ERTH15: Natural Disasters

NEWS CLIPS

This page lists some recent news items (or excerpts thereof) found in the San Diego Union Tribune, other newspapers or online. The items are placed in the order they are published and may touch lectures that will not happen until later in the quarter.
Nevertheless, these are good topics for starting a discussion on recent natural disasters in our two problem sessions. It is up to you as a student, however, what you like to discuss.

November 26, 2005: Earthquake in China kills 14, many injured
BEJING - A magnitude 5.7 earthquake shook part of central China today, killing at least 14 people and injuring nearly 400, the government said.
The quake happened around 9 a.m. with the epicenter in Ruichang, a city of 420,000.
Houses with a total of 1,300 rooms were toppled and 129,000 rooms were damaged, Xinhua News Agency said. Earthquake damage in China is reported by number of rooms damaged, not structures.
Tents were set up outside a hospital treating some of those injured.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

November 07, 2005: Deadly tornado tears through Kentucky, Indiana; Most of 22 victims lived in mobile-home park
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - A tornado with winds exceeding 158 mph tore a path of devastation through western Kentucky and southern Indiana as residents slept early yesterday, reducing dozens of mobile homes to splinters and turning entire blocks of buildings into piles of rubble....At least 22 people were killed and 200 were injured....At least 17 people were killed in the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park in Evansville, Ind........about 100 of the 350 or so homes at the park were destroyed and 125 were damaged....
The tornado, the deadliest to hit Indiana since 1974, hit a horse-racing track near Henderson, Ky., then crossed into Indiana about 2a.m....On April 3, 1974, an outbreak of several tornadoes killed 47 people and destroyed 2,069 homes.
....A single tornado touched down near Smith Mills in western Kentucky, jumped the river and cut a 15 to 20-mile swath through Indiana's Vanderburgh and Warrick counties. It developed in a line of thunderstorms that rolled rapidly eastward across the Ohio Valley....The tornado appeared to be at least an F3 on the Fujita scale, which ranges from F0, the weakest, to F5, the strongest. An F3 has winds in the range 158 to 206 mph......Another tornado hit downtown Munfordville, in southcentral Kentucky, a few hours laster, destroying at least 25 homes and damaging dozens of others....
Tornadoes can occur any time of the year, but peak tornado season in the U.S. lasts from March through the summer months, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(Deanna Martin, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

November 01, 2005: About 800,000 Pakistanis still lack shelter after quake; U.N. warns many may die in winter
BALAKOT, Pakistan - .... The approach of the harsh Himalayan winter, already marked by near-freezing temperatures, is bringing new misery to thousands of quake survivors living in tent cities. And they're the lucky ones - officials estimate 800,000 people have no shelter at all.
The United Nations warns of a second wave of deaths from South Asia's monster quake once winter kicks in if the estimated 3.3 Mio homeless do not get winterized tents, blankets, food and medical care. .....
[For example,] Karam Ali, 65, serves as the leader of three families that have banded together. In their canvas tent - about the size of a car - they settle in just after sunset, 15 people sharing 3 blankets. Ten are children, four under age 5, 2 younger than 3 months.... The families [initially stayed in their village thought they lost] the food they had saved up to get them through the winter as it lay under the rubble of their crushed homes. They watched helicopters pass over their settlement. They waved broken glass and mirrors, hoping to attract the pilots' attention but never succeeded. ..... In the high mountain villages, snow has already fallen and temperatures are predicted to dip as low as 14 degrees over the next couple of nights. Rain showers were also expected in the quake zone.
(En-Lai Yeoh, Associated Press)

November 01, 2005: Beta becomes a hurricane after slamming small Colombian island
BOGOTA, Colombia - The storm Beta was upgraded to a hurricane early today, the 13th this year and a record number for the Atlantic hurricane season.
Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 75 mph with higher gusts. This makes Beta a Category 1 hurricane", the Miami-based hurricane center said.
The hurricane, which began whipping the Colombian island of Providencia yesterday, was expected to move north-northwest and slam into Central America tomorrow as a Category 2 storm..... [The Colombian islands of Providencia and San Andres, which was affected by rains and wind,] are popular with scuba divers and are about 450 miles to the northwest of Colombia but just 125 mi off Nicaragua's coast. Nicaragua issued a hurricane warning for its entire Caribbean-side coast..... The storm is expected to strike Nicaragua tomorrow, but is not expected to affect the U.S..... In Honduras, where Beta may also hit this weekend, officials set up shelters and sent food and other supplies. ......
This year has seen 23 named storms. Record keeping began in 1851 and the previous high was 21 in 1933.
(Associated Press)

