Archive | July 7, 2015
Chemical Fire At Soap Factory Prompts Evacuations In Amityville, New York, USA
A chemical fire at a soap factory promoted a major hazardous materials situation in Amityville, Long Island Tuesday.
The fire broke out late Tuesday afternoon at the AlPak Soap Company, at 175 Dixon Ave., officials told CBS2.
Workers were mixing products at the factory when there was a delay that caused a plume of gas to form, police said.
Suffolk County fire and police crews, and firefighters from Amityville and Babylon, were called to the scene, officials said.
Several neighboring homes on Overland and Dixon avenues were evacuated, officials said.
No injuries were reported.
Courtesy of cbslocal
MEGA DIP SPIKES ON THE MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 21:30, 21:45, 22:00, 22:15 HRS UTC
**VERY URGENT**
MEGA DIP SPIKES ON THE MAGNETOSPHERE @ APPROX 21:30, 21:45, 22:00, 22:15 HRS UTC. FURTHER EARTHQUAKES, VOLCANO ACTIVITY & ADVERSE WEATHER PATTERNS WILL BE GREATLY INFLUENCED BY THE COSMIC RAYS STRIKING THE EARTH’S CORE
***BE ALERT***
Record breaking heatwave temperatures in Geneva, Western Switzerland
The mercury rose to almost 40C in Geneva on Tuesday, smashing weather records, as other cities in western Switzerland also recorded historic highs on the seventh day of a sizzling heatwave set to give way to thunderstorms and cooler conditions on Wednesday.
The temperature reached 39.7C in Geneva on Tuesday afternoon, the hottest ever recorded in Switzerland north of the Alps, the national weather office MeteoSwiss reported.
It was also the highest registered in Geneva, beating the previous record of 38.9C set in 1921, although it fell short of the all-time record high for Switzerland of 41.5C in Grono, a municipality of the Mesolcina valley in the canton of Graubünden during a heatwave in 2003.
Records fell in other cities in French-speaking Switzerland such as Nyon (38 degrees) and Payerne (37.9C) in the canton of Vaud (38C), Neuchâtel (37.8C), Fribourg (36.6C) and Sion (37.8C) in the canton of Valais.
Bern, the Swiss capital, also posted a new record high of 36.8 degrees, MeteoSwiss said.
“In summary we can say it was the second or third hottest day ever registered in Switzerland,” Frédéric Glassey, of MeteoNews told the ATS news agency.
In Geneva, the heat forced authorities to close the city’s municipal libraries, while its art and history museum shut its doors on the weekend.
The hot weather has also boosted ozone levels, prompting authorities to offer commuters reduced fares for public transit in a bid to encourage motorists to leave their cars at home.
Lakeside beaches and river swimming areas have been inundated with people seeking to beat the heat but at least seven people have drowned in the past week.
The latest incident involved a man who died in Lake Geneva while swimming off the waterfront of the Perle du Lac park, near the World Trade Organization’s headquarters.
Cantonal police said the man’s body was found about 15 metres from shore and that he died at around 5.30pm.
No other details were immediately available.
The heatwave, which started last Wednesday, has lasted seven days, which is rare for Switzerland.
Blistering hot temperatures were also recorded in other European countries, including Spain and France as warm air pushed north from Africa and the Iberian Peninsula.
MeteoSwiss issued level 4 alerts for hot weather (out of a scale of five).
But it switched its warnings to storm alerts for late Tuesday, with a high risk of heavy rain, strong winds and hail extending from Geneva to include the Jura, the western Alps and the Bernese Oberland.
Maximum temperatures are set to fall to between 19C and 27C in western Switzerland, while top temperatures in German-speaking Switzerland are not expected to exceed 24C.
In southern canton of Ticino highs of around 31C are forecast.
Courtesy of thelocal.ch
MAGNITUDE 5.8 SOUTH OF FIJI ISLANDS
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=449782
Subject To Change
Depth: 100 km
Distances: 298 km SW of Nuku‘alofa, Tonga / pop: 22,400 / local time: 09:03:10.3 2015-07-08
721 km SE of Suva, Fiji / pop: 77,366 / local time: 08:03:10.3 2015-07-08
1175 km SW of Apia, Samoa / pop: 40,407 / local time: 09:03:10.3 2015-07-08
Chemical spillage incident at the Science Park closes parts of Oxford, UK
TWO people were taken to hospital after a chemical spillage at Oxford Science Park today.
