Studying Weather on Venus

While this article does not talk about hazards I thought it was pretty interesting to find out more about unknown weather on another planet. They have found that the wind on the planet blows in the same direction that the planet rotates in, but they blow at a speed 60 times faster than that!  With this devise they will be able to see if theres lightning, any active volcanoes, and hopefully be able to see the actualy surface of the planet.  I think it will be interesting to see their findings because it is all unknown to us at the moment, and we will be able to compare its weather to ours.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/07/craft-will-study-weather-on-venus/?iref=storysearch

Freezing Temperatures Hit Florida

While here in the midwest we are use to seeing freezing temperatures during this time of year, the people in Florida are not use to this at all.  It was reported that the middle of the state could have reached as low as 20 degrees! The citrus farm owners sprayed the citrus with water hoping that a thin sheet of ice would insulate the fruit.  I have learned about that processes helping fruits in a biology class.  While it seems a little backwards it actually helps and could possibly really help these farmers.  On the up side they we predicting that if we have a cold Dec. then we may have a warm Jan. and Feb. which I am not too sure how I feel about that.  I would really like to see snow staying on the ground until March.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/12/07/winter.weather/index.html?hpt=T2

Minnesota's First Snow

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

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

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

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

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.