Another intending to rainwater: Top worst weather places on the planet

Ever wondered what places on the planet feel the worst weather? Erectile dysfunction Darack has. His article, "The Ten Worst Weather Places on the planet,Inch featured within this month's problem of Weatherwise magazineattempts to title the very best ten places on the planet that constantly feel the most extreme weather. Inverting our passion for "the grass is definitely eco-friendly" lists, (best beaches, places to reside, vacation, etc.), Darack looks into the very best ten places on the planet using the worst weather.

Darack defines "bad" weather, exactly what a "place" includes, and also the research into the conditions themselves. However, because of the possible lack of comprehensive global meteorological research, mainly in the toughest environments in which the risk to human existence is important, Darack depends on the accessible data as well as an effort to become objective.

Oymyakon, Republic of Sakha, Russian Siberia ranks number ten out there. It's been recorded, however with dispute, that Oymyakon has arrived at the cheapest temperature of Earth outdoors of Antarctica and also the very coldest permanently lived on place at -89.9?F. Normally, it drops to -50?F every evening. Also, it is among the places in the world using the finest annual swing rising to 86?F throughout the summer time.

Number six out there is Gandom-e Beryan, Dasht-e Lut, Iran, which is renowned for the most popular land surface temperature ever recorded. Using data from NASA's Earth Watching System's Aqua satellite, calculating your skin temperature from the planet, Gandom-e Beryan arrived at an astounding 159.3?F during the period of 2003-2009.

Next we go to the entire shoreline of Antarctica, which stands at number 3, less for that temperature, although very freezing, for the storms. The driest region meeting the earth's most tumultuous sea, the Southern Sea, leads to almost constant storms racing round the region. Additionally, extreme katabatic wind is another factor. At Cape Dension in Commonwealth Bay in 1995 a wind speed of 129mph was measured. The greatest wind speed ever recorded in Antarctica was 199mph.

Discover which other areas made their email list by being able to access "The Ten Worst Weather Places on the planetInch free before the finish of December 2013: http://world wide web.weatherwise.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/2013/November-December%202013/10_worst_full.html

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Lovebugs at their worst this season

Nina Greipel, AP

A pair of Lovebugs are seen as they mate on a sweet potato vine leaf in Port Charlotte, Fla.

Nina Greipel, AP

A pair of Lovebugs are seen as they mate on a sweet potato vine leaf in Port Charlotte, Fla.

A trip to see Louisiana State University's football team go up against an opponent in Tiger Stadium means at least two car washes for Adam Young.

That's one after he arrives in Baton Rouge and another when he returns to Shreveport-Bossier City, La.

Young isn't a neat freak. Rather, he's just playing good defense against one of the South's most prolific pests: the lovebug.

Twice a year -- March and September -- the winged insect emerges from a dormant stage, taking to the air en masse. In the process, thousands of lovebugs end up on windshields, headlights and radiator grilles.

"I went through a whole gallon of windshield wiper solution," Young said
of a recent trip down south. "When you are going 80 mph on Interstate 49, it sounds like you are driving through rain."

Gulf Coast states -- Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida -- are seeing more lovebugs this fall than in previous seasons. Reasons for the influx vary, entomologists say, but generally wet, hot and humid conditions are ideal for breeding.

In Texas, more rain following drought conditions in years past may explain why there seems to be more lovebugs. The numbers appear to be so great that Mike Merchant of Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension Service in Dallas says he recently received a phone call from a friend living in the Houston area who had lovebugs covering an exterior wall of his home.

"It's the worst he's ever seen them down there," Merchant said.

Lovebugs -- so nicknamed because they are often found mating in flight -- are black flies with a reddish-orange thorax. A little less than half an inch long, the flies live for about a week but are abundant for a month or so as new adults emerge, according to AgriLIFE.

The flies, which eat decayed plant matter, essentially are harmless, Louisiana State University AgCenter extension agent Bennett Joffrion said.

It can be a different matter when the bugs are clogging up a radiator or splattered on car paint.

"You don't want to leave it on your vehicle for any length of time; they tend to have an acidic nature," Joffrion said.

Bath also reports for The (Shreveport, La.) Times

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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This Year's Tornadoes Some of the Worst

This is the second in a series of articles that seek to quantify just how bad this year's tornadoes were in a historical context. It wasn't just media hype!

In a previous article I wrote that the late April tornado outbreak was so severe that it merited the special name "Superoutbreak 2011." That's just the second time that a tornado outbreak has earned that title, the first being on April 3-4, 1974.

