_______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ The ShieldsWeather Natural Disaster E-zine _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Publisher: Jerry Shields Date: June 22, 2008 Issue: Volume 1, Number 5 Home Pages: http://www.ShieldsWeather.com Circulation: Over 30 now! _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ What's in This Issue 1) Welcome to the ShieldsWeather Natural Disaster E-zine! 2) Typhoon Fengshen Hits the Philippines. 3) Weather Review and Outlook. 4) Forest Fire Update. 5) Did Man Cause the Recent Iowa Floods? 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: A typhoon hits the Philippines dead on and causes one of the worst natural disasters in that country's history. 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 I'll take a quick look at current conditions. Lastly I will go over a theory that the Iowa flooding may be man-made. Are you reading my blog? The blog has been extremely busy . Check it out here: http://www.Shieldsweather.com/blog _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 2) The past weekend marked one of the darkest dates in the Philippines' natural disaster-battering history, with reports of floods, landslides, flooded streets and a sunken ship with over 700 passengers on board. At least 229 people have been killed, 700 others missing as typhoon "Fengshen" ripped through the archipelago since Friday afternoon. More people, officials said, are feared dead as the hope of survival is fading for the 700 people on a ferry which completely sank off the central coast. It met rough weather at sea on Saturday before the caption ordered to abandon the ship, whose engine had been seriously damaged in high waves and strong winds. The National Disaster Coordinating Council reported that floods, storm surge, and landslides have affected 366,444 people. Packing sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 150 kilometers per hour, the typhoon entered the Philippines on Friday. It shifted course Sunday to the northwest and battered Manila at dawn, dumping heavy rain on the capital. Moving northwest at 15 kilometers per hour, the storm is expected to exit through the western coast of Central Luzon by Sunday evening. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 3) Rain and more rain. People are talking about this past spring of rain. Most are happy that summer is here - hoping for warmer and DRIER weather. This past week saw storms across Southern Ontario with tornados reported Sunday near London/St.Mary's region. Strong to severe thunderstorms quickly fired up Sunday over parts of southern Ontario. These thunderstorms spawned a number of funnel cloud reports especially in the London area with one even visible from London airport near 7 PM. A couple reports of possible tornadoes have been received from north of London. As well as some wind damage to trees and a roof of a house. This coming week starts a little chilly on Monday as we in Northern Ontario get the backside of a passing low. By mid-week we should be into High Pressure with seasonal temperatures but the risk of rain/storms still lingers. By next weekend we again see a low dive in from the Prairies and bring more rain and possibly another shot of cool air. Should I say sorry!? _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 4) Ontario continues to have a low wildfire risk. The Ontario fire crews that were in Manitoba are now home. Fires across the province are at record low numbers. Recent rain has kept the risk low - with the highest risk being classified as 'moderate' in the Sault Ste. Marie region, on Sunday. 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) In Iowa, the National Weather Service has reported record flooding at 12 locations on four rivers. The U.S. Geological Survey has preliminary data showing that these were 500-year floods. The Great Flood of 2008 has, for many inhabitants of sandbagged Iowa, come awfully soon after the Great Flood of 1993. Or, as Elwynn Taylor, a meteorologist at Iowa State University, put it: "Why should we have two 500-year floods within 15 years?" Taylor attributes the flooding in recent years to cyclical climate change: The entire Midwest, he says, has been in a wet cycle for the past 30 years. There has also been speculation that global warming could be a factor. A director of an environmental center at the University of Northern Iowa, suspects that the Iowa Flood in the past couple weeks wasn't really all that natural. He points out that the heavy rains fell on a landscape radically reengineered by humans. Plowed fields have replaced tallgrass prairies. Fields have been meticulously drained with underground pipes. Streams and creeks have been straightened. Most of the wetlands are gone. Flood plains have been filled and developed. The basic hydrology of Iowa has been changed since the coming of the plow. By the early 20th century, farmers had installed drainage pipes under the surface to lower the water table and keep water from pooling in what otherwise could be valuable farmland. More of this drainage "tiling" has been added in recent years. The direct effect is that water moves quickly from the farmland to the streams and rivers. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 6) What's New At ShieldsWeather.com I am working 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. The Blog continues to grow and gain popularity. I enjoy the user feedback and involvement. Check the Blog out at http://www.shieldsweather.com/blog/ This month is on pace to record the highest number of visitors ever! Thousands of people are on the site everyday...and summer is usually the sites quiet period. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 7) A Look Ahead to next week's E-Zine. If there are no disaster occurrences this week then I will take a closer look at the seasonal outlook for this coming summer and fall. Also a look at the most recent projections for the 2008 Hurricane season. Why does that matter?? Gas prices. A severe season could easily send us up toward $2.00 a litre this winter. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 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