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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/19/2017 11:59:27 PM

56 dead, 200 000 homeless and 11 000 homes destroyed as floods ravage Niger

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At least 56 people have been killed, nearly 200 000 are homeless and more than 11 000 homes have been destroyed by floods since the start of the rainy season in May, country's interior ministry reported Tuesday, September 19, 2017.

The hardest hit is capital Niamey along with Dosso in the south. A humanitarian source told AFP last week that exacerbating the problems were rising River Niger water levels, leading to fears of a repeat of serious flooding in 2012 which left dozens dead and some 500 000 homeless.

Food production will also take a hit, with the flooding killing some 16 000 cattle and about 12 000 hectares (30 000 acres) of crops being ruined, according to UNOCHA.

Last week, Niger said it had launched a campaign to destroy mosquito breeding sites to help combat the spread of deadly malaria in Niamey after the rain transformed some areas into swamps.



Before the start of the rainy season in May, the government advised people living in flood-prone areas to leave their homes before the rains began, said Boubacar Sidikou, secretary general for Niger's Ministry of Humanitarian Action and Disaster Management, as reported by Reuters.

But few heeded the advice "because they refused to abandon their homes or had nowhere else to go", he said.

According to Katiellou Lawan Gaptia, head of meteorology at Niger's Met Office, climate change in the Sahel is creating warmer conditions where the atmosphere can hold more moisture, often increasing the volume of rainfall.

"This year's rain is just extraordinary," he said. "In Niamey alone, the season's rainfall has increased by 84% since 2010."


Featured image credit: AFP

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/20/2017 10:19:23 AM

Scientists locate potential magma source in Italian supervolcano


September 18, 2017


Scientists have now pinpointed the location of the hot zone where hot materials rose to feed the caldera during its last period of activity in the 1980s. Credit: University of Aberdeen


Scientists have found the first direct evidence of a so-called 'hot zone' feeding a supervolcano in southern Italy that experts say is nearing eruption conditions.

Campi Flegrei is a volcanic caldera to the west of Naples that last erupted centuries ago.

The area has been relatively quiet since the 1980s when the injection of either magma or fluids in the shallower structure of the volcano caused a series of small earthquakes.

Using seismological techniques, scientists have now pinpointed the location of the hot zone where hot materials rose to feed the caldera during this period.

The study was led by Dr Luca De Siena at the University of Aberdeen in conjunction with the INGV Osservatorio Vesuviano, the RISSC lab of the University of Naples, and the University of Texas at Austin. The research provides a benchmark that may help predict how and where future eruptions could strike.

"One question that has puzzled scientists is where magma is located beneath the caldera, and our study provides the first evidence of a hot zone under the city of Pozzuoli that extends into the sea at a depth of 4 km," Dr De Siena said.

"While this is the most probable location of a small batch of magma, it could also be the heated fluid-filled top of a wider magma chamber, located even deeper."

Dr De Siena's study suggests that magma was prevented from rising to the surface in the 1980s by the presence of a 1-2 km-deep rock formation that blocked its path, forcing it to release stress along a lateral route.

While the implications of this are still not fully understood, the relatively low amount of seismic activity in the area since the 1980s suggests that pressure is building within the caldera, making it more dangerous.

"During the last 30 years the behaviour of the volcano has changed, with everything becoming hotter due to fluids permeating the entire caldera," Dr De Siena explained.

"Whatever produced the activity under Pozzuoli in the 1980s has migrated somewhere else, so the danger doesn't just lie in the same spot, it could now be much nearer to Naples which is more densely populated.

"This means that the risk from the caldera is no longer just in the centre, but has migrated. Indeed, you can now characterise Campi Flegrei as being like a boiling pot of soup beneath the surface.

"What this means in terms of the scale of any future eruption we cannot say, but there is no doubt that the volcano is becoming more dangerous.

"The big question we have to answer now is if it is a big layer of that is rising to the surface, or something less worrying which could find its way to the out at sea."

