Floods (33)

Earth Watch Report – Sunday August 26th, 2012

Extreme Temperatures/ Weather

Bosnia on red alert during hottest summer on record

by Staff Writers
Sarajevo (AFP)

Bosnian authorities put the entire country on red alert Thursday against a heatwave that has seen the Balkan nation bake in its hottest summer on record, the national weather institute said.

Meteorologist Dzenan Zulum said the months of June, July and August had been the hottest since measurements were first recorded 120 years ago.

In some places, the mercury has soared to 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 Fahrenheit) and temperatures in the capital Sarajevo have in recent days been about seven degrees Celsius warmer than normal.

“We predict a similar temperature for the next two or three days followed by a slight cooling from Sunday,” Zulum said.

Farmers say between 50-80 percent of their crops have been damaged in the heatwave, and water distribution to several towns has been disrupted.

Bosnia is also battling dozens of forest fires in the south and east of the country, with many hundreds of hectares (acres) of land burned.

Related Links
Weather News at TerraDaily.com

 

 

 

25.08.2012 Forest / Wild Fire Greece Region of Attica, [Near to Afidnes] Damage level Details

 

 

Forest / Wild Fire in Greece on Saturday, 25 August, 2012 at 13:08 (01:08 PM) UTC.

Description
Firefighters on Saturday managed to partially control a large forest fire that broke out on the northeastern outskirts of Athens, officials said. “I believe we are going well,” Pavlos Papageorgiou, a senior fire department officer, told state television NET. “The only front is in a ravine near the town of Afidnes, we are moving forces from other areas where the fire is under control,” he said. The fire broke out before dawn near Afidnes, clouding the skies over the capital’s northern suburbs with smoke and ash. It had earlier threatened an army camp and an industrial park in the vicinity. NET said a number of homes and vehicles had been burnt in the community of Drosopigi and that local residents had heard explosions before the fire broke out, suggesting that arson was involved. Traffic police briefly diverted traffic on the national highway leading north of Athens as a precaution. The same area had also been ravaged by fires in 2009. Greece suffers from a large number of summer fires usually aided by high temperatures and strong winds and are often attributed to arson. The Athens national observatory this week said the months of June and July were among the hottest on record. The worst disaster this season occurred on the Aegean island of Chios where scores of mastic orchards were destroyed by a fire burning for a week.

 

 

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Storms / Flooding

 

 

 

 Active tropical storm system(s)
Name of storm system Location Formed Last update Last category Course Wind Speed Gust Wave Source Details
Tembin (15W) Pacific Ocean 19.08.2012 26.08.2012 Typhoon III 155 ° 157 km/h 194 km/h 4.27 m JTWC Details

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tropical Storm data

Share:
Storm name: Tembin (15W)
Area: Pacific Ocean
Start up location: N 17° 42.000, E 124° 36.000
Start up: 19th August 2012
Status: Active
Track long: 551.01 km
Top category.:
Report by: JTWC
Useful links:
Past track
Date Time Position Speed
km/h
Wind
km/h
Gust
km/h
Category Course Wave Pressure Source
19th Aug 2012 05:28:29 N 17° 42.000, E 124° 36.000 9 56 74 Tropical Depression 190 11 JTWC
20th Aug 2012 05:16:05 N 18° 0.000, E 124° 48.000 6 139 167 Typhoon I. 360 9 JTWC
21st Aug 2012 04:48:23 N 20° 12.000, E 125° 18.000 13 213 259 Typhoon IV. 360 15 JTWC
23rd Aug 2012 04:49:56 N 22° 30.000, E 123° 36.000 4 204 232 Typhoon III. 270 9 JTWC
24th Aug 2012 05:23:44 N 22° 6.000, E 120° 30.000 19 185 232 Typhoon III. 245 19 JTWC
25th Aug 2012 05:19:01 N 22° 24.000, E 118° 6.000 13 139 167 Typhoon I. 260 17 JTWC
Current position
Date Time Position Speed
km/h
Wind
km/h
Gust
km/h
Category Course Wave
feet
Pressure Source
26th Aug 2012 05:24:20 N 21° 0.000, E 116° 54.000 7 157 194 Typhoon III 155 ° 14 JTWC
Forecast track
Date Time Position Category Wind
km/h
Gust
km/h
Source
27th Aug 2012 12:00:00 N 21° 24.000, E 119° 42.000 Typhoon IV 176 213 JTWC
27th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 20° 36.000, E 118° 24.000 Typhoon IV 185 232 JTWC
28th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 22° 48.000, E 120° 54.000 Typhoon II 130 157 JTWC
29th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 26° 36.000, E 122° 18.000 Typhoon I 102 130 JTWC
30th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 30° 18.000, E 121° 36.000 Tropical Depression 83 102 JTWC
31st Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 34° 12.000, E 120° 0.000 Tropical Depression 65 83 JTWC

