Conversion of Universal Time

Conversion of Universal Time (UT) to Civil Time

UT	EDT1	EST2	CST3	MST4	PST5
00	*8P	*7P	*6P	*5P	*4P
01	*9P	*8P	*7P	*6P	*5P
02	*10P	*9P	*8P	*7P	*6P
03	*11P	*10P	*9P	*8P	*7P
04	M	*11P	*10P	*9P	*8P
05	1A	M	*11P	*10P	*9P
06	2A	1A	M	*11P	*10P
07	3A	2A	1A	M	*11P
08	4A	3A	2A	1A	M
09	5A	4A	3A	2A	1A
10	6A	5A	4A	3A	2A
11	7A	6A	5A	4A	3A
12	8A	7A	6A	5A	4A
13	9A	8A	7A	6A	5A
14	10A	9A	8A	7A	6A
15	11A	10A	9A	8A	7A
16	N	11A	10A	9A	8A
17	1P	N	11A	10A	9A
18	2P	1P	N	11A	10A
19	3P	2P	1P	N	11A
20	4P	3P	2P	1P	N
21	5P	4P	3P	2P	1P
22	6P	5P	4P	3P	2P
23	7P	6P	5P	4P	3P

 

NOTES: * denotes previous day. N = noon. M = midnight.

1. Eastern Daylight Time.

2. Eastern Standard Time, same as Central Daylight Time.

3. Central Standard Time, same as Mountain Daylight Time.

4. Mountain Standard Time, same as Pacific Daylight Time.

5. Pacific Standard Time.

Astronomical Constants

Light-year (distance traveled by light in one year)	5,880,000,000,000 mi
Parsec (parallax of one second, or stellar distances)	3.259 light-years
Velocity of light	c. 186,282.4 mi/sec
Astronomical unit (A.U.), or mean distance Earth to Sun	ca. 93,000,000 mi1
Mean distance, Earth to Moon	238,860 mi
General precession	50',.26
Obliquity of the ecliptic	23° 27'8'.26-0'.4684(t-1900)2
Equatorial radius of Earth	3963.34 statute mi
Polar radius of Earth	3949.99 statute mi
Earth's mean radius	3958.89 statute mi
Oblateness of Earth	1/297
Equatorial horizontal parallax of the moon	57'2'.70
Earth's mean velocity in orbit	18.5 mi/sec
Sidereal year	365d.2564
Tropical year	365d.2422
Sidereal month	27d.3217
Synodic month	29d.5306
Mean sidereal day	23h56m4s.091 of mean solar time
Mean solar day	24h3m56s.555 of sidereal time

1. Actual mean distance derived from radar bounces: 92,935,700 mi. The value of 92,897,400 mi (based on parallax of 8".80) is used in calculations.

2. t refers to the year in question, for example, 2003.

Astronomical Terms

The Milky Way, the galaxy containing our solar system, is about 100,000 light-years in diameter and about 10,000 light-years thick.

Aphelion: see Orbit.
Apogee: see Orbit.
 
