a majority will imagine an order,
a minority will question the order,
and the rest will be pronounced insane.
Robert Brault
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
6.5 SOUTHEAST OF TAIWAN
Yesterday -
4/25/10 -
5.0 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.7 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
5.0 SOUTHWESTERN RYUKYU ISLANDS, JAPAN
5.2 TONGA
TAIWAN - A strong earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale has struck the southeast coast of Taiwan, south of Japan's Ryukyu Islands, with no reports of damage or tsunami warnings. It struck about 22 kilometers (13.7 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake. The earthquake was reportedly felt in southern Japan and in Taiwan, where buildings swayed in Taipei.
TROPICAL STORMS -
No current tropical cyclones.
EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE -
INDIA's hundreds of millions of farmers braced on Friday for this year's official monsoon forecast, with the 2010 rains of critical importance after the worst drought in three decades. The forecast from the national weather office relies on data from local and foreign climatologists to make the best possible prediction for the monsoon, which lasts nationwide from June to September. More than 70 per cent of Indians depend on farm incomes, and about 65 percent of the nation's farms are not irrigated, meaning they depend entirely on the rains that fall in intense bursts over the wet season. The drought of 2009, when the rains were 30 percent weaker than their long-term average, has hit crop yields and farm incomes, leading to much higher food prices and an increase in rural hardship. On Friday, the Indian Meteorological Department forecast normal rains this year within the range of 96%-104% of their long-term average. "Monsoon rainfall rarely fails for two consecutive years." Out of the roughly 20 droughts India has suffered since 1901, 17 were followed by near-normal rainfall. India is the world's second-biggest producer of rice, wheat and sugarcane.
SPACE WEATHER -
Poised to erupt - Already this month, the sun has produced two of the biggest eruptions in years. They occurred on April 13th and April 19th when magnetic filaments became unstable and exploded. It could happen again today. A prominence on the eastern limb of the sun resembles the precursors of those two earlier blasts.
