Ship spends 10th day stuck in frozen waters off Antarctica - 26th Dec 2011

A research ship has arrived to help rescue a Russian fishing vessel that struck ice and became stuck in the frozen waters off of Antarctica 10 days ago, officials in New Zealand said.

The Sparta hit underwater ice December 16, leaving a one-foot hole in the ship's hull, according to the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Center.

The ship has been stranded in an area about 2,000 miles from New Zealand, where the ice has been so thick that rescue ships have had difficulty getting close.

Since becoming stuck, 32 crew members have been working with rescuers to try to patch up the hole to keep the ship from sinking. They had been given tools dropped by a New Zealand Air Force plane, helping them pump out freezing water that was rushing into the ship.

But it has been difficult for the crew to both patch up the hole and pump out water, an official said.

"They are having difficulty in trying to fix a patch to the damaged part of the hull because they need to stop one of the pumps to do this, and then the water level creeps up again," Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator Neville Blakemore told the New Zealand Herald. Read More

Indonesian tsunami girl 'turns up after seven years presumed dead'

The girl named Wati, 15, who uses just one name, was ripped from her mother's grasp in the province of Aceh by the raging waters and has not been seen since.

But on Wednesday a friend of the girl's grandfather, Ibrahim, brought a teenaged girl in a headscarf to his house in the city of Meulaboh.

She had been discovered sitting in silence in a coffee bar, but when questioned she said that she had come by bus from Banda Aceh and was trying to find her way home and did not know how.

The girl said she could not remember any of her relatives' names except Ibrahim, which made her grandfather think she could be his long-lost grandchild.

He immediately summoned her parents, Yusniar and Yusuf, who confirmed that the dark-skinned Wati was their daughter from a mole and a small scar on her elbow. Read More

Fallen tree cuts power to bullet train line, delays 60,000 passengers, Japan - 26th Dec 2011

Some 60,000 passengers on the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train line found themselves going nowhere in a hurry on Dec. 26 after a snow-laden tree fell onto the tracks and cut power to one section of the line for over two hours.

According to line operator Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai), the some 10-meter tall tree fell onto the Tokyo-bound tracks in the Gifu Prefecture town of Sekigahara at about 9:05 a.m., hitting the overhead power lines on the way down and cutting electricity between JR Gifu-Hashima and Maibara stations.

All Tokyo-bound trains between Shin-Osaka and Maibara stations and all southbound trains between Tokyo and Gifu-Hashima stations were halted, with a total of 20 trains canceled and 66 trains delayed for up to three hours. At Tokyo Station, JR staff were assailed by businesspeople and families asking when the trains would start moving again, while the ticket office was swamped with people booked onto canceled trains looking for refunds. Read More

Death toll has increased to 1249 from storm in Philippines as bodies wash ashore - 26th Dec 2011

The death toll from the tropical storm that lashed the southern Philippines just over a week ago has topped 1,200, the government said Monday, as the bodies of people swept out to sea by flash floods wash ashore.

The number of dead has increased to 1,249 from 1,100 over the weekend, said Major Reynaldo Balido, the military assistant for operations at the Office of Civil Defense.

The bodies have been washed up on nearby beaches and islands, Balido said by telephone from the island of Mindanao, the scene of the worst devastation.

The authorities have also enlisted the help of local fishermen to help search for the scores of people who remain missing, he said, adding that the fisherman volunteered, since many of them had lost friends and relatives in the disaster.

The unusually heavy rains of Tropical Storm Washi, which churned across the southern Philippines between December 16 and 18, set off landslides and flash floods that swept away whole villages. Read More

Western Australia's northwest Remains under threat of Bushfires - 26th Dec 2011

Remote station communities in Western Australia's northwest remain under threat from a bushfire that started on Christmas Eve.

Authorities on Monday warned there was a possible threat to lives and property as the fire burnt towards Yanrey and Koordarrie stations, south of Onslow.

A bushfire watch and act alert remains in place for the stations and Giralia Station, with residents advised to leave or get ready to actively defend their properties.

The fire began on Saturday near Marilla Station, about 1200km north of Perth, before burning through 150,000 hectares of land.

Firefighters continue to strengthen containment lines to secure Burkett Road, which has been closed to incoming traffic. Source

Hundreds clean up Melbourne storm mess - 26th Dec 2011

Insurance companies have been inundated with inquiries as householders mop up after wild weather that ripped through Melbourne on Christmas Day.

An estimated 300 to 400 State Emergency Service volunteers will be out in force for at least the next two days to clean up after Sunday's series of storms, which brought huge hailstones, torrential rain, flash flooding and even a tornado, prompting 3000 distress calls.

