Temperature
Extremes
High
temperature extreme:
Kosti, Sudan +114 degrees.
Low temperature extreme:
South Pole, Antarctica -88 degrees.
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Renewed
Flooding
The
flood-ravaged country of Mozambique was struck by fresh
inundations when the Messalo River in the northern province of
Cabo Delgado burst its banks after a week of incessant rain.
The
floods submerged at least four communities and made the main road
to Tanzania impassable. Flooding and torrential rainfall during
the past weeks have left Mozambique devastated and hundreds of
thousands of its people homeless. Officials warned that the Massingir
Dam on The Elephants River — a main tributary of the Limpopo River
— was being forced to open its spillways due to the pressure of
the floodwaters behind the dam. They said the discharges were
certain to cause the Limpopo to flood once again and inundate
the city of Chokwe which was devastated in the previous flooding.
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Mega
Iceberg
An
iceberg twice the size of the U.S. state of Delaware is breaking
away from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica and will soon
be afloat.
Scientists
from the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center at the University
of Wisconsin reported that images from polar-orbiting satellites
show clearly defined fissures delineating the enormous piece that
is about to be set adrift in the Ross Sea. The new iceberg will
be 183 miles long by 22 miles wide. One of the scientists, Matthew
Lazzara, said, “This is a very big iceberg, close to a record
if not a new record.” He reported that the iceberg is much larger
than the one that broke away last October, threatening shipping
lanes off the lower tip of Argentina.
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Earthquakes
A powerful magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s
Kaburuang Island in the Molucca Sea, cutting off telephone communication
to the area.
Earth
movements were also felt in Taiwan, Japan, Turkey,
northwest Iran, southeastern Romania and southwestern
Mexico.
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Eruption
Montserrat’s Soufriere Hills Volcano exploded with a thundering
cloud of ash that soared 30,000-feet into the Caribbean
sky. The eruption sent up incandescent rocks and triggered avalanches
of fiery boulders down the mountain’s flanks. Boulders cascaded
over the Belham Valley Bridge where Britain's Prince Andrew stood
last week during his visit to the British island. The ash cloud
also created thunder and lightning as it rose and forced air traffic
controllers to divert aircraft around the island. Seismologists
predicted last year that the volcano was ending four years of
explosions, but the mountain began showing signs of new activity
last November.
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Congo
Outbreak
Health
officials in Congo confirmed that eleven cases of Marburg
fever — a deadly hemorrhagic disease — have been diagnosed in
a remote area of northeastern Congo.
The
World Health Organization (WHO) said that it had also received
the reports of the illness similar to Ebola virus, which also
causes high body temperatures and bleeding. The new cases were
discovered in the city of Durba, a rebel-held area about 400 miles
northeast of Kisangani. WHO officials believe that the outbreak
of the disease is associated with a gold mine in the area. Miners
there frequently spend up to 48 hours at a time in the underground
tunnels and often drink groundwater.
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Jamacian
Drought
The Caribbean island of Jamaica is battling a devastating
drought that has left reservoirs dried up and crops wilted.
After
the annual rainfall dropped to as much as a fourth of its normal
levels in some areas, authorities have been forced to devise plans
for trucking in water to parched farms. The National Drought Committee
has requested the 2.5 million residents of the island to conserve
water during the emergency. Water levels at Jamaica’s Hermitage
Dam are at less than half of normal.
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Drought
Desperation
At least eight monkeys were killed and 10 people left injured
after a two-hour duel between starving Kenyans and thirsty
monkeys in the Somali Desert.
The
human population of the area has been forced to exist on relief
food and water supplies for the past six months due to an ongoing
drought. The Daily Nation reported that the battle took place
at a small trading center on the northern border of Kenya when
three water tankers arrived at the drought-stricken trading post.
When the monkeys saw the water being drawn off the tankers, they
attacked the people that had grouped there so ferociously that
the humans were forced to flee as the primates quenched their
thirst. Members of the group returned with axes and machetes and
fought back the simians in a lengthy battle.
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