Earthquakes

Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global

5.7 Earthquake hits east of the Kuril Islands.

5.4 Earthquake hits northern Colombia.

5.1 Earthquake hits east of the Kuril Islands.

5.0 Earthquake hits Halmahera, Indonesia.

Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:

Tropical Depression Nora is located about 450 mi…725 km se of Hilo Hawaii with maximum sustained winds…35 mph…55 km/h. Present movement…W or 280 degrees at 6 mph…9 km/h.

Tropical Storm Koppu is located approximately 757 nm south-southeast of Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan and is tracking westward at 11 knots.

Tropical Storm Champi is located approximately 614 nm east of Saipan, and is tracking west-northwestward at 20 knots.

Invest 96E is an area of disturbed weather in the East Pacific that has the potential for tropical development.

NewsBytes:

Pakistan – A landslide in Pakistan’s Gulsitan-e-Jauhar area in Karachi has claimed the lives of at least 13 people including seven children on Tuesday. The landslide buried three shanties built on mud and sand.

Romania – Authorities say more than 20 people have been rescued after flash floods swept through a town in eastern Romania, submerging cars and flooding a railway embankment. Authorities said Tuesday that 23 cars were flooded in Corbu, a small town on the Black Sea coast, late Monday.

El Niño

El Niño is expected to be more beast than “little boy” this year — a forecast about the weather pattern that becomes clear in newly released maps of the waters around the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Disease

Cholera – Kenya

Twenty people have been infected with cholera in Nakuru and Baringo counties, Nakuru public health official Samuel King’ori has said.

He said the new cases have been reported in Rongai and Mogotio constituencies.

Mysterious disease threatens snake populations across the United States

A new disease in snakes has been quietly spreading across the U.S. The disease known as Snake Fungal Disease (SFD) is believed to be caused by a fungus called Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola and so far has been found in 15 states in the eastern half of the U.S. The disease has been discovered as far west as Minnesota, but biologists suspect that SFD is more widespread in the U.S. than is currently documented.

A strange skin disease affecting snakes have been known to wildlife biologists since the mid-2000s, but “over the past few years, the number of snakes with the disease appears to be increasing,” says Jeffrey Lorch, a microbiologist at the USGS National Wildlife Health Centre in Madison, Wisconsin, who recently developed a rapid molecular test for the fungus. The disease affects different species of snakes differently; however, snakes with SFD commonly have crusty-looking scales, scabs, nodules under the skin, or experience premature moulting. Some may also have nodules in deeper tissues and swelling of the face.

The disease was first documented in 2006 in New Hampshire, where there was a 50% decline in a population of timber rattlesnakes due to the disease.

Wildfires

Wildfires – Louisiana, USA

An evacuation advisory for residents in south Webster and north Bienville parishes in northern Louisiana has been lifted after firefighters battled wildfires through the early morning today.

Dozens of residents had to leave their homes Monday as the fires consumed more than 1,500 acres. Firefighters are still monitoring hot spots but said the fire is contained.