Black hole: the theoretical end-product of the total gravitational collapse of a massive star or group of stars. Crushed even smaller than the incredibly dense neutron star, the black hole may become so dense that not even light can escape its gravitational field. In 1996, astronomers found strong evidence for a massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Recent evidence suggests that black holes are so common that they probably exist at the core of nearly all galaxies.
Conjunction: the alignment of two celestial objects at the same celestial longitude. Conjunction of the Moon and planets is often determined with reference to the Sun. For example, Saturn is said to be in conjunction with the Sun when Saturn and Earth are aligned on opposite sides of the Sun.
Mercury and Venus, the two planets with orbits within Earth's orbit, have two positions of conjunction. Mercury, for example, is said to be in inferior conjunction when the Sun and Earth are aligned on opposite sides of Mercury. Mercury is in superior conjunction when Mercury and Earth are aligned on opposite sides of the Sun.
Dwarf planet: see Planet.
Elongation: the angular distance between two points in the sky as measured from a third point. The elongation of Mercury, for example, is the angular distance between Mercury and the Sun as measured from Earth. Planets whose orbits are outside Earth's can have elongations between 0° and 180°. (When a planet's elongation is 0°, it is at conjunction; when it is 180°, it is at opposition.) Because Mercury and Venus are within Earth's orbit, their greatest elongations measured from Earth are 28° and 47°, respectively.
Galaxy: gas and millions of stars held together by gravity. All that you can see in the sky (with a very few exceptions) belongs to our galaxy—a system of roughly 200 billion stars. The exceptions you can see are other galaxies. Our own galaxy, the rim of which we see as the “Milky Way,” is about 100,000 light-years in diameter and about 10,000 light-years in thickness. Its shape is roughly that of a thick lens; more precisely, it is a spiral nebula, a term first used for other galaxies when they were discovered and before it was realized that these were separate and distinct galaxies. Astronomers have estimated that the universe could contain 40 to 50 billion galaxies. In 2004, the Hubble Space Telescope and observers at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii discovered a new galaxy 13 billion light-years from Earth.
Neutron star: an extremely dense star with a powerful gravitational pull. Some neutron stars pulse radio waves into space as they spin; these are known as pulsars.
Occultation: the eclipse of one celestial object by another. For example, a star is occulted when the Moon passes between it and Earth.
Opposition: the alignment of two celestial objects when their longitude differs by 180°. Opposition of the Moon and planets is often determined with reference to the Sun. For example, Saturn is said to be at opposition when Saturn and the Sun are aligned on opposite sides of Earth. Only the planets whose orbits lie outside Earth's can be in opposition to the Sun.
Orbit: the path traveled by an object in space. The term comes from the Latin orbis, which means “circle” or “disk,” and orbita, “orbit.” Theoretically, there are four mathematical figures, or models, of possible orbits: two are open (hyperbola and parabola) and two are closed (ellipse and circle), but in reality all closed orbits are ellipses. Ellipses can be nearly circular, as are the orbits of most planets, or very elongated, as are the orbits of most comets, but the orbit revolves around a fixed, or focal, point. In our solar system, the Sun's gravitational pull keeps the planets in their elliptical orbits; the planets hold their moons in place similarly. For planets, the point of the orbit closest to the Sun is the perihelion, and the point farthest from the Sun is the aphelion. For orbits around Earth, the point of closest proximity is the perigee; the farthest point is the apogee. See also Retrograde.
Perigee: see Orbit.
Perihelion: see Orbit.
Planet: the International Astronomical Union (IAU) issued the definition for planet (from the Greek planetes, “wanderers”) at their General Assembly in August 2006. A planet is a body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) is massive enough that its self-gravity gives it a nearly-spherical shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. A body that fulfills the first two criteria but not the third is a dwarf planet, provided that it (d) is not a satellite.
While the exact definition of “clearing the neighborhood” was not established at press time, the eight planets from Mercury through Neptune have either assimilated or repulsed most other objects in their orbits, and each has more mass than the combined total of everything else in its area. The same cannot be said for Pluto, which has now been reclassified as a dwarf planet. There are currently eight planets and three dwarf planets recognized in the solar system, and more dwarf planets are expected to be admitted.
In 1994, Dr. Alexander Wolszcan, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University, presented convincing evidence of the first known planets to exist outside our solar system. These particular extrasolar planets circle a pulsar, or exploded star, in the constellation Virgo.
In 1995, several of these extrasolar planets were discovered orbiting stars similar to our Sun. Swiss astronomers found the first extrasolar planet (HD 209458b, nicknamed “Osiris”) to circle a normal Sun-like star. As of May 2006, 170 such planets have been discovered.
In Feb. 2004, using the Hubble Space Telescope, a team of scientists at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris announced that they had discovered oxygen and carbon in the atmosphere of “Osiris.”
In Aug. 2004, NASA and the National Science Foundation announced the discovery of two new planets, the smallest yet found, about the size of Neptune. The discovery opens up the possibility of smaller, Earth-sized extrasolar planets.
In April 2005, a team of American and European astronomers reported that the first image of an extrasolar planet had been made. The planet is orbiting a brown dwarf near the constellation Hydra, 230 million light-years from Earth.
Pulsar: a celestial object, believed to be a rapidly spinning neutron star, that emits intense bursts of radio waves at regular intervals.
Quasar: “quasi-stellar” object. Originally thought to be peculiar stars in our own galaxy, quasars are now believed to be the most remote objects in the universe.
Quasars emit tremendous amounts of light and microwave radiation. Although they are not much bigger than Earth's solar system, quasars pour out 100 to 1,000 times as much light as an entire galaxy containing a hundred billion stars. It is believed that quasars are powered by massive black holes that suck up billions of stars.
Retrograde: describes the clockwise orbit or rotation of a planet or other celestial object, which is in the direction opposite to Earth and most celestial bodies. As viewed from a position in space north of the solar system (from some great distance above Earth's North Pole), all the planets revolve counterclockwise around the Sun, and all but Venus, Uranus, and Pluto rotate counterclockwise on their own axes. These three planets have retrograde motion.
Sometimes retrograde is also used to describe apparent backward motion as viewed from Earth. This motion happens when two objects rotate at different speeds around another fixed object. For example, the planet Mars appears to be retrograde when Earth overtakes and passes by it as they both move around the Sun.
Satellite (or moon): an object in orbit around a planet. Until the discovery of Jupiter's four main moons by Galileo Galilei, celestial objects in orbit around a planet were called moons. However, upon Galilei's discovery, Johannes Kepler (in a letter to Galileo) suggested satellite (from the Latin satelles, which means “attendant”) as a general term for such objects. The word satellite is used interchangeably with moon, and astronomers speak and write about the moons of Neptune, Saturn, etc. The term satellite is also used to describe man-made devices of any size that are launched into orbit.
Small Solar System Objects: at the 2006 IAU General Assembly, solar system bodies not defined as planets, dwarf planets, or satellites were placed in this category. These include most asteroids, most Trans-Neptunian Objects, comets, and other small bodies.
Star: a celestial object consisting of intensely hot gases held together by gravity. Stars derive their energy from nuclear reactions going on in their interiors, generating heat and light. Stars are very large. Our Sun has a diameter of 865,400 mi—a comparatively small star.
A dwarf star is a small star that is of relatively low mass and average or below-average luminosity. The Sun is a yellow dwarf, which is in its main sequence, or prime of life. This means that nuclear reactions of hydrogen maintain its size and temperature. By contrast, a white dwarf is a star at the end of its life, with low luminosity, small size, and very high density.
A red giant is a star nearing the end of its life. When a star begins to lose hydrogen and burn helium instead, it gradually collapses, and its outer region begins to expand and cool. The light we see from these stars is red because of their cooler temperature. There are also red super giants, which are even more massive.
A brown dwarf lacks the mass to generate nuclear fusion like a true star, but it is also too massive and hot to be a planet. A brown dwarf usually cools into a dark, practically invisible object. The existence of brown dwarfs, also called failed stars, was confirmed in Nov. 1995 when astronomers at Palomar Observatory in California took the first photograph of this mysterious object.
Supernova: a celestial phenomenon in which a star explodes, releasing a great burst of light. There are two basic types of supernova. Type Ia happens when a white dwarf star draws large amounts of matter from a nearby star until it can no longer support itself and collapses. The second more well-known kind of supernova, type IIa, is the result of the collapse of a massive star. (Massive is a classification for a star that is at least eight times the size of our Sun.) Once the star's nuclear fuel is exhausted, if its core is heavy enough, the star will collapse in on itself, releasing a huge amount of energy (the supernova), which may be brighter than the star's host galaxy.
On Feb. 24, 1987, Canadian astronomer Ian Shelter at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile discovered a supernova—an exploding star—from a photograph taken on Feb. 23 of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy some 160,000 light-years away from Earth. Astronomers believe that the dying star was Sanduleak –69°202, a 10-million-year-old blue supergiant.
Supernova 1987A was the closest and best-studied supernova in almost 400 years. One was previously observed by Johannes Kepler in 1604, four years before the telescope was invented.