 

 

 

Bolaven (16W) Pacific Ocean 20.08.2012 26.08.2012 SuperTyphoon 315 ° 213 km/h 259 km/h 5.79 m JTWC Details

 

 

 

Tropical Storm data

Share:
Storm name: Bolaven (16W)
Area: Pacific Ocean
Start up location: N 17° 18.000, E 141° 30.000
Start up: 20th August 2012
Status: Active
Track long: 947.93 km
Top category.:
Report by: JTWC
Useful links:
Past track
Date Time Position Speed
km/h
Wind
km/h
Gust
km/h
Category Course Wave Pressure Source
20th Aug 2012 05:13:46 N 17° 18.000, E 141° 30.000 13 56 74 Tropical Depression 330 12 JTWC
21st Aug 2012 04:47:46 N 18° 12.000, E 140° 30.000 9 93 120 Tropical Storm 295 10 JTWC
23rd Aug 2012 04:49:02 N 19° 42.000, E 135° 36.000 9 167 204 Typhoon II. 280 10 JTWC
24th Aug 2012 05:22:54 N 21° 0.000, E 133° 36.000 11 194 241 Typhoon III. 325 16 JTWC
25th Aug 2012 05:16:28 N 23° 30.000, E 132° 6.000 15 232 278 Typhoon IV. 325 18 JTWC
Current position
Date Time Position Speed
km/h
Wind
km/h
Gust
km/h
Category Course Wave
feet
Pressure Source
26th Aug 2012 05:21:23 N 25° 18.000, E 129° 30.000 17 213 259 SuperTyphoon 315 ° 19 JTWC
Forecast track
Date Time Position Category Wind
km/h
Gust
km/h
Source
27th Aug 2012 12:00:00 N 32° 12.000, E 125° 18.000 Typhoon IV 185 232 JTWC
27th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 29° 0.000, E 126° 36.000 Typhoon IV 194 241 JTWC
28th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 36° 6.000, E 125° 0.000 Typhoon III 157 194 JTWC
29th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 43° 42.000, E 128° 6.000 Tropical Depression 65 83 JTWC
30th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 50° 30.000, E 136° 18.000 Tropical Depression 56 74 JTWC

 

 

 

Isaac (AL09) Atlantic Ocean 21.08.2012 26.08.2012 Tropical Depression 305 ° 93 km/h 111 km/h 5.79 m NOAA NHC Details

 

 

 

 Tropical Storm data

Share:
Storm name: Isaac (AL09)
Area: Atlantic Ocean
Start up location: N 15° 12.000, W 51° 12.000
Start up: 21st August 2012
Status: Active
Track long: 1,763.96 km
Top category.:
Report by: NOAA NHC
Useful links:
Past track
Date Time Position Speed
km/h
Wind
km/h
Gust
km/h
Category Course Wave Pressure Source
22nd Aug 2012 04:54:04 N 15° 36.000, W 55° 36.000 30 65 83 Tropical Storm 275 16 1006 MB NOAA NHC
23rd Aug 2012 05:06:43 N 15° 48.000, W 63° 0.000 31 74 93 Tropical Storm 270 22 1003 MB NOAA NHC
24th Aug 2012 05:17:31 N 16° 42.000, W 68° 42.000 28 74 93 Tropical Storm 290 19 1001 MB NOAA NHC
25th Aug 2012 05:21:33 N 17° 42.000, W 72° 30.000 22 111 139 Tropical Storm 310 15 990 MB NOAA NHC
Current position
Date Time Position Speed
km/h
Wind
km/h
Gust
km/h
Category Course Wave
feet
Pressure Source
26th Aug 2012 06:01:20 N 22° 6.000, W 77° 12.000 28 93 111 Tropical Depression 305 ° 19 997 MB NOAA NHC
Forecast track
Date Time Position Category Wind
km/h
Gust
km/h
Source
27th Aug 2012 12:00:00 N 25° 48.000, W 83° 42.000 Hurricane II 139 167 NOAA NHC
27th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 24° 36.000, W 81° 48.000 Hurricane I 120 148 NOAA NHC
28th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 27° 12.000, W 85° 12.000 Hurricane III 157 194 NOAA NHC
29th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 29° 30.000, W 86° 30.000 Hurricane III 167 204 NOAA NHC
30th Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 31° 30.000, W 86° 30.000 Tropical Depression 93 111 NOAA NHC
31st Aug 2012 00:00:00 N 34° 0.000, W 86° 0.000 Tropical Depression 46 65 NOAA NHC

