Tag Archives: Natural Disasters Examiner

Severe Weather

Rogue waves kill two on Mediterranean cruise

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This screen capture from amateur video shows one of the massive waves crashing into the cruise ship Louis Majesty.
This screen capture from amateur video shows one of the massive waves crashing into the cruise ship Louis Majesty.

Massive rogue waves struck the cruise ship Louis Majesty in the Mediterranean on Wednesday killing two and injuring more than a dozen passengers. The waves, at least 25 feet in height, broke windows and flooded cabins on the ship carrying 2,000 people.

The Louis Majesty was traveling from Barcelona to Genoa on the last day of a 10-day cruise of the western Mediterranean when the waves struck. Reports indicate that three massive waves broke windshields on the front of the ship and sent water over the decks.

Two deaths were reported as a result of the waves and both died at the scene. The victims were a 52-year-old Italian man and a 69-year-old German man from North Rhine Westphalia.

Fourteen injuries were reported, most minor and none life-threatening. Two of those had serious injuries including a 62-year-old woman who broke both of her legs.

Passenger Claude Cremex of Marseille, France told the Associated Press, “It was spectacular. A lot of water came in. Many cabins were flooded.”

Exactly where the accident occurred was still unclear. Most reports said the ship was sailing near the French Mediterranean port of Marseille but others placed it off the coast of Cabo de San Sebastian, Spain near Palafrugell.

Reports are that there were high winds in the area the ship was traveling through and automated buoy data indicates significant wave action at the time. A buoy operated by Meteo France in the area recorded waves to 21 feet high and winds in excess of 40 mph.

The 680 foot ship is owned and operated by Louis Cruises and had 1,350 passengers and 580 crew members on board at the time of the accident. The nearly 41,000 ton ship is “the most stylish and biggest ship in the fleet” according to Louis Cruises.

Natural Disasters

Chile earthquake shortened the days, shifted the Earth’s axis

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The Earths axis was shifted slightly and our days shortened by last Saturdays earthquake in Chile. (NASA)
The Earth's axis was shifted slightly and our days shortened by last Saturday's earthquake in Chile. (NASA)

NASA scientists have determined that the massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday has shortened our days and shifted the Earth’s axis. Officials said that the effects of the event while not unusual are a testament to the power of the temblor.

Richard Gross, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said his team had determined the Chile earthquake shorted the length of an Earth day by 1.26 microseconds. A microsecond is one millionth of a second.

The 2004 earthquake in Sumatra which triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people was a magnitude 9.1 temblor. That event shortened the days by 6.8 microseconds according to the same computer models.

Most interesting is the effect the quakes had on the earth’s axis. Saturday’s earthquake shifted the earth’s axis by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). The Sumatran quake shifted the planet’s axis by 2.32 milliarcseconds (about 7 centimeters, or 2.76 inches).

The scientists said the 2010 Chile quake had a greater effect on the Earth’s axis than the 2004 temblor because it occurred in the planet’s mid-latitudes. By contrast, the Sumatran quake was near the equator.

Researchers have said that all earthquakes affect the Earth’s axis. Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said “Any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth’s rotation, from seasonal weather down to driving a car.”

This story was originally written for the Natural Disasters Examiner on Examiner.com.  For complete coverage of all natural disasters from earthquakes and tsunamis to tornadoes and hurricanes, please visit the Natural Disasters Examiner.

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Natural Disasters

Widespread devastation in Chile as rescuers struggle to reach earthquake survivors

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A crushed car in a parking garage in Concepcion Chile following the earthquake early Saturday morning Feb. 27, 2010. (TVN)
A crushed car in a parking garage in Concepcion Chile following the earthquake early Saturday morning Feb. 27, 2010. (TVN)

Buildings lie in heaps of rubble, highway overpasses collapsed and large crevices opened in the earth following a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile yesterday. Aftershocks continue to rock the nation while rescuers try to reach an untold number lying buried in the remnants of towns and cities.

Yesterday’s earthquake struck the nation early in the morning hours when most residents were still sleeping. The temblor’s 8.8 magnitude rating demonstrates the power of the quake and put the event in a tie for the fifth most powerful earthquake since 1900.

