1.
Surface weather analysis
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Surface weather analysis is a special type of weather map that provides a view of weather elements over a geographical area at a specified time based on information from ground-based weather stations. The first weather maps in the 19th century were drawn well after the fact to help devise a theory on storm systems, use of surface analyses began first in the United States, spreading worldwide during the 1870s. Use of the Norwegian cyclone model for frontal analysis began in the late 1910s across Europe, surface weather analyses have special symbols that show frontal systems, cloud cover, precipitation, or other important information. For example, an H may represent high pressure, implying clear skies, an L, on the other hand, may represent low pressure, which frequently accompanies precipitation. Various symbols are used not just for frontal zones and other surface boundaries on weather maps, areas of precipitation help determine the frontal type and location. The use of charts in a modern sense began in the middle portion of the 19th century in order to devise a theory on storm systems. The development of a network by 1845 made it possible to gather weather information from multiple distant locations quickly enough to preserve its value for real-time applications. The Smithsonian Institution developed its network of observers over much of the central, the U. S. Army Signal Corps inherited this network between 1870 and 1874 by an act of Congress, and expanded it to the west coast soon afterwards. The weather data was at first less useful as a result of the different times at which weather observations were made, the first attempts at time standardization took hold in Great Britain by 1855. The entire United States did not finally come under the influence of time zones until 1905, other countries followed the lead of the United States in taking simultaneous weather observations, starting in 1873. Other countries then began preparing surface analyses, the use of frontal zones on weather maps did not appear until the introduction of the Norwegian cyclone model in the late 1910s, despite Loomis earlier attempt at a similar notion in 1841. Since the leading edge of air mass changes bore resemblance to the fronts of World War I. The effort to automate map plotting began in the United States in 1969, hong Kong completed their process of automated surface plotting by 1987. In the United States, this development was achieved when Intergraph workstations were replaced by n-AWIPS workstations, recent advances in both the fields of meteorology and geographic information systems have made it possible to devise finely tailored weather maps. Weather information can quickly be matched to relevant geographical detail, for instance, icing conditions can be mapped onto the road network. This will likely continue to lead to changes in the way surface analyses are created and displayed over the several years. The pressureNET project is an attempt to gather surface pressure data using smartphones. When analyzing a weather map, a model is plotted at each point of observation
2.
Bar (unit)
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The bar is a metric unit of pressure, but is not approved as part of the International System of Units. It is defined as equal to 100000 Pa, which is slightly less than the current average atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea level. The bar and the millibar were introduced by the Norwegian meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes, use of the bar is deprecated by some professional bodies in some fields. The International Astronomical Union also lists it under Non-SI units and symbols whose continued use is deprecated, as of 2004, the bar is legally recognized in countries of the European Union. Units derived from the bar include the megabar, kilobar, decibar, centibar, the notation bar, though deprecated by various bodies, represents gauge pressure, i. e. pressure in bars above ambient or atmospheric pressure. The bar is defined using the SI derived unit, pascal,1 bar ≡100000 Pa. Thus,1 bar is equal to,100 kPa 1×105 N/m21000000 Ba, notes,1 millibar =1 one-thousandth bar, or 1×10−3 bar 1 millibar =1 hectopascal. The word bar has its origin in the Greek word βάρος, the units official symbol is bar, the earlier symbol b is now deprecated and conflicts with the use of b denoting the unit barn, but it is still encountered, especially as mb to denote the millibar. Between 1793 and 1795, the bar was used for a unit of weight in an early version of the metric system. Atmospheric air pressure is given in millibars where standard sea level pressure is defined as 1013 mbar,101.3,1.013 bar. Despite the millibar not being an SI unit, meteorologists and weather reporters worldwide have long measured air pressure in millibars as the values are convenient, for example, the weather office of Environment Canada uses kilopascals and hectopascals on their weather maps. In contrast, Americans are familiar with the use of the millibar in US reports of hurricanes, in fresh water, there is an approximate numerical equivalence between the change in pressure in decibars and the change in depth from the water surface in metres. Specifically, an increase of 1 decibar occurs for every 1.019716 m increase in depth, in sea water with respect to the gravity variation, the latitude and the geopotential anomaly the pressure can be converted into meters depth according to an empirical formula. As a result, decibars are commonly used in oceanography, many engineers worldwide use the bar as a unit of pressure because, in much of their work, using pascals would involve using very large numbers. In the automotive field, turbocharger boost is often described in bars outside the USA), unicode has characters for mb and bar, but they exist only for compatibility with legacy Asian encodings and are not intended to be used in new documents. The kilobar, equivalent to 100 MPa, is used in geological systems. Bar and bara are sometimes used to indicate absolute pressures and bar and this usage is deprecated and fuller descriptions such as gauge pressure of 2 bar or 2 bar gauge are recommended.0 Unported License but not under the GFDL. Non-SI units accepted for use with the SI
3.
Pascal (unit)
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The pascal is the SI derived unit of pressure used to quantify internal pressure, stress, Youngs modulus and ultimate tensile strength. It is defined as one newton per square meter and it is named after the French polymath Blaise Pascal. Common multiple units of the pascal are the hectopascal which is equal to one millibar, the unit of measurement called standard atmosphere is defined as 101,325 Pa and approximates to the average pressure at sea-level at the latitude 45° N. Meteorological reports typically state atmospheric pressure in hectopascals, the unit is named after Blaise Pascal, noted for his contributions to hydrodynamics and hydrostatics, and experiments with a barometer. The name pascal was adopted for the SI unit newton per square metre by the 14th General Conference on Weights, one pascal is the pressure exerted by a force of magnitude one newton perpendicularly upon an area of one square metre. The unit of measurement called atmosphere or standard atmosphere is 101325 Pa and this value is often used as a reference pressure and specified as such in some national and international standards, such as ISO2787, ISO2533 and ISO5024. In contrast, IUPAC recommends the use of 100 kPa as a standard pressure when reporting the properties of substances, geophysicists use the gigapascal in measuring or calculating tectonic stresses and pressures within the Earth. Medical elastography measures tissue stiffness non-invasively with ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging, in materials science and engineering, the pascal measures the stiffness, tensile strength and compressive strength of materials. In engineering use, because the pascal represents a small quantity. The pascal is also equivalent to the SI unit of energy density and this applies not only to the thermodynamics of pressurised gases, but also to the energy density of electric, magnetic, and gravitational fields. In measurements of sound pressure, or loudness of sound, one pascal is equal to 94 decibels SPL, the quietest sound a human can hear, known as the threshold of hearing, is 0 dB SPL, or 20 µPa. The airtightness of buildings is measured at 50 Pa, the units of atmospheric pressure commonly used in meteorology were formerly the bar, which was close to the average air pressure on Earth, and the millibar. Since the introduction of SI units, meteorologists generally measure pressures in hectopascals unit, exceptions include Canada and Portugal, which use kilopascals. In many other fields of science, the SI is preferred, many countries also use the millibar or hectopascal to give aviation altimeter settings. In practically all fields, the kilopascal is used instead. Centimetre of water Metric prefix Orders of magnitude Pascals law
4.
United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
5.
Lesser Antilles
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The Lesser Antilles are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most form a long, partly volcanic island arc between the Greater Antilles to the north-west and the continent of South America, the islands form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. Together, the Lesser Antilles and the Greater Antilles compose the Antilles, when combined with the Lucayan Archipelago, all three are known as the West Indies. The islands of the Lesser Antilles are divided into three groups, the Windward Islands in the south, the Leeward Islands in the north, and the Leeward Antilles in the west. The Windward Islands are so called because they were more windward to sailing ships arriving in the New World than the Leeward Islands, the trans-Atlantic currents and winds that provided the fastest route across the ocean brought these ships to the rough dividing line between the Windward and Leeward Islands. The Leeward Antilles consist of the Dutch ABC islands just off the coast of Venezuela, the Lesser Antilles more or less coincide with the outer edge of the Caribbean Plate. Many of the islands were formed as a result of the subduction of oceanic crust of the South American Plate under the Caribbean Plate in the Lesser Antilles subduction zone. This process is ongoing and is not only for many of the islands. The Lesser Antilles are divided into eight independent nations and numerous dependent, over one third of the total area and population of the Lesser Antilles lies within Trinidad and Tobago, a sovereign nation comprising the two southernmost islands of the Windward Island chain. Several islands along the north coast of Venezuela and politically part of country are also occasionally considered part of the Lesser Antilles. These are listed in the section below, the main Lesser Antilles are, Virgin Islands St. Thomas St. John St. They are the most southern islands of the Caribbean region, a Brief History of the Caribbean. New York, Facts on File,1992, the dictionary definition of Lesser Antilles at Wiktionary
6.
Jamaica
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Jamaica is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea, consisting of the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles. The island,10,990 square kilometres in area, lies about 145 kilometres south of Cuba, Jamaica is the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean, by area. Inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494, Many of the indigenous people died of disease, and the Spanish imported African slaves as labourers. Named Santiago, the island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with its plantation economy highly dependent on slaves imported from Africa. The British fully emancipated all slaves in 1838, and many chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Beginning in the 1840s, the British imported Chinese and Indian indentured labour to work on plantations, the island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. With 2.8 million people, Jamaica is the third-most populous Anglophone country in the Americas, Kingston is the countrys capital and largest city, with a population of 937,700. Jamaicans predominately have African ancestry, with significant European, Chinese, Hakka, Indian, due to a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, Jamaica has a large diaspora around the world, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Jamaica is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch and her appointed representative in the country is the Governor-General of Jamaica, an office held by Sir Patrick Allen since 2009. Andrew Holness has served as the head of government and Prime Minister of Jamaica from March 2016, the indigenous people, the Taíno, called it Xaymaca in Arawakan, meaning the Land of Wood and Water or the Land of Springs. Colloquially Jamaicans refer to their island as the Rock. Slang names such as Jamrock, Jamdown, or briefly Ja, have derived from this, the Arawak and Taíno indigenous people, originating in South America, settled on the island between 4000 and 1000 BC. When Christopher Columbus arrived in 1494, there were more than 200 villages ruled by caciques, the south coast of Jamaica was the most populated, especially around the area now known as Old Harbour. The Taino still inhabited Jamaica when the English took control of the island in 1655, the Jamaican National Heritage Trust is attempting to locate and document any evidence of the Taino/Arawak. Christopher Columbus claimed Jamaica for Spain after landing there in 1494 and his probable landing point was Dry Harbour, now called Discovery Bay, although there is some debate that it might have been St. Anns Bay. St. Anns Bay was named Saint Gloria by Columbus, as the first sighting of the land, the capital was moved to Spanish Town, then called St. Jago de la Vega, around 1534. Spanish Town has the oldest cathedral of the British colonies in the Caribbean, the Spanish were forcibly evicted by the English at Ocho Rios in St. Ann. In 1655, the English, led by Sir William Penn and General Robert Venables, the English continued to import African slaves as labourers
7.