Explore further: Campi Flegrei volcano eruption possibly closer than thought

More information: Luca De Siena et al. Source and dynamics of a volcanic caldera unrest: Campi Flegrei, 1983–84, Scientific Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-08192-7

Journal reference: Scientific Reports search and more info website

Provided by: University of Aberdeen


Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-09-scientists-potential-magma-source-italian.html#jCp


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/20/2017 10:47:29 AM

RARE CELESTIAL 'OCCULTATION' EVENT SEES NEW MOON BLOCKING OUT THREE PLANETS AND BRIGHT STAR

BY


The moon is on Monday going through a remarkable celestial event, the only one of its kind in a 28-year window.

In under 24 hours, the moon will pass in front of three planets and one of the sky’s brightest stars. The last time it obscured three planets in so short a period was in 2008, and the next will be in 2036.

Astronomers refer to the moment when one celestial body blocks out another in Earth’s sky as an “occultation.” It happens fairly regularly as the moon orbits our world, but it’s unusual for so many bodies to be involved in this way.

Late Sunday and Early Monday Eastern time, the moon passed in front of the planet Venus and the star Regulus.

Regulus is well known for its place among the 22 “first magnitude stars,” so called because they are the brightest in the night sky. Only four of these can be occulted by the moon, the other three being Aldebaran, Spica and Antares.

On Monday evening, the moon will move in front of Mars at 4pm EST, and Mercury at 7pm EST.

Skygazers in North America will see the three planets and the star arranged in a wonky diagonal line, with the moon passing downward through them. Even though it happens partly during daylight hours, if you have access to a telescope and can see the moon, just observe it as it moves through the sky.

Unfortunately for Americans, however, the event will be best visible in Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.

If you want to know when the next occultation is happening—even less rare small-scale events can be fascinating to observe—you can head over to the International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) website.

In addition to looking cool, occultations have some scientific usefulness, too. According to IOTA, data gathered during occultations has helped astronomers refine their understanding of the exact positioning of celestial bodies.

(Newsweek)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/20/2017 11:05:34 AM

Greg Laurie: 'This Is No Joke' About Troubling Signs of the Biblical End Times

BILLY HALLOWELL/FAITHWIRE
Greg Laurie says the end times are no joke.
Greg Laurie says the end times are no joke. (Greg Laurie/Facebook)


Pastor Greg Laurie, founder of the Harvest Crusades and senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside and Irvine, California, believes that there are some troubling "signs of the times" that are worth paying close attention to, specifically when it comes to end times Bible prophecy.

"We need to be students of Bible prophecy," he recently said on
"The Billy Hallowell Podcast." "I believe if we understand it correctly, it will just motivate us to live godly lives and do all that we can to reach our generation while we can."

Laurie warned that people can often make the mistake of either over- or under-emphasizing eschatology (the study of the end times) and detailed some troubling trends that he believes could indicate that we're moving closer toward biblical fulfillment.

"North Korea—this is a big thing. I don't think people understand. This is no joke," Laurie said. "This dictator has the power now to deliver nuclear weapons. For a number of years, I've been talking about this."

Laurie, who also appeared on the podcast to discuss his upcoming film,
Steve McQueen: American Icon, lamented the relationship between North Korea and Iran, warning that the latter country "plays a key role in the last days scenario as one of the allies that marches ... against Israel."

"You know, just pull the camera back, I would say these are signs of the times," he said. "They're reminders that Jesus is coming and as Christians, we need to be really praying for our president, if we voted for him or not. He is the man that God has put in that office, if you like it or not."


Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images


(charismanews.com)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
9/20/2017 4:17:15 PM

Hurricane Maria sweeps across Puerto Rico with destructive winds and tremendous rainfall

Hurricane Maria made landfall early Sept. 20 in the southeast coastal town of Yabucoa as a Category 4 storm. It's one the strongest hurricanes to ever hit Puerto Rico. (The Washington Post)

(This article, originally published Tuesday, was updated at 11:05 a.m. Wednesday to reflect the latest conditions in Puerto Rico and the National Hurricane Center advisories.)

Extremely dangerous Hurricane Maria plowed across Puerto Rico Wednesday morning, inflicting a disastrous combination of destructive winds, tremendous rainfall and coastal inundation from surging ocean waters.

The storm slammed ashore near Yabucoa, Puerto Rico at 6:15 a.m. Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph winds. It is the first Category 4 storm to directly strike the island since 1932.

