Tag: natural disasters

Pakistan welcomes ‘loss and damage’ deal inked at UN summit

ISLAMABAD — A breakthrough funding deal at the COP27 conference to help poor countries ravaged by climate change was welcomed Sunday by Pakistan, a nation devastated this year by record-breaking monsoon rains,

Flooding likely worsened by global warming submerged a third of Pakistan’s territory, left 33 million people scrambling to survive, and an estimated $40 billion in losses to the economy.

Pakistani officials, who had framed the country as a victim of climate change and sought compensation from bigger polluting nations, called the funding deal “a step in reaffirming the core principles of climate justice.”

The compensation agreement hammered out early Sunday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh establishes funding for “loss and damage” suffered by poor countries as a result of global warming.

It is a big win for developing nations that have long called for cash — sometimes viewed as reparations — because they are often the victims of climate-worsened floods, droughts, heat waves, famines and storms despite having contributed little to the pollution that heats up the globe.

It has also long been called an issue of equity for nations hit by weather extremes and small island states that face an existential threat from rising seas.

“Three long decades and we have finally delivered climate justice,” said Seve Paeniu, the finance minister of Tuvalu. “We have finally responded to the call of hundreds of millions of people across the world to help them address loss and damage.”

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Twitter welcomed the development, calling it the “first pivotal step towards the goal of climate justice.”

Sharif acknowledged the work done on the summit deal by his Cabinet minister for climate change, Sherry Rehman, and her team. He said it’s now up to a transitional committee to build on the historic development.

Rehman in a tweet said: “It’s been a long 30-year journey from demand to formation of the Loss and Damage Fund for 134 countries. We welcome today’s announcement and joint text hammered out through many nights.”

“We look forward to (the fund) being operationalized, to actually become a robust body that is able to answer with agility to the needs of the vulnerable, the fragile and those on the front line of climate disasters,” she said.

Pakistan suffered huge losses in the floods that affected a third of its 33 million population, who faced unprecedented suffering in terms of human and property losses. More than 1,700 people were killed and nearly 13,000 others injured. Over 13,000 kilometers (8,080 miles) of roadway, 439 bridges and 2.28 million houses were damaged or destroyed.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said Pakistan came out a winner as a result of the compensation deal.

“Win for climate justice, win for developing world in honor of 33 million victims of Pakistan floods and millions around the world who suffer from a climate catastrophe they did not create and do not have resources to address,” Zardari said.

The world’s biggest polluters must must now live up to their promises and pay into the fund. A 2009 agreement for a $100 billion fund created by richer nations to pay for the development of poor nations was never fully funded.

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November 20, 2022
These fireball-dropping drones are on the frontlines of wildfire prevention | CNN Business

CNN Business
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As US wildfires have grown larger and deadlier in recent years, one company is using drones and fire-starting “dragon eggs” to help prevent extreme blazes and save firefighters’ lives.

Drone Amplified, a Nebraska-based startup, is using unmanned aerial technology to improve one of the oldest and most-effective methods of preventing wildfires: prescribed burns. This technique refers to the controlled application of fire by a team of experts to reduce hazardous fuel in areas prone to wildfires. “More prescribed fires mean fewer extreme wildfires,” according to the US Forest Service.

Carrick Detweiler, founder and CEO of Drone Amplified, told CNN that this method works by “doing a very low intensity burn that will basically burn up the dead leaves and sticks that would cause major wildfires when they dry out later in the summer.”

The company was started by two University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineering professors in 2017. In 2020, it was awarded a grant totaling $1 million for research and development from the National Science Foundation and Nebraska Department of Economic Development.

Drone Amplified

“We can reduce these huge wildfires by using more fire, when it’s safe to do so,” Detweiler added.

While the technique of prescribed burns has been around for centuries (and was even used by Indigenous Americans for wildfire management), it can be laborious and risky at times for firefighters carrying it out today.

Firefighters often must hike or ride an all-terrain vehicle through dense forest or mountainous terrain, carrying a drip torch to start small fires in specific, remote locations, according to Detweiler. “Then you have helicopters with a whole crew on board, flying really low and slow over the fire,” he added of other methods for prescribed burns.

“About a quarter of all wildland firefighting fatalities are related to aviation,” Detweiler said. “And for me, this really was a motivation to start Drone Amplified and get these systems into the hands of firefighters.”

While he said a helicopter can cover a larger amount of area than a drone, he notes that firefighters can also deploy “tens or thousands of our systems for the same cost as a helicopter.” A drone from the company costs about $80,000.

Jon Hustead

The drones carry so-called “dragon eggs,” or fireballs that ignite when they land on the ground. “They have potassium permanganate,” Detweiler said of the dragon eggs, adding that when you mix this with glycol it starts a chemical reaction — resulting in a fire. Some 400 of these fireballs can be secured onto a single 50-pound drone.

The drones allow firefighters to work at a distance from flames, according to Detweiler, and in areas that are difficult to reach due to terrain or visibility. Moreover, the firefighting technology can be used, “when it’s dark, when it’s smokey, and when other airplanes can’t be out there.”

The drones, which are controlled by an app, can also allow the fire-starting balls to be dropped in very specific locations. Precision is a critical element when conducting prescribed burns, because it is crucial for preventing fire escapes.

While escapes are rare — the US Forest Service reports just one escape for every thousand burns — the outcomes can be devastating. Two recent controlled burns in New Mexico escaped and led to the state’s largest wildfire on record.

Detweiler said his company’s equipment aims to prevent fire escapes through the use of thermal cameras, visual cameras and other technology that lets firefighters see through smoke.

“Our app also allows the firefighter to put in geofences [boundaries] to prevent any ignitions outside of that area,” he added.

While Drone Amplified is already being used by the US Forest Service and other federal agencies, Detweiler said he hopes to see the technology on the back of every firefighter’s truck in the future.

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November 19, 2022
Public safety accounts urge caution on Twitter after changes

As Twitter became knotted with parody accounts and turmoil, Rachel Terlep, who runs an account for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources that intersperses cheeky banter with wildfire and weather warnings, watched with equal parts trepidation and fascination.

“It kind of feels like a supernova moment right now — a big, bright flash before it all goes away,” she said.

So the department stepped into the fray, taking advantage of the moment with some of its signature humor. “Update: The Twitter wildfire is 44 billion acres and 0% contained,” they posted.

But under the joke, it linked to a thread that gave helpful tips about how to review a handle to see if it’s real. Some of the suggestions included looking at how old the account is and checking to see if the public safety agency’s website links to the profile.

It underscored the challenge for the people tasked with getting public safety information out to communities. Now, they don’t only have to get information out quickly. On the new Twitter, they also have to convince people they are actually the authorities.

Government agencies, especially those tasked with sending messages during emergencies, have embraced Twitter for its efficiency and scope. Getting accurate information from authorities during disasters is often a matter of life or death. For example, the first reports this week of a deadly shooting at the University of Virginia came from the college’s Twitter accounts that urged students to shelter in place.

Disasters also provide fertile ground for false information to spread online. Researchers like Jun Zhuang, a professor at the University of Buffalo who studies how false information spreads during natural disasters, say emergencies create a “perfect storm” for rumors, but that government accounts have also played a crucial role in batting them down.

