10/16/2013 Daily Update: Clouds Ahead of Showers Wednesday, Wipha Hits Tokyo Area - Killing 17, Major 7.1 PNG Quake

Good morning everyone!

Clouds are going to stick around today but still a nice day. Arrival time for showers have been delayed to Thursday into Thursday night.

TODAY: Mostly cloudy with highs in the mid 60s. Light winds.

TONIGHT: A chance of showers, mostly after midnight. Mostly cloudy with temps in the lower 50s. Light winds.

TOMORROW: A chance of showers otherwise cloudy turning mostly sunny in the afternoon with highs in the upper 60s to lower 70s. Winds from the W at 5 to 10 mph.

The showers marked the arrival of cooler air starting Friday, with winds shifting to the NW bringing in Canadian air. Temps may struggle to reach 60s in areas.

ATLANTIC TROPICS

• Nada.

NATIONAL WEATHER

• Offshore winds from the ocean in the Northeast with showers starting to arrive from the Great Lakes
• Nice weather in the Southeast. Showers and storms for the Gulf Coast and southern Texas along the cold front
• Nice and warmer in the Plains
• Maybe a few showers for the far northern Rockies (Montana especially)
• Has been sunny for the past days in the Northwest

WORLD WEATHER

• Typhoon Wipha ravaged Japan in the Tokyo area, causing damage from flooding and landslides and killing at least 17 people. http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/16/world/asia/japan-typhoon-deaths/
• Tropical Depression Twenty-six forms trailing Wipha to the south and yet another typhoon in the making in the Western Pacific
• Priscilla has weakened into a depression in the Eastern Pacific and should die soon.
• Rain and heavy downpours the main story for Europe
• Storms for Southeast Australia where another bout of severe storms caused power disruptions in Tasmania

EARTHQUAKES

• Within the last hour, a major 7.1 earthquake rocked Papua New Guinea with a moderate depth of 58.3 km. This is a preliminary reading and could change as new data is being evaluated. More details in the next update... http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000kemb#summary
• The death toll has risen to 144 from Tuesday morning's major 7.1 earthquake in Philippines. The Philippines celebrated a holiday Tuesday so it was fortunate some of the crumbled buildings were empty at the time of the quake. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/residents-recount-terror-philippine-quake#overlay-context=article/police-small-time-bomb-caused-myanmar-hotel-blast

SPACE WEATHER

• Sunspot 1865 is crackling with C- and M-class flares and is the source for the potential for a stronger flare. Strongest was a M1.1-class solar flare at 08:40 UTC Tuesday morning.
• New sunspot regions have been declared on the east limb of the sun, another area to watch for activity. This was the area that produced CMEs in the last few days.

The sun is finally finding its groove and looks
more like solar max now. (Credit: SpaceWeather.com)