Prophecy, Drought, Earthquakes, Famine, Pestilence, War, and Strange Weather.

[Shammu]

Big freeze to sweep over China
Jan 02 12:00 AM US/Eastern

China, already enduring its coldest winter in 20 years, is preparing for a cold snap that will see temperatures drop by as much as 16 degrees Centigrade (29 degrees Fahrenheit).

Northern China, where temperatures are already as low as minus 15-20 degrees Celsius, will feel the strongest effects of the cold front, which is sweeping in from Mongolia and western Siberia, the China Daily reported.

In the capital of Beijing, which enjoyed a relatively warm start to the New Year with temperatures just above freezing, the thermometer is expected to plunge 10 degrees on Monday night, according to the paper.

The Beijing News advised the city's residents to return home from New Year holidays early on Monday to avoid expected overnight snowfalls.

Even in the warmer southern regions, the temperatures are expected to drop sharply.

"Upon the heels of the cold front ... more snowfall can be expected in the north with rain or snow flurries possible in the south," the paper quoted Yang Guiming, a senior official with the Central Meteorological Office, as saying.

Wang Bangzhong, a deputy director with the China Meteorological Administration, said temperatures across China had already been 1.5 degrees lower than the historical average throughout December.

"China is experiencing the coldest winter in 20 years," Wang told the paper.

He said three more successive "winter freezes" were expected to affect China during January, usually the coldest month of the year.
Brrrrrrr!

[Soldier4Christ]

With temps as low as -33 F I wonder if they will still believe in global warming??

[Shammu]

Tornadoes Hit Parts of Eastern U.S.
Jan 02 11:16 PM US/Eastern
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By The Associated Press
Unseasonably warm weather brought severe storms to parts of the Ohio

Valley and the South on Monday, spawning tornadoes, dropping hail and

contributing to the death of a utility worker in Indiana.

Tornadoes were reported in Georgia and Kentucky. Three people were hospitalized with minor injuries in Georgia's Pike County, about 50 miles south of Atlanta.

In suburban Atlanta, at least seven houses were damaged or destroyed near Tyrone by what residents said was a tornado. Near Palmetto, a tornado damaged about four houses, police said.

At least two tornadoes were reported in Kentucky, in Hardin and Lincoln counties. They leveled a food store, damaged several homes and toppled trees and power lines. No injuries were reported in either county, authorities said.

In Indiana, the storm caused scattered power failures. A utility worker died when a piece of equipment overturned on him as his crew worked about 20 miles east of Evansville.

Across the region, temperatures were more like April than January. It hit 69 degrees in Evansville, Ind., and 74 in Bowling Green, Ky. Temperatures in Georgia were in the 60s and 70s.

That warmth had much to do with the unsettled weather, said Joe Skowronek, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

"When it gets real warm like this, up in the 60s, that's a lot of fuel for the fire so to speak for thunderstorms," he said. "When the ingredients come together for thunderstorms, it doesn't really matter what time of year it is."

Tornadoes Hit Parts of Eastern US

[Shammu]

Small Earthquake Shakes Southern Illinois
Jan 03 12:38 AM US/Eastern
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EQUALITY, Ill.

No major damage was reported after a minor earthquake shook areas around this small town in southern Illinois on Monday.

The quake struck at 3:48 p.m. and registered magnitude 3.6, according to Rafael Abreu, a geologist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Denver.

It was centered near Equality, which is about 120 miles southeast of St. Louis.

Abreu said calls from people who felt tremors came from Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, but the quake was unlikely to have caused any damage.

"There might have been some rattling of objects, but not much more," Abreu said.

Small earthquakes hit southern Illinois several times a year, said Jim Packett, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky.

Small Earthquake Shakes Southern Illnois

[Soldier4Christ]

Yep, I felt that one here and it had my dog growling. I am 309 miles away from there.

 

[Soldier4Christ]

 MEXICO CITY, Jan. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- A strong earthquake occurred in the Gulf of California off the Mexico coast early on Wednesday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey's website reported.

   The quake occurred at about 2:32 a.m. local time (0832 GMT), with the epicenter lying some 89 km northeast of Santa Rosalia, Baja California. So far there have been no reports of any damage or injuries, the website said.

   The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, which put the quake's magnitude at 7.0 on the Richter scale, said on its website that based on historical earthquake and tsunami data, no destructive Pacific-wide tsunami threat existed.

   The Gulf of California separates the Baja California peninsula from the northern Mexican mainland, and the earthquake affected region is sparsely populated.

