First Snow First Snow!

Well it's that time of year again for the snow to fall. Last week 8.5 inches fell on Denver Colorado. Compared to last year this is an abnormally large snowfall. On another note some of the snow went as far as Amarillo Texas which needed some moisture. But in our case, as the storm moves east, what we have now for rain will turn to snow.

This picture is from weather.com, it shows what is expected for snowfall in Colorado and Wyoming.

I find this to be an interesting article because the trend is changing. In the last two years the normal maximum amount of snow was around 6 inches. Even though this snowfall was only 2 inches more, it makes that much of a difference.

Rina Heads for Cancun

Cancun, a large tourist spot is setting up emergency shelters and evacuations in place because of Hurricane Rina. Currently it is a Category 2 storm and wind speeds are supposed to be around 105 mph. Near future reservations have been changed due to the storm. Even in the low season for tourism, there still will be around 22,000 tourist in Cancun!
Boats and jet skis have been moved to safer land and cruise ships have cancelled port in the area to stay away from the storm. Currently there are 1,100 shelters that could handle 200,000 people. If the storm hits Cancun damages could be in the millions.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/story/2011-10-25/hurricane-rina-category-2/50901584/1

Amazing Save after Turkey Earthquake

A large 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey on Tuesday. This story is of a family where three generations survived after their home, and 7 other stories collapsed on them from the earthquake. The baby Azra was pulled first from the apartment rubble with only minor scratches on her. The rescuers we then able to save her mother and grandmother that were buried in the rubble. All were reported to have minor injuries.
I found this story to be very interesting because of the golden hours after an earthquake. The rescuers were luckily there on time and were able to find and save the new baby, mother and grandmother. If they wouldn't have been there during the most important hours this could have been a sad story instead of amazing and bittersweet story for the family. Bittersweet because the father was still being searched for in the rubble. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15448055

San Francisco Shook Up

San Francisco held a drill today for the 'Big One.' Geologists have stated that California will be hit sometime in the next 30 years by a large earthquake that could kill many people and cause a lot of damage to homes and buildings. I found this article on Google under news. I thought this was very interesting considering the movie we watched today.
In this case I think it is very good that they are holding drills. After seeing what happened to Japan, and how they thought that they were ready for a large earthquake, it is good for them to prepare. The earthquake that hit San Francisco today only had a magnitude of 3.9 but caused no injuries. What a coincidence on the day they hold a drill (about 8.2 million people were supposed to take place in the drill), that San Francisco is hit by a minor earthquake.

Flooding In Thailand

The floods that have hit Thailand have been the worst in many years. Almost 300 people have died and the floods have left thousands stranded. Besides taking out about 700,000 peoples homes, the floods and mudslides have destroyed a huge amount of farmland.  Damage costs have totaled up to over 500 thousand. The floods are threatening Bangkok which could raise the damage total significantly.

Weather.com stated that people have little trust in the Bangkok flood command center. The Prime Minister says that hey are doing all that they can. This flood crisis is one of the largest in years and has the government overwhelmed. The general public of Thailand has mixed feelings with the government and it's efforts.




Received from http://beta.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/thailand-flooding_2011-10-17
Received from http://www.sos-usa.org/newsroom/press-releases/Pages/Thailand%27s-Floods-Wipe-Out-Homes.aspx?gclid=CPuC9IuE9asCFVPGKgodDxJCpQ

Double Whammy in Pacific

Hurricane Irwin and Tropical Storm Jova are building up in the Southern Pacific. Both storms are heading in a Northeastern direction and might possibly hit land sometime early this week. Hurricane Irwin is number 8 of hurricanes in the Pacific and Jova is close behind. Jova the tropical storm is gaining strength and could become a hurricane in the next day or so.
Picture from (http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/story/2011-10-07/hurricane-irwin-pacific-ocean/50685196/1).
On the left is a picture of Hurricane Irwin and its path and strength over the next couple days. Irwin is expected to turn back towards land and maybe make landfall in Mexico.
www.usatoday.com

Wet and Windy Sunshine State

This weekend storms passing through the Atlantic were suppose to bring much needed rain to the Northeast. Unfortunately for Florida, this storm could cause damage and potentially be a flood warning. In the picture to the right, the East coast beaches are warned of rip currents, rough surfing and boating and gusty winds. (picture from http://beta.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/poor-florida-weather-watching-tropics_2011-10-05)

The direction of the storm will hit Florida on the East coast moving in strong tides and winds. Storm watchers are watching the storm because of a possible development of low pressure that could effect the Southeast. Currently in the United States drought is a huge problem, but for the sunshine state of Florida the East coast could see up to 5+ inches of rain and multiple showers are suppose to compromise the rest of the Florida peninsula.

Texas Wildfires

To go along with my current blogging topics. There was a wildfire in Bastrop, Texas yesterday. Due to low rain conditions, this is the last thing this town wants to see because of the long-burning wildfire that occurred last month. As of last night the fire had spread to 900 acres. The photo below is from  Mediad.publicbroadcasting.net.

As I touched on in one of my last blogs some rain was supposed to fall in Texas to relieve them from the drought. The forecast this week shows an increase in the chance of rain.





http://beta.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/new-wildfire-bastrop-texas_2011-10-04

Earthquake in Chile Sending Tsunamis accross the Pacific (2010)

In February 2010, a massive earthquake hit Chile. The magnitude of the quake was 8.8, one of the largest earthquakes recorded. Soon after the quake tsunami waves rushed though the Pacific ocean threatening Chile itself, Japan, Hawaii, and multiple other countries along the Pacific coast.

The earthquake happened at about 3:34 in the morning in Chile and happened right over the epicenter. The authorities did not send out alarms after the huge quake, and about 30 minutes after tsunami waves were washing people out in Chile and being sent across the Pacific. Because the alarms were not immediately sent out many people did not have time to escape to higher ground. The authorities later sent out an alarm that did give Chileans time to evacuate. The picture below shows the tsunamis direction and strength. After the massive earthquake and warning for the tsunamis went out, Pacific countries also sent out warnings to evacuate people and ships in path of the traveling tsunamis.

This hazard fits the behavioral paradigm and the development paradigm. The quake that hit Chile was very large recorded at Mw 8.8. This large of an earthquake is unusual and sent out tsunami waves which is behavioural because of the nature of the quake. Even though Chile is a developed country, the lack of preparedness from the authorities contributed to the tsunami disaster. Authorities did not sent out an alert right after the massive earthquake which did not give people enough time to evacuate properly. In the complexity paradigm the earthquake was very large and unusual, which evolved into tsunami waves all over the Pacific, the quake happened very early in the morning in Chile and the authorities did not warn people of the tsunami in time which lead to this hazard resulting in high death rates.

http://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/chile20100227/

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/27/chile-earthquake-tsunami_n_479393.html