In 2024, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 393 natural hazard-related disasters. These events caused 16,753 fatalities and affected 167.2 million people. Economic losses totaled US$241.95 billion. The year 2024 was marked by extreme temperature events in Asia that caused thousands of deaths, severe droughts in Africa affecting over 25 …
Oil spill: The Sri Lankan government is still striving to deal with the oil spill that occurred in mid-September, after a Bangladeshi ship sank off the country's southern coast of Habaraduwa. The Bangladeshi merchant Vessel, Amanath Sha, was transporting a cargo of about 1,300 logs of Rangoon teak when it …
• South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who is standing trial on charges of fraud and embezzlement for his team's research on stem cells, has resumed work on animal cloning. He has opened a biological research facility in southern Seoul and is working with about 30 of his former lab associates. …
More than 40,000 people were evacuated as typhoon Prapiroon hit southern China on August 3, pounding an already battered area with more heavy rains and winds. Till reports last received, at least six people have been killed. Prapiroon made landfall along a stretch of coastal Guangdong province, including the cities …
china storm: The death toll in China caused by the tropical storm Bilis rose to around 612 with 208 missing as on July 24, 2006, says the government news agency Xinhua. About 3 million people have been relocated because of the storm. On July 26, 2006, typhoon Kaemi too struck …
Sea level changes can be of two types: (i) changes in the mean sea level and (ii) changes in the extreme sea level. The former is a global phenomenon while the latter is a regional phenomenon. Estimates of mean sea level rise made from past tide gauge data at selected …
India being mainly an agricultural country the economy and further its growth purely depends on the vagaries of the weather and in particular the extreme weather events. The information on extreme weather events lie scattered in the scientific and technical papers and in the research work of many authors and …
Tropical cyclones—variously defined as hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones—regularly impact human populations and periodically produce devastating weather-related natural disasters. The epidemiology of tropical cyclones is fundamentally determined by the physical forces of massive cyclonic systems intersecting with patterns of human behavior. The destructive forces of cyclonic winds, inundating rains, and storm …
The authors in this paper present a factual and a brief review of the extreme weather events that occurred in India during the last 100 years (1991-2004). The socio-economic impacts of the extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, cyclones, hail storm, thunderstorm, heat and cold waves have been increasing …
An empirical model for predicting the maximum surface wind speed associated with a tropical cyclone after crossing the east coast of India is described. The model parameters are determined from the database of 19 cyclones. The model is based upon the assumption that tropical cyclone winds decay exponentially after landfall. …
russian researchers have evolved a new theory on how tornadoes form. They claim that nanoscale structures of thunderstorms produce a rapid electricity charge, sending the storms into a spin, and thereby forming tornadoes. Twisters, as tornadoes are often called, are nature's fiercest storms, leading to thousands of deaths every year …
A severe hailstorm took a heavy toll on resident migratory birds in Assam recently. The storm killed more than 200 such birds in different parts of the state. Commonly known as the Asian openbill, the birds are called samukbhanga by local inhabitants. During spring every year, they come to Assam …
A storm of high intensity swept through the Bolivian capital of La Paz, claiming 48 lives. The storm brought the worst floods and hailstorms in the 500-year history of the city. Many people suffered injuries and some went missing. As a result of the storm, the Choqueyapu river overflowed destroying …
A gigantic dust storm that fouled skies from the Gobi Desert to the Canary Islands in April 2000 helped an international team of scientists discover that Asian air pollution infiltrates North America while feeding fish along the way. The scientists found that toxic metals and other man-made pollutants hitch rides …
huge dust clouds blowing across the Atlantic Ocean from the Sahara Desert cause red tides in the Gulf of Mexico, reveals a new study. Red tides, which are blooms of toxic algae, kill the gulf's marine life in large quantities. But this can be prevented, indicates the study done by …
The term cyclone includes all tropical storms. They start as swirls of cloud and rain that eventually intensify into storms.The Indian sub-continent is the worst affected part in the world. Although India accounts for only six per cent of the cyclones worldwide, it records the maximum damage. Past 122 years' …
About 80 tropical cyclones (with wind speeds equal to or greater than 35 knots) form in the world’s waters every year. Of these about 6.5% develop in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. Since the frequency of cyclones in the Bay of Bengal is about 5 to 6 times …
ever since humans learnt to walk upright, they have made a conscious effort to gain control over all the things that affect them. From domesticating wild beasts millions of years ago, to decoding the complexities of the human genome this century, an insatiable urge to play God has always facinated …
Volunteers with mountain-climbing experience have been employed to plant trees on the slopes of Mikurajima island, south of Tokyo. Landslides had devastated the greenery on these slopes when a typhoon struck the area five years ago. The volunteers used ropes to keep their balance when planting trees on the 40-degree …
