Two Pacific-sized disasters: the Samoan tsunami and Typhoon Ketsana
The Pacific spawned another huge natural disaster yesterday, when a magnitude 8.0 - 8.3 earthquake near Samoa generated a tsunami that devastated portions of American Samoa and neighboring islands. While the ocean surface was only displaced about three inches by the force of the earthquake near its epicenter, the rupture occurred near the 10,000 meter-deep Tonga-Kermadec Trench, along a swath 200 - 300 km long. A column of water miles deep and 200 - 300 km long accelerated downward by the force of gravity (or lifted upward by crustal motion) by three inches represents an massive amount of energy released into the ocean. The quake was able to generate a 1.5-foot tsunami on the Hawaiian island of Oahu 2,700 miles away, and a 0.6-foot tsunami on the Oregon coast, over 5,000 miles away.
Portlight.org is considering adopting an American Samoa family to help out in the wake of this huge disaster. They would like some feedback from their contributors on whether to go ahead with this idea, so stop by the Portlight.org blog to join the discussion.
Typhoon Ketsana
Typhoon Ketsana has finally dissipated, but not before bringing record flooding to Vietnam, two days after creating recording flooding and chaos in the capital of the Philippines, Manila. Ketsana made landfall Tuesday morning in Vietnam between Hue and Da Nang as a Category 2 typhoon with 105 mph winds. The storm dumped up to 20 inches of rain on Vietnam, according to satellite estimates. Some rivers in central Vietnam rose above the record flood heights recorded in an epic 1964 flood. In all, Ketsana has been responsible for 41 deaths in Vietnam and 11 in neighboring Cambodia, with many more missing. At least 350,000 people are homeless in Vietnam, joining the 380,000 left homeless in the Philippines from the storm.
Figure 1. NASA MODIS satellite image of Ketsana approaching Vietnam on Tuesday, September 28, 2009. Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory.
The death toll in the Philippines from Ketsana has stabilized at 246, with another 38 missing. Residents of the islands need to keep a wary eye on Typhoon Parma, which is expected to intensify into a major typhoon and brush the northern Philippine island of Luzon on Saturday and Sunday.
Quietest September in the Atlantic since 1997
Well, it's the end of September, and what is traditionally the busiest month in the Atlantic was unusually quiet. We had only two named storms this September, the first time since 1997 we've had less than three September named storms. There were only 6.75 days in September with a named storm, which ranks as the 4th fewest September named storm days since 1950 (only 1962, 1970, and 1994 had fewer). The Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index for September ranked as the 6th lowest since 1950. The quiet period is likely to continue for at least another week, as there are no threat areas in the Atlantic to discuss today, and none of the computer models are forecasting tropical storm formation over the next seven days. I'll post my first-half-of-October outlook for the Atlantic tomorrow.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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hey admin, does this not deserve a ban?
LOL...sorry, he got my Irish up...The worst thing about this guy is that I have like 11 of his "noms de plume" ignored and he keeps showing up with a new one...
=====JUST FOR YOU=====
Amen, my Catholic brotha!
LOL!
yea it boggles my mind that he is allowed to continue to create new accounts when it is clear his motives are only to antagonize yet some get lifetime bans
And that's a fact,not a prediction.
Achille's Last Stand..
You are clueless lol
just saying that you will stand by what you say, isnt backing up your statement
show us actual proof
oh and answer post #76 please
well dude you gather valuable experience off your mistakes..you are not always going to be right ..take this season for instance im perfect wasnt wrong once..i predicted way before the season started 6 named storms...dr gray and all the experts were saying anywhere from 13-18..which is impossible in a strong elnino year...this comes from experience tornadodude you will be able to do this just give it some time...you will get better as the years roll along..