How Bright Is Bright?

You will often hear astronomers refer to the brightness of an object in terms of an objects apparent magnitude.
The term apparent magnitude refers to a star's apparent brightness, or how bright the star looks to observers on Earth. Apparent stellar brightness is a combination of two things: how bright the star actually is, and how far the star is from Earth. A dim star close to Earth could appear brighter than a bright star far away.
Back in the second century B.C., the Greek astronomer Hipparchus created the first known star catalog, listing star positions and brightness. This catalog contained about a thousand stars. The brightest stars were called first magnitude, and the faintest were called sixth magnitude, with the rest being given intermediate magnitudes. This was a crude method of classification, for his observations were made with the unaided eye. His sixth magnitude stars were the faintest naked-eye objects, and man's view at that time was that the extent of the universe was limited to what could be seen by the naked eye.
Today, magnitude classifications are made using highly precise instruments, but Hipparchus's general classification of magnitudes remains. The branch of astronomy that deals with an objects brightness is called photometry, and towards the end of the 1700s, astronomer William Herschel devised a simple method of photometry. While Herschel's methods worked, they were only approximations. One key point that arose from his work was the determination that a first magnitude star delivers about 100 times as much light to Earth as that of a sixth magnitude star.
In 1856, after more precise methods of photometry had been invented, British astronomer Norman Pogson proposed a quantitative scale of stellar magnitudes, which was adopted by the astronomical community. He noted, like Herschel, that we receive 100 times more light from a first magnitude star as from a sixth; thus, with a difference of five magnitudes, there is a 100:1 ratio of incoming light energy, which is called luminous flux.
Because of the nature of human perception, equal intervals of brightness are actually equal ratios of luminous flux. Pogson's proposal was that one increment in magnitude be the fifth root of 100. This means that each increment in magnitude corresponds to an increase in the amount of energy by 2.512, approximately. A fifth magnitude star is 2.512 times as bright as a sixth, and a fourth magnitude star is 6.310 times as bright as a sixth, and so on. The naked eye, under optimum conditions, can see down to around the sixth magnitude, that is +6. Under the Pogson system, a few of the brighter stars now have negative magnitudes. For example, Sirius is –1.5. The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the object. The full moon has a magnitude of about –12.5, and the Sun is a bright –26.5!

A Star's Magnitude

Magnitude is the degree of brightness of a star. In 1856, British astronomer Norman Pogson proposed a quantitative scale of stellar magnitudes, which was adopted by the astronomical community. He noted that we receive 100 times more light from a first magnitude star as from a sixth; thus with a difference of five magnitudes, there is a 100:1 ratio of incoming light energy, which is called luminous flux.
Because of the nature of human perception, equal intervals of brightness are actually equal ratios of luminous flux. Pogson's proposal was that one increment in magnitude be the fifth root of 100. This means that each increment in magnitude corresponds to an increase in the amount of energy by 2.512, approximately. A fifth magnitude star is 2.512 times as bright as a sixth, and a fourth magnitude star is 6.310 times as bright as a sixth, and so on. The naked eye, upon optimum conditions, can see down to around the sixth magnitude, that is, +6. Under Pogson's system, a few of the brighter stars now have negative magnitudes. For example, Sirius is –1.5. The lower the magnitude number, the brighter the object. The full Moon has a magnitude of about –12.5, and the Sun is a bright –26.51!

Birth and Death of a Star

Astronomers think that a star begins to form as a dense cloud of gas in the arms of spiral galaxies. Individual hydrogen atoms fall with increasing speed and energy toward the center of the cloud under the force of the star's gravity. The increase in energy heats the gas. When this process has continued for some millions of years, the temperature reaches about 20 million degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature, the hydrogen within the star ignites and burns in a continuing series of nuclear reactions. The onset of these reactions marks the birth of a star.
When a star begins to exhaust its hydrogen supply, its life nears an end. The first sign of a star's old age is a swelling and reddening of its outer regions. Such an aging, swollen star is called a red giant. The Sun, a middle-aged star, will probably swell to a red giant in 5 billion years, vaporizing Earth and any creatures that may be on its surface. When all its fuel has been exhausted, a star cannot generate sufficient pressure at its center to balance the crushing force of gravity. The star collapses under the force of its own weight; if it is a small star, it collapses gently and remains collapsed. Such a collapsed star, at its life's end, is called a white dwarf. The Sun will probably end its life in this way. A different fate awaits a large star. Its final collapse generates a violent explosion, blowing the innards of the star out into space. There, the materials of the exploded star mix with the primeval hydrogen of the universe. Later in the history of the galaxy, other stars are formed out of this mixture. The Sun is one of these stars. It contains the debris of countless other stars that exploded before the Sun was born.
In 2006, astronomers were excited about star formation in Arp 220, a super galaxy created by the collision of two other galaxies 250 million light-years from Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope has observed more than 200 huge star clusters, giving scientists a glimpse of what occurred when the universe was young. A surprising find was that the mix of gas and dust in this new galaxy is very similar to our own older Milky Way.

