Reno Wildfires

On November 18th about 10,000 people in Reno were evacuated from there homes. The fire chief said the cause of the blame could have been anything from down power lines, to homeless people, to children trying to stay warm. It was a very windy night and the fire spread fast. People who were evacuated said they could see an orange glow outside, as if the mountain was on fire.

This article was interesting to read. I think that the fire spread so fast because of the high winds, but I just wonder how it really started. I feel like if someone would be trying to stay warm, they would build there fire in a place out of the wind, which in turn would not let the fire spread. But then again who knows, if the fire was started by down power lines from the wind that would seem to make more sense. As I looked up videos some stated that the fire was caused by down power lines. A large about of damage by the wind. 

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57327823/wildfire-tears-through-reno-10000-evacuated/

Rare Tornado?

When talking about Oklahoma, tornado is not a rare or unusual term. But in November, large strength tornadoes are considered to be rare and unusual. On November 7th a tornado hit Oklahoma. Yearly about 3400 tornadoes have been in Oklahoma, but on this day it was different. The tornado  pictured on the right is what hit Oklahoma. As you can see from the picture, it had a very high intensity and was very large, registering at EF4.

I found this to be very interesting. Oklahoma is hit with multiple tornadoes a year but only a couple reach the EF4/EF5 range in the month of November. Last record of one with this large of intensity was back in 1930.

article from: http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/tornado-oklahoma-unusual_2011-11-11

Earthquakes in Oklahoma Caused By Energy Drilling?

The 5.6 magnitude quake that hit Oklahoma was under investigation. Scientists thought that it was very unusual and could be connected to the energy drilling going on. This process for energy drilling is called fracking; they pump water into the earth to release natural gas and oil. The fluid is used to break apart shale and rock, the injection wells dispose of the fluid by injecting it back into the ground. Scientists thought this was interesting because they saw small earthquakes near fracking sites but nothing ever this extreme. Another piece to their argument is how Arkansas has been having many small earthquakes too said to be caused by fracking (or injection wells).  Natural gas companies say there is no connection with the 181 injection wells and the earthquakes over the weekend. Geologists said the quakes are a real mystery but that there is no reason to think that the injection wells are causing the quakes. 

article from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060798/Oklahoma-earthquake-possibly-caused-controversial-energy.html

Alaska Hit By Huge Sea Storm

A very large sea storm hit Alaska yesterday morning. Alaska is used to these types of storms, but this storm came earlier than normal and had a very large magnitude. This storm had winds between 60-80 mph, and blizzard like conditions. Usually these types of storms come after the first of December, then the shores have iced over. The iced shores are a natural protection, because it isn't cold enough to freeze, the villages near by are threatened by heavy wind and flooding. The picture above is from www.foxnews.com. I thought this was a very interesting article because of the timing of the storm. Alaska was not ready for this because the shores were not iced over due to warmer weather. Alaska could see massive flooding soon, this storm could cause the sea to rise 7 feet. That's crazy! The last time they have seen this was November 1974, where the surge of the sea was over 13 feet.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/09/alaska-prepares-for-storm-epic-magnitude/

Tornado State Rattled by Earthquake

Normally when we talk about environmental hazards in Oklahoma, we are talking about tornadoes. Not the case this weekend. Saturday morning an earthquake hit Oklahoma that measured a 4.7 magnitude. Later that day the record for largest earthquake was beat in Oklahoma measuring at 5.6.

Oklahoma has bee hit with multiple earthquakes but the one on Saturday was abnormally large.  The picture shown is from Jeff J Mitchell/Getty, from the site http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/06/earthquakes-oklahoma-biggest-ever?newsfeed=true.

I found this to be a pretty interesting story because usually in Oklahoma you here about tornado disasters. This was also interesting because Oklahoma has been hit with multiple tornadoes, that can be felt within 100 miles of the epicenter, when the magnitude is in the 4s. This earthquake was felt, around 300 miles away, in Kansas City. There is a big different in the distance with only about one magnitude higher.

Bangkok Floods Still Taking Lives

The Thailand Government has had warnings out to evacuate for the flooding. Currently there are 11 districts that have been ordered to evacuate and 7 others for partial evacuation. Evacuations are not mandatory in the districts, and many people are not evacuating because they want to protect their homes and businesses. Thailand has been hammered with heavy rainfall since late July leaving the country in a swampy mess and death tolls around 500. Majority of the people have drown or died from water electrocutions.

Bangkok does have a drainage system to siphon off water during the monsoon season, but this system is efficient for the average rainfall, and the rainfall that Thailand is seeing is not average.

I found this article on news.google.com. I thought it was very interesting because it reminded me of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan. Japan had tsunami walls up but the earthquake was so large, and made the ground sink about 3 feet into the ground, that the tsunami walls were no match. In this case, the drainage system is effective and efficient for average monsoon rainfalls, but are not up to the amounts of rain Thailand has gotten this year.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/evacuations-ordered-in-bangkok-after-floods-kill-more-than-500/article2227071/