“This is going to impact all of Puerto Rico with a force and violence that we haven’t seen for several generations,” Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló told the Associated Press. “We’re going to lose a lot of infrastructure in Puerto Rico. We’re going to have to rebuild.”

Eric Blake, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center, tweeted Maria is the third Category 4 to strike the U.S. in the same season, following Harvey and Irma, which is “unprecedented in the modern era“.

The latest on Maria

At 11 a.m., Maria was positioned 25 miles west of San Juan, which reported sustained winds to 86 mph gusting to 110 mph around 7:30 a.m. before the wind sensor stopped transmitting data. The storm was churning to the northwest at 13 mph and should emerge off the coast of Puerto Rico by midday, but heavy rain and strong winds are likely to continue for many hours thereafter.

While winds continued to howl, inland rain was emerging as the most severe hazard as Wednesday morning wore on. Rivers on the island were rapidly rising, some reaching record levels in a matter of hours.

At 11 a.m., 11 of 27 river gauges on Puerto Rico were reporting “major flooding”.

The National Weather Service in San Juan reported incrediblerainfall rates up to 5 to 7 inches per hour.


















Estimated rainfall totals in eastern Puerto Rico reached over 20 inches. A citizen weather observer in Trujillo Alto, just south of San Juan, reported 15.43 inches in the 24 hours ending at 7:40 a.m.


Radar-estimated rainfall in Puerto Rico through 10 a.m. Wednesday. (National Weather Service)

As the storm made landfall early Wednesday morning along the southeast coast of Puerto Rico, a National Ocean Service tide gauge at Yabucoa Harbor, Puerto Rico, reported a rise in water 5.3 feet above the normal high tide.

Wind reports became scarce by 8 a.m. as wind sensors and/or their transmission signals failed, but numerous locations clocked gusts over 110 mph.

In the hours leading up to and following landfall, the storm’s peak winds estimated by the National Hurricane Center had decreased some, from 175 to 140 mph, but it remained a powerful Category 4.

Effects in St. Croix

Early Wednesday morning, sustained winds reached 106 mph and gusts were reported up to 137 mph in St. Croix. Between 10 and 11 p.m. Tuesday, St. Croix’s airport on the southwest part of the island reported gusts up to 92 mph before the wind sensor stopped reporting.

While St. Croix was hard hit, the storm’s inner eyewall containing its most violent winds just missed to the south – sparing the island the worst of its fury.

The forecast

While the core of Maria will progress offshore by Wednesday afternoon, Puerto Rico can expect extreme torrential rain and strong winds well into the day Wednesday, perhaps into the evening.


(National Hurricane Center)

The effects forecast by the National Weather Service over Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are dire, and its warning statement carries an apocalyptic tone.

It says to expect “catastrophic damage” from winds, including “structural damage to sturdy buildings, some with complete roof and wall failures.” It warns that “severe injury is possible in less than a strong structure” and that “locations may be uninhabitable for weeks or months”

It also predicts rainfall amounts of 12 to 18 inches, with isolated totals exceeding 25 inches. The Hurricane Center had warned that the rain may “prompt numerous evacuations and rescues” and “enter numerous structures within multiple communities,” adding that streets and parking lots may “become rivers of raging water” and warns some structures will become “uninhabitable or washed away.”

Along the coast, the Weather Service describes”extensive impacts” from a “life-threatening” storm surge at the coast, reaching 6 to 9 feet above normally dry land. The highest storm surge is likely to occur just north and northeast of where the center makes landfall, which could target southeast Puerto Rico.

In the areas hit hardest by storm surge, the Weather Service describes these effects: “Large areas of deep inundation with storm surge flooding accentuated by battering waves. Structural damage to buildings, with several washing away. Damage compounded by floating debris. Locations may be uninhabitable for an extended period.”

Link: National Weather Service Local Hurricane Statement for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

The projected storm track is such that the most severe conditions may target St. Croix and southeast Puerto Rico. But the storm is expansive enough that small wobbles could bring devastating effects farther to the north and west, including over the same areas hardest hit by Hurricane Irma, such as St. Thomas and St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the entirety of the British Virgin Islands. And even if these islands remain north of the storm’s core, a dangerous storm surge of up to 7 to 11 feet above normally dry land is possible.