 

 

 

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Heavy rain, floods kill 26 in Pakistan: officials

by Staff Writers
Muzaffarabad, Pakistan (AFP)

Flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rain have killed at least 26 people and destroyed hundreds of houses in northern Pakistan, officials said on Thursday.

Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, the prime minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir said at least 17 people have been killed and nine others injured in six districts since Monday.

“Some 685 houses and 125 shops have been damaged and roads washed away,” Majeed said, adding that a request has been made to the federal government for financial help.

Irshad Bhatti, a spokesman for the country’s National Disaster Management Authority, said the extent of the damage was still being assessed.

The majority of the deaths in Kashmir came when buildings collapsed due to the rains, and a further nine people died in flooding in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, officials said.

Adnan Khan, an official from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said he feared the death toll there could rise.

“Dozens of families have suffered and their houses were destroyed, several people are still missing” Khan told AFP.

Weather officials are predicting heavy rain in the next three days and rescue teams are closely monitoring the situation, Bhatti said.

Floods in Pakistan in the summer of 2011 affected 5.8 million people, with floodwaters killing livestock, destroying crops, homes and infrastructure as the nation struggled to recover from record inundations the previous year.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

 

 

 

 

Tropical Storm Isaac hugs Cuba coast, expected to be Cat 2 hurricane in Gulf

Florida’s governor declares a state of emergency as residents and tourists flee Key West. Storm preparations are under way all along the Gulf Coast. NBC’s Thanh Truong reports.

By NBC News and wire services

Updated at 6 p.m. ET: Tropical Storm Isaac was hugging the northern coastline of eastern Cuba on Saturday after claiming at least four lives in Haiti. Isaac should become a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday just as it nears the Florida Keys, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said, and then grow into an even stronger Category 2 storm with 100 mph winds.

Isaac “could be significantly stronger than currently forecast” once it enters the Gulf of Mexico, the center said in an advisory.

It will first sweep past southwest Florida and the Florida Keys, where “hurricane conditions are expected … Sunday,” it said in a separate update.

Isaac is a massive storm, with tropical storm-force winds extending 230 miles from the center. Key West International Airport was halting all flights at 7 p.m. Saturday until the storm had passed.

Tropical Storm Isaac is picking up steam as it barrels through the Caribbean. The Weather Channel’s Mike Seidel reports on the storm’s effects.

In Haiti, a woman and a child in the town of Souvenance were killed in the storm, a local official reported. A woman in the southern coastal city of Jacmel was crushed to death when a tree fell on her house, government officials said.

In the capital Port-au-Prince – where some 350,000 people are still living in tents or shelters after the 2010 Haiti earthquake – a girl, 10, was killed when a wall fell on her.

Power outages and flooding were reported as Isaac moved across the hilly and severely deforested Caribbean country.

“There’s a lot of rain, a lot of wind,” said Magdala Jean-Baptiste, who huddled with her frightened children in their home in the southern coastal city of Jacmel. “We haven’t had any power since the storm started yesterday. We passed the night with no sleep.”

Tropical Storm Isaac lashes the island of Hispaniola, killing at least three people in Haiti, where thousands still live in tents after an earthquake over two years ago. NBC’s Mark Potter reports.

In neighboring Dominican Republic, Isaac felled power and phone lines and left at least a dozen towns cut off by flood waters. The most severe damage was reported along the south coast, including the capital Santo Domingo, where more than half the city was without power.

Cuba prepared by closing beaches and evacuating tourists in vulnerable areas, NBC’s Mary Murray and The Weather Channel’s Mike Seidel reported from Havana. Flights across Cuba were also suspended.

