India, too, is shrinking!

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC EVENTS
DROUGHT
HUMAN IMPACT
DESERTIFICATION
SCENARIOS 900, 800, 444, 111, 071, 03
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Nearly 2/3 of India Undergoing Desertification, or Land Degradation

More than a quarter of  India’s total land is undergoing desertification, while over a third is facing degradation that has affected its productivity, critically affecting the livelihood and food security of hundreds of millions people across the country, said a report.

About 105.2 million hectares (Mha), or 35.5% of India’s total land area, is being degraded, while 82.2 Mha, or 27.7%,  is undergoing desertification.

Nearly 70 percent of land in India is dry and therefore prone to drought, making it vulnerable to water and wind erosion, salinization and water logging, according to a 2007 report prepared by Indian Space Research Organization.

Soil erosion accounts for about 72 percent of the total degradation in the country, while wind erosion causes over 10 percent of the damage, said the report. Water-logging and salinity/alkalinity are also responsible for the erosion, according to the latest National Report on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought.

The worst affected areas are the states of Rajasthan with 23 Mha desrtified, followed by Gujarat, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir(13 Mha each) and Orissa and Andhra Pradesh (5 Mha each).

“Desertification and loss of biological potential will restrict the transformation of dry lands into productive ecosystem. Climate change will further challenge the livelihood of those living in these sensitive ecosystem and may result in higher levels of resource scarcity,” the report warns.

About 146.82 Mha of the country is severely affected by various kinds of land degradation including water erosion (93.68 Mha), wind erosion (9.48 Mha), waterlogging (14.30 Mha), salinity/alkalinity (5.94 Mha), soil acidity (16.04 Mha) and other causes (7.38 Mha).

Occupying only 2 percent of the world, India is home to 17 percent of the its population.

[NOTE: India’s total area is about 3,287,590 km², including 9.6 percent water. However, the official report incorrectly calculates the total area, which makes the percentage of land affected by desertification and degradation smaller than the actual size.]

Related Links

• How Your World Continued Shrinking April 18, 2014

More Quakes Plague Oklahoma

SEISMIC HAZARD
HEIGHTENED GLOBAL SEISMICITY
SCENARIOS 08, 07
.

M4.1 Strikes NE of Oklahoma City

Centered at 35.610°N, 97.371°W, the quake struck at a signature depth of  about 5.0km (3.1mi), some 20km (12mi) NE of Oklahoma City.

[Some 210 earthquakes measuring 3.0Mw or greater have struck Oklahoma so far this year, compared with 98  similar events during the entire 2013, and a total of 23 quakes between 1978 and 2000.]

EQ Details

Magnitude: 4.1Mw
Event Time: 2014-06-18 10:53:02 UTC
Location: 35.610°N 97.371°W depth=5.0km (3.1mi)
Nearby Cities:

• 9km (6mi) N of Spencer, Oklahoma
• 10km (6mi) ESE of Edmond, Oklahoma
• 15km (9mi) NW of Choctaw, Oklahoma
• 17km (11mi) N of Midwest City, Oklahoma
• 20km (12mi) NE of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

OK Seismicity in the Last 48 hours

3.7 7km ENE of Langston, Oklahoma 2014-06-18 23:08:33 UTC+09:00 6.0 km
4.1 9km N of Spencer, Oklahoma 2014-06-18 10:53:02 UTC 5.0 km
2.7 7km SE of Edmond, Oklahoma 2014-06-18 10:30:18 UTC 5.0 km
3.0 9km ESE of Langston, Oklahoma 2014-06-18 07:08:02 UTC 5.0 km
3.0 7km N of Spencer, Oklahoma 2014-06-17 16:29:12 UTC 5.1 km
2.6 13km SSE of Medford, Oklahoma 2014-06-17 14:36:36 UTC 5.0 km
2.7 8km SE of Edmond, Oklahoma 2014-06-17 04:57:40 UTC 5.5 km
2.7 8km NNW of Spencer, Oklahoma 2014-06-17 04:11:45 UTC 5.4 km
2.7 1km E of Jones, Oklahoma 2014-06-16 19:00:47 UTC 5.1 km
2.8 8km SE of Edmond, Oklahoma 2014-06-16 16:40:13 UTC 4.8 km
2.5 4km ESE of Harrah, Oklahoma 2014-06-16 16:01:10 UTC 4.5 km
2.8 8km SE of Edmond, Oklahoma 2014-06-16 12:39:31 UTC 5.0 km
3.0 9km NW of Jones, Oklahoma 2014-06-16 11:25:13 UTC 6.7 km
4.3 4km WNW of Jones, Oklahoma 2014-06-16 10:47:35 UTC 5.0 km
3.5 8km NNW of Spencer, Oklahoma 2014-06-16 10:31:07 UTC 5.9 km

