Great earthquake rocks Chile; NYC gets 4th greatest snow ever; Xynthia batters Europe
A great earthquake with magnitude 8.8 rocked the coast of Chile at 6:34 GMT this morning, generating a potentially dangerous tsunami that is racing across the Pacific Ocean. The great quake is the 7th most powerful tremor in world history (Figure 1). Preliminary tsunami wave heights for the California coast near Santa Barbara are 2 - 2.5 feet. The wave is expected to arrive between 12:15 - 12:35 pm PST. The tsunami is expected to arrive in Hawaii between 11:05 - 11:42am HST, with a wave 8.2 feet high expected in Hilo, on the Big Island. A tsunami from the 9.5 Magnitude 1960 earthquake in Chile killed 61 people in Hilo. Today's quake was so strong, that it triggered a seiche in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, over 4,500 miles (7,000 km) away. The lake sloshed back and forth, creating a wave 0.4 - 0.51 feet on either side of the lake.
Figure 1. Wikipedia's list of strongest earthquakes of all-time.
Preliminary tsunami amplitude forecasts:
La Jolla, CA 2.3 ft
Los Angeles, CA 2.0 ft
Malibu, CA 2.6 ft
Pt. San Luis, CA 2.3 ft
Half Moon Bay, CA 2.6 ft
Crescent City, CA 1.7 ft
Morro Bay, CA 2.2 ft
Santa Monica, CA 3.3 ft
San Francisco, CA 0.7 ft
Pismo Beach, CA 4.6 ft
Hilo, HI 8.2 feet 11:5am HST
Honolulu, HI 1.6 ft 11:37am HST
Kahului, HI 7.2 ft 11:26am HST
Nawiliwili, HI 3.0 ft 11:42am HST
Haleiwa 1.6 ft
Kawaihae 2.0 ft
Port Orford, OR 0.7 ft
Moclip, WA 1.3 ft
Seward, AK 1.3 ft
Stika, AK 1.3 ft
Kodiak, AK 2.3 ft
Tofino, British Columbia 1.7 ft
Today's great quake occurred at the boundary between the Nazca and South American plates about 325 km southwest of the capital Santiago (population 5.3 million). The depth was estimated at 35 km. At least four aftershocks of magnitude 6 or higher have occurred, the largest being a 6.9 aftershock. Fortunately, the area close to the epicenter is relatively sparsely populated, but there may be heavy damage in Concepción (est. pop. 300,000) and Chillan (est. pop. 170,000), which lie 115 km and 100 km to the south of the epicenter, respectively.
Figure 2. NOAA's preliminary forecast of tsunami wave energy for today's earthquake. Image credit: NOAA Tsunami Warning Center.
New York City slammed with its 4th largest snowstorm on record
The snow from the fourth extreme snowstorm to wallop the Northeast U.S. this winter dumped a remarkable 20.9" of snow on New York City's Central Park yesterday and Thursday. This is the 4th largest snowstorm for the city in recorded history. According to the National Weather Service, the top ten snowstorms on record for New York City's Central Park are:
26.9" Feb 11-12, 2006
26.4" Dec 26-27, 1947
21.0" Mar 12-14, 1888
20.9" Feb 25-26, 2010
20.2" Jan 7-8, 1996
19.8" Feb 16-17, 2003
18.1" Mar 7-8, 1941
17.7" Feb 5-7, 1978
17.6" Feb 11-12, 1983
17.5" Feb 4-7, 1920
The storm also helped New York City set a new all-time snowfall record for the most snow ever recorded in a month--36.9". The old record was 30.5", set in March 1896. However, the old Lower Manhattan WB Station recorded 37.9" in February 1894. Yesterday's snowstorm puts New York City's snow for the 2009 - 2010 season at 51.4", making it the 11th snowiest winter since 1869. Chris Burt, author of Extreme Weather, lists the city's all-time seasonal snowfall record at 81.5", set in the winter of 1867 - 1868. This measurement came before official records began in Central Park, and were done be the NY Park Commissioners (see "Annual Report NY Park Commissioners", 1868, by John B. Marie). The second snowiest winter in NYC occurred during the winter of 1995 - 1996, when 75.6" fell.
