Typhoon Usagi hits Taiwan, Philippines, nears Hong Kong, posing ‘severe threat’ to the city – Storm dumps 520 millimeters (20 inches) of rain along the eastern and southern coasts of Taiwan in 20-hour period

TAIPEI, Taiwan, 21 September 2013 (AP) – The most powerful typhoon of the year swept through the Luzon Strait separating the Philippines and Taiwan on Saturday, battering island communities with heavy rains and strong winds as it headed straight for Hong Kong. Typhoon Usagi weakened from a super typhoon – those with sustained winds of […]

New global map of ecosystem vulnerability to abrupt climate change

Contact: Stephen Sautner, ssautner@wcs.org, 718-220-368216 September 2013 NEW YORK (Wildlife Conservation Society) – Using data from the world’s ecosystems and predictions of how climate change will impact them, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Queensland, and Stanford University have produced a roadmap that identifies the world’s most vulnerable and least vulnerable areas […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of Greeley, Colorado flooded by the South Platte River, 17 September 2013

South Platte River, 29 June 2103   South Platte River,  17 September 2013 By Holli Riebeek20 September 2013 (NASA) – Though water levels on the South Platte River were receding, muddy brown waters were still out of the river’s banks near Greeley, Colorado, on 17 September 2013, when the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the […]

Video: ‘Beast of a storm’ Typhoon Usagi to batter SE Asia – More than 1000mm (39 inches) of rain expected for the Philippines and Taiwan

20 September 2013 (BBC News) – Typhoon Usagi, which is likely to be the most powerful typhoon of 2013, is set to drench the Philippines and Taiwan with a month’s rainfall in just a few days. The tropical hurricane had speeds of up to 175 km/h (110 mph), and is expected to move north towards […]

Colorado House Republicans unanimously support flood relief, after unanimously opposing Hurricane Sandy aid – GOP fought to cut dam maintenance budget in Colorado

By Josh Israel 19 September 2013 (Think Progress) – As historic floods of “biblical” proportions continue to ravage Colorado, President Obama signed an emergency declaration on Sunday — a move that was encouraged by a bipartisan letter last week from the state’s nine-member Congressional delegation. But the four Republican Congressmen who are now supporting disaster […]

Graph of the Day: Annual average Secchi depth at Lake Tahoe, 1967-2010

8 August 2013 (CalEPA) – This graph shows the depth below surface at which a disk (called a Secchi disk) can be seen when lowered into the lake; the clearer the waters, the greater the depth at which the disk is visible. Each value plotted is the average of 20 to 25 readings made throughout […]

Super typhoon Usagi, strongest storm on Earth in 2013, may strike Hong Kong Sunday

By Jason Samenow19 September 2013 (Washington Post) – In the last 24 hours, a cyclone in the west Pacific has explosively intensified, and is on a track towards Hong Kong. The storm – named Usagi – has achieved super typhoon status, after an amazing burst in its peak winds from 75 mph Tuesday to over […]

Thousands of oil and gas wells underwater in Colorado – State monitoring 10 separate oil and gas spills

Patrick J. Kiger19 September 2013 (National Geographic) – In the wake of unprecedented massive flooding over thousands of square miles in Colorado, government officials and private companies are rushing to secure the region’s heavy concentration of oil and natural gas wells, and prevent dangerous chemicals and toxic waste from contaminating the region’s water.  (See related […]

Mexico floods kill 80, up to 60,000 tourists stranded in Acapulco

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN18 September 2013 ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) – The toll from devastating twin storms climbed to 80 on Wednesday as isolated areas reported deaths and damage to the outside world, and Mexican officials said that a massive landslide in the mountains north of the resort of Acapulco could drive the number of confirmed dead […]

Heatwave and wildfires worsened Colorado flooding – ‘This was a once-in-1000-year rainfall’

By Alyssa A. Botelho17 September 2013 (New Scientist) – A truly ferocious and exceptional event. That is how Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, describes the storm that pummelled his state last week. “This was a once-in-1000-year rainfall,” he says, meaning that the storm was of such an intensity […]

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