Sun hurls strong geomagnetic storm toward Earth (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The strongest geomagnetic storm in more than six years was forecast to hit Earth's magnetic field on Tuesday, and it could affect airline routes, power grids and satellites, the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center said.

A coronal mass ejection - a big chunk of the Sun's atmosphere - was hurled toward Earth on Sunday, driving energized solar particles at about 5 million miles an hour (2,000 km per second), about five times faster than solar particles normally travel, the center's Terry Onsager said.

"When it hits us, it's like a big battering ram that pushes into Earth's magnetic field," Onsager said from Boulder, Colorado. "That energy causes Earth's magnetic field to fluctuate."

This energy can interfere with high frequency radio communications used by airlines to navigate close to the North Pole in flights between North America, Europe and Asia, so some routes may need to be shifted, Onsager said.

It could also affect power grids and satellite operations, the center said in a statement. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station may be advised to shield themselves in specific parts of the spacecraft to avoid a heightened dose of solar radiation, Onsager said.

The space weather center said the geomagnetic storm's intensity would probably be moderate or strong, levels two and three on a five-level scale, five being the most extreme.

(Reporting By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Hurricane Irene Heading Toward North Carolina Four Months After Tornado (ContributorNetwork)

FIRST PERSON | SANFORD, N.C. -- As I write this story, I am watching the local news, which has been tightly focused on Hurricane Irene's steady approach toward North Carolina. I grew up in Virginia and attended graduate school in South Carolina, so I've seen my share of hurricanes. One thing I've noticed is that hurricanes seem particularly fond of hitting North Carolina. I have watched this state bear the brunt of storm after storm, while Virginia and South Carolina often end up relatively unscathed.

Another reason I'm nervous about Hurricane Irene is because about four months ago, my husband and I weathered our first tornado. The tornado hit Sanford, N.C., with a vengeance; thankfully, our house was not damaged, but the remnants of that storm are still clearly evident not even a quarter mile from our home.

The neighborhood just east of ours looks like it was attacked by a drunken lumberjack, with dozens of mature trees that were snapped in half after just a few minutes of severe rain and high winds. There are still plenty of boarded up homes, sheared off trees, pieces of scrap metal embedded in tree trunks and tarps on roofs to remind us of the catastrophic wrath Mother Nature can unexpectedly unleash. My memories of that scary tornado are still very fresh and have made it impossible for me to be apathetic about the approaching storm that could be affecting us this weekend.

Sanford, along with many other places on the East Coast, also experienced a very rare earthquake today. This rare earthquake, preceding what is forecast to be a substantial hurricane, will no doubt make plenty of people nervous.

Thanks to the tornado that hit Sanford in April, I have already invested in an emergency radio that runs on solar power. This morning, I reminded my husband to pick up some batteries, water, propane, matches and candles in preparation for the storm.

I also asked my husband if he thought we might want to purchase a generator, but then I remembered our local Lowe's hardware store was destroyed during the tornado. One thing the tornado taught me is that the local radio station is great during a crisis; I expect to be able to tune into WJFA Classic Hits and Oldies and get up-to-the-minute coverage of how Hurricane Irene has affected Sanford and where we can go for help if we need it. That's a small comfort in the face of a big storm.

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Hurricane Irene heads toward Hispaniola and US (AP)

By EZEQUIEL ABIU LOPEZ, Associated Press Ezequiel Abiu Lopez, Associated Press – Mon Aug 22, 4:21 pm ET

SAMANA, Dominican Republic – Hurricane Irene cut a destructive path through the Caribbean on Monday, raking Puerto Rico with strong winds and rain and then skirting the Dominican Republic on a track that could carry it to the U.S. Southeast as a major storm by the end of the week.

Irene slashed directly across Puerto Rico, tearing up trees and knocking out power to more than a million people, then headed out to sea north of the Dominican Republic.

The first hurricane of the Atlantic season was a large system that could cause dangerous mudslides and floods in Dominican Republic, the U.S. National Hurricane center said. It was not expected to make a direct hit on neighboring Haiti, though that country could still see heavy rain from the storm.

Dominican officials said the government had emergency food available for 1.5 million people if needed and the country's military and public safety brigades were on alert. "We have taken all precautions," presidential spokesman Rafael Nunez said.