Destructive Winter Storm Xynthia battering Portugal and Spain
A powerful 969 mb low pressure system named "Xynthia" is rapidly intensifying of the coast of Spain, and stands poised to deliver a devastating blow to Portugal, Spain, and France today and tomorrow as it powers through Europe. Sustained winds of 60 mph (96 km/hr) were reported today at a Personal Weather Station in Costa del Morte, Spain. The pressure fell to 969 mb as Xynthia passed overhead. For comparison, Winter Storm Klaus had a minimum pressure of 967 mb. Klaus, which hit northern Spain and southwest France January 23 - 25, was Earth's most costly natural disaster of 2009, causing $5.1 billion in damage and killing 26. Models predict that Xynthia will continue to intensify today, reaching 962 mb as it moves into the west coast of France Sunday morning. Sustained winds of 50 - 65 mph (80 - 105 km/hr) with hurricane-force gusts up to 100 mph (160 km/hr) are possible along the north coast of Spain tonight and the west coast of France on Sunday as Xynthia barrels through. The storm is also bringing an exceptionally moist plume of tropical moisture ashore, as seen in precipitable water imagery from NOAA (Figure 4). This moisture is likely to cause moderate to severe flooding in portions of Europe over the weekend.
Figure 3. Visible satellite image at 12 GMT of Xynthia.
Figure 4. Satellite measurements show a region of extremely high atmospheric moisture is associated with Winter Storm Xynthia. This moisture will surge over Portugal and Spain today, potentially creating serious flooding. Image credit: Sheldon Kusselson, NOAA/NESDIS.
Links to follow:
Wundermap for Northwest Spain
Spanish radar
Meteo-France
Portugese radar
Jeff Masters
the BIG one
Taken in Manhattan
This cottage was no match for 65 mph wind and an old pine tree.
Reader Comments
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is that you? :)
10cm wave hit Sydney, 50cm wave hit Norfolk Island. 10cm wave hit Japan, 90cm wave hit Hawaii. 131 foot wave hit the Juan Fernandez Island group killing 2 people. I think the rest of the pacific basin dodged a missile not a bullet.
Either way, welcome back. :)
uuhhmm...that's like a nine or ten story building...is that correct?
Reuters reported it last night
Almost 4inches
Link
Europe lashed by deadly storm
Posted 1 hour 39 minutes ago
Hurricane-force winds, surging seas and driving rain have lashed western Europe, leaving at least 13 people dead and more than a million households without power.
Dubbed "Xynthia", the Atlantic storm crashed against the western coasts of France and Spain, bringing with it a band of foul weather stretching from Portugal to the Netherlands.
Britain, already suffering localised flooding from a previous weather system, braced for more weather misery.
Gusts of up to 150 kilometres per hour and eight metre waves battered the northern and western coasts of France, flooding inland and sending residents scurrying onto rooftops.
"We have confirmed five deaths in the area of La-Faute-sue-Mer and l'Aiguillon-sur-Mer," Herve Rose, a government spokesman in the low-lying Vendee region, where flood waters in some coastal towns reached 1.5 metres, said.
Separately, an 88-year-old woman was found drowned in her home on the island of Oleron in Charentes-Maritime further south, police said.
Two more bodies, that of a 10-year-old boy and of a pensioner, were found in Charentes-Maritime, a regional official said.
French authorities had said on Saturday that a man was killed by a falling tree in the Pyrenees mountains.
In Spain, regional authorities said that two men aged 51 and 41 died when the car they were travelling in was hit by a falling tree. An 82-year-old woman was killed on Saturday when a wall collapsed in the Galicia region.
Portugal said on Saturday that a 10-year-old boy was killed by a falling branch in the north-west of the country.
In France, fallen powerlines caused blackouts for around a million homes across a 500 kilometre swathe of the country from the Brittany peninsula to the highlands of the Massif Central.
Flights cancelled
Air France announced that 70 flights out of 700 were cancelled from its hub at Paris Charles de Gaulle, as chaos gripped transport networks across western Europe at the end of French school's half-term break.