October 31, 2005: 1 Million Florida Homes Lack Power a Week After Wilma
PLANTATION, Fla. - A week after Hurricane Wilma, more that 1 Mio Florida homes remained without power yesterday and many doctors' offices remained closed, leaving hospitals swamped as the only source of medical care in some communities....
To help ease the medical crunch, the Federal Emergency Management Agency set up disaster medical assistance teams at four hospitals to help people with minor injuries, prescription medicine or those trying to follow up on routine medical care.....
Wilma was the 8th hurricane to strike or swipe Florida in 15 months. The storm killed 21 people in the state after battering Jamaica, Haiti and Mexico with strong wind and rain, and then tearing across the Gulf and Florida;s southern peninsula. In all, 38 deaths were blamed on the hurricane.
Yesterday afternoon, state officials said about 2000 people remained in Florida's emergency shelters, most in Palm Beach and Broward counties. Public schools in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties remained closed.
Florida Power & Light, the state's largest electric utility, said some areas might not get their power back until Nov. 22, two days before Thanksgiving.
But in a sign of progressm 2.2 Mio customers who lost power after the hurricane were back online yesterday.....The Lower Keys and Key West were also scheduled to open to tourists today.
(Melissa Trujillo, Associated Press)

October 26, 2005: Storm, with strength from Wilma, socks New Engalnd, mid-Atlantic
GLOUCESTER, Mass. - A nor'easter that drew energy from the remnants of far-off Hurricane Wilma battered New England and the mid-Atlantic states with 20-foot waves and winds up to 70 mph yesterday, brought some inland areas their first snow of the season, and knocked out power to about 200,000 homes and businesses.
The powerful nor'easter reminded fishermen of the deadly "Perfect Storm" of october 1991.
....On Cape Cod, Harwick harbormaster Thomas Leach recorded a sustained wind of 56 mph and gusts of 70 mph. The storm was reinforced by the remnants of Wilma, which was about 400 mi southeast of Boston and speeding toward the North Atlantic after battering Florida a day earlier......
Many commercial fishermen stayed in port, mindful of the "Perfect Storm", which inspired the book and movie of the same name about a Gloucester fishing boat that disappeared when a nor'easter collided with Hurricane Grace in the North Atlantic.....
In New Jersey, waves up to 20 feet high washed away stretches of beach at Bay Head, and howling wind stripped sand off the shore at Point Pleasant Beach, piling it 3 feet deep on a street a block inland.......With the ground already soggy from one of the rainiest Octobers on record, the high winds toppled trees, bringing down power lines. In Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, more than 70,000 homes and businesses lost electricity. ...... Atop New Hampshire's Mount Washington, the Northeast's tallest peak at 6,288 feet, the observatory measured 100 mph winds and near-blizzard conditions.
(Ken Maguire, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

October 24, 2005: Levee breaks linked to design flaws; Preliminary reports say New Orleans flooding was likely preventable
Within a space of 15 hours on Aug. 29, three massive, concrete floodwalls in separate parts of the city fractured and burst under the weight of surging waters from Hurricane Katrina. The breaches unleashed a wall of water that swept buildings from their foundations and transformed what might have been a routine hurricane into the costliest storm in U.S. history.....
Investigators in recent days have assembled evidence implicating design flaws in the failures of two floodwalls near Lake Pontchartrain that collapsed when weakened soils beneath them became saturated and began to slide.
They also have confirmed that a little-used navigation canal helped amplify and intensify Katrina's initial surge, contributing to a third floodwall collapse on the east side of town. The walls and navigation canal were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency responsible for defending the city against hurricane-related flooding......The discovery of major flaws in the design of the city's levees and floodwalls could add billions of dollars to the cost of New Orleans' recovery.
Investigators have rejected the initial explanation offered by corps officials in the hurricane's aftermath that massive storm surges had overtopped and overwhelmed floodwalls on the 17th Street and London Avenue canals on the north side of town.....Experts believe Katrina was no stronger than a Category 3 hurricane when it roared into New Orleans, and Congress had directed the corps to protect the city from just such a storm....Katrina would have caused some modest flooding and wind damage regardless, but human error turned "a problem into a catastrophe"....... In 1965, the corps completed the 76-mi-long, 36-foot-deep Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a larger dirt-moving project than the Panama Canal. The outlet, know locally as "Mr. Go", created a navigation shortcut to the Port of New Orleans, but also what amounted to a funnel that would accelerate and enlarge storm surges headed for the city's levees.....
[A preliminary] analysis by Mashriqui, a storm surge expert at LSU's Hurricane Center,] shows the outlet's "funnel" intensified the initial surge by 20%, raising the wall of water about three feet. It also increased the velocity of the surge....[which could have contributed to the scouring that undermined the levees and floodwalls along the outlet and Industrial Canal.... He also found that in areas where the outlet had wiped out marshes and other wetlands, levees were much more likely to fail. In areas where the natural buffers remained, the man-made defenses held, even when overtopped......
In the case of the 17th Street and London Avenue calans, the independent investigators believe the floodwalls were the problem. The reason was the naturally soft soil was made of river silts and swampy peat that has been the bane of builders here for two centuries. Investigators believe the walls collapsed when soft soils beneath them became saturated and began to shift under the weight of relatively modest surges from the lake. Newly released documents show the corps was aware years ago a particularly unstable layer of soil lay beneath both floodwalls.
(Joby Warrick, THE WASHINGTON POST)

