|
By
Steve Newman - April
23, 1999
- Click any icon
High
Temperature Extreme
 Tillaberi,
Niger: 113 degrees Fahrenheit
(top)
Low
Temperature Extreme
 Vostok
(Russia), Antarctica: -105 degrees Fahrenheit
(top)
Eruptions
 A
tourist inn and several utility installations were destroyed after lava
flowing from the Mount Cameroon Volcano tore through a nearby
community. Government
officials had earlier evacuated 300 people from the town of Bakingele
to makeshift shelters. The volcano, located about 195 miles west of
the capital Yaounde, began erupting March 27.
Two flights
into the eastern Aleutian Islands were canceled and other planes
were rerouted after a pilot spotted a steam and ash plume billowing
from the Shishaldin Volcano. The restless volcano is about 700 miles
southwest of Anchorage on Unimak Island, just off the end of the Alaska
Peninsula. Shishaldin’s most recent eruption was in 1996.
(top)
Deadly
Hailstorm
 One
person was killed and scores of others injured after a storm packing
large hailstones swept across Sydney, Australia.
A fisherman
was killed when he was struck by lightning during the tempest near Dolans
Bay. The storm hit without warning, catching Australia’s largest city
unprepared. Dozens of people were treated for cuts and lacerations after
being struck by falling glass or hailstones, which witnesses described
as being the size of golf balls and lemons. Total damage from the storm
may exceed $250 million.
(top)
Quake
Attacks
 A
severe earthquake that devastated parts of northern India earlier
this month drove a leopard out of its habitat and into populated areas
where it has killed at least two people.
The victims
died after being mauled by the big cat in the northern state of Uttar
Pradesh, according to the Press Trust of India. One woman barely escaped
death when villagers scared the big cat away.
(top)
Largest
Bacterium
 The
largest bacterium ever identified has been found by researchers sampling
ocean dredgings in the South Atlantic.
The microbe,
discovered near Namibia, lives by absorbing sulfur and nitrates, and
swells as the chemicals are stored inside its cell walls, researchers
reported in the journal Science. The largest of the bacteria measures
.03 inches, or about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
“They look like a thin string of pearls,” said the scientists, who named
the new microbe Thiomargarita namibiensis, which means “Sulfur Pearl
of Namibia.”
(top)
Tropical
Storm
 Tropical
cyclone Hamish formed briefly over the open waters of the eastern Indian
Ocean. The storm produced maximum winds of approximately 45 mph
before losing force southwest of Sumatra.
(top)
Fire
Season
 Wildfires
burning for nearly two weeks across parts of South Florida were
considered contained after blackening more than 155,000 acres of wetlands
in the Everglades.
Fire officials
say the wildfires may have been started by a spark from the catalytic
converter of a vehicle traveling near the main east-west highway known
as “Alligator Alley.” The blazes have been the largest of at least 2,515
fires that have burned in drought-stricken Florida this year.
(top)
Earthquakes
 Several
homes on Hawaii’s Big Island were damaged and residents were
left without electricity after a magnitude 5.5 quake rocked the Wood
Valley.
Earth
movements were also felt in Australia’s southern Victoria State,
New Zealand’s North Island, southwestern and eastern Japan,
Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, southern Greece, the republic
of Georgia, Southern California and Utah.
(top)
Falcon
Spy
 A
falcon that was suspected of spying for Pakistan was released after
being imprisoned for six months in India. The bird was set free at a
park near Jodhpur city in the western state of Rajasthan. It was captured
last winter after being found fitted with a radio transmitter near the
India-Pakistan border. Officials had turned the bird over to police
after they found evidence it was involved in a Pakistani spying mission.
The bird was later sent to the National Desert Park in Jaisalmer and
then shifted to the zoo in the town of Jodhpur. The zoo was ready to
free the bird in January but police held up the release, saying that
further investigations were necessary.
(top)
Additional
Sources: Japan Meteorological Agency, U.S. Climate Analysis Center,
U.S. Earthquake Information Center and the World Meteorological Organization.
|
