• Record widespread rainfall threatens massive floodings in Australia

    Wide tracts of open desert as well as key agricultural lands and some urban areas will be at risk of inundation and severe floodings due torrential rains at middle and southeastern Australia. Widespread rainfall through Sunday reached 150 to 250 mm (6 to 10 inches).

  • Floods in northwestern Tunisia

    Melting snow, overflowing rivers and heavy rains flooded parts of northwestern Tunisia in late February 2012. Flood waters reached rooftops in some areas, and at least one vehicle was swept away by fast-moving water. These images show the coastal region of…

  • New tropical cyclone Irina formed in Mozambique Channel

    A new tropical cyclone (14S) named Irina has formed and is now active in the Mozambique Channel. It’s located approximately 270 NM (500 km) northwest of Antananarivo, Madagascar. It’s strengthening tropical storm with 35 knot current sustained winds and is expected to

  • Beijing faces water shortage and land subsidence

    The 800 water extraction wells within the fifth ring road areas in Beijing will be closed this year as part of an effort to conserve underground water. Underground water extraction will be halted by 2014 in the urban areas of Beijing as authorities seek to prevent

  • Multiple dust plumes in Sudan

    The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites observed the intensification of a dust storm in the eastern Sahara Desert on February 25, 2012.  Multiple dust plumes arise from discrete source points—one such

  • Saharan dust over the Atlantic Ocean

    A strong Harmattan wind carried clouds of dust thousands of kilometers across West Africa and the Northern Atlantic Ocean in early February 2012. Blowing south from the Sahara desert, the dry and dusty seasonal trade wind deposited thick layers of dust on sidewalks and

  • Shallow moderate 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit French Southern Alps

    Shortly before midnight a moderate but very shallow magnitude 4.8  earthquake struck the French Southern Alps.  The earthquake was felt from the Alps ski areas down to the French Mediterranean coast. According to EMSC magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck 5 km (3.1 miles)

  • Possible formation of new tropical cyclone near Madagascar

    According to latest alert warning from Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) the formation of a significant tropical cyclone is possible within 200 nm either side of a line from 13.7 S – 53.3 E to 14.9 S – 44.0 E within the next 12 to 24 hours. Available data does not