This article focuses on three of the individual tornadoes from the spring of 2011 that rank among the worst on record in the United States. Two of them came on April 27 during that Superoutbreak 2011: an EF4 tornado that hit Tuscaloosa and Birmingham AL along an 80-mile path, and an EF5 tornado that hit Phil Campbell and Hackleburg AL along a path that was over 106 miles long and continued into Tennessee. The third was an EF5 tornado that hit Joplin Missouri on May 22.

These were the three deadliest tornadoes in the United States since 1957, when radars began to be widely used for storm detection in the United States. At that time the National Weather Service was called the Weather Bureau, and the radars did not have any Doppler wind information. The Joplin tornado caused at least 159 deaths. The Hackleburg tornado killed at least 72, and the Tuscaloosa tornado killed at least 64. The Joplin tornado was the deadliest since a tornado hit Woodward, Oklahoma in 1947.The table below lists the 20 deadliest tornadoes on record in the United States. Joplin stands as the only tornado on the list since 1953, the year that the Weather Bureau began to issue tornado forecasts. The worst was the Tri-State (MO, IL, IN) tornado on March 18, 1925 that killed 695 along a 219-mile path, the longest on record.

In raw dollars (i.e., costs at the time that they occurred), these were also the three costliest tornadoes on record in the United States. Estimated costs from the Joplin tornado are $2.8 B (billion), $2.2 B from the Tuscaloosa tornado and $1.25B from the Hackleburg tornado. The previous record holder in raw dollars (not adjusted for inflation), was the F5 tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma and Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999, with loss of $1 B.

Of course, because of inflation it isn't fair to compare raw costs from a tornado today to one that occurred decades ago. For that reason, I've attempted to "normalize" the costs into 2011 dollars. To do that I've used economic statistical measures called "Fixed Reproducible Tangible Wealth" or "wealth" from 1929 to 1995, and "Gross Domestic Product" for years when "wealth" data weren't available. This is just one way to do it, but follows in the tracks of a
http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/users/brooks/public_html/papers/damage.pdf previous study by colleagues Harold Brooks and Chuck Doswell. Results are in the table below.

Even with the adjustment for inflation of older tornadoes, Joplin still ranks as the costliest tornado. With the dramatic effects of the adjustment for inflation, the St. Louis tornado of 1896 zooms from a raw cost of $12 million to $2.558 billion to take second place. The Tuscaloosa and Hackleburg tornadoes from Superoutbreak 2011 take third and thirteenth places, respectively. From the 1974 Superoutbreak, only the F5 Xenia, Ohio tornado cracks the top 25.

Combining deaths and damage to come up with a ranking of worst tornadoes is definitely a very subjective and arbitrary process. What I've done is to give the deadliest tornado (Tri-State tornado of 1925) 50 points and then scale other tornadoes on their percentage of that tornado's death toll. Similarly, I've given 50 points to the Joplin tornado for its 2.8 billion dollars in damage, and then scaled other tornadoes based on their adjusted damage cost values. There would be a maximum score of 100 if a single tornado had highest values in each category, which wasn't the case. Values and rankings are shown in the table below.

Using that ranking scheme, the Joplin tornado of 2011 winds up third-worst tornado on record in the United States. It follows the Tri-State tornado of 1925 and the St. Louis tornado of 1896. The Tuscaloosa tornado comes in fourth and the Hackleburg tornado comes in eighth.

An interesting result is that, despite earning the first classification as a "Superoutbreak", none of its tornadoes on April 3-4, 1974 ranked in the top 25 individual worst ones. By contrast, the 2011 Superoutbreak had two of the top 25 worst tornadoes. The 1974 Superoutbreak had more killer tornadoes, but the most deaths from an individual tornado were 34 from the Xenia, OH tornado. That death toll was so far down on the list (and not on the top table) that it kept it (and other tornadoes from 1974) off the "worst tornado" list.

In summary, 2011 brought one of the two worst tornado outbreaks on record in the United States and three of the worst individual tornadoes. It also brought six tornadoes (thus far) given the top rating of EF5. The only other year which had that many was 1974. 2011 truly was a remarkable year!

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Lovebugs at their worst this season

Nina Greipel, AP

A pair of Lovebugs are seen as they mate on a sweet potato vine leaf in Port Charlotte, Fla.

Nina Greipel, AP

A pair of Lovebugs are seen as they mate on a sweet potato vine leaf in Port Charlotte, Fla.

A trip to see Louisiana State University's football team go up against an opponent in Tiger Stadium means at least two car washes for Adam Young.

That's one after he arrives in Baton Rouge and another when he returns to Shreveport-Bossier City, La.

Young isn't a neat freak. Rather, he's just playing good defense against one of the South's most prolific pests: the lovebug.

Twice a year -- March and September -- the winged insect emerges from a dormant stage, taking to the air en masse. In the process, thousands of lovebugs end up on windshields, headlights and radiator grilles.