During Hurricane Harvey in 2017, for example, an online rumor spread that officials were checking people’s immigration status at storm shelters, potentially dissuading people from seeking safety there. However, crisis communication researchers have also found that the city’s mayor reassured residents and helped the community pull together with a constant stream of Twitter messages.

Amid the slew of changes at one of the world’s most influential social media platforms, the public information officers who operate government Twitter accounts are cautiously waiting out the turmoil and urging the public to verify that it really is their accounts appearing on timelines. While it’s an issue they’ve always had to contend with, it’s especially worrisome now as a proliferation of brand impersonations spreads across the platform and changes to verification take hold.

Darren Noak, who helps run an account for Austin-Travis County emergency medical services in Texas, said Twitter’s blue checkmark has often been discussed among those who operate government Twitter accounts. The badge — up until a week ago — indicated an account was verified as a government entity, corporation, celebrity or journalist.

The AP reviewed dozens of government agencies responsible for responding to emergencies from the county to the national level, and none had received an official label — denoted by a gray checkmark — by Friday. Spoof accounts are a concern, Noak said, because they create “a real pain and a headache, especially in times of crisis and emergency.”

Government accounts have long been a target of copycats. Fairfax County in Virginia had to quash fake school closures tweeted from a fraudulent account during a 2014 winter storm. And both the state of North Carolina and its city of Greensboro have had to compete with accounts appearing to speak for their governments.

It has become even harder in recent days to verify that an account is authentic.

In the span of a week, Twitter granted gray checkmark badges to official government accounts — then rescinded them. It next allowed users to receive a blue checkmark through its $8 subscription services — then halted that offering after it spawned an infestation of imposter accounts. Over the weekend, Twitter laid off outsourced moderators who enforced rules against harmful content, further gutting its guardrails against misinformation.

Twitter hasn’t responded to media requests for information since Musk took over, but its support account has posted: “To combat impersonation, we’ve added an ‘Official’ label to some accounts.”

Twitter’s changes could be deadly, warned Juliette Kayyem, a former homeland security adviser at the state and national levels who now teaches at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Twitter has become a go-to source of localized information in emergencies, she said. But imposter accounts could introduce a new level of misinformation — or disinformation when people intentionally try to cause harm — in urgent situations. When instructing the public how to respond, the right instructions — such as sheltering in place or evacuating a certain area — can be a matter of life or death.

“In a disaster where time is limited, the greatest way to limit harm is to provide accurate and timely information to communities about what they should do,” Kayyem said. “Allowing others to claim expertise — it will cost lives.”

In the past, Kayyem had worked with Twitter to research how government agencies can communicate in emergencies. She said the leadership at Twitter’s trust and safety department “thought long and hard” about its public service role. But Twitter has lost those high-level leaders responsible for cybersecurity, data privacy and complying with regulations.

Some agencies are pushing audiences to other venues for information.

Local government websites are often the best place to turn for accurate, up-to-date information in emergencies, said April Davis, who works as a public affairs officer and digital media strategist at the Oregon Department of Emergency Management. She, like many others at emergency management agencies, said her agency doesn’t yet plan to change how it engages on Twitter, but also emphasized that it’s not the best place to turn to in emergencies.

“If it goes away, then we’ll migrate to another platform,” said Derrec Becker, chief of public information at the South Carolina Emergency Management Division. “It is not the emergency alert system.”

Twitter accounts for emergency management in Washington, South Carolina and Oregon provide public service information on preparing for disasters and weather alerts. They also tweet about evacuation and shelter orders.

Becker, who has cultivated the agency’s sizeable Twitter following with a playful presence, said emergency alerts broadcast on TV, radio or cell phones are still the go-to methods for urgent warnings.

Shortly after Becker fielded questions from The Associated Press on his agency’s plans Monday, the department tweeted: “Leave Twitter? Disasters are kind of our thing.”

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November 19, 2022
3 Indian soldiers killed in Kashmir avalanche

SRINAGAR, India — An avalanche in Kashmir has killed three Indian soldiers along the heavily militarized Himalayan frontier between India and Pakistan, the Indian military said Saturday.

A slide of snow hit the northwestern Machil sector in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday and trapped three soldiers on a patrol, said Col. Emron Musavi, an Indian army spokesperson.

He said the three were rescued and evacuated to a hospital where they died.

Avalanches and landslides are common in Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety.

Avalanches have caused some of the heaviest tolls for the Indian and Pakistani armies camping in the region.

In 2017, at least 20 Indian soldiers were killed in three avalanches. In 2012, a massive avalanche in the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir killed 140 people, including 129 Pakistani soldiers.

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November 19, 2022
Scientists try to bolster Great Barrier Reef in warmer world

KONOMIE ISLAND, Australia — Below the turquoise waters off the coast of Australia is one of the world’s natural wonders, an underwater rainbow jungle teeming with life that scientists say is showing some of the clearest signs yet of climate change.

The Great Barrier Reef, battered but not broken by climate change impacts, is inspiring hope and worry alike as researchers race to understand how it can survive a warming world. Authorities are trying to buy the reef time by combining ancient knowledge with new technology. They are studying coral reproduction in hopes to accelerate regrowth and adapt it to handle hotter and rougher seas.

Underwater heat waves and cyclones driven in part by runaway greenhouse gas emissions have devastated some of the 3,000 coral reefs making up the Great Barrier Reef. Pollution fouls its waters, and outbreaks of crown of thorns starfish have ravaged its corals.

Researchers say climate change is already challenging the vibrant marine superstructure and all that depend upon it — and that more destruction is to come.

“This is a clear climate change signal. It’s going to happen again and again,” said Anne Hoggett, director of the Lizard Island Research Station, on the continuing damage to the reef from stronger storms and marine heat waves. “It’s going to be a rollercoaster.”

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RELATED: Damage and regrowth on the Great Barrier Reef

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Billions of microscopic animals called polyps have built this breathtaking 1,400-mile long colossus that is visible from space and perhaps a million years old. It is home to thousands of known plant and animal species and boasts a $6.4 billion annual tourism industry.

“The corals are the engineers. They build shelter and food for countless animals,” said Mike Emslie, head of the Long-Term Monitoring Program of the reef at the Australian Institute for Marine Science.

Emslie’s team have seen disasters get bigger, and hit more and more frequently over 37 years of underwater surveys.

Heat waves in recent years drove corals to expel countless tiny organisms that power the reefs through photosynthesis, causing branches to lose their color or “bleach.” Without these algae, corals don’t grow, can become brittle, and provide less for the nearly 9,000 reef-dependent species. Cyclones in the past dozen years smashed acres of corals. Each of these were historic catastrophes in their own right, but without time to recover between events, the reef couldn’t regrow.

In the last heat wave however, Emslie’s team at AIMS noticed new corals sprouting up faster than expected.

“The reef is not dead,” he said. “It is an amazing, beautiful, complex, and remarkable system that has the ability to recover if it gets a chance – and the best way we can give it a chance is by cutting carbon emissions.”

The first step in the government’s reef restoration plan is to understand better the enigmatic life cycle of the coral itself.

For that, dozens of Australian researchers take to the seas across the reef when conditions are ripe for reproduction in a spawning event that is the only time each year when coral polyps naturally reproduce as winter warms into spring.

