Australia: Extreme Weather Events Continue

TIME TO MOVE ON!

More extreme rain events, flooding hit Australia

Nature seems to be revising her plans, and the energy dinosaurs are not invited.

Australian Region Infrared Satellite Image March 6, 2011 – 10:32UTC
Source: BOM. Click images to enlarge.

• Colour Infrared Loop Animation of the last 4 images

TRMM Satellite Hydro Model – Australia

• TEXT REPORT OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND area with estimates of severe flooding near weather station locations
• 7 Day MPG animation
• 7 Day QUICKTIME animation

Australasia Weekly Rain Accumulation (TRMM)

Global Rainfall Average – TRMM Satellite

Global Rainfall Anomalies – TRMM Satellite

Click images to enlarge.

Australia Rainfall Map – March 6, 2011

Australia Flood Map : March 6, 2011

Warnings current:

NSW/ACT | VIC | QLD | WA | SA | TAS | NT

Northern Territory

• Flood Threat Advice

Western Australia

• Coastal Wind Warning 1,
• Ocean Wind Warning 2,
• Western Australia Flood Summary,
• Flood Warning – Murchison River Catchment.

South Australia

• SA Flood Watch.

Queensland

• Ocean Wind Warning 1,
• Coastal Wind Warning 1,
• Severe Weather Warning 1,
• Severe Weather Warning 2,
• Ocean Wind Warning from Fiji,
• Flood Warning – Coastal rivers – Maryborough to Gold Coast,
• Flood Warning – Moonie River,
• Flood Warning – Diamantina River,
• Flood Warning – Georgina/Eyre Ck,
• Flood Warning – Western Queensland Rivers,
• Flood Warning – Gulf Rivers,
• Queensland flood warning summary.

NSW and ACT

• Flood Warning – Murray River,
• Flood Warning – Culgoa, Bokhara, Narran,
• Flood Warning – Barwon-Darling DS Bourke.

Victoria

• Coastal Waters Wind Warning for Victorian waters between Point Lonsdale and 60nm east of Gabo Island,
• Local Waters Wind Warning for Port Phillip,
• Victoria Flood Warning Summary,
• Flood Warning – Murray River.

Tasmania

• Coastal wind warning 1.

This information was last updated by BOM  on Sunday March 06 2011 at 11:13UTC

Related Links:

• Back-to-Back Disasters Could Hit Australia: FIRE-EARTH Forecast

Deadly EF2 Tornado Strikes Louisiana Town

Violent storm front spawning deadly tornadoes strikes Louisiana

Violent line of storms moving through Louisiana continues to Mississippi and Alabama

A deadly EF2 tornado with winds exceeding 200kmph (125mph) struck the town of Rayne, Louisiana killing at least one person, injuring 4 dozen others and destroying/damaging more than 100 buildings.

The 300-m wide twister caused an 8km (5 miles) path of destruction.  The tornado destroyed dozens of trailers and snapped hundreds of trees, as it continued to dump up to 7.5cm (3-inches) of rain in some areas, reports say.

“There are houses off their foundations,” State Police Trooper Stephen Hammonds told AP.

“There are houses that have been destroyed.”

Officials evacuated about 1,500 people amid fears of multiple gas leaks in the area.

Several other tornadoes were reported in the state, as NWS issued severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings for New Orleans area.

Eastern Conus Sector (Infrared Channel).  The temperatures are in Kelvin.  Source: NOAA/NWS – Click images to enlarge.

A state of emergency has been declared across southern Wisconsin ahead of a major snowstorm, a report said.

The affected counties include:  Counties affected include Adams, Calumet, Columbia, Crawford, Dane, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Grant, Green, Green Lake, Iowa, Jefferson, Juneau, Kenosha, Kewaunee, Lafayette, Manitowoc, Marquette, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Richland, Rock, Sauk, Sheboygan, Walworth, Washington, Waukesha and Winnebago.

