Heat wave puts Argentina on high alert

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/157707.html


Argentina is in the grip of a sizzling heat wave that has left millions in hellish conditions, while the northern hemisphere fights freezing temperatures.

On Tuesday temperatures soared to 36 C (97 F) in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, creating scenes the total opposite of those in snowbound Europe and the United States.

This, coupled with power outages and a fuel shortage, has forced Argentina's National Meteorological Service to issue a high alert for Buenos Aires and its surrounding areas.

Authorities believe that the heat-wave poses health risk for the Argentineans.

"The city of Buenos Aires has a summer average of 90 deaths per day but, for example, during the heat wave at the beginning of 2001 it went up to 250 deaths in a single day," the weather service warned on its website.

Meanwhile, Argentine Health Minister Juan Manzur announced on Tuesday that high temperatures are expected to continue throughout the week and advised people to stay out of sun and drink lots of water.

The heat-wave has also caused concerns for the country's agriculture sector.

Farmers believe that the hot weather along with the decrease in rainfall could continue until March, endangering grain exports -- one of Argentina's main sources of income.

Adding to the crisis, the climatic phenomenon La Nina has meanwhile spread drought across large parts of Argentina's richest agricultural regions.

The heat wave has also set a "historic record" in electricity consumption across the capital.

This has led to 24-hour-long outages in numerous Buenos Aires neighborhoods and urban districts, frustrating residents and triggering bitter protests in the festive holiday season.

Critics lay the blame squarely on government policies that have deterred investment in the energy sector.

Scientists fear major 2010 hurricanes

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=129115&sectionid=3510203



The new hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, boosted by the projected La Nina phenomenon, might make 2010 one of the most dangerous hurricane seasons ever.

The US National Hurricane Center says the new hurricane season, which began on June 1, might entail about 14 storms reaching hurricane strength, with almost half of them achieving "major" hurricane status of category three or above, New Scientist reported on Friday.

According to scientists, hurricanes in the north Atlantic mostly form, due to Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation, a temporal cycle lasting from two to four decades during which sea-surface temperatures from Greenland to the equator rise and fall by about 0.5 °C.

This year, however, hurricanes might receive a boost from a weakening El Nino period in the Pacific Ocean and feed on energies from the countering La Nina, ocean-atmospheric temperature fluctuations, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been reported as saying.

The hurricane season has also sparked worries about the US oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, with scientists fearing major contaminations of US coastlines as a northwardly hurricane in the area could push the oil spill toward the shore and drive large amounts of oil and other chemicals well inland, destroying US marshlands around the Gulf coast.