By
Steve Newman - April
16, 1999
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High
Temperature Extreme
 Nawabshah,
Pakistan: 113 degrees Fahrenheit
(top)
Low
Temperature Extreme
 Vostok
(Russia), Antarctica: -103 degrees Fahrenheit
(top)
Wildfires
 Windy
and dry weather raised the threat of wildfires across the southeastern
United States, where flames have already charred thousands of acres
of forest and brush.
Residents
of 60 homes near the western North Carolina town of Wilkesboro were
placed under an evacuation order as a large forest fire raced through
the area. Florida Governor Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency after
an index of fire potential in the state rose above 600 on a scale where
400 denotes significant danger. The state was ravaged by massive blazes
last summer.
Cuban
firefighters brought one of the country’s largest forest fires on record
under control, but not before it had devastated 19,770 acres of pine
and eucalyptus forest in Pinar del Rio province.
(top)
Record
Heat
 Blistering
temperatures were recorded in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
on April 8 with midday heat in the shade reaching 111 degrees Fahrenheit.
The maximum
was the highest reached for the month of April since reliable records
began in 1974. The previous record was 110 degrees in 1980. Such high
readings are normally expected during the summer months when large parts
of the Arabian peninsula regularly reach 122 degrees.
(top)
Bengal
Storms
 At
least 12 people are dead, hundreds of others injured and dozens left
missing after three days of severe storms in southern Bangladesh.
The storms
pounded the region with heavy rainfall and winds up to 60 mph. Power
poles were uprooted and homes flattened by the powerful gales, according
to Moyezuddin Khan, District Commissioner of Bhola district on the southern
coast.
(top)
Deforestation
Victims
 China
now has fewer than 20 Siberian tigers living in its wilderness and
researchers blame their disappearance on a loss of habitat caused by
deforestation.
The latest
findings emerged from a two-month joint study by wildlife experts from
China, the United States and Russia. The study focused on the major
tiger habitats of Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces in northeastern China.
Heilongjiang has only five to eight wild Siberian tigers, with about
10 living in the wild of neighboring Jilin.
Earthquakes
 Two
days of minor tremors in metropolitan Los Angeles rattled nerves
and set off car alarms, but caused no significant damage.
Earth
movements were also felt in northern Tunisia, northern Greece,
Taiwan and Fiji.
(top)
Spring
Twisters
 At
least six people were killed, dozens hospitalized and hundreds of homes
destroyed after a tornado packing winds of more than 250 mph cut a 25-block
swath of destruction through Cincinnati’s northeastern suburbs.
Tornadoes,
hail and thunderstorms also pounded six other Midwestern states.
(top)
Eruption
 Molten
lava flowing from Mount Cameroon missed the homes of 1,000 people
who had been evacuated after the volcano began erupting on March 28.
Residents
of Bakinguili and Batoke had been ordered to leave when a river of lava
began moving toward their homes. But the molten rock shifted direction
and headed toward the Atlantic Ocean, away from populated areas of the
west-central African nation. Recent eruptions have contaminated water
and caused hazardous air pollution.
(top)
Species
Confusion
 A
Spanish pig that had been raised as a dog went into a depression
when it was forced to live with other pigs, Madrid’s daily El Mundo
reported.
The owners
of the 176-pound male pig Trufo had treated it like a pet dog, walking
it on a leash, feeding it milk and biscuits, washing it with shampoo
and teaching it to sit on its back feet. But when the owners moved to
France, the one-year-old porker was left at a pig farm near Madrid where
it fell into a month-long depression because it could not stand the
bad smells and the pig fodder. Trufo was finally cheered up by the arrival
of a female and assumed his role as a pig. But he still expects to be
kissed goodnight, the newspaper reported.
(top)
Additional
Sources: Japan Meteorological Agency, U.S. Climate Analysis Center,
U.S. Earthquake Information Center and the World Meteorological Organization.
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