In Baracoa, a city on Cuba’s eastern side, high seas began topping the seawall Friday night, Radio Baracoa reported.

Now with 60-mph winds, Isaac should exit Cuba on Sunday and then move south of the Florida Keys and into the Gulf.

Dieu Nalio Chery / AP

Residents wade through a flooded street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Saturday.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Saturday declared a state of emergency to make sure local and state agencies would be ready. Republicans effectively canceled the first day of their national convention in Tampa, on Florida’s central Gulf Coast, deciding to gavel it open on Monday, then immediately recess to some time on Tuesday.

Gulf of Mexico operators began shutting down offshore oil and gas rigs on Friday ahead of the storm.

Follow Isaac’s path with our storm tracker
Live updates and analysis from weather.com

Tampa’s weather forecast includes rain and high winds Sunday night and into Monday, The Weather Channel reported. The winds could gust up to 60 mph.

The Weather Channel’s Bryan Norcross tracks Tropical Storm Isaac’s movement and predictions about where it is headed.

Monday and Tuesday include a risk of tornadoes across south Florida.

Officials were handing out sandbags to residents in the Tampa area, which often floods when heavy rainstorms hit. Sandbags also were being handed out in Homestead, 20 years after Hurricane Andrew devastated the community there. Otherwise, however, convention preparations were moving ahead as usual.

Isaac’s exact path is still unclear, but the hurricane center said models suggest it will make landfall somewhere between the Florida Panhandle and New Orleans on Tuesday night.

The storm’s anticipated path did shift closer to the Keys than previously forecast and emergency managers urged tourists to leave the islands if they could do so safely. A single road links the chain of islands to the Florida Peninsula.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Walter Michot / AP

Tropical Storm Isaac rakes the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba as it makes its way toward Florida, where Tampa will be hosting the Republican National Convention.

Launch slideshow

 

 

 

Have Swedish Forests Recovered from the Storm Gudrun?

 

ScienceDaily

 

 

File:Korpimäcki.JPG

 

In January 2005, the storm Gudrun hit Sweden. It has been estimated to have caused an overall economic damage of 2.4 billion euros in Swedish forestry alone. But has there been more damage to the forest than was clearly visible? A recently published study by Seidl and Blennow shows that Gudrun caused not only immediate damage corresponding to 110% of the average annual harvest in Sweden from only 16% of the country’s forest area but also pervasive effects in terms of growth reduction.


In recent decades, the frequency and severity of natural disturbances by e.g., strong winds and insect outbreaks has increased considerably in many forest ecosystems around the world. Future climate change is expected to further intensify disturbance regimes, which makes addressing disturbances in ecosystem management a top priority. As a prerequisite a broader understanding of disturbance impacts and ecosystem responses is needed. With regard to the effects of strong winds — the most detrimental disturbance agent in central and northern Europe — monitoring and management has focused on structural damage, i.e., tree mortality from uprooting and stem breakage. Effects on the functioning of trees surviving the storm (e.g., their productivity and allocation) have been rarely accounted for to date.

Seidl and Blennow show that growth reduction following the storm was significant and pervasive in a 6.79 million hectare forest landscape. Wind-related growth reduction in Norway spruce forests surviving the storm exceeded 10% in the worst hit regions. At the landscape scale, wind-related growth reduction amounted to 3.0 million m3 in the three years following Gudrun. It thus exceeds the annual long-term average storm damage from uprooting and stem breakage in Sweden and is in the same order of magnitude as the volume damaged by spruce bark beetles after Gudrun.

Seidl and Blennow conclude that the impact of strong winds on forest ecosystems is not limited to the immediately visible area of structural damage, and call for a broader consideration of disturbance effects on ecosystem structure and functioning in the context of forest management and climate change mitigation.

 

 

 

Today Tropical Storm Japan Island of Okinawa, [Okinawa-wide] Damage level Details

 

 

Tropical Storm in Japan on Sunday, 26 August, 2012 at 04:38 (04:38 AM) UTC.

Description
An unusually powerful typhoon packing 250-kilometre per hour gusts is approaching the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. Okinawa weather officials projected that Typhoon Bolaven would be the strongest typhoon to hit the island in several years. The Japan Meteorological Agency said the typhoon was centered about 200 kilometres southeast of Okinawa and was expected to pass directly over the island by this evening, dumping as much as 500 millimetres of rain over a 24-hour period. Public broadcaster NHK warned that the storm’s strong winds could produce heavy damage and told residents to stay indoors and away from windows.