Cayman Islands
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The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory in the western Caribbean Sea. Its population is approximately 60,000, and its capital is George Town, the Cayman Islands are considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The territory is considered a major world offshore financial haven for many wealthy individuals. The Cayman Islands remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century, the first recorded permanent inhabitant of the Cayman Islands, Isaac Bodden, was born on Grand Cayman around 1661. He was the grandson of the original settler named Bodden who was one of Oliver Cromwells soldiers at the taking of Jamaica in 1655. England took formal control of the Cayman Islands, along with Jamaica, following several unsuccessful attempts at settlement, a permanent English-speaking population in the islands dates from the 1730s. With settlement, after the first royal land grant by the Governor of Jamaica in 1734, many were brought to the islands from Africa, this is evident today with the majority of native Caymanians being of African and English descent. The results of the first census taken in the islands in 1802 showed the population on Grand Cayman to be 933 with 545 of those inhabitants being enslaved, slavery was abolished in the Cayman Islands in 1833. At the time of abolition, there were over 950 Blacks of African ancestry enslaved by 116 white families of English ancestry. The islands continued to be governed as part of the Colony of Jamaica until 1962, the Cayman Islands historically have been a tax-exempt destination. On 8 February 1794, the Caymanians rescued the crews of a group of ten merchant ships, including HMS Convert, the ships had struck a reef and run aground during rough seas. Legend has it that King George III rewarded the island with a never to introduce taxes as compensation for their generosity. While this remains a legend, the story is not true. However, whatever the history, in practice the government of the Cayman Islands has always relied on indirect, the islands have never levied income tax, capital gains tax, or any wealth tax, making them a popular tax haven. On 11 September 2004 the island of Grand Cayman, which lies largely unprotected at sea level, was hit by Hurricane Ivan, an estimated 83% of the dwellings on the island were damaged including 4% requiring complete reconstruction. A reported 70% of all dwellings suffered severe damage from flooding or wind, another 26% sustained minor damage from partial roof removal, low levels of flooding, or impact with floating or wind driven hurricane debris. Power, water and communications were disrupted for months in areas as Ivan was the worst hurricane to hit the islands in 86 years. Grand Cayman began a rebuilding process and within two years its infrastructure was nearly returned to pre-hurricane status.23 years
8.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
9.
Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
10.
1916 Atlantic hurricane season
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The 1916 Atlantic hurricane season ran through the summer and the first half of fall in 1916. The season is one of two in which two major hurricanes were reported before the month of August, the other being the 2005 season. 1916 was an active season, especially for the time. Fifteen tropical cyclones formed during the course of the year, ten hurricanes formed, and five of those were major hurricanes. On May 13, a depression formed south of the Cuban coast. It quickly crossed the island and moved over the Straits of Florida, on May 14, it slowly strengthened to a minimal tropical storm, and it made landfall near Key Vaca, Florida with winds of 40 mph. It entered the Florida peninsula near Cape Sable, moving northward across the state, gale-force winds were reported east of the center. It transitioned to a cyclone on May 16. Initially, the cyclone was not included in the Atlantic hurricane database, a tropical disturbance organized into a tropical storm on June 29 in the southwest Caribbean Sea. It moved to the north-northwest, brushing the coast of Honduras before strengthening into a hurricane on July 2, the hurricane continued to intensify, reaching major hurricane strength in the northern Gulf of Mexico on July 4. It made landfall near Gulfport, Mississippi with 120 mph sustained winds on July 5, the damage was around $3 million with four deaths occurring. At the time, it was the earliest known hurricane to make landfall in the U. S. in any season. In Florida, winds of 104 mph was observed in Pensacola, people venturing outside were knocked down, while a few cars flipped over. Additionally, homes were unroofed, while chimneys and trees were toppled, at the aeronautic station, several hangars collapsed. Storm surge at Pensacola flooded an engine room at the power plant. Further inland, heavy rainfall left crop damage in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi. The storm left 34 deaths,4 of which occurred in Florida, the third tropical storm was first observed east of the Lesser Antilles on July 10. It tracked northwestward, crossing the islands before reaching hurricane strength north of Puerto Rico on July 15, the hurricane continued to the northwest, and reached a peak of 105 mph on July 16
11.
South Texas
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South Texas is a region of the U. S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of -- and sometimes including -- San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico, the population of this region is about 4.67 million according to the 2013 census estimates. The southern portion of region is often referred to as the Rio Grande Valley. The eastern portion along the Gulf of Mexico is also referred to as the Coastal Bend, many South Texas residents Exclude San Antonio, as San Antonio is southern Central Texas. The Rio Grande serves as the western and southern boundaries and separates Texas from Mexico, the eastern portion of South Texas is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico. This region of Texas consist of 41 counties, South Texas terrain is flat, lying on the coastal plain. South Texas is so vast, there are even subregions, the very southern tip of South Texas, called the Rio Grande Valley, has fertile soils and is known for its citrus production. The eastern portion of South Texas is often referred to as the Coastal Bend, here, coastal marshes, estuaries. The western and central parts are known as the South Texas Plains or the brush country, mesquite trees and crop fields dominate the land. The fastest growing county in South Texas is Guadalupe County, growing by 5. 64% from 2010 to 2012, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas includes the Houston division. However, Houston is most accurately classified as being within Southeast Texas, the area along the Mexican border is generally semi-arid, while the area from the coast inland to just west of San Antonio has a humid subtropical climate. South Texas weather is affected by the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains to the west, the Gulf of Mexico to the east, moisture from the Pacific is cut off by the Mexican Sierra Madre Occidental and Oriental mountain ranges. Temperatures reach freezing only a few times in the winter and snowfall is rare, summers in this zone are hot and humid, with daily averages above 90 °F. Night-time temperatures are around 85 °F in summer. The region of South Texas includes the ranch country and the wetter Rio Grande Valley. Considered to be the southernmost tip of the American Great Plains region, the coastal areas are warm most of the year due to currents of the Gulf of Mexico, but can get cold in winter if a strong front comes in, occasionally causing snow at sea level. Rain in the region is more abundant than in the inland region. Inland, where it is drier, ranches dominate the landscape, characterized by thick, spiny brush, the winters in the inland region are cooler and drier, as Arctic air can make it into the region, but snow is rare due to the lack of humidity. Summers are for the most part hot and dry, but at times can be humid if winds come off the warmer Gulf of Mexico, tornadoes can occur in this region, but less frequently than in other parts of the state
12.
1919 Florida Keys hurricane
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The 1919 Florida Keys hurricane was a massive and damaging tropical cyclone that swept across areas of the northern Caribbean Sea and the United States Gulf Coast in September 1919. Impacts were largely concentrated around the Florida Keys and South Texas areas, though lesser but nonetheless significant effects were felt in Cuba, on September 7, the storm reached hurricane intensity over the eastern Bahamas. On September 9–10, the storm made its eponymous pass of the Florida Keys, over the next several days, the intense cyclone traversed the Gulf of Mexico, fluctuating in strength before making landfall near Texas Baffin Bay on September 14 as a large Category 3 hurricane. As it tracked inland, land interaction caused the storm to gradually weaken. Gradual strengthening occurred as the depression tracked west-northwest, attaining tropical storm intensity at 06,00 UTC on September 3, twelve hours later, the tropical cyclone clipped the extreme-southwestern portion of Puerto Rico with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. The cyclone maintained a low-end tropical storm intensity as it paralleled the northern coast of Hispaniola the following day, on September 6, the storm abruptly turned towards the north in the direction of the Turks and Caicos before resuming a more westerly trajectory a day later. At 06,00 UTC on September 7, the cyclone strengthened to hurricane intensity north of Crooked Island, traversing westward across the southern extents of the Bahamas, the newly developed hurricane steadily grew in size and intensity. On September 9, the storm intensified further to Category 4 strength before passing roughly 30–40 mi south of Key West, at the time, this made the tropical cyclone the second strongest to strike the United States since 1851, only behind the 1886 Indianola hurricane. After landfall, the storm moved westward into the Gulf of Mexico. From September 10 to September 14, the tropical cyclone traversed the Gulf of Mexico, on September 12, the hurricane briefly weakened to Category 3 intensity before restrengthening shortly thereafter. The following day, the reached a secondary peak intensity with winds of 145 mph. At 21,00 UTC on September 14, the hurricane made its landfall near Baffin Bay as a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 115 mph. Upon moving ashore, the storm was large, its radius of maximum winds measured 40 mi compared to the average of 21 mi for storms of similar intensities. As the hurricane tracked inland, land interaction weakened the cyclone, with winds dropping below hurricane-force on September 15. By 18,00 UTC on September 16 the tropical cyclone had dissipated over West Texas near the border between Texas and Mexico. The first hurricane warning was issued the day for coastal areas from Jupiter to Key West, with all vessels requested to avoid the Florida Straits. In addition, the projected path into the Gulf of Mexico prompted the bureau to also direct the clearance of ships in the hurricanes trajectory. In Miami, Florida, the power plant cut off its electrical output as a precautionary measure
13.
