April 6, 2015 - ATACAMA DESERT, CHILE - Dramatic footage of cars, trucks and whole buildings being washed away in muddy water has emerged online after thunderstorms and abnormal rainfall in Chile’s desert Atacama region caused the Copiapo River to break its banks last week.
At least 25 people were killed and 125 others are missing as the floods ravaged the area known as one of the driest places on Earth.
WATCH: Freak rainfall and floods devastate the driest desert in Chile.
The authorities evacuated thousands from their homes in what was described as “the worst rain disaster to fall on the north [of Chile] in 80 years.”
About 2,700 people are currently being housed in emergency accommodation, with around 30,000 people affected by the disaster, the National Emergency Office said.
President Michelle Bachelet was forced to cancel a trip to an international summit to travel to flood-hit Atacama on Sunday.
"We stand with you, as we have from the beginning, and we will rebuild," Bachelet is cited by AFP. "It pains me to see my country in such a state ... we will find a solution."
The president also warned of high risk of disease outbreaks in the area, saying that government is sending thousands of doses of vaccines against flu, tetanus and hepatitis A.
The heavy rains in Chile came after several days of high temperatures and a drought that caused massive wildfires in the south-central regions. - RT.
The system uses arachnid-like droids to construct large objects in orbit around the Earth
April 6, 2015 - UNITED STATES - The futuristic new system – dubbed SpiderFab – is being developed by a company called Tethers Unlimited.
The system uses arachnid-like droids to construct large objects in orbit around the Earth or further into the Solar System.
Tethers Unlimited CEO and chief scientist Dr. Robert Hoyt believes the SpiderFab system could be used to build radio antennas, spacecraft booms and solar arrays within the next decade.
But Dr. Hoyt also sees the robotic spiders helping humanity toward a long-term goal – sustaining mankind as it travels across the universe.
"Our really long-term objective for all of this work is to eventually enable the use of in-situ resources to construct the infrastructure in space needed to support humanity's expansion throughout the solar system," Dr. Hoyt claimed last month, during a presentation with NASA's Future In-Space Operations (FISO) working group.
Dr. Hoyt believes the current method of manufacturing a spacecraft – assembling everything on Earth and then launching the finished product in one piece – is unnecessarily wasteful.
"It's a very expensive and time-consuming process, and also, the size of systems is somewhat limited by the size of the deployables that are possible to fold up and fit within a launch shroud," he said.
SpiderFab could cut construction costs by only launching raw materials – such as carbon fibre – into orbit.
The robot spiders will transform raw materials into the construction pieces needed for the build
Limbs are used to piece together the materials and will also allow the droid to grip the structure
"The primary [advantage] will be that we can deploy apertures and baselines that are much larger than we can currently fit into launch shrouds," Dr. Hoyt added.
"The payoff of that will be higher power, higher resolution, higher sensitivity and higher bandwidth for a wide range of NASA, DoD [Department of Defence] and commercial space missions."
Crafts built entirely in space have the potential to be sleeker and simpler than current designs – as they do not have to survive the trauma of launch.
This would lead to further cost savings, Dr. Hoyt has predicted.
At the heart of Hoyt's ambitious project are the space spiders – a multi-armed robot capable of making many of the structural elements needed for the build, like an eight legged 3D printer.
Once the piece has been produced by its spinneret, the spider can piece together the structural elements using its metal limbs.
"Under the NIAC and SBIR work (NASA's Small Business Innovation Research) I think we've already validated the basic feasibility of the key processes required" for the SpiderFab concept, Dr. Hoyt said.
Tethers Unlimited hopes to launch its first working construction robot into space within the next couple of years.
"In a perfect world — if funding flowed and the contracting process didn't drag on forever — we think we could get to be able to build very large support structures for antennas and solar arrays, and those sorts of components, in the early 2020s," Dr. Hoyt added. - Express.
Video: UN Climate Change Official Says “We Should Make Every Effort” To Depopulate The Planet
Officials within the UN are pushing the notion that the human
population should be reduced in order to effectively combat climate
change.
The long standing notion has been continually pushed by Christiana
Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). In 2013, Figueres had a
conversation with Climate One founder Greg Dalton regarding “fertility rates in population,” as a contributor to climate change.
The comments are made at 4.20 into the following video:
WATCH:Christiana Figueres.
“A related issue is fertility rates in population.” Dalton opined. “A
lot of people in energy and environmental circles don’t wanna go near
that because it’s politically charged. It’s not their issue.” he added.
“But isn’t it true that stopping the rise of the population would be
one of the biggest levers and driving the rise of green house gases?”
Dalton asked.
“Obviously less people would exert less pressure on the natural
resources,” Figueres answered, also noting that estimates suggest the
Earth’s population will rise to nine billion by 2050.
Dalton then questioned whether that figure could in some way be stalled or halted.
