Earth & Space Weather

~ Space Weather Update~ GEOMAGNETIC STORM

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QUIET SUN: With no sunspots actively flaring, the sun's x-ray output has flatlined. Solar activity is low and likely to remain so throughout the weekend. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

GEOMAGNETIC STORM: A G1-class geomagnetic storm broke out during the early hours of Oct. 13th, igniting bright auroras over Canada. Colin Chatfield sends this picture from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan:

"This is from my backyard around 5:00a.m. this morning," says Chatfield. "Never have I seen the auroras so bright, especially from within the city. They were astounding, with purple visible to the naked eye."

The source of the storm was a knot of south-pointing magnetism from the sun. The knot drifted past Earth, bumping into our own planet's magnetic field. This caused a crack to open in Earth's magnetic defenses. Solar wind poured in to fuel the auroras.

Daily Weather Extra: Record Rain in Vegas

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Weather.com - Updated 10/12/12

Vegas rain

From The Weather Channel's new interactive radar map, 24-hour rainfall ending 2:30 p.m. PDT on Oct. 12, 2012. Record rainfall occurred in the Las Vegas Valley on Oct. 11.

Thursday's rainfall of 0.78 inches in Las Vegas was not only a record for the date, but also the fourth-wettest October calendar day on record for the city.

It's a familiar occurrence lately; exactly a month ago, the 1.18 inches of rain on Sept. 11 was the wettest September calendar day on record in Las Vegas.

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

~Space Weather Update~ ASTEROID FLYBY--TODAY

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ASTEROID FLYBY--TODAY: Newly-discovered asteroid 2012 TC4 will fly past Earth on Oct. 12th only 96,000 km (0.25 LD) away. There is no danger of a collision, but the 16 meter-wide space rock will be close enough to photograph through backyard telescopes as it brightens to approximately 14th magnitude. NASA hopes to ping this this object with radar, refining its orbit and possibly measuring its shape. Stay tuned for updates. [3D Orbit] [ephemeris] [more] [Images: #1, #2]

DRACONID METEOR OUTBURST: On Oct. 8th, more than 2000 meteors per hour exploded across the skies of North America and Europe. Radars in Canada and Germany detected the outburst of Draconids, yet sky watchers saw almost nothing. The meteors were too dim for human vision. Nevertheless, a meteor camera in Serbia captured visual evidence that an outburst was underway:

Bangladesh storm toll rises to 26, scores missing

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Asia One News - AFP, 10/12/12

DHAKA - Tropical storms that battered southern Bangladesh are now known to have killed at least 26 people while some 60 fishermen are still missing, police and officials said on Friday.

The government's Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) said at least 30,000 mud, tin and straw-built houses were damaged in the storms that wreaked havoc in around half a dozen coastal towns and the islands of Hatiya, Bhola and Sandwip early Thurday.

To read the rest of this story, visit asiaone.com.

Daily Weather Extra: 670 Record Lows in October

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Weather.com - 10/10/12

How chilly has it been so far in October? Meteorologist Eric Fisher says that daily record lows outnumber record highs four to one in the first nine days of the month. The exact numbers from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are 670 record lows compared to 174 record highs.

Sticking with the cold theme, it appears that low temperatures will dip to their coldest levels since April in parts of the Northeast on Saturday morning. This includes both Boston and New York City. Some locations may be within striking distance of record lows. Click here to read more on the chill coming to the Northeast.

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

~Space Weather Update~ ADVANCING SUNSPOTS

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ASTEROID FLYBY: Newly-discovered asteroid 2012 TC4 will fly past Earth on Oct. 12th only 96,000 km (0.25 LD) away. There is no danger of a collision, but the 16 meter-wide space rock will be close enough to photograph through backyard telescopes as it brightens to approximately 14th magnitude. NASA hopes to ping this this object with radar, refining its orbit and possibly measuring its shape. Stay tuned for updates. [3D Orbit] [ephemeris] [more]

ADVANCING SUNSPOTS: For the past two weeks, solar activity has been relatively low. Now, a change is in the offing. The farside of the sun is peppered with sunspots, and some of them are beginning to turn toward Earth. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed this pair of active regions advancing over the eastern limb during the early hours of Oct. 11th:

Asia Facing $8B Economic Loss Due to September Flooding: Aon Report

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Claims Journal - 10/5/12

Of the more than $7.5 billion in economic losses recorded in Asia, China sustained much of that loss as two separate flood events affected several provinces, according to the latest edition of Aon Benfield’s Global Catastrophe Recap report, which reviews the natural disaster perils that occurred worldwide during September.

Published by Impact Forecasting, the firm’s catastrophe model development center, the report reveals that seasonal monsoonal rains caused significant flooding across parts of Asia during the month. The most costly occurred during a six-day stretch, in which the Ministry of Civil Affairs confirmed economic losses of at least $4.92 billion across six provinces.

To read the rest of this story, visit Claims Journal.

Assam floods displace 1.8 mn children in 2012

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Rediff News - 10/11/12

The three waves of devastating floods in Assam this year have left nearly 1.8 million children, along with their families, displaced, an assessment done by an NGO -- Save the Children -- found.

The NGO found that the first round of flooding affected the districts of Barpeta, Nalbari, Morigaon, Jorhat, Tinsukia and Golaghat on 25-26 June this year. By July 3, around 2.7 million people in 27 districts had been affected.

To read the rest of this story, visit Rediff.com.

NOAA: Record U.S. Warm Year Continues

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Weather.com - Jon Erdman, updated 10/10/12

NOAA/NCDC

Graph of Jan-Sep. average temperatures over the Lower 48 States since 1895 (blue trace). Record-setting 2012 temperature is circled in upper-right corner. Long-term trend shown by sloping red line.

While September was cooler than average for several states in the Ohio Valley, mid-Mississippi Valley and parts of the Southeast, the year's first nine months were the record warmest across the U.S., according to a NOAA report released Tuesday.

NCDC's State of the Climate report said the nationally-averaged temperature for the first nine months of 2012 (59.8°F) was the warmest such period on record dating to 1895, approximately 3.8°F above the long-term average and 1.2°F above the previous record stretch from Jan-Sep. 2006.

~Space Weather Update~ We are Active NOW

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ACTIVE SUNSPOT: A sunspot, currently located on the farside of the sun, is about to emerge over the sun's southeastern limb. It is crackling with M-class solar flares and could bring a significant uptick in solar activity. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY CONTINUES: For the third day in a row, geomagnetic storms are circling the poles. In North America, auroras have spilled across the Canadian border descending as far south as Utah, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. The best place to see the show, according to pilot Matt Melnyk, is from the window of an airplane:

"I photographed an unbelievable display from the cockpit at 21,000 feet while flying across Alberta Canada," says Melnyk. "Being the pilot we get a front row view of the amazing aurora and this display was nothing less than spectacular!"

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