But scientists say that is too slow if corals are to survive global warming. So they don scuba gear to gather coral eggs and sperm during the spawning. Back in labs, they test ways to speed up corals’ reproductive cycle and boost genes that survive higher temperatures.

One such lab, a ferry retrofitted into a “sci-barge”, floats off the coast of Konomie Island, also known as North Keppel Island, a two-hour boat ride from the mainland in Queensland state.

One recent blustery afternoon, Carly Randall, who heads the AIMS coral restoration program, stood amidst buckets filled with coral specimens and experimental coral-planting technologies. She said the long-term plan is to grow “tens to hundreds of millions” of baby corals every year and plant them across the reef.

Randall compared it to tree-planting with drones but underwater.

Her colleagues at AIMS have successfully bred corals in a lab off-season, a crucial first step in being able to at scale introduce genetic adaptions like heat-resistance.

Engineers are designing robots to fit in a mothership that would deploy underwater drones. Those drones would attach genetically-selected corals to the reef with boomerang-shaped clips. Corals in specific targets will enhance the reef’s “natural recovery processes” which would eventually “overtake the work that we’ve been doing to keep it going through climate change,” she said.

Australia has recently been slammed by historic wildfires, floods, and cyclones exacerbated by climate instability.

That has driven a political shift in the country as voters have grown more concerned with climate change, helping sweep in new national leadership in this year’s federal elections, said Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics.

The nation’s previous prime minister, Scott Morrison, was a conservative who was chided for minimizing the need to address climate change.

The new center-left government of Anthony Albanese passed legislation to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and includes 43% green house gas reductions by 2030. Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of coal and liquefied natural gas, and lags behind major industrial countries’ emission targets.

The new government has blocked a coal plant from being opened near the Great Barrier Reef, yet recently allowed other coal plants new permits.

It is also continuing investment to boost the reef’s natural ability to adapt to rapidly warming climate.

The Italy-sized reef is managed like a national park by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

GBRMPA chief scientist David Wachenfeld said that “despite recent impacts from climate change, the Great Barrier Reef is still a vast, diverse, beautiful and resilient ecosystem.”

However, that is today, in a world warmed about 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit).

“As we approach two degrees (Celsius) and certainly as we pass it, we will lose the world’s coral reefs and all the benefits that they give to humanity,” Wachenfeld said. He added that as home to over 30% of marine biodiversity, coral reefs are essential for the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people all over the tropics.

The reef is “part of the national identity of Australians and of enormous spiritual and cultural significance for our First Nations people,” Wachenfeld said.

After long mistreatment and neglect by the federal government, Indigenous groups now have a growing role in management of the reef. The government seeks their permission for projects there and hires from the communities to study and repair it.

Multiple members of the Yirrganydji and Gunggandji communities work as guides, sea rangers and researchers on reef protection and restoration projects.

After scuba diving through turquoise waters teeming with fish and vibrant corals, Tarquin Singleton said his people hold memories more than 60,000 years old of this “sea country” — including previous climatic changes.

“That connection is ingrained in our DNA,” said Singleton, who is from the Yirrganydji people native to the area around Cairns. He now works as a cultural officer with Reef Cooperative, a joint venture of tourism agencies, the government and Indigenous groups.

“Utilizing that today can actually preserve what we have for future generations.”

The Woppaburra people native to Konomie and Woppa islands barely survived Australian colonization. Now they’re forging a new kind of unity “in a way that wouldn’t happen normally” by sharing ancient oral histories and working on research vessels, said Bob Muir, an Indigenous elder working as a community liaison with AIMS.

For now, reef-wide farming and planting corals is plausible science fiction. It’s too expensive now to scale up to levels needed to “buy the reef time” as humanity cuts emissions, Randall said.

But she said that within 10 to 15 years the drones could be in the water.

But Randall warns that robots, coral farms and skilled divers “will absolutely not work if we don’t get emissions under control.”

“This is one of many tools in the toolkit being developed,” she said. “But unless we can get emissions under control, we don’t have much hope for the reef ecosystem.”

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Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment and Sam McNeil on Twitter @stmcneil

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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November 17, 2022
Strong earthquake rattles remote West Texas desert

MENTONE, Texas — A strong earthquake shook a sparsely populated patch of desert in West Texas on Thursday, causing tremors felt as far away as the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez.

The magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck around 3:30 p.m., according to Jim DeBerry, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the West Texas city Midland. He said the strength of the quake means it likely caused damage in the remote oil patch and scrubland, but none had been reported so far.

DeBerry said the epicenter was about 23 miles (37 kilometers) south of Mentone, a tiny community south of the New Mexico state line and 95 miles (153 kilometers) west of Midland.

State Rep. Eddie Morales, Jr., whose district includes Mentone, said he spoke with local authorities and there were no reported injuries. He said via Twitter that state officials will be “inspecting roads, bridges and other infrastructure as a precaution.”

DeBerry said there were reports of people feeling vibrations from the quake 200 miles (515 kilometers) west in the border city of Ciudad Juárez and 200 miles (515 kilometers) south in Terlingua, a small community near the Rio Grande and Big Bend National Park.

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Follow AP’s full coverage of earthquakes: https://apnews.com/hub/earthquakes

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November 16, 2022
Famous Mexican search and rescue dog Frida dies

FILE – Frida, one of three Marine dogs specially trained to search for people trapped inside collapsed buildings, wears her protective gear during a press event in Mexico City, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017. Mexico’s navy announced Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022, that the yellow Labrador retriever that gained fame in the days following Mexico’s Sept. 19, 2017 earthquake even without rescuing anyone from the rubble, has died. Over the course of her career, she was credited with finding at least 41 bodies and a dozen people alive. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

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November 15, 2022
Remote undersea volcano likely erupting in Pacific Ocean

HONOLULU — A volcano is likely erupting deep beneath the Pacific Ocean in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, but scientists don’t know for sure because it’s so inaccessible.

All indications are that the Ahyi Seamount began erupting in mid-October, the U.S. Geological Survey said Monday. The Northern Marianas are about 3,800 miles (6,115 kilometers) west of Honolulu.

Scientists are looking to see if the activity is shallow earthquakes or if material exploded from the crater, said Matt Haney, a USGS research geophysicist. Scientists are checking satellite data to see if there’s discolored water, which could suggest material is coming out of the volcano, he said.

“There’s nothing right now that suggests that this eruption will intensify and become a large eruption,” Haney said.

Still, mariners would want to avoid the immediate area, he said.

Activity from an undersea volcanic source was picked up last month by hydroacoustic sensors some 1,400 miles away (2250 kilometers) at Wake Island.

With help from the the Laboratoire de Geophysique in Tahiti and data from seismic stations in Guam and Japan, scientists analyzed the signals to determine the source of the activity was likely Ahyi Seamount, the USGS said in a statement.

Activity has been declining in recent days, the statement said.

Ahyi seamount is a large conical submarine volcano. Its highest point is 259 feet (79 meters) below the surface of the ocean. It’s located about 11 miles (18 kilometers) southeast of the island of Farallon de Pajaros, also known as Uracas.

“There are no local monitoring stations near Ahyi Seamount, which limits our ability to detect and characterize volcanic unrest there,” the agency said. “We will continue to monitor available remote hydrophonic, seismic, and satellite data closely.”

