Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
5.2 earthquake hits the Savu Sea.
5.0 earthquake hits central Peru.
5.0 earthquake hits the southern east Pacific rise.
Storms and Floods
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
In the Southern Hemisphere: Tropical cyclone 08s (Batsirai), located approximately 466 nm east-northeast of Port Louis, Mauritius, is tracking westward at 07 knots.
NewsBytes:
Brazil – Landslides and flooding from heavy rains in Sao Paulo state in and around the greater Sao Paulo area have killed at least 19 people since Friday, including seven children, public safety officials said on Sunday. According to São Paulo state authorities, nine other people were injured in the rains and four more were missing, while some 500 families were left homeless across the state.
Australia – Heavy rain has drenched WA’s northwest – hitting Broome the hardest. 66 millimetres of rain fell in just 30 minutes today with reports a tornado also ripped through the region.
Disease
Covid-19
The countries with the 10 greatest number of Covid-19 cases:
Lassa fever – Nigeria
In a follow-up on the Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported an additional 74 confirmed cases during the third week on the year. This brings the total year-to date to 170 confirmed Lassa cases through January 23.
Dengue Fever – Timor-Leste
The island country of Timor-Leste, located in Southeast Asia, has recorded a huge spike in dengue fever during the month of January 2022, according to data from the Ministry of Health. The country has recorded 1198 total dengue fever cases during January 2022.
Earthquakes
Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
5.1 earthquake hits Tobago, Trinidad-Tobago.
5.0 earthquake hits the Philippine Islands.
Storms and Floods
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
In the Southern Hemisphere: Tropical cyclone 08s (Batsirai), located approximately 637 nm east-north-east of Port Louis, Mauritius, is tracking west-northwestward at 09 knots.
NewsBytes:
USA – A nor’easter with hurricane-force wind gusts battered much of the East Coast on Saturday, flinging heavy snow that made travel treacherous or impossible, flooding coastlines, and threatening to leave bitter cold in its wake. The storm thrashed parts of 10 states, with blizzard warnings that stretched from Virginia to Maine. Philadelphia and New York saw plenty of wind and snow, but Boston was in the crosshairs. The city tied its record for biggest single-day snowfall, with 23.6 inches (60 centimeters), the National Weather Service said.
Disease
Covid-19
The countries with the 10 greatest number of Covid-19 cases:
Malaria – Nicaragua
Nicaragua closed the year 2021 with the second highest number of malaria cases in the last two decades. According to the Epidemiological Bulletin 46, through the last week of November 2021, there were 21,030 cases in the country.
Earthquakes
Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
6.2 earthquake hits the Kermedec Islands.
5.9 earthquake hits south of Panama.
5.4 earthquake hits the Kermedec Islands.
Two 5.3 earthquakes hit the Kermedec Islands.
Two 5.1 earthquakes hit the Kermedec Islands.
5.0 earthquake hits the Kermedec Islands.
5.0 earthquake hits Tarapaca, Chile.
5.0 earthquake hits the South Sandwich Islands.
Storms and Floods
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
In the Southern Hemisphere: Tropical cyclone 08s (Batsirai), located approximately 670 nm south of Diego Garcia, is tracking westward at 11 knots.
NewsBytes:
Colombia – At least 2 people have died, one was injured and dozens of homes and roads were damaged after heavy rain caused flooding and landslides in Tolima Department in central Colombia. Heavy rain from 24 January 2022 caused landslides and flooding in the municipalities of Palocabildo, Fresno, Falan, Armero Guayabal, Herveo and Casabianca in Tolima Department. Two young people died when a landslide destroyed a house in Palocabildo, where a further 25 homes were damaged and gas supply interrupted. One person was hospitalized after being rescued from a landslide in Falan. Several roads were blocked or damaged in affected areas, including the important road between Falan and Palocabildo, leaving communities isolated.