Tsunami warnings were issued immediately following the quake for thousands of miles of coastline surrounding the Pacific Ocean. From California and Alaska to Hawaii and Japan, officials worried about a devastating wave that could have been generated by the quake.

While the effects of the wave were easily seen and felt in those locations far from the quake’s epicenter, damage was minimal. Thousands of evacuees have been allowed to return and all warnings have been cancelled.

Near the epicenter, Chile is under a ‘state of catastrophe’ and officials work to direct recovery efforts. Outgoing President Michelle Bachelet said, “It was a catastrophe of devastating consequences.”

Officially the death toll from the quake stands at 214 however officials warn that number will almost certainly grow. 500,000 homes were damaged by the quake and 1.5 million residents have been affected.

Concepcion, the largest city closest to the epicenter, saw widespread destruction and the greatest count of fatalities thus far. Buildings across the city were collapsed into ruin and rescuers were working to comb the rubble for survivors.

The nation’s capital, 200 miles from the epicenter, was not spared. Elevated highways collapsed and apartment buildings were reduced to piles of brick and mortar.

Rescuers were struggling to reach possible survivors as they run low on supplies and gasoline. Adding to the difficulty are ongoing aftershocks that threaten to bring down already weakened structures. More than 80 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 have occurred since the main quake struck at 3:34am Saturday.

Officials with the U.S. Geological Survey said yesterday’s quake was several hundred times more powerful than the magnitude 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti last month. Chile however is in an earthquake-prone region and newer buildings have been built to withstand quakes.

The service also said that the Chile quake was centered 21.7 miles beneath the earth’s surface, considerably deeper than the 8.1 mile depth of the Haiti quake. Its magnitude 8.8 rating puts it in a tie as the fifth largest earthquake to strike the globe since 1900.

The largest earthquake on record occurred on May 22, 1960 in the same area as yesterday’s quake. That event was a magnitude 9.5 temblor that killed 1,655 people, many from a tsunami that claimed lives as far away as Hawaii and Japan.

There's more to this story on Examiner.com!This story was written for the Natural Disasters Examiner on Examiner.com.  For all the latest with the Chile earthquake and other natural disasters, please visit the Natural Disasters Examiner.

Natural Disasters

National Weather Service modifies hurricane scale

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Hurricane Ike bears down onto the upper Texas coastline with category 2 wind speed of 110 mph, September, 2008. (NOAA)
Hurricane Ike bears down onto the upper Texas coastline with category 2 wind speed of 110 mph, September, 2008. (NOAA)

Beginning this hurricane season, NOAA’s National Weather Service will use a revamped hurricane rating system that does away with storm surge effects of each category. The new scale, called the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale will use wind as its only determining factor.

Herbert Saffir and Robert Simpson developed the original Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale as a way to communicate the threat of hurricanes based on their power and released it to the public in 1973. In addition to wind, the scale used storm surge as a factor when determining a storm’s category rating.

Since then, scientists have realized that the amount of storm surge generated by a hurricane can vary greatly, well outside the wind guidelines of the original scale. According to NOAA, the storm intensity, size, pressure and the underwater topography near where a hurricane is going to make landfall make a large difference.

In announcing the new scale, NOAA pointed two recent storms to convey the problem with the old scale. Hurricane Ike made landfall along the Texas coast in 2008. While only a Category 2 storm, it produced storm surge of 15 to 20 feet. By contrast, Hurricane Charley in 2004 was a Category 4 storm that struck Florida but only generated a 6 to 7 foot storm surge.

Storm surge is extremely dangerous and flooding resulting from it and the tremendous rains generated by hurricanes claim more lives than wind. As such, storm surge forecasts will continue however they will be independent of the hurricane ratings. Beginning this year, when discussing surge, it will be expressed in height above ground level to help residents understand the potential for flooding in their area.

The revamped scale also was accompanied by new descriptions of wind impact while retaining the same wind speeds that were previously used.

There's more to this story on Examiner.com!To view the new scale, a summary of what each of the categories means and examples of each, please visit the Natural Disasters Examiner.