The seamount is part of the Mariana Volcanic Arc, which is a chain of over 60 active volcanoes stretching over 600 miles west of and parallel to the Mariana Trench, the world’s deepest point.

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November 14, 2022
How an ‘electronic nose’ could help fight wildfires | CNN Business

London
CNN Business
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In the summer of 2021, wildfires caused a “disaster without precedence” in the Italian island of Sardinia, burning over 28,000 hectares (69,000 acres) of land and displacing thousands from their homes.

Almost half of the affected land burned in a single catastrophic fire that affected the Montiferru region, near the island’s western coast. Now, Montiferru is one of a dozen forest areas across the world that are testing out a new “ultra-early” warning system for wildfires, developed by a German startup called Dryad — after the nymphs of Greek mythology that live in symbiosis with trees.

Preventing even a fraction of wildfires from developing would have sweeping benefits. Climate change is making wildfires more intense, and the number of extreme wildfire events is projected to increase up to 14% by 2030.

Apart from the billions of dollars of damage they cause, the particles and chemicals they produce are strong pollutants and in 2021, wildfires released a record 1.76 billion metric tons of carbon in the atmosphere — equivalent to more than double Germany’s yearly CO2 emissions.

Existing early warning systems are based on visual detection of smoke, either through satellite imaging, cameras on the ground or human observers. But these systems are too slow, according to Dryad’s co-founder and CEO, Carsten Brinkschulte.

“In order to generate smoke that rises above the tree canopy and can be seen from a distance of, say, 10 to 20 miles, the underlying fire has to be substantially big — you might already have half a football pitch on fire underneath. Then, if you add the time for firefighters to arrive at the scene, it may have become too big to be extinguished at all.”

Dryad, which has raised €13.9 million (about $12.2 million), aims to reduce the detection time of wildfires and catch them at the smoldering phase — when there is not yet an open flame —usually within the first 60 minutes.

To do so, the company has designed a solar-powered sensor fitted with a gas detector. “It can detect hydrogen, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds — it can basically smell the fire,” says Brinkschulte. “Think of it like an electronic nose that you attach to a tree.”

Once the sensor detects a fire, it sends out a signal over a wireless network using a built-in antenna. The signal is then relayed to more complex devices and transmitted to the internet by satellite and 4G. Finally, the information is sent to the forest managers.

“We also send out an alert and we can interface directly with the local fire brigade’s IT systems. What you get is an alarm with the exact GPS coordinates of the sensor that picked up the fire,” says Brinkschulte.

The sensors sell for €48 ($49) each. Dryad, which has a team of about 30, sells the hardware and also offers an annual subscription model — priced at 15% of the total hardware cost — that includes maintenance and support. Its main clients are municipalities and private forests, as well as electricity companies and railroads, whose equipment is often the source of fires.

So far, the startup has installed 300 sensors across a dozen test deployments in Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, the United States and South Korea, as well as Montiferru in Italy. Brinkschulte says that these trial runs only require a handful of sensors because the fires are started intentionally, to show forest managers how the system works.

“We have been testing the Dryad system in a forest area of around 50 hectares (124 acres), which was particularly badly affected by arson,” says Philipp Nahrstedt, who manages a forest of 62,000 hectares in the central-eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt.

“We set a forest fire and within 14 minutes it was detected by the sensors. This detection time was phenomenal and showed how much potential the Dryad system has,” he adds.

Dryad is now looking to ramp up production of the sensors, with a plan to make 10,000 units in the coming months and 230,000 next year.

“We’ll go into the millions over time,” says Brinkschulte, adding that Dryad’s goal is to have 120 million of them deployed by 2030. That, he says, would be able to save 3.9 million hectares of forest from burning — about 40% of the land area burned globally by wildfires in 2021 — and prevent 1.7 billion metric tons of CO2 from reaching the atmosphere.

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November 14, 2022
Belching lakes, mystery craters, ‘zombie fires’: How the climate crisis is transforming the Arctic permafrost | CNN

CNN
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Four years ago, Morris J. Alexie had to move out of the house his father built in Alaska in 1969 because it was sinking into the ground and water was beginning to seep into his home.

“The bogs are showing up in between houses, all over our community. There are currently seven houses that are occupied but very slanted and sinking into the ground as we speak,” Alexie said by phone from Nunapitchuk, a village of around 600 people. “Everywhere is bogging up.”

What was once grassy tundra is now riddled with water, he said. Their land is crisscrossed by 8-foot-wide boardwalks the community uses to get from place to place. And even some of the boardwalks have begun to sink.

“It’s like little polka dots of tundra land. We used to have regular grass all over our community. Now it’s changed into constant water marsh.”

Thawing permafrost — the long-frozen layer of soil that has underpinned the Arctic tundra and boreal forests of Alaska, Canada and Russia for millennia — is upending the lives of people such as Alexie. It’s also dramatically transforming the polar landscape, which is now peppered with massive sinkholes, newly formed or drained lakes, collapsing seashores and fire damage.

It’s not just the 3.6 million people who live in polar regions who need to be worried about the thawing permafrost.

Everyone does – particularly the leaders and climate policymakers from nearly 200 countries now meeting in Egypt for COP 27, the annual UN climate summit.

The vast amount of carbon stored in the northernmost reaches of our planet is an overlooked and underestimated driver of climate crisis. The frozen ground holds an estimated 1,700 billion metric tons of carbon – roughly 51 times the amount of carbon the world released as fossil fuel emissions in 2019, according to NASA. It may already be emitting as much greenhouse gas as Japan.

Permafrost thaw gets less attention than the headline-hogging shrinking of glaciers and ice sheets, but scientists said that needs to change — and fast.

“Permafrost is like the dirty cousin to the ice sheets. It’s a buried phenomenon. You don’t see it. It’s covered by vegetation and soil,” said Merritt Turetsky, director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder. “But it’s down there. We know it’s there. And it has an equally important impact on the global climate.”

It’s particularly pressing because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has stopped much scientific cooperation, meaning a potential loss of access to key data and knowledge about the region.

Warmer summers — the Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average — have weakened and deepened the top or active layer of permafrost, which unfreezes in summer and freezes in winter.

This thawing is waking up the microbes in the soil that feast on organic matter, allowing methane and carbon dioxide to escape from the soil and into the atmosphere. It can also open pathways for methane to rise up from reservoirs deep in the earth.

“Permafrost has been basically serving as Earth’s freezer for ancient biomass,” Turetsky said. “When those creatures and organisms died, their biomass became incorporated into these frozen soil layers and then was preserved over time.”

As permafrost thaws, often in complex ways that aren’t clearly understood, that freezer lid is cranking open, and scientists such as Turetsky are doubling efforts to understand how these changes will play out.

Permafrost is a particularly unpredictable wild card in the climate crisis because it’s not yet clear whether carbon emissions from permafrost will be a relative drop in the bucket or a devastating addition. The latest estimates suggest that the magnitude of carbon emissions from permafrost by the end of this century could be equal to or bigger than present-day emissions from major fossil fuel-emitting nations.

“There’s some scientific uncertainty of how large that country is. However, if we go down a high emissions scenario, it could be as large or larger than the United States,” said Brendan Rogers, an associate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Massachusetts.