Puerto Rico is very vulnerable to hurricanes, but one has not made landfall there since Georges in 1998. It just missed the worst of Irma, which scraped along its north shore, but an estimated 1 million people lost electricity because of its fragile power infrastructure. Before Irma struck, officials warned some areas could be without power for months.

Just one Category 5 hurricane has hit Puerto Rico in recorded history, back in 1928. The last time a Category 4 storm struck the island was in 1932.

Effects on the Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos and Southeast Bahamas

By Wednesday night and through Thursday, the storm should be exiting Puerto Rico and is forecast to parallel the north shore of the Dominican Republic — also hard hit by Irma. It has been placed under a hurricane warning.

Early on Friday, the hurricane is expected to come close to the Turks and Caicos and southeast Bahamas, which were also ravaged by Irma. They are also under a hurricane warning.

U.S. effects

After the storm passes the Southeast Bahamas, some models suggest it could find an escape route out to sea, remaining offshore from the East Coast, but it is way too early to sound the all-clear.



Group of simulations from American (blue) and European (red) computer models from early Wednesday for Hurricane Maria. Each color strand represents a different model simulation with slight tweaks to initial conditions. Note that the strands are clustered together where the forecast track is most confident but they diverge where the course of the storm is less certain. The bold red line is the average of all of the European model simulations, while the blue is the average of all the American model simulations.(StormVistaWxModels.com)

Hurricane Jose may help in keeping Maria away from the U.S. mainland by drawing it to the northeast. However, if Jose weakens too quickly, Maria could drift closer to the U.S. coast by the middle of next week.

Even if Maria remains just offshore along the East Coast, dangerous surf and rip currents are likely.

Maria’s place in history and this hurricane season in perspective

Maria’s landfall pressure of 914 millibars in Puerto Rico Wednesday morning was the third lowest on a record a hurricane striking the U.S.. The lower the pressure the stronger the storm.

On Tuesday evening, Maria’s pressure dropped to 909 millibars, ranking among the 10 lowest in recorded history in the Atlantic.

Its maximum sustained winds, which reached 175 mph, alsoranked among the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.

As the storm neared peak intensity Tuesday evening, Michael Brennan, a Hurricane Center forecaster tweeted: “Starting to run out of adjectives for #Maria. Horrifying.”

At 9:35 p.m. Monday, Maria became the the first Category 5 storm to strike Dominica in recorded history, leaving behind widespread destruction.

In just 18 hours Monday, the storm strengthened from a minimal Category 1 storm to a Category 5 monster. Its pressure dropped 52 millibars in 18 hours, “one of the fastest deepening rates on record behind Ike, Rita, Gilbert, & Wilma,” tweeted Tomer Burg, at atmospheric science graduate student at SUNY-Albany.

Maria is the latest powerhouse storm in what has become a hyperactive hurricane season.

“2017 joins 1932, 1933, 1961, 2005, and 2007 as only years with multiple Cat 5s,” tweeted MDA Federal, a meteorological consulting firm.

With Maria, the 2017 hurricane season has already featured four Category 4 or stronger storms; this has only happened four previous times by Sept. 18.

Hurricane Jose


(NOAA)

While Maria is the far more dangerous storm, Jose is a strong tropical storm with 70 mph winds. Positioned 150 miles south of Nantucket, Mass. at 5 a.m., it’s drifting northeast at 8 mph.

Tropical storm warnings cover the coast eastern Massachusetts, where peak wind gusts could reach 65 mph on Wednesday along with 1 to 4 inches of rain. These winds could cause scattered power outages.


(National Hurricane Center)

Along much of the Northeast coast, minor to moderate coastal flooding is possible as the storm pushes ocean water ashore — up to 1 to 2 feet above normally dry land at high tide. All along these shores, dangerous surf and rip currents are expected.

The National Weather Service says that in coastal eastern Massachusetts, 15 to 20-foot waves could pound exposed beaches, causing severe erosion.

Link: Tropical storm impact statement from National Weather Service for eastern New England


(The Washington Post)

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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