Weather

On Tuesday, tornadoes tore across the southern states of Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, killing at least three people and injuring several others.

According to the local sheriff's office, a couple and a child were killed in the small town of Atkins, Arkansas.

Meanwhile, in Jackson, Tennessee, the deadly storm damaged a dormitory at Union University where eight students were said to be trapped, but not seriously injured.

The storm also knocked off part of a roof at the Hickory Ridge Mall in Memphis. Police in Memphis said that the mall had sustained "severe damage", including a collapsed roof and walls. Most people escaped with just minor cuts and scrapes.

Throughout the state of Tennessee, there are reports of at least one fatality, dozens of injuries, and several serious injuries.

CNN has reported as many as 86 injuries and an unknown number of fatalities from this one storm system that socked southern US states on Tuesday.

Ohio's Buckeye Chuck and Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil couldn't come up with an agrrement on the weather forecast. Ohio's groundhoug turned weatherman said winter will be coming early while Pennsylvania's more famous ground dwelling rodent gave people bad news after seeing his shadow which predicts six more weeks of winter.

Punxsutawney Phil has the most stable job as a weatherman in the entire United States annually calling the shots in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, on the length of winter since the late 1800's. Buckeye Chuck, from Marion, Ohio, is newer to the weather prognostication and has been doing the job since 1979. Lets hope Chuck has this one correct.

Here is a video of festivities from today:

On early Friday morning, a light snow fell on the city of Baghdad, a phenomenon not experienced by the Iraqi city in about 100 years. Other rare snowfalls were also reported in the west and center of Iraq, where temperatures fell to 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Centigrade) and lower.

The snow that fell in Baghdad, however, was short-lived. The snow melted almost immediately as it touched the ground. The snow began falling just before dawn, and continued until after 9am.

Iraqi weather officials issued the following statement:

"Snow has fallen in Baghdad for the first time in about a century as a result of two air flows meeting. The first one was cold and dry and the second one was warm and humid. They met above Iraq."

However, Dawood Shakir, director of the meterology department in Iraq, said that climate change may be due to the rare event:

"It's very rare. Baghdad has never seen snow falling in living memory. These snowfalls are linked to the climate change that is happening everywhere. We are finding some places in the world which are warm and are supposed to be cold."

An earthquake that registered 6.4 on the Richter scale tonight in Oregon. The epicenter was around the southern tip of the Queen Charlotte Islands. No major injuries or structural damage has been reported at this time. The earthquake was off the west coast and was closest these major cities:

* 151 miles from Barview
* 151 miles from Bandon
* 153 miles from Winchester Bay
* 205 miles from Eugene
* 252 miles from Portland

The large quake is uncommon for the area but experts don't expect major ramifications.

The country of Ecuador in South America is waiting patiently for the imminent eruption of the Tungurahua volcano, which has been spewing ash and smoke. Local authorities have already ordered the evacuation of more than 1,000 villagers who live near the foot of the volcano.

The evacuation of the roughly 300 families has been taken as a precautionary measure following the volcano's recent rumblings. The relocated families live in the ten hamlets located on the western slopes of the 5,000-meter volcano.

Representatives for the villagers are requesting that the government resettle the evacuated families in new locations so that they will not have to return to living in the danger zone.

The most recent reports from Ecuador's Geophysics Institute said that the volcano had been spewing ash, but that there was no sign of lava. However, it is expected to intensify over the next few days.

Peter Davi, a legendary big wave surfer, died on Tuesday after having lost his board surfing in an area notorious for its dangerous conditions. Davi died at the age of 45 doing the thing he loved most - surfing.

On Tuesday Davi had been surfing off the coast of Northern California near Pebble Beach in waters known to local surfers as "Ghost Tree." According to various accounts, Davi lost his board and attempted to swim back to shore through the swells. He was knocked unconscious, and his body was found floating in the water by local surfers mid-day on Tuesday. He was pronounced dead at 1:30pm PST.