 

 

 

Today Flash Flood China Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, [Helan Mountain] Damage level Details

 

 

 

Flash Flood in China on Sunday, 26 August, 2012 at 03:47 (03:47 AM) UTC.

Description
Six tourists died and more than 30 were evacuated after a flash flood that soaked a mountain ravine in Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui autonomous region Saturday, local authorities said. The flash flood, triggered by torrential rains in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, hit the Leek Ravine in the Helan Mountain that borders Inner Mongolia’s Alxa League and Shizuishan city of Ningxia at 12 pm, Ningxia’s regional drought relief and flood control headquarters said in a statement. Nine tourists were washed away while playing near a waterfall in the ravine. Six of them were found dead by rescuers and the other three were hospitalized with injuries, it said. At least 30 other tourists were evacuated to the city proper for safety considerations, said Xu Dongtao, an officer with Ningxia’s fire prevention headquarters who led the rescue operation. More than 100 officers and fire fighters joined the search and rescue. The city government of Shizuishan warned citizens Saturday of more mountain torrents and landslides in the Helan Mountain this flood season

 

 

 

25.08.2012 Flash Flood USA State of North Carolina, Roanoke Rapids Damage level Details

 

 

Flash Flood in USA on Saturday, 25 August, 2012 at 14:34 (02:34 PM) UTC.

Description
At least 15 roads in the Roanoke Rapids area became impassable Saturday morning after flash floods swept through the city following at least one hour of heavy rainfall, according to a Halifax County official. Authorities are asking all residents to stay in their homes and, if they have to drive, to never attempt to pass through any high water. A flash flood warning remains in effect for Halifax County until noon. One shelter is open in the city, at the T.J. Davis Recreation Center, 600 E. 6th St., authorities said. No injuries have been reported, said Roanoke Rapids Police Chief Jeff Hinton. He estimated that some streets are covered with up to 4 feet of water. Flooded roads were also reported in Northampton County. Rain, along with warn temperatures and partly cloudy skies, are on tap throughout central North Carolina for the weekend. The rainfall started Friday night in many areas, including Wake County. Temperatures will climb to the upper 70s on Saturday and the mid-80s on Sunday. Monday’s high temperature could reach the low 90s. Tropical Storm Isaac could end up having an impact on North Carolina later this week. As of 8 p.m. Friday, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph and was expected to make landfall on Haiti late Friday and could lose some of its intensity over the weekend, as it moves over mountainous terrain. “It may get ripped apart so much that by the time it makes its way into the Gulf of Mexico, it may have a difficult time to reorganize,” WRAL meteorologist Mike Maze said. The storm, however, is expected to strengthen again in the Gulf to a Category 1 hurricane, and if it does, that could mean rain for the Triangle.

 

Read more…

14 DAYS OF GLOBAL CATACLYSM AUGUST 2012

Published on Aug 16, 2012 by fidockave213

Note this video does not imply the world is going to end in 2012......
EXTREME WEATHER and EARTHCHANGES......EARTHQUAKES SINKHOLES FLOODS DROUGHT SNOW ANIMAL KILLS ETC
14 DAYS OF GLOBAL CATACLYSM AUGUST 2012

credit - Glacier footage - https://www.youtube.com/user/Barbecueengineer

 

 

 

 

The  latter  half  of  August

Fireballs impacting the ground

Honduras Investigates Alleged Meteorite Crash

Large meteorites found after fireball lands in Manitoba, Canada

Meteorite starts fire in Itatiba, Brazil following separate Fireball incident in neighbouring Campinas days earlier

Meteorite hits moving car in Sioux City

More strange sky sounds

More strange sky sounds, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Strange Sounds Over Suffern, New York

Strange Sounds in Germany

Multiple tornadoes/waterspouts

Nine waterspouts spotted on Lake Michigan

Multiple waterspouts touch down in Black Sea, near Foros, Ukraine

Multiple waterspouts touch down off Polish coast

Unusual lightning strikes

Lightning kills two brothers in Russia's Kursk region

3 Lightning strike survivors on Mt Whitney, CA: 'We thought we were on fire'

Lightning injures 10 New Jersey soldiers at New York's Ft. Drum

Lightning-sparked huge fire burns to edge of 3 small California towns

Authorities ID Wisconsin boy killed in lightning strike

Increase in Lightning Observed Across Japan... What the Hell Is That?!