He described the permafrost as a sleeping giant whose impact wasn’t yet clear.

“We’re just talking about a massive amount of carbon. We don’t expect all of it to thaw … because some of it is very deep and would take hundreds or thousands of years,” Rogers said. “But even if a small fraction of that does get admitted to the atmosphere, that’s a big deal.”

Projections of cumulative permafrost carbon emissions from 2022 through 2100 range from 99 gigatons to 550 gigatons. By comparison, the United States currently emits 368 gigatons of carbon, according to a paper published in September in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Not all climate change models that policymakers use to make their already grim predictions include projected emissions from permafrost thaw, and those that do assume it will be gradual, Rogers said.

He and other scientists are concerned about the prevalence of abrupt or rapid thawing in permafrost regions, which has the power to shock the landscape into releasing far more carbon than with gradual top-down warming alone.

The traditional view of permafrost thaw is that it’s a process that exposes layers slowly, but “abrupt thaw” is exposing deep permafrost layers more quickly in a number of ways.

For example, Big Trail Lake in Alaska, a recently formed lake, belches bubbles of methane — a potent greenhouse gas, which comes from thawing permafrost below the lake water. The methane can stop such lakes from refreezing in winter, exposing the deeper permafrost to warmer temperatures and degradation.

Rapid thawing of the permafrost also happens in the wake of intense wildfires that have swept across parts of Siberia in recent years, Rogers said. Sometimes these blazes smolder underground for months, long after flames above ground have been extinguished, earning them the nickname zombie fires.

“The fires themselves will burn part of the active layer (of permafrost) combusting the soil and releasing greenhouses gases like carbon dioxide,” Rogers said. “But that soil that’s been combusted was also insulating, keeping the permafrost cool in summer. Once you get rid of it, you get very quickly much deeper active layers, and that can lead to larger emissions over the following decades.”

Also deeply concerning has been the sudden appearance of around 20 perfectly cylindrical craters in the remote far north of Siberia in the past 10 years. Dozens of meters in diameter, they are thought to be caused by a buildup and explosion of methane — a previously unknown geological phenomenon that surprised many permafrost scientists and could represent a new pathway for methane previously contained deep within the earth to escape.

“The Arctic is warming so fast,” Rogers said, “and there’s crazy things happening.”

A lack of monitoring and data on the behavior of permafrost, which covers 15% of the exposed land surface of the Northern Hemisphere, means scientists still only have a patchwork, localized understanding of rapid thaw, how it contributes to global warming and affects people living in permafrost regions.

Rogers at the Woodwell Climate Research Center is part of a new $41 million initiative, funded by a group of billionaires and called the Audacious Project, to understand permafrost thaw. It aims to coordinate a pan-Arctic carbon monitoring network to fill in some of the data gaps that have made it difficult to incorporate permafrost thaw emissions into climate targets.

The project’s first carbon flux tower, which tracks the flow of methane and carbon dioxide from the ground to the atmosphere, was installed this summer in Churchill, Manitoba. However, plans to install similar monitoring stations in Siberia are in disarray as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It’s always been more challenging to work in Russia than other countries … Canada, for example,” Rogers said. “But this (invasion), of course, has made it exponentially more challenging.”

Sebastian Dötterl, a professor and soil scientist at ETH Zurich, a Swiss university, who studies how warmer air and soil temperatures change plant growth in the Arctic, was able to travel to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic this summer to collect soil and plant samples.

However, the field trip cost twice as much as initially budgeted because the group was forbidden to use any Russia-owned infrastructure, forcing the team to hire a tourist boat and reorganize its itinerary. But Dötterl said the more pressing issue is that he can no longer interact with his counterparts at Russian institutions.

“We are now splitting a rather small community of specialists all over the world into political groups that are disconnected, where our problems are global and should be connected,” he said.

Turetsky agreed, saying that the war in Ukraine had been a “disaster for our scientific enterprise.”

“Russia and Siberia are huge, huge players. … Many of the (European Union-) and US-funded projects to work in Siberia to do any kind of lateral knowledge sharing, they’ve all been canceled.

“Will we stop trying? No, of course not. And there’s a lot we can do with existing data and with global remote sensing products. But it’s been a real setback for the community.”

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November 12, 2022
Tropical Depression Nicole moves through Georgia

WILBUR-BY-THE-SEA, Fla. — Tropical Depression Nicole was moving through Georgia Friday morning after a day of causing havoc as it churned through Florida as a hurricane and then tropical storm.

The rare November hurricane could dump as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain over the Blue Ridge Mountains by Friday, the National Hurricane Center said. Flash and urban flooding will be possible as the rain spreads into the eastern Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and New England through Saturday.

Nicole had spent Thursday cutting across central Florida after making landfall as a hurricane early that morning near Vero Beach. The brunt of the damage was along the East Coast well north of there, in the Daytona Beach area. The storm made it to the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday evening before turning north.

The storm caused at least two deaths and sent homes along Florida’s coast toppling into the Atlantic Ocean and damaged many others, including hotels and a row of high-rise condominiums. It was another devastating blow just weeks after Hurricane Ian came ashore on the Gulf Coast, killing more than 130 people and destroying thousands of homes.

Nicole was the first hurricane to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019. For storm-weary Floridians, it was only the first November hurricane to hit their shores since 1985 and only the third since recordkeeping began in 1853.

Nicole was sprawling, covering nearly the entire weather-weary state of Florida while also reaching into Georgia and the Carolinas before dawn on Thursday. Tropical storm-force winds extended as far as 450 miles (720 kilometers) from the center in some directions as Nicole turned northward over central Florida.

Although Nicole’s winds did minimal damage, its storm surge was more destructive than might have been in the past because seas are rising as the planet’s ice melts due to climate change, said Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer. It adds up to higher coastal flooding, flowing deeper inland, and what used to be once-in-a-century events that will happen almost yearly in some places, he said.

“It is definitely part of a picture that is happening,” Oppenheimer said. “It’s going to happen elsewhere. It’s going to happen all across the world.’’

Officials in Volusia County, northeast of Orlando, said Thursday evening that building inspectors had declared 24 hotels and condos in Daytona Beach Shores and New Smyrna Beach to be unsafe and ordered their evacuations. At least 25 single-family homes in Wilbur-by-the-Sea had been declared structurally unsafe by building inspectors and also were evacuated, county officials said.

“Structural damage along our coastline is unprecedented. We’ve never experienced anything like this before,” County Manager George Recktenwald said during a news conference earlier, noting that it was not known when evacuated residents can safely return home.

A man and a woman were killed by electrocution when they touched downed power lines in the Orlando area, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said. Nicole also caused flooding well inland, as parts of the St. Johns River were at or above flood stage and some rivers in the Tampa Bay area also nearing flood levels, according to the National Weather Service.

All 67 Florida counties were under a state of emergency. President Joe Biden also approved an emergency declaration for the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ordering federal help for the tribal nation. Many Seminoles live on six reservations around the state.

Parts of Florida were devastated by Hurricane Ian, which struck as a Category 4 storm. Ian destroyed homes and damaged crops, including orange groves, across the state — damage that many are still dealing with — and sent a storm surge of up to 13 feet (4 meters) onshore, causing widespread destruction.