The Age and Composition of the Universe

In one of the most important cosmological discoveries in years, NASA scientists have captured the most precise image of the universe, shedding light on its origins, age, and providing further evidence for the long-standing Big Bang and inflation theories. In Feb. 2003, a joint NASA–Princeton University satellite, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropic Probe (WMAP), produced a high-resolution map that captured the oldest light in the universe. This ancient light, called the cosmic microwave background, is the cooled remnant of the hot explosion known as the Big Bang. “The cosmic microwave light is a fossil,” explained David Wilkinson, after whom the probe was named, “Just as we can study dinosaur bones and reconstruct their lives of millions of years ago, we can probe this ancient light and reconstruct the universe as it was.” (Wilkinson died just before WMAP's amazing findings were published.)
The age of the universe has now been accurately determined—with just a 1% margin of error—as 13.7 billion years old (previous estimates ranged between 8–20 billion years old). The birth of stars has been pinpointed to just 200 million years after the Big Bang, a surprise to most scientists (predictions had ranged from 500 million to 1 billion years after the cosmos formed). The WMAP image also revealed the contents of the universe: only 4% is made up of atoms, or the physical universe as we know it. The remainder is made up of poorly understood substances: dark energy (73%) and dark matter (23%). These findings are consistent with the Big Bang and inflation theories, which assert that the universe materialized in a “big bang” and immediately began cooling and expanding. “I think every astronomer will remember where they were when they heard these results,” said John Bahcall, a Princeton University astrophysicist. “I certainly will. This announcement represents a rite of passage for cosmology from speculation to precision science.”

Five Easy Stats

How old is the universe? What is it made of? For the first time, scientists have clarity.

• 13.7 billion years: Age of the universe
• 200 million years: Interval betwen the Big Bang and the appearance of the first stars
• 4%: Proportion of the universe that is ordinary matter
• 23%: Proportion that is dark matter
• 73%: Proportion that is dark energy

The Big Bang: Origin of the Universe

Before the universe as we now know it existed, there was no space or time. The Big Bang and its associated theories try to explain or describe the moment of change from nothingness and no time to the existence of the universe filled with space and marked by time. Many physicists describe this event as an explosion, or flash, hence the name Big Bang. The Big Bang is a process of expansion in our universe that is still active today.
The universe flashed into existence (according to the Big Bang theory) from a very small agglomeration of matter of extremely high density and temperatures. As a dense, hot globule of gas, containing nothing but hydrogen and a small amount of helium, it began expanding rapidly outward. There were no stars or planets. The first stars probably formed when the universe was about 200 million years old. Our Sun was formed 4.5 billion years ago, and through telescopes we can now see stars forming out of compressed pockets of hydrogen in outer space.
In 1992 instruments aboard the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, launched in 1989, showed that 99.97% of the radiant energy of the universe was released within the first year of the Big Bang event. This evidence seems to confirm the Big Bang theory. In March 1995 astronomers found more supporting evidence for the big bang when they concluded that data obtained from the space shuttle's Astro 2 observatory showed that helium was widespread in the early universe. The Big Bang theory holds that hydrogen and helium were the first elements created when the universe was formed.

2004 Disasters

January 2004 Disasters

• Jan. 3, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt: A Egyptian charter Boeing 737 crashed into the Red Sea shortly after take-off, killing 148 people many of whom were French tourists going home from holidays.
• Jan. 13, Tashkent, Uzbekistan: All 37 people, including the top UN official in Uzbekistan, killed in Uzbek plane crash in dense fog while landing at Tashkent airport.
• Jan. 11–17, eastern Canada and U.S.: Record low temperatures more than 9° below normal.
• Jan. 17, Pelee Island, Ontario: Flight 126 from Pelee Island bound for Windsor Ontario crashed into Lake Erie, killing all 10 on board.
• Jan. 23, New Delhi, India: Sixty-four people, including the groom, perished in a wedding hall in southern India as people panicked in the narrow stairwell.
• Jan. 24–29, eastern Europe and Mediterranean: Snow and high winds swept across Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, and Turkey. Turkey closed many shipping channels causing shortages in natural gas and disruptions to electricity and water supplies. Three freighters sunk in the eastern Mediterranean and shipping routes were closed. The Greek-owned cargo ship Kephi sank killing 15 of the 17–member crew. High winds and a sandstorm from this same system closed shipping lanes in the Suez Canal.
• Jan. 24–27, midwest and eastern U.S. Snow, ice, and freezing cold spread across the mid-west, the northern Plains, and eastern U.S. from Atlanta, Georgia north through Pennsylvania. At least 56 deaths were blamed on the weather.

February 2004 Disasters

• Feb., Canada, U.S., and Europe: Record cold and record snowfalls in the month of February were seen: blizzard conditions in North Dakota, exceedingly heavy snowfalls in North Carolina, and heavy snowfall in the eastern Mediterranean and in western Europe.
• Feb. 1, Mecca, Saudi Arabia: At the Hajj pilgrimage, attended by more than 2 million people, a stampede during the stone-throwing ritual killed 251 pilgrims. This annual ritual by Muslims involves throwing stones at three columns of stone that symbolize the devil's temptation of Abraham. In 1990, the stampede killed 1,426 pilgrims, making it the deadliest in the history of the Muslim pilgrimage.
• Feb. 5 UT, Papua, Indonesian A 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed 31 people (Feb. 6, local time).
• Feb. 10, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates: An Iranian Fokker-50 enroute from Tish Island to Sharjah, Iran, crashed while landing, killing 43 people. There were 3 survivors in critical condition.
• Feb. 15, eastern China: 2 deadly fires claimed the lives of more than 90 people. One fire was in a department store in the city of Jilin; the other was in a temple in Zhejiang province.
• Feb. 18, Neishabour, Iran: Rail cars loaded with fertilizer, petrol, and sulphur products broke away from the locomotive, rolled 31 mi down the rails, caught fire, and subsequently exploded, killing more than 320 and devastating five villages.
• Feb. 24, northern Morocco: A 6.4 magnitude earthquake in northern Morocco near the coastal city of al Hoceima killed 628 people and left 15,000 homeless.
• Feb. 26, Sarajevo, Bosnia: The crash of a twin-engine turboprop plane in fog in the south of Bosnia, killed Macedonia's President Boris Trajkovski and eight others. Trajkovski was praised for his work in uniting his ethnically divided country after the break up of Yugoslavia.