“So is nine billion a forgone conclusion? That’s like baked in, done, no way to change that?” he asked Figueres.
“There is pressure in the system to go toward that; we can
definitely change those, right? We can definitely change those numbers,”
Figueres said in response.
“Really, we should make every effort to change those numbers
because we are already, today, already exceeding the planet’s planetary
carrying capacity.” she also claimed.
“So yes we should do everything possible. But we cannot fall into
the very simplistic opinion of saying just by curtailing population
then we’ve solved the problem. It is not either/or, it is an and/also.”
the UN official also said.
Climate One is a self described public affairs forum
which advocates extreme action to combat climate change. It is a branch
of The Commonwealth Club of California based in San Francisco,
essentially a talking shop visited regularly by heads of government and
corporate business.
Figueres is no stranger to controversial statements when it comes to climate change. The UN official previously described the goal of the UNFCC as “a complete transformation of the economic structure of the world.”
Figueres noted that a partisan divide in the U.S. Congress is
“very detrimental” to passing climate related legislation, while the
Chinese Communist Party, sets policies by decree. President Obama
clearly agrees given that he continues to bypass Congress by issuing executive orders on climate change.
As InfoWars has continually noted, there is a fundamental flaw in associating climate change with overpopulation.
Populations in developed countries are declining and only in
third world countries are they expanding dramatically. Industrialization
itself levels out population trends and even despite this world
population models routinely show that the earth’s population will level
out at 9 billion in 2050 and slowly decline after that. “The population
of the most developed countries will remain virtually unchanged at 1.2
billion until 2050,” states a United Nations report. The UN’s support for depopulation policies is in direct contradiction to their own findings.
Once a country industrializes there is an average of a 1.6 child
rate per household, so the western world population is actually in
decline. That trend has also been witnessed in areas of Asia like Japan
and South Korea. The UN has stated that the population will peak at 9
billion and then begin declining.
Since radical environmentalists are pushing to de-industrialize
the world in the face of the so called carbon threat, this will reverse
the trend that naturally lowers the amount of children people have. If
climate change fanatics are allowed to implement their policies, global
population will continue to increase and overpopulation may become a
real problem – another example of how the global warming hysterics are
actually harming the long term environment of the Earth by preventing
overpopulated countries from developing and naturally lowering their
birth levels.
Even if you play devils advocate and accept that humans do cause catastrophic warming and there are too
many of us, and if you can skip past the eugenics connotations of
population control and depopulation policies, those methods are
fundamentally still not a valid solution to the perceived climate change threat.
The real solution would be to help increase the standard of
living of the cripplingly poor third world, allowing those countries to
industrialize, and seeing the population figures naturally level out.
Instead, the third world has seen a doubling in food prices owing to climate change policies such as turning over huge areas of agricultural land to the growth of biofuels.
In addition, Climate legislation continually pushed by the developed world has those nations taking on less of a burden than anticipated demanding more of poorer countries, despite the fact that any further cuts in CO2 emissions will further cripple their flimsy economies and poverty-stricken people.
Previous legislation, such as the Copenhagen agreement, allowed people in developed countries to emit twice as much carbon per head than those in poorer countries, who have not caused the rise in emissions said to be threatening our existence on the planet. The revelations have led third world leaders to accuse the developed world of “climate colonialism”.
Linking environmental policy to depopulation agendas opens the door to eugenics and it is no surprise that through that door have come pouring hordes of elitist filth just begging to be on the front line of the extermination policy.
One example is UK-based public policy group The Optimum Population Trust (OPT), which has previously launched initiatives urging wealthy members of the developed world to participate in carbon offsets that fund programs for curbing the population of developing nations.
In 2007, the group also published a report announcing that children are ‘bad for planet and ‘having large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanour in the same way as frequent long-haul flights, driving a big car and failing to reuse plastic bags.
While you may think ideas of sterilization and depopulation could never be accepted by the public, those very concepts are now being embraced and popularized by some as the way forward for humanity.
The head of the UN’s leading climate change panel is providing a platform, and in some cases actively pushing for a policy enforced by a dictatorship that hunts down mothers who become pregnant with their second child, abducts them off the street and takes them to government controlled hospitals where they are drugged and their baby is killed – all in the name of saving the planet. - Info Wars. WATCH: "ELYSIUM" Movie - Trailer.
April 6, 2015 - MINNESOTA, UNITED STATES - Minnesota, the top
U.S. turkey producing state, has found two more commercial turkey flocks
to be infected with a lethal strain of avian flu, including one in a
previously established quarantine zone, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture said on Monday.
The state in the past month has found that H5N2 flu, which can kill nearly all the birds in a flock within 48 hours, has infected seven flocks, according to the USDA. In the last week alone, the number of birds to be culled in Minnesota because of the flu has topped 150,000.
