Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms - Roundup of Tropical Storms:

No current tropical storms.

NewsBytes:

Ghana - Severe rainstorm in Yendi Municipality in Ghana has injured two children and made around 942 homeless with damage to 93 households and two mosques, with the hardest hit in Guntintle and Madina, suburbs of Yendi.

Serbia - Heavy rain and flooding have forced the authorities to declare an emergency situation in the Cacak, Lucani and Arilje municipalities in Serbia. At least 15 people have been evacuated after the River Cemernica broke its banks in Preljine near Cacak. The floods also caused power cuts in some areas in the centre of Cacak.

California - Flash flood watches, high surf conditions, hail, fierce winds, and evacuations leave Californians scrambling for high ground in many areas. Heavy rains, hail and gusty winds rocked much of California on Sunday as a strong late winter storm passed through. Thousands of people lost power throughout the day during the blast, hundreds of others had to be evacuated. In Southern California, the line of thunderstorms continued on into Monday with severe thunderstorm warnings in place for many areas, including Long Beach, Glendale, and Pomona.

Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms - Roundup of Tropical Storms:

No current tropical storms.

NewsBytes:

California, USA - California was battered by winds as high as 115mph: At least one person was killed and thousands were left without electricity as a powerful storm prompts warnings of flash floods and mudslides. The heavy rain brought traffic to a near-standstill on LA freeways and forecasters said tornadoes were possible.

Australia - In Western Australia, Tropical Cyclone Stan brought strong winds and heavy rain to the Pilbara, while a weak monsoon has arrived in the Top End. Stan has since dissipated over land. Meanwhile, a man was killed near Bundaberg in southern Queensland after his car was washed away by floodwaters, just moments after he let his brother out to check on water levels. In south-east NSW, destructive winds during thunderstorms destroyed several homes at Forbes Creek, about an hour east of Canberra.

Indonesia - Flash flood in Situbondo district, East Java destroyed houses Sunday morning after Silowogo river overflew following the heavy rain. The flash flood affected at least 28 houses in Silowogo, 15 houses in Sumberanayar and 100 houses in Melandingam Wetan village in the Bungatan district. Heavy rain also caused landslides in several areas in Agam District, West Sumatra.

Earthquakes

Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global

7.0 Earthquake hits Kamchatka, Russia.

5.3 Earthquake hits the Kuril Islands.

5.2 Earthquake hits the Molucca Sea.

5.1 Earthquake hits Coquimbo, Chile.

5.1 Earthquake hits Kamchatka, Russia.

5.0 Earthquake hits the State of Yap, Micronesia.

5.0 Earthquake hits off the coast of northern California.

Wildlife

Toxic Marine Algae Causing Brain Damage In California Sea Lions

Massive blooms of toxic algae, also known as red tides, may have led to brain damage contributing to the stranding of thousands of sea lions on California beaches, researchers say.

The algal bloom that has spread from California waters all the way to northern Washington is releasing domoic acid, which can be toxic to humans and to marine mammals who consume concentrations of it in crabs, oysters, mussels, sardines and anchovies, they explain.

Sea lions exposed to the neurotoxin can suffer damage to their spatial memory, leading to them becoming confused and lost as they search for increasingly diminishing sources of food, the researchers report in the journal Science.

They conducted a series of tests on 30 sea lions that had been rescued after being stranded on state beaches, putting them through a simple maze to see if they could navigate it to find a food reward.

The animals exhibited a significant loss in spatial memory, the researchers found.

The massive blooms of algae are occurring in waters off the California coast that are as much as 6 degrees warmer than usual, the researchers say, and climate change is likely an important factor.

The first signs that California's sea lions were being affected by the algae toxin came in 1998 when hundreds washed ashore in Monterey Bay, and strandings of the marine mammals, often showing signs of confusion and seizures, have been seen almost every year since then.

Global Warming

Ocean acidification threatens Monterey Bay - California

Ocean acidification has been called the "evil twin" of global warming because the same carbon dioxide emissions that cause climate change also dissolve into seawater, threatening the world's oceans. And the biologically rich Monterey Bay is more at risk than most bodies of water.

The reason is that the California Current, spanning the west coast of North America, is acidifying twice as fast as the rest of the world's oceans. Globally, the oceans are already 30 percent more acidic than they were 200 years ago. By the end of the century, scientists say, they are expected to be 150 percent more acidic. But experts predict that Monterey Bay might reach those levels much sooner -- in only 35 years.

Scientists and public officials say that human life depends on healthy oceans — which regulate climate, provide half of the world's oxygen and supply people with food, jobs and recreational activities. Entire economies are built around oceans, which create 2.9 million jobs in the United States -- a half-million of those in California.

Monterey Bay is particularly threatened from ocean acidification because of the natural process of upwelling -- which brings the cold, deep water from arctic currents to the surface. That cold water is naturally more acidic than the Pacific's surface waters.

Upwelling also churns up nutrients that draw in fish, whales and other marine life, feeding Monterey Bay's vibrant ecosystem. So, in a cruel irony, the same phenomenon that sustains the bay also makes it more vulnerable to ocean acidification.

Wildlife

Spike in Fur Seals Dying Off California Coast

Scientists are looking at ocean-warming trends to figure out why endangered Guadalupe fur seals are stranding themselves and dying in alarming numbers along the central California coast.

Approximately 80 emaciated fur seals have come ashore since January — about eight times more than normal — leading the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week to declare an “unusual mortality event” for the animals. The classification diverts additional resources to study the animals, which have been traditionally under-researched, officials said.

Researchers will try to determine if the die-off is a result of a disruption in the seal’s feeding patterns from a large-scale warming of the Pacific Ocean, Toby Garfield, an official with NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Centre, said Tuesday.

The so-called warm blobs occurring during a persistent high-pressure ridge have grown to cover most of the West Coast and have been previously blamed for discoveries of emaciated young sea lions off California and starving seabirds off Oregon and Washington.

Some of the fish species that fur seals usually eat may have moved farther north to escape the unusually warm waters, Garfield said during a teleconference.