Active Weather News

[CielOnTap]

Three dead, one missing in rainstorms in southeastern Brazil
January 19, 2010 1:04 pm
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 19 — Three people died and one was missing in heavy rainstorms that had swept through Brazil's Sao Paulo state since Sunday, local authorities said Monday.

In the town of Franca, a 57-year-old woman drowned in floods. In the town of Sao Jose do Rio Preto, a 20-year-old fireman was swept away by strong currents while trying to retrieve a person from floodwaters.http://balita.ph/2010/01/19/three-dead-one-missing-in-rainstorms-in-southeastern-brazil/

~~~~~

There was a short video clip of flash flooding (in Israel), wiping out a road in the desert and persons requiring a helicopter rescue from the fast flowing rains around them-seen on CBC News Network this morning.

Jan 19, 2010 0:04 | Updated Jan 19, 2010 0:32
Water, water everywhere… but how much?
By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
Monday may have been the wettest day all winter, or it might not have been. Lake Kinneret may have risen several centimeters, but no one will know.

As sheets of rain progressively covered the country from south to north, and floods stranded and killed travelers in their cars, there was no one to measure how much rain has been falling because the Water Authority employees have been on strike for the last two months. Did the Kinneret rise Monday? Has it risen or fallen in the last two months? No one knows because the water level hasn't been measured since December 3, when it was 5.51 meters below the red line.

An Israeli motorist drowned when his car got caught in a flash flood the South, where stormy weather also blocked the main road to the Red Sea resort of Eilat. Flooding

[Smitty]

Obviously this is ANOTHER crazy year starting up for us in the interior of B.C. Once again it is way above normal in being warm, so COLD & snow will arrive later on, just to be like last year & I feel it will also be ANOTHER Cold Spring & strange summer so probably a number of wild forest fires.

To think a bit over a week ago the snow was shoulder high I had shoveled to my left & right & was expecting more (more only the warm weather simply melted said shoulder high snow down to basically nothing) FOR our clean water is the run-off of the snow farther up in the hills to our resivors only the closes one is next to being bone dry.

Our town is the only town or city in this Okanagan Valley that CANNOT draw water out of the Okanagan Lake to be purificed. All others can & we are stuck with the above mentioned snow fall drainage.

[burnt fare]

California's got something in common with Haiti-an absence of vegetation to deal with rainwater, after last year's wildfires.I was thinking that someone would consider getting grass seeds or flower seeds to sprinkle on the cold earth after a wildfire (even a plane doing the seeding, say by state officials) to encourage plants to make something of a green rug to sop up sun and rain.

California Hit By Western Storms: Rain, Wind, Mudslides
As Much as 20 Inches of Rain and 10 Feet of Snow Forecast
By NED POTTER
Jan. 19, 2010

Now it's California's turn. The second of three major storms in a row is coming onshore from the northern Pacific today, bringing 1 to 3 inches of rain to the California coast -- and with it, the threat of flooding and mudslides in the million acres stripped of foliage by wildfires last year.

Emergency crews are on high alert as three back-to-back storms are set to hit.All told, by the end of the week, some parts of California may get up to 20 inches of rain. The Mammoth Mountain ski area is expecting up to 10 feet of snow. Wet in California

[CielOnTap]

A death in BC due to an avalanche--recall that there was an alert for British Columbia's interior regarding avalanche probabilities.

Manitoba snowmobiler dead, another injured in B.C. avalanche
Canwest News Service
January 19, 2010 3:41 PM

SICAMOUS, B.C. — RCMP have recovered the body of a Manitoba man who died after an avalanche swept down a mountain in southern B.C. Monday evening.

The man, in his 30s, was snowmobiling with three friends near Sicamous, in the B.C. Interior, when they were caught in the avalanche in the Queest Mountain area, police said.

Someone from the group used a satellite phone to call 911 and a helicopter and plane were dispatched to look for the group at about 11 p.m. local time. http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Manitoba+snowmobiler+dead+another+injured+avalanche/2459516/story.html