The infected flocks were in the state's biggest turkey-producing counties. Kandiyohi and Stearns counties were the top two turkey-producing countries in Minnesota in 2012, according to the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association.
Minnesota's turkey farmers raise about 46 million birds annually accounting for more than $600 million in income, according to association. Nationwide, farmers raised about 240 million turkeys in 2013, according to the USDA.
Ninety percent of the turkey products processed in state are exported out of Minnesota, and of that 90 percent, 15 percent are exported, the association said.
Recent bird flu infections in states stretching from Arkansas to California have prompted overseas buyers to limit imports of U.S. poultry from companies such as Tyson Foods Inc, Pilgrim's Pride Corp and Sanderson Farms Inc.
The latest U.S. infection was the third case detected in Stearns County, Minn., which is northwest of Minneapolis. The infected flock of 76,000 turkeys is already in a quarantine zone established because of a previous infection in the county, according to the USDA. The quarantine limits the movement of poultry in and out of the area around an infected flock.
Another new case of H5N2 flu was detected in a flock of 26,000 turkeys in Kandiyohi County, Minn., which is west of Minneapolis.
Both flocks will be culled to prevent the virus from spreading, and the birds will not enter the food supply, according to the USDA.
Officials believe the flu is likely being spread by waterfowl, but do not know precisely how the virus is making its way into commercial poultry operations. Molecular testing has shown the H5N2 virus is nearly identical to viruses isolated in migratory ducks, according to the USDA.
Wild birds can carry the disease without appearing sick, and the USDA has advised people to avoid contact with sick or dead poultry and wildlife.
So far, no human infections of the virus have been detected. - Yahoo.
April 6, 2015 - TEXAS, UNITED STATES - A total of five earthquakes were confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey to have hit North Texas in a single day last week.
The largest
struck an area about two miles northeast of Irving registered a
magnitude of 3.3 on Thursday, April 2. NBC 5 viewers reported feeling the earthquake in Dallas, Fort Worth, Keller, and Denton.
No damage or injuries were reported in any of the earthquakes.
Irving Earthquakes. Image: Google/USGS/NBCDFW
Here is a time-line of all five:
2.7 Magnitude four miles northeast of Irving at 5:38 a.m. on Thursday
3.3 Magnitude two miles northeast of Irving at 5:26 p.m. on Thursday
2.6 Magnitude two miles northeast of Irving at 10:04 p.m. Thursday night
2.4 Magnitude three miles northeast of Irving at 11:28 p.m. Thursday night
2.2 Magnitude three miles southeast of Farmers Branch at 3:58 a.m. Friday morning
It had been nearly three weeks since North Texas had its last earthquake, a 2.6-magnitude on March 14 near Farmers Branch. - NBCDFW.
April 6, 2015 - SPACE - Hubble Space Telescope has discovered manifestations from the remote past, bright streams of gas, which look like immense looped objects glowing green, once ionized by quasars that no longer exist.
The telescope, which will turn 25 in 20 days, has taken photos of eight unusual space objects glowing emerald in the depths of space. Light emitting space areas dubbed ‘Hanny’s Voorwerp’ are tens of thousands of light years across.
The first object of this kind was spotted by Dutch schoolteacher Hanny van Arkel in 2007: she was participating in the online Galaxy Zoo project when volunteers helped to classify over a million galaxies catalogued in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The ghostly structure was named Hanny’s Voorwerp (‘Hanny’s object’ in Dutch).
Hanny’s Voorwerp is a rare phenomenon that comes to life when a quasar, a compact and extremely bright region surrounding a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy, begins to emanate tremendous doses of radiation.
Image from spacetelescope.org
Image from spacetelescope.org
Image from spacetelescope.org
A merger of two galaxies could create this phenomenon as well, when counteracting gravitational forces from two black holes rip apart stars and planets, creating huge clouds of space dust and debris.
While the black hole “eats” matter, the material it devours grows hotter and the quasar throws out terrific jets of energy in two opposite directions, on both sides of the black hole.
These streams of radiation make regions in deep space filled with
invisible gases and elements glow through a process called
photoionization. The green color means that the source of the glow is
photoionized oxygen.
Image from spacetelescope.org
Image from spacetelescope.org
Filaments of helium, neon, nitrogen, oxygen or sulphur could emit absorbed light for thousands of years, when the quasar itself is effectively dead and dark. But eventually the darkness of space engulfs them, too.
It would have taken light from the quasar tens of thousands of years to reach them and light them up. The green clouds will continue to glow for much longer before they fade, though the quasars themselves have turned off.
Following the discovery of the very first Hanny’s Voorwerp, a spin-off project of the Galaxy Zoo project, involving 200 volunteers, examined over 16,000 galaxy images in the SDSS and identified 20 similar cloud objects. - RT.
April 6, 2015 - ARIZONA, UNITED STATES - Coconino County officials are
taking precautions after finding fleas collected in Picture Canyon
northeast of Flagstaff have tested positive for plague.