October 18, 2005: HURRICANE WILMA DEVELOPS INTO AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM
Hurricane WilmaÑthe season's 21st named storm and 12th hurricaneÑbecame the most intense hurricane recorded in the Atlantic Basin on Wednesday with a minimum central pressure of 882 millibars. The Category Five hurricane is forecast to lose some strength before a weekend landfall currently projected to be along the west coast of Florida.
(NOAA web site)

October 18, 2005: 21st tropical storm forms in Caribbean, tying record
MIAMI - Wilma, the record-tying 21st tropical storm of the season, formed in the Caribbean yesterday, and forecasters warned it could become a powerful hurricane and hit somewhere along the U.S. Gulf Coast as early as the weekend with winds over 110 mph.....
Wilma reached tropical-storm strength before dawn, tying the 21-storm record set in 1933. By today, it could become the season's 12th hurricane, which would math the 1969 record for the highest number since record-keeping started in 1851.
Last night, the storm was nearly stationary, centered about 265 miles south-southeast of Grand Cayman, but was expected to turn west.....
Some computer models had Wilma heading west to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula by Friday, while others showed it curving north into the Gulf of Mexico and northeastward toward Florida over the weekend......
Wilma is the last on the list of storm names for 2005;...if any other storms form this season, the Greek alphabet will be used, starting with Alpha.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

October 09, 2005: Toll in South Asia quake hits 18,000; Pakistani Kashmir hardest hit, entire villages leveled
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A powerful earthquake triggered landslides, flattened entire villages of mud-brick homes and toppled a 10-story apartment building yesterday, killing more than 18,000 people as it devastated a mountainous swath touching Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. The toll from the 7.6-magnitude tremor rose sharply today as rescuers struggled to dig people from the wreckage, their work made more difficult as rain and hail turned dirt and debris into sticky muck.
Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief army spokesman, told the country's Geo TV network early today that more than 18,000 had been killed - 17,000 of them in Pakistani Kashmir, where the quake was centered. Some 41,000 people were injured, he said......
Most of the devastation occurred in the mountains of northern Pakistan, where the dead included 250 girls crushed at a school and 200 soldiers on duty in the Himalayas. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was .... followed by 22 aftershocks, including a 6.2-magnitude temlor.....
The main damage reported in Pakistan's capital was the collapse of a building at Margalla Towers, a luxury 10-story apartment complex, where at least 10 people were killed and 126 were injured....."There could be anywhere from 70 to 100 people" still inside, said Iftikhar Ahmad, the inspector general of the Islamabad police....
(Christopher Torchia, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

October 09, 2005: Rivers of mud in wake of Stan; Hundreds are dead
SANTIAGO ATITLAN, Guatemala - It sounded like a volcanic eruption, survivors said. But it was actually a thundering river of mud, rock and uprooted trees that poured down a volcano towering over the Mayan community of Santiago Atitlan in western Guatemala, engulfing everything in its path..... Many of the poorest communities are carved into coffee-growing regions on the sides of steep volcanoes.....
Dozens of Mayan Indians used hand tools to dig through hardening mud yesterday as the regionwide death toll rose to at least 617. Lake Atitlan is a popular tourist destination, and yesterday, tourists worked alongside local residents digging trenches 10 feet deep through mud strewn with bits of tin roofing, clothing papers and bedding.....
guatemala has borne the brnt of heavy rains exacerbated by Hurricane Stan, which made landfall Tuesday on the Mexican Gulf Coast before quickly weakening to a tropical depression.
(Sergio de Leon, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

