Satellite imagery from NOAA shows Hurricane Irene, then a tropical storm, making landfall in New York City. (NOAA) Click the image to view a slideshow on Examiner.com of Irene's impact.
The Atlantic’s first major hurricane struck the United States over the weekend becoming the first hurricane to make landfall in the country since 2008. It adds to the nation’s tally of billion dollar disasters this year and leaves at least two dozen people dead in its wake.
As reported by the Natural Disasters Examiner, initial damage estimates put losses from the storm at $7 billion. Total losses including the economic impact may approach $20 billion.
More than the economic impact though is the human toll. At latest count, at least 26 people were killed in the massive storm. Eight states stretching from Florida to Connecticut saw citizens lose their lives.
For complete coverage of Hurricane Irene, check out the links from the Natural Disasters Examiner below:
This video screen capture shows the stage at the Indianapolis State Fair as it collapsed. Watch the video below. (YouTube / JSilas7)
Winds alone are not normally associated with the loss of life but a sad reminder of the dangers was seen at the Indianapolis State Fair on Saturday. Powerful thunderstorm winds downed a stage killing five people and injuring dozens while officials appeared to ignore warnings of the impending danger.
The Natural Disasters Examiner wrote in a story on Monday that the warning signs for severe weather in central Indiana were readily apparent as early as two days before the storm.
The National Weather Service discussed the thunderstorm and high wind dangers in its Hazardous Weather Outlook multiple times. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch was issued hours before and a Warning 10 minutes before.
Despite this, officials at the fair failed to make a timely decision to cancel the Sugarland concert. When the winds, estimated at 50 to 70mph struck, it only took a matter of seconds for the stage’s rigging to collapse. Five people died and more than 40 were injured due to their failure.
The tragedy should serve as a reminder to everyone to pay attention to changing weather. Do not ignore weather watches and warnings, no matter what others are doing. The life you save may be your own.
The video below captures the event with shocking clarity. It may be disturbing for some so viewer discretion is advised.
Our hearts and prayers go out to all those affected by the tragedy.
Before (left) and after (right) photos of the Sulzberger Ice Shelf illustrate the calving event associated with the Japan earthquake and resulting tsunami that occurred on March 11, 2011. The icebergs have just begun to separate in the left image. Click the image for a larger view.
Nearly 8,000 miles away the power of the tsunami caused by the March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake was felt in a resounding fashion. New satellite imagery released by NASA shows 50 square miles of ice from the Sulzberger Ice Shelf on the coast of Antarctica being broken off due to the waves.
Scientists have speculated that a tsunami could cause flexing of ice and result in pieces breaking off. The quake and resultant tsunami in Japan have now proven that theory.
NASA researchers utilized imagery from the European Space Agency’s Envisat satellite. The before and after pictures clearly show numerous icebergs having been calved from the shelf.
The tsunami is estimated to have been only one foot high when it reached the Earth’s southernmost continent. However the stress was enough to break apart the 260 foot thick shelf and calve an area of ice equal to the size of Manhattan Island in New York.
Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago and one of the researchers who made the discovery said the event shows how connected the planet’s systems are.
“This is an example not only of the way in which events are connected across great ranges of oceanic distance, but also how events in one kind of Earth system, i.e., the plate tectonic system, can connect with another kind of seemingly unrelated event: the calving of icebergs from Antarctica’s ice sheet,” MacAyeal said in a statement.
Former Vice President Al Gore launched an attack against those that disagree with the manmade climate change theory saying their arguments were "Bulls--t!" (JD Lasica, http://socialmedia.biz)
The passion of Al Gore for the manmade climate change theory is unquestionable. Since leaving public office he has become the self-appointed spokesman for the movement. At a forum in Aspen last week the former vice president launched into a profanity filled tirade against those who disagree with him.
The Climate Change Examiner reports that at an event held by the Aspen Institute, Gore called “Bulls–t” to arguments that seek to refute the anthropogenic global warming theory. Listen to the audio here.
“Gore said that just as the tobacco industry prevented health regulations, so too have corporate interests stopped the advancement of potentially job-killing rules such as Cap and Trade,” the Examiner writes.