The Arizona Daily Sun reported Friday that the County Public Health Services District is conducting additional tests and disinfecting prairie dog burrows.
Public health officials collected the fleas around trails in the popular hiking area after noticing some prairie dogs dying off.
The positive test is the first sign of plague activity in the county since last September in Doney Park.
Officials are advising residents to take precautions such as using insect repellent and to avoid handling sick or dead animals.
Symptoms of plague appear within two to six days after initial exposure. They can include fever, chills, swollen lymph glands and muscle pain. - AZ Family.
Terry
Waldron and her husband, Andrew Rodman, collect seawater samples Nov.
30 at Nye Beach in Newport. The samples would be tested as part of a
citizen-science Fukushima radiation monitoring project.(Photo: ANNA REED / Statesman Journal)
April 6, 2015 - NORTH AMERICA - Seaborne radiation from Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster has reached North America.
Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
detected small amounts of cesium-134 and cesium-137 in a sample of
seawater taken in February from a dock on Vancouver Island, British
Columbia.
It's the first time radioactivity from the March 2011 triple meltdown has been identified on West Coast shores.
Woods
Hole chemical oceanographer Ken Buesseler emphasized that the radiation
is at very low levels that aren't expected to harm human health or the
environment."Even
if the levels were twice as high, you could still swim in the ocean for
six hours every day for a year and receive a dose more than a thousand
times less than a single dental X-ray," Buesseler said. "While that's
not zero, that's a very low risk."
Massive amounts of contaminated
water were released from the crippled nuclear plant following a 9.0
magnitude earthquake and tsunami. More radiation was released to the
air, then fell to the sea.
Frustrated by the absence of monitoring
by U.S. federal agencies, Buesseler last year launched a crowd-funded,
citizen-science seawater sampling project.
He's tracked the
radiation plume across 5,000 miles of the Pacific Ocean, using highly
sensitive, expensive equipment at his Cape Cod, Massachusetts,
laboratory. There, he analyzes samples sent to him by West Coast
volunteers and scientists aboard research cruises.
In October, he reported that a sample taken about 745 miles west of Vancouver, British Columbia, tested positive for cesium-134, the so-called fingerprint of Fukushima because it can only have come from that plant.
It
also showed higher-than-background levels of cesium-137, another
Fukushima isotope that already is present in the world's oceans because
of nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s.
In November, Buesseler reported that Fukushima radiation had been identified in 10 offshore samples, including one 100 miles off the coast of Eureka, California.
The
Vancouver Island sample was taken Feb. 19 from a dock in Ucluelet, a
working harbor community in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.
It
contained 1.5 becquerels per cubic meter (Bq/m3) of cesium-134, the
Fukushima fingerprint, and 5 Bq/m3 of cesium-137. A becquerel is a basic
unit of radioactivity.
That compares to 50 million Bq/m3 of the
isotopes near Japan just after the meltdown and about 1,000 Bq/m3 near
Japan now, Buesseler said.
WATCH: Our Radioactive Ocean - The Impacts of Fukushima on the Pacific.
Scientific
models have predicted that in general, the plume would hit the shore in
the north first, then head south toward California.
That may be
difficult to document, however, because Buesseler's sampling is not
regular or systematic and depends on volunteer fundraising.
In Oregon, particularly, there have been only four sampling sites, and only one still is active.
And ocean currents can be unpredictable.
"We
expect more of the sites will show detectable levels of cesium-134 in
coming months, but ocean currents and exchange between offshore and
coastal waters is quite complex," Buesseler said. "Predicting the spread
of radiation becomes more complex the closer it gets to the coast, and
we need the public's help to continue this sampling network."
Buesseler's
group has recently teamed with a similar, Canadian-funded program
called InFORM, led by Jay Cullen at the University of Victoria, Canada.
It will add about a dozen monitoring stations along the coast of British
Columbia.
Cruises with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, will add about 10 new sampling sites offshore.
And
Woods Hole has received support from the National Science Foundation to
analyze about 250 seawater samples that will be collected next month on
a research ship traveling between Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands in
Alaska.
WATCH: Projected levels of cesium-137 from Fukushima Dai-ichi, 2011-2021.
To learn more about the radiation monitoring project, visit www.ourradioactiveocean.org. The most recent seawater sampling results will be posted on the site by midday Monday, April 6.
April 6, 2015 - JORDAN - A Jordanian pilot and an Iraqi trainee were killed when a light training aircraft crashed during a routine military excercise today, the Jordanian army said.
A T67 "Firefly aircraft crashed this morning, killing a
Jordanian lieutenant colonel and his Iraqi trainee, during a routine
training excercise" said Colonel Mamdouh al-Amiri, spokesman for the
Jordanian military.
He said the crash occurred over Jordanian soil but did not elaborate on the cause of the accident or its location.
