Too much so for me to wish it forward.**
Henry David Thoreau
LARGEST QUAKES -
This morning -
5.3 KEPULAUAN KAI, INDONESIA
5.0 SOUTHERN IRAN
5.0 VANUATU
5.7 VANUATU
Yesterday -
2/4/12 -
5.4 OWEN FRACTURE ZONE REGION
5.6 VANCOUVER ISLAND, CANADA REGION
5.4 SAMAR, PHILIPPINES
5.1 CENTRAL MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE
5.0 VANUATU
5.7 SAMAR, PHILIPPINES
5.8 TONGA
5.5 CENTRAL MONGOLIA
5.1 TAIWAN REGION
2/3/12 -
5.0 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.0 VANUATU
5.6 VANUATU
5.7 VANUATU
6.0 VANUATU
Japan - At least 1.3 million people in the Tokyo metropolitan area will likely have no place to take temporary refuge if the area is directly hit by a strong earthquake, according to projections by local governments concerned. There will only be space to accommodate 270,000 people, or more than 10 percent of the Tokyo residents whose houses are expected to be damaged in a major quake that has its epicenter in central Tokyo, the projections show. Combined with those who will be unable to return home due to the suspension of public transportation, local governments concerned will have to secure additional shelters for more than 1.3 million people.
As public facilities have no capacity to accommodate more evacuees, ward governments plan to call on businesses, commercial complexes and hotels to cooperate in accepting people in the event of a major disaster. According to data compiled by a University of Tokyo research team, there is a 70 percent probability the Tokyo metropolitan area will be hit directly by a magnitude-7 level earthquake within four years. About 4.48 million people are expected to be unable to return home because public transportation services will be suspended.
Before the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Tokyo metropolitan and ward governments had not anticipated that people who could not return home would take temporary refuge at their shelters in the event of a major disaster. On March 11, however, people with no means of transportation flocked to temporary shelters designated by ward offices and other parties for local residents. In an effort to avoid such a situation in the future, the Tokyo metropolitan government and ward governments have asked the private sector in the Tokyo area to have their employees stay at their companies for about three days if a major quake strikes. In addition to those who work in Tokyo, however, many people visit the Tokyo area for sightseeing and shopping. This made local governments aware of the need to secure places where such visitors can take temporary refuge in a major disaster. A central government survey showed that 32 percent of the people who were in the Tokyo metropolitan area on March 11 and could not return home were in the area for shopping and other personal reasons.
TROPICAL STORMS -
In the Indian Ocean -
Tropical cyclone 10p (Jasmine) was located approximately 625 nm north of Brisbane, Australia. Intensifying, the forecasted track carries the storm between New Caledonia and Vanuatu, which will help minimize damage.
Fiji - Strong wind warning remains in force. The latest weather report from the Nadi weather office said the earlier second tropical depression that was situated to the west of Vanuatu has now turned into a tropical cyclone. Tropical Cyclone Jasmine is slowly moving
east.
US set to be hit hardest by tropical cyclones - Tropical cyclones will cause $109 billion in damages by the end of the century, according to Yale and MIT researchers, because of economic growth as well as climate change.
In 1952, Miami was hit by a tropical Storm on Groundhog Day - In February 1952 an unnamed tropical storm moved northeast across South Florida becoming the only know tropical storm or hurricane to ever make landfall in the United States during the month of February. This storm became known as the Groundhog Day storm.
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
Extreme Weather May Result in Food Shortage in Indonesia following extreme climate and weather changes early this year. A number of rice-producing areas in West Java, Central Java and Sumatra have been hit by floods, causing crop failure.
HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -
Europe cold snap death toll has risen to more than 260 with hundreds having to be rescued after a ferry caught in a snow storm hit a breakwater off Italy.
Extreme cold weather in Ukraine causes 101 deaths - Of the Ukrainians who have died since the cold weather hit Jan. 27, 64 were found frozen on the streets, 11 died in hospitals and 26 in their homes. It was so cold there that some 1500 swans, sea gulls and ducks froze to the ice in a small harbor near Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa, forcing emergency workers to use ships to break up the surface and free the birds. The weeklong cold snap — Eastern Europe's WORST IN DECADES — is causing power outages, frozen water pipes and the widespread closure of schools, nurseries, airports and bus routes.
Britain braced for 'severe weather' as 15cm of snow is forecast - The UK was on red alert as experts urged people to make plans to deal with a bout of 'severe weather'. According to the Met Office, up to 15cm of snow is predicted to fall and temperatures will plummet to an icy -11 C.
EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / WILDFIRES / CLIMATE CHANGE -
Drought, warmer weather persist in much of US - Weird weather kept vexing large swathes of the United States over the last week, with unseasonably warm and dry conditions melting northern snows and spreading drought through the southwest, even as heavy rains soaked parched pastures in Texas and Oklahoma. Unseasonably warm temperatures were noted in Kansas and across many areas of the central Plains, with Kansas recording temperatures well above 60 degrees Fahrenheit this week.
Above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation over the past 60-90 days has made drought more intense in some areas of southeastern New Mexico and western Texas. Locally heavy rains across part of northern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas helped ease drought conditions slightly.
But in the week through January 31, Texas statewide saw exceptional drought - the highest level - climb to 27.36 percent of the state from 25.27 percent. Texas is trying to emerge from a year that saw records shattered for both high heat and lack of moisture. The one-year period between November 1, 2010, and October 31, 2011, was the driest in the state's history, and three-month period of June to August in Texas was the hottest ever reported by any state in U.S. history.