March 2004 Disasters

• March 8, Antalaha, Madagascar : Cyclone Gafilo with winds of 160 mph and heavy rains left hundreds of thousands homeless and killed 295 people. More than 100 were on a ferry that sank off the island of Comoros.
• March 8, Baltimore, Md: Thunderstorms and strong winds gusting to 55 mph swept through Baltimore overturning a water taxi in the inner harbor, killing 5.
• March 11, Madrid, Spain: Ten bombs exploded on morning commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191, injuring more than 1,500, causing the worst terrorist attack in Europe. Although the bombings were initially blamed on the ETA, a Basque separatist group, several Moroccans and Indians with possible ties to Al-Qaeda were later arrested. The bombings came a day before the Spanish elections and may have influenced the vote. The Spanish rejected the ruling government party of Jose Maria Aznar's who supported the coalition in Iraq and elected the Socialist party under Zapatero who pledged to remove troops from Iraq unless the United Nations took control.
• March 28, Santa Catarina, Brazil: The first documented hurricane in the South Atlantic, since records began in 1966, struck Brazil, killing 3 people.

April 2004 Disasters

• April 1–5, New Mexico and Texas: Torrential rains flooded rivers, closed roads, and forced many to evacuate their homes. A foot of hail fell in Fort Stockton.
• April 4–6, Piedras Negras, Mexico: Flash flooding from torrential rains in the Rio Grande and Escondido rivers killed 37 Mexicans and forced many others to flee to shelters. Mexican President Vincente Fox declared a state of emergency.
• April 20, Utica, Ill.: More than 52 tornadoes struck Illinois and other Midwest states devastating Utica, Ill., southwest of Chicago, and killing 8 people in the basement of the Millstone Tavern.
• April 21, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A suicide car bomber who was stopped short of the former General Security building detonated the vehicle, killing at least 5 and wounding 148. This was the third successful bombing in Riyadh in the past year. Several other potential car bombs were defused this week by security forces. A pro-al-Qaeda group claimed responsibility for the attack.
• April 22, Ryongchon, North Korea: 2 trains carrying flammable liquids collided, causing a huge explosion near the Chinese border, killing 150, and injuring more than 1300. North Korea declared a state of emergency.
• April 27, Damascus, Syria: Terrorists set off explosives near the British embassy and a former UN building. At least four people were killed.
• April 29, Bogota, Colombia: A construction backhoe rolled off its trailer, fell over a ledge, and crushed a school bus, killing 22 children ages 5 to 16 and 2 adults.

May 2004 Disasters

• May 1–6, southern Calif.: Six blazes raged through 20,000 acres this week. Many were evacuated from their homes and eight buildings at the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony retreat burned to the ground.
• May 4, Athens, Greece: Three bombs exploded in Athens just 100 days before the start of the Olympics, causing increased concern about security for the games. There were no serious injuries.
• May 18, Philippines: Typhoon Nida, the fourth to hit the Philippines this year, killed more than 25 people.
• May 18–26, Dominican Republic and Haiti: Several days of torrential rains caused the Soliel River, which runs through both countries, to overflow its banks, causing floods and mudslides that destroyed entire villages. More than 3000 people were killed. The damage was particularly devastating in Haiti because of massive deforestation and poorly built homes.
• May 19, Dallas, Tex.: 2 freight trains collided derailing 20 cars, killing one person.
• May 23, Chandpur, Bangladesh: A storm on the Meghna River sank 2 ferries, killing more than 200 people.
• May 23, Paris, France: A section of a new terminal at Charles DeGaulle airport collapsed killing 4 people and injuring 3. The terminal, built a year ago at the cost of $900 million dollars, was an unconventional design of glass and concrete tubes. Preliminary reports blame problems with the concrete.
• May 28, Iran: A 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Northern Iran killed 35 people.
• May 29–30; midwest, U.S.: Over the Memorial Day weekend tornadoes, high winds, and heavy thunderstorms from Louisiana to the Great Lakes killed 10 people, closed roads, caused power outages, flooded towns, and destroyed homes and buildings.

June 2004 Disasters

• June 29–30, Philippines: Typhoon Mindulle struck the Philippines, killing 30.
• June 29, Sierra Leone: A United Nations helicopter carrying peacekeepers and others crashed, killing all 24 on board.

July 2004 Disasters

• June, July, and Aug., South Asia: The worst monsoon flooding in fifteen years in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh left up to 5 million homeless, killed more than 1800 people with at least 600 in Bangladesh, and destroyed much of the infrastructure. Many people died from drinking polluted water. Hundreds of people in South Asia die every year from the flooding and landslides caused by the monsoon rains.
• July-Aug., Alaska: Wildfires in Alaska this summer have burned more than 5 million acres, the worst season on record.
• July 1–3, Taiwan: Flooding from tropical storm Mindulle and the heavy rains that followed killed at least 27 people and left 13 missing. Agricultural losses were very heavy.
• July 5–11, Romania: A heat wave killed 22 people in Romania and left many more sweltering in southern Europe.
• July 12, Zhongba County, Tibet A powerful earthquake hit Tibet in the Gangdise mountains. Damages and casualties in this remote region are not yet known.
• July 12, Burlington County, N.J.: Up to 13 inches of rains caused dams to break and severe flooding conditions in Burlington and Camden Country. More than 750 people were evacuated.
• July 16, Southern India: The thatched roof of a private elementary school caught fire in southern India, killing 94 children. There were numerous safety hazards and many children who died were trapped in a room with one exit.
• July 16–18: New Zealand: Floods and more than 30 earthquakes killed 2 people and led to the evacuation of 1500 people.
• July 22, Sakarya province, Turkey: A high-speed train from Istanbul to Ankara derailed, killing 37 people.

