since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.**
Thomas à Kempis
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
None 5.0 or higher.
Yesterday -
9/20/10 -
5.0 SOUTHERN ALASKA
5.3 OFFSHORE VALPARAISO, CHILE
5.0 CATAMARCA, ARGENTINA
TROPICAL STORMS -
- Tropical storm 13W was 296 nmi N of Agana, Guam.
- Tropical storm FANAPI was 110 nmi NE of Hong Kong.
- Tropical depression 14 was 1621 nmi ENE of Bridgetown, Barbados.
- Category 1 Hurricane IGOR was 526 nmi NNE of Hamilton, Bermuda.
- Tropical storm JULIA was 896 nmi ENE of Hamilton, Bermuda.
Hurricane Igor heads north, all the way to Greenland? - Hurricane Igor had weakened to a bottom-tier hurricane by the time it brushed past Bermuda. Forecasters say Igor could still pack strong winds as it becomes a post-tropical depression over Greenland Thursday. For 12 days, hurricane Igor has been spinning through the Atlantic Ocean, first as a tropical storm, then as one of the 2010 season's handful of "major" hurricanes.
Between next Thursday morning and Friday morning, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say they expect Igor to make landfall on the southern tip of Greenland, perhaps with tropical-storm-force winds, then to move into the interior as a "post-tropical" depression. The label "post-tropical" refers to a shift in a storm's energy source. In Igor's case, its energy source is expected to shift by this morning.
As a tropical cyclone, Igor draws its energy from heat. That heat is released as water condenses from vapor to cloud droplets as the vapor rises higher into the atmosphere and cools, forming powerful thunderheads. As the storm moves north, it encounters cooler water and draws its energy from the difference in temperature between the storm itself and a cooler mass of air sweeping into the North Atlantic from middle and high latitudes. At that point, Igor earns the post-tropical tag. These storms can still be dangerous, since they continue to pack gale-force winds. These winds typically blow at altitudes of several hundred feet to a little over 1,000 feet. They can trigger significant wind damage if the storm encounters an environment that encourages mixing between air layers near the ground and the layers carrying the gale-force winds. By the time Igor draws even with southern Newfoundland overnight tonight, it is expected to pack hurricane-force winds, although it will have become post-tropical. Igor's track is expected to come close enough to the Canadian province's southeastern tip, prompting the government to issue tropical-storm warnings for that area.
In Bermuda, residents are dealing with power failures, downed trees, and a handful of beached boats. Along the US east coast, Igor is expected to continue delivering high surf, with its accompanying rip currents through this morning. So far, three fatalities have been attributed to Igor. All reportedly were due to people either trying to surf the high waves Igor was driving to shore, or standing too close to where high surf was breaking.
Meanwhile, tropical storm Julia is winding down some 1,770 miles west of the Azores. Currently packing sustained winds of about 45 miles an hour, Julia likely will be downgraded to a tropical depression by 8 a.m. today.
As these two storms weaken, forecasters are watching another patch of stormy weather just west of the Cape Verde Islands. It stands an 80 pecent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone within the next 48 hours.
Weather forecasters faced a difficult task of predicting the “unpredictable” tropical cyclone Fanapi as it changed course and categories yesterday. Typhoon signal No. 1 was hoisted at 4:30 pm in Macau yesterday.
Yesterday morning, the Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau wasn’t expecting to hoist typhoon warnings as Fanapi had already made landfall in mainland China and was moving east of Macau. However, after hitting the coastline of Guangdong province, “it took a VERY UNPREDICTABLE TRACK and it is moving west and south-eastwards." The change means that Fanapi is going to pass closer to Macau than previously expected, less than 200 kilometres away from the SAR, bring with it heavy rains and strong winds. “Everything will depend on what happens during the night and on the storm’s speed. The wind speed can increase up to the levels of the typhoon signal No. 3, because it is still too close to the coastline."
Fanapi may be the strongest storm to strike China this year. But no casualties have been reported and damage is yet to be assessed. It swept across Taiwan on Sunday with winds gusting as high as 180 kilometres per hour, downing electric lines, forcing evacuations and closing schools, offices, airports and ground transport. Emergency workers evacuated 10,468 people from 13 counties and 53 townships prone to landslides.
HEAVY RAINS, SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
INDIA - Heavy monsoon rains and landslides swept the hilly areas of northern India over the weekend, killing at least 47 people. Twenty-four people died Sunday as falling boulders crushed their homes in three villages in Almorah district in Uttrakhand state. Another 23 people were either swept away by floodwaters or died when homes collapsed in landslides in Pitthoragarh, Champawat and Uttarkashi regions of state Saturday and Sunday.
Rains continued to lash the region on Monday, threatening dozens of villages near Tehri Dam whose water level was nearing the danger level. The area is 250 miles (400 kilometers) southwest of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state. The annual monsoon season from June to October brings rains that are vital to agriculture in India. However, monsoon rains take a heavy human toll in South Asia every year. In August, flash floods killed at least 175 people in the remote and mountainous Ladakh region of the Indian portion of Kashmir. India is experiencing an excessive rainfall this season after a drought last year. The rainfall recorded Sept. 1-15 was 22 percent above the average for the period.
In neighboring Pakistan, monsoon floods have killed more than 1,700 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 1.9 million homes in the past six weeks.
HEALTH THREATS -
Annual flu shots may protect against heart attacks, and the earlier in the season a shot is given the greater the protection, a new British study claims.
