I had hardly put my proverbial pen down last weekend, when news of the next flood started to arrive. Central Europe, Bosnia in particular, was almost being swept away in heavy flooding. Alen, E71AR, Bosnia Emcomm Coordinator, reported on Saturday the 5th of unprecedented floods in Bosnia, and parts of Herzegovina, and emergency frequencies of 3.612 and 7.150 MHz being utilized, as well as their central repeater 2000m above sea level, on 145.675, with a 103.5 CTCSS tone.
Neighbouring Croatia was monitoring their repeater, and providing Web SDR support from across the border. Rescue teams were already active in the field, and support was received from Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia.
By Tuesday, GDACS reported 18 fatalities, dozens of people still missing and an uncertain number of injured people across the area of Jablanica town, Konjic town and Donja Jablanica village (in the Herzegovina-Neretva canton, approximately 70 km south-west of Sarajevo city). The Government of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared a state of emergency on 5th October for the territory of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
By Sunday, GDACS was issuing an Orange Alert for Tropical Cyclone MILTON, which had arisen very suddenly in the middle of the Bay of Mexico, with maximum wind speeds of 194Km/h, and aimed at Florida’s waist as it travelled North East out of the Bay and into the Atlantic. At least 6.5 million people were in the path of 120km/h winds.
By Monday the Alert Level had been raised to RED, and wind speeds of 231km/h were being forecast. Greg, G0DUB, our Region One Emmcomm Coordinator, had monitored requests from Carlos, CO2JC, Region Two Emcomm Coordinator, to keep the emcomm frequencies of 7.268 and 14.325MHz clear to facilitate emergency traffic there.
Greg also reported that, due to the proximity of Hurricane Milton to Mexican territory, the Mexican Federation of Radio Experimenters A.C. was asking for protection of their emergency frequency 7.128 MHz currently in use.
The hurricane was expected to move near or over the northern Yucatan Peninsula on Monday and Tuesday before crossing the Gulf of Mexico to approach the west coast of the Florida Peninsula on Wednesday.
By Tuesday, MILTON was expected to increase in strength to a category 4 Hurricane, making landfall over the central Florida peninsula, just south of the Tampa city area, on 9th October late in the afternoon (UTC), with maximum sustained winds of up to 213 km/h.
Heavy rainfall was forecast over the northern Yucatán peninsula on 7-8th October, and very heavy rainfall, strong winds and storm surges were forecast over the whole Florida peninsula starting from 8th October.
In the following days, MILTON was classified as a category 5 to 6 Hurricane, on a scale of 1 to 5, it was so strong. By Wednesday afternoon, wind speeds of 287km/h were being forecast. Inhabitants of the west coast of the length of Florida were being advised to evacuate the area, particularly, with advisements that their survival could not be guaranteed during the passage of the storm.
MILTON made landfall at 8.30pm local time on Wednesday evening, with life-threatening storm surge, powerful winds and flooding rains. By Thursday morning, the ARRL was reporting more than 3 million residents of Florida without power.
As of 11th October, more than 12 deaths had been identified, there were more than 83,000 evacuated people in 149 shelters, and 27 counties were under evacuation orders across the Florida peninsula.
The actual Hurricane was preceded by many tornadoes, springing up unpredictably, and affecting the breadth of the Florida panhandle, and causing widespread destruction and deaths. There were 19 confirmed tornadoes in Florida by the time Milton made landfall on Wednesday. Some 45 tornadoes were reported throughout the day.
The American ‘Hurricane Watch Net’ was activated on Tuesday, using 14.325MHz and 7.268MHz through to Thursday to collect and forward storm reports to the US National Hurricane Centre as well as handling any Emergency or Health & Welfare Traffic. The VOiP Hurricane net was also active until at least Thursday afternoon.
I am starting to feel like a stuck record, as I report these severe weather instances repeatedly, and wonder where and when the next one will strike.
Meanwhile, the sun, not to be outdone in this race to claim the most notoriety for the most severe geographic and meteorological disturbance, threw us a curved ball as it blasted us with a Geomagnetic Storm, when we didn’t really expect it.
Having provided us last week with an X9 class Solar Flare, the sun did not dish us the expected associated geomagnetic storm last weekend. Yes, the Planetary K index was up at 4 or 5 over the weekend, and HF conditions were poor, but nothing like what had been forecast.;
Instead, the sun created an X1.8 class solar flare on Monday or Tuesday, with an associated Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), which generated a severe (G4) geomagnetic storm on Thursday, which impacted Earth at 15h15 UTC on Wednesday the 10th. The K index almost made it to the maximum of 9, signalling a G5 storm, the maximum of 8.5 being recorded midnight UTC on the night of 10-11th October. The K index sagged very slowly, and finally reached a more bearable level of 4 at 18h00 UTC on Friday evening. Until then the shortwave (HF) bands were to all intents and purposes closed, and unusable!
I think all we need now is a pestilence of locusts, and 2024 will have reached rock-bottom! It’s enough to tear your hair out.
Which is not a good idea, actually, because sciencenews.org tells us this week that scientists have found the sensors that signal the painful zing of a hair pull. And this pain message can rip along a nerve fibre at about 100 miles an hour, placing it among the fastest known pain signals.
Laboratory tests showed a hair pull to be about 10 times as painful as a pinprick, neuroscientist Emma Kindström of Linköping University in Sweden and colleagues found. The pain of the pull relies on a large, propeller-shaped protein called PIEZO2, further tests showed. A hair-pull-signal moves along nerve fibres much faster than other sorts of pain, Kindström says, traveling in bursts along an insulated conduit called an Aβ nerve fibre. Other kinds of pain signals, such as a burn from a hot stove, travel more slowly along different kinds of fibres.
So, if you must get your own back on your sister, the hair-pull is the way to go.
This is Dave Reece ZS1DFR, thankfully bald as a coot, and reporting for HAMNET in South Africa.