———

For more AP coverage of our changing climate: https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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November 10, 2022
5 things to know for Nov. 10: Midterms, Tropical storm, Ukraine, Marijuana, Listeria | CNN

CNN
—

Election officials cautiously went into the midterms this week bracing for the possibility of harassment and hostility at some polling places. Luckily, voting went smoothly across the US – even after two years that election-deniers bragged that they would flood the polls with observers to find fraud.

Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

(You can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

Control of Congress remains undetermined as results continue to trickle in from Senate races in Arizona and Nevada. Georgia’s contest is also heading to a runoff on December 6 after neither Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock nor Republican challenger Herschel Walker surpassed the 50% threshold needed to win the race outright. In the House, it could be days until a full picture emerges as votes are still being counted in states like California, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona. Although Republicans are inching toward a slim majority in the House, President Joe Biden called the midterm vote “a good day for democracy” and praised Democrats’ efforts to stave off resounding GOP wins. “While any seat lost is painful… Democrats had a strong night,” he said.

Nicole made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane just south of Vero Beach, Florida, early this morning, packing winds of 75 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. While it has weakened to a tropical storm, Nicole is expected to lash the state with heavy rain and storm surge for the next several hours. Nicole’s colossal path has already caused power outages for nearly 110,000 customers and has prompted the closures of many schools, colleges and universities as well as the cancellation of hundreds of flights and the shuttering of amusement parks. Additionally, some residents evacuated their homes after they were deemed unsafe and at risk of collapse due to the storm’s impact. You can track the storm’s path here.

CNN reporter shows scene in Florida as Nicole weakens after landfall

Russia has ordered its troops to retreat from the key city of Kherson, the only regional capital it has captured since start of its war in Ukraine. This is a dramatic setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Ukrainian forces approach the city from two directions. The withdrawal “demonstrates the courage, the determination, the commitment of Ukrainian armed forces and also the importance of the continued support” of the West, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg told CNN. This comes as a top US general said Russia has suffered more than 100,000 killed and wounded soldiers as a result of the invasion – and Ukraine is probably looking at similar numbers.

Big blow to Putin as Russia orders to withdraw from Kherson

Ballot measures that will legalize marijuana are expected to pass in two states and fail in three others, CNN projects, as momentum has grown nationwide to push for lifting penalties once associated with cannabis. Voters in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota rejected measures that would have allowed certain amounts of cannabis possession and recreational consumption for people 21 and older. CNN projects Maryland and Missouri will approve measures to legalize recreational marijuana use. In Maryland specifically, individuals who were previously convicted of cannabis possession and intent to distribute will also be able to apply for record expungement. Recreational use of marijuana is currently legal in 19 states – along with Washington, DC.

The CDC issued a warning Wednesday about a deadly listeria outbreak in six states that has been linked to contaminated deli meat and cheese. People at high risk of severe illness from listeria infection – such as pregnant people, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems – should not eat meat or cheese from any deli counter without first reheating it “steaming hot,” the CDC said in a statement. At least one death was reported in Maryland and 16 people have been infected, according to reports from six states. If you have recently purchased deli cheese or meat, the agency recommends a careful cleaning of your refrigerator – and any containers or surfaces the meat or cheese may have touched – with hot, soapy water.

What is listeria?

01:20

– Source:
CNN

Heat shield that could land humans on Mars is heading to space today

NASA said this inflatable heat shield will hitch a ride to space today in the hope that it could eventually assist with human travel to other planets.

Where you can pick up a classic Thanksgiving meal

If you don’t feel like basting a turkey for hours on end this year, check out these restaurant chains and supermarkets that are offering take-out options.

The lottery is preying on the poor, critics say

Many lotto players this week had fun dreaming about the microscopic chance of winning a $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot. Critics, however, are pointing to the flaws of a lottery system they say unfairly targets poor people.

Jennifer Aniston opens up about failed IVF and has ‘zero regrets’

“I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it,” Aniston said. Read about her difficult IVF journey that made her the person she is today.

Popular crypto entrepreneur loses 94% of his wealth in a single day

After Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, FTX, collapsed this week, Bloomberg said he may find himself off of their billionaires list within days.

12

That’s how many female governors the US will have in 2023, setting a new record for the nation. While the number still represents a small fraction of the top executives across the 50 states, it beats the previous record of nine female governors serving concurrently in 2004, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

“Maybe this is a dumb decision, but we’ll see.”

– Elon Musk, backing his plan to offer blue check marks to Twitter users who agree to pay $8 a month – a strategy that has been marred by uncertainty and abrupt changes. During a Twitter Spaces session on Wednesday, Musk pleaded with advertisers to keep using his platform to “see how things evolve.” Twitter currently appears to be battling a wave of celebrity and corporate impersonators on its platform who have quickly gamed the company’s new paid verification system.

Hurricane Nicole makes landfall as winter strikes Upper Midwest

01:40

– Source:
CNN

Check your local forecast here>>>

iPhone sound effect (acapella)

Human iPhone sound effects

This a cappella group has mastered the art of singing iPhone ringtones and alert chimes! (Click here to view)

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November 10, 2022
Nicole downgrades to tropical storm over east-central Florida; strong winds, dangerous storm surge, heavy rains continue

Nicole downgrades to tropical storm over east-central Florida; strong winds, dangerous storm surge, heavy rains continue

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November 10, 2022
Nicole weakens to a tropical storm after striking Florida’s east coast as the first US hurricane in November in nearly 40 years | CNN

Editor’s Note: Affected by the storm? Use CNN’s lite site for low bandwidth.

CNN
—

Nicole has weakened to tropical storm after making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane along the east coast of Florida early Thursday morning, lashing the region with heavy rain and dangerous storm surge as it became the first hurricane to strike the US in November in nearly 40 years.

The storm struck just south of Vero Beach with winds of 75 mph before weakening to a tropical storm shortly after, the National Hurricane Center said. It’s bringing strong winds and heavy rainfall to some areas hit by Hurricane Ian less than two months ago.

Follow live updates >>

Nicole’s colossal path has led to evacuations from some residential buildings deemed unsafe and at risk of collapse due to the storm’s impact. In addition to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and the shuttering of amusement parks, many schools, colleges and universities closed ahead of the storm.

Nicole’s colossal path has led to evacuations from some residential buildings deemed unsafe and at risk of collapse due to the storm’s impact. In addition to the cancellation of hundreds of flights and the shuttering of amusement parks, many schools, colleges and universities closed ahead of the storm.

In Volusia County, officials told people to leave more than 20 buildings found to be structurally unsound due to Ian’s impact in late September.

“There is a strong potential that one or more buildings will collapse during the storm,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood told CNN affiliate WESH-TV on Wednesday. “Right now, ground zero is here.

“We don’t want to end up like Surfside,” Chitwood added.

Part of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, crumbled to the ground in summer 2021, killing 98 people. The collapse was not storm-related.

Nicole, which also threatens to whip up tornadoes, is expected to weaken to a depression early Friday and become a post-tropical cyclone over the Southeast.

“Weakening will occur while Nicole moves over Florida,” forecasters at the hurricane center said.