SES spokesman Lachlan Quick said 15 SES crews from western Victoria would be drafted in on Monday to help with the clean-up in the north and northwest parts of the state.

"They're out getting allocated to jobs now and they'll be there at least another two days," Mr Quick told AAP.

On Monday morning an estimated 2000 requests for help remained outstanding.

The damage was caused by large hail which pelted the northwest and northeastern suburbs. The areas of Taylors Lakes, Keilor, Eltham, Greensborough and Keilor Downs were the hardest hit.

Mr Quick said the hail had punched holes in roofs, skylights and windows, leaving buildings more exposed to the ensuing round of storms.

"I'd anticipate the clean-up to take at least two days, if not longer, simply because of the sheer number of jobs and type of damage," he said.

Insurance Council of Australia CEO Rob Whelan said insurance companies had been inundated with calls, and had handled more than 1000 inquiries by noon on Boxing Day. Read More

Rough surf closes half of New South Wales beaches: Australia

Rough surf from ex-tropical cyclone Fina has forced the closure of half the beaches in New South Wales.

Dean Storey from Surf Life Saving NSW says the large swells are extremely dangerous.

"At this stage it's looking likely like at least half of the beaches across the state are closed. The swell is affecting most of the New South Wales coastline," Mr Storey said.

"The beaches that are exposed to the north-east are copping the swell the biggest, but the key message today is the whole coastline is affected by a large swell, very strong rips, very strong current.

"The north coast has been copping it the last couple of days, but it's now affecting pretty much the whole state."

He says swimmers should only swim between the flags at patrolled beaches. more

Class 2 Storm Warning Issued for Sweden - 25th Dec 2011

A Class 2 warning has been issued for Sweden as a storm, dubbed Dagmar, approaches from the west.

"We have issued Class 2 warnings and the most powerful winds are expected in the southern peaks of Norrland. There's a risk of 25 or 30 metres per second. That's almost hurricane strength," said Alexandra Ohlsson of the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, SMHI, to news agency TT.

According to the forecasters, regions of the counties Jämtland and Västernorrland look to be particularly in danger of being hit by the storm, although much of the country can expect strong winds.

During the afternoon on Sunday the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket), announced that all rail traffic to and from Norrland would be halted from 8pm onwards in anticipation of the storm approaching from the west.

"The reason is that we are worried trains will be left standing following fallen down cables and other obstacles," said Peter Behrman of the agency to TT.

SMHI had already issued a Class 1 warning on December 23d and there were widespread problems on the roads throughout Christmas Eve as the weather progressively got worse across Sweden.

With Dagmar believed to be one of the most powerful storms of the past 30 years, Norway has been most seriously affected so far. Read More

Huge wave sweeps away houses in southern Thailand, people evacuated - 25th Dec 2011

Five meter waves hit three sub- districts in Thailand's southern Chumpon province's Langsuan district on Sunday noon, destroying several houses, bungalows and restaurants and forcing local residents to flee their homes.

The seawater also flooded Hua Lame village in Langsuan district with approximate height of 70 centimeter, forcing people to evacuate to a temple seen as a safe shelter.

According to chief of Bangmaprao Tambon Administrative Office, huge waves lashed many villages in three sub-districts slightly before noon. As a result, several bungalows and restaurants were devastated while some people's houses swept away.

Chumpon Meteorological Station director-general Decha Sukgaeo said that the intense high pressure from China has moved to cover the southern region, causing rain storms and high waves in the area during Dec. 25-28. Small fishing trawlers should remain onshore, he warned. Source

Hail and Thunderstorms cause havoc in Melbourne, Australia - 25th Dec 2011

Hailstones the size of cricket balls, flash-flooding, planes diverted and flights postponed, power lost from homes, major transport delays and a tornado to top things off - that was Christmas Day in Melbourne.

Much of Victoria copped the extremes - from steamy, sultry weather for Christmas lunch to severe storms that left many residents struggling to compare them with anything in memory.

The volunteers who staff the State Emergency Service had little time to digest their lunch when the calls for help started arriving.

Melton, on Melbourne's western fringes, was the first to report hailstones at 3.30pm (AEDT).

Then the skies exploded over greater Melbourne, as lightning strikes, loud cracks of thunder, torrential rain and hailstones hammered the city.

By 9pm the SES had handled more than 2000 calls for assistance, mainly damage caused by hailstones to skylights and windows.

It may be a few days before the damage to motor vehicles can be assessed.

SES spokesman Lachlan Quick said reinforcements from SES branches in the western districts will be drafted in on Monday to help with the huge clean-up in the north and northwest parts of the state.

