Over the last few days a spate of severe winter weather and geological phenomena has been reverberating across the United States.
The residents of Seattle were jolted awake Friday morning by a 4.5 magnitude quake that was felt as far away as British Columbia.
The 15-second Seattle earthquake did not cause injuries or damage, but frightened a lot of people, many of whom have vivid memories of a strong 6.8 magnitude quake that shook the region back in February 2001.
The Washington earthquake came on the heels of a series of tremors further down the Pacific Coast.
On Thursday a 4.2 magnitude quake hit the Channel Islands area off the coast of Los Angeles, and several smaller quakes have occurred over the last few weeks in the metro Los Angeles area.
Up in Alaska, scientists are readying for the imminent eruption of Mount Redoubt, a 10,197 foot peak that lies in the mountains 100 miles west of Anchorage. Mt. Redoubt has been making suspicious rumblings since January 23, and could burst open in a matter of days—or even hours.
An eruption is not expected to threaten the residents of Anchorage, but ash and mud flows could disrupt air and river traffic like they did the last time Mt. Redoubt erupted twenty years ago.
This time the public will be able to see the eruption in real time via two webcams set up by the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Click here to view them.
And the midsection of the country continues to be racked by ice and snow, which is causing power outages, traffic deaths and general havoc in both the private and public sectors.
Authorities in Kentucky say that their state is facing the worst power outage in its history, with upwards of 607,000 people lacking electricity. Seventy-eight of the 120 counties have declared emergencies, and 113 emergency shelters have opened across the state to deal with the hordes of people who don’t have heat in their homes.
Utility companies say that it could take up to two weeks to restore service to everyone.
Hundreds of thousands of other customers are without power in states from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania, and at least 23 people have died as a result of traffic accidents. Schools are shut down, debris litters roadways, and hundreds of flights have been delayed.
With Groundhog Day coming up this Monday, the prognosis doesn’t look good for an early end to winter. Weather forecasts predict a series of major winter storms continuing through February and early March.
No word on whether Punxsutawney Phil can predict earthquakes or volcanoes.
By Karen Elowitt for PeterGreenberg.com.
Related links: CNN, Seattle Times, ABC, Los Angeles Times, CNN, Reuters, AccuWeather.com
Related PeterGreenberg.com links: “Thunder-Snow” and Weird Weather Snarls Travel, Web Site of the Week: What’s the Weather?, Take a Storm Chasin’ Vacation