On Wednesday evening, Nicole strengthened from a tropical storm into a hurricane, smashing into Grand Bahama Island with strong winds and dangerous storm surge, the National Hurricane Center in the US said. The Abacos, Berry Islands and Grand Bahama Island in the northwestern Bahamas remained under hurricane warnings early Thursday.

Because Nicole is a large storm, its impact will be felt well beyond its center, according to forecasters, who explained that people in its path should not focus on the exact track to prepare.

Here’s what to know:

Millions under hurricane warning: More than 5 million people are under hurricane warnings. Up to 8 inches of rain can drench eastern, central and northern portions of Florida. Plus, between 2 to 6 inches are expected from parts of the US southeast to the southern and central Appalachians and western mid-Atlantic through Friday, the hurricane center said.

Historic hurricane: Nicole’s landfall Thursday was historic because it became the latest in a calendar year a hurricane has ever struck Florida’s Atlantic coast. The storm’s landfall broke a previous record set by the Yankee Hurricane, which hit Florida’s east coast on November 4, 1935.

Unsafe buildings: Ahead of Nicole’s expected landfall in Florida, officials asked people to evacuate buildings deemed unsafe to withstand the storm. In New Smyrna Beach, officials determined some condos are unsound due to the erosion of a sea wall. And in Daytona Beach Shores, which is still reeling from Hurricane Ian’s impact, at least 11 buildings are at risk of collapse, according to Public Safety Department Director Michael Fowler. Volusia County officials evacuated 22 single homes deemed unsafe in the unincorporated area of Wilbur-by-the-Sea.

School closures and flight cancellations: Many school districts, colleges and universities have closed as the storm approaches, according to the Florida Department of Education. Orlando International Airport halted operations Wednesday afternoon, and Miami International Airport said cancellations are possible, but it does not plan on closing.

South Carolina should prepare: People across the state should prepare for the likelihood that Nicole could bring heavy rain and winds. “Given the uncertainty of the storm’s strength and path as it approaches South Carolina, residents need to have their personal emergency plans ready to go just in case we need to take safety precautions later in the week,” said Kim Stenson, who heads the state’s emergency management division.

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November 10, 2022
Hurricane Nicole makes landfall along east coast of Florida, packing 75 mph winds

Hurricane Nicole makes landfall along east coast of Florida, packing 75 mph winds

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November 10, 2022
Tropical Storm Nicole forces evacuations in Bahamas, Florida

MIAMI — Tropical Storm Nicole forced people from their homes in the Bahamas and threatened to grow into a rare November hurricane in Florida on Wednesday, shutting down airports and Disney World as well as prompting evacuation orders that included former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

Hundreds of people sought shelter in the northwestern Bahamas before the approaching storm, which had already sent seawater washing across roads on barrier islands in Florida.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the center of the sprawling storm make landfall on Great Abaco with estimated maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.

“We are forecasting it to become a hurricane as it nears the northwestern Bahamas, and remain a hurricane as it approaches the east coast of Florida,” Daniel Brown, a senior hurricane specialist at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, said Wednesday.

Nicole is the first storm to hit the Bahamas since Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the archipelago in 2019, before hitting storm-weary Florida.

In the Bahamas, officials said that more than 520 people were in more than two dozen shelters. Flooding and power outages were reported in Grand Abaco island.

Authorities were especially concerned about a large Haitian community in Great Abacothat was destroyed by Dorian and has since grown from 50 acres (20 hectares) to 200 acres (81 hectares).

“Do not put yourselves in harm’s way,” said Zhivago Dames, assistant commissioner of police information as he urged everyone to stay indoors. “Our first responders are out there. However, they will not put their lives in danger.”

In Florida, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said in a tweet that storm surge from Tropical Storm Nicole had already breached the sea wall along Indian River Drive, which runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean. The Martin County Sheriff’s office also said seawater had breached part of a road on Hutchinson Island.

Residents in several Florida counties — Flagler, Palm Beach, Martin and Volusia — were ordered to evacuate such barrier islands, low-lying areas and mobile homes.

Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club and home, is in one of those evacuation zones, built about a quarter-mile inland from the ocean. The main buildings sit on a small rise that is about 15 feet (4.6 meters) above sea level and the property has survived numerous stronger hurricanes since it was built nearly a century ago. The resort’s security office hung up Wednesday when an Associated Press reporter asked whether the club was being evacuated.

There is no penalty for ignoring an evacuation order, but rescue crews will not respond if it puts their members at risk.

Disney World and related theme parks announced they were closing early on Wednesday evening and likely would not reopen as scheduled on Thursday.

Palm Beach International Airport closed Wednesday morning, and Daytona Beach International Airport said it would cease operations at 12:30 p.m. Orlando International Airport, the seventh busiest in the U.S., was set to close at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Further south, officials said Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Miami International Airport were experiencing some flight delays and cancellations but both planned to remain open.

At a news conference in Tallahassee, Gov. Ron DeSantis said winds were the biggest concern and and significant power outages could occur, but that 16,000 linemen were on standby to restore power, as well as 600 guardsmen and seven search and rescue teams.

“It will affect huge parts of the state of Florida all day,” DeSantis said of the storm’s expected landing.

Almost two dozen school districts were closing schools for the storm and 15 shelters had opened along Florida’s east coast, the governor said.

Florida Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said Floridians should expect possible tornadoes, rip currents and flash flooding.

Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis, who is at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, said he has mobilized all government resources.

“There have always been storms, but as the planet warms from carbon emissions, storms are growing in intensity and frequency,” he said. “For those in Grand Bahama and Abaco, I know it is especially difficult for you to face another storm,” Davis said, referring to the islands hardest hit by Dorian.

At 11:55 a.m. the storm was about 185 miles (300 kilometers) east of West Palm Beach, Florida, and moving west at 12 mph (19 kph).

Tropical storm force winds extended as far as 460 miles (740 kilometers) from the center in some directions.

It could intensify into a rare November hurricane before hitting Florida, where only two have made landfall since recordkeeping began in 1853 — the 1935 Yankee Hurricane and Hurricane Kate in 1985.

New warnings and watches were issued for many parts of Florida, including the southwestern Gulf coastline which was devastated by Hurricane Ian, which struck as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 28. The storm destroyed homes and damaged crops, including orange groves, across the state.

Ian lashed much of the central region of Florida with heavy rainfall, causing flooding that many residents are still dealing with as Nicole approaches.

In Florida, the “combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” the hurricane center’s advisory said.

Hurricane specialist Brown said the storm will affect a large part of the state.

“Because the system is so large, really almost the entire east coast of Florida except the extreme southeastern part and the Keys is going to receive tropical storm force winds,” he said.

The storm is then expected to move across central and northern Florida into southern Georgia on Thursday, forecasters said. It was then forecast to move across the Carolinas on Friday.

“We are going to be concerned with rainfall as we get later into the week across portions of the southeastern United States and southern Appalachians, where there could be some flooding, flash flooding with that rainfall,” Brown said.

Early Wednesday, President Joe Biden declared an emergency in Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state, tribal and local response efforts to the approaching storm. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is still responding to those in need from Hurricane Ian.

———

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press reporters Zeke Miller in Washington, D.C., and Terry Spencer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.

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November 9, 2022
Magnitude 5.7 earthquake shakes Italy’s Adriatic coast | CNN

Rome
Reuters
—

A strong earthquake of magnitude 5.7 struck off Italy’s Adriatic coast early on Wednesday, but caused no serious damage or injuries, according to initial reports.

