Another flooding mega-disaster: Sri Lanka recovers from extreme flooding
At least 43 are dead and thousands still in refugee camps due to extreme flooding in eastern Sri Lanka caused by record monsoon rains. According to the United Nations, the rains in recent weeks in Sri Lanka have been the heaviest in nearly 100 years of record keeping, and the flood that resulted was a 1-in-100 year event, according to The U.N. Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System. Rainfall at Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, during the 42-day period December 1 - January 12 was 1606 mm (63"), which is about how much rain the station usually receives in an entire year (1651 mm, or 65".) Sri Lanka's previous most devastating flooding disaster was the 2004 tsunami, but as The Economist commented, "in terms of the numbers of people displaced and farmland inundated, the floods have been even more devastating than the tsunami of December 2004." Damage estimates start at $500 million, and much of Sri Lanka's agriculture has been severely damaged by the disaster. Also of concern is the large number of land mines from the recent Sri Lanka civil war that may have been unearthed by the floods. Water is also a major concern in the flood-hit area, as fighting between government forces and Tamil Tigers rebels from mid-2007 to May 2009 damaged or destroyed almost all of the water facilities.
Figure 1. A family affected by the 2011 Sri Lanka floods braves the flood waters. Image credit: United Nations.
Sri Lanka is now the fifth nation in the past six month to suffer a flooding disaster unprecedented in its history. As I reported in a previous post, the other four mega-impact floods--the July 2010 Pakistan floods, the December - January Queensland Australia floods, the November 2010 Colombia floods, and the January 2011 Rio de Janeiro floods--were all accompanied by an atmosphere laden with moisture, due, in part, due to sea surface temperatures over nearby ocean areas that were the 2nd or 3rd warmest on record. However, that was not the case for the Sri Lanka floods. Ocean temperatures during December 2010 were 0.2°C below average in the 5x5 degree square of ocean adjoining the island (5N - 10N, 80E - 85E). The floods appear to be due to the normal monsoon rains that typically affect the region this time of year, enhanced by the strong La Niña event occurring in the Eastern Pacific.
Figure 2. Satellite-estimated precipitation over Sri Lanka for January 3 - 9. Up to 18 inches (525 mm) fell over eastern Sri Lanka. Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory.
Jeff Masters
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Had 40 minutes of silence yesterday night...
No, Grothar is not afraid of anything, except Mrs. Bjornsen. (pseudonym)
Why, where did your wife go?
RLOL (engels).
Snell... wel te rustig.
Continuing with current explosions & contaminations from all this use of oil..there was yet another today.
More than 30 people were hurt following an explosion at PetroChina Co.’s Fushun refining complex in northwestern Liaoning province, the official Xinhua News Agency said, without citing anyone. No deaths were reported. A fire that started after the explosion has been brought under control, Xinhua said. Mao Zefeng, PetroChina’s Beijing- based spokesman, said the country’s biggest oil and gas producer is investigating and couldn’t provide more details. The explosion is the second in less than five months at Fushun complex, after local news website lnd.com.cn and Caijing Online reported a blast at the plant in September. The incidents trailed a series of industrial accidents last year, including a blast at an abandoned chemical factory in Nanjing city in July that killed at least six people and wounded more than 300. Today’s explosion occurred at 9:25 a.m. local time and sparked a fire at a heavy-oil catalytic cracking unit, used to break down heavy oil products into lighter fuels including gasoline, Xinhua said. Fushun complex is capable of processing 11.5 million metric tons of crude annually and producing 1.84 million tons of chemicals a year, according to the website of PetroChina’s parent, China National Petroleum Corp. Last year, acid leaked from one of Zijin Mining Group Co.’s copper mines into a river in Fujian province, while an oil spill in northeastern China shut beaches and a port.
LOL....well, wouldnt want to itimidate anyone with my cross-eyed avatar....have a good one with a hurricane on it, but gonna save it for "the season"
Er zijn vragen die het beste zijn onbeantwartd
Did you see this one this morning?
Folks who walk the talk are welcome in the debate anytime.
The Doc also had a ready answer on the personal commitment question.
