**I'm right 97% of the time.
Who cares about the other 4%?**
LARGEST QUAKES so far today -
5.2 SOUTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
5.3 VOLCANO ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
5.4 SAN JUAN, ARGENTINA
Yesterday, 12/9/13 -
5.1 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
5.1 TURKMENISTAN
5.4 SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS REGION
5.3 HALMAHERA, INDONESIA
5.0 TONGA
More Earthquakes Keep Jolting North Texas - Another day, another earthquake in North Texas. The ice storm stopped pretty much everything in North Texas, but it hasn't stopped seismic activity.
More earthquakes rocked North Texas Sunday and Monday morning, including another one near Azle. Early Sunday morning, a 3.6-magnitude earthquake struck in Parker County, about 2 miles northwest of Azle. And then early Monday morning, another earthquake struck – a 3.7-magnitude quake about 11 miles northeast of Mineral Wells.
More than 20 earthquakes have hit the region since early November. Several earthquakes have hit in or near Azle. “I thought the house was going to fall down. After it [Sunday's quake] stopped shaking I heard a big boom — like a sonic boom, but you usually get two sonic booms and this was only one.”
What’s causing all of these quakes? Some scientists point to injection wells that are drilled to store wastewater from natural gas drilling.
Philippines - The magnitude 7.2 earthquake that hit parts of Central Visayas last Oct. 15 moved part of Bohol closer to Cebu. The powerful quake - which left more than 200 people dead - moved Bohol, including Tagbilaran City, by 55 centimeters west towards Cebu. The phenomenon does not pose any threat to Cebu or Bohol however.
The tremor was generated by a blind fault, now called the North Bohol Fault. The movement was discovered through GPS (Global Positioning System) in Tagbilaran City. "This is normal, especially during a large quake." The tremor has generated at least 4,026 aftershocks, 114 of which were felt.
Meanwhile, they will release next year a new tool to help ordinary households evaluate if their houses are safe during earthquakes. Phivolcs has partnered with the Japan International Cooperation Agency in developing a questionnaire, composed of 12 questions related to the structural integrity of their houses.
VOLCANOES -
Hawaii - Kilauea Volcano's Kahaualea 2 lava flow continues to burn through the forest, sending up plumes of smoke, but scientists can see more activity through thermal imaging which aids in tracking flows from Kilauea.
Nishino-shima (Volcano Islands, Japan) - The new island continues to grow slowly, increasing its surface by lava flows in all directions. Its diameter is now approximately 300 meters. (video at link)
TROPICAL STORMS -
Current tropical storms - maps and details.
* In the North Indian Ocean -
Tropical Cyclone 'Madi' is stationary in the Bay of Bengal between Chennai, India, & Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.
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Very severe Cyclone Madi to weaken gradually, recurve west-southwestward. Madi, in the Bay of Bengal, is expected to weaken gradually and move northwards slowly for 24 hours and then recurve towards west-southwest, the India Meteorological reported. The bulletin said that, under the influence of this system, rainfall would occur at a few places over coastal Andhra Pradesh and at isolated places over coastal Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and Andaman & Nicobar Islands during the next 48 hours.
HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -
U. S. Storm Snarls Travel; Power Outages Persist - Snow and bitter cold snarled traffic and prompted another 1,650 U.S. flight cancellations on Monday, and tens of thousands of people were still without power after JANUARY-LIKE WEATHER BARGED IN A MONTH EARLY. The calendar says we’re still a month and a half away from the peak of winter, but the winter weather gripping most of the U.S. is more typical of mid-January, as a significant outbreak of Arctic air continues to bring temperatures 10 - 30 degrees below normal to much of the nation.
Cold, ice grip U.S. as more snow to blanket East - Following last Friday’s major winter storm that brought heavy snows and significant icing from Texas to Maine (“Cleon”), a new winter storm dubbed “Dion” followed a similar track on Sunday. The deadly winter storm kept a tight grip on much of the United States on Monday as cold, snow and ice spread across the East Coast. As much as 5 inches (12.7 cm) of snow were forecast for Monday night into Tuesday and much of the area from Virginia to coastal New England were under winter weather advisories.