The quake happened shortly after 7 a.m. (1 a.m. ET), and was felt as far away as Rome on the other side of the country, and in the northern regions of Veneto, Friuli and Trentino.

“No injuries at the moment,” a spokesman for Italy’s Civil Protection told Reuters, as the agency tweeted that checks on the ground were continuing.

The quake’s epicenter was at 35 kilometers (22 miles) offshore from Pesaro, a seaside city in the eastern Marche region, at a depth of 7 kilometers (4 miles), the Italian Geophysics and Volcanology Institute (INGV) said.

As a precaution, schools in Pesaro and other nearby cities were closed, and rail traffic passing through Pesaro along the Adriatic coast was suspended.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said she was “in constant contact” with Civil Protection authorities and the head of the Marche region to follow developments.

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November 9, 2022
Earthquake rocks west Nepal, felt as far as New Delhi

KATHMANDU, Nepal — An earthquake in the mountains of west Nepal rocked the Himalayan nation in early Wednesday, killing at least six people while they were asleep in their houses, a government administrator said.

The earthquake was felt as far away as the the Indian capital New Delhi, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of the epicenter.

Kalpana Shrestha, the chief officer of Doti district, said six people were killed when they were crushed in their houses in a remote, sparsely populated mountain village. Five more were injured.

The earthquake around 2:12 a.m. local time sent people in the mountain villages panicking out of their houses and many spent the entire night out in the open, Shrestha said.

She said security forces have been dispatched to the remote villages to help with the rescue effort. There were reports of houses damaged in many villages but no new reports of casualties.

Videos posted on social media showed villagers moving debris by hand to find the victims buried by the earthquake-damaged houses, shining mobile phone lights to move the piles of wood and stones that most of the mountain villages to build houses.

Most of the mountain villages are reached on foot and there are no roads to drive heavy equipment to help with the rescue.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said in a statement he has ordered government officials to provide immediate help to the victims and their families and provide all necessary medical assistance to those wounded.

Nepal’s National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center gave a preliminary magnitude of 6.6. The U.S. Geological Survey provided preliminary measurements of a 5.6 magnitude with a depth of 15.7 kilometers (9.8 miles) and its epicenter 21 km (13 miles) east of Dipayal.

Earthquakes are common in mountainous Nepal, which is home to the tallest mountain. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015 killed some 9,000 people and damaged around 1 million structures.

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November 8, 2022
Nicole strengthens, threatens Bahamas and Florida coastline

MIAMI — Subtropical Storm Nicole began strengthening and transitioning into a tropical storm early Tuesday as it churned toward the northwestern Bahamas and Florida’s Atlantic coastline, forecasters said.

“There are indications in the satellite imagery and recognizance aircraft that the system may be trying to evolve into a more classic tropical cyclone and could become a full-blown tropical storm later today,” Jack Bevin, a senior hurricane specialist at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, told The Associated Press on Tuesday morning.

A range of warnings and watches remain in place. Many areas are still reeling from damage caused by Hurricane Ian, which hit Florida’s southwestern Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm in late September, before dumping heavy amounts of rain across much of central part of the state.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for the Abacos, Berry Islands, Bimini and Grand Bahama Island, the advisory said. Other areas of the Bahamas, including Andros Island, New Province and Eleuthera remained under a tropical storm warning.

The hurricane center said the storm’s track shifted slightly north overnight, but the exact path remains uncertain. It was expected to make landfall along Florida’s coast as a Category 1 hurricane late Wednesday or early Thursday.

In the U.S., tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches were issued for much of Florida’s Atlantic coastline north of Miami, to Altamaha Sound, Georgia. The warning area stretches inland, covering Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, with tropical storm watches in effect on the state’s Gulf Coast — from Bonita Beach in southwest Florida to the Ochlockonee River in the Panhandle.

Bevin said the storm has a “very large cyclonic envelope,” meaning that even if it makes landfall along the central Florida coastline, the effects will be felt into Georgia.

However, the storm was not expected to have any impact on voting in Florida on Tuesday, Bevin said.

Officials in the Bahamas opened more than two dozen shelters across the archipelago on Tuesday as they closed schools and government offices in Abaco, Bimini, the Berry Islands and Grand Bahama.

Authorities warned that airports and seaports will close as the storm nears and not reopen until Thursday as they urged people in shantytowns to seek secure shelter.

Communities in Abaco are expected to receive a direct hit from Nicole as they still struggle to recover from Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that hit in 2019.

“We don’t have time to beg and plead for persons to move,” said Capt. Stephen Russell, emergency management authority director.

The difference between a subtropical and tropical storm is largely academic. A subtropical storm is a non-frontal low-pressure system that has characteristics of both tropical and extratropical cyclones and tend to have a larger wind field, extending much farther from their centers.

At 7 a.m., the storm was about 385 miles (615 kilometers) east northeast of the northwestern Bahamas and moving at 8 mph (13 kph), with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph).

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. The last storm to hit Florida in November was Tropical Storm Eta, which made landfall in Cedar Key, on the state’s Gulf Coast, on Nov. 12, 2020.

———

Walker reported from New York City. Associated Press reporter Danica Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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November 8, 2022
Subtropical Storm Nicole forms, threatens Bahamas, US coast

MIAMI — Subtropical Storm Nicole has formed in the Atlantic Ocean, bringing threats of a “prolonged period of hazardous weather” to parts of the Bahamas and the southeastern coast of the United States, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Monday.

A tropical storm watch is in effect for the northwestern Bahamas, including Andros Island, New Providence, Eleuthera, Abacos Islands, Berry Islands, Grand Bahama Island, and Bimini, forecasters said.

At 5 a.m. Monday, the “sprawling” storm was located about 555 miles east of the northwestern Bahamas. It was about 555 miles (895 kilometers) east of the northwestern Bahamas, with maximum sustained winds at 45 mph (75 kmh), the hurricane center said in an advisory.

“It’s not out of the question for Nicole to reach hurricane strength, especially given how warm the waters are in the vicinity of the Bahamas,” the advisory said. “It should be stressed, however, that no matter Nicole’s ultimate intensity, the storm’s large size will likely cause significant wind, storm surge, and rainfall impacts over a large portion of the northwestern Bahamas, Florida, and the southeastern coast of the United States during much of the upcoming week.”

Forecasters advised those living in the central Bahamas, Florida, and along the southeastern coast of the United States to monitor progress of the storm. Additional watches will likely be required by later Monday, the advisory said.

The storm was expected to produce heavy rainfall across the northwestern Bahamas Tuesday through Thursday, impacting portions of Florida and other areas of the U.S. coastline mid-to-late week.

Large parts of Florida are still reeling from destructive Hurricane Ian, which slammed into the southwestern portion of the state in Sept. 28 as a strong Category 4 hurricane and dumped massive amounts of rain, causing flooding across central Florida.

A subtropical storm is a non-frontal low-pressure system that has characteristics of both tropical and extratropical cyclones. They tend to be large and have a larger wind field, extendung much further from their centers. Forecasters said in the advisory that the storm could possibly transition into a tropical system as it continues to develop.

The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and ends on Nov. 30.

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November 7, 2022