Keep it up :).
Ik hoor u. Wij zijn alle daar geweest. LOL
Nice weather we have been having. Hope is stays that way.
Well, will click out after this...
Thanks for the link (as taz would say, "reported").
Gro, at your age, "beauty sleep"? As in "the beast"?
hit post then click (the instructions)
EnergyMoron~ I've really over the years done more than my share of debate here on AGW. Actually swayed some. I'm too short on time to rehash it these days. There is so much coming out in recently published articles (like the one I posted earlier) & new info to digest to keep riding the ones that don't get science & never had a chem class, though I'm glad others are. I suppose I've changed my debate again..lately it's been more~ are all these explosions worth the pollution this stuff causes? We've been too dumbed down & fed lies. That's why the scientific debate of AGW will never get us off oil & why the focus stays on that. Majority never took the sort of classes where they could understand the concept. The why we need to change to renewables needs to be simplified to other easier to understand problems the common person can grasp~ so we can keep the Appalachians, so they don't turn the northern midwest into Canada's Tar fields, we don't need anymore oil spills, have you seen the price of gas? Jeez that's gonna raise the price of beer..alot.
One last look at that blob NE of Fiji & I'm out.
It's 60 here, headed for a nice high of about 80. One quick bit of cool is expected over the weekend, but every other day for the next ten is expected to be in the 70s. As I so often say, sounds good to me.
I'd say it looks like a lovely day, except it's so foggy, I can't tell. Poor Moon has on her high beams, just so I can see her.
Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 50. North northeast wind between 5 and 10 mph.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 25. North northeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 53. Calm wind becoming northwest between 5 and 10 mph.
Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 25.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 55.
now tell me- have they been yanking your saturday night low temp all over the board? cause we have gone from 49º, to 31º, back up to 39º...but our local NWS did admit they were having a hard time get a handle on the temps.
I haven't really been paying that much attention to it. Busy working.
Maybe they've dropped the lows a few degrees this weekend.
I was wanting to work in my yard some more this weekend. Highs in the low-mid 50's might be warm enough:)
Nice out this morning. 42.6 at my location.
It is, what it is... :(
real foggy here, but the moon is still glowing. Spring will come soon, ike.
I've been real busy since November. It's slowed down this week, but still profitable.
You work a lot.
ike- I will work till I die...can't listen to the link at work :(
2 more moons? ahh well.
George Harrison...When we was Fab...1987...only got up to #23. WTH?
Aqua~Thick fog last few has been such a treat.. the moisture. That would be torcher, behind glass, skin/lungs deprived of drinking it in.
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2011/2010-global-temperature
Link
the fog is sweet, soft. Yeah I wish I could be outside playing in it, tho.
Ah more trash talk from the Great X.
As long as weather scientists can look us in the eye and tell us that altered and falsified data, collected using admitted sloppy data gathering techniques, is somehow made true and accurate through the use of the 'Disclaimer', your defense of those scientists and their conclusions, by slandering those who see through the sham is specious at best and reprehensible is probably a more appropriate description.
These discussions are about the future of this planet and we must all insist on high levels of accuracy in order to be sure we make a truly informed decision when dealing with AGW and its supposed dangers. Even those who worship the concept of AGW, as you so clearly do, should at least have the strength of character to demand those same high levels of accuracy as well. Your catterwalling and railing against those who see things differently seem to suggest that you, down deep, know it is wrong to allow such sloppy science.
I think it was Mark Twain who once said..'A man always gets angry when he's wrong.'
Maybe, someday you will wake up.
Until then we will keep the light on for you.
Aqua~ That must be surreal being so high up in thick fog.
it's better than being in a lockdown mental/criminal/forensic facility, hahaha...expect it's more depressing here.
The windows (we are windows all around) are glowing.
Michael,
It looks like there is a periodic cold year, timed with the US presidential cycle (every 4th year)since 2000. I'm surprised to see a signal like that arrise out of all the model noise in the previous 15 to 25 years.
'Provisional'?
Are they changing from 'Disclaimer'? Hmmmm.
Keep an eye on that word folks.
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