"I went through a whole gallon of windshield wiper solution," Young said
of a recent trip down south. "When you are going 80 mph on Interstate 49, it sounds like you are driving through rain."

Gulf Coast states -- Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida -- are seeing more lovebugs this fall than in previous seasons. Reasons for the influx vary, entomologists say, but generally wet, hot and humid conditions are ideal for breeding.

In Texas, more rain following drought conditions in years past may explain why there seems to be more lovebugs. The numbers appear to be so great that Mike Merchant of Texas A&M AgriLIFE Extension Service in Dallas says he recently received a phone call from a friend living in the Houston area who had lovebugs covering an exterior wall of his home.

"It's the worst he's ever seen them down there," Merchant said.

Lovebugs -- so nicknamed because they are often found mating in flight -- are black flies with a reddish-orange thorax. A little less than half an inch long, the flies live for about a week but are abundant for a month or so as new adults emerge, according to AgriLIFE.

The flies, which eat decayed plant matter, essentially are harmless, Louisiana State University AgCenter extension agent Bennett Joffrion said.

It can be a different matter when the bugs are clogging up a radiator or splattered on car paint.

"You don't want to leave it on your vehicle for any length of time; they tend to have an acidic nature," Joffrion said.

Bath also reports for The (Shreveport, La.) Times

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Colorado wildfires signal one of state's worst seasons ever

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – As merciless wildfires blaze throughout the West, exhausted firefighters are bracing for more.

By Ed Andrieski, AP

A forest burns Tuesday near Livermore, Colo.

By Ed Andrieski, AP

A forest burns Tuesday near Livermore, Colo.

Colorado is on the brink of one of its worst fire seasons in history, blamed on very high temperatures and a very low snowpack, which left mountains tinder-dry.

After 10 punishing days, the largest fire here, the High Park Fire near Fort Collins, was 55% contained Tuesday night, according to Brett Haberstick of the Interagency Wildfire Dispatch Center.

It has incinerated 189 homes; almost 2,000 are still threatened. It has burned 93 square miles; 1,911 firefighters are trying to halt the destruction. Cost so far: $17.2 million. The fire was set by lightning June 9.

Several other fast-growing fires have broken out in the state. Gov. John Hickenlooper has banned outdoor fires and all fireworks except municipal displays.

The danger of high winds will be lower for a few days, but winds could kick up by the weekend and fan flames in the interior West and the Rockies, said meteorologist Ed Delgado at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.

There's a possibility of thunderstorms in the Southwest and the Rockies on Sunday or Monday, he said. If there is lightning but little or no rain, that could ignite more fires.

Army National Guard police are running checkpoints to deter looters and sightseers. Michael Maher, 30, of Denver, was charged with impersonating a firefighter after police say he posted Facebook photos of himself in firefighting helicopters and with the governor at the High Park command post.

Other wildfires:

•In California, firefighters were able to contain 75% of a 1½-square-mile wildfire in mountainous eastern San Diego County despite gusty winds and low humidity.

•New Mexico's Little Bear Fire near Ruidoso has burned 62 square miles and 242 residential and commercial structures and 12 outbuildings. It was 60% contained.

•The Poco Fire near Young, Ariz., has burned 6 square miles and is a threat to electrical transmission lines that serve Phoenix and Tucson. It was 15% contained.

•The Russells Camp Fire has burned 4 square miles in the southwest corner of Converse County, Wyo., mostly in the Medicine Bow National Forest.

•In northwest Nebraska, a fire has charred an estimated 8 square miles in Sioux County.

•In Hawaii, Maui firefighters were monitoring the wind-driven Kula Fire that prompted an evacuation and damaged three homes.

Hughes also reports for the Fort Collins Coloradoan. Weise reported from San Francisco. Contributing: the Associated Press.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Unusually quiet New York waits for Irene's worst (AP)

By SAMANTHA GROSS and MITCH WEISS, Associated Press Samantha Gross And Mitch Weiss, Associated Press – 9 mins ago

NEW YORK – The National Hurricane Center in Miami says that Irene has lost hurricane strength and made landfall on New York's Coney Island.

Forecasters say Irene's winds have fallen to 65 mph.

They say Irene should move over New England by the afternoon. Officials also warn that isolated tornadoes are possible in the northeast throughout the morning.

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Officials: Mont. floods could be worst in decades (AP)

ROUNDUP, Mont. – Another Montana town Thursday was swamped with floodwaters that have washed out roads and rushed though houses across the state, and hundreds more homes downstream in the Dakotas could be hit as heavy rains and melting snow force record releases from bloated dams on the Missouri River.

