Lots going on: severe weather in the US, cyclone to hit Oz, Iceland eruption still possible to likely. Oh, and the world is on fire geopolitically …
There is a strong frontal system moving through the southeastern US this weekend. It triggered several tornadoes in Tennessee as well as other states, causing damage and a number of fatalities. Here’s the NWS Local Storm Report locations over the last 24 hours (as of 9am Sunday 10 December):
The system should continue through the coast this afternoon/evening, there is some risk of severe weather across the region but should not be as bad as yesterday. Here’s the SPC forecast risk map (link) …
and NWSFO Charleston‘s “weather story” this morning for coastal GA/SC:
Elsewhere, Cyclone Jasper was briefly a Category 3 hurricane in the Coral Sea, but is rapidly decaying as it heads towards the East Coast of Australia …
Damage will likely be in the 10’s of millions of USD if the forecast holds – hopefully it will be weaker than this.
The ongoing magma movements in Iceland continue, but it’s a complex situation.
To quote Veðurstofa Íslands, “Ekki er hægt að fullyrða neitt um hvenær næsta kvikuhlaup verður og gæti það hafist með skömmum fyrirvara. Óvissan um tímasetningu er mjög mikil og kvikuhlaup gæti orðið á næstu dögum eða mögulega eftir marga mánuði.” Or, in other words 😛 Nothing can be said about when the next magma run will happen and it could start at short notice. Timing uncertainty is very high and a magma eruption could occur in the next few days or possibly months away.
The geopolitical situation continues to deteriorate. I’ve written a post (actually, a retrospective and repost of something posted nearly two years ago) on some of the developments in Ukraine, but probably won’t publish it, the issue is still way too toxic. It does seem there is a trend towards more realistic reporting about Ukraine’s chances, although the Administration seems to want to “double down” hopefully Congress will obstruct it, even if for the wrong reasons. And there’s no way I’m touching the situation between Gaza and Israel – given the mix of religion, ethnicity, and politics, sadly an objective review would be attacked from every side, so we will continue to do what Humans seem to do best: yell rather than listen, treat each other like crap, let things turn violent then kill each other off. Sigh.