_______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ The ShieldsWeather Natural Disaster E-zine _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Publisher: Jerry Shields Date: July 6, 2008 Issue: Volume 1, Number 6 Home Pages: http://www.ShieldsWeather.com In Circulation: Over 30 ! _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ What's in This Issue 1) Welcome to the ShieldsWeather Natural Disaster E-zine! 2) Bertha is Alive in the Atlantic. 3) Weather Review and Outlook. 4) Forest Fire Update. 5) UN declares Natural Disasters Taking More Lives. 6) What's New At Shieldsweather.com 7) A Look Ahead to next week's E-Zine. 8) Steal This E-zine! 9) Reprint Rights _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 1) Welcome to the ShieldsWeather Natural Disaster E-zine! Those of you who have joined in the past week, welcome to my E-zine (electronic magazine!) Canadians are not only obsessed with their weather, but with natural phenomena everywhere. I hope to provide a brief look at the highlights of events from Ontario, Canada and sometimes around the world. You should be on this list only if you signed up for it on my web site. If you no longer wish to hear from me, don't be shy -- there's a link at the bottom of this e-mail that will put you out of your misery. If you missed a back issue, remember that all previous issues are archived on my web site at: http://www.ShieldsWeather.com/ezine What's in this issue: Our second hurricane of the season is now spinning out in the Atlantic. Next we'll look at this past busy weather week and take a peak at the week ahead. Forest fire season continues to be slow but has become a little more active. Lastly I will go over a theory that the Iowa flooding may be man-made. Are you reading my blog? The blog has been a little slow with summer holiday but any extreme weather events will be updated there. Check it out here: http://www.Shieldsweather.com/blog _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2) Tropical Storm 'Bertha' formed this week in the Atlantic Ocean. This storm is still many days from being a threat to any land but it is expected to increase to Hurricane intensity by Tuesday morning. Current projections place Bertha possibly near the U.S. east coast in about a week's time (next Sunday.) This storm will have to be monitored during this coming week. Tropical Depression Five-E is currently moving up the west coast of Central America. This storm is expected to continue northward, along the coast and then turn into the Pacific, near Cabo San Lucas, around Friday. Current forecast show Five-E reaching Tropical Storm strength, but not yet to hurricane strength. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3) Finally Summer is Here. It's been a long time coming but finally some beach weather has arrived. Temps have been in the upper 20's for most locations this weekend. A cool front should bring some rain and cooler temps for the start of the week but then warmer weather arrives by mid-week. The long range shows nothing to severe, in either hot or cold weather. Which means seasonal weather for the north, 22-24 Celcius for most locations over the next couple weeks. The exception being the day after any cool fronts where temps may drop a bit to the +20C mark, for daytime highs, until warm air quickly returns. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 4) Ontario is slowly increasing in wildfire risk with the recent summer-like weather. Some Ontario fire crews have been sent to Alberta to fight the current fires there. Fires across the province continue to be at record low numbers. In the Eastern Region there were a couple active small fires at the time of publication. Chapleau #6 and Sudbury #17 are currently active and no problems are anticipated with these fires. In the Western Region there were 6 fires burning. Three of those fires are in the Red Lake Region, which accounts for 270 Ha burned this year. There were several regions with 'High' fire risk as of publication ('Extreme' is the highest fire risk.) 'High' risk regions were Sault Ste Marie, Algonquin Park, Peterborough, Timmins and Kirkland Lake. Warmer drier weather should escalate risks for the coming weeks. Lightning strikes are also a concern for fire starts as storms begin to move in for the summer. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 5) At least 2.5 million people have been killed in natural disasters over the recent 48 years. The number of casualties over the recent 20 years made up 1.6 million people, the UN said. The number of natural disasters taking place in the world nowadays has quadrupled in comparison with the 1970s. The disaster-related economic damage has increased at least seven times. The authors of the report delivered at the UN headquarters in New York at the session of the UN Economic and Social Council did not specify the reason why natural disasters started happening more frequently in the world today. They said, however, that the frequency of catastrophes could be linked with the global climate change. It was also said that the death toll in developing states exceeds the number of casualties in developed states 20-30 times. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 6) What's New At ShieldsWeather.com I continue to work on detailed forecasts for contractors. I have had a request for this service and I've always thought the time would come to meet that niche. Accurate hour by hour forecasts are key to those who's livelihood revolves around the weather. Be it contractors, sport groups, plow operators, wedding planners, or many others; they all need a source of accurate detailed weather. This service is under development and should soon be available. More on the details as it gets closer to going live. This past month set a record the highest number of visitors ever! Thousands of people are on the site everyday...and summer has been the quiet time, on this site, in the past! _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 7) A Look Ahead to the next E-Zine. I expect Hurricane season will slowly continue to build and forest fire season should be soon in full swing. I've decided to go bi-weekly with this E-Zine, at least for the summer months, as I am so busy at this time of year. I will revisit the idea of going weekly again in the fall, when things slow down a bit. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 8) Steal This E-zine! This E-zine is free, and I personally guarantee it's worth at least 176 times what you paid for it. I invite you to "steal" it, but only if you do it nicely . . . Distasteful legal babble: This E-zine is copyright Jerry Shields, 2008. Extremely tasteful postscript: I encourage you to email this E-zine to any friends of yours who might benefit from it. I only ask that you email the whole thing, not bits and pieces. Otherwise, you'll be getting desperate calls at midnight from your friends asking where they can get their own free subscription. At the moment, there is one place to subscribe: My site: http://www.ShieldsWeather.com _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 9) Reprint Rights Permission is granted to use any of the articles in this e-zine in your own e-zine or web site, as long as you include the following blurb with it: Jerry Shields publishes the ShieldsWeather Natural Disaster E-zine every week. If you want to learn more about weather, natural disasters, global warming, climatological events, wildland fires, AND have FUN doing it, visit http://www.ShieldsWeather.com. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Jerry Shields Publisher, ShieldsWeather Natural Disaster E-zine _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Jerry Shields President and CEO of 1531038 ONTARIO LTD. 2932 Hilton Road, Box 122 Hilton Beach, ON P0R 1G0 If you no longer wish to receive communication from me: jerry@shieldsweather.com To update your contact information: jerry@shieldsweather.com