The Hurricane Center projected that Irene could grow into a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 115 mph (184 kph) over the Bahamas on Thursday. And it may carry that force northwest along Florida's Atlantic coast and toward a possible strike on South Carolina, though the forecasters warned that by the weekend, the storm's path could vary significantly from the current projection.

Florida residents were urged to ensure they had batteries, drinking water, food and other supplies.

"We must prepare for the worst and hope for the best," said Joe Martinez, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Commission.

Officials in Charleston, South Carolina, also warned residents to monitor Irene closely. It has been six years since a hurricane hit the South Carolina coast, said Joe Farmer of the state Emergency Management Division.

Police and civil protection officials in the Dominican Republic made their way along the beaches of the country's northern coast to warn people away from the surging sea. Resorts pulled up the umbrellas and lounge chairs as the storm made its way toward the country. At the Wyndham Tangerine, a hotel in the resort area of Sosua and Cabarete, the staff converted a conference room into a temporary storm refuge for 300 people, said deputy general manager Karen Gonzalez.

Jose Manuel Mendez, director of the country's Emergency Operations Center, said that only about 135 people were in public shelters, but that hundreds of others were staying with friends and family to avoid the storm, which was expected to drop as much as 14 inches (35 centimeters) at higher elevations.

The 100 tourists who booked an ocean-view room at a Puerto Plata resort were moved to another building on Monday for their safety, said Medardo Carrera, manager for VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort, and the hotel ordered its 450 guests to stay inside their rooms Monday night.

At the nearby Casa Colonial Beach & Spa, several tourists packed their bags and fled ahead of the storm, hoping to catch one of the last flights for Miami, said concierge Zadaliy Placido.

The hurricane earlier cut power to more than a million people in Puerto Rico, downing trees and flooding streets on Monday. There were no reports of deaths or major injuries on the island, but Gov. Luis Fortuno declared a state of emergency and urged people to stay indoors to avoid downed power lines, flooded streets and other hazards.

The hurricane was expected to pass near or over the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas on Tuesday.

Hurricane Irene centered about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north-northeast of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic Monday afternoon and it was moving toward the west-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph). It had maximum sustained winds of about 80 mph (130 kph) with higher gusts, the Hurricane Center reported.

In Puerto Rico, 600 crews spread out across the island to repair toppled light poles, and the majority of customers were expected to have power by late Monday, power company spokesman Carlos Monroig said. Schools, most government offices and many businesses remained closed. Flights resumed at the international airport in San Juan by midmorning.

The storm entered through the southeast coastal town of Humacao, but emergency management regional director Orlando Diaz said the damage seemed to be less than he feared.

"We thought things were going to be a bit more tragic," he said. "I was surprised that we didn't see the amount of rain I expected."

Irene had previously drove through St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where more than half of the inhabitants are still without power, said Christine Lett, emergency management spokeswoman.

___

Associated Press writers Danica Coto and Ben Fox in San Juan, Ezequiel Abiu Lopez in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Kelli Kennedy in Miami and Bruce Smith in Charleston, South Carolina contributed to this report.

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Atlantic's first 2011 hurricane, Irene, tracks toward Cape Canaveral (The Christian Science Monitor)

Hurricane forecasters have posted hurricane and tropical-storm warnings for the island of Hispaniola and the southern Bahamas as hurricane Irene, the Atlantic season's first hurricane, crossed Puerto Rico overnight Sunday.

Irene emerges as the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season is nearly a third of the way through its peak August-to-October period. Within that span, activity peaks on average from early to mid-September.

As of 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time Monday, the National Hurricane Center's track forecast puts the center of Irene roughly 120 miles east of Florida's Cape Canaveral by Friday evening, with landfall currently forecast to occur just south of Charleston, S.C., at about 8 a.m. Saturday. The intensity forecast upgrades Irene to a major hurricane, with winds in excess of 110 miles per hour, by the time it reaches the central Bahamas Thursday morning. It currently is expected to make landfall as a major hurricane.

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Errors are large, however, in track forecasts this far in advance. The track's "error" cone also include the possibilities that the storm could swing west and move up the Florida peninsula. Or it could track farther east than its current path indicates, pushing it closer to North Carolina's outer banks by Saturday morning.

Irene appeared as a tropical storm early Saturday evening from a cluster of thunderstorms some 175 miles east of Martinique. By early Monday morning, the center of the storm had arrived over Puerto Rico. But instead of weakening as it encountered the island, as often happens to a storm, it strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 74.8 m.p.h.