National Weather

Amazing winter allows 49 states to record snow on the ground

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More than two thirds of the United States recorded snow no the ground on Friday. (National Weather Service)
More than two thirds of the United States recorded snow no the ground on Friday. (National Weather Service)

It seems so improbable that no one was sure whether or not it has happened before but there was snow on the ground in 49 of the 50 states on Friday. The unlikely event was possible thanks to snow that hit unusual places like Texas and Florida.

According to the National Weather Service, 67.1 percent of the United States’ total land area was covered by snow yesterday. That far exceeds the 40 to 50 percent normally seen this time of year.

Dallas, Texas recorded an improbable 12.5 inches of snow breaking records for the date and pushing the city to its second snowiest winter on record and its snowiest in 32 years. Not to be left out, snow was on the ground in Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia and even the Florida Panhandle.

Residents in some places in the United States are wishing things weren’t nearly as snowy. The Mid-Atlantic region has experienced record setting snowfalls this year.

Baltimore, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Wilmington and Atlantic City have all set new records for seasonal snowfall. Many of those cities have experienced more snow than their counterparts in the Rocky Mountain region.

So what was the one state that held out without snow? Hawaii. This is actually unusual as the Mauna Kea volcano peaks at 13,800 feet and often times has snow on it. Research meteorologist Tiziana Cherubini at the Mauna Kea Weather Center told the Associated Press the mountain had been without snow for a few weeks and none is in the forecast.

Officials at Rutgers University’s Global Snow Lab and with the National Weather Service are trying to determine if all 50 states have recorded snow on the ground at the same time. They have verified that 49 states have previously on January 19, 1977 when South Carolina was the lone holdout.

National Weather Service meteorologists attribute the snowy conditions to a moderate El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean and the Arctic Oscillation. In El Nino seasons, moisture streams across the south. The Arctic Oscillation brings colder air from the north dropping temperature and allowing any precipitation that might fall to turn to snow.

There's more to this story on Examiner.com!For a complete look at the crazy winter weather across the nation, be sure to visit the Natural Disasters Examiner.

National Weather

It’s finally over – Mid-Atlantic digs out from record-setting snowstorms

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The history making snowstorm that pushed many East Coast cities’ snow totals into the record books has moved out. Now residents begin the monumental task of digging out from snow depths the likes of which have never been seen.

Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Baltimore were just some of the major cities on the east coast to be struck by what some have called ‘Snowmageddon.’ Last week a major winter storm dumped over two feet of snow on major cities in the Mid-Atlantic. Residents had just finished digging out from that event when Mother Nature delivered another wallop Tuesday and Wednesday.

Separately, the two storms in the past week and a previous one in December ranked each in many cities’ ‘top 10’ snow events. Collectively, the storms have dumped more snow than the region has ever seen in a single season.

How much snow fell?  Check out the astounding snowfall totals at the Natural Disasters Examiner.

National Weather

From the Rockies to the Atlantic, cold weather grips the nation

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Calling the recent weather that has gripped the eastern two thirds of the nation a ‘cold spell’ does not do it justice. From the eastern side of the Rockies to Florida and north to New England, much of the nation has seen extraordinarily cold weather in recent days that will continue through the weekend.

To the west, Denver will begin to warm up finally this weekend but that comes in the wake of Arctic cold that saw the Mile High City see high temperatures in the teens on Thursday and a low temperature down to -16. Just a bit further east on the plains, Kansas and Nebraska were similarly cold and were forced to cope with snow and ice that turned roadways treacherous.

In the Midwest, the cold weather had tragic results. On Thursday, an icy highway caused a tractor trailer to lose control and swerve into oncoming traffic impacting a bus transporting disabled adults. Three passengers and the bus driver were killed, six other passengers were injured as was the truck driver.

The nation’s railway system was impacted as Amtrak was forced to cut its daily train between Chicago and Denver on Friday because it could not make it through snow drifts in Nebraska. Passengers on the train Thursday arrived in Denver a day late after having been stuck on the plains for 23 hours. The California Zephyr from California to Chicago finally arrived Friday after being delayed 18 hours.

The southern part of the nation found itself gripped in the cold and unprepared to deal with it. Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and even Florida saw temperatures dipping into record setting territory. Shelters in the states were packed with the homeless seeking someplace warm to spend the nights.

There's more to this story on Examiner.com!For more on this story and to view some of the amazing photos from the winter weather, visit the Natural Disasters Examiner.