Emergency services were called to Oxford Nanopore Technologies, based at Edmund Cartwright House in Robert Robinson Avenue.
Thames Valley Police’s Inspector Andrew O’Hanlon said police were called out at about 2.30pm to help firefighters with a cordon in the area.
He said there had been a chemical spillage and there were reports of minor injuries. He would not provide any further information on the incident, but did say the cordon was removed at about 7pm.
South Central Ambulance Service spokeswoman Gill Hodgetts said: “Two ambulance crews were called at 2.38pm. There were two patients taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital.”
She could not say if they were men or women, or what condition they were in.
Site security guard Roger Stratford said he understood a chemical explosion in one of the labs had set off fire alarms at about 2.35pm.
He added: “We’ve got police and ambulance here, but I don’t think anybody’s been injured or taken to hospital.
“We’ve closed down the bottom of the park.”
He added that police had been helping security teams at the park with traffic cordons, but could not say what chemicals may have been involved.
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service have also been seen at the park.
Courtesy of oxfordmail
Warning: Three major storms are hitting south east Asia at the same time
Any time you think the British weather is bad, be thankful you don’t live in Asia.
South of Taiwan on the left of the graphic is tropical storm Linfa, with Typhoon Chan-hom east of China in the middle. And to the right of that is Typhoon Nankga, east of Guam.
Typhoon Chan-hom has produced up to 12 inches of rain in Guam over the weekend, and is moving west towards the Japanese Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan and then eastern China this week, Accu Weather reports.
With winds of up to 80mph, Nankga was originally a tropical storm that was upgraded to a typhoon.
It is expected to pass over the Northern Marianas islands, near Guam and east of the Philippines later this week.
And Linfa has already been causing problems in the Philippines, with all shipping ordered to remain in harbour and some flights were cancelled in the north.
Schools were closed in the capital, Manila on Monday due to flooding and landslides from the tropical storm, disaster officials said.
Storm warnings were issued in at least 14 areas of the main Philippine island of Luzon as Linfa moved slowly across the north of the Southeast Asian archipelago. It was carrying maximum wind gusts of 60 mph.
Alexander Pama, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the storm would bring heavy rain within a 250 miles radius.
“We are grounding all sea travel and fishing operations in the north because we expect sea waves to go as high as 13 feet, Pama said.
“We don’t want any lose of life or any accidents,” he said.
Army units had been placed on standby to evacuate people to temporary shelters if needed, Pama said.
The government was expecting some crop damage in rice-producing areas in northern Luzon.
Linfa made landfall in the north of the island on Saturday and was about 85 miles southwest of Laoag City in Luzon’s far north on Monday. An average of 20 typhoons pass through the Philippines every year.
Haiyan, the strongest typhoon ever to make landfall in the Philippines, killed more than 6,300 people and left 1,000 missing in 2013.
Courtesy of mirror.co.uk
Mother protects children as tornado bears down in Waupaca County, USA
Sheriff’s officials say a mother saved her three young children from injury as a tornado hit their house in Waupaca County.
Authorities say the woman heard the wind pick up about 5 p.m. Monday and moved two of her children, ages 4 and 7, to the bottom of a stairway. She ran to an upstairs bedroom where her 1-year-old daughter was sleeping, but couldn’t get the door open as the tornado bore down. The glass had already blown out of the bedroom window.
The sheriff’s department says the mother eventually got the door open, grabbed the girl and joined the two other children at the bottom of the stairway. All escaped serious injury.
The tornado took off the roof of the house and caused other damage.
Courtesy of startribune.com
MAGNITUDE 5.0 CENTRAL EAST PACIFIC RISE
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=449755
Subject To Change
Depth: 10 km
Distances: 3727 km W of Lima, Peru / pop: 7,737,002 / local time: 11:08:04.2 2015-07-07
3865 km SW of Guatemala City, Guatemala / pop: 994,938 / local time: 10:08:04.2 2015-07-07
3872 km SW of San Salvador, El Salvador / pop: 525,990 / local time: 10:08:04.2 2015-07-07
MAGNITUDE 5.3 NEW BRITAIN REGION, P.N.G.
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=449715
Subject To Change
Depth: 10 km
Distances: 714 km NE of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea / pop: 283,733 / local time: 17:53:16.0 2015-07-07
125 km S of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea / pop: 26,273 / local time: 17:53:16.0 2015-07-07
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