Australia – South Australia has made a major emergency declaration to deal with vast areas of flooding in the state’s north and west. Houses have been destroyed and major freight routes cut off following high rains and storms in recent days. Western Australian and Northern Territory supermarkets are facing shortages due to damaged road and rail networks.
Global Warming
Global warming will cause massive declines in tree growth
By combining tree-ring data with U.S. Forest Service inventory data on Arizona’s ponderosa pines, a recent study led by the University of Arizona has investigated the possible future effects of climate change on tree growth. The results suggest that global warming may cause a 56 to 91 percent decline in individual tree growth.
Forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thus offsetting greenhouse gas emissions and helping to mitigate climate change.
The causes of tree size decline are complex and varied, but the main one seems to be global warming. Since trees have to work against gravity to get water to their top, if temperatures rise, the water-transport system will be under increasing pressure and most likely become damaged. Warming will make trees more drought stressed, and reduce their growth.
Although drought seems to make taller trees more vulnerable due to high temperatures, the scientists found that small trees will also suffer due to lack of water. Since their roots are smaller, they will need to struggle more to extract moisture from the soil. Moreover, denser forests will likely fare worse during hotter and drier conditions, since there will be more competition between trees for increasingly rare resources such as water and nutrients.
Disease
Covid-19
The countries with the 10 greatest number of Covid-19 cases:
Earthquakes
Magnitude 5+ Earthquakes – Global
5.6 earthquake hits the Balleny Islands.
5.3 earthquake hits Tarapaca, Chile.
5.1 earthquake hits Java, Indonesia.
Storms and Floods
Tropical Storms – Roundup of Tropical Storms:
In the Southern Hemisphere: Tropical cyclone 08s (Batsirai), located approximately 721 nm south-southeast of Diego Garcia, is tracking westward at 17 knots.
NewsBytes:
Australia – Flash flooding has hit North Queensland, drenched in nearly 400mm of rain which fell incredibly fast. Sandbags are out, rivers are swollen and Townsville is on edge, bracing for a second night of monsoonal downpours. Homes have been destroyed and trees stripped of leaves by a severe storm that tore through parts of South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula just days after flooding rains. The storm on Wednesday evening caused the most damage in an area of the central Eyre Peninsula around Cummins, Yeelanna and Kapinnie. The Bureau of Meteorology recorded almost 50 millimetres of rainfall at the Port Lincoln airport, to the south, in about five hours on Wednesday night.
Environment
A Toxic World
A new study suggests chemical pollution has become so pervasive that it has pushed Earth outside the relatively stable environment of the past 10,000 years.
Beyond the widespread use of plastics, researchers say they are also highly concerned about 350,000 synthetic chemicals, including pesticides, industrial compounds and antibiotics. “There has been a fifty-fold increase in the production of chemicals since 1950 and this is projected to triple again by 2050,” said research team member Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez of Sweden’s Stockholm Resilience Center. “Shifting to a circular economy is really important. That means changing materials and products so they can be reused, not wasted,” Villarrubia-Gómez added.
Wildlife
Pollination Stress
Bees, butterflies and other pollinators exposed to common air pollution are significantly impaired in their ability to sniff out the plants that depend upon them, according to new field research.
British scientists say the pollution, combined with land use changes, are also responsible for an up to 70% drop in the number of pollinating insects. Writing in the journal Environmental Pollution, the team said they exposed a test field to levels of pollution commonly found near highways and observed up to 90% fewer flower visits by the pollinators. They believe the pollution changes the scents of flowers, making them harder to find.
Environment
Global Temperature Extremes
The week’s hottest temperature was 46.1 degrees Celsius (115 degrees F) at Robertson, South Africa.
The week’s coldest temperature was minus 54.4 degrees Celsius (-66 degrees F) at Oimyakon, Siberia.
Temperatures were tabulated from the more than 10,000 worldwide synoptic weather stations. The United Nations World Meteorological Organization sets the standards for weather observations, and provides a global telecommunications circuit for data distribution.