He said most of the calls concerned smashed windows and skylights. Read More

Cyclone moves on after whipping remote island, Australia - 25th Dec 2011

Police at remote Croker Island in the Northern Territory say the local community has escaped serious damage from a category two cyclone.

Tropical Cyclone Grant intensified into a category two system late on Christmas Day and came within kilometres of Croker Island.

The Bureau of Meteorology says the storm brought winds of 130 kilometres per hour and torrential rain.

Residents of the island's community of Minjilang, about 230 kilometres north-east of Darwin, took shelter in their homes, and about 70 weathered the storm at a cyclone shelter.

But Minjilang police station sergeant Jeff Pickering says conditions have now begun to ease and there have been no reports of major damage.

"Our initial assessment shows there has been no structural damage to any buildings," he said

He says some power lines have fallen and most of the community's trees are down.

The local power station was shut earlier today and will remain closed until power lines are restored.

Earlier, the weather bureau's director of emergency services, Peter Davies, said the cyclone has caused some damage to Croker Island. Read More

Large swells close Qeensland beaches at Xmas - 25th Day 2011

Queenslanders will have to give Christmas Day picnics on the beach a miss this year as swells as high as four metres take over many popular spots.

The Queensland Weather Bureau has issued a severe weather warning for dangerous surf conditions and abnormally high tides for coastal areas.

Areas affected include Sandy Cape to Point Danger as well as the Fraser, Sunshine and Gold Coasts.

"We've got a low pressure system south of the Coral Sea, we have a high pressure system near New Zealand," forecaster Gavin Holcombe told AAP.

"And as a result those systems are producing large swells moving on to those beaches south of Fraser Island.

"Those swells are up top the four metre mark and may even get higher

"They are long period swells and as a result when they break on the beach they're particularly strong and pretty dangerous.

"As a result those beaches have closed." Read More

Bushfire threatening lives, homes in Western Australia's mid-west - 25th Dec 2011

An out-of-control bushfire is threatening lives and homes in Western Australia's mid-west.

A bushfire watch and act has been issued for people at Marrilla Station, in the Shire of Carnarvon, and Giralia and Yanrey Stations, in the Shire of Exmouth, including Burkett Road.

The fire started near Marrilla Station and crossed Burkett Road last night.

It is now burning towards Yanrey Station.

The Fire and Emergency Services Authority says there is a risk to lives and homes as conditions are changing.

Authorities say residents in the area have been notified and are believed to be safe. Source

Storms rip through Georgia as most of U.S. faces a 'brown' holiday weekend... unless you live in Michigan or the Rockies - 23rd Dec 2011

At least seven people were injured in northern Georgia as powerful storms roared across the area, damaging homes, downing trees and knocking out power to thousands.

A survey team planned to visit Gordon County on Friday to determine whether a tornado was responsible for damage Thursday to homes near Calhoun, said Robert Garcia, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, Ga.

'We've received reports that we had some major structural damage reported in southern Gordon County with at least one home destroyed and several damaged,' Garcia said.

One home was blown off its foundation and the family inside was tossed into the yard.

'The house started shaking and then we started moving, and I said, 'Here we go,'' Davison Sheriff told Atlanta station WSB-TV. Read More

Darwin residents on cyclone watch, Australia - 24th Dec 2011

Gale-force winds and heavy rain are expected to hit Darwin as the Northern Territory coast braces itself for a tropical cyclone.

Localised flooding is expected over the northern Darwin-Daly, Arnhem and northern Roper-McArthur districts over the Christmas weekend, the Bureau of Meteorology in Darwin warned.

Darwin residents and those in coastal areas west of Dundee beach to Nhulunbuy and inland to Jabiru are being told to be on cyclone watch.

Meanwhile a cyclone warning has been issued for the coastal areas from Cape Fourcroy to Milingimbi, including the Tiwi Islands, Cape Don and Croker Island, with people being warned to expect wind gusts up to 110km/h.

Dr Richard Wardle, supervising meteorologist in Darwin, said the probability rating of a cyclone was high, which meant there was a 50 to 100 per cent chance of one hitting.

"If conditions are favourable today it could develop into a cyclone as early as this afternoon," Dr Wardle said on Saturday.

He said it was going to be "very windy and very wet" with some damage to houses likely.

"It's very scary for people that are involved. We could see boats dragging their moorings.

"Anything that's not tied down or that is left out in the open could become flying debris." Source

Flash floods hit several areas in Singapore - 23rd Dec 2011

Prolonged heavy rain over the southern and central parts of Singapore on Friday afternoon led to flash floods in several areas.

