20,000 people fleeing the mountain.
"People were fleeing in panic and only have what they could carry," said Nono Sumarsono, acting country director of Plan International, said Friday.
He said there is an urgent need for food, water, mats, blankets and hygiene kits -- items that the group is already distributing. Workers are also in the process of getting emergency latrines and setting up temporary schools for children.
Mathias Eick, regional information officer with the European Commission's humanitarian aid department, said Friday that many residents were expecting a minor outbreak, but the eruptions had become much worse.
Lava balls have rained down on villages and houses have burned, Eick said. Streets and cars are covered in ash, and people are wearing face masks.
"This is a major humanitarian crisis," he said.
Merapi continues to spill hot ash cloud and rumbles consistently, according to data from the Indonesian Volcanology Technology Development and Assessment Agency.
The data also indicates the hot ash cloud that hit a village near the crater was around 450-600 degrees Celsius (842-1,112 degrees Fahrenheit).
The 3,000-meter (9,800-foot) Merapi is famously unpredictable. An eruption killed two people in 2006 and another killed more than 60 villagers in 1994. About 1,300 people died when Merapi erupted in 1930.
In addition, last week a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia's coast, triggering a tsunami and killing at least 449 people. Hundreds more were injured.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Hurricane Tomas in Haiti
(CNN) -- After dealing a walloping blow to Haiti, where at least six people died and a number of homes were destroyed, Tropical Storm Tomas was weakening rapidly Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said.
Tomas was downgraded to a tropical storm early Sunday. As of 11 a.m. ET, its maximum sustained winds were at 60 mph (95 kph) with higher gusts. It was not posing an immediate threat to land; the center of Tomas was about 525 kilometers southwest of Bermuda and moving north at about 6 mph (9 kph).
"Additional weakening is forecast, and Tomas is expected to lose its tropical characteristics by this evening," the Hurricane Center said.
In Haiti, a nation still grappling with the effects of a killer earthquake and a deadly cholera outbreak this year, Tomas ruined houses and turned some streets into rivers. Six people were also killed by the storm, according to the Haitian Civil Protection Authority.
January's 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed 250,000 people and left 1 million more homeless. Many of those Haitians have been living in tent camps, and aid workers had been working in recent days to move the residents to safer housing, which was difficult to find.
Aid workers were already struggling to keep up with the cholera outbreak, which has killed 501 people since the first cases were reported in October. An additional 7,000 are hospitalized. The bacterial disease causes diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to deadly dehydration within hours.
In Leogane, west of Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince, residents waded in knee-deep water after Tomas. Box trucks got stuck in water, said relief worker Roseann Dennery of Samaritan's Purse.
While the flooding receded somewhat over the weekend, the threat of waterborne disease remained a concern.
"Samaritan's Purse is moving quickly to set up cholera treatment centers in areas where there currently aren't any, and where new cases are appearing as the bacteria continues to spread," Dennery said.
Mudslides also remain a risk because many of the nation's mountains have been stripped of vegetation, which means rain can flow downhill relatively unimpeded, said CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf.
"We could see mudslides a week after the storm has passed," Wolf said.
Tomas was downgraded to a tropical storm early Sunday. As of 11 a.m. ET, its maximum sustained winds were at 60 mph (95 kph) with higher gusts. It was not posing an immediate threat to land; the center of Tomas was about 525 kilometers southwest of Bermuda and moving north at about 6 mph (9 kph).
"Additional weakening is forecast, and Tomas is expected to lose its tropical characteristics by this evening," the Hurricane Center said.
In Haiti, a nation still grappling with the effects of a killer earthquake and a deadly cholera outbreak this year, Tomas ruined houses and turned some streets into rivers. Six people were also killed by the storm, according to the Haitian Civil Protection Authority.
January's 7.0-magnitude earthquake killed 250,000 people and left 1 million more homeless. Many of those Haitians have been living in tent camps, and aid workers had been working in recent days to move the residents to safer housing, which was difficult to find.
Aid workers were already struggling to keep up with the cholera outbreak, which has killed 501 people since the first cases were reported in October. An additional 7,000 are hospitalized. The bacterial disease causes diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to deadly dehydration within hours.
In Leogane, west of Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince, residents waded in knee-deep water after Tomas. Box trucks got stuck in water, said relief worker Roseann Dennery of Samaritan's Purse.
While the flooding receded somewhat over the weekend, the threat of waterborne disease remained a concern.
"Samaritan's Purse is moving quickly to set up cholera treatment centers in areas where there currently aren't any, and where new cases are appearing as the bacteria continues to spread," Dennery said.
Mudslides also remain a risk because many of the nation's mountains have been stripped of vegetation, which means rain can flow downhill relatively unimpeded, said CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf.
"We could see mudslides a week after the storm has passed," Wolf said.
Tomas has also dumped more than 10 inches of rain in the Dominican Republic.