Five seriously injured in French lightning strike

Lightning Strike Kills Wisconsin Boy, 9, and Injures Seven Others on Sailboat

Read more…

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-14/australians-set-for-summer-of-rain-pain/3660966

Australians to suffer summer of rain pain

Updated November 14, 2011 00:50:53

With La Nina back for another summer and above average rainfall predicted for much of Australia, the weather is about to become more of a pain than people realise.

The notion of rain pain is often dismissed as a myth, but experts say there is now enough evidence to suggest it exists.

What's more, they say sufferers of conditions like arthritis and chronic pain can actually use their level of discomfort to tell when the weather is about to change.

La Nina was responsible for the Brisbane floods and Cyclone Yasi, and the Bureau of Meteorology says Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria in particular should brace for another wet summer.

Dr Graeme Jones, professor of rheumatology and epidemiology at the Menzies Research Institute, says the days of mythical rain pain are long gone.

He says arthritis sufferers' pain levels are without a doubt affected by the weather.

"There are three things in the weather that have an effect," he said.

"The higher the ambient temperature the better the symptoms are; the higher the humidity or dew point the worse the symptoms are; and changes in the barometric pressure, so when a cold front is coming through and when the pressure drops, people tend to ache in their joints before that."

He says their ability to predict the weather is not as farfetched as it sounds.

"My patients have been telling me they can predict the weather for 20 years, and most people were fairly disbelieving, when in fact the studies on the relationship between weather changes and pain are pretty consistent," he said.

"On an anecdotal level, last summer in Tasmania people's joints were much worse because we had a fairly wet winter and wet summer with lots of changes in the weather, whereas generally our summer is very dry."

Psychological factors

Conjoint Professor Nikolai Bogduk from the University of Newcastle, who specialises in spinal pain, is a little less convinced.

He says psychological factors may play a part.

"There is a theory, unproven, that when the barometric pressure drops the ambient pressure is lower and so joints expand, so if you have a painful knee it swells, and that's what makes it more painful," he said.

"That may or may not be true, but it is important for people to be alert to possible intermediate affects.

"Among them is the general affect of weather on people's mood. A patient without pain is going to feel more miserable when the whether is miserable, so a patient that is going to be affected psychologically may well be giving you an amplified measure of their pain on that particular day," he said.

"There may actually be no difference to the pain, but because they feel worse, they will report their pain as being worse."

In terms of pain sufferers' ability to predict the weather, Conjoint Professor Bogduk says a change in blood flow may be the explanation.

"The ability to predict the weather may be related to a number of things, maybe not exactly the joints swelling, but if the ambient pressure is dropping maybe things like veins and the venous drainage out of the joint or out of the bone changes, so there might be changes in blood flow that are occurring," he said.

No escape

Dr Jones jokes that it is difficult for people to avoid weather-inflicted pain in Australia.

"If you got sick of changes in the weather in Tasmania then you could move to Queensland where the high temperature will help your symptoms, but the high humidity won't," he said.

"So then you could move to Canberra, but the fog during winter could make you depressed and then that would make your pain worse."

ABC News Online asked people on Twitter what they thought.

"I have fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis and I can say without doubt that rain does affect my pain," Wendy Fisher from Perth said.

"I have had chronic neck pain for six years. Yes, weather affects pain levels," Barry Steele from Sydney said.

"If it's been dry for a while I can feel big rain coming a week before the rain starts," Matthew Ross from the New South Wales central cost said.

"I have very accurate magic rain-detecting body parts. Some old injuries, some fibromyalgia," said Steph Bateman-Graham from Perth.

Others, however, were still sceptical.

"Rain pain?? - I've never heard of that particular term! Is it an ailment that actually exists? Sounds over the top to me!," Karen Hempel from Albury, in New South Wales, said.

Topics: painrainfallaustralia

 

Read more…

 

 

The Current Giant floods were predicted. This 'big budget TV Production' video is a mock-up of the evening news, from 2050.

 

Doug Copp, in this Award Winning BBC Special, is featured, along with 3 of the world's leading scientists, explaining your present and YOUR FUTURE.................. with these 'soon to be' normal events.