Tropical cyclone
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Depending on its location and strength, a tropical cyclone is referred to by names such as hurricane, typhoon /taɪˈfuːn/, tropical storm, cyclonic storm, tropical depression, and simply cyclone. A hurricane is a storm that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Pacific Ocean, a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, Tropical cyclones typically form over large bodies of relatively warm water. They derive their energy through the evaporation of water from the ocean surface and this energy source differs from that of mid-latitude cyclonic storms, such as noreasters and European windstorms, which are fueled primarily by horizontal temperature contrasts. The strong rotating winds of a tropical cyclone are a result of the conservation of momentum imparted by the Earths rotation as air flows inwards toward the axis of rotation. As a result, they form within 5° of the equator. Tropical cyclones are typically between 100 and 2,000 km in diameter, Tropical refers to the geographical origin of these systems, which form almost exclusively over tropical seas. Cyclone refers to their nature, with wind blowing counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. The opposite direction of circulation is due to the Coriolis effect, in addition to strong winds and rain, tropical cyclones are capable of generating high waves, damaging storm surge, and tornadoes. They typically weaken rapidly over land where they are cut off from their energy source. For this reason, coastal regions are vulnerable to damage from a tropical cyclone as compared to inland regions. Heavy rains, however, can cause significant flooding inland, though their effects on human populations are often devastating, tropical cyclones can relieve drought conditions. They also carry heat away from the tropics and transport it toward temperate latitudes. Tropical cyclones are areas of low pressure in the troposphere. On Earth, the pressures recorded at the centers of tropical cyclones are among the lowest ever observed at sea level, the environment near the center of tropical cyclones is warmer than the surroundings at all altitudes, thus they are characterized as warm core systems. The near-surface wind field of a cyclone is characterized by air rotating rapidly around a center of circulation while also flowing radially inwards. At the outer edge of the storm, air may be nearly calm, however, due to the Earths rotation, as air flows radially inward, it begins to rotate cyclonically in order to conserve angular momentum. At an inner radius, air begins to ascend to the top of the troposphere and this radius is typically coincident with the inner radius of the eyewall, and has the strongest near-surface winds of the storm, consequently, it is known as the radius of maximum winds. Once aloft, air flows away from the center, producing a shield of cirrus clouds
14.
1886 Indianola hurricane
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The 1886 Indianola Hurricane destroyed the town of Indianola, Texas and as such had a significant impact on the history and economic development of Texas. It was the hurricane of the 1886 Atlantic hurricane season. A tropical storm developed east of Trinidad and Tobago on August 12, originally it was thought the storm became a Category 1 hurricane the next day but re-analysis now shows it remained as a tropical storm until August 14. On the evening of August 15 it reached the island of Hispaniola, after crossing the south of that island as a Category 1 hurricane, it struck southeastern Cuba on August 16 as a Category 2 hurricane. The storm briefly weakened over land and entered the Gulf of Mexico near Matanzas on August 18 as a Category 1 storm, as the hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico it strengthened further, first to a Category 2 then to a Category 3 cyclone. As it approached the coast of Texas, it intensified to an 150 mph Category 4 hurricane, at the time, it was tied for the strongest hurricane ever recorded. On August 19, winds increased in Indianola, and, on August 20, the hurricane moved inland and eventually dissipated on August 21 in northeast Texas. The total death toll was at least 74, including 28 in Cuba, the storm hit the coast of Texas on August 20, wreaking property destruction in a number of towns, and resulting in a number of deaths. In Texas, the hurricane obliterated the town of Indianola that was only just recovering from a powerful 1875 hurricane on the same location, at Indianola a storm surge of 15 feet from Matagorda Bay overwhelmed the town. Every building in the town was destroyed or left uninhabitable. When the Signal Office was blown down, a fire started which took hold, the fire destroyed all but two of the towns buildings and killed a large number of citizens. The storm also destroyed two and half miles of track, making communication with Indianola very difficult and complicating rescue efforts. This storm caused fewer fatalities however, largely because the storm struck during the day, the hurricane also ended a severe drought in Texas. The village of Quintana, at the mouth of the Brazos River, was also destroyed, at Houston, the bayou rose between 5–6 feet on August 19. The storm reached Victoria, Texas at about 7 AM, destroying or damaging most of the buildings in the city, an estimated 75 houses were destroyed and another 118 were damaged. The towns jail and high school were damaged while the freight station, Masonic hall, and certain sections of town were almost literally swept from the earth. No deaths were reported in the town, but the damages were estimated at $100,000. In Galveston, Texas, the storm capsized a forty-ton schooner, the storm also damaged roads, railways and houses leading to an estimated $200,000 in damage
15.
Atmospheric pressure
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Atmospheric pressure, sometimes also called barometric pressure, is the pressure exerted by the weight of air in the atmosphere of Earth. In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point. As elevation increases, there is less overlying atmospheric mass, so that atmospheric pressure decreases with increasing elevation. On average, a column of air one square centimetre in cross-section, measured from sea level to the top of the atmosphere, has a mass of about 1.03 kilograms and that force is a pressure of 10.1 N/cm2 or 101 kN/m2. A column 1 square inch in cross-section would have a weight of about 14.7 lb or about 65.4 N and it is modified by the planetary rotation and local effects such as wind velocity, density variations due to temperature and variations in composition. The standard atmosphere is a unit of pressure defined as 101325 Pa, the mean sea level pressure is the average atmospheric pressure at sea level. This is the pressure normally given in weather reports on radio, television. When barometers in the home are set to match the weather reports, they measure pressure adjusted to sea level. The altimeter setting in aviation, is an atmospheric pressure adjustment, average sea-level pressure is 1013.25 mbar. In aviation weather reports, QNH is transmitted around the world in millibars or hectopascals, except in the United States, Canada, however, in Canadas public weather reports, sea level pressure is instead reported in kilopascals. The highest sea-level pressure on Earth occurs in Siberia, where the Siberian High often attains a sea-level pressure above 1050 mbar, the lowest measurable sea-level pressure is found at the centers of tropical cyclones and tornadoes, with a record low of 870 mbar. Pressure varies smoothly from the Earths surface to the top of the mesosphere, although the pressure changes with the weather, NASA has averaged the conditions for all parts of the earth year-round. As altitude increases, atmospheric pressure decreases, one can calculate the atmospheric pressure at a given altitude. Temperature and humidity affect the atmospheric pressure, and it is necessary to know these to compute an accurate figure. The graph at right was developed for a temperature of 15 °C, at low altitudes above the sea level, the pressure decreases by about 1.2 kPa for every 100 meters. See pressure system for the effects of air pressure variations on weather, Atmospheric pressure shows a diurnal or semidiurnal cycle caused by global atmospheric tides. This effect is strongest in tropical zones, with an amplitude of a few millibars and these variations have two superimposed cycles, a circadian cycle and semi-circadian cycle. The highest adjusted-to-sea level barometric pressure recorded on Earth was 1085.7 hPa measured in Tosontsengel
16.
Caribbean Sea
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The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. The entire area of the Caribbean Sea, the islands of the West Indies. The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest seas and has an area of about 2,754,000 km2, the seas deepest point is the Cayman Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at 7,686 m below sea level. The Caribbean coastline has many gulfs and bays, the Gulf of Gonâve, Gulf of Venezuela, Gulf of Darién, Golfo de los Mosquitos, Gulf of Paria, the Caribbean Sea has the worlds second biggest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. It runs 1,000 km along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, the name Caribbean derives from the Caribs, one of the regions dominant Native American groups at the time of European contact during the late 15th century. During the first century of development, Spanish dominance in the region remained undisputed, from the 16th century, Europeans visiting the Caribbean region identified the South Sea as opposed to the North Sea. The Caribbean Sea had been unknown to the populations of Eurasia until 1492, at that time the Western Hemisphere in general was unknown to Europeans. Following the discovery of the islands by Columbus, the area was colonised by several Western cultures. As of 2015 the area is home to 22 island territories, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Caribbean Sea as follows, On the North. In the Windward Channel – a line joining Caleta Point and Pearl Point in Haïti, in the Mona Passage – a line joining Cape Engano and the extreme of Agujereada in Puerto Rico. From Galera Point through Trinidad to Galeota Point and thence to Baja Point in Venezuela, note that, although Barbados is an island on the same continental shelf, it is considered to be in the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean Sea is an oceanic sea largely situated on the Caribbean Plate, the Caribbean Sea is separated from the ocean by several island arcs of various ages. The youngest stretches from the Lesser Antilles to the Virgin Islands to the north east of Trinidad, the larger islands in the northern part of the sea Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico lie on an older island arc. The geological age of the Caribbean Sea is estimated to be between 160 and 180 million years and was formed by a fracture that split the supercontinent called Pangea in the Mesozoic Era. It is assumed the proto-caribbean basin existed in the Devonian period, in the early Carboniferous movement of Gondwana to the north and its convergence with the Euramerica basin decreased in size. The next stage of the Caribbean Seas formation began in the Triassic, powerful rifting led to the formation of narrow troughs, stretching from modern Newfoundland to the west coast of the Gulf of Mexico which formed siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. In the early Jurassic due to powerful marine transgression, water broke into the present area of the Gulf of Mexico creating a vast shallow pool, the emergence of deep basins in the Caribbean occurred during the Middle Jurassic rifting. The emergence of these marked the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean
17.