-This story makes me feel very bad for the Haitians. They have had to deal with so many disasters this year that it their spirits are so low. Most of the people are still trying to recover from the huge earthquake in January and the cholera break out. Now they were hit by Hurrican Tomas and 10 inches of rain. They are not going to be able to bounce back from this very quickly because they were still down from the prior disasters. It is just sad that this country continues to recieve this terrible luck. Hopefully the new year will bring them more luck.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Hurricane Tomas
Tropical Storm Tomas could re-intensify into rare November hurricane
November 1, 2010 5:08 p.m. EDT
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Storm is slowing and will likely turn to the northeast later in the week
- NEW: No warnings or watches are currently in effect
- Storm could approach Haiti, the Dominican Republic or Cuba
As of 5 p.m. Monday, the center of Tomas was about 65 miles (105 kilometers) north-northeast of Aruba and about 400 miles (640 kilometers) south-southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph), with higher gusts, and was moving west at 12 mph (19 kph).
No coastal watches or warnings were in effect associated with Tomas, according to the Miami, Florida-based National Hurricane Center. But the center urged residents of Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Haiti to keep an eye on the storm, which is expected to continue westward over the next day or two and slow down.
Tracking maps show that Tomas could take a sharp turn to the northeast and approach Haiti later in the week, possibly as a Category 1 hurricane. The storm could deal another blow to the island nation, which is still recovering from a devastating January earthquake and currently battling a cholera outbreak. But "Tomas could still hit anywhere from the Dominican Republic to eastern Cuba," CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward said.
Video: Tomas hits the Caribbean RELATED TOPICS
Tomas is expected to continue weakening, but "restrengthening could begin by late Tuesday," forecasters said.
The forecast track for Tomas, a storm which formed in late October, is typical for November hurricanes, CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider wrote on a blog for HLN's "Morning Express."
Although hurricanes are less likely to form in November, "the month isn't always hurricane-free," Schneider said. "Two fairly recent November hurricanes include Hurricane Lenny in 1999 and Hurricane Michelle in 2001."
September is usually the most likely month for tropical storm formation, according to Schneider. But "often this time of year, the westerly wind is strong enough to steer the storms out to sea into the Atlantic, rather than northwestward into the Gulf of Mexico."
The Atlantic hurricane season ends November 30.
Tomas lashed the Caribbean island of St. Vincent over the weekend, prompting about 1,000 people to enter shelters. Two people were injured, including one critically, when they tried to repair roof damage during the storm, said Michelle Forbes, acting director of National Emergency Management.
Tomas also left downed trees that blocked many roads, Forbes said, and large areas of the island lacked power. More than 100 homes sustained roof damage, she said, and authorities expected the number to rise.
-Although Tomas is small right now they are expecting it to grow as the week continues. The thing that I thought most interesting it that although it hit Haiti only as a category 1 it was still going to have major effects on the area. I thought this was very interesting because Haiti deals with many hurricanes annually and at a much higher category but it is still recovering from an earthquake so at the time it is unable to deal with any hazard. A harzard occurring in this area will increase its complexity and cause many more problems then in normal conditions and will cause the recovery period to become even longer.
Low Pressure System Here!
Low pressure breaks records!
(Wednesday 3:53pm correction: According to the NWS, the previous record we’ve indicated was taken at the Cleveland, Ohio crib over the waters of Lake Erie. Because of this, the low pressure system did break the all-time record for the United States. According to NWS: A new record was set for the lowest pressure in a non-tropical storm in the mainland U.S. The massive storm system barreling across the central U.S. had a minimum central pressure of 28.24″ or 956 mb (equivalent to the minimum pressure of a Category 3 hurricane). This breaks the old record of 28.28″ (958 mb), set on Jan. 26, 1978, during the Blizzard of 1978 (aka the Cleveland Superbomb). This is also lower than the March 1993 Superstorm (aka “The Storm of the Century”), or the “Witch of November” storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975, or even the Columbus Day Storm of Oct. 1962.
(Tuesday 6:46pm correction: Lowest pressure was 28.05″ of mercury, not 28.28″ previously reported)
What a storm! According to reports from Minnesota and Wisconsin late this afternoon, the low pressure system responsible for today’s 15 tornadoes and 200+ reports of wind damage is one for the record books!
The official National Weather Service barometer at Superior, Wisconsin registered a pressure of 28.38 inches or 961.06 millibars at 11:35am today. This breaks the old Wisconsin state record of 28.45 inches set at Green Bay on April 3, 1982.
If that wasn’t enough, a barometer in Northern Minnesota registered an even lower pressure! According to the National Weather Service forecast office in Duluth, Minnesota, the barometer in Big Fork dipped to 28.21 inches of mercury or 955.2 millibars. While this observation is not officially confirmed yet, it puts this storm in a #2 spot for all-time lowest pressure! The lowest barometric pressure recorded in a non-tropical storm was set during the super-snowstorm of January 26, 1978 where Cleveland, Ohio had a pressure of 28.05″ or 949.9 millibars.The low pressure from today’s storm system would be typical to a category three hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. -ES
-I found this story to be very interesting because I knew that it was windy here but I had no idea that it was setting records. I also did not know that there were 15 tornados associated with it. But what really surprised me was that the low pressure zone was compareable to a category 3 hurricane! I really had no idea that could happen here. It really shows that the weather in this area is very unpredictable. Also, there were 200+ incidences from the windy. This area is not resilent to this kind of hazard because tornadoes and high windy weather does not occur here very often. The weather here has been unpredictable lately and am wondering what will happen next!
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