The Jordanian military regularly trains Iraqi pilots as part of defence agreements between the two countries, Amiri said.
Local media reported that the crash took place some 70 to 90 kilometres north of the capital Amman.
In September, Jordan joined the US-led coalition of Arab and
Western countries carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State
group, which controls large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
In February, it extended air strikes against IS to Iraq after
the group released a video of downed F-16 pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh being
burned alive.
Last year a Jordanian air force pilot was killed when his F5 aircraft crashed in eastern Jordan during a training mission.
In 2013 a T67 Firefly crashed in the north of the kingdom because ot technical problems, killing the pilot and a trainee. - Business Standard.
Typhoon Maysak as seen from the International Space Station. (Facebook: Samantha Cristoforetti)
April 6, 2015 - PHILIPPINES - Seven people have died and 26 have been injured in the mostly Catholic Philippines during the celebration of Easter Week, as former super typhoon Maysak hits the north-east of the country.
Philippines authorities would not associate the Easter Week deaths, mostly from drowning, to the onslaught of tropical cyclone Maysak, saying they were still gathering information from affected areas.
Maysak crossed the Philippines' northern region on Sunday, bringing gusty winds and moderate to heavy rains, before exiting the Philippines as a low pressure system about 2:00 am (local time).
Maysak was graded as a super typhoon last week when it ravaged the Federated States of Micronesia, leaving five people dead and destroying crops and houses.
Thousands of people in evacuation centres in the north Luzon, the main island of the Philippines, returned home on Sunday after it became evident the typhoon had weakened significantly as it made landfall.
Sea travel, fishing and swimming over the north-eastern coast resumed, but at least 12 domestic flights have been cancelled over the northern region due to continuing stormy weather.
Millions of Filipinos began returning to the capital Manila from beaches and mountain resorts after the four-day Easter holiday.
State of emergency in Micronesia
Many thousands of people in the Federated States of Micronesia remain in desperate need of food, water and shelter after the islands were struck by super typhoon Maysak.
The governors of both Chuuk and Yap states declared a state of emergency after five people were killed and up to 80 per cent of homes destroyed when Maysak tore through the islands last week.
Victoria Bannon, the North Pacific representative for the International Federation of Red Cross, told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat it was one of the biggest disasters Micronesia in years.
Ms Bannon said getting an accurate picture of total number of people affected was a major challenge.
"People are spread across many small islands which are hundreds of kilometres apart," she said.
"So we're keeping together information from all kinds of sources, from radio communications to social media.
"We know that in many locations up to 60 to 80 per cent of homes have been damaged, sometimes going as high as 90 per cent in some of the more remote locations."
Ms Bannon said apart from the five deaths earlier recorded, no further deaths were reported to the Red Cross. - ABC News Australia.
WATCH: Western Pacific Weather - Tracking Maysak's path and impact.
April 6, 2015 - UNITED STATES - True to April's dangerous reputation, a widespread, multi-day severe weather outbreak, including tornadoes, is possible this week in parts of the South and Midwest.
Severe Weather Outbreak, Including Tornadoes, Possible This Week in Midwest, Plains, South
Meteorologists use pattern recognition, or the general forecast
orientation of upper-air and surface weather features, to help identify
the potential for high-impact weather events – severe weather
outbreaks, winter storms, cold air outbreaks and heat waves – several
days out.
The pattern potentially setting up this week has some similarities to a classic heartland spring severe weather outbreak.
A mobile home frame is pictured between an overturned mobile home at
left, and a tornado-damaged mobile home at right, in Sand Springs,
Okla., Thursday,
March 26, 2015. Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of
emergency for 25 Oklahoma counties that were hit hardest by the storm.
(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Deidre Maxwell salvages items from her parent's tornado-damaged mobile
home in Sand Springs, Okla., Thursday, March 26, 2015. (AP Photo/Sue
Ogrocki)
Tonya Fleming salvages items from her tornado-damaged mobile home in
Sand Springs, Okla., Thursday, March 26, 2015. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Oklahoma Natural Gas workers walk through the tornado-damaged River Oaks
Estates mobile home park in Sand Springs, Okla., Thursday, March 26,
2015. Gov. Mary Fallin has declared a state of emergency for 25 Oklahoma
counties after powerful storms rumbled across the state Wednesday
evening and produced tornadoes and flat-line winds that led to one
death, numerous injuries and widespread damage. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, second from right, tours a
tornado-damaged mobile home park in Sand Springs, Okla., Thursday, March
26, 2015. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Debris litters the area after a storm swept through the area and damaged
homes in Sand Springs, Okla. The slow start to the nation's tornado
season came to a blustery end Wednesday when tornadoes hit Arkansas and
Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Tulsa World, Matt Barnard)
First, a bullish southward plunge of the jet stream, or trough, will carve into the western U.S. early in the week.