More than that, Gore goes on to say:
The model they innovated in that effort was transported whole cloth into the climate debate. And some of the exact same people — by name, I can go down a list of their names — are involved in this. And so what do they do? They pay pseudo-scientists, to pretend to be scientists, to put out the message: “This climate thing, it’s nonsense. Man-made CO2 doesn’t trap heat. It may be volcanoes.” Bulls–t! “It may be sun spots.” Bulls–t! “It’s not getting warmer.” Bulls–t!
And there are about 10 other memes that are out there, and when you go and talk to any audience about climate, you hear them washing back at you. The same crap, over and over and over again … There is no longer a shared reality on an issue like climate even though the very existence of our civilization is threatened. People have no idea! And yet our ability to actually come to a shared reality that emphasizes the best evidence … It’s no longer acceptable in mixed company, meaning bipartisan company, to use the goddamn word “climate.”
Hot or cold: Denver's problematic weather records. (Denver Weather Examiner)
Does a move of 12 miles make a difference in what type of weather is seen in Colorado? Longtime residents know that our weather can vary greatly over short distances and this has many questioning the placement of Denver’s official weather monitoring station.
From 1871 to 1949 Denver’s weather was recorded at the National Weather Service’s office in downtown Denver. In January 1950 a move was made to Stapleton International Airport.
As that facility aged Denver opened Denver International Airport on the plains northeast of Denver in 1995. The weather service followed suit and moved the Mile High City’s official weather station the 12 miles to DIA.
Since that time, many weather watchers have noticed problems – DIA is consistently warmer and drier than the old site at Stapleton. Further, its remote location gives conditions far from where most people in Denver live and thus doesn’t accurately represent what they are experiencing.
Even bigger issues arise when comparing weather data taken today with measurements previously recorded at Stapleton or downtown. The different microclimates of the sites are so different that it becomes much like comparing apples and oranges.
This was recently made evident with the string of 90 degree or warmer days we put together. If you went by the station at DIA, the streak lasted 18 days putting in a three way tie for the second longest streak in Denver history. However, no monitoring station closer to the city was as warm.
Further, while July was certainly a wet month, DIA’s precipitation measurements fell far short of most other locations.
Amid concerns about a warming climate, can we trust the measurements at DIA? How is it possible to compare the weather today with historical weather when there is such a large discrepancy?
We recently tackled this topic on the Denver Weather Examiner and the conclusion is obvious – It simply is impossible to correlate current weather records with Denver’s historical ones. Further, the National Weather Service seems intent on ignoring the issue.
Two of the most famous signers of the Declaration of Independence could also be considered weathermen.
Certainly anyone who has studied the Founding Fathers is well aware of Benjamin Franklin’s electrifying kite-flying experience. What many Americans may not know is that he was one of the first storm chasers and his fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, was a weatherman in his own right.
Benjamin Franklin’s interest in the weather spanned virtually his entire lifetime. He was intrigued by the weather and deduced the movement of storms going on to accurately theorize about low and high pressure as the basis for weather patterns.
His Poor Richard’s Almanac featured some of the nation’s first weather forecasts, penned by Franklin under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders. Later in life he would record weather observations during his numerous Atlantic crossings and six years before his passing he published a number of “Meteorological Imaginations and Conjectures.”
Franklin also was one of the nation’s first storm chasers. In a letter to Peter Collinson dated August 25, 1755 Franklin relayed his experience chasing what he called a whirlwind in Maryland the prior April.
He wrote, “We saw, in the vale below us, a small whirlwind beginning in the road and showing itself by the dust it raised and contained. It appeared in the form of a sugar-loaf, spinning on its point, moving up the hill towards us, and enlarging as it came forward. When it passed by us, its smaller part near the ground appeared no bigger than a common barrel; but widening upwards, it seemed, at forty or fifty feet high to be twenty or thirty feet in diameter. The rest of the company stood looking after it; but my curiosity being stronger, I followed it, riding close by its side, and observed its licking up in its progress all the dust that was under its smaller part.”
America’s first statesman goes on to detail how he followed the meteorological phenomena saying, “I accompanied it about three-quarters of a mile, till some limbs of dead trees, broken off by the whirl, flying about and falling near me made me more apprehensive of danger; and then I stopped, looking at the top of it as it went on, which was visible, by means of the leaves contained in it, for a very great height above the trees.”
Certainly it would appear Franklin encountered a strong dust devil or possibly even a weak tornado.
