The Big Wobble - So it continues, it is worldwide

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Iranian authorities on Monday blamed neighbouring Iraq for a sandstorm that knocked out power in an oil-rich southern province and sparked protests against local officials.
Masoumeh Ebtekar, a vice president in charge of environmental affairs, called on Iraq to implement an agreement to prevent dust storms by spreading mulch over 3,500 sq. miles (9,000 sq. kilometres) of desert, state TV reported.
Iraqi officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The sandstorm temporarily cut off power and water to much of the Khuzestan province, and reduced oil production by 700,000 barrels per day.
The state-run IRNA news agency quoted a local health official as saying that 218 people were hospitalized for respiratory problems because of the storm.
Last week hundreds of Iranians protested in the city of Ahvaz, demanding the resignation of Ebtekar and the provincial governor.
Authorities have since banned protests over the issue.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday urged the government to take "swift and explicit" action to address the fallout from the dust storm.
Iran says the dust storms originate in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, and has urged authorities in those countries to combat the problem with irrigation projects and other measures.

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• Officials declared emergency situation in 64 cities in Minas Gerais and are sending millions of extra doses of vaccines to three states days before Carnival. 
  

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – The federal government of Brazil has issued emergency situations for 63 cities in Minas Gerais and one in Espirito Santo due to the outbreak of yellow fever.
Since the beginning of the year authorities have confirmed 44 people died of the disease and over seventy other suspected deaths are being investigated.
At least 30 people have died in the Brazilian state of Minas Germ over the past week due to yellow fever, while the total number of suspected cases has risen to 110, health authorities confirmed Thursday.
According to the state's Secretariat of Health, among the 30 dead, 10 have been proven to be caused by the disease, while all the others tested positive for yellow fever.
The outbreak seemed to be getting worse as the number of cases has risen from 48 to 110 over the last week.
Yellow fever is an acute viral disease which can kill a sufferer in less than a week if not treated timely.
It is mainly transmitted by the bite of an infected female mosquito.
Yellow fever is also commonly found in monkeys but now appears to be infecting humans as yellow fever is thought to be behind the death of thousands of rare monkeys found in the rain forests of Brazil
The outbreak started last year in South America and has now spread to humans killing nearly a hundred people this year already.
The authorities have rushed vaccines to hospitals, where long queues await inoculation.
But there is no vaccine for monkeys who are dying en masse in Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais, the two states so far worst hit.
“Some 80 to 90 per cent of the brown howler monkeys are infected or have already died,” says Sergio Mendes at the Federal University of Espírito Santo in Vitoria, Brazil.
“This is a true catastrophe.
These outbreaks happen periodically, but this is the worst I’ve ever seen.”
Mendes knows of 400 howler monkey deaths in the state, and he believes this is likely to be only 10 per cent of the total, around 4,000 at least, with the greatest losses happening largely unseen in remote forested areas. 

Something is killing howler monkeys in Nicaragua too and nobody knows what it is, although
Some conservationists speculate that the primates’ plight might be related to drought, food shortages or other environmental factors.
But one leading primate expert thinks the monkey die-off could be an early warning sign for something far more serious: a new viral outbreak.

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USGS
On Saturday we mentioned the massive coronal hole on our Sun which is ejecting solar wind at a speed which is hitting the Earth's magnetosphere at an astonishing 527.3 km/sec and we were to expect major quakes and we got two, only the third and fourth this month. 

Quote:  Major quakes may well feature in the coming days or we could have a run on volcano eruptions which is what happened at the end of last month when another massive coronal hole faced Earth. 

Today a magnitude 6.5 struck Bolivia just a couple of days after a mag 6.3 hit Argentina.
Todays strike is  the fourth major quake of February and the 11th of 2017.

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South Sudan, 2017A girl carries a bundle of grass back home in the late afternoon in the United Nations Mission in South...
Almost 1.4 million children are at imminent risk of death from severe acute malnutrition this year, as famine looms in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, UNICEF said today.

“Time is running out for more than a million children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “We can still save many lives. The severe malnutrition and looming famine are largely man-made. Our common humanity demands faster action. We must not repeat the tragedy of the 2011 famine in the Horn of Africa.”


Nigeria, 2016On 10 August 2016, Aisha Muhammad Abdulahi, 25yrs, a Community Manager for Severe Acute Malnutrition...
In northeast Nigeria, the number of children with severe acute malnutrition is expected to reach 450,000 this year in the conflict-affected states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobi. Fews Net, the famine early warning system that monitors food insecurity, said late last year that famine likely occurred in some previously inaccessible areas of Borno states, and that it is likely ongoing, and will continue, in other areas which remain beyond humanitarian reach.


Somalia, 2015On 3 November 2015, mothers and children at a mother child health (MCH) centre run by UNICEF partner,...
In Somalia, drought conditions are threatening an already fragile population battered by decades of conflict. Almost half the population, or 6.2 million people, are facing acute food insecurity and in need of humanitarian assistance. Some 185,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year, however this figure is expected to rise to 270,000 in the next few months.


South Sudan, 2015Nyajime Guet, 4, who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition and tuberculosis, is held by her father...
In South Sudan, a country reeling from conflict, poverty and insecurity, over 270,000 children are severely malnourished. Famine has just recently been declared in parts of Unity State in the northern central part of the country, where 20,000 children live. The total number of food insecure people across the country is expected to rise from 4.9 million to 5.5 million at the height of the lean season in July if nothing is done to curb the severity and spread of the food crisis.

And in Yemen, where a conflict has been raging for the past two years, 462,000 children are currently suffering from severe acute malnutrition – a nearly 200 per cent increase since 2014.

Yemen, 2016On 12 December 2016, Mohanned, 5 years old, lies on a bed in the Abs hospital in Hajjah, a governorate...
This year, UNICEF is working with partners to provide therapeutic treatment to 220,000 severely malnourished children in Nigeria, over 200,000 severely malnourished children in South Sudan, more than 200,000 severely malnourished children in Somalia, and 320,000 children in Yemen.

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Met office
Storm Doris was officialy named on 21 February 2017 and is expected to impact the UK on 23 February 2017.
After Britain  enjoyed one its warmest winter days ever on February the 20^th with temperatures around18C, 65F making it the hottest February 20th on record and left the UK with warmer weather than most Mediterranean countries the stormy weather is set to be back by Thursday.
The Met Office reports Storm Doris has officially been named and is expected to bring strong winds, rain and some snow to the UK on Thursday.
A deep low pressure system developing in the Atlantic is expected to track across Northern Ireland, northern England and Scotland on Thursday; it will bring strong winds of up to 80 mph, heavy rain and some snow at higher levels.


An Amber National Severe Weather Warning has been issued for wind with gusts expected to reach 60-70 mph in northern England and Wales with the chance of some isolated gusts of up to 80mph. Elsewhere across the UK it will still be windy, with widespread gusts of 50-60 mph expected in central England and Wales, a Yellow weather warning is in place for these regions.  
As well as heavy rain in central parts of the UK, it is likely there will be snow in the far north of England and for much of Scotland which could fall to low levels in some of these areas. Another Yellow weather warning for snow has been issued for parts of north England and large parts of Scotland.

Chief Meteorologist Steve Willington said: “We have named Storm Doris as we expect winds of up to 80mph, heavy rain and some snowfall to cause disruption across some central and northern parts of the UK on Thursday.

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