National water agency PUB said that from 2.20pm to 5.20pm, Orchard Road saw a total recorded rainfall of 152.8 millimetres.

However, PUB said there was no flooding at Orchard Road. Instead, water ponded at the open area of Liat Towers, the underpass between Lucky Plaza and Ngee Ann City, and the basement of Lucky Plaza due to the sustained heavy downpour.

This activated the flood barricades at Liat Towers. But it wasn't enough to stop the water from entering.

Seng Woon Fa, marketing and brand manager at Wendy's Restaurant, said: "The water started coming in at 5pm. By 5.20pm, we started to evacuate all our customers.

"The barricade at the outer level and inner level does not work because the water came in too suddenly and probably there is something wrong with the system... Our daily business will be affected about 60 per cent."

Mr Seng said he will try to resume business as soon as possible once all equipment in the restaurant has been checked after cleaning up and it is safe to switch the power back on.

Elsewhere, flash floods occurred at Cuscaden Road, Newton Circus, Kampong Java, Lincoln Road, Wee Nam Road, Cambridge Road, the junction of Moulmein Road and Thomson Road in front of United Square, and the junction of Bukit Timah and Sixth Avenue. Read More

23 dead in Tanzania flooding - 23rd Dec 2011

Heavy rains and flooding have killed at least 23 people in Tanzania and displaced more than 4,000 others, state-run media reported.

Officials fear the death toll could rise.

Three consecutive days of rain, the heaviest in 57 years, caused the flooding, reported the state-run newspaper Daily News, citing the regional commissioner.

President Jakaya Kikwete visited a camp for flood victims Thursday in Dar es Salaam. The capital has been inundated with murky water. Shops were shuttered and residents scrambled to find higher ground.

The United Nations was working to assess what kind of aid the Tanzanian government will need to cope with the crisis. Read More

More than 1,000 missing in Philippines after storm - 23rd Dec 2011

More than 1,000 people are missing in the aftermath of a tropical storm that wreaked havoc across the southern Philippines last weekend, the country's government said Friday, as it grappled with the mounting humanitarian crisis in the region.

A total of 1,079 people remain unaccounted for, the Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said in a statement. Earlier in the week, the disaster council said it had lost count of the number of missing as it tried to assess the scale of the destruction.

The death toll from Tropical Storm Washi, which set off landslides and flash floods that swept away whole villages, has risen to 1,080, according to the council.

The United Nations said Wednesday that the storm has created "huge" humanitarian needs on the island of Mindanao, the scene of the worst devastation. It has made an appeal to raise $28 million to deal with the immediate problems in the area, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced in and around the port cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.

"I was shocked by scale of destruction I saw," David Carden, the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Philippines told CNN on Thursday after visiting the region. He said it looked as if an "inland tsunami had struck the area." Read More

2012 End-of-the-World Countdown Based on Mayan Calendar Starts Today

The countdown to the apocalypse is on.

We're one year away from Dec. 21, 2012, the date that the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar allegedly marked as the end of an era that would reset the date to zero and signal the end of humanity.

But will it?

There have been many end of times predictions over the years. Christian radio host Harold Camping faced widespread ridicule when his predictions that the world would end twice this year - on May 21, and then on Oct. 21 - failed to materialize.

But in the flurry of doomsday predictions - there have been similar dire warnings about the world coming to an end from various cultures, including Native Americans, the Chinese, Egyptians and even the Irish - the supposed Mayan prophecy seems to have held the most sway with believers.

The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy. Advanced mathematics and primitive astronomy flourished, creating what many have called the most accurate calendar in the world.

The Mayans predicted a final event that included a solar shift, a Venus transit and violent earthquakes. Read More

Permafrost science heats up in the United States

Programme will examine effect of Arctic warming on frozen soils.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is embarking on a US$100-million research programme to investigate what will happen to the 1,500 billion tonnes of organic carbon locked up in frozen soils of the far northern permafrost when they thaw in the rapidly warming Arctic climate.

The programme, called the Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments — Arctic (NGEE), is designed to develop a fine-scale model that can simulate how soil microbes, plants and groundwater interact on the scale of centimetres to tens of metres, to control the amount of organic carbon stored underground in the permafrost zone. That model will be incorporated into the planetary-scale Earth-system models used to forecast how climate evolves under different emissions scenarios.

“Our ability to model greenhouse gases and vegetation dynamics is inadequate in today’s environment, and when we think out 50 to 100 years, that entire landscape is going to evolve and be much more complex,” says Stan Wullschleger, the principal investigator for NGEE and a plant ecologist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Read More