On July 4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson was doing more than just signing the Declaration of Independence – he also was buying a thermometer for £3-15 in Philadelphia from merchant John Sparhawk. The author of the document that started the United States of America bought nearly 20 of the instruments over his life.
Just three days prior, on July 1, Jefferson began his first “meteorological diary.” From then on his daily routine included checking a thermometer at dawn and in the late-afternoon and recording the readings. Occasionally he would also use a barometer and hygrometer to supplement his measurements.
Jefferson believed that to understand the climate measurements would need to be taken across the young nation and he tried to spur others to do the same. He wrote that documentation would require “steady attention to the thermometer, to the plants growing there, the times of their leafing and flowering, its animal inhabitants, beast, birds, reptiles and insects; its prevalent winds, quantities of rain and snow, temperature of mountains, and other indexes of climate.”
Tornadoes and other forms of severe weather have caused extraordinary damage and loss of life this spring across the nation.
Tornadoes, damaging wind, hail and flooding rains are a fact of life in the United States in the springtime. This season however has seen an absolutely devastating series of storms systems that have brought extraordinary levels of destruction and loss of life.
Among our writing assignments for Examiner.com we are the Natural Disasters Examiner. Of late the vast majority of our coverage has centered on the severe weather. Below are some of the stories we have written in recent days about the outbreaks. Follow the links for greater detail including photos and videos.
Deadly severe weather season continues as 13 killed across three states Mother Nature continues to pile on more severe weather in what has been a particularly devastating and deadly spring in the United States. Tornadoes, hail, and damaging wind struck the central and southern U.S. yesterday killing at least 13 people.
2011 tornado statistics provide chilling empirical evidence of a deadly season The scenes of utter devastation have been played out across the nation this spring as tornadoes rip across the landscape. The latest statistics for the tornado season show clearly that the death toll has been staggering and the number of twisters record-setting.
Tornado statistics: Top 25 deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history With an average of 1,200 tornadoes per year, more twisters strike the United States than any other nation in the world. These storms can strike with deadly effects with a single twister covering more than a hundred miles, wiping out entire towns and claiming dozens of lives.
Saturday evening the stage was set for severe weather across the nation’s heartland and Mother Nature came through in spades. More than a dozen tornadoes were reported as were scores of significant hail events.
Despite the number of events most resulted in little damage. However one tornado, by some accounts as big as three quarters of a mile wide, struck the town of Mapleton, Iowa. This massive wedge tornado struck at 7:21 CDT and caused significant damage in the town.
The video below was captured by storm chasers as they tracked the dangerous tornado.
A building's facade lies in the street after the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. Click the image to view a slideshow. (TwitPic / bebe33)
Christchurch, New Zealand was struck by a powerful magnitude 6.3 earthquake on Tuesday that wreaked havoc across the nation’s second largest city. Buildings were reduced to rubble and people buried alive in what is being called the ‘darkest day’ in the New Zealand history.
In September the area was struck by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake and recovery efforts from that quake were still underway when the new quake struck. Buildings that were already weakened by last year’s quake, then the initial quake today struggled to hold up with the ongoing aftershocks.
Prime Minister John Key said, “It is just a scene of utter devastation. We may well be witnessing New Zealand’s darkest day.”
Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Yasi moves inland over flood ravaged Queensland, Australia. Click the image to view more satellite photos on Examiner.com (CIMSS)
Devastating flooding over the past month and a half inundated hundreds of thousands of square miles in the Australian state of Queensland. The last thing the weary residents needed was more stormy weather but that is what came in the form of Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi.
Just a few days ago Tropical Cyclone Anthony made landfall on Australia’s northeast coast. Mercifully it was a relatively small storm. The same cannot be said of Yasi.
Yasi landed at midnight local time on Thursday as a powerful Category 5 storm packing wind gusts to 186 mph. Tens of thousands of residents fled the storm as it approached and reports of down trees, roofs ripped off homes and widespread power outages are being seen.
“This is a cyclone of savagery and intensity,” warned Prime Minister Julia Gillard. “People are facing some really dreadful hours in front of them.”
Accompanying the damaging wind was destructive storm surge more than six feet high that will likely submerge low lying coastal areas. Rains from the storm are sure to drench ground already saturated from the massive flooding Queensland has seen in recent weeks and new flooding is likely.
The storm has moved inland and is near the town of Georgetown. It still is packing powerful punch as a Category 3 cyclone with gusts in excess of 127 mph (205 kph).
