EARTHQUAKE IN CHECHNYA, RUSSIA CLAIMS FIVE LIVES AS HURRICANE NOBERT REACHES CATEGORY THREE
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The 2008 Chechnya earthquake was a 5.8 Mw earthquake that occurred on October 11, 2008 at 09:06:10 UTC in Chechnya, Russia. At least 12 people were killed in the quake and a series of aftershocks, which were felt throughout the North Caucasus and which rattled Grozny for more than 30 seconds, the regional Emergency Situations Ministry office said. The death toll may rise further as more information is received from outlying districts.
Dagestan, Ingushetia, North Ossetia and Stavropol also experienced the tremors, with a total of 16 shocks between 3 and 6 on the Richter scale.
Some tremors lasted up to 30 seconds, causing serious structural damage in two Chechen districts.
A strong magnitude 5.3 aftershock struck the region approximately 16 minutes after the initial quake.
The origins of Norbert were from a area of disturbed weather that formed near the Gulf of Tehuantepec on September 28. Drifting westward off the coast of Mexico, the system initially consisted of a broad low pressure area and an area of disorganized convection. It slowly organized for several days, and by early on October 4 the system developed enough organized convection to be classified as Tropical Depression Fifteen; at that point, it was located about 230 miles (370 km) south of Acapulco. The depression was located over an area of warm water temperatures and moderate vertical wind shear, and as such was forecast to intensify gradually.
About six hours after forming, the circulation of the depression became exposed from the deep convection, due to the wind shear. At the same time, two tropical cyclone forecast models predicted the tropical cyclogenesis of a larger disturbance to the southeast of the depression. One model predicted the new cyclone to absorb the depression, although most other models forecast for the depression to remain the dominant system. By early on October 5, deep convection developed and organized around the center of the depression, and satellite intensity estimates using the Dvorak technique suggested tropical storm force winds; as a result, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded the depression to Tropical Storm Norbert, about 245 mi (394 km) south of Zihuatanejo.Norbert was upgraded to a hurricane on October 6. On October 7, it reached Category 2 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Overnight, an eye appeared on infrared satellites, indicated that Norbert was intensifying and was upgraded to a major hurricane respectively. Continuing to strengthen, it reached Category 4 that afternoon, before weakening into a Category 1 by October 9, but restrengthened into a minimal major hurricane on October 11, and made landfall that day as a category 2.
The 2008 Pacific hurricane season is an ongoing event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation. It officially started May 15, 2008 in the eastern Pacific, started on June 1, 2008 in the central Pacific, and will last until November 30, 2008.
Hurricane Norbert is the strongest storm thus far in the 2008 Pacific hurricane season. Norbert is the fifteenth tropical cyclone, fourteenth named storm, seventh hurricane of the season, and second major hurricane of the season
Hurricane Norbert struck Mexico's Baja California peninsula on Saturday with torrential rains and winds of up to 155 km/h. Strong winds bent palm trees along coastal areas. Some streets were in knee-deep water in the town of Puerto San Carlos. Norbert was ripping off roofs, knocking down trees and left one person missing and more than 20,000 homes without electricity, local authorities say. Some 2850 people were housed in temporary shelters. Forty per cent of homes were totally or partially damaged on the islands of Margarita and Magdalena, mainly having lost their roofs, said a report from state protection services. La Paz international airport suspended its activities at midday local time Saturday, but the tourist resort of Los Cabos remained open. Hotel reservations were down by around 40 per cent mainly in Los Cabos and Loreto, local tourism officials said. Norbert was a Category 2 hurricane at landfall, which made Norbert the first October hurricane to strike the Baja California peninsula since Hurricane Pauline forty years prior, and Norbert was the stronger of the two.