In
the atmosphere's lowest levels, progressively warmer and more humid air
will flow northward from the Gulf of Mexico into parts of the Plains
and Mississippi Valley.
With that vigorous jet stream overlapping
warm, humid air and surface features – such as a drylines that divide
High Plains dry air from more humid air to the east – and a warm front
helping to lift the unstable air, the stage may be set for severe
thunderstorms with large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.
The meteorological ingredients that may be in play for the potential mid-week severe weather outbreak.
Early
in the week, there may be pulses of thunderstorms each day through
Tuesday, particularly along a quasi-stationary front oriented roughly
west-to-east from the Plains into the Ohio Valley. It's not out of the
question that a few of these could reach severe limits.
The
larger concern for a possible severe weather outbreak is when the
western U.S. trough pushes east into the Plains, bringing the core of
colder air aloft and the strongest jet stream winds over the warm, humid
near-surface air.
As always, there is still some uncertainty
in the exact details of this possible multi-day severe weather
outbreak. This includes the magnitude of the tornado threat and the
location of the greatest severe threat each day.
For now, here is an outlook based on our latest forecast thinking, subject to change.
Wednesday: Scattered
severe storms possible in the central and southern Plains along the
dryline and near the surface low/stationary front. The threat of severe
storms may extend as far east as the mid-Mississippi Valley. Some
supercells with tornadoes possible.
Thursday: More widespread severe thunderstorms
possible from the central/southern Plains to the Mississippi Valley and
southern Great Lakes. Some supercells with tornadoes possible.
Wednesday's Threat - Areas shaded in red have the greatest risk of seeing severe storms.
Thursday's Threat - Areas shaded in red have the greatest risk of seeing severe storms.
Friday's Threat -Areas shaded in red have the greatest risk of seeing severe storms.
Also, with this slow-moving western trough and the east-west frontal
boundary in play, heavy rain and flash flooding could become serious
threats, particularly in parts of the mid-Mississippi and Ohio Valleys
saturated from heavy rain this past Thursday night and Friday.
Critical details will come into greater focus in the days ahead, so
check back with us at The Weather Channel and weather.com for the latest
on this potential severe weather outbreak.
Model Rainfall Forecast Through Friday - Rain forecast through Friday from the American Computer Forecast Model (GFS).
Do you know where to go in your home, apartment, condo, or place of business if a tornado warning is issued?
Now is a good time to refresh your tornado safety plan, before a warning is issued. - The Weather Channel.
First tornado of the season touches down in north Alabama
A weak tornado touched down briefly in DeKalb County on Friday night,
the National Weather Service forecast office confirmed following a storm
survey on Saturday.
The weather service classified the tornado as an EF-1 with top wind speeds estimated at 105 mph.
It's the first confirmed tornado in north Alabama in 2015 and the first in the state since Jan. 4.
Earlier Saturday, the weather service surveyed damage in Madison County but made a preliminary determination that straight-line winds were to blame and not a tornado.
The weather service said there was widespread damage to trees in the
Ider community where the storm tracked for 2.29 miles in the span of
three minutes. One home had significant roof damage with the majority of
the roof removed. Other homes in the area had minor roof or structural
damage.
The tornado touched down at 9:05 p.m. and lifted at 9:08, according to the weather service.
The tornado first touched down along County Road 783, snapping and
uprooting trees. The twister tracked just north of County Road 776
before intersecting County Road 788.
The tornado reached its max strength just west of Alabama Highway 75,
which is where the residence lost its roof and an anchored outbuilding
was destroyed.
The tornado then crossed Highway 75, snapping and uprooting trees on
both sides of the road before weakening as it crossed County Road 372. - Alabama News.
Arkansas: Tornado hits Baptist Boys Ranch
Several homes and a boys ranch were damaged in the storms north of
Harrison (Arkansas) Thursday night. The tornado touched down around
12:30 AM. The National Weather Service was in the area assessing damage
Friday and confirms it was a small tornado that hit the area
near Center Loop Road and Quincy Lane. That same tornado continued east,
eventually striking the Arkansas Baptist Boys Ranch.
27 teenage boys in four separate houses all had a rude awakening; Some
to a tornado warning, moments before it hit, while others were surprised
by the storm. House parent Danae Stevens says, "I remember hearing a
bunch of wind and all kinds of crazy weather stuff going on, and then I
heard zzzzzz over us, and I'm like Aaron, what's going on?"
Stevens and her husband met the boys of Arapaho house in the living
room, where they found what the storm left behind, chimney stones and
pieces of the ceiling.
"I just mainly was concerned about them and concerned about the fact
that we have no roof on our house, and making sure everybody had shoes
and socks on, so they wouldn't step on anything," says Stevens.
WATCH: EF-1 Tornado causes damage near Harrison, AR.