Weather forecast map. NOAA

State of emergency declared in southern Wisconsin

A strong low pressure area is expected to move from the southern Plains across northern Illinois next Tuesday night and Wednesday. Enough warm air ahead of this system will push into southern Wisconsin to result in a rain and snow mix across the central and southern portions of the area, with all snow in the northern counties. A rain and snow mix is then forecast for Wednesday. Even though precipitation looks likely, the is still considerable uncertainty regarding the low level thermal structure of the atmosphere, and where the main rain/snow line will be located. Several inches of snow are possible, especially in the northern most counties. SOURCE: NWS Milwaukee/Sullivan, WI

NWS RADAR IMAGE

Click image to enlarge.

Buffalo, NY Radar – Base Reflectivity – Loop of this image . Source: NWS

Warnings

• Vermont Winter Storm Warning
• BUFFALO, NY: WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 4 AM SUNDAY TO 1 AM EST MONDAY
• A RECORD RAINFALL OF 0.83 INCH(ES) WAS SET AT BUFFALO NY TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 0.79 SET IN 1996.

Related Links

• Mega Tornadoes to Bombard U-S Tornado Alley [FIRE-EARTH Forecast]
• Brace for the Worst Ever
• US Wildfires: 50-percent more fires than the 10 year average

• 2011 Disaster Calendar
• 2011-2012 MegaDisasters

• FEWW Volcano Links
• Volcanoes
• FEWW Earthquake Links

Planet Poop

Severe environmental impact of animal waste

Humans have reached a stage whereby the erroneous practices conjured to help them stay alive are killing them!

Some human activities are more egregious than others. Take intense industrial farming, for example.

“North and South Carolina have seen a steady increase in swine production over the last 15 years. In North Carolina alone, swine production generates approximately a quarter of the state’s gross farm receipts. The presence of so many large-scale pig farms leads to the problem of proper animal waste disposal.” Says a report by the American Society of Agronomy.

Swine houses and anaerobic wastewater lagoon in North Carolina. Credit: Terry A. Matheny

How animal waste is stored

In the Carolinas they store animal waste in anaerobic lagoons to “concentrate and passively treat urine and feces but because of the widespread use of this practice, the environmental impact could be quite severe. Conflicting reports implicate lagoon sites to be responsible for high emission rates of nitrogen gas and volatized ammonia.”

“These anaerobic lagoons have relatively consistent levels of nitrogen-cycling genes throughout their water column. While they are similar to natural ecosystems, they are not as high as some wastewater treatment system. Moreover, these gene levels did not translate into the high denitrification enzyme activity that is typical of wastewater treatment systems.” Thomas F. Ducey, one of the authors of the study said.

A  number of commercial, anaerobic, swine wastewater lagoons in the Carolinas were tested  for genes responsible in the nitrogen cycling process by a team of ARS-USDA scientists. “Nitrification and denitrification are the parts of the process responsible for turning ammonia into nitrogen gas. After analyzing eight lagoons and measuring the abundance of four nitrogen cycling genes, researchers concluded that the denitrifying and nitrifying organisms were not active despite there being a thriving amount. Acidification and eutrophication of the surrounding ecosystem could be the result of prolonged exposure to volatilized ammonia.”

Another example of intensive animal farming

New Zealand is the size of Colorado yet it hosts up to 94 million farm animals (livestock excluding poultry), which discharge an estimated 300 million tons of effluent to the environment each year. New Zealand’s intensive animal industries produce about 4 times more manure than they could safely use as fertilizer. [The leftover is discharged or washed off into NZ coastal waters.]

Related links:

• New Zealand industrial farming produces at least 5 times as much effluents than the land can absorb!
• Pollution study lifts lid on New Zealand’s ‘green’ beaches

• Double Act of Eco-Terrorism
• Is New Zealand Committing Eco-Terrorism!
• None Shall Sleep!