Dangerously high surf charged by storms in the Pacific Northwest exhausted both surfers and rescuers, as 20-foot swells crashed off the Monterey Bay coastline on Tuesday. Not only did Davi lose his life, but dozens of other surfers were also forced from the water due to the inherently dangerous conditions.

According to a report published by Oxfam on Sunday, the number of weather-related disasters throughout the world have quadrupled over the past twenty years. From an average of 120 disasters per year in the early 1980's, there are now as many as 500 per year. Oxfam attributes the rise in the number of natural disasters to unpredictable weather conditions caused by global warming.

Oxfam's directory, Barbara Stocking, said, "This year we have seen floods in South Asia, across the breadth of Africa and Mexico that have affected more than 250 million people. This is no freak year. It follows a pattern of more frequent, more erratic, more unpredictable and more extreme weather events that are affecting more people."

The number of people around the world affected by disasters has risen dramatically, by 68%, from an average of 174 million per year from 1985-1994 to 254 million per year from 1995 to 2004.

"Action is needed now to prepare for more disasters otherwise humanitarian assistance will be overwhelmed and recent advances in human development will go into reverse," Stocking continued.

The wildfires in California continue to rage. A fast moving wildfire on Saturday destroyed approximately 35 homes, and spread through the canyon's and hills above Malibu. Hundreds of residents were forced to flee the area.

The fire began shortly before 3:30am PT near Malibu Lake on state park land. Feeding on brush and trees, and driven by the dry Santa Ana wind, the fire has so far burned 1,500 acres in just 5 hours.

Fire officials estimate about 35 homes to have been destroyed, but an exact number is not yet known.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. About 200 homes in three communities were evacuated, and an evacuation center was set up at a local high school.

Students at Pepperdine University were told to move to a campus shelter as a precautionary measure. Fortunately, the University was mostly empty with students away for the holiday weekend.

Fire officials estimated about 35 homes had been destroyed, but the exact number was not known. The cause of the fire had not been determined.

The blaze was blowing downhill Saturday morning towards the Pacific Ocean, and jumped the Pacific Coast Highway, spreading small spot fires. 500 firefighters and 10-water dropping helicopters were working on the fire, but had not been able to contain any part of the fire by midmorning.

Tropical cyclone Sidr ripped across Bangladesh's southwestern coast late Thursday evening, with driving rain and high waves that leveled homes and forced the evacuation of 650,000 villagers. The cyclone had strong 150mph winds, and is believed to have killed at least 1,100 people so far.

The deadly cyclone has left the country in runs, isolating remote towns and villages swamped by a storm surge and hemmed in by piles of debris.

The government had put the death count at 242 earlier, and has now acknowledged the difficulty in keeping count with power and phone lines down in most remote areas. Reporters who deployed across the region made their own unofficial count in each affected district, coming up with the figure of 1,100 dead thus far. The Bangladesh government expects the death toll to rise significantly.

Bangladesh is a low-lying delta nation, and is prone to seasonal cyclones and floods that often cause huge losses of life and property. The coastal area of Bangladesh borders eastern Indian. Bangladesh is famous for their mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, which is considered a world heritage site that is home to the rare Royal Bengal Tigers.

At 15:43GMT Wednesday, a powerful earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale rocked northern Chile. There have so far been no immediate reports of injuries.

The earthquake occurred about 60km deep, and was centered about 106km west of the town of Calama. According to Carmen Fernandez, director of Chile's national emergency office, the quake stretched across nearly 2,000km, all the way from Chile's northern border with Peru to the capital, Santiago.

"It is a major quake," said Fernandez.

Cement cracked at an airport in Antofagasta, where staff had to be evacuated. The cities of Calama and Arica in the north lost electrical power, and panicked residents flood the streets.

As a result of the massive earthquake, U.S. officials have also issued a tsunami alert in the Pacific. The alert was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii, and covers areas "bordering the Pacific Ocean and adjacent seas" off the coasts of Chile and Peru.