[Soldier4Christ]

 Indonesia Red Cross fears big death toll from landslide
Staff and agencies
05 January, 2006


By Dwi Prasetyo 58 minutes ago

SIJERUK, Indonesia - Rescuers on Thursday searched for possibly hundreds of victims buried under a massive landslide that smashed a village in Indonesia‘s Central Java province.

Early on Thursday under blue skies after days of rain, four excavators were clearing debris and rescuers found three more mud-covered bodies, including a mother tightly hugging her child.

So far, rescuers have pulled 19 bodies from the debris after Wednesday‘s pre-dawn disaster at Sijeruk village. Hundreds of rescuers from the military, police and local aid groups have joined the search effort.

"There were more than 100 families living at the buried area and if we say each family has three members, 300 could be buried if all of them were there," Irman Rachman, head of disaster management at the Indonesian Red Cross, told Reuters.

The disaster followed landslides in neighboring East Java province earlier this week that have killed at least 77 people.

Wednesday‘s landslide crashed into hundreds of houses in mountainous Sijeruk, home to around 700 people.

Not all homes were hit by the landslide, which erupted from a thickly forested hill, indicating that excessive logging was not the cause of the tragedy.

Rescuers said they were retrieving bodies after digging through piles of mud. Evacuation efforts have been hampered by rain and a lack of equipment.

"The rain yesterday ruined the search. Hopefully, we can continue today as we have not gone to the center," said Yusman Irianto, head of the social affairs department in the nearby town of Banjarnegara, about 350 km (220 miles) east of Jakarta.

"We have focused our search so far on the mosque and it was located at the edge (of the village)."

Authorities believe many villagers were probably praying inside Sijeruk‘s destroyed mosque at the time of the landslide.

Banjarnegara police have said about 500 Sijeruk residents were confirmed to have survived the disaster.

Floods and landslides are common in Indonesia, especially at this time of the year during the wet season. Many landslides are caused by illegal logging or the clearing of farmland that strips away natural barriers to such disasters.

Officials blamed persistent, torrential rains for the Sijeruk incident as the village lies at the foot of a tree-covered hill.

But logging has come under the spotlight for the tragedy around the East Java village of Kemiri, where at least 77 dead have died after floods and landslides swept through the area late on Sunday.

Most of the villagers in the Kemiri area live on coffee plantations and river banks where many trees had been felled.

[Shammu]

Millions risk starvation in E.Africa - FAO
Fri Jan 6, 2006 9:11 AM ET6

By Silvia Aloisi

ROME (Reuters) - Six million people are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa region due to severe drought, crop failure and depletion of livestock herds, the United Nations said on Friday.

The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said about 2 million people needed urgent humanitarian help in Somalia. The situation was also very serious in south-eastern Ethiopia, with up to 1.5 million people affected, and Djibouti.

An FAO statement also cited Kenyan government estimates that at least 2.5 million are facing famine there and poor rains are only expected to make things worse.

Kenyan medical officials believe the death toll from hunger is already much higher than the at least 30 fatalities reported by local media as many deaths go unreported in the desolate and arid north of the country.

"The Kenyan meteorological service says the chances that the March and April rains will be timely and sufficient is very low. That could create a very dangerous situation," Shukri Ahmed, a FAO economist specializing in Africa, told Reuters.

The Kenyan government has appealed for $150 million to feed the hungry, almost 10 percent of the population, over the next six months.

FAO said additional assistance was required to provide water for both people and animals, restock livestock and give seeds to farmers in preparation for the next crop season.

In Somalia, the October-December rainy season was disappointing in most of the eight agricultural regions in the south resulting in widespread crop failure. FAO said the forthcoming crop, about to be harvested, could be the lowest in a decade.

It said that according to the World Food Program about 64,000 tonnes of food aid were needed there until June 2006 and that so far only 16,700 tonnes are available.

"Immediate response to the WFP appeal is required to avert possible hunger-related deaths in southern Somalia," FAO said.

In Ethiopia, despite favorable prospects for the main season crop, currently being harvested, severe food shortages were being reported in the eastern and southern pastoral areas.

"The onset of the dry season (January to March) is expected to worsen the situation," it said.

Millions risk starving in east Africa

[Shammu]

Japan struggles to cope with record snowfall
Fri Jan 6, 2006 11:49 AM GMT170

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan was bracing for more snow on Friday after some of the heaviest snowfall on record that has left 57 people dead and paralysed transport.

Almost 4 metres (13 ft) of snow has piled up in the worst-hit areas of Niigata near the Japan Sea coast, though the snowiest season of the year is yet to come.