Gulf of Mexico
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The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U. S. states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas border the Gulf on the north, Atlantic and Pacific coasts, or sometimes the south coast, in juxtaposition to the Great Lakes region being the north coast. One of the seven main areas is the Gulf of Mexico basin. The Gulf of Mexico formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics, the Gulfs basin is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nautical miles wide and floored by sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the U. S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba, with the narrow connection to the Atlantic, the Gulf experiences very small tidal ranges. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km2, almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. The basin contains a volume of roughly 2,500 quadrillion liters, the consensus among geologists who have studied the geology of the Gulf of Mexico, is that prior to the Late Triassic, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. It was created by the collision of plates that formed Pangea. As interpreted by Roy Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox, geologists and other Earth scientists agree in general that the present Gulf of Mexico basin originated in Late Triassic time as the result of rifting within Pangea. The rifting was associated with zones of weakness within Pangea, including sutures where the Laurentia, South American, first, there was a Late Triassic-Early Jurassic phase of rifting during which rift valleys formed and filled with continental red beds. Second, as rifting progressed through Early and Middle Jurassic time and it was at this time that tectonics first created a connection to the Pacific Ocean across central Mexico and later eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. This flooded the basin created by rifting and crustal thinning to create the Gulf of Mexico. While the Gulf of Mexico was a basin, the subsiding transitional crust was blanketed by the widespread deposition of Louann Salt. Initially, during the Late Jurassic, continued rifting widened the Gulf of Mexico and progressed to the point that sea-floor spreading, at this point, sufficient circulation with the Atlantic Ocean was established that the deposition of Louann Salt ceased. During the Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous, the occupied by the Gulf of Mexico experienced a period of cooling. The subsidence was the result of a combination of stretching, cooling. Initially, the combination of stretching and cooling caused about 5–7 km of tectonic subsidence of the central thin transitional
18.
Barbados
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Barbados is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles, in the Americas. It is 34 kilometres in length and up to 23 km in width, Barbados is outside of the principal Atlantic hurricane belt. Inhabited by Kalinago people since the 13th century, and prior to that by other Amerindians, Barbados was visited by Spanish navigators in the late 15th century and it first appeared in a Spanish map in 1511. The Portuguese visited the island in 1536, but they left it unclaimed, an English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados in 1625, its men took possession of it in the name of King James I. In 1627, the first permanent settlers arrived from England, and it became an English, in 1966, Barbados became an independent state and Commonwealth realm with the British Monarch as hereditary head of state. It has a population of 280,121 people, predominantly of African descent, despite being classified as an Atlantic island, Barbados is considered to be a part of the Caribbean, where it is ranked as a leading tourist destination. Forty percent of the come from the UK, with the US. In 2014, Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Barbados joint second in the Americas, the name Barbados is either the Portuguese word Barbados or the Spanish equivalent los Barbados, both meaning the bearded ones. In 1519, a map produced by the Genoese mapmaker Visconte Maggiolo showed and named Barbados in its correct position, furthermore, the island of Barbuda in the Leewards is very similar in name and was once named Las Barbudas by the Spanish. It is uncertain which European nation arrived first in Barbados, one lesser known source points to earlier-revealed works predating contemporary sources indicating it could have been the Spanish. Others believe the Portuguese, en route to Brazil, were the first Europeans to come upon the island, colloquially Barbadians refer to their home island as Bim or other nicknames associated with Barbados includes Bimshire. The origin is uncertain but several theories exist, the name could have arisen due to the relatively large percentage of enslaved Igbo people from modern-day southeastern Nigeria arriving in Barbados in the 18th century. The words Bim and Bimshire are recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary, another possible source for Bim is reported to be in the Agricultural Reporter of 25 April 1868, where the Rev. N. Greenidge suggested the listing of Bimshire as a county of England. Expressly named were Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire and Bimshire, lastly, in the Daily Argosy of 1652 there is a reference to Bim as a possible corruption of Byam, the name of a Royalist leader against the Parliamentarians. That source suggested the followers of Byam became known as Bims, amerindian settlement of Barbados dates to about the 4th to 7th centuries AD, by a group known as the Saladoid-Barrancoid. In the 13th century, the Kalinago arrived from South America, the Spanish and Portuguese briefly claimed Barbados from the late 16th to the 17th centuries. The Arawaks are believed to have fled to neighbouring islands, apart from possibly displacing the Caribs, the Spanish and Portuguese made little impact and left the island uninhabited. Some Arawaks migrated from British Guiana in the 19th century and continue to live in Barbados, during the Cromwellian era this included a large number of prisoners-of-war, vagrants and people who were illicitly kidnapped, who were forcibly transported to the island and sold as servants
19.
Maximum sustained wind
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The maximum sustained wind associated with a tropical cyclone is a common indicator of the intensity of the storm. Within a mature tropical cyclone, it is found within the eyewall at a distance defined as the radius of maximum wind, unlike gusts, the value of these winds are determined via their sampling and averaging the sampled results over a period of time. Surface winds are variable due to friction between the atmosphere and the Earths surface, as well as near hills and mountains over land. Over the ocean, satellite imagery determines the value of the sustained winds within a tropical cyclone. Land, ship, aircraft reconnaissance observations, and radar imagery can also estimate this quantity and this value helps determine damage expected from a tropical cyclone, through use of such scales as the Saffir-Simpson scale. However, the United States National Weather Service defines sustained winds within tropical cyclones by averaging winds over a period of one minute, measured at the same 10 metres height. This is an important distinction, as the value of the highest one-minute sustained wind is about 14% greater than a sustained wind over the same period. In most tropical cyclone basins, use of the satellite-based Dvorak technique is the method used to determine a tropical cyclones maximum sustained winds. The extent of banding and difference in temperature between the eye and eyewall is used within the technique to assign a maximum sustained wind. Central pressure values for their centers of low pressure are approximate, the intensity of example hurricanes is derived from both the time of landfall and the maximum intensity. The tracking of individual clouds on minutely satellite imagery could be used in the future in estimating surface winds speeds for tropical cyclones, ship and land observations are also used, when available. Doppler weather radar can be used in the manner to determine surface winds with tropical cyclones near land. Friction between the atmosphere and the Earths surface causes a 20% reduction in the wind at the surface of the Earth, surface roughness also leads to significant variation of wind speeds. Over land, winds maximize at hill or mountain crests, while sheltering leads to wind speeds in valleys. Compared to over water, maximum sustained winds over land average 8% lower, in most basins, maximum sustained winds are used to define their category. In the Atlantic and northeast Pacific oceans, the Saffir-Simpson scale is used and this scale can be used to determine possible storm surge and damage impact on land. In most basins, the category of the cyclone is determined from the cyclones maximum sustained wind. Only in Australia is this quantity not used to define the tropical category, in their basin
20.
Baffin Bay (Texas)
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Baffin Bay is a bay in South Texas, an inlet of the larger Laguna Madre. Located near the Gulf of Mexico, Baffin Bay forms part of the boundary between Kenedy County and Kleberg County, the history of the bay name is unclear. The most popular story is that Captain Mifflin Kenedy, after visiting the Arctic Baffin Bay as a young man, the Arctic Baffin Bay is located between the Baffin Island of Canada and Greenland, and it is about 310 times larger by area than the Baffin Bay in Texas. The Baffin Bay has three branches, which are named as follows, Alazan Bay on the north, Cayo del Grullo, several ephemeral streams, including San Fernando, Santa Gertrudis and Los Olmos, flow into the bay, but only when it rains. Because of the freshwater inflow and extensive evaporation, which is promoted by shallow water and warm climate. Between 1946 and 1948 and in 1968, the salinity level in the bay exceeded 100‰ killing much fish in the area, about 21 km2 of the bottom of the bay is covered in seagrass, most other parts are dominated by shoal grass with occasional rocky outcrops. Scattered parts of the bay, mostly near the mouth, contain the relict serpulid worm reefs, although some tube worm species still inhabit the bay area and the reefs, they bring no significant contribution to the reef structure. Most reefs are circular or ellipsoid structures between 8 and 40 meters in diameter and 0.5 to 2 meters in height above the sediment and their total area is about 16 km2, but it is gradually reducing due to erosion. The climate has been described as semiarid, subhumid or subtropical, tropical storms and hurricanes are common, and they strongly alter the climate and hydrology of the region. The lands around the bay are flat and dominated by grasslands and oak savanna, they are used for agriculture, the waters of the bay contain several species of annelids and 29 species of diatoms. The dominant mollusks are dwarf surf clams and Capitella capitata, the serpulid worm reefs are inhabited by crustaceans, polychaetes and mollusks. Invertebrates are represented by the fiddler crab species Uca subcylindrica. The bay is a destination for recreational angling and is famous for its trophy spotted seatrout. Other species include cowfish, threadfin shad, pompano, black drum and burrowing goby, the Laguna Madre of Texas and Tamaulipas. David A. McKee, Henry Compton, Janice D. Fechhelm, fishes of the Texas Laguna Madre, A Guide for Anglers & Naturalists. Baffin Bay from the Handbook of Texas Online U. S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System, Baffin Bay
21.
West Texas
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West Texas is a loosely defined part of the U. S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Fort Worth and Del Rio. There is no consensus on the boundary between eastern and western Texas, West Texas is often subdivided according to distinct physiographic features. The portion of West Texas that lies west of the Pecos River is often referred to as Far West Texas or the Trans-Pecos, the Trans-Pecos lies within the Chihuahuan Desert, the most arid portion of the state. Another part of West Texas is the Llano Estacado, a vast region of high, level plains extending into Eastern New Mexico, to the east of the Llano Estacado lies the “redbed country” of the Rolling Plains and to the south of the Llano Estacado lies the Edwards Plateau. The Rolling Plains and the Edwards Plateau subregions act as transitional zones between eastern and western Texas, the counties included in the West Texas region vary depending on the organization. West Texas has a lower population density than the rest of the state. It was once inhabited by nomadic Native American tribes, such as the Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa. This period was marked with savage war waged between the US Army, frontier Texans, and the Texas Rangers on one side and native peoples on the other. During the later 19th century, the population of Americans. This period was marked by the mapping and geographical intelligence collection of a denied area held by hostile Indian tribes. In turn, the Comanche way of war reached its zenith, having either subjugated or defeated the other Indian clans. In contrast, the support by the US government of Americans settlement. By the end of the 19th century, West Texas had been pacified of hostile Indians, leaving its turbulent history to what remained of outlaw Texans and people such as Judge Roy Bean. With the defeat of the Comanche and their allies and their removal upon demand by Texas from the state, the area was settled by Texans. These decades marked the last great cattle drives, the zenith of American cowboys, small farmers and ranchers battling sheepherders. This continuing socioeconomic trends resulted in the region having a mix of Mexican American and American communities of the modern day. As a result of historical development, many Mexican Americans still have close family ties in Mexico. Of American settlers, during the migration era, the vast majority were either East Texans or other Southerners going west for new opportunities
22.
