Harvey bears down on Belize

Terra Daily via AFP: Tropical Storm Harvey made landfall on Belize on Saturday, but forecasters said it was expected to fizzle out after dumping heavy rains over Central America. The eye of the storm made landfall near Dangriga and weakened as it moved farther inland.

It was moving westward at a speed of 21 kilometers (13 miles) per hour, with maximum sustained winds near 80 kilometers per hour, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center said in its 2100 GMT advisory. Located about 70 kilometers from Belize City, the storm was forecast to continue moving inland over Belize before hovering over northern Guatemala later Saturday.

Harvey was expected to produce total rain accumulations of eight to 15 centimeters (three to six inches) across Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, with up to 25 centimeters in isolated areas.

"These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides, especially over higher terrain," the NHC said. In Belize and Guatemala, authorities warned people about the risks of heavy rains and a tropical wave along the Caribbean coast, but there were no reports of damage or casualties. "The phenomenon did not cause loss of life or infrastructure damage," said a top emergency services official, Juan Jose Reyes….

Tropical Storm Harvey just north of Honduras on August 19, 2011

Is biochar a part of the climate change solution?

David Lee in the Jamaica Observer: … What are the beneficial attributes of biochar, as incorporated in soil? Detailed examination of terra preta suggests that pyrolysis by the Amazon natives had been done at relatively low temperature, perhaps 350 C, instead of about 500 C for charcoal nowadays. This would have resulted in the retention of presumably beneficial volatiles which would normally be lost in the high temperature process. It is also undergoing a parallel and comparable interest as a soil ameliorant.

The practical consequence of [its physical] properties, as reported by many accounts, is an almost "miraculous" ability to promote plant growth, in comparison with unamended soils as control, and also when, as control, conventionally fertilised soils were used.
Growth improvement, of course, is dependent on original soil quality, it being minimal where the soil is ideal in all respects, and very marked when it is poor.

Perhaps as important as the agricultural implications, is the promise of biochar for climate change mitigation. For each cycle of pyrolysis and at least partial use of the resultant char for soil amendment, part of the carbon that was a major portion of the ligneous material becomes sequestered for an indefinite period. It would take many cycles, on a vast scale, to effect significantly reduced levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. But no schemes considered are free of this scale constraint.

…Only Belize, it seems, of the English-speaking Caribbean countries, is presently participating in biochar studies. It should behove us to have a local investigation into the topic for the reasons already stated, and also for the implications for the local agricultural situation, which benefits that biochar potentially offers….

That's Amazonian terra preta on the right, shot by Bruno Glaser or Rsukiennik, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Hurricane Richard batters Belize

BBC: Hurricane Richard has hit the Central American nation of Belize, knocking out electricity and blowing off roofs, but no deaths or injuries were reported. Some 10,000 people took shelter in schools and churches.

But Richard was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved west-north-west towards south-eastern Mexico. It is moving at 19km/h (12mph), and is forecast to reach Mexico's oil-producing region in the Bay of Campeche late Monday or early Tuesday.

Patrick Jones of the radio station Love News FM told the BBC that there was "massive flooding" in Belize City, after the hurricane blew in just to its south. "A number of people have been calling for emergency services to come rescue them because they are either trapped by the rising water, or because their houses have collapsed," he said. Belize City, which has a population of about 100,000, contains a large number of wooden, tin-roofed homes that are vulnerable to strong winds.

Richard was rated as a category one hurricane, the lowest on the five-point Saffir-Simpson scale, and was the 10th storm of the hurricane season. But as it moved into northern Guatemala on its way into south-eastern Mexico, it was downgraded to a tropical storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 105km/h (65mph)….

Hurricane Richard on October 24

Richard to become a hurricane as it closes in on Belize

Gustavo Palencia in Reuters: Tropical Storm Richard strengthened on Saturday as it dumped rain on Honduras and was seen reaching hurricane strength before hitting Belize and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula later in the weekend. The storm was about 65 miles north of Cabo Gracias a Dios, a remote area known as Honduras' and Nicaragua's "mosquito coast" where indigenous groups live in wooden houses along rivers vulnerable to flooding.

Richard had top sustained winds of 65 miles per hour, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Some residents and tourists were evacuating from the mosquito coast area in Honduras as winds picked up, local civil protection officials said. "Richard is expected to become a hurricane on Sunday," the NHS said.

The 17th named storm in the Atlantic this year, Richard will likely barrel through southern Mexico and emerge in Mexico's oil-rich Bay of Campeche as a tropical depression, the NHS said. Some computer weather models forecast that it could then veer north toward the U.S. oil and natural gas production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico…..

Honduras has issued a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning for the coast from the Nicaragua-Honduras border westward to Limon, Honduras, the hurricane center said.

This GOES-East image from NOAA, taken on October 22, at 1445Z, shows Tropical Storm Richard located east-northeast of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua/Honduras border. This system is moving west near 3 MPH, with winds near 40 MPH. According to the National Hurricane Center, Richard is forecast to strengthen over the next 48 hours and could become a hurricane during the weekend.