Temperature
Extremes
High
temperature extreme:
Adrar, Algeria 120 degrees.
Low temperature extreme:
Vostok (Russia), Antarctica -110 degrees.
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Satellite
Fever Prediction
The
same weather satellites that provide data on the El Niño weather
phenomenon may now be used to predict outbreaks of Rift Valley fever
(RVF) in Africa.
RVF
is a fever-causing virus that affects both humans and livestock.
It is spread by mosquitoes that proliferate after particularly heavy
periods of rainfall and is then transmitted to humans by livestock.
It can cause serious eye infection, inflammation of the brain and
hemorrhaging. Researchers reported in the journal Science that monitoring
areas of vegetation in shallow depressions near rivers in Kenya’s
Rift Valley can enable them to predict an outbreak of Rift Valley
fever five months in advance. The depressions, known as dambos,
are ideal breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that carry the disease.
The early warning would enable the vaccination of livestock and
provide time to treat infected dambos with insecticides.
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Yangtze
Disaster
More
than 47,500 people were evacuated from central China’s Hubei
Province as the Yangtze River rose to alarming heights and threatened
to repeat last year’s devastating flooding.
Emergency
workers evacuated those living in the low-lying areas of Paizhouwan,
using more than 60 boats and 240 trucks. Nearly 10,000 men remained
behind to work on reinforcing the 25-mile-long dike that protects
the area. The river rose a frightening three feet within a 48-hour
period and is expected to peak on July 23 with the arrival of the
flood crest that is rushing downstream. At that point, the river
would exceed last year’s 104-foot level which heralded the worst
flooding on the Yangtze in 50 years.
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Eruptions
Soufriere
Hills Volcano on the West Indies island of Montserrat exploded
with a powerful blast that sent ash soaring as high as 40,000 feet
into the Caribbean sky.
The
blast also sent superheated rock pouring down the eastern Tar River
Valley and into the Atlantic Ocean. • The Indian Ocean island of
Reunion’s Piton de la Fournaise (Fiery Peak) Volcano erupted for
the first time since March 1998. The eruption occurred on the volcano’s
uninhabited eastern slope, and there were no reports of injuries
or damage to property. • Colima Volcano erupted with a four-mile-high
plume of smoke, forcing the evacuation of nearly 300 people from
six towns in western Mexico.
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Lesser
Great Lakes
The
largest fresh surface water system in the world has dropped to a
32-year low due to diminished snow and rainfall in the region.
All
of the Great Lakes, along the U.S.-Canadian border, are expected
to recede further until seasonal precipitation increases in November.
Numerous boats have run aground recently and many docks along the
shores have become unusable. Freighters and other large ships have
been forced to skirt the newly surfaced sandbars. Lake Ontario is
at seven inches below average, Lake Erie has dropped three inches
and lakes Michigan and Huron are also depressed.
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Rhino
Peril
The
nearly extinct one-horned rhino is seriously threatened by the ongoing
floods triggered by monsoon rains in India.
Twenty-five
percent of the Kaziranga National Park, which is home to the rhino,
is now submerged by the powerful Brahmaputra River. The park houses
the last major population of the animals.
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Earthquakes
A
powerful temblor off southern Bangladesh killed three children,
injured 500 others and wrecked scores of homes.
As
much as half of the airborne dust in Miami on some summer
days may be of African origin, according to an atmospheric scientist.