First day of the noon updating and I'm already late. I'll get this worked out!
**Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.**
Abraham Lincoln
LARGEST QUAKES so far today -
5.3 SOLOMON ISLANDS
5.3 TONGA
5.1 LOYALTY ISLANDS
Yesterday, 7/15/14 -
5.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
5.6 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.7 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.7 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
5.2 OFF EAST COAST OF KAMCHATKA
Quake-warning system for West Coast gets a boost in Congress - A proposal for an earthquake-warning system for the West Coast gained ground Tuesday as a congressional committee recommended the first federal funds - $5 million - specifically for the project.
TROPICAL STORMS -
Current tropical storms - maps and details.
* In the Western Pacific -
- Typhoon Rammasun is located approximately 114 nm west-northwest of Manila, Philippines.
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Typhoon Rammasun Kills 12 in the Philippines - Category 2 Typhoon Rammasun hit the Philippines’ capital city of Manila, where 12 million people live, near 6 pm EDT Tuesday night (22 UTC). The center of the typhoon passed within 40 miles of the city, and had top winds rated at 105 mph at the time. This makes Rammasun one of the most powerful typhoons ever to directly affect Manila.
Fortunately, Rammasun’s eyewall collapsed as it approached Manila, and top winds at the Manila airport reached only 20 mph. However, Rammasun is being blamed for twelve deaths elsewhere in the Philippines. The typhoon came ashore in the Philippines in the Bicol Region of Luzon Island near 5 am EDT on Tuesday, as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds near 125 mph.
Rammasun was the first typhoon to strike the Philippines since devastating Category 5 Super Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013, which left over 7,300 people dead or missing. Rammasun's eye passed just north of Samar Island where Haiyan initially made landfall, and brought sustained winds of 40 mph to Haiyan's ground zero, the city of Guiuan.
The high winds blew down many of the tents of the people whose homes were destroyed in Tacloban after Super Typhoon Haiyan, but Rammasun’s winds and flooding were not extreme there, and most of the people who evacuated to temporary shelters during the typhoon have now returned.
Rammasun will have the opportunity to re-strengthen over the South China Sea before making a second landfall in China near Hainan Island on Friday. Given the typhoon’s current state of disorganization, it will take at least a day for it to take advantage of moderate wind shear of 10 - 20 knots and very warm water temperatures and regain Category 2 strength. Our two top track models, the GFS and European, predict a landfall in China between 03 - 9 UTC on Friday.
ATLANTIC REMAINS QUIET - FOR NOW. The tropical Atlantic Basin remains rather quiet, as relatively dry air dominates the CARIB eastward to the west African Coast. There are only a couple easily discernible Tropical Waves – with only the one in the far eastern Atlantic of even minimal interest. The one reasonably discernible Tropical Wave shows some modest tendency for ‘spinning’ with isolated convection associated with this disturbance. However, the tropical wave appears to be inter-twined with the ITCZ which is likely enhancing what little convection there is.
All of the more reliable global models, along with some of the more experimental forecast tools that rely on the MJO (Madden-Julian Oscillation) and CCKW (Convectively Coupled Kelvin Waves) are not forecasting any tropical cyclone spin-ups during the next 10-14 days, and none is expected.
EXTREME HEAT & DROUGHT / WILDFIRES -
Amid drought, California to impose fines up to $500 a day for wasting water.
'GLOBAL WEIRDNESS' / CLIMATE CHANGE -
Gigantic hole mysteriously appears in Siberia. A 260-foot-wide crater has been discovered in Siberia's Yamal Peninsula, baffling scientists. What caused the hole? No one knows yet, but a team of scientists are en route in hopes of figuring it out.
The hole measures about 80 meters wide and has an unknown depth. The hole resembles a sinkhole, but dirt appears to have been thrown outside of the crater. This suggests maybe an impact of some kind. Speculation is ranging from an underground gas explosion to a meteorite impact.
A team from the Centre of the Study of the Arctic and the Cryosphere Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences plan to take several samples including air, soil and water. A spokesman from Russia’s Emergencies Ministry ruled out a meteorite. “We can definitely say that it is not a meteorite."
A polar scientist said that it’s likely a collapsed pingo. A pingo is a block of ice that has grown into a small hill in the permafrost. The pingo then melts and collapses, leaving behind an exposed crater. “We’re seeing much more activity in permafrost areas than we’ve seen in the historical past. A lot of this relates to this high degree of warming around these high arctic areas which are experiencing some of the highest rates of warming on earth."
Scientists get to the site today. (aerial footage at link)
SPACE WEATHER -
All Sky Fireball Network - On Jul. 16, the network reported 37 fireballs.
HEALTH THREATS -
RECALLS & ALERTS
US lawmakers press CDC chief over 'dangerous pattern' of lapses - U.S. lawmakers today faulted a "dangerous pattern" of safety lapses at government laboratories handling deadly pathogens such as anthrax and avian flu, calling for an overhaul of controls at the Centers for Disease Control.
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