• Emergency Managers and Personnel
• Situation Reports
• National Incident Management System
• Grants & Assistance Programs
• Training
• Contacts
• Planning
• Best Practices

National Situation Update: Saturday, November 18, 2006

Homeland Security Threat Level: YELLOW (ELEVATED).

National Weather

West: High pressure is centered over the northern Rockies. Most of the West will be dry except for rain in western Washington and snow in southern Idaho, western Wyoming and Colorado.

Midwest: Except for a few rain and snow showers around Lakes Superior and Michigan expect partly cloudy skies across the Midwest. By tonight lake-effect snow will accumulate south of Lake Superior.

South: Conditions will be dry with mild temperatures across the region.

Northeast: The major weather system that moved up the coast this week moved through New England yesterday causing only minor flooding and isolated power outages.

Today the region will see partly cloudy skies and no precipitation. High temperatures will range from the 30s near the Canadian border to the 50s in New York. (National Weather Service, various Media Reports)

Leonid Meteor Shower

Tonight sometime between 11:45 p.m. and 1:30 am EST Earth will pass through a stream of debris from comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. The result is a shower of Leonid meteors. The timing favors western Europe, Africa, Brazil and eastern parts of North America.

"We expect an outburst of more than 100 Leonids per hour," says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, AL. This pales in comparison to the Leonid storms of 2001 and 2002, when sky watchers saw thousands of meteors.
Even so, a hundred per hour would make the Leonids one of the best showers of 2006. The problem is, you have to be in the right place at the right time to see them. Earth's encounter with the comet dust is going to be brief-"possibly no more than a few hours long," says Cooke. Cooke urges observers to find the darkest possible skies. "These Leonids are going to be faint." Why? "The stream contains very small grains of comet dust. Small grains make faint meteors--it's as simple as that." (NASA, various media reports)

Tropical Weather Outlook

Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean Sea:
Tropical cyclone formation is not expected through Sunday.

Central and Eastern Pacific:
Tropical Storm Sergio is centered about 320 miles south southeast of Manzanillo, Mexico.  Based on the current warning Sergio poses no threat to the United States

Western Pacific:
No new activity to report. (FEMA HQ)

Earthquake Activity

No new activity (FEMA HQ)

Preliminary Damage Assessments

No new activity (FEMA HQ)

Disaster Declaration Activity

Effective November 17, 2006, the major disaster declaration for the State of Louisiana (FEMA-1668-DR), dated November 2, 2006, and related determinations is amended to include the following areas among those areas determined to have been adversely affected by the catastrophe declared a major disaster by the President in his declaration of November 2, 2006:

• The parishes of Allen, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis, St. Helena, and St. Landry for Individual Assistance.
  
• The parish of Beauregard for Individual Assistance (already designated for Public Assistance).
  
• The parishes of Calcasieu, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis, and St. Helena for Public Assistance, including direct Federal assistance, if warranted as determined by FEMA.
  
• The parishes of Acadia, Allen, Evangeline, Jefferson Davis, St. Helena, and St. Landry in the State of Louisiana are eligible to apply for assistance under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. (FEMA HQ)