CID Impacts August 1998

IRI Climate Information Digest - Impacts August 1998

AGRICULTURE

Western Russia and Ukraine - Extreme heat early in the month and prolonged dryness have a detrimental effect on corn
Australia - Excessive rain has negative impacts on winter grains
China - Floods affect over 21 million hectares of crops
Bangladesh - Floods affect over 800,000 hectares of crops
Brazil - Rains delay harvesting of coffee and citrus

HAZARDS/THREATS

China - Yangtze River floods continue for a third consecutive month.

Over 300,000 square kilometers inundated
An estimated 15 million people displaced
An estimated 4 to 5 million housing units were damaged or destroyed
Expanded areas of flooding threatens oil producing areas
Preliminary estimates of over $20 billion in damages place these floods among the most destructive natural disasters in several decades
Over 3,000 lives lost

Worst flooding since 1988, an estimated two thirds of the country are under water
An estimated 30 million people displaced
Much of the capital city of Dhaka, with 9 million inhabitants, reported flooded
Over 500 lives estimated lost as of the end of August

FISHERIES

Reported landings indicate that the last week in August was the lowest fishing week this year along the west coast of South America. The reported catch was 22% below the previous week. The extremely shallow thermocline in the Equatorial Pacific associated with the developing La Niña is likely to alter the usual distribution of fish species

HEALTH

Bangladesh - The World Health Organization has reported the occurrence of water-borne diseases associated with the high waters and flooding

Material for this portion of the IRI Climate Information Digest has been extracted from the IRI Climate Data Library - http://ingrid.ldeo.columbia.edu, the Climate Prediction Center, NCEP NOAA - http://www/cpc.ncep.noaa.gov and the USDA/NOAA Joint Agricultural Weather Facility http://www.usda.gov/oce/waob/jawf and the Fishmeal Exporters Organization. Additional information was derived from http://chge2.med.harvard.edu/enso/, the UN/OCHA http://wwwnotes.reliefweb.int/.