Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Monsoon in Himachal breaks 15-year record... http://ow.ly/2EBwQ
Landslide in Zhouqu, China ... Full report ... http://ow.ly/2EBne
Hurricane Igor ... report... http://ow.ly/2EBlJ
RT @AlertNet: Dams threaten farmers, fishermen in India's northeast - activists http://ow.ly/2EAae india dams poverty

Hurricane Igor


Tropical Storm Igor formed over the far eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean on September 8, 2010, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported. From its genesis locality southeast of Cape Verde, Igor traveled westward. Igor strengthened to a hurricane on September 11, becoming the fourth of the season. By 11:00 a.m. Atlantic Standard Time (AST) on September 13, Igor was a category 4 hurricane, packing maximum sustained winds of 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image of Hurricane Igor at 12:40 p.m. AST (16:40 UTC) on September 13, 2010. Igor shows all the characteristics of a strong hurricane, including a distinct eye and spiral arms spanning hundreds of kilometers.
On September 13, the NHC forecast that Igor would continue moving toward the west at about 10 miles (17 kilometers) per hour. Late in the day on September 13, or early in the day on September 14, Igor was expected to turn toward the west-northwest. Although the storm’s intensity would likely fluctuate over the next 48 hours, it was expected to remain a powerful hurricane.


Landslide in Zhouqu, China




Tucked between the steep slopes of the Min Shan and the Bailong River in northwest China, the city of Zhouqu has a picturesque location. However, the intimidating natural beauty also carries a risk. On August 8, 2010, unusually intense monsoon rains triggered devastating landslides and floods that buried a densely populated area in the center of the city. As of August 17, China’s official news agency reported 1,270 deaths with 474 people still missing. This detailed image, from DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-2 satellite, shows the largest slide in the lower part of the city on August 10.
The slide terminates in a brown fan that extends into the Bailong River. Mud surrounds several of the buildings near the river’s edge and branches into adjacent streets. Some of this mud may have been deposited by flood waters that gathered behind the slide as torrential rain continued to fall. In the large image, which shows a wider area, the dark waters of Bailong River seeps around buildings across from the slide and up the wide road that runs along the river’s edge not far from the slide.
Moving away from the river, the mud has a rougher, more varied texture where the slide channeled through the center of the city. The smooth dark spots are probably water. Light-colored flecks are probably debris. The slide area widens again in the lower right corner, clearly covering blocks of buildings.
Slightly darker than the surrounding mud, streams snake across the surface of the slide. The large image reveals that the landslides followed the course of streams down the mountains and into the valley where Zhouqu was built. On the far right side of the large image, closer to the top of the slide and beyond the right edge of the web image, farmland surrounds the streams. The steep slopes on either side of the streams are bare of vegetation, possibly making them prone to landslides.


Following intense monsoon rains, a landslide struck Zhouqu County of China’s Gansu Province on August 8, 2010. By early September, the death toll stood at 1,765, Dave’s Landslide Blog reported, and this single event contributed to an unusually high worldwide death toll for landslides in 2010.
Weeks after the event, the landslide in remained visible to the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. ALI captured this natural-color image on September 2, 2010. Bare earth forms a giant Y shape on the otherwise forested mountain slopes. The separate slides have coalesced into a wide river of mud flowing into town. Clouds leave part of the landscape in shadow, but the landslide remains discernible all the way to the river at the bottom of the valley.




Rains may intensify over Delhi from Thursday ... http://ow.ly/2EzjX
Nowcasting is a system that can predict climate conditions for a very short period one to four hours using data from Doppler weather radars
IMD proposes nowcasting services... http://ow.ly/2Ezfn

Rains may intensify over Delhi from Thursday

India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast isolated to scattered rain or thundershowers for parts of Northwest India, including Delhi, which will gain in intensity from Thursday.
An IMD forecast valid until Thursday said that isolated to scattered rain or thundershowers would also occur over east Rajasthan, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir during this period, before scaling up.
This is being attributed to the activation of a western disturbance that will deepen in due course to embed a likely low-pressure area, updated forecast by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) said on Tuesday.
Fairly widespread rain or thundershowers has also been forecast for East and Northeast India, the West Coast, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep during this period.
IMD is also launching ‘nowcasting' facility for Delhi to coincide with the Commonwealth Games and its Web site featured a link showing a relevant page in construction.

