Earth & Space Weather

Winter storm batters Mideast, flooding and accidents kill 8

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Newser - 1/09/13, Jamal Halaby and Barbara Surk/AP

Palestinians cross a road flooded and swept away by heavy rains in the northern West Bank village of Kabatyeh, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. A Palestinian official says the fiercest storm to hit the area in a decade has claimed the lives of two West Bank women who drowned after their...

Palestinians cross a road flooded and swept away by heavy rains in the northern West Bank village of Kabatyeh, Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. A Palestinian official says the fiercest storm to hit the area in...   (Associated Press)

The fiercest winter storm to hit the Mideast in years brought a rare foot of snow to Jordan on Wednesday, caused fatal accidents in Lebanon and the West Bank, and disrupted traffic on the Suez Canal in Egypt. At least eight people died across the region.

Tel Aviv and its environs paralyzed as storms flood central Israel

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Haaretz.com - 1/08/13, Yaniv Kubovich

Latest updates: Ayalon, Highway 1 shut down in parts; power outages reported across Tel Aviv; three killed, one seriously injured in accident on Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway; Ayalon River, usually a dry bed, floods beyond capacity.

The scene of the accident, January 8, 2013.

The scene of the accident on Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, January 8, 2013. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi
 

Israel has been battered this week by its stormiest winter in a decade, with flooding and injuries reported across the country. Tel Aviv saw the climax of this on Tuesday, when floods paralyzed traffic in the city and its environs and sent the municipality into near emergency mode.

NOAA - State of the Climate

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NOAA National Climatic Data Center - 1/09/13

2012 was warmest and second most extreme year on record for the contiguous U.S.

Significant U.S. Climate Events for November 2012
Significant weather and climate events for 2012.


2012 was a historic year for extreme weather that included drought, wildfires, hurricanes and storms; however, tornado activity was below average

2012 marked the warmest year on record for the contiguous United States with the year consisting of a record warm spring, second warmest summer, fourth warmest winter and a warmer-than-average autumn. The average temperature for 2012 was 55.3°F, 3.2°F above the 20th century average, and 1.0°F above 1998, the previous warmest year.

Purple alert! Australian heatwave forces climate experts to use new colour to represent extreme temperatures

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The Independent - 1/08/13, Michael McCarthy and Kathy Marks

Australian Bureau of Meteorology adds two entirely new colours – deep purple and pink – to show the new extreme range on its interactive weather maps

Australia’s giant and record heatwave, which is sparking hundreds of bush fires across the land, has forced the country’s meteorologists to redraw their national temperature scales – upwards.

In an unprecedented move, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has extended the temperature range on its charts from the previous cap of 50 degrees Centigrade – 122 degrees Fahrenheit – to 54 degrees C, which is more than 129 degrees in Fahrenheit terms.

To read the rest of this story, visit The Independent.

Thousands without running water in China due to temperature

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KSDK.com - 1/07/13, Brandie Piper

QIANJIANG, China (CCTV/CNN) - People living in a high altitude region face water shortages in Chongqing. There's water, but it's frozen!

Over 5,000 people living in a high altitude region in Chongqing Municipality, southwest China are suffering shortage of running water after the temperature dropped in the region.

To watch the video and read the rest of this story, visit KSDK.com.

Activity increases on the Sun, as sunspots proliferate

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Source: The Extinction Protocol - 1/08/13

January 9, 2013 – SPACE – CHANCE OF FLARES: NOAA forecasters estimate a 35% chance of M-class flares and a 5% chance of X-flares during the next 24 hours. The most likely source would be sunspot AR1652; it has a ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class eruptions. The active region is circled in this Jan. 8th image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory: Of greater interest, perhaps, is the large sunspot emerging just south of AR1652.

 

Denoted by an arrow, the unnumbered region is crackling with C-class solar flares and, based on its size, could be capable of even stronger eruptions. We will know more in the days ahead as the sunspot turns toward Earth; a more direct view will reveal what kind of magnetic field the sunspot possesses. A very large sunspot is emerging over the sun’s eastern limb. Numbered AR1654, it consists of two dark cores each 4 or more times wider than Earth. –Space Weather

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