October 09, 2005: 4,100-acre border fire is contained
The larger of two backcountry fires - one that burned 4,100 acres on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border[, which is called the Border No. 50 fire - was fully contained yesterday. The second blaze, called the Skye fire, started near Culzura Thursday and was last reported 90% contained. Early estimates to fight the Border No. 50 fire were $2.4 mollion, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The Border No. 50 fire started from a burning building to dry brush and was pushed into the U.S. by Santa Ana winds. The cause of the Skye fire is under investigation.
(SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE)

October 08, 2005: Major quake shakes Pakistan; At least 21 dead in 7.6 temblor also felt in India, Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake rocked South Asia today, killing at least 21 people and injuring hundresd in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Pakistan's army said initial reports indicate that damage was widespread there....One of the hardest-hit areas appeared to be Kashmir, that Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan.....
The U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site the quake hit at 8:50am local time and had a magnitude of 7.6. It was centered 58 miles north-northeast of Islamabad at a depth of just 6 miles.....
The quake badly damaged a village near Balakot, a scenic town about 180 miles northeast of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province...Local media reports said many homes in Balakot had collapsed.....In Islamabad, building shook and walls swayed for about a minute. Panicked people ran out of their homes and offices in many cities. Slight tremors continued after ward. The quake also caused panic in Peshawar and Quetta near the Afghan border.....At least 100 homes were damaged in India's Jammu-Kashmir state, including a dozen houses in Srinagar....
(Christopher Torchia, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

October 08, 2005: Mudslide raises Stan's death total to 277
PANABAJ, Guatemala - Mayan Indians and rescue teams yesterday pulled 67 bodies from a mudslide in a Guatemalan village, the worst single tragedy from flooding that killed 277 people in Central America and Mexico....
Hundreds of homes at the village were swallowed up when a hillside collapsed under heavy rains dumped by storms spawned by Hurricane Stan in the early hours of Wednesday....The tops of lampposts and trees poked through a river of mud that had flowed down the slopes of a volcano stright into Panabaj.....Hill sodden with rain gave way throughout Central America, burying flimsy homes made of wood and tin.....
Icreansing freas yesterday was a strong [magnitude 5.8] earthquake that shuddered through Guatemala and El Salvador. The quake caused a rain-damaged highway bridge to collapse in Guatemala and sent thousands of frightened Salvadoran residents into the streets.....
Central America is particularly vulnerable to rain because so many people live in precarious, improvised dwellings dangerously close to river beds and on mountainsides.
(Frank Jack Daniel, REUTERS)

October 08, 2005: Floods, mudslides strand thousands
MEXICO CITY - Rescuers with emergency supplies of food and water can't reach more that 300,000 people in mountainous regions of Mexico's Chiapas state cut off by flooding and mudslides in the aftermath of Hurricane Stan, officials said yesterday.....
Flooding caused by the storm had damaged or destroyed most of the bridges linking Chiapas state with Guatemala to the south....
(Susana Hayward, KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE)

October 08, 2005: Rain causes landslide, killing 26 in Colombia
BELLO, Colombia - An intense rainstorm triggered a landslide that buried part of a shantytown on the outskirts of Medellin, killing at least 26 people, many of them children, officials said yesterday.....
The landslide, which brought mud, trees, garage and rocks sweeping through Bello, occurred late Thursday after five hours of heavy rains that loosenend the earth in the boulder-covered mountain above the town....
(Luis Benavides, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

October 08, 2005: Cooler air should help firefighters today
DULZURA - Moist ocean air is expected to help firefighters contain a pair of backcountry blazed today, including one that consumed more that 4,100 acres and threatened homes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
since Wednesday, three fires have blackened a total of 4,350 acres in East county near the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.....
Late yesterday, 1,200 firefighters, 75 engines, 12 bulldozers, nearly three dozen hand crews and several aircraft were still working the blaze, which had not moved significantly since Thursday night.....
The Santa Ana conditions that had pushed the fire in different directions Wednesday and Thursday had subsided yesterday, and winds were expected to be calm this weekend, said Ed Clark of the National Weather Service....
(Brian Hazle, SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE)