Coordinated Universal Time
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Coordinated Universal Time, abbreviated to UTC, is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is within about 1 second of mean time at 0° longitude. It is one of closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, the first Coordinated Universal Time was informally adopted on 1 January 1960. This change also adopted leap seconds to simplify future adjustments, a number of proposals have been made to replace UTC with a new system that would eliminate leap seconds, but no consensus has yet been reached. Leap seconds are inserted as necessary to keep UTC within 0.9 seconds of universal time, see the Current number of leap seconds section for the number of leap seconds inserted to date. The official abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time is UTC and this abbreviation arose from a desire by the International Telecommunication Union and the International Astronomical Union to use the same abbreviation in all languages. English speakers originally proposed CUT, while French speakers proposed TUC, the compromise that emerged was UTC, which conforms to the pattern for the abbreviations of the variants of Universal Time. Time zones around the world are expressed using positive or negative offsets from UTC, the westernmost time zone uses UTC−12, being twelve hours behind UTC, the easternmost time zone, theoretically, uses UTC+12, being twelve hours ahead of UTC. In 1995, the nation of Kiribati moved those of its atolls in the Line Islands from UTC-10 to UTC+14 so that the country would all be on the same day. UTC is used in internet and World Wide Web standards. The Network Time Protocol, designed to synchronise the clocks of computers over the internet, computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC as it is more specific than GMT. If only limited precision is needed, clients can obtain the current UTC from a number of official internet UTC servers, for sub-microsecond precision, clients can obtain the time from satellite signals. UTC is also the standard used in aviation, e. g. for flight plans. Weather forecasts and maps all use UTC to avoid confusion about time zones, the International Space Station also uses UTC as a time standard. Amateur radio operators often schedule their radio contacts in UTC, because transmissions on some frequencies can be picked up by many time zones, UTC is also used in digital tachographs used on large goods vehicles under EU and AETR rules. UTC divides time into days, hours, minutes and seconds, days are conventionally identified using the Gregorian calendar, but Julian day numbers can also be used. Each day contains 24 hours and each hour contains 60 minutes, the number of seconds in a minute is usually 60, but with an occasional leap second, it may be 61 or 59 instead
23.
Trough (meteorology)
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A trough is an elongated region of relatively low atmospheric pressure, often associated with fronts. Unlike fronts, there is not a symbol for a trough on a weather chart. The weather charts in countries or regions mark troughs by a line. In the United States, a trough may be marked as a dashed line. In the UK, Hong Kong and Fiji, it is represented by a line extended from a low pressure center or between two low pressure centers, in Macau and Australia, it is a dashed line. If they are not marked, troughs may still be identified as an extension of isobars away from a low pressure center, sometimes the region between two high pressure centers may assume the character of a trough when there is a detectable wind shift noted at the surface. In the absence of a shift, the region is designated a col. If a trough forms in the mid-latitudes, a difference between two sides of the trough usually exists in the form of a weather front. A weather front is less convective than a trough in the tropics or subtropics. Sometimes collapsed frontal systems will degenerate into troughs, convective cells may develop in the vicinity of troughs and give birth to a tropical cyclone. Some tropical or subtropical regions such as the Philippines or south China are greatly affected by convection cells along a trough, in the mid-latitude westerlies, troughs and ridges often alternate, especially when upper-level winds are in a high-amplitude pattern. Tropical waves are a type of trough in easterly currents, a cyclonic northward deflection of the trade winds, troughs may be at the surface, or aloft, or both under various conditions. Most troughs bring clouds, showers, and a wind shift and this results from convergence or squeezing which forces lifting of moist air behind the trough line. In addition to standard troughs, some may be described further with a term indicating a specific or a set of characteristics. An inverted trough is a trough which is oriented opposite to most troughs of the mid-latitudes. Most inverted troughs are tropical waves, the situation is opposite in the Southern Hemisphere. Inverted troughs in both hemispheres move to the west from the east, while mid-latitude troughs generally move with the westerlies toward the east
24.
Senegal
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Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country in West Africa. Senegal is bordered by Mauritania in the north, Mali to the east, Guinea to the southeast, and Guinea-Bissau to the southwest. Senegal also borders The Gambia, a country occupying a narrow sliver of land along the banks of the Gambia River, Senegal also shares a maritime border with Cape Verde. Senegals economic and political capital is Dakar and it is the westernmost country in the mainland of the Old World, or Afro-Eurasia, and owes its name to the Senegal River, which borders it to the east and north. The name Senegal comes from the Wolof Sunuu Gaal, which means Our Boat, Senegal covers a land area of almost 197,000 square kilometres and has an estimated population of about 15 million. The climate is Sahelian, but there is a rainy season, the territory of modern Senegal has been inhabited by various ethnic groups since prehistory. Organized kingdoms emerged around the century, and parts of the country were ruled by prominent regional empires such as the Jolof Empire. The present state of Senegal has its roots in European colonialism, which began during the mid-15th century, the establishment of coastal trading posts gradually led to control of the mainland, culminating in French rule of the area by the 19th century, albeit amid much local resistance. Senegal peacefully attained independence from France in 1960, and has since been among the politically stable countries in Africa. Senegals economy is centered mostly on commodities and natural resources, major industries are fish processing, phosphate mining, fertilizer production, petroleum refining, construction materials, and ship construction and repair. As in most African nations, agriculture is a sector, with Senegal producing several important cash crops, including peanuts, sugarcane, cotton, green beans, tomatoes, melons. Owing to its stability, tourism and hospitality are also burgeoning sectors. A multiethnic and secular nation, Senegal is predominantly Sunni Muslim with Sufi, French is the official language, although many native languages are spoken and recognized. Since April 2012 Senegals president has been Macky Sall, Senegal has been a member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie since 1970. Senegal is named after the Senegal River, the etymology of which is contested, one popular theory is that it stems from the Wolof phrase sunu gaal, which means our canoe, resulting from a miscommunication between 15th-century Portuguese sailors and Wolof fishermen. The our canoe theory has been embraced in modern Senegal for its charm. It is frequently used in appeals to national solidarity, frequently heard in the media, modern historians believe the name probably refers to the Sanhaja, Berbers who lived on the northern side of the river. A competing theory is that it derives from the town of Sanghana
25.
Tropical cyclogenesis
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Tropical cyclogenesis is the development and strengthening of a tropical cyclone in the atmosphere. The mechanisms through which tropical cyclogenesis occurs are distinctly different from those through which mid-latitude cyclogenesis occurs, tropical cyclogenesis involves the development of a warm-core cyclone, due to significant convection in a favorable atmospheric environment. Tropical cyclones tend to develop during the summer, but have been noted in every month in most basins. Climate cycles such as ENSO and the Madden–Julian oscillation modulate the timing, there is a limit on tropical cyclone intensity which is strongly related to the water temperatures along its path. An average of 86 tropical cyclones of tropical storm intensity form annually worldwide, of those,47 reach hurricane/typhoon strength, and 20 become intense tropical cyclones. While these conditions are necessary for tropical cyclone formation, they do not guarantee that a tropical cyclone will form. Normally, a temperature of 26.5 °C spanning through at least a 50-metre depth is considered the minimum to maintain the special mesocyclone that is the tropical cyclone. These warm waters are needed to maintain the core that fuels tropical systems. This value is well above 16.1 °C, the average surface temperature of the oceans. Tropical cyclones are known to even when normal conditions are not met. In a moist atmosphere, this rate is 6.5 °C/km, while in an atmosphere with less than 100% relative humidity. Under a cold cyclone,500 hPa temperatures can fall as low as −30 °C and this also explains why moisture in the mid-levels of the troposphere, roughly at the 500 hPa level, is normally a requirement for development. However, when dry air is found at the same height, at heights near the tropopause, the 30-year average temperature was −77 °C. A recent example of a cyclone that maintained itself over cooler waters was Epsilon of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Emanuels model is called the maximum intensity, or MPI. Maps created from this equation show regions where tropical storm and hurricane formation is possible and this does not take into account vertical wind shear. A minimum distance of 500 km from the equator is normally needed for tropical cyclogenesis, the Coriolis force imparts rotation on the flow and arises as winds begin to flow in toward the lower pressure created by the pre-existing disturbance. The existence of a significant Coriolis force allows the developing vortex to achieve gradient wind balance, even with perfect upper level conditions and the required atmospheric instability, the lack of a surface focus will prevent the development of organized convection and a surface low
26.