Related Links

• Significant Quakes Strike Oklahoma, Alaska June 16, 2014

• Alaska Keeps on Shaking! June 9, 2014
• Alaska Rattled by Earthquake Cluster June 8, 2014

• Two More Significant Quakes Strike Near OK City June 2, 2014
• Significant Quakes Strike Alaska, Hawaii, Oklahoma May 10, 2014
• Another Swarm of Earthquakes Strikes Oklahoma May 9, 2014
• More Quakes Rattle Oklahomans April 21, 2014
• M4.0 Strikes near Perry, Oklahoma April 20, 2014

Drought, Rising Temperatures Force Evacuation of California Trout Hatcheries

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC EVENTS
DROUGHT
RISING TEMPERATURES
EVACUATION OF TROUT HATCHERIES
SCENARIOS 555, 111, 071, 03
.

California Evacuating Millions of Trout amid Drought, Rising Temperatures

California wildlife officials are evacuating Millions of young rainbow trout, salmon and steelhead from hatcheries near Sacramento to save the fish from rising water temperatures caused by worsening drought.

They are moving rainbow trout out of the American River Hatchery, having released salmon and steelhead from Nimbus Hatchery into state waterways, according to reports.

California is now in its third year of a catastrophic drought. The entire state is currently under some level of drought, ranging in severity from moderate to exceptional.

“The water is expected to reach lethal temperatures for these fish. We are taking proactive actions to avoid catastrophic fish losses,” Fish and Wildlife’s state hatchery program manager said in a statement. “We’ve engaged in an evacuation plan so these fish don’t just sit here in the hatchery and die.”

“The fish in the warm waters are constantly stressed,” he said. “Their immune systems don’t work well, and a lot of the bacterial pathogens have an advantage.”

The water flows through the hatcheries on the American River normally at about 65 degrees, he said, However the temperature could rise above 78 degrees this year.

Up to 2.5 million fish are being evacuated.

Links to Fishery Disasters

• Six U.S. Fisheries to Receive Disaster Relief February 27, 2014
• Fish Die-off in Nevada Lake January 17, 2014

FIRE-EARTH 2009 Forecast: Desertification of California in the Near Future Is Almost a Certainty – with the critical phase occurring by as early as 2011.

[NOTE: The above forecast and most of the links posted below have previously been filtered/censored by Google, WordPress and others. Editor]

• California: Biggest Desert in N America August 16, 2009
• Warning: California Is Being Mojavefied! January 30, 2009

Related Links

• Californians Lose Collective Life Insurance Policy June 3, 2014
• California Groundwater Levels 100 Feet Below Previous Historic Lows
• Gov Brown Issues Second Drought Emergency Proclamation for the Golden State April 27, 2014

• COLLAPSE OF CALIFORNIA LOOMS February 2, 2014
• California Drought Could Paralyze the U.S. February 2, 2014

• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index

 

U.S. Severe Weather Report Summary 2014

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC EVENTS
DEADLY TORNADOES
DESTRUCTIVE WINDS
SEVERE STORMS
MAJOR DISASTER
SCENARIOS 444, 111, 088, 066
.

U.S. Tornadoes, Destructive Winds & Hail Report Summary 2014

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman Oklahoma has listed a total of 8,465 reports of tornadoes, damaging winds and hail for the period January 1 – June 16, 2014 in its annual weather report summary for 2014, as of posting.

• Tornadoes: 610
• Winds: 3,127
• Hail: 4,728

Annual Severe Weather Report Summary  2014 – Rough Log for January 1 – June 16, 2014

Top 10 Tornado States [up to June 15,  2014]

1. MS 75
2. AL 55
3. NE 47
4. TX 41
5. CO 36
6. MO 31
7. KS 30
8. NC 28
9. IA 25
10. IL 22

Top Ten Tornado Days of 2014 [as of June 15]
4/28/2014 122
4/27/2014 36
5/11/2014 36
2/20/2014 34
6/6/2014 21
6/4/2014 18
6/8/2014 18
4/3/2014 16
6/7/2014 16
5/26/2014 16

Federal Disaster Declared for Nebraska

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC EVENTS
DEADLY TORNADOES
MAJOR DISASTER
SCENARIOS 444, 111, 088, 066, 023
FEDERAL DISASTER DECLARED
.

Nebraska Declared Major Disaster Area (DR-4179)

Federal disaster has been declared  for the state of Nebraska affected by severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds, and flooding during the period of May 11-12, 2014.

Areas worst affected by the disasters are the counties of Clay, Fillmore, Saline, Saunders, Seward, and York.

Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments, said Fema in a statement released by White House.

Latest Federal Disaster Declarations

• Federal Disasters
• Drought 2013
• Agricultural Disasters Index