Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms - Roundup of Tropical Storms:

Tropical cyclone 06p (Ula), is located approximately 443 nm north of Auckland, New Zealand, and is tracking east-southeastward at 12 knots.

Hurricane Pali is located about 825 mi...1330 km S of Johnston Island and about 1455 mi...2340 km SW of Honolulu Hawaii with maximum sustained winds...90 mph...150 km/h. Present movement...S or 190 degrees at 7 mph...11 km/h.

Invest 90L is an area of disturbed weather in the North Atlantic that has the potential for tropical development.

NewsBytes:

Iraq - The Mosul Dam in Iraq faces the danger that it may collapse because of insufficient maintenance, which would overwhelm major communities downstream with floodwaters. In the worst-case scenario, an estimated 500,000 people could be killed while more than a million could be rendered homeless if the dam, Iraq’s largest, were to collapse in the spring, when the Tigris is swollen by rain and melting snow.

Syria - Snow and cold weather grip war-torn Syria - Millions of Syrians are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance, aid workers say. Buildings have collapsed under the weight of snow.

El Niño - Australia's weather bureau said the 2015-16 El Nino weather event has peaked in the recent weeks and is likely return to ENSO Neutral by Quarter 2 of 2016.

Disease

Outbreak of flesh-eating skin disease grips ISIS-controlled areas in Syria

The collapse of the medical services in the terrorist-controlled territory of war-torn Syria is responsible for the spread of a flesh-eating virus, known as Leishmaniasis, transmitted through parasites which abundantly munch on corpses dumped in the streets.

Kurdish fighters in Syria claimed the disease was not noticed until Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) influence and atrocities spread across Syria. Leishmaniasis, which is not deadly but leads to disfiguring lesions on the skin, was particularly bad in war-torn parts of Syria.

According to a Kurdish publication the first outbreak of the disease, spread by sand flies, was reported in September 2013, and by mid- 2014 around 500 people had reportedly been affected.

Syria’s healthcare system has been devastated by four years of conflict, as more than half of the public hospitals in the country are unable to provide full service. In ISIS-controlled areas hospitals are understaffed; healthcare workers have been forced to flee for their lives.

Global Warming

Rising Tides

Sea levels around the world have risen by an average of nearly 3 inches since 1992, with some areas experiencing a rise of more than 9 inches, according to a NASA analysis of satellite observations.

Experts say that changes in sea level vary widely around the world due to local conditions, but climate change is the main driver.

Scientists estimate about a third of the rise is due to expansion caused by warming oceans, while the remainder is evenly divided between ice loss of the massive Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and the melting of mountain glaciers.

NASA scientists told a press conference that they now have data to help planners determine what coastal areas will be threatened by sea level rises over the next century.

NASA says rises of up to 3 feet during that period are “unavoidable.”

Even today, normal spring high tides cause street flooding in sections of Miami, something that didn’t happen regularly just a few decades ago.

Tragic Cleansing

About the only promising development to come out of the conflict-ravaged Middle East in the past few years is a pronounced drop in greenhouse gas emissions.

With untold thousands of refugees fleeing to Europe from Syria and Iraq, the shattered economies they leave behind are in no shape to burn the volume of fossil fuels they did prior to the onset of the Syrian civil war.

Nitrogen dioxide emissions have plunged 40 percent over Damascus and 50 percent over Aleppo since Arab Spring protests reached Syria in 2011.

Writing in the journal Science Advances, Jos Lelieveld of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Chemistry says the cleaner air observed by atmospheric monitoring from space is due to “international boycotts, armed conflict and related mass migration of people.”

But he adds that air pollution reductions instituted by neighboring Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have also contributed to the region’s overall drop in carbon emissions.

This graphic of nitrogen dioxide measurements from space illustrates the trend toward less greenhouse gas emissions.

Disease

Typhoid in Syria

Typhoid has broken out among residents of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, the United Nations said on Wednesday, warning of further disease outbreaks unless aid reached the camp because of the appalling conditions there.

Eleven cases of typhoid were confirmed by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which gained access to residents from the Yarmouk camp for the first time since June in nearby Yalda, where it carried out more than 200 medical consultations.

Typhoid is contracted by drinking or eating contaminated matter and symptoms include nausea, fever, and abdominal pain. Untreated, the disease can lead to complications in the gut and head which can kill up to one in five patients.

Foot and Mouth Disease - Zimbabwe

International beef exports remain suspended for nearly 15 years due to continued outbreaks of the foot and mouth disease across the country. Government efforts to eradicate the disease have proved fruitless.

Disease

Typhoid in Syria

Typhoid has broken out in an opposition-held region of Syria due to people drinking contaminated water from the Euphrates River.

An estimated 2,500 people in northeastern Deir al-Zor province are infected with the contagious disease, which causes diarrhoea and can be fatal.

Storms and Floods

Tornado in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Tornado hits Batam, damages hundreds of houses, injuring dozens.

Tropical Cyclone Narelle

Strong winds and high waves, the result of the Narelle tropical cyclone, have affected many areas across Bali as, causing the island's ferry ports in Gilimanuk and Padang Bai to stop operations yesterday. Strong winds have also caused severe damage to public facilities, as well as houses and trees in Gianyar, Denpasar, Badung, Tabanan and Bangli.

Severe Winter Storm in Eastern Mediterranean

The worst winter storm in two decades has hit the eastern Mediterranean this week, bringing destruction and death to Syria and its neighbours who are already dealing with a refugee crisis from the country's civil war. Many Syrians living in ruins, were burning chairs and doors to keep warm.

Opposition activists in Syria, where war has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and cut off access to food, fuel and power for cities and towns, say dozens of people have died there in four days of relentless extreme weather.

At least 17 people have also died due to the storm in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Roads in Lebanon were washed away and electricity cut. Schools in some areas have been shut for days, refugee camps flooded and villages isolated by closed roads.

Disease

Ebola outbreak in Isiro, Orientale, Democratic Republic of the Congo. 1 person is dead with 3 other infected. This is a different strain of the virus to that found in the Uganda outbreak.

Thousands of people flee Syria to escape a massive diarrhoeal outbreak.