Hispaniola
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Hispaniola is the 22nd-largest island in the world, located in the Caribbean island group, the Greater Antilles. It is the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba, two sovereign nations share the 76, 192-square-kilometre island. The only other shared island in the Caribbean is Saint Martin, Hispaniola is the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, founded by Christopher Columbus on his voyages in 1492 and 1493. The island was called by various names by its native people, fernández de Oviedo and de las Casas both recorded that the island was called Haiti by the Taíno. DAnghiera added another name, Quizqueia, but later shows that the word does not seem to derive from the original Arawak Taíno language. When Columbus took possession of the island in 1492, he named it Insula Hispana, meaning the Spanish Island in Latin and La Isla Española, meaning the Spanish Island, in Spanish. De las Casas shortened the name to Española, and when d‘Anghiera detailed his account of the island in Latin, he rendered its name as Hispaniola. Due to Taíno, Spanish and French influences on the island, historically the whole island was referred to as Haiti, Hayti, Santo Domingo, St. Domingue. The name Haïti was adopted by Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1804, as the name of independent Saint-Domingue. It was also adopted as the name of independent Santo Domingo, as the Republic of Spanish Haiti. Christopher Columbus inadvertently landed on the island during his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, where his flagship, a contingent of men were left at an outpost christened La Navidad, on the north coast of present-day Haiti. The island was inhabited by the Taíno, one of the indigenous Arawak peoples, the Taino were at first tolerant of Columbus and his crew, and helped him to construct La Navidad on what is now Môle-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti, in December 1492. European colonization of the began in earnest the following year. In 1496 the town of Nueva Isabela was founded, after being destroyed by a hurricane, it was rebuilt on the opposite side of the Ozama River and called Santo Domingo. It is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Americas, several 16th century writers estimated the 1492 population of Hispaniola at over 1 million people. Twentieth-century estimates of the range from 60,000 to 8,000,000. Harsh enslavement by Spanish colonists, redirection of food supplies and labor towards the colonists, had a impact on both mortality and fertility over the first quarter century. Colonial administrators and Dominican and Hyeronimite priests observed that the search for gold, demographic data from two provinces in 1514 shows a low birth rate consistent with a 3. 5% annual population decline
27.
Kingston, Jamaica
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Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal. In the Americas, Kingston is the largest predominantly English-speaking city south of the United States. The local government bodies of the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew were amalgamated by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation Act of 1923, to form the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. Greater Kingston, or the Corporate Area refers to areas under the KSAC, however, it does not solely refer to Kingston Parish. Kingston Parish had a population of 96,052, and St. Andrew parish had a population of 555,828 in 2001, Kingston is only bordered by Saint Andrew to the east, west and north. The city proper is bounded by Six Miles to the west, Stony Hill to the north, Papine to the northeast and Harbour View to the east, communities in urban and suburban Saint Andrew. Communities in rural St. Andrew such as Gordon Town, Mavis Bank, Lawrence Tavern, Mt. Airy, two parts make up the central area of Kingston, the historic Downtown, and New Kingston. Both are served by Norman Manley International Airport and also by the smaller, Kingston was founded in July 1692 as a place for survivors of the 1692 earthquake that destroyed Port Royal. Before the earthquake, Kingston’s functions were purely agricultural, the earthquake survivors set up a camp on the sea front. Approximately two thousand people died due to mosquito-borne diseases, initially the people lived in a tented camp on Colonel Barrys Hog Crawle. The town did not begin to grow until after the destruction of Port Royal by fire in 1703. Surveyor John Goffe drew up a plan for the town based on a grid bounded by North, East, West, by 1716 it had become the largest town and the centre of trade for Jamaica. The government sold land to people with the regulation that they no more than the amount of the land that they owned in Port Royal. Gradually wealthy merchants began to move their residences from above their businesses to the lands north on the plains of Liguanea. The first free school, Wolmerss, was founded in 1729 and there was a theatre, first on Harbour Street, in 1755 the governor, Sir Charles Knowles, had decided to transfer the government offices from Spanish Town to Kingston. It was thought by some to be a location for the Assembly in proximity to the moral distractions of Kingston. By the end of the 18th century, the city contained more than 3,000 brick buildings, the harbour fostered trade, and played part in several naval wars of the 18th century
28.
Quintana Roo
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Quintana Roo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into ten municipalities and its capital city is Chetumal and it is located in Southeastern Mexico, on the eastern part of the Yucatán Peninsula. Quintana Roo has a coastline to the east with the Caribbean Sea and it also claims territory which gives it a small border with Guatemala in the southwest of the state, although this disputed area is also claimed by Campeche. The Sian Kaan biosphere reserve is located in the state. The statewide population is expanding at a rapid rate due to the construction of hotels, many immigrants come from Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco, and Veracruz. On February 1,2015, Quintana Roo officially adopted a new zone, Southeastern, which is five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. Reasons cited for the change include coordination of air travel, banking operations, and more daylight hours, the area that makes up modern Quintana Roo was long part of Yucatán, sharing its history. With the Caste War of Yucatán, which started in the 1840s, the independent Maya nation of Chan Santa Cruz was based on what is now the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. For decades it maintained independence, having separate trade and treaty relationships with British Honduras. Quintana Roo was made a territory of Mexico by decree of President Porfirio Díaz on November 24,1902 and it was named after an early patriot of the Mexican Republic, Andrés Quintana Roo. The Mexican army succeeded in defeating most of the Maya population of the region during the 1910s, in 1915 the area was again declared to be legally part of the state of Yucatán. Quintana Roo was granted statehood within the United Mexican States on October 8,1974 and it is the Mexican Republics youngest state. According to the Köppen climate classification, much of the state has a tropical wet, the mean annual temperature is 26 °C. The hottest months are April and August where the high is 33 °C while January is coldest month with an average low of 17 °C. Extreme temperatures can range from low of 10 °C in the coldest months to 36 °C in the hottest months, Quintana Roo averages 1,300 mm of precipitation per year, which falls throughout the year, though June to October are the wetter months. Hurricanes can occasionally hit the areas during the hurricane season. The State of Quintana Roo is divided into 11 municipalities, each headed by a municipal president, Quintana Roo ranks sixth among Mexican states according to the United Nations Human Development index. The Yucatán Peninsula is one of the most forested areas of the world in terms of mass per hectare
29.
McCamey, Texas
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McCamey is a city in Upton County, West Texas. The population was 1,887 at the 2010 census, the Texas legislature has declared McCamey the Wind Energy Capital of Texas because of the many wind farms that have been built in the area. Its history, however, is primarily that of an oil boomtown, McCamey is located at 31°7′56″N 102°13′20″W. The town is five miles east of the Pecos River along U. S. Route 67. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 2.0 square miles. McCamey is named for George B, McCamey, whose 1925 wildcat well brought about the oil boom in the region. He brought in a real estate developer from Corpus Christi, Texas, to lay out a townsite near the oil field and along the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway capable of housing 10,000 people. The town was initially a jumble of tents and frame shacks, order came slowly, a post office was built in 1926, and the town was incorporated near the end of that year. In 1927, the McCamey Independent School District was formed, and an enterprising newspaperman printed the first issue of the Tri-County Record, water supply was a problem in the early years of McCamey, as the nearby water sources were not drinkable. Water came in by train from Alpine, almost 100 miles away, a potable water supply was found in a geologic unit only 17 miles distant, and pipes were built to transport it to town in 1929. McCamey was the location of a Humble Oil Company Refinery, one of the first built in West Texas, Humble Oil & Refining Company later changed its name to Exxon Company. The population of the town declined during the Great Depression along with the price of oil, in 1940 there were 2,600 people in McCamey, in 1980, there were 2,436, and the 2000 census showed the population had shrunk to 1,805. In 1940, the Texas oilman and industrialist Bill Noël moved to McCamey, tubb of Crane County to establish the Trebol Oil Company. He worked eighteen-hour days as Trebols tool pusher, pumper, the company drilled fifty-two producing wells before it struck the first dry hole. Noël was so occupied in the pursuits of the business that he claimed to have been unaware that he had become a millionaire until several years after the accumulation of his early fortune. As of the census of 2000,1,805 people,676 households, the population density was 900.4 people per square mile. There were 854 housing units at a density of 426. 0/sq mi. The racial makeup of the city was 72. 30% White,1. 55% African American,1. 27% Native American,23. 82% from other races, hispanics or Latinos of any race were 52. 30% of the population
30.
Antigua
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Antigua, also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the West Indies. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, Antigua and Barbuda became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations on 1 November 1981. Antigua means ancient in Spanish after an icon in Seville Cathedral, the name Waladli comes from the indigenous inhabitants and means approximately our own. The islands circumference is roughly 87 km and its area 281 km2, the economy is mainly reliant on tourism, with the agricultural sector serving the domestic market. Over 32,000 people live in the city, St. Johns. The capital is situated in the north-west and has a harbour which is able to accommodate large cruise ships. Other leading population settlements are All Saints and Liberta, according to the 2001 census, English Harbour on the south-eastern coast is famed for its protected shelter during violent storms. It is the site of a restored British colonial naval station called Nelsons Dockyard after Captain Horatio Nelson, today English Harbour and the neighbouring village of Falmouth are internationally famous as a yachting and sailing destination and provisioning centre. During Antigua Sailing Week, at the end of April and beginning of May, Antiguas economy is reliant upon tourism, and it promotes the island as a luxury Caribbean escape. Many hotels and resorts are located around the coastline, the only regular service to Barbuda flies from VC Bird Airport. Until July 7,2015, the United States Air Force maintained a base near the airport, designated Detachment 1, 45th Operations Group. The mission provided high rate telemetry data for the Eastern Range, the unit was inactivated due to US government budget cuts. The growing medical school and its students also add much to the economy, the University of Health Sciences Antigua and the American University of Antigua College of Medicine teach aspiring doctors. The countrys official currency is the East Caribbean dollar, given the dominance of tourism, many prices in tourist-oriented businesses are shown in US dollars. The EC dollar is pegged to the US dollar at a varied rate, prior to European colonialism, the first residents were the Guanahatabey people. Eventually, the Arawak migrated from the mainland, followed by the Carib, Christopher Columbus was the first European to visit Antigua, in 1493. The Arawak were the first well-documented group of people to settle Antigua. They paddled to the island by canoe from present-day Venezuela, pushed out by the Carib, the Arawak introduced agriculture to Antigua and Barbuda
31.