She says the boys did remarkably well, although theirs was the worst damage to an occupied building. "It was amazing how calm they were and they did exactly what we told them," says Stevens.
But the entire ranch took a beating. "We have roofers trying to cover up
and control any damage," says David Perry, Executive Director of
Arkansas Baptist Children's Homes.
The building most severely damaged was Independence Hall, and the ranch
says a guest had been staying in the building recently, but thankfully
not Thursday night. "It is a blessing. Nobody was in there. That's the
one building where somebody stood a real chance of getting hurt," says
Perry.
Many volunteers showed up to help clean up debrisFriday, and the boys ranch is just starting to work on repair plans.
"It's not as pretty as it was when we went to bed, but we still have a
home and we still have our lives. That is obviously the most important
thing," says Stevens.
Perry says, "Really, it could have been a lot, lot worse. It could have
easily been a lot worse. We're grateful, God's blessed us."
The boys ranch has already received offers of help from churches all over the state. - KY3.
April 6, 2015 - VENEZUELA - A small plane with three crewmembers crashed in Venezuela in the
middle of the week, locals reported to the police. When the National
Guard arrived at the scene, they found almost a ton of cocaine scattered
across the area.
The accident, which happened in the state of Cojedes in central
Venezuela, took the lives of all the crew. As yet they haven’t
been identified, according to local authorities.
The plane came down approximately 250 kilometers from the capital
city of Caracas on Wednesday. Pictures of the confiscated drugs
were published on Saturday.
Theanti-drugGNBlaboratoryconfirmed that cocaine was found at the crash site.
The National Guard found 863 packages of cocaine at the crash
scene, weighing over 999 kilograms. The coke packs were displayed
in a long line down the street in front of the guard’s office.
The prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation to
establish the cause of the accident, and to track down the origin
of the illegal cargo, according to the Noticias24 website.
The national Air Force is empowered to shoot down drug dealers’
aircraft in Venezuela, whose air space (and territory) is
commonly used by drug gangs to smuggle narcotics, especially
Colombian cocaine, from Latin America to the US. In 2013 alone,
the Bolivarian National Guard seized 39 tons of an assortment of
drugs. - RT.
April 6, 2015 - COSTA RICA - Geologists with the National University's Volcanological and
Seismological Observatory (OVSICORI) reported another ash eruption from
Turrialba Volcano starting at 11:24 a.m. Sunday and lasting for an hour.
The eruption is the latest in a string of blasts since October from the active volcano, located 50 kilometers northeast of the capital San José.
According to OVSICORI, the column of ash reached 500 meters into the sky over the volcano and rained large quantities of ash onto nearby farms.
As of 1:30 p.m. the volcano was still emitting large quantities of gas
and vapor though very little ash. Winds have carried the volcanic dust
southwest where it has reached the outskirts of the capital. There are
reports of large quantities of ash East of San José in Tres Ríos and San
Pedro as well as in the western suburb of Escazú.
OVSICORI's equipment also registered a small,three-minute tremor at the time of the eruption.
OVSICORI is asking people who witness ash to report its location on their website.
In March, a similar eruption shut down
the Juan Santamaría International Airport stranding thousands of
travelers, while eruptions in October and November of last year caused
severe damage to the crops and livestock surrounding Turrialba.
Update 2:31 p.m., April 5:Police Chief Juan José
Andrade confirms that police are evacuating tourists in areas
surrounding Turrialba Volcano. Police were forced to evacuate a group of
tourists that had attempted to approach the volcano to watch the
explosion.
April 6, 2015 - EARTH & SPACE - Planetary upheaval continued apace in March 2015, with intense
flash-flooding occurring all across Latin America, and washing away
entire towns. Overnight, the Atacama Desert in Chile, the 'driest place
on Earth', became one of the wettest. Melting snow combined with
unseasonal rains to flood parts of Northern India, the U.S. Midwest and
Western Europe, while flooding also hit Eastern Africa and Australia.
One of the strongest ever cyclones in the South Pacific devastated
Vanuatu, while Super-Typhoon Maysak bore down on the Philippines at the
end of the month. Just as Americans living in Tornado Alley were
wondering where 'tornado season' had gone, a powerful multi-vortex
twister scourged Moore, Oklahoma (again).
With snow on the ground in 49 out of 50 U.S. states on March 1st, all
month long heavy snowfall continued across the eastern half of North
America. Boston broke its winter snowfall record - 9 feet of snow... and
the same amount fell in ONE DAY in Central Italy last month! The
extreme cold in the U.S. Northeast continued to set record-breaking
temperatures, and brought sea ice up to previously unseen levels.
No
matter the season or location, tropics or desert, hail fell everywhere:
several inches in Southern California and Saudi Arabia, TWO FEET in
Bogota, Colombia, and softball-sized hail in Eastern Australia. From
space, large meteor fireballs were seen from across the U.S. Mountain
West, Central Europe, and Western Australia, while the planet was bathed
in green and pink as the strongest auroras during this solar cycle
reached extreme latitudes in both hemispheres.