August 2004 Disasters

• Aug. 1, Asunción, Paraguay: Fire, caused by a gas leak, swept through a supermarket in a three-story shopping center, killing at least 400 people, many of whom were trapped inside because security guards locked the doors to prevent theft. There are still 130 people missing.
• Aug. 9, Mihama, Japan: Non-radioactive steam leaked from a nuclear power plant north of Kyoto, killing 4 workers and severely burning 7 others.
• Aug. 11, Havana , Cuba: Charley, a category 2 hurricane, caused damage exceeding $1 billion.
• Aug. 12, Zhejiang province, China: Typhoon Rananim, the most powerful storm of the season, killed 164 people and caused extensive damage.
• Aug. 12, Fla.: Tropical storm Bonnie made landfall in the Florida panhandle.
• Aug. 13, Punta Gorda, Fla.: Charley, a category 4 hurricane, struck the southwest coast of Florida with 145 mile per hour winds, killing 31 people in storm-related deaths in the U.S., 4 in Cuba, and 1 in Jamaica. Damages estimated at $7.4. More than 2 million people were evacuated and ten of thousands were left homeless as thousands of buildings were damaged and mobile home parks were demolished. It was the worst hurricane in Florida since Andrew in 1992. Electricity remained out for more than 350,000 customers up to five days after the storm.
• Aug. 22, Carabobo, Venezuela : A Venezuelan air force plane crashed in bad weather, killing all 25 aboard.
• Aug. 24, Moscow, Russia: 2 Russian planes, a Siberia Airlines Tu-154 and a Volga-Avia Express Tupolev 134 aircraft, both departing from Moscow's airport, crashed within minutes of each other, killing a total of 89 people. Investigators discovered evidence of explosives on both flights.
• Aug. 24–25, Taiwan and China: Typhoon Aere swept through Taipei, Taiwan, causing flooding and landslides that killed 39 people in Taiwan and 12 in the Philippines. Aere moved on to China where nearly 1 million people were evacuated.
• Aug. 29, southwestern Japan: Typhoon Chaba, with record high winds, killed at least 9 people and caused flooding. Earlier in the month, Typhoon Megi killed 9 in Japan.
• Aug. 29–31, S.C., N.C., and Va.: Tropical storm Gaston made landfall in McClellanville, South Carolina and then moved through North Carolina and Virginia. Heavy rains dumped up to 14 inches on Richmond, Va. and the surrounding area, devastating the historic downtown area. The death toll from Gaston; 8 people.

September 2004 Disasters

• Sept. 5–8, east and west coast, Fla.: Hurricane Frances, downgraded from a Category 4 to a Category 2 storm, made landfall on the Atlantic coast of Florida, near Stuart, on Sept. 5, moved across the state dropping up to 13 inches of rain. Frances made a second Florida landfall, as a tropical storm, at St. Marks on the Panhandle on Sept. 8. More than 2.8 million people were evacuated and damages estimated at $9 billion. The storm killed at least 38 people.
• Sept. 3–8, Sichuan province, China: Five days of downpours have left 172 people dead. The flooding led to concerns about damage to the Three Gorges Dam.
• Sept. 7–8, Japan: Typhoon Songda, a powerful typhoon, killed 31 people in Japan and on freighters at sea. Songda was the seventh typhoon to hit Japan this season; there have been nineteen Pacific typhoons this year.
• Sept. 8, Kure, Turkey: Fire swept through a Turkish copper mine, trapping and killing 19 miners.
• Sept. 8, Caribbean: Hurricane Ivan, a Category 4 hurricane, ripped through Grenada, damaging an estimated 90 percent of the homes on the island. There was wide-spread destruction in St. George's, to the main hospital, the emergency control center, and the prison. Ivan, continued north, hitting Jamaica and battering the Caymans. Both islands experienced storm surges, major flooding, and destroyed homes. A total of 66 people died.
• Sept. 16, Ala., Fla., La., and Miss.: Hurricane Ivan, made landfall at Gulf Shores, Alabama, as a Category 3 hurricane, causing severe flooding and power outages from Louisiana to Florida, with some of the worst damage in the Florida Panhandle, where the storm spawned deadly hurricanes. The death toll is at least 52 and damages are estimated at $12 billion. Heavy rainfall and tornadoes spread into N.C. and Tenn.
• Sept. 18, Gonaives, Haiti: Tropical storm Jeanne brought torrential rains and flooding to Haiti, killing more than 2,500 with more than 1,000 still missing. The storm killed 31 more in the Caribbean.
• Sept. 25, Atlantic Coast, Fla.: Hurricane Jeanne, the fourth hurricane to hit Florida in 6 weeks, made landfall at almost the same area as Frances, three weeks earlier. Jeanne brought strong winds and more flooding to an already saturated state and then continued north through Georgia and South Carolina with heavy rains, killing 28. Total damages for the 4 hurricanes estimated to be more than for Andrew in 1992.
• Sept. 28, Parkfield, Calif.: An earthquake registering 6.0 shook central California. No injuries or deaths.

October 2004 Disasters

• Oct. 6, Taba, Egypt: Three car bombs targeting Israeli tourists exploded at Egyptian resort areas on the Sinai peninsula. The largest explosion at the Hilton Taba hotel killed at least 34. The other 2 bombs exploded in Ras Shitan, a camp area 35 miles to the south of Taba.
• Oct. 8, Paris, France: A bomb exploded outside the Indonesian Embassy in Paris, wounding 10. No person nor organization has claimed responsibility.
• Oct. 19, Kirksville, Mo.: A commuter plane, Corporate Airlines Flight 5966, crashed 4 mi outside of the Kirksville Regional Airport, killing 13 of the 15 on board.
• Oct. 20, Japan: Typhoon Tokage, the deadliest typhoon to hit Japan in more than 2 decades, killed at least 80 people as heavy rains flooded tens of thousands of houses and triggered numerous landslides. The typhoon produced a record (since 1970) 80 ft (24 m) high wave, eight-stories high. A record ten typhoons have struck Japan this season, killing more than 100 people, and causing damages estimated at $6.7 billion.
• Oct. 20, Henan province, China: A coal mine blast in central China killed 148. Insufficient ventilation led to a build up of gas and then sparks from mine machinery ignited the fire.
• Oct. 23, Niigata, Japan: A 6.6 magnitude earthquake, the deadliest in more than a decade, hit Japan, killing 40, injuring more than 3,100, and destroying more than 6,000 buildings. A series of quakes triggered more than 1,000 landslides, derailed a high-speed train, disrupted power, and damaged many roads in the area. Communications to the area were cut off leaving many without food and supplies. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated to shelters.
• Oct. 24, Martinsville, N.C.: A private plane, belonging to the Rick Hendrick NASCAR team, crashed in heavy fog in North Carolina killing 10, including his son, brother, and other close relatives of Hendrick and several members of the organization.