San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago
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San Fernando, officially the City Corporation of San Fernando, is the most populous city in Trinidad and Tobago. It occupies 18 km² and is located in the part of the island of Trinidad. It is bounded to the north by the Guaracara River, the south by the Oropouche River, the east by the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway, the former borough was elevated to the status of a city corporation on November 18,1988. The motto of San Fernando is, Sanitas Fortis - In a Healthy Environment We Will Find Strength, many local Trinidadians refer to the city with the shortened name Sando. The Amerindians called the area Anaparima, which has been translated as either single hill or without water, a single hill, San Fernando Hill, rises from the centre of the city. A town named San Fernando de Naparima was established by Spanish Governor Don José Maria Chacón in 1784, with time, the de Naparima was dropped. Following the 1783 Cedula of Population, many plantations were established in the Naparima Plains surrounding San Fernando. The town grew as part of the country came to dominate sugar production. This growth continued throughout the century as consolidation in the sugar industry led to the construction of what was then the largest sugar refinery in the world. Madeline factory a few miles east of the town, the development of cacao cultivation and the petroleum industry helped San Fernando grow since the town served as the gateway to these areas. The growth of the town placed severe strains on the supply of water, the nearby oil refinery at Pointe-à-Pierre played an important role in San Fernandos development between World War II and the 1980s. The refinery was constructed by Trinidad Leaseholds Limited during World War II, the oil boom of the 1970s and 80s led to the growth of the suburbs of San Fernando, especially Marabella and Gasparillo of the Pointe-à-Pierre refinery. In 1991 the boundaries of the city were extended, bringing the refinery immediately adjacent to the Citys northern boundary, the extended City now includes the suburbs of Marabella, Bel Air, Gulf View and Cocoyea. The administration of San Fernando is done by San Fernando City Corporation and it is a corporate body, and the staff is instrumental in the exercise of the powers of the Corporation through the Council. Functions of this Corporation are delegated by the Central Government, Local government administration started in 1845, when the Town Council was established and the Municipality of San Fernando came into being. Circa 1853, San Fernando was elevated to a Borough, the first Mayor was Robert Johnstone, from the simple start of a fishing village, San Fernando blossomed financially, and became the Industrial Capital of Trinidad and Tobago. This crest incorporates the City motto, the sea, the hill, the sea and boat represent the beginnings as a fishing village. The sugar cane stalk represents the sugar industry, the oil tank represents productivity and the oil industry
32.
National Weather Service
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It is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration branch of the Department of Commerce, and is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland. The agency was known as the United States Weather Bureau from 1890 until it adopted its current name in 1970, the NWS performs its primary task through a collection of national and regional centers, and 122 local weather forecast offices. As the NWS is a government agency, most of its products are in the public domain, the agency was placed under the Secretary of War as Congress felt military discipline would probably secure the greatest promptness, regularity, and accuracy in the required observations. Within the Department of War, it was assigned to the U. S. Army Signal Service under Brigadier General Albert J. Myer, General Myer gave the National Weather Service its first name, The Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce. The agency first became an enterprise in 1890, when it became part of the Department of Agriculture. The first Weather Bureau radiosonde was launched in Massachusetts in 1937, the Bureau would later be moved to the Department of Commerce in 1940. On July 12,1950, bureau chief Francis W, the Weather Bureau became part of the Environmental Science Services Administration when that agency was formed in August 1966. The Environmental Science Services Administration was renamed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on October 1,1970, at this time, the Weather Bureau became the National Weather Service. NEXRAD, a system of Doppler radars deployed to improve the detection and warning time of local storms, replaced the WSR-57. Bob Glahn has written a history of the first hundred years of the National Weather Service. The NWS, through a variety of sub-organizations, issues different forecast products to users, although, throughout history, text forecasts have been the means of product dissemination, the NWS has been using more forecast products of a digital, gridded, image or other modern format. Each of the 122 Weather Forecast Offices send their graphical forecasts to a server to be compiled in the National Digital Forecast Database. The NDFD is a collection of weather observations used by organizations and the public, including precipitation amount, temperature. Specific points in the database can be accessed using an XML SOAP service. The National Weather Service issues many products relating to wildfires daily, for example, a Fire Weather Forecast, which have a forecast period covering up to seven days, is issued by local Weather Forecast Offices daily, with updates as needed. The forecasts contain weather information relevant to fire control and smoke management for the next 12 to 48 hours, such as direction and speed. The appropriate crews use this information to plan for staffing and equipment levels, the ability to conduct scheduled controlled burns, and assess the daily fire danger. Once per day, NWS meteorologists issue a coded fire weather forecast for specific United States Forest Service observation sites that are input into the National Fire Danger Rating System
33.
Cuba
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Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is a country comprising the island of Cuba as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located in the northern Caribbean where the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and it is south of both the U. S. state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Haiti, and north of Jamaica. Havana is the largest city and capital, other cities include Santiago de Cuba. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, with an area of 109,884 square kilometres, prior to Spanish colonization in the late 15th century, Cuba was inhabited by Amerindian tribes. It remained a colony of Spain until the Spanish–American War of 1898, as a fragile republic, Cuba attempted to strengthen its democratic system, but mounting political radicalization and social strife culminated in the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1952. Further unrest and instability led to Batistas ousting in January 1959 by the July 26 Movement, since 1965, the state has been governed by the Communist Party of Cuba. A point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, a nuclear war broke out during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Culturally, Cuba is considered part of Latin America, Cuba is a Marxist–Leninist one-party republic, where the role of the vanguard Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution. Independent observers have accused the Cuban government of human rights abuses. It is one of the worlds last planned economies and its economy is dominated by the exports of sugar, tobacco, coffee, according to the Human Development Index, Cuba is described as a country with high human development and is ranked the eighth highest in North America. It also ranks highly in some metrics of national performance, including health care, the name Cuba comes from the Taíno language. The exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as where fertile land is abundant, authors who believe that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese state that Cuba was named by Columbus for the town of Cuba in the district of Beja in Portugal. Before the arrival of the Spanish, Cuba was inhabited by three distinct tribes of indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Taíno, the Guanajatabey, and the Ciboney people. The ancestors of the Ciboney migrated from the mainland of South America, the Taíno arrived from Hispanola sometime in the 3rd century A. D. When Columbus arrived they were the dominant culture in Cuba, having a population of 150,000. The name Cuba comes from the native Taíno language and it is derived from either coabana meaning great place, or from cubao meaning where fertile land is abundant. The Taíno were farmers, while the Ciboney were farmers as well as fishers and hunter-gatherers, Columbus claimed the island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana after Juan, Prince of Asturias. In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa, other towns soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana, founded in 1515, which later became the capital
34.
Cameron County, Texas
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Cameron County, officially the County of Cameron, is the southernmost county in the U. S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 406,220, the county was founded in 1848 and is named for Captain Ewen Cameron, a soldier during the Texas Revolution and in the ill-fated Mier Expedition. Cameron County is part of the Brownsville–Harlingen, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville, TX Combined Statistical Area. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 1,276 square miles. To the east, the county borders the Gulf of Mexico, Interstate 2 Interstate 69E Interstate 169 U. S. Highway 77 U. S. Highway 83 U. S. The population density was 370 people per square mile, there were 141,924 housing units at an average density of 132 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 87. 0% White,0. 5% Black or African American,0. 4% Native American,0. 7% Asian,0. 03% Pacific Islander,9. 8% from other races, and 1. 5% from two or more races. 88. 1% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,16. 40% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 30% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.36 and the family size was 3.80. In the county, the population was out with 33. 0% under the age of 18,9. 7% from 18 to 24,25. 6% from 25 to 44,20. 6% from 45 to 64. The median age was 30.6 years, for every 100 females there were 91.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.30 males, the median income for a household in the county was $31,264, and the median income for a family was $33,770. Males had an income of $21,410 versus $15,597 for females. The per capita income for the county was $13,695, about 30. 0% of families and 34. 7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 46. 8% of those under age 18 and 24. 8% of those age 65 or over. A2000 Texas A&M study stated that of the residents of Cameron County, U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates the Port Isabel Service Processing Center, which is located in an unincorporated area adjacent to Port Isabel-Cameron County Airport. U. S. District Judge Andrew S. Hane stated in 2013 that the corruption in the county judiciary and legal system was so pervasive that most people would not believe it unless they heard it themselves. County Judge Carlos Cascos will step down after eight years in the position in January 2015 to become Secretary of State of Texas in the new administration of Governor Greg Abbott. Cascos had just won a term as county judge in the same November 4,2014 general election in which Abbott defeated the Democrat Wendy R. Davis
35.
Calhoun County, Texas
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Calhoun County is a county located in the U. S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 21,381 and its county seat is Port Lavaca. The county is named for John Caldwell Calhoun, the vice president of the United States. Calhoun County comprises the Port Lavaca, TX Micropolitan Statistical Area, paleo-Indians Hunter-gatherers, and later Comanche, Tonkawa, and Karankawa tribes, first inhabitants. 1685-1690 René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle lands near Powderhorn Lake in Calhoun County, France plants its flag on Texas soil, but departs after only five years. 1689 The future county is explored by Spaniards, including Alonso De León,1825 Martín De León of Mexico establishes a ranch near the old La Salle fort. 1831 Linnville becomes the first Anglo settlement, established by Irish-born merchant, statesman,1840 Comanche Indians loot and sack Linnville. 1842-1847 Empresario Henri Castro contracts to bring Alsatian immigrants from France,1845 Thousands of German immigrants are stranded at port of disembarkation Indianaola on Matagorda Bay. 1846 Calhoun County is formed from parts of Victoria, Jackson and it is named for then Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee John C. Lavaca was the first county seat,1852 Indianola becomes the county seat. The Morgan steamship lines runs regular service from Indianola to New York City,1854 Poles begin to arrive in Indianaola. 1858 Half Moon Reef Lighthouse is constructed in Matagorda Bay,1860 County population is 2,642, including 414 slaves. 1861 Calhoun County 276-18 votes for secession from the Union, contributes volunteer companies-to the Confederate cause. Fort Esperanza, on Matagorda Island is constructed by Confederate forces using slave labor,1862 Union gunboats bombard Port Lavaca. 1875 A Gulf tropical storm heavily damages Indianola,1886 A hurricane destroys Indianola and causes much damage to Houston. 1892 The Lutheran community of Olivia is established by Swedes, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway establishes a terminus at Port O’Connor. 1920 Port Lavaca builds a seawall to protect itself against hurricanes,1931 Lavaca Bay causeway is constructed. 1934-1935 Oil and natural gas discovered near Port Lavaca,1947 Alcoa opens a plant at Point Comfort
36.
