Deadly Monsoon FloodsOngoing monsoon floods have claimed...

Deadly Monsoon Floods

Ongoing monsoon floods have claimed 92 lives, marooned more than 8 million people and damaged crops over hundreds of thousands of acres in Bangladesh, but officials said that the worst may be yet to come. Millions of flood victims struggled with a shortage of dry food, drinking waterand lifesaving drugs. The low-lying areas in the capital Dhaka were submerged as three riversin and around the city flowed out of their banks. “The Ganges basin in Bangladesh is bracing for a wave of devastating flood with heavy monsoon rainfall continuing in the upper catchment ofthe river in Nepal and India,” said Ishad Hossain, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.

Tsunami Disaster

Bodies, shattered coconut palms and the remains of flimsy huts floated off the shores of northern Papua New Guinea after walls of water crashed into remote villages the night of July 17. Officials fear that as many as 3,000 people may have perished in the disaster. The 30-foot-high tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake centered offshore beneath the Pacific justa few minutes earlier. The angle at which the shaking occurred generated the huge wall of water that crashed without warning into several villages.

Earthquakes

Hundreds of strong aftershocks rocked central Taiwan, where a magnitude 6.2 temblor killed five people and injured hundreds of others on July 17.

Earth movements were also felt in southern Tibet, eastern Japan, southwestern Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and in far northern parts of California.

Tropical Storm

The season’s third tropical storm in the eastern Pacific formed off Mexico’s southwestern coast. Tropical Storm Celia skirted the southern tip of Baja California, packing maximum sustained winds of 50 mph near the center of circulation, then dissipated over the open waters of the North Pacific.

Arabian Sandstorms

Violent desert sandstorms brought airports to a standstill and reduced visibility to 300 feetin the United Arab Emirates. Meteorologist Al-Sokkary said that as the rain falls over the UAE’seastern mountains, cold air descends onto the desert plain and mixes with hot air, causing the winds and sandstorms.

Smog Comeback

The thick, brown layer of smog that has recently blanketed many parts of Southern California marks a retreat from six straight years of improved air quality over the region, and El Nino’s appears to have a hand in the returning phenomenon. There have been seven Stage 1 alerts for unhealthy air so far this summer, up from just one last year and equal to the total issued during the entire May-to-October smog season in 1996. Now that El Nino’s gone, the heat is back alongwith the smog.

Additional Sources: U.S. Climate Analysis Center, U.S. Earthquake Information Center and the World Meteorological Organization.