(post 76)
yes, that is highly improbable in a strong El Nino year, but........ this is no where near a strong El Nino year. show me maps that prove other wise. thanks.
how bout you do your homework, and provide us with some facts that this is a strong el nino?
again saying shear is high is like saying the yankees have money
WE KNOW THAT ALREADY, but you have zero proof that we have a strong El Nino and that we cant have a named storm next month
you have shown us nothing, ignored the question and then gotten defensive when we have asked you to back up your statements with facts; something you have failed to do
Well, this one is my bad; my rule has always been "Do not get into a battle of wits with an unarmed man" and I let him get the better of me. If they ban him permanently he'll only get another name and be back in an hour
bb in 30 mins or so for my lunch
Like everyone else, I'm still awaiting the answer to post #76 also.
Lemme know what I can do i that regard,blog wise or other.
is that cooler than normal temps off the coast of South America?
And justification for insurance / gas rate hikes.
Notice they are both coming down now
A powerful earthquake in the South Pacific hurled a massive tsunami at the shores of Samoa and American Samoa, flattening villages and sweeping cars and people out to sea, leaving at least 82 dead.
just because you say something doesnt mean it is true... also, can you post an image that shows that we have a "strong el nino"?
The huge extreme el nino of 2006:
How is it that this year's nino is strong, again?
wow
* From: AFP
* Thu Oct 01 00:49:00 EST 2009
AT least 21 people have been killed and thousands are trapped underneath rubble after a major earthquake hit Indonesia's Sumatra island last night, officials said.
Large buildings, including hospitals and hotels, caved in while fires raged in the coastal city of Padang, home to nearly a million people, as communications and power remained cut hours after the 7.6-magnitude quake.
"Houses and buildings have collapsed, causing thousands of people to be trapped inside in the rubble,'' Health Ministry crisis centre head Rustam Pakaya said, adding that a major city hospital was among the destroyed buildings.
Rescue teams and doctors have been sent and were expected to arrive in about 10 hours, Mr Pakaya said.
Local media reported that panicked residents rushed from their homes during the quake, which struck off Sumatra's west coast at about 5pm (8pm AEST), 47km northwest of Padang.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
"A number of hotels in Padang have been destroyed,'' Indonesian tsunami warning head Rahmat Triyono said, adding the agency did not release a tsunami alert.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii however issued a tsunami watch for Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Thailand, but later cancelled it.
"Up to now we haven't been able to reach Padang, communications have been cut,'' Triyono said amid fears the death toll could rise sharply.
The quake was felt in the capital Jakarta, 940km away, and sent frightened office workers streaming out of buildings in nearby Singapore and the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
"The shaking was the worst I had ever felt,'' Yuliarni, a resident of Pariaman district outside Padang, told TVOne news channel.
"Houses have collapsed, the lights and electricity were cut off,'' she said.
The quake caused a landslide that destroyed houses at Lake Maninjau inland from Padang, local resident Hafiz told the channel.
"Part of the roof of the arrival hall at the Padang airport collapsed but nobody was injured. The runway is okay. The airport has been closed but will reopen at 7am tomorrow,'' an official of airport operator company Angkasa Pura II, Hariyanto, said.
Geologists have said Padang, which lies near the colliding Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates, was the most likely in the country to fall victim to the next major quake or tsunami.
"There will be aftershocks but it's difficult to predict whether there will be a bigger quake,'' Geological Disaster Mitigation and Volcanology Centre head Surono said.
"There are three big volcanoes in West Sumatra - Merapi, Talang and Tandikat. We fear that this quake might cause volcanic eruptions there,'' he said.
Samoan Tsunami Pics
All must Bow to El Nino...
can you post an image, graphic, or something that proves that there is a strong el nino?
must be the strong el nino
Same here.
I'm wondering why Tacoman/StormTop/StormT/Stormno/whatever-the-name-of-the-week-is hasn't been IP-banned yet.
Also... I wonder if he has made any enhancements to his T.O.I.L.E.T. model.
Sounds to me like he doesn't need your help; he seems to have the answers you lack, sir...
I don't know if you have seen the news but there was another earthquake, 7.6 in Indonesia. I can't remember the last time there was back to back large eq's like this.
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