 

Understand why these events are happening and how your life is going to be impacted today, tomorrow and for the next 40 years. Get used to destructive weather. This is a high production but very scary movie.

 

  It alerts our world in a way like George Orwell's Book :1984'.

 

The setting is the  2050 Evening TV NEWS special/ documentary explaining what happened in the world from 2000 to 2050. This BBC program was the 'biggest budget special' when it was produced. In spite of money invested, Political Pressure 'squashed the program' for fear of people rioting for reform.

The Video still contains the original 'black-out sections-to insert Commercials. You will need to speed ahead or wait for the period to end. The entire video is 53 minutes long.

Watch the video at Doug Copp's Youtube Channels amerrescue and amerrescuegmail 


 

Read more…

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/21/3118234.htm

 

By Abbie Thomas for ABC Science Online

Updated Fri Jan 21, 2011 1:54pm AEDT

PreviousNextSlideshow: Photo 1 of 2

Silt flowing from the Fitzroy River into Keppel Bay, east of Rockhampton

Silt flowing from the Fitzroy River into Keppel Bay, east of Rockhampton (NASA: NASA)

Researchers say the recent Queensland floods are carrying tonnes of fresh water, nutrients and pesticides to the ocean, placing enormous stress on the Great Barrier Reef.

For the past five weeks, plumes of silt-laden fresh water have been flowing onto reefs off the Queensland coast.

The impact is so massive it can be seen in NASA satellite photographs.

Researchers list the Keppel Islands near Rockhampton, Moreton Bay and Fraser Island, north of Brisbane, as being most at risk.

Dr Alison Jones, from Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, has seen first-hand the impact of the floods on corals in Keppel Bay.

"You can't see anything at all from above," she said.

"As you take the camera down, it looks like a big brown soupy mess.

"Deeper down the water is a bit clearer and you can see bleached white [coral] colonies appearing out of the gloom."

Dr Jones checked five islands and found stressed coral around all of them.

"Halfway Island was much worse than North Keppel. It was just dead coral, killed by the fresh water," she said.

"There wasn't really a single thing alive.

"There also seems to be some temperature bleaching, believe it or not, from the ocean being warm, which is completely unrelated to the flooding."

Dr Britta Shaffelke, a researcher at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, says wind direction over the next few days will be crucial in determining the extent of the damage.

"At the moment the mud plume [from the Fitzroy River] is confined to the Keppel Bay area," she said.

"However if the wind turns around from the south east to the north, the plume might reach much further to the outer reefs such as Heron Island."

Floods damage corals in a number of ways.

Corals cannot survive in freshwater because their physiology is adapted to salt water.

Silt is also clouding the water and blocking out sunlight, stopping corals from photosynthesising and feeding themselves.

Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous can kick start toxic algal blooms, which strip oxygen from the water and at the same time, provide food for the larvale of crown of thorns starfish.

Pesticides carried in floodwater call also kill corals.

Researchers are most concerned about the impact of the sediments.

"What has changed is that the load of sediment in the rivers has increased 4- to 10-fold since pre-European times," said AIMS scientist Dr Katharina Fabricius.

"Reefs exposed to high levels of nutrients and sediments have up to five-fold higher cover of seaweeds (which can smother corals) and half the biodiversity of species of coral - these are the long term effects of these floods," she says.

Dugongs at risk

Meanwhile, further south in Moreton Bay, experts are worried about the long-term impact on dugongs. In 1996, a flood left many dugongs starving, as sediment and nutrients overwhelmed and killed the seagrass beds in the area.

"For Morteton bay, the flooding event last week was significantly bigger for sediment deposition and fresh water than the flood of 1996," says Dr Eva Abal, chief scientific officer at the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

"My expectation about the impact on the bay is that we will experience some seagrass loss, but it also depends on how quickly water clears up."

Shaffelke also points out that there are unusually vast amounts of turbid freshwater off the coast of Brisbane.

"That hasn't happened for many, many decades in the Brisbane area, so many plants and animals will imediately die or be very stressed," she says. "I expect there to be quite serious impacts as well."

"In relation to the floods in Rockhampton … that is certainly not typical or happens very often. For both humans and the enviroment this is an extraordinary event.

"For the marine environment, the events are still unfolding. The highest rainfall is actually in February, so we are certainly not at the end of this season."

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