October 06, 2005: Wildfire crosses the border; homes near Tecate threatened
BARRETT JUNCTION - A rapidly-moving widlfire crossed into the U.S. from Mexico yesterday, and raced north over Tecate Peak toward as many as 40 homes a few miles from the mountain just south of state Route 94....The blaze, dubbed the Border No. 50 fire, began in Mexico about three miles southwest of the Tecate border crossing just after 9a.m. By late yesterday, the fire had burned 1,640 acres in the U.S. and ... 800 acres in Mexico, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. The blace was 10% contained. It was the second of two fast-moving blazes to threaten homes in the brush-laced hills between state Route 94 and the U.S.-Mexico border, where Santa Ana winds gusted to 20mph early in the day.....
Yesterday's fires broke out amid a red flag warning the National Weatehr Service issued because of strong Santa Ana winds, which have combined with low humidity to cause extreme fire conditions. The warning is to remain in effect until 2pm today.
(Brian Hazle, Gregory Alan Gross, SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE)

October 05, 2005: Stan, other storms leave dozens dead; Mexico's Gulf Coast, Central America hit
VERACRUZ, Mexico - Hurricane Stan slammed into Mexico's Gulf Coast yesterday, forcing authorities to close one of the nation's busiest ports and spawning related storms across the region that left at least 66 people dead, most from landslides in El Salvador.
Stan, which whipped up to 80mph winds [category 1] before being downgraded to a tropical storm, came ashore along a sparsely populated stretch of coastline south of Veracruz, a busy port 185 miles east of Mexico City.....Some 38,000 people abandoned their homes statewide, heading for thousands of shelters set up along the coast and farther inland.
Some 49 people had been killed during two days of flooding in El Salvador, officials said last night. More than 16,700 others had been evacuated to 167 shelters set up across the country.
Nine people died in Nicaragua, including six people believed to be Ecuadoreans killed in a boat wreck...Four deaths were reported in Honduras and three in Guatemala.....
Rain was still falling yesterday in much of Central America, forcing thousands from their homes. Among those evacuated were residents of the Salvadoran neighborhood of Santa Tecla, just outside the nation's capital, where a strong earthquake caused a massive landslide in january 2001.
(Miguel Hernandez, ASSOCIATED PRESS

October 04, 2005: Local weather warning through SIO weather man Larry Riddle

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA
1133 AM PDT TUE OCT 4 2005

...HIGH WIND WARNING AND WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM PDT
THURSDAY...

.STRONG OFFSHORE FLOW HAS DEVELOPED AND WILL PRODUCE STRONG GUSTY
WINDS...HIGHEST IN THE INLAND EMPIRE...THE SAN BERNARDINO
MOUNTAINS AND THE SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS. WINDS WILL DECREASE
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING...THEN INCREASE AGAIN THURSDAY
MORNING. THE WINDS WILL DIMINISH THURSDAY AFTERNOON.

CAZ048-055-057-050245-
/X.NEW.KSGX.HW.W.0001.051004T1833Z-051006T2100Z/
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTY VALLEYS-THE INLAND EMPIRE-
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS-
1133 AM PDT TUE OCT 4 2005

...HIGH WIND WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM PDT THURSDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SAN DIEGO HAS ISSUED A HIGH WIND
WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM PDT THURSDAY.

NORTHEAST WINDS 35 TO 45 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 65 MPH MAINLY
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY MORNINGS.

A HIGH WIND WARNING MEANS A HAZARDOUS HIGH WIND EVENT IS EXPECTED
OR OCCURRING. SUSTAINED WIND SPEEDS OF AT LEAST 40 MPH OR GUSTS
OF 58 MPH OR MORE CAN LEAD TO PROPERTY DAMAGE. LOCAL BLOWING DUST
WILL REDUCE DRIVING VISIBILITIES TO BELOW ONE MILE AT TIMES.

$$

CAZ042-050-056-058-050245-
/X.NEW.KSGX.WI.Y.0002.051004T1833Z-051006T2100Z/
ORANGE COUNTY COASTAL AREAS-SAN DIEGO COUNTY VALLEYS-
RIVERSIDE COUNTY MOUNTAINS-SAN DIEGO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
1133 AM PDT TUE OCT 4 2005

...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM PDT THURSDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SAN DIEGO HAS ISSUED A WIND
ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 2 PM PDT THURSDAY.

NORTHEAST WINDS 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH MAINLY
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY MORNINGS.

