Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, 31st Aug. It is spiraling to southeastern coast of Louisiana. What is interesting is that it comes so as to disrupt the Republican Convention in Minnesota when John McCain will be selected as the Republican nominee for the forthcoming US elections. Bush and Dick Cheney have already canceled their plans to attend the convention.

Louisiana Governor, India-born Bobby Jindal, is doing a nice job by overseeing the evacuation of people from this state to safer places like Missisippi and Texas. Hope the havoc, chaos and dread caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 will not be repeated this time.

Hurricane Gustav may affect the offshore production of oil also. This, in turn, is likely to spread uncertainity in the international market. As crude oil prices are yet to ease up in the global market, the movement and strength of Hurricane Gustav will be decisive in determing the price of crude. Which means, even a local businessman in a remote place in Ethiopia or Guyana has to keep a watch on the movement and intensity of Hurricane Gustav.

Torrential rain followed by devastating flood has hit North Ireland. The first 17 days of August saw about 178 millimeter of rain, which is well above the average rainfall recorded in August. Weather in Ireland is undergoing a drastic change this summer.

The northern part of Ireland has experienced torrential rain in two successive weekends. Further rain and flooding on Monday worsen the weather condition in Ireland. The most affected areas on the Ireland map are Carlow Town, Limerick, Belfast and Dublin.

On Sunday, more than 100 people have been evacuated from their houses in Carlow Town, when overflowing river drowned the area. Traffic has been brought to a halt in Belfast, where highways have been flooded. The Broadway Underpass went under 20 feet deep water after the heavy rain during the last weekend.

Life in Ireland is totally disrupted due to the rainfall in past few days. The Ulster Grand Prix was cancelled on Saturday; soccer matches were abandoned—all due to bad weather condition prevailing in the region. On Saturday, a train was derailed on the Dublin-Cork line due to mud slide.

Authorities have rescued a number of people, who were trapped in their homes or cars. It is suspected that the changing weather pattern owing to global warming has caused this calamity in Ireland. Government is taking precautionary measures to cope with the bad weather in the country. New guidelines are being set to prevent flash flooding and coastal erosion. But, global warming is a big concern—if temperature on earth cannot be controlled, the day, when most of the islands and the coastal areas of the countries will be flooded, is not far away.

The world is eagerly waiting to witness the grand opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Summer Games. With less than 40 hours before the curtain raiser of the Beijing Games, China Meteorological Administration announced that the weather condition will be favorable for the successful completion of the opening ceremony.

A brief shower on Friday, August 8, has been forecasted, while temperature would remain between 25º Celsius and 30º Celsius. The China Meteorological Administration department will closely monitor the weather condition during the Beijing 2008 Games. The National Meteorological Center has ensured that the next week will not see any extreme weather condition in Beijing and other venues of the 2008 Summer Games.

The Meteorological Service Center for the Beijing Summer Games has ensured that they will provide weather forecasts for every venue of the competition, 72 hours in advance. For special sport events, there will be hourly weather forecast, 24 hours in advance.

4 satellites are being used for monitoring the weather condition of China, especially Beijing. More than 150 automated weather stations have been established around the city, which will gather data every 5 minutes. To monitor the Beijing sky, 2 mobile radar stations and 7 Doppler radar stations are also being used.  

Thursday is expected to be cloudy and overcast. But, that will not affect the flight schedule at the Beijing Capital International Airport.

Providing strategic and timely weather forecasts has been the main aim of the National Weather Service. It has provided the US with warnings of hurricanes and storms from detailed satellite imagery of its adjacent seas and oceans. Playing a pivotal role in the enhancement of national economy, the National Weather Service has seamlessly served the population by protecting property and life. Various government agencies are benefited from the NWS data which forms a national information database.

The NWS strategic planning policy office provides various kinds of supports to the Weather Services Administration. Various policies and objectives have been developed which are strictly implemented. Committed to work together with various other agencies and serve all the needs of America, a nationwide network of radio stations have been formed which continuously update residents of prevailing weather conditions with warnings, if any. Apart from that, warnings are also given out in case avalanches or earthquakes are predicted.

It was the worst storm that South Dakota experienced in years. Moving through the roads of Aberdeen, the sights of uprooted trees blocking important road crossings and damaged electric poles and transformers clearly revealed the scale of devastation that the storm brought in its wake. The storm crashed at a speed that varied from 80 to 115 miles per hour on the night of July 31, Thursday, accompanied with heavy showers.  

Aberdeen, of all cities in South Dakota, was the worst affected. Road blockages and power cuts were the worst of problems, followed by large scale destruction of homes, cars and roadways. The picture was more or less same all over the Brown County. The authorities believe that it will take some time to clear up the mess and restore normalcy. There were losses of homes and road blocks in the Day county as well, where a number of trailer homes and cabins by the Waubay Lake were razed to the ground.

As the authorities are working double time to bring life back to normal, the people are yet to revived from the shock and terror that swept through the state on Thursday night.