October 2004 Disasters

• Oct. 6, Taba, Egypt: Three car bombs targeting Israeli tourists exploded at Egyptian resort areas on the Sinai peninsula. The largest explosion at the Hilton Taba hotel killed at least 34. The other 2 bombs exploded in Ras Shitan, a camp area 35 miles to the south of Taba.
• Oct. 8, Paris, France: A bomb exploded outside the Indonesian Embassy in Paris, wounding 10. No person nor organization has claimed responsibility.
• Oct. 19, Kirksville, Mo.: A commuter plane, Corporate Airlines Flight 5966, crashed 4 mi outside of the Kirksville Regional Airport, killing 13 of the 15 on board.
• Oct. 20, Japan: Typhoon Tokage, the deadliest typhoon to hit Japan in more than 2 decades, killed at least 80 people as heavy rains flooded tens of thousands of houses and triggered numerous landslides. The typhoon produced a record (since 1970) 80 ft (24 m) high wave, eight-stories high. A record ten typhoons have struck Japan this season, killing more than 100 people, and causing damages estimated at $6.7 billion.
• Oct. 20, Henan province, China: A coal mine blast in central China killed 148. Insufficient ventilation led to a build up of gas and then sparks from mine machinery ignited the fire.
• Oct. 23, Niigata, Japan: A 6.6 magnitude earthquake, the deadliest in more than a decade, hit Japan, killing 40, injuring more than 3,100, and destroying more than 6,000 buildings. A series of quakes triggered more than 1,000 landslides, derailed a high-speed train, disrupted power, and damaged many roads in the area. Communications to the area were cut off leaving many without food and supplies. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated to shelters.
• Oct. 24, Martinsville, N.C.: A private plane, belonging to the Rick Hendrick NASCAR team, crashed in heavy fog in North Carolina killing 10, including his son, brother, and other close relatives of Hendrick and several members of the organization.

November 2004 Disasters

• Nov. 7, southern Philippines: Southern Philippines hit by tropical storm Lingling experienced flash floods and landslides that killed at least 115.
• Nov. 11, Kepulauan Alor, Indonesia: A 7.5 earthquake, the largest in 2004, killed 28 people.
• Nov. 20, San Jose, Costa Rica: A 6.4 earthquake, 30 mi south-southwest of San Jose, killed 8 people, several from heart attacks.
• Nov. 21, Baotou, China: China Eastern Airlines commuter plane, a Bombardier CRJ-200, exploded and plunged into a frozen lake just after take-off from Baotou, a city in northern China. All 53 people on board and 1 on the ground were killed
• Nov. 20–21, El Campo, Tex.: Fifteen inches of rain flooded El Campo and parts of southeast Texas. More than 250 were evacuated.
• Nov. 22–26, Philippines and Vietnam: Tropical storm Muifa sank several boats and pounded the Philippine coast, killing at least 60. In Vietnam, torrential rains from Muifa killed at least 45 people, flooded more than 170,000 houses, and blocked roads, hampering rescue efforts and the delivery of relief supplies. Flooding also threatened the World Heritage site of Hoi An in Vietnam.
• Nov. 27, Shaanxi province, China: A gas explosion at Chenjiashan Coal Mine in northwest China killed 166 miners. In October another blast killed 148. More than 4,500 miners died in China this year.
• Nov. 26, West Papua province, Indonesia: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake destroyed 328 buildings and killed at least 32.
• Nov. 27–28, Sierra Nevadas and Rocky Mountains: Holiday storms dumped up to three feet of snow in California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Nebraska bringing holiday travel to a halt.
• Nov. 29, eastern coast and Quezon province, Philippines: Flash floods and landslides from Typhoon Winnie killed more than 500 people and hundreds are still missing. Because of the many landslides, many areas were inaccessible to rescue and clean-up crews. The landslides were caused by the deforestation from both illegal and legal logging.
• Nov. 30, Solo, Indonesia: A Lion Air MD-82 plane skidded off the runway in Solo, Indonesia, killing 31 and injuring at least 62.

December 2004 Disasters

• Dec. 2–3, eastern coast and Luzon, Philippines: Typhoon Nanmadol, a major storm, hit an area already devastated by 2 previous torrential storms that struck the northeastern region of the Philippines in the last 2 weeks. More than 1800 people died in storm related deaths from the three storms since November. It was the worst storm season for the Philippines in 13 years. Much of the devastation is due to massive landslides resulting from the deforestation by both legal and illegal logging. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has canceled all logging permits and security forces are cracking down on illegal logging.
• Dec. 6, Jeddah , Saudi Arabia: Five Al-Qaeda militants attacked the U.S. consulate leaving a total of nine dead (five consulate employees and four attackers), none were American. The militants drove up to the consulate gates, then jumped out and opened fire with machine guns and hand grenades, and entered the compound. Saudi security forces stopped the raid and secured the compound within 30 minutes. The attackers claimed to be members of the Falluja Brigades. Attacks in Saudi Arabia have killed more then 75 since May 20, 2003.
• Dec. 12, Manila, Philippines: A bomb exploded in a crowded market of Christmas stalls, killing 15 people and wounding 65.
• Dec. 19, Mercer County, Penn.: Heavy snows and a whiteout caused a pileup of 70 cars on Interstate 80 in western Pennsylvania. No one was killed.
• Dec. 26, Sumatra, Indonesia: A 9.0 magnitude earthquake—the largest earthquake since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake, —caused a powerful tsunami in the Indian Ocean that hit 12 countries; Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Somalia, Myanmar, Maldives, Malaysia, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Kenya, and the Seychelles. The earthquake's epicenter was off the west coast of the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. By Feb. 2005, the death toll was more than 225,000 with thousands still missing. Millions have lost their homes. Hardest hit were Indonesia (particularly the province of Aceh) with more than 166,000 deaths, Sri Lanka with more than 30,000 deaths, India, and Thailand.
• Dec. 30, Buenos Aires, Argentina: A flare started a fire at an overcrowded nightclub, the Republica de la Cromagnon disco, killing 175 people and injuring more than 700. Four of the escape routes were locked.