Climatology, National Weather, Natural Disasters

Deadly cold envelops Northern Hemisphere from U.S. to China

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Severe cold weather has enveloped the northern half of the globe from the United States to Britain to China. Across the continents, many places are reporting record setting temperatures and lives have been lost due to the Arctic chill.

The eastern half of the United States saw cold, Arctic air pulled down from the north plunging temperatures below freezing in normally mild places as far south as Florida. The widespread cold gripped most of the nation east of the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Seaboard.

Across the Midwest, temperatures plunged to well below freezing as parts of Iowa recorded temperatures as low as -15 degrees. Jeff Johnson, National Weather Service meteorologist, told the Des Moines Register, “”We’re a solid 30 degrees below normal.” Minneapolis, Minnesota and Chicago, Illinois were seeing wind chills below 0 degrees Tuesday morning.

In Miami, residents accustomed to short sleeve shirts and shorts bundled up as temperatures dropped to freezing. Further north in the state, Orlando saw a low temperature of 21 degrees.

The National Weather Service issued hard freeze warnings across parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida as the cold threatened the agriculture industry in those states. Freeze watches in Tennessee highlighted the severe cold and came on the heels of reports that four people have died in that state from the cold.

There's more to this story on Examiner.com!The United States is not alone as the cold has turned deadly across the globe.  Get all the details and see some amazing photos at the Natural Disasters Examiner.

Climate Change, National Weather

Deaths and cost from natural disasters down significantly in 2009

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A distinct lack of major natural catastrophes resulted in lower costs and less of a loss of life in 2009. German reinsurer Munich Re AG said in its annual disaster report that approximately 10,000 people lost their lives and $50 billion in losses was realized during the year.  The company warned however that manmade climate change will soon reverse those numbers.

In terms of lives lost, with approximately 10,000 people killed during 2009, the year fell far short of the average of 75,000. This was also significantly less than in 2008 when 220,000 were killed by natural disasters. That year saw two major catastrophes – Cyclone Nargis and an earthquake in China’s Sichuan province – case the vast majority of lives lost.

The insurer’s numbers match closely with a report released last month by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) which put the annual death toll at 8,919. The most significant events in 2009 were an earthquake in Indonesia in September which killed 1,117, flooding in India in July that killed 992 and a series of typhoons and tropical storms that struck the Philippines.

Economic losses were also below the decadal average of $115 billion per year. 2009’s reported losses fall at less than half of that and far below the $200 billion mark that was seen in 2008. Munich Re said, “Losses were far lower in 2009 than in 2008 due to the absence on the whole of major catastrophes and a very benign North Atlantic hurricane season.”

There's more to this story on Examiner.com!For the rest of this story and to see how climate change could cause greater impact from natural disasters, please visit the Natural Disasters Examiner.

National Weather

White Christmas brings joy and misery

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Two thirds of the contiguous United States had a white Christmas. (NOAA)
Two thirds of the contiguous United States had a white Christmas. (NOAA)

Christmas 2009 may have granted some people’s wishes for a white Christmas but for millions it equated to misery. A series of snowstorms blanketed two thirds of the nation in snow and snarled holiday plans for many.

From Texas to North Dakota and Nevada to Minnesota the breadth of the storms was tremendous. Holiday travelers were forced to spend their Christmas in airports and shelters while those already at home devoted their holiday to digging out from the heavy snowfall.

Dallas, Texas experienced its first white Christmas in 80 years. The three inches of snow that fell Christmas Eve was a record for the date and lasted long enough for residents to wake up to a cover of white early Christmas morning.

Oklahoma bore a big hit from the storms as 14 inches of snow was recorded in Oklahoma City on Christmas Eve, easily eclipsing the previous record for the date of 2.5 inches. Blizzard conditions forced Governor Brad Henry to order every interstate and highway in the state closed Christmas Eve due to the dangerous conditions. Will Rogers World Airport shut down for a period and was finally able to clear one runway Christmas Day.

There's more to this story on the Denver Weather Examiner's site!For a complete look at the havoc wreaked by the snowstorms and some of the photos from across the nation, please view the complete story at the Natural Disasters Examiner.