Temperature
Extremes
High
temperature extreme:
Sibi, Pakistan 121 degrees.
Low temperature extreme:
Vostok (Russia), Antarctica -110 degrees.
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Killing
Heat
A
scorching heat wave with high humidity gripping the eastern half
of the United States for more than a week has been blamed
for the deaths of at least 49 people.
Sixteen
died in Illinois, 18 in Missouri and 10 in Ohio, with isolated heat-related
deaths also reported in North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and
Maryland. Residents in the hottest regions were urged to check on
elderly and ill neighbors. The stifling weather is also causing
drought and is withering crops in many northeastern and mid-Atlantic
states. Utility companies in many regions are concerned that electrical
grids may not be able to cope with increased demand caused by the
heat wave. Power output is already near capacity as people turn
up the air conditioning to keep cool.
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Eruption
Taal
Volcan, south of Philippine capital Manila, has begun to
spew mud-laden geysers, prompting officials to formulate a warning
plan for local residents.
The
director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology
said the geyser emissions from a vent in the volcano usually last
from a few minutes to about an hour. But recent emissions have lasted
for as long as an entire day, and have occurred more frequently.
The 1,026-foot-high volcano last erupted in 1977 when it produced
no casualties or damage. A larger eruption in 1965 killed nearly
200 people who lived near the volcano.
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Tropical
Storm Neil
Tropical
storm Neil passed just offshore from Japan’s southernmost
main island of Kyushu, bringing heavy rains to Nango and Miyazaki
prefectures.
Rough
seas caused a ferry from Osaka to run aground some 650 feet off
the coast of Kannoura. Neil later weakened before making landfall
over the southwestern tip of South Korea, then lost force over the
central Korean Peninsula.
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Blazes
Threaten Gorillas
The
mountain gorillas of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National
Park are seriously threatened by the forest fires which have been
raging through the area for more than a week.
Uganda
is one of only three African countries where the gorillas can still
be found in the wild. The Uganda Wildlife Authority fears the gorillas
will flee the region and that the park’s ecosystem will be destroyed.
Residents and park officials have been battling the blazes in vain
due to the dry weather which has caused a nationwide drought.
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Fire
Destroys Habitat
Wildfires
that destroyed nearly 50,000 acres of desert vegetation near Atomic
City, Idaho, also took with them one of the last existing prime
habitats of the sage grouse.
The
area was the birds’ mating and nesting place, and biologists estimate
it will take at least 20 years for the habitat to recover. The grouse,
Centrocercus urophasianus, is a large game bird that was once abundant
in the sagebrush habitat of the western U.S. and Canada. The recent
fires bring the total losses of mature sagebrush habitat to 500,000
acres during the past decade.
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Sino
Floods
Nearly
130,000 Chinese residents were evacuated from three townships
in the province of Hunan when floodwaters ripped through a dyke
near the city of Yiyang and submerged more than 8,200 acres of farmland.
Hundreds
of buildings were destroyed by the force of the water. Ongoing severe
flooding in several parts of China had already forced hundreds of
thousands of other residents from their homes this summer.
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Earthquakes
Several
coastal towns in northern Japan were shaken by a magnitude 4.9 earthquake
that was centered off the northern tip of Honshu Island. Earth movements
were also felt in eastern Taiwan, northeastern India and western
Turkey.
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Fish
Kill
Nearly
one million fish died in tributaries of Maryland’s Pocomoke
River in the second major fish kill in the area in less than a month.
Schools
of small menhaden were discovered dying in the Bullbeggar Creek.
They were found piled along the banks of the waterway by the thousands
in what officials called the worst fish kill in decades. “The indications
are large pools of menhaden swam up this creek, got trapped up in
there ... and oxygen levels fell, and they died,” said John Surrick,
spokesman for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. State
biologists said that algal blooms in the shallow areas depleted
oxygen supplies before the fish could swim to deeper waters. In
early July, over 200,000 died in the tributaries of the Magothy
and Patapsco rivers in the same region.