A WIND ADVISORY MEANS THAT WINDS OF 35 MPH ARE EXPECTED. WINDS
THIS STRONG CAN MAKE DRIVING DIFFICULT...ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH
PROFILE VEHICLES. USE EXTRA CAUTION.

$$

(SIO weather news, by email through SIO weather man Larry Riddle
see also ERTH15 link on Santa Ana weather

October 02, 2005: Local weather warning through SIO weather man Larry Riddle

FIRE WEATHER WATCH
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA
216 PM PDT SUN OCT 2 2005

...FIRE WEATHER WATCH FOR MOUNTAINS AND INLAND VALLEYS OF
SOUTHWEST CALIFORNIA TUESDAY EVENING THROUGH THURSDAY AFTERNOON
FOR VERY LOW HUMIDITY AND GUSTY NORTHEAST WINDS...

.HIGH PRESSURE BUILDING OVER THE GREAT BASIN WILL CAUSE A
MODERATE SANTA ANA WIND EVENT TO BEGIN OVER SOUTHWEST CALIFORNIA
LATE TUESDAY. GUSTY EAST TO NORTHEAST WINDS IN EXCESS OF 35 MPH
AND RELATIVE HUMIDITY BELOW 15 PERCENT WILL BE COMMON OVER ALL
BUT THE COASTAL AREAS AND DESERTS BY WEDNESDAY MORNING. THESE
CONDTIONS ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE INTO THURSDAY AFTERNOON.
VERY LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY...BELOW 10 PERCENT...MAY CONTINUE OVER
SOME AREAS UNTIL FRIDAY AFTERNOON. AN UPDATE TO THIS FIRE WEATHER
WATCH WILL BE ISSUED MONDAY MORNING AROUND 1000 AM.

CAZ248-255>258-031715-
/X.NEW.KSGX.FW.A.0001.051005T0500Z-051006T2100Z/
SAN BERNARDINO AND RIVERSIDE COUNTY VALLEYS-
THE INLAND EMPIRE/ALL AREAS OF WESTERN SAN BERNARDINO AND WESTERN
RIVERSIDE COUNTIES EXCLUDING THE NATIONAL FOREST-
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-RIVERSIDE COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS-SAN DIEGO COUNTY MOUNTAINS-
216 PM PDT SUN OCT 2 2005

...FIRE WEATHER WATCH IN EFFECT FOR SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
MOUNTAINS...RIVERSIDE COUNTY MOUNTAINS...SANTA ANA MOUNTAINS...SAN
DIEGO COUNTY MOUNTAINS...AND INLAND EMPIRE OF SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY
AND RIVERSIDE COUNTY...FROM TUESDAY EVENING TO THURSDAY AFTERNOON
VERY LOW HUMIDITY AND GUSTY NORTHEAST WINDS...

NORTHEAST WINDS WILL BE GUSTING BETWEEN 40 AND 60 MPH...MAINLY
DURING THE EVENING AND MORNING HOURS. RELATIVE HUMIDITY WILL FALL
BELOW 10 PERCENT DURING THE DAY AND REMAIN NEAR OR BELOW 15 PERCENT
OVERNIGHT.

A FIRE WEATHER WATCH MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER
CONDITIONS ARE FORECAST TO OCCUR. LISTEN FOR LATER FORECASTS AND
POSSIBLE RED FLAG WARNINGS.

$$


CAZ250-031715-
/X.NEW.KSGX.FW.A.0001.051005T1500Z-051006T2100Z/
SAN DIEGO COUNTY VALLEYS-
216 PM PDT SUN OCT 2 2005

...FIRE WEATHER WATCH IN EFFECT FOR SAN DIEGO COUNTY VALLEYS FROM
WEDNESDAY MORNING TO THURSDAY AFTERNOON FOR VERY LOW HUMIDITY AND
GUSTY NORTHEAST WINDS...

NORTHEAST WINDS WILL BE GUSTING OVER 35 MPH...MAINLY DURING THE
MORNING AND EVENING HOURS. RELATIVE HUMIDITY WILL BE BELOW 10
PERCENT DURING THE DAY AND NEAR OR BELOW 15 PERCENT OVERNIGHT.

A FIRE WEATHER WATCH MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS
ARE FORECAST TO OCCUR. LISTEN FOR LATER FORECASTS AND POSSIBLE
RED FLAG WARNINGS.

$$

(SIO weather news, by email through SIO weather man Larry Riddle
see also ERTH15 link on Santa Ana weather

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