Avalanches in the West don't halt skiers' hopes of hitting the slopes

Despite the reports of numerous snow avalanches in the West especially in Wyoming, skiers are still flocking out to ski resorts to hit the slopes on the newly fallen snow. Since Monday, about 5 feet of snow had accumulated at the Rendezvous Bowl at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming making it the place with the West's best snow. Heavy snow began falling at the beginning of December and has been accumulating since. Many skiers have already experience dozens of minor avalanche slides in the past few weeks at the ski resorts in the Teton Range. Although no one was hurt by any of these natural hazard events, skiers are putting themselves at an increased risk and making themselves more vulnerable to getting swallowed by one. According to avalanche center forecaster Bob Comey, most avalanches occur during and soon after a storm. These are the effects from a heavy snowfall in the mountains with a steep elevation. Skiers should pay close attention to the forecasts and be aware of the dangers of a possible avalanche event so that they can make good decisions when choosing a slope to ski down on.
http://www.weather.com/news/wyoming-avalanche-threat-20121212

Midwest Snow Storm Won't Help Drought Impacted Wildlife

Despite the larger than expected amount of snow dropped by Winter Storm Ceasar this past weekend in Midwestern states such as Minnesota and Wisconsin, the much needed precipitation arrived too late to help wildlife hurt by this year's devastating drought. The image above shows a beaver lodge near Detroit Lakes, MN, which was found vacant by DNR wildlife supervisor Blane Kelmek. Kelmek noted that the family of beavers had most likely moved to a larger lake making them vulnerable to predators. The drought has not only impacted the food sources for beavers in the region but also for black bears and many other animals. The extended dry period is part of long-term climate changes that the DNR believes is the reason wildlife is responding by migrating to other locations. The DNR hopes to create a plan on how to deal with the effects of climate change on natural resources. Although animals in parts of the Midwest are not in as good of condition as they normally are the drought is also having an impact on the human population. Farmers have also taken a huge hit from the drought with poor crop yields leading up to bailouts from insurance companies and an increase in food prices at the stores. Droughts have long term effects for all kinds of life and can change the way humans and other species go about their lives.   
http://www.weather.com/news/snow-wont-help-animals-hurt-by-drought-20121212

Anchorage shakes from strong earthquake

The largest city of Alaska, Anchorage experienced a strong earthquake on Monday, which was centered 30 miles northwest from the city limits. Although experts said the quake was not expected to create a tsunami, the shaking could be felt 175 miles across the state. The quake of a magnitude 5.8 caused very little damage to buildings and there were no reports of any structural collapses. The region is seismically active and experiences frequent earthquakes. Most residents are accustomed to these small shakes, but most occur in remote areas and go commonly unnoticed. Buildings are also built to earthquake standards to limit the amount of damage and mitigate the devastating impacts of an earthquake event. However, if this happened in an are that is not used to earthquakes of this magnitude (i.e. The East Coast) this would be a bigger deal and would gain more media attention.
http://www.weather.com/news/alaska-quake-20121204

Powerful Typhoon batters Philippines

One of the strongest typhoons for 2012 has hit the Philippines on Tuesday claiming approximately 40 lives. Another 50,000 people were also forced to leave their homes from flood waters submerging their villages. The Davao region of the country took the greatest hit with winds of 160 mph and gusts up to 195 mph being recorded. This along with flash floods is causing a lot of fallen down trees and landslides all over the region. Winds are also ripping the roofs from homes and flooding low elevation farmlands. Residents should flee to safety from their homes and take storm warnings seriously as this is the 16 weather disturbance that has hit the country this year. The Philippines are accustomed to seeing about 20 typhoons per year, however the southern provinces do not usually see typhoons of this caliber compared to the north. The country is considered to be low developed and although they are used to seeing typhoons, the impacts of one is still devastating to the population.
http://www.weather.com/news/typhoon-bopha-20121203

Forecasters are predicting heavy rains to hit portions of northern California by the middle of the week and last through the week. They are calling this an "atmospheric river," which is a long, narrow plume that brings deep moisture from the tropics to the mid-latitudes. Meteorologists predicts areas along the coast to receive as much as 10 inches of rain from this system and create erosion problems for cities that lie below the coastal range. The pacific northwest, which includes eastern Oregon and Washington, are used to getting this amount of rain, but forecasters fear this system may be sticking around for a couple of days. This could lead to flash floods in northern California and cause debris flows in recently burned areas. Residents residing in these areas should take precaution of the flood watch to ensure their safety.
http://www.weather.com/news/weather-forecast/california-flood-threat-20121126

Flash floods submerge UK town underwater

Flash floods hit the community of Ruthin, Wales hard yesterday as it took an hour to turn an entire neighborhood into a muddy lake. The Glasdir housing estate, which is still being developed took the biggest hit after river levels of the Clwyd rose to dangerously high levels. The 300 residents living in the neighborhood fear that they will not get their insurance because they are located on a flood plain and the insurance companies might not pay out. Also making matters worse is that there is a high tide tonight and might increase the water levels. No one has seen a flood hit the city this bad in decades and surpasses the mighty flood of 2000 when water filled a few streets. Thankfully, a postman saw the dangerously high water levels in the river and alerted residents to evacuate before the flash flood hit. Although not everyone was able to leave in time, rescue crews are on the scene rescuing stranded residents by boat. Some ex-residents of the neighborhood had spoken to the Environmental Agency about flood risk where they live and the council stated that the area is low risk for the natural hazard. Defenses were also built to prevent the town from suffering a disaster from flooding, but those failed after the area was pounded by heavy rains for days. Flooding is a major natural hazard and can impact a more developed region of the world that is accustomed to prolonged periods of rain. 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-20510497

Total Insured Losses Estimate from Superstorm Sandy over $11 Billion

According to Property Claims Service (PCS), the estimated insured losses from hurricane Sandy adds up to more than $11 billion, however experts expect this number to rise. The estimate put forth by PCS is not high enough for catastrophe bonds to be used for the losses. This industry loss compilation service defines whether this event qualifies as an insurance payout under the deal's terms. On the other hand, other disaster modeling firms such as AIR Worldwide and RMS are putting losses to over $20 billion, which would result in payouts for two catastrophe bonds. Although the current PCS estimate is favorable for investors, their intial guess has gone up significantly after prior disaster events such as Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Irene. This storm is continuing to have severe impacts on the east coast of the US and may require using catastrophe bonds for a payout. http://www.weather.com/news/sandy-insured-losses-20121123