September 29, 2011

This is a map that I found today when looking for current hazards and it's from http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/cmb/hazards/2011/09/tx-fire-danger-map-09-05-2011.png showing Texas' daily fire danger.  The blue and the green indicate areas of low or moderate danger which you can see there are very few sections and the dark red shows extremely high chances of fire and the light red and yellow are still very high and high.  You can also see how many of Texas' large cities and weather stations are located in the areas under extreme concern.  The fires are as a result of strong winds from Tropical Storm Lee, record heat, drought, low humidity and lack of rain and all of these factors combined have created dozens of fires including the most destructive in Texas history. 

September 27, 2011

I large typhoon known as typhoon Nesat, in the last few days has brought heavy destruction to the Philippines.  At least 8 are confirmed dead with over 2 million people without power.  The typhoon brought heavy rain and winds close to 90 mph.  The craziest thing about this typhoon is that in an area about 120 hours north of Manila, land fell 120 miles from getting over an inch of rain an hour.  The storm is expected to now move to southeastern China and this storm is another perfect example of Asia and southeast Asia continues to get hit by these large storms.  As for the U.S. the only thing really going on right now is some flooding especially in the northeast but also in parts of the midwest.   

Sept. 22, 2011

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=52224
This is an image of Typhoon Roke which is building up strength and is about to bring a whole lot of rain to Japan and other Asian countries who are still recovering from the damage that another Typhoon brought earlier in September.  Japan has already ordered 80,000 people to evacuate and advised another 1 million due to the flooding of two major rivers expected and the mudslides from the rain.  Winds from this storm are currently over 130 mph classifying it as a category 4 storm however the storm is expected to get stronger.  Roke is expected to hit Japan with 20 inches of rain, again hitting an area that has already been devastated by large disasters this year. 

Sept. 19, 2011

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iX2jeXsAw-L5eNjWO_uWTss_glhA?docId=1fbea8b8514845efb5e0372d048c4412
This link goes to an article about a large Earthquake (6.9 magnitude) that took place earlier today in India by the Himalaya region.  As a result of the earthquake, 53 people died and 100,000 homes got damaged at least so far affecting other regions of southern Asia as well.  The quake also provided some large mudslides which were also responsible for damage.  Relief efforts were halted during a large rainstorm and a great deal of military personnel have been working frantically to help save people, many of the rescuers have been killed or hurt as well.  It seems like these poor regions of the world have been getting hammered by these large disasters, especially in the recent last few years and this disaster seems like it affected much of the Asian continent.
   this is a picture of some of the damage.

September 13, 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/interactive/2011/sep/12/hurricane-katia-map-interactive  I was looking around this site and noticed that there is a hurricane (Katia) going on that I didn't know was happening, probably because it never hit us, but is now just considered a tropical storm, however it has put many European places in a severe weather alert and these areas are expected to get hit hard by the tail of this storm.  If this category 4 hurricane would have hit us, it would have been headline news for days, maybe weeks, but since it's not going to effect us, we don't hear about it which isn't right.  

Fires Devastating Bolivia Sept. 8, 2011

Since the beginning of September, Bolivia has been getting hammered by a series of fires destroying much of their land.  This is important because their crops that they need to survive and crops that they are exporting are getting burned resulting in money lost for an already poor country and the loss of lives. 
The hazy areas are a result of the smoke from these fires and the red dots all over the place are places where fires are currently burning and many are considered to be "burning out of control."