NOWCASTING FACILITY
Nowcasting is a system that can predict climate conditions for a very short period — one to four hours — using data from Doppler weather radars.
Smaller events such as individual showers and thunderstorms can be forecast with reasonable accuracy by using this facility as also are features too small for a computer model to resolve.
Meanwhile, the last 24 hours ending Tuesday morning saw fairly widespread rainfall over Tamil Nadu, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, South Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Gangetic West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
It was scattered over Kerala, Chhattisgarh, East Rajasthan, Assam, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Haryana during this period.

CONVECTIVE CLOUDS
Satellite imagery revealed the presence of convective (rain-bearing) clouds over parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Vidarbha, East Madhya Pradesh, Gangetic West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, North Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, East Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, the Andaman Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
The trough along the Southeast Coast continued to be prominent on Tuesday with a churn beginning to build over Northwest Bay of Bengal. The ECMWF has maintained its watch for a low-pressure in this basin over the next few days.
Confluence of westerlies from a prevailing western disturbance and monsoon easterlies from the Bay of Bengal over the eastern half of Northwest India and the entire East India has helped sustain an active belt of heavy to very heavy rains over the region.

HEAVY SHOWERS
International Research Institute (IRI) of Columbia University has retained its outlook for heavy to very heavy recorded rains for Northwest India except Jammu and Kashmir and neighbourhood for six days ending Saturday.
On Tuesday, it added South Coastal Andhra Pradesh and adjoining Rayalaseema to this list, apparently from the building ‘low.'
Meanwhile, IMD traced a persisting upper air cyclonic circulation over Haryana and neighbourhood.
Meteorological analysis suggests that a fresh western disturbance is likely to affect the Western Himalayan region from Friday, it said.

RAIN WARNING
A warning valid for Wednesday said that isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall would occur over Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
Isolated heavy rainfall has been forecast over Uttar Pradesh and Gangetic West Bengal as well during this period.
Extended forecast until Sunday spoke about the possibility of widespread rainfall over Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, West Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi with isolated heavy falls.
Fairly widespread rainfall has also been forecast over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal, Sikkim, the Northeastern States, Central and adjoining North Peninsular India.
In troubled waters ... http://ow.ly/2Ez3l

cooling-warming-cooling-warming

Here's a compilation of user contributions regarding Global Warming...

78% of the globe is covered by Ocean / sea water. The land portion is only about 22%. There is no properly documented weather data over high seas are available. Moreover if and only if there is some change [like Tsunami]in the ocean one can expect drastic changes in climate. In English there is a phrase:"SEA CHANGE". This holds good.
Global Warming & the so called men made Carbon foot print in atmosphere etc are a sort of unnecessary / unwarranted fear that all are instilled in the minds of people. [The much debated OZONE HOLE now becomes Ozone WHOLE]
Will it be a trade / business tactics to enjoy more share in ever diminishing fossil fuel. Developing countries need more current & electricity, more fossil fuel.Let the supporters of global warming first follow the stipulated guidelines enumerated by IPCC. 



Posted by Kaneyen


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The media hysteria over 100 years have been documented and it goes cooling-warming-cooling-warming. Every 25-30 years the Pacific Decadal Oscillation changes mode. When it is positive, it generates warming and more el Ninos and when it is in the cold mode, cooling and more frequent and stronger la Ninas. We are in the negative PDO mode now - so the cooling has already started and should be there for the next 20-25 years.

Also sunspot activity from this millennium is diminishing. It applies to Solar 24 - the current cycle. Whenever sunspot activity diminishes, it signals cooling. Ancient Chinese use to forward trade grain based on sunspots.

Posted by Rajan


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there is very elegant solution for at least overdosing of CO2 in air called micro-algies. but it is still not popular. probably coz to sell oil bring more money then to care about pollution.


Posted by dara@israel 
RT @augustlightning: After the monsoon downpour. A road in Kumbalgodu, near Bangalore. http://ping.fm/bt4Pz
More showers forecast from 15-Sep to 22-Sep... over Madhyapradesh, N and N-E Andhra, W. Uttarpradesh, N & central Bay.. http://ow.ly/i/3QFO
Today, 3 low level circulation can be seen over Chatisgarh, Bihar and over N-W Bay along Orissa... http://ow.ly/i/3QCX
Chennai - Some showers possible tomorrow.!
Chennai - A mild and Dry day so far 5:35pm, max temp was 31.9 C (4:02pm).. Heavy cloud cover continues.. NO low cloud formation yet !
Late surge in monsoon poses crop risks ... http://ow.ly/2EuMr
2pm, W.Central Bay is active .. http://ow.ly/i/3QtG
2pm, Entire East central and S-E India is active active again ... http://ow.ly/i/3QtG
RT @rajugana: @weatherofindia, Baroda 10.00am, partially cloudy , humid and sultry. No rain since yest evening.