Bitter Arctic air in the upper Great Plains and Rocky Mountains is expected to persist through Wednesday, with the coldest weather extending from the Nevada-Utah region into Minnesota. "I don't think things are going to warm up any time soon." The cold snap will drive temperatures well below average across the United States through midweek, including Texas and the South.
Thousands of homes and businesses were without power on Monday morning. Thousands of flights were delayed as snow and ice covered roads, highways and airport runways from Texas and Oklahoma east to Virginia and north through Pennsylvania. Northern Maryland, central and eastern Pennsylvania and parts of New York state received up to 10 inches (25 cm) of snow through Monday morning. Sleet and freezing rain also pummeled the area, according to the NWS.
The mercury in Daniel, Wyoming, fell to 29 below zero Fahrenheit (minus 34 Celsius) on Monday, marking the coldest temperature in the contiguous United States. In remote northwestern Nevada, rescuers were searching for two adults and four young children a day after they were last seen near an abandoned mining camp where they had gone to play in the snow. The couple had taken their two children and niece and nephew, who range in age from 3 to 10, on an outing to an old mining camp in the Seven Troughs mountain range.
A spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Department of Health said it had tallied 247 storm-related injuries. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has reported 201 collisions that did not cause injuries and 65 collisions that resulted in injuries. On one stretch of highway near Philadelphia, more than 50 cars and trucks were caught in chain-reaction crashes on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on Sunday afternoon. One man was killed when he left his vehicle after the crashes.
AAA Mid-Atlantic, the auto group, said it pulled 109 vehicles out of snow and ice in Pennsylvania on Sunday, compared with three the week before. At least three people were killed in weather-related car accidents in Arkansas and Tennessee. Virginia officials warned drivers of hazardous travel conditions. Oklahoma's Governor declared a state of emergency in the state, where the winter weather contributed to at least three deaths, including two young boys in weather-related accidents and a homeless man from the cold.
About 1,700 flights were canceled nationwide on Monday. About 650 travelers were stranded overnight in the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport overnight on Sunday. About 350 flights at the airport were still canceled in Monday. Some 267,000 customers in Texas lost power at the height of the storm and about 21,000 homes and businesses remained without power on Monday. Freezing weather across Texas SET SUCCESSIVE DECEMBER POWER USE RECORDS on Friday and Saturday, according to preliminary data from the state's power grid operator.
'GLOBAL WEIRDNESS' -
UNUSUALLY EXTREME JET STREAM KINK - As we’ve so many times over the past few years, the jet stream is stuck in an UNUSUALLY WAVY CONFIGURATION that is bringing REMARKABLE HOT AND COLD WEATHER EXTREMES to the entire continent. A sharp trough of low pressure over the center of North America is allowing frigid Arctic air to barrel UNUSUALLY FAR SOUTH, setting HUNDREDS OF DAILY RECORDS over the past few days.
Temperatures in Northern Montana were as much as 50 degrees below normal, and in portions of Oregon, the cold blast brought the COLDEST TEMPERATURES SINCE 1972. One station even set an ALL-TIME COLD RECORD: Lakeview, Oregon hit -27° on December 8, breaking the old all-time cold record of -24° set on Jan. 15, 1888. Temperature records there began in 1884.
UNUSUALLY EXTREME RIDGES OF HIGH PRESSURE set up over Alaska and the Southeast United States to compensate for the big dip in the jet stream over the center of North America. One ridge of high pressure pushed to the north of Alaska and over the Arctic Ocean, allowing warm Pacific air to bring rain and temperatures in the upper 30s to Alaska’s North Slope on Sunday - an UNPRECEDENTED OCCURRENCE in December. Keep in mind that this is an area that has been in perpetual 24-hour darkness for several weeks.
Sunday’s 39° at Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay) is the WARMEST DECEMBER TEMPERATURE EVER MEASURED AT ANY SITE ON THE ALASKAN ARCTIC OCEAN shoreline region. Weather records for Alaska’s North Slope go back as far as 1921 at Point Barrow. A very sharp ridge of high pressure also set up over the Southeast U.S. - Tallahasse, Florida hit 84° on Saturday, matching THEIR HIGHEST TEMPERATURE EVER RECORDED IN THE MONTH OF DECEMBER.
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