Although a formal analysis will come later, it appears that based on the storm's path, "the island was just too small" to deflate Irene, says Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Irene was strengthening as it approached Puerto Rico, he says, and the storm's path took the eye overland but close to the island's north coast, missing the highest, most potentially disruptive terrain.

The storm's path also left much of Irene's circulation over warm water, so Irene kept spinning up. Forecasters say they expect additional strengthening.

Irene is the ninth named storm in the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane season – a season busier so far than were 2009 and 2010.

IN PICTURES: Hurricane Irene

By this time in August 2009, the season had produced three named storms, only one of which was a hurricane. But it was a strong one – hurricane Bill reached Category 4, with maximum sustained winds of more than 131 m.p.h. It spent most of its time in the open Atlantic, skirting Nova Scotia as a weak hurricane and Newfoundland as a tropical storm.

The 2010 season saw five named storms by this time in August, two of which were a Category 4 storm. Both formed in August. One, hurricane Earl, kept much of the US East Coast on edge as skirted the shore from North Carolina's outer banks to finally make landfall in Nova Scotia as a Category 1 hurricane.

One key factor behind the differences: conditions in the tropical Pacific, forecasters say.

In 2009, El Niño conditions had taken hold by July. A large pool of warm water had migrated from the western tropical Pacific to the east, off the coast of Central and northern South America. That migration altered atmospheric circulation patterns in ways that increase the amount of wind shear over the tropical Atlantic.

Wind shear shows up as changes in wind speed and direction with altitude, and when a season's average conditions include strong shear, hurricanes have a tough time forming.

El Niño's opposite, La Niña, appeared in 2010, reducing shear and establishing general atmospheric conditions that favor hurricane formation.

This year, conditions in the tropical Pacific are in a neutral phase, which also tend to make formation more likely than during an El Niño year.

In addition to their high levels of street cred as natural hazards, tropical cyclones also figure into seasonal drought forecasts as drought busters. Drought has gripped much of the southern tier of the US for months, with "extreme" to "exceptional" conditions spanning Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and much of Louisiana. Drought at lesser intensities also span much of the rest of the Southeast.

Forecasters had expected some relief for parts of southern Texas and the Southeast with the coming of the hurricane season. But air over Texas has been so dry that when tropical storm Don made landfall along Texas' Padre Island, Don dropped a paltry two-thirds of an inch of rain along the coast, far less than forecasters expected based on experience with past tropical storms or weaker tropical depressions.

By contrast, tropical depression Harvey, which made its second and final landfall along the Mexican state of Veracruz Monday morning after crossing Guatemala, was dumping between two to four inches of rain along its path, with some locations expecting to get as much as 10 inches.

IN PICTURES: Hurricane Irene

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Tropical Storm Chedeng Upgraded to Typhoon as it Heads Toward Philippines (ContributorNetwork)

While many people in the United States are focused on the devastation caused by a series of tornadoes that leveled Joplin, Mo., and wreaked havoc through parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas, tropical storm Chedeng continues to strand passengers in the Philippines. The tropical storm was upgraded to a typhoon by the Philippine Coast Guard today.

A little more than 3,600 people remain stranded at various places throughout the Bicol Region. The Bicol Region, along with several other provinces, including Catanduanes, Albay and Samar, among others, are under a more severe storm warning, signal No. 2, than other areas of the country. Much of the rest of the country, including Masbate, Marinduque, and Southern Quezon, is under the lesser public storm warning No. 1.

The Philippines capital of Manila was put on "blue alert" today. That means 60 percent of their available emergency and rescue workers are to be ready for "immediate response" if they are needed, with more to follow if necessary. A blue alert is the second-highest alert level as identified by the Metro Manila Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (MMDRRC) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

In other areas that are known to be prone to flooding and landslides, measures are being taken to ensure the safety of all residents. The governor of Albay province ordered military vehicles to move the more than 200,000 residents of Legazpi City and surrounding areas to safe ground, fearing the potentially devastating consequences if people were not evacuated promptly.

By late afternoon today, the Philippines Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) had issued warnings that Chedeng had begun to move significantly faster. It was subsequently spotted a little more than 310 miles off the coast of Northern Samar, moving eastward.

U.S. military weather forecasters have issued their own warnings to the Philippines as well. They are predicting that along with its accelerated pace, Typhoon Chedeng is also very likely to become stronger as it heads towards land. They cited " favorable oceanographic conditions " for their estimates.

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