A major road crossing between France and Spain was closed to heavy goods vehicles, causing a 1,200-vehicle tail back of seven-tonne trucks on the French side of the Pyrenees.
According to a report on Europe 1 radio, wind speeds hit 175 kilometres per hour at the tip of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but the storm fell short of the record 200-kph levels of the deadly 1999 hurricane.
A hurricane is defined as a storm with winds consistently above 118 kilometres per hour.
The storm developed in the Atlantic off the Portuguese island of Madeira, still reeling from the flash floods sparked by heavy rains that wrecked the centre of the capital Funchal and killed 42 people a week ago.
Powerful winds and heavy rain hit Spain's Canary Islands archipelago late on Friday, with gusts of up to 128 kilometres per hour reported.
The storm swept north-east into north-western Spain late on Saturday afternoon, where wind gusts reached 147 kph and some 27,000 households were without electricity, regional authorities said.
Rail services were cancelled in Galicia as well as in the northern regions of Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country and parts of Castilla y Leon, where the storm left some 63,000 households without power.
In the Basque Country, where power was cut to some 30,000 homes, a construction crane crashed onto a three-storey house Abaltzisketa, causing major damage but no casualties.
"This is a very deep, very intense and very fast-moving storm," Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said, warning people to avoid using their cars and taking mountain or sea walks.
- Reuters
they used tidal gauges to measure.
lol
162km/h. I no what that feels like. I went that fast in my car once then stupidly put my hand out the window. almost wrenched it off.
Stay safe mate!
Thanks! Fortunately it's Sunday. People can stay inside.
That looks more like the whippin stick the wife uses on me sometimes!
I do too, Go AUSSIES
Fish fall out of the rain-filled sky in Northern Territory town of Lajamanu
* By Daniel Bourchier
* From: Northern Territory News
* March 01, 2010 12:00AM
THE Top End and Central Australia have been battered by torrential rains, and in one town there have been fish falling from the sky.
The freak phenomena happened not once, but twice, last Thursday and Friday afternoon about 6pm at Lajamanu, about 550km southwest of Katherine in the Northern Territory.
Christine Balmer, who took these photos of the fish on the ground and in a bucket, had to pinch herself when she was told "hundreds and hundreds" of small white fish had fallen from the sky.
"It rained fish in Lajamanu on Thursday and Friday night," she said, "They fell from the sky everywhere.
"Locals were picking them up off the footy oval and on the ground everywhere.
"These fish were alive when they hit the ground."
Mrs Balmer, the aged care co-ordinator at the Lajamanu Aged Care Centre, said her family interstate thought she had lost the plot when she told them about the event.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
"I haven't lost my marbles," she said, reassuring herself. "Thank god it didn't rain crocodiles."
Lajamanu sits on the edge of the Tanami Desert, hundreds of kilometres from Lake Argyle and Lake Elliott and even further from the coast. But it's not the first time the remote community has been bombarded by fins from above.
In 2004, locals reported fish falling from the sky, and in 1974, a similar incident captured international headlines.
The small white fish are believed to be spangled perch, which are very common through much of northern Australia.
Weather bureau senior forecaster Ashley Patterson said the geological conditions were perfect on Friday for a tornado in the Douglas Daly region.
He said it would have been an ideal weather situation to allow the phenomena to occur - but no tornados have been reported to the authority.
"It's a very unusual event," he said. "With an updraft, (fish and water picked up) could get up high - up to 60,000 or 70,000 feet.
"Or possibly from a tornado over a large water body - but we haven't had any reports," he said.
HAHAHA. my streaming cam has gone viral too, 2305 views.
They showed the devastation at the Fernandez Island group.
aussie, that's heartbreaking...the ominous background music doesn't help one bit. :(
Is it UN-American to yell AGAINST the USA Hockey Team If you live in the United States and considered an American Citizen!!
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Not really shocked with these numbers on this Blog!
What background music, It's live news channel from Chile
I probably didn't do it right. still the video was disturbing...reminded me of Waveland, and other areas, post Katrina. Only maybe, a little worse.
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