Television pictures showed drifts burying the ground floors of houses and almost covering street lamps.

A 93-year-old woman and her daughter were crushed to death in Ishikawa Prefecture, 300 km (186 miles) northwest of Tokyo, on Thursday when their house collapsed under the weight of the snow.

Public broadcaster NHK said 57 people, including the latest fatalities, have died because of the inclement weather in the past few weeks, many of them elderly people trying to clear snow from their roofs. More than 1,300 people have been injured, it added.

Last month, Transport Minister Kazuo Kitagawa promised more funds to help rural communities, where a high proportion of the population is elderly, clear snow from local roads.

Akita prefecture in the north of Japan's main island of Honshu, has been hit hard by snow in recent days.

Many train passengers were left stranded in the area as services, including the high-speed bullet trains connecting Akita with Tokyo, came to a halt.

"If the snow continues to fall, we will have to think about calling in the armed forces to help out," a spokesman for a disaster management centre in Akita City told the daily Asahi Shimbun.

Japan's Meteorological Agency said cold weather and heavier-than-usual snowfall would likely continue through January, caused by cold air flowing over the country from the North Pole.

This is a phenomenon that occurs on a regular basis, but has lasted longer than usual this winter, an agency official said.

Japan's heaviest snowfall usually comes in January and February.

Japan struggles to cope with record snowfall

[Shammu]

Record-breaking storm finally falls apart
Zeta set one last record before dying

Saturday, January 7, 2006; Posted: 8:41 a.m. EST (13:41 GMT)


A satellite image taken at 7:15 a.m. ET on Saturday shows weather conditions in the Atlantic.

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Tropical Storm Zeta fell apart Friday in the open Atlantic, finally bringing the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season to an end.

Zeta, which was never a threat to land, set one last record before strong wind shear and dry air robbed it of its wind speed and other characteristics of a tropical system:

No named storm ever endured so long into January.

Hurricane Alice in 1955 was the only other Atlantic storm to greet a new year at all.

At 4 p.m. ET Friday, Zeta was a remnant low pressure system with winds near 30 mph, centered about 900 miles east-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands.

Zeta was the last and 27th named storm in the season that officially ended November 30.

Its demise was a welcome relief for forecasters who normally don't have to worry about storms in the middle of winter.

The season had 14 hurricanes including Katrina, which devastated Louisiana and Mississippi in August and became the costliest disaster in U.S. history.

The 2006 season officially begins June 1, but any tropical storms that form early would be part of its tally. The first name on the list is Alberto.

"So, until the 2006 season begins, unless Zeta somehow makes an unlikely miracle comeback, this is the National Hurricane Center signing off for 2005," hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart said in the last advisory on Zeta. "Finally."

Record Breaking storm, finally falls apart

[Shammu]

Earthquake felt in Israel


Earthquake registering 6.2 on Richter scale rocks Greece, felt in many parts of Israel as well as Egypt
Ynet

An earthquake registering 6.2 on the Richter scale rocked Greece Sunday and was felt in many parts of Israel and Egypt as well.

Director General of the Geophysical Institute of Israel Dr. Uri Frieslander said the earthquake hit the Greek island of Crete at 1:36 p.m.

"The institute received many calls by residents who felt the quake, mainly along the coast," he said

Ynet readers from the northern city of Haifa all the way to Beer Sheva in the south reported they felt the ground tremble.  

“I am located in a tall building on the eighth floor,” Effie Bauman of Beer Sheva said. “I felt the building move; it wasn’t anything major, but everything shook. I asked the neighbors, and they all said they felt it too.”

Eli Karko of Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, said he was on the computer at the time of the quake when his chair, as well as his house moved.

"I stopped what I was doing, I was in shock," he said. "I went into the living room and my mother said she had also felt it. We live on the third floor. They are also writing that there's going to be another earthquake, and here it is."

Rinat from Bnei Brak also felt the tremors.

"I work on the third floor. I suddenly felt the table move and I felt dizzy, this is how I felt the last time it happened," she said.

Israel has seen a number of earthquakes this past year, the strongest of which occurred in February and registered 5.1 on the Richter scale.

Earthquake felt in Israel

[Shammu]

Delhi gets first winter ice in 70 years, Indian cold toll rises

Sun Jan 8, 7:23 AM ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) - The Indian capital saw its first winter frost in 70 years as a cold wave sweeping in from the frigid heights of the Himalayas killed more people in northern India overnight, officials said.
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The capital city of 14 million people ordered schools shut for three days beginning Monday as the mercury for the first time since 1935 plummeted to 0.2 degrees C (32.36 F) Sunday, leaving mounds of ice on cars parked in the open.

