El Ni
ño Returns
U.S. climate experts announced that a mild El Ni
ño ocean-warming phenomenon has developed during the last three
months across parts of the equatorial Pacific
El Niño Returns
U.S. climate experts announced that a mild El Niño ocean-warming phenomenon has developed during the last three months across parts of the equatorial Pacific. Jim Laver, director of the Climate Prediction Center, said the warming is expected to last through the early part of next year. The center believes that since the current warming is not as widespread as in previous strong El Niños, it is not likely to produce effects on the global weather as strong as those of the 1997-1998 event. Severe conditions then caused an estimated $20 billion in damage worldwide.
Earthquakes
The Indonesian resort islands of Bali and Lombok were rocked by a magnitude 5.5 temblor that killed one person.
• Earth movements were also felt in Japan’s Hokkaido Island; Luzon and Mindanao islands in the Philippines; southwestern Greece; Croatia; northern Colombia; central Indiana and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Eruptions
Mayon Volcano on the Philippine island of Luzon spewed fiery fragments into the skies south of Manila as vulcanologists warned magma was rising in its crater.
• The latest in a series of eruptions at Indonesia’s Mount Egon Volcano coated a nearby town with ash. The explosion dashed hopes that the 2,000 people already evacuated due to earlier explosions could soon return to their Flores Island homes.
• Japan’s Mount Asama erupted for the third time in two weeks with ongoing activity after its largest eruption in 21 years on Sept. 1.
Bengal Tempest
The heaviest rains to drench the northern Bay of Bengal in more than a half a century triggered widespread and devastating flooding across eastern India and Bangladesh. Large parts of the region, including the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka, were left under three to four feet of water. The latest disaster came in the wake of severe monsoon flooding that had already left 700 people dead and 33 million people affected during July and August.
Tropical Cyclones
Powerful Hurricane Ivan roared ashore along the U.S. Gulf Coast, where more than 2 million people across four states had been evacuated prior to its arrival. The storm had earlier caused widespread death and destruction across the Caribbean.
• Developing Hurricane Jeanne drenched Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Hispaniola before taking aim on the hurricane-battered Bahamas late in the week.
• Hurricane Javier threatened Mexico’s Baja peninsula with heavy rains. Tropical Storm Isis passed over the open Pacific.
• Tropical Storm Haima left one person dead in the floods and mudslides unleashed by it on Taiwan. Haima later moved ashore in China’s Zhejiang Province.
Ozone Hole
The European Space Agency announced that its satellite observations confirm the annual hole in the ozone over Antarctica has appeared about two weeks later than last year’s. The ozone hole typically persists until November or December, and it is not yet known how large an area it will cover this season.
Cold Attack
A sudden drop in temperature behind a winter cold front can trigger an increase in the number of heart attacks among people with a history of heart disease, according to French medical experts.
The announcement, made in Munich at the meeting of the European Society of Cardiologists, was based on the study of 750 patients who had suffered heart attacks. The incidence of heart attacks among the study group rose sharply when temperatures dropped suddenly below 25 degrees Fahrenheit.
The researchers from Dijon University Hospital said most of those affected had a history of high blood pressure, and were twice as likely to have heart attacks than others under the same weather conditions.
Arctic Buzz
First Nation residents living far north of the Arctic Circle in Canada were puzzled by the appearance of an insect for which they had no name in their native Inuktitut language. Several yellow jacket wasps have been seen in various locations around the community of Arctic Bay, on the northern tip of Baffin Island and higher than 73 degrees latitude. Canadian entomologist Brian Brown at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, who identified the wasps after receiving a photograph of one from Arctic Bay’s baffled mayor, said that the unprecedented appearance so far north could be a freak occurrence, or possibly a sign of climate change in the Arctic. He also warned the community of 700 not to touch any of them.
– By Steve Newman