Lighter (barge)
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A lighter is a type of flat-bottomed barge used to transfer goods and passengers to and from moored ships. Lighters were traditionally unpowered and were moved and steered using long oars called sweeps, unpowered lighters continue to be moved by powered tugs, however, and lighters may also now themselves be powered. The term is used in the Lighter Aboard Ship system. The name itself is of uncertain origin, but is believed to derive from an old Dutch or German word. In Dutch, the word lichter is still used for ships that take over goods from larger ships. The lighter barge gave rise to the tug, a small. Lighter tugs—or simply lighters—are designed for towing lighter barges, as such, they are smaller than traditional harbour tugs and lack the power or equipment to handle large ships. Lighters, albeit powered ones, were proposed to be used in 2007 at Port Lincoln, Hong Kong widely uses lighters in midstream operations where lighters transport cargo, mostly containers, between oceangoing vessels or to and from terminals. Lighters in Hong Kong are usually equipped with cranes of 40-60 tonnes capacity, lighters are not fitted with engines but are towed by tugboats. In 2007, midstream operators handled about 2 million TEUs and 5 million TEUs were transported as river trade cargo which are dependent on lighters
37.
Kingston Harbour
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Kingston Harbour in Jamaica is the seventh-largest natural harbour in the world. It is an almost landlocked area of water approximately 16 kilometres long by 3.2 kilometres wide, most of it is deep enough to accommodate large ships, even close to shore. The harbour is home to the Kingston Container Terminal, Jamaicas largest port, other docks on Kingston Harbour are at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica in downtown Kingston and at the Jamaica Flour Mills and the Caribbean Cement Company at Rockfort. Norman Manley International Airport, Jamaicas second busiest international airport, is located in the outer harbor. There is a village at Rockfort and fishing docks at Harbour View. As a large, natural, well-protected harbour, it was used by indigenous people. Initially the main settlement was at Port Royal but following its destruction in the 1692 earthquake, the English founded Kingston and began development of its waterfront. Historically, the harbour was safe from attack with its entrance being protected by two forts, one the tip of the Palisadoes at Port Royal and the other on a small sand spit opposite. Throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries it handled a large trade and was the chief entrepot for British exports to the Spanish colonies. For the remainder of the 19th century its development as a port was retarded by a decline in the Jamaican economy, throughout this period there was a gradual increase in the number of finger piers and wharves along its long sheltered waterfront. In 1720 the body of Calico Jack was hanged at the entrance of the harbour as a warning to other pirates, in modern times Kingston Harbour has suffered a number of pollution incidents. In one such during 2009,300 tons of acid are said to have been accidentally discharged from one of the wharves. Transport in Jamaica History of Jamaica Cagway bay Aerial view Photos
38.
Telecommunication
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Telecommunication is the transmission of signs, signals, messages, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic systems. Telecommunication occurs when the exchange of information between communication participants includes the use of technology and it is transmitted either electrically over physical media, such as cables, or via electromagnetic radiation. Such transmission paths are divided into communication channels which afford the advantages of multiplexing. The term is used in its plural form, telecommunications. Early means of communicating over a distance included visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, other examples of pre-modern long-distance communication included audio messages such as coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, and loud whistles. Zworykin, John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth, the word telecommunication is a compound of the Greek prefix tele, meaning distant, far off, or afar, and the Latin communicare, meaning to share. Its modern use is adapted from the French, because its use was recorded in 1904 by the French engineer. Communication was first used as an English word in the late 14th century, in the Middle Ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could pass a single bit of information. One notable instance of their use was during the Spanish Armada, in 1792, Claude Chappe, a French engineer, built the first fixed visual telegraphy system between Lille and Paris. However semaphore suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers at intervals of ten to thirty kilometres, as a result of competition from the electrical telegraph, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880. Homing pigeons have occasionally used throughout history by different cultures. Pigeon post is thought to have Persians roots and was used by the Romans to aid their military, frontinus said that Julius Caesar used pigeons as messengers in his conquest of Gaul. The Greeks also conveyed the names of the victors at the Olympic Games to various cities using homing pigeons, in the early 19th century, the Dutch government used the system in Java and Sumatra. And in 1849, Paul Julius Reuter started a service to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service that operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke invented the telegraph in 1837. Also, the first commercial electrical telegraph is purported to have constructed by Wheatstone and Cooke. Both inventors viewed their device as an improvement to the electromagnetic telegraph not as a new device, samuel Morse independently developed a version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on 2 September 1837
39.
Banana
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The banana is an edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called plantains, in contrast to dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color and firmness, but is elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind which may be green, yellow, red, purple. The fruits grow in clusters hanging from the top of the plant, almost all modern edible parthenocarpic bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of most cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, the old scientific name Musa sapientum is no longer used. Musa species are native to tropical Indomalaya and Australia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea. They are grown in 135 countries, primarily for their fruit, worldwide, there is no sharp distinction between bananas and plantains. Especially in the Americas and Europe, banana usually refers to soft, sweet, dessert bananas, particularly those of the Cavendish group, by contrast, Musa cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called plantains. In other regions, such as Southeast Asia, many kinds of banana are grown and eaten. The term banana is used as the common name for the plants which produce the fruit. This can extend to members of the genus Musa like the scarlet banana, pink banana. It can also refer to members of the genus Ensete, like the snow banana, both genera are classified under the banana family, Musaceae. The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant, all the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure usually called a corm. Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy, and are mistaken for trees. Bananas grow in a variety of soils, as long as the soil is at least 60 cm deep, has good drainage and is not compacted. The leaves of plants are composed of a stalk and a blade. The base of the petiole widens to form a sheath, the tightly packed sheaths make up the pseudostem, the edges of the sheath meet when it is first produced, making it tubular. As new growth occurs in the centre of the pseudostem the edges are forced apart, cultivated banana plants vary in height depending on the variety and growing conditions
40.
Sugarcane
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It has stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. The plant is two to six meters tall, all sugar cane species interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum. Sucrose, extracted and purified in specialized factories, is used as raw material in the food industry or is fermented to produce ethanol. Ethanol is produced on a large scale by the Brazilian sugarcane industry, sugarcane is the worlds largest crop by production quantity. In 2012, The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates it was cultivated on about 26×106 hectares, in more than 90 countries, Brazil was the largest producer of sugar cane in the world. The next five major producers, in decreasing amounts of production, were India, China, Thailand, Pakistan, the world demand for sugar is the primary driver of sugarcane agriculture. Cane accounts for 80% of sugar produced, most of the rest is made from sugar beets, sugarcane predominantly grows in the tropical and subtropical regions. Other than sugar, products derived from sugarcane include falernum, molasses, rum, cachaça, bagasse, in some regions, people use sugarcane reeds to make pens, mats, screens, and thatch. The young, unexpanded inflorescence of tebu telor is eaten raw, steamed, or toasted, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the famous reeds that produce honey without bees in India between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. They adopted and then spread sugarcane agriculture, merchants began to trade in sugar from India, which was considered a luxury and an expensive spice. Sugarcane is a tropical, perennial grass that forms lateral shoots at the base to produce multiple stems, the stems grow into cane stalk, which when mature constitutes around 75% of the entire plant. A mature stalk is composed of 11–16% fiber, 12–16% soluble sugars, 2–3% nonsugars. A sugarcane crop is sensitive to the climate, soil type, irrigation, fertilizers, insects, disease control, varieties, the average yield of cane stalk is 60–70 tonnes per hectare per year. However, this figure can vary between 30 and 180 tonnes per hectare depending on knowledge and crop management approach used in sugarcane cultivation, sugarcane is a cash crop, but it is also used as livestock fodder. Sugarcane is indigenous to tropical South and Southeast Asia, different species likely originated in different locations, with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum in New Guinea. It is theorized that sugarcane was first domesticated as a crop in New Guinea around 6000 BC, New Guinean farmers and other early cultivators of sugarcane chewed the plant for its sweet juice. The exact date of the first cane sugar production is unclear, the earliest evidence of sugar production comes from ancient Sanskrit and Pali texts
41.
Coconut
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The coconut tree is a member of the family Arecaceae and the only species of the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the coconut palm or the seed, or the fruit. The spelling cocoanut is a form of the word. The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning head or skull, coconuts are known for their great versatility, as evidenced by many traditional uses, ranging from food to cosmetics. They form a part of the diets of many people in the tropics and subtropics. Coconuts are distinct from other fruits for their quantity of water. When mature, they can be used as seed nuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell, the endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, when dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are used in cooking and frying, as well as in soaps. The husks and leaves can be used as material to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating, the coconut also has cultural and religious significance in certain societies, particularly in India, where it is used in Hindu rituals. Cocos nucifera is a palm, growing up to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long. Coconuts are generally classified into two types, tall and dwarf. On fertile soil, a coconut palm tree can yield up to 75 fruits per year. Given proper care and growing conditions, coconut palms produce their first fruit in six to ten years, botanically, the coconut fruit is a drupe, not a true nut. Like other fruits, it has three layers, the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp, the exocarp and mesocarp make up the husk of the coconuts. Coconuts sold in the shops of nontropical countries often have had the exocarp removed, the mesocarp is composed of a fiber, called coir, which has many traditional and commercial uses. The shell has three germination pores or eyes that are visible on its outside surface once the husk is removed. A full-sized coconut weighs about 1.44 kg and it takes around 6,000 full-grown coconuts to produce a tonne of copra