White-laced streets greeted early risers in New Delhi but any novelty value brought by the cold temperatures soon died as frost on power cables sparked partial power cuts across large swathes of the crowded city, the privately-run BSES utility provider said.

In 1935, Delhi recorded minus 0.6 degrees Celsius.

"I was born in New Delhi and this is the first time we are seeing ice on grass... It's just like snow... It's heavenly," said Supriya Singh, a fashion designer. Her jubiliation was not shared by the city's homeless thousands.

Haryana state's Karnal city which adjoins New Delhi also shivered at 0.1 Celsius, eight degrees below normal for this time of the year, the weather officials said.

Overseas visitors received a taste of the unusual winter in the immensely-popular and usually warm desert resort of Pushkar in Rajasthan state where a Hindu priest succumbed to the bitter cold overnight, the United News of India reported.

Nearby Churu felt the icy sting as the mercury tumbled six degrees Celsius to minus three degrees C (26.6 F) in the remote desert township, the weather office reported, adding that it was last this cold in 1974.

The Indian army was evacuating troops from their insulated bunkers in the Siachen glacier as temperatures went down below minus 40 degrees C (minus 40 F) in sectors of the 23,000-foot high (6,969-metre) Himalayan wasteland, defence ministry sources said.

"Nothing can survive in such conditions up there and most of our men are now down at lower altitudes," an official said.

The toll from the cold wave, meanwhile, rose to 137 as the eastern Indian state of Bihar reported that 10 people, mostly homeless, had died of the cold since the beginning of last month.

Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous and one of its poorest states, so far accounts for 104 of the deaths, police spokesman Avinash Mehrotra said in the provincial capital of Lucknow.

The unrelenting bad weather has also claimed 18 lives in the northern state of Punjab, four in nearby Haryana and one in Rajasthan, officials said in separate reports.

Airports across northern Indian reported chaos in weekend scheduled flights as fog reduced visibility on the runways. Several inter-state train services were also cancelled and some more delayed because of thick fog.

Last year, some 420 people died from cold in Uttar Pradesh alone.

Delhi gets first winter ice in 70 years.

[Shammu]

January 9, 2006. 12:34pm (AEDT)
New locust threat emerges

Farmers in north central Victoria are being urged to prepare for a new generation of plague locusts.

Hatchings have started at big egg beds at Boort, Gunbower Island, Laanecoorie, Bridgewater and Inglewood.

The Department of Primary Industries' principal scientist, Malcolm Campbell, says the new generation could be far bigger than the first which decimated many pastures.

He says farmers will have to wait a few weeks before they spray insecticide.

"We need to wait for a couple of weeks, at the moment they are a millimetre long and far too small to find very easily and they haven't all hatched, so what they need to do is wait until a good proportion of them hatch and they have become a little bit bigger so they can be easily found," he said.

New locust threat emerges

[Shammu]

Something I should have done, long ago.... 

Disclaimer: These new items, are not the final answer. What we hope is that we whet your appetite enough for you to do your own homework and study. We will try to stimulate you, paint you a good picture and leave you thirsty for more.

Resting in the hands, of the Lord.
Bob

Acts 17:11 Now these [Jews] were better disposed and more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they were entirely ready and accepted and welcomed the message [[a]concerning the attainment through Christ of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God] with inclination of mind and eagerness, searching and examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

[Shammu]

Alaska volcano near eruption
Observatory raises color code to orange
Posted: January 11, 2006
3:20 a.m. Eastern


© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

The Augustine Volcano in Alaska could erupt in hours or days, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.


Alaska's Augustine Volcano emits steam in this 1989 USGS photo

The level of concern color code is now orange, which indicates it could erupt at any time.

Over the past six hours, earthquake activity beneath Augustine has increased markedly. The observatory considers this activity indicative of a heightened possibility of an explosive eruption within hours to days.

The volcano showed signs of unrest last week with steam explosions and blasts of ash from the summit.

The volcano hasn't seen much activity since it erupted in 1986, spraying ash over the city of Anchorage, Alaska's most populated city.

Recent observations indicated the volcano is producing new magma and a thermal camera measured steam temperature from one of the vents at 750 degrees – well above the average temperature. Seismic activity also increased this week.

The only color code more serious than orange is red, indicating the volcano is already erupting or is expected to at any time.

Alaska volcano near eruption

Mt note; There are three different codes of orange, not one. Each stage is how close the volcano comes to eruption.