Wildfires in the Southern Hemisphere hit Valparaiso, Chile (again), and
'fire-nadoes' several stories tall formed outside Cape Town, South
Africa. Spectacular volcanic eruptions last month included Villarica
volcano in Chile spewing lava 1km into the night sky, Turrialba volcano
in Costa Rica having its most powerful eruption in 20 years, and Colima
volcano in Mexico sending ash 3km high. The combined effects of these
climate extremes are giving rise to ever more mass animal deaths, with
notable fish and bird kills along the Western Americas last month.
Meanwhile in Holland, a wolf was spotted for the first time in 150 years
as the species continues its westwards spread across Europe.
April 6, 2015 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - Another Los Angeles area earthquake today 2015 has struck Southern
California. This time the quake was centered further south, closer to
Anza and La Quinta. Damage assessment is pending. The quake follows
another temblor that struck Granada Hills on Saturday.
USGS indicates to news that a Los Angeles area earthquake today April 5,
2015 struck just after 5:56 am PST. The quake was shallow. Reps tell
news that the quake started just 8.9 km below ground level. As a result
the quake could be felt across the vicinity. The quake registered a 2.6
magnitude. It was seven miles east of Anza, twenty miles south of La
Quinta, it was twenty-one miles southwest of Palm Dester and 21 miles
south of Rancho Mirage.
USGS shakemap intensity.
Several quakes have been hitting the region since 2012. In April that
year one quake was centered near Indio. It was twelve miles north of
Coachella, and thirteen miles east of Thousand Palms. It was reportedly
twenty miles from Twenty-nine Palms and ninety-four miles from San
Diego, news analysts note.
Then in June a 3.5 magnitude earthquake struck centered eight miles east
of Coachella. The quake was ten miles outside of Indio and Mecca. The
quake was less then twenty-eight miles east of Palm Springs. The quake
was also ninety-one miles from San Diego, officials remind news. - Lalate.
April 6, 2015 - BANGLADESH - Eleven people, injured during a powerful storm that ripped through Bogra on Saturday night, have died.
This takes the death toll in the storm to 14 in the northern district.
Bogra's Deputy Commissioner Shafiqur Reza Biswas said over 100 people were injured when they were buried under collapsed walls and trees during the storm.
Eleven people died between Saturday night and Sunday morning, said the district administration's chief.
At least 85 persons are being treated at different local hospitals, he added.
Earlier on Saturday, just after the storm, two persons died in Bogra
town and another in Shahjahanpur Upazila after walls collapsed on them.
Those who died have been identified as Aziron Khatun, 35, six-month-old
'Neela', Razab Ali, 15 and 'Palash', 18 of Bogra's Sadar Upazila, Ismail
Hossain, 38 and Azizul Haque, 35 at Kahalu Upazila, Asma Khatun, 43, at
Gabtoli Upazila.
Three died at Shahjahanpur Upazila. They are Abdul Mannan, 28, Rabeya Begum, 65 and 'Payel', 18.
The storm left two dead in Shariyakandi Upazila— 'Sujan', 30 and Shanta
Begum, 50 while Afzal Hossain, 38, was killed in Dhunat Upazila. - BD News 24.
This map from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center shows the location of a magnitude 4.5 earthquake that struck early Sunday morning off Hawaii island.
The earthquake did not generate a tsunami. PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER
April 6, 2015 - UNITED STATES - A
magnitude 4.5 earthquake shook Hawaii island early Sunday morning, but
no tsunami was generated and there were no immediate reports of serious
injuries or damage.
The earthquake struck at 3:23 a.m. about 7 miles west of Kalaoa and 10 miles northwest of Kailua-Kona at a depth of 6.2 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
Only light shaking was reported and the earthquake caused no detectable changes to the volcanoes on Hawaii island, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported.
USGS shakemap intensity
The earthquake was widely felt on the Big Island. The USGS "Did You Feel It?" website received more than 150 felt reports, including 3 people who said they felt it on Oahu at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and in Aiea.
During the past 30 years, geologists recorded 23 earthquakes, including Sunday's temblor, in the same area offshore of Keahole Point with magnitudes greater than 3.0 and depths of 3 to 9 miles.
The volcano observatory said earthquakes at this depth off the west coast of the Big Island are typically caused by abrupt motion on the boundary between the old ocean floor and the volcanic material of the island and are usually not directly related to volcanic activity.
As of 7 a.m., no aftershocks of the earthquake were reported, volcano scientists said.
An unrelated earthquake, estimated at magnitude 3.3, struck at 12:16 a.m. It was centered 11 miles south of Kapaau and 36 miles north-northeast of Kailua-Kona at a depth of about 16 miles. - Star Advertiser.