[CielOnTap]

Update time = Wed Jan 20 18:07:10 UTC 2010


MAG UTC DATE-TIME
y/m/d h:m:s LATdeg LON deg DEPTH km Region
MAP 5.1 2010/01/20 12:56:50 -10.980 165.617 29.0 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
MAP 5.9 2010/01/20 11:03:44 18.385 -72.870 10.0 HAITI REGION
MAP 5.2 2010/01/20 06:05:46 -26.745 -63.321 554.9 SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO, ARGENTINA

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_big.php

Update time = Wed Jan 20 18:07:10 UTC 2010

MAG UTC DATE-TIME
y/m/d h:m:s LATdeg LONdeg DEPTHkm Region
MAP 4.5 2010/01/20 14:42:47 12.438 -88.171 59.7 OFFSHORE EL SALVADOR
MAP 5.1 2010/01/20 12:56:50 -10.980 165.617 29.0 SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS
MAP 3.4 2010/01/20 11:51:47 32.990 -116.361 5.2 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.9 2010/01/20 11:03:44 18.385 -72.870 10.0 HAITI REGION
MAP 4.9 2010/01/20 09:32:30 17.027 -94.361 116.1 OAXACA, MEXICO
MAP 4.7 2010/01/20 09:32:25 -1.104 127.180 35.0 KEPULAUAN OBI, INDONESIA

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php

[pysanky]

Too many earthquakes in region. Shifting ground and buildings scare plenty.

[Smitty]

I agree with you pysanky for I have lived in this small town. Since 1960 in South Central part of the Okanagan Valley so i feel a bit safer. Still back around 1965 we had some religious chap, not preaching his beliefs, that lived in Greater Vancouver & felt a MASSIVE flooding along with coastal land giving away would come over that area to so many others, as so many other engineers tend to understand.

So he picked this town due to its depth back from the Pacific Coastal area to also the altitude. You see so many towns to alsmost cities have started up in parts of land that are looked upon a possibly flood areas (well marked in the land maps) & think it is only because of the land itself & the feeling there will be no flooding.

I use to live in Winnipeg Manitoba that is so well knowen for flooding from the Red River in Spring time. By accident we had picked the area of Winnpeg Manitoba called St. James which is the highest part of Winnipeg, thoughly upon need of a home we could purchase. So yes I have seen the flooding to especially my friends way back in the 50s.

This is why I pick a bit higher altitude, no possible flooding, not by a lake, river or even a trickle of a stream & definately not a high water level. I was hit, when our home was flooded in Edmonton, Alta, not because it was with any of the above, but the fact that our new homes were with larger flood pipes then the old MAIN line as the flooded area contained some bits of limbs from a sort of tree a bit farther out from us---which came through the drains of the washing machine tubs.

[CielOnTap]

then the old MAIN line as the flooded area contained some bits of limbs from a sort of tree a bit farther out from us---which came through the drains of the washing machine tubs.

Would you happen to have a picture of this damage? That would be an effective visual aid to pass along to city planners approving subdivisions on floodplains.

[CielOnTap]

California has rainstorms and they are affecting power supplies in the state.

Storms shut portion of Gold Line, leave thousands without power [Updated]
January 22, 2010 | 8:17 am

Rainstorms continued to cause problems across Southern California today, stopping commuter rail service in northeastern Los Angeles County, leaving thousands of residents without power and forcing hundreds from their homes because of mudslide fears.

About 4 a.m., a tree fell onto the overhead lines that power the trains at Arroyo Verde Road in South Pasadena, blocking the Gold Line tracks in both directions, said MTA spokesman Dave Sotero. There is no rail service between the Southwest Museum and Sierra Madre Villa stations, though there is bus service available. Workers hope to have the tracks clear in a couple of hours.http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/storms-shut-gold-line-leave-thousands-without-power.html

There was also snow in California: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/storms-leave-snow-on-southern-california-mountains.html

[alohasand]

Since snow is kind of melting in British Columbia, VANOC could shift Alpine sports to California, as it is in the same time zone. Would make a mess of broadcasting rights for networks though. Just a thought.