Ongoing flooding in beleaguered Montana could end up being the worst in decades, officials warned.

The conditions are ripe: unusually heavy snowpack in the mountains, persistent spring rains and waterlogged ground incapable of soaking up any more moisture.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Thursday it was measuring record flows in many rivers and streams, topped by the larger Yellowstone and Musselshell rivers.

"These are major floods, and we know that people's lives could potentially be at risk," said John Kilpatrick, the agency's Montana water science center director.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers predicted hundreds of homes in downstream states could flood as the water flows eastward toward North Dakota. The problem could persist into July in the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska and elsewhere.

The agency was being forced to plan for record releases of water to relieve reservoirs nearing the top of the six big dams that contain the Missouri River, a river that ultimately collects much of the water in the region.

In Bismarck, N.D., residents were being told to prepare to leave their homes if necessary as the Army Corps of Engineers readied to dump more water than predicted from the Garrison Dam. Animals at the Dakota Zoo were being evacuated Thursday to other zoos in the Dakotas, and the National Guard was beefing up its presence with hundreds more soldiers.

South Dakota also braced for floods. Officials warned that 100 to 150 homes in Pierre and another 200 in Fort Pierre would be hit by flood waters or underground water seeping through basement floors. Residents were moving furniture and other possessions to safe havens and trying to protect homes with sandbags.

"It's unreal," said Lahnee Martin, 22, who was piling sandbags around the Fort Pierre house she just bought a year ago. "It's hard to believe it's going to happen."

In Montana, more roads and highways were being closed Thursday and three more counties declared flood emergencies as dozens of rivers and streams overflowed their banks. Interstate 90 east of Bozeman was reduced to one lane of travel, and only one route to the central Montana town of Roundup remained open.

Roundup was the latest victim of the ongoing flooding, as up to 6 feet of water coursed through the mining and agricultural town of about 1,800 and forced the evacuation of roughly three dozen homes. State officials were sending cots and bottled water to help.

"There's never been water like this since we've been here," said 88-year-old Dan McCaffree, a retired mechanic and rancher.

A dike along the river's north bank gave way in the middle of the night, residents said, sending the river surging through the southern part of the town. The dike was built following a 1967 flood but couldn't handle a river bursting with 13 times more water than normally seen this time of year.

Oil drums, gas cans, a telephone pole and trees were in the water floating through residential areas and swamping vehicles.

The river was expected to crest between Friday and Sunday, authorities said. Thirty to 35 homes were evacuated.

More rain was forecast through the weekend as flood emergencies were announced in Jefferson, Sanders and Musselshell counties. Musselshell County residents were urged to conserve water Thursday morning until emergency services could get an update on the situation.

Relief officials said drinking water, diapers and formula for infants will be distributed over the next two days on the Crow Reservation, where dozens of families were left homeless by earlier flooding from the Little Bighorn River. Floodwaters have retreated on the reservation, but problems persist.

Albert Richmond, a National Weather Service meteorologist, says another "fairly big storm" is expected to move through the area Sunday night into Monday, bringing 2 to 4 inches of rain.

"It's not going to help," he said. "A lot of the rivers and creeks will be going down Saturday and Sunday, but they can come back pretty quick."

On Thursday, residents and officials in Carbon, Yellowstone and Big Horn counties continued to pump water from hundreds of flooded basements. The Office of Public Assistance in Yellowstone County was closed for at least two days after it flooded.

By Thursday afternoon, about 300 people were staying at a Red Cross Shelter set up in a residence hall at the Montana State University-Billings campus.

University spokesman Dan Carter said most of the evacuees — ranging from infants to the elderly — came from the Crow Reservation.

Along the Yellowstone River, Pompey's Pillar National Monument east of Billings was closed due to flood concerns. It was expected to reopen Friday.

In the small town of Joliet, southwest of Billings, authorities said they have been unable to break up debris trapped beneath a bridge along Rock Creek that has contributed to flooding. An estimated 160 homes had their basements or lower levels flooded when the creek rushed through town Wednesday.

"They have to wait to get that debris out until the water goes down," said Joliet volunteer fire chief Melvin Hoferer. "If we get some heavy rains, it would be a lot longer. It might be three or four more days."

In central Montana, the Petroleum County drinking water system was being threatened by rising waters.

At least 17 county roads were closed in Judith Basin County and many more in Petroleum County.

In western Montana, the National Weather Service reports water levels have reached flood stage in southeastern Missoula and Granite County. The service predicts water levels will rise above flood stage by Thursday afternoon and could continue to swell.

___

Associated Press writers Stephen Dockery in Helena and Chet Brokaw in Pierre, S.D., contributed to this report.

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