2003 Disasters

January 2003 Disasters

• Jan. 1–8, Bangladesh and Northern India: Nearly 400 people perished from cold weather and icy winds in an area where millions of people have no heat, electricity, or warm clothing.
• Jan. 8, Charlotte, N.C.: A US Airways Express/Air Midwest commuter plane, Flight 5481, crashed moments after takeoff at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. All 21 people aboard were killed.
• Jan. 8, Diyarbakar, Turkey: A Turkish airplane approaching the airport crashed in foggy weather, 75 people died, five survived.
• Jan. 9, Chachapoyas, Peru: A Peruvian TANS Airlines plane carrying 46 people crashed in the mountains just before it was due to land in Chachapoyas, north of Lima. All 46 people perished.
• Jan. 22¹, Colima, Mexico: An earthquake measuring 7.6 magnitude was felt throughout west-central Mexico, causing extensive damage and 29 deaths.

February 2003 Disasters

• Feb. 1, Tex.: The Columbia Space Shuttle, on its 28th mission, broke up as it reentered Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crew members. They were: Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon. Communications with the shuttle were lost at 9 A.M. EST. Debris from the shuttle was found across east Texas and in parts of Louisiana. Foam insulation fell during takeoff damaging the left wing and allowing hot gases to enter the spaceship during re-entry.
• Feb. 17, Chicago, Ill.: In an early morning fatal stampede from the second floor of a Chicago night club, 21 people were trampled. The club had numerous building code violations.
• Feb. 14–18, eastern U.S.: The President's Day blizzard moved through the Midwest and up the East coast of the U.S. burying cities in record snowfall amounts, stranding travelers, and costing millions in cleanup and lost revenues. The storm claimed the lives of 42 people. It was the worst snowstorm for the region since the Blizzard of 1996..
• Feb. 18, Daegu, South Korea: A subway fire started by an arsonist, who ignited a box filled with gasoline, raced through 2 trains, killing at least 189 people and injuring more than 140.
• Feb. 19, southern Iran: An Iranian military airplane carrying members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards crashed in the Sirach Mountains of southeastern Iran en route to Kerman. All 276 on board were killed, making this Iran's worst air disaster.
• Feb. 20, West Warwick, R.I.: A fire, caused by a pyrotechnics display, engulfed a Rhode Island nightclub, The Station, killing 100 and injuring more than 150.
• Feb. 24, Xinjiang province, China: An earthquake, magnitude 6.4, struck the western edge of Xinjiang province in the far northwest of China early in the morning (02:03:44 UTC), killing more than 260 people and injuring more than 2,000. Thousands of homes and hundreds other buildings were destroyed. This area is populated mostly by the Uighur ethnic minority, most of whom are Muslim. Earthquakes are frequent in this area, though none has been this devastating.
• Feb. 25, south-central U.S.: Snow and freezing rain in the south-central states caused the deaths of at least 14 people and closed highways across the region. The storm moved eastward causing widespread electrical outages and 2 more deaths.
• Feb., Congo: An ebola outbreak in the Congo took a toll of 75 people.

March 2003 Disasters

• March 4, Davao, Philippines: A bomb in a backpack exploded in the Davao airport on Mindanao Island, killing 21 people and injuring 145.
• March 6, Tamanrasset, Algeria: An Algerian Boeing 737 crashed after takeoff from Tamanrasset, killing 102 people.
• March 17–19, Denver, Colorado: Colorado's biggest storm of the year dumped several feet of snow in the Rockies, 87.5 inches in Gilpin county, and the second largest recorded amount of snow in Denver.

April 2003 Disasters

• April, World: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a deadly form of pneumonia, first detected in southern China was responsible for more than 388 deaths worldwide. The majority of the more than 5,500 cases were in China and Hong Kong. As a result of concerns about contacting SARS, travel and tourism to these areas dropped dramatically.
• April 21, nr. Danka, Bangladesh: In 2 separate accidents, a double-decked ferry and a ferry carrying members of a bridal party sank in a storm. More than a 130 bodies were recovered and many more were still missing.
• April 27, Buzzard's Bay, Ma.: An oil spill in Buzzard's Bay in southern Massachusetts shut down the shellfishing industry and killed hundreds of birds. A barge owned by Bouchard Transportation, Inc. leaked an estimated 98,000 gallons of oil from a gash in the hull. This estimate, a month after the disaster, was seven times greater than the original estimate of 15,000 gallons.

May 2003 Disasters

• May: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which was first detected in southern China last November, continued to spread in China and Taiwan but appeared to be contained in other areas of the world. As of May 31st, there were a probable 8,300 cases with a confirmed death toll of 755.
• April-May, Horn of Africa: Flooding in Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia killed more than 150 people.
• May 1– 11, United States: A series of tornadoes battered the Midwest and Southern states during May. In the first 11 days there were 412 tornadoes which broke the previous record in 1999 of about 200 tornadoes in a 10–day period (record keeping began in 1950).
• May 1, Bingol, Turkey: In a remote region in the southeastern part of Turkey, an earthquake measuring 6.4 magnitude killed 177 people, including 83 boys from a school dormitory.
• May 1, China: An accident on a Chinese submarine killed 70 people. The cause of the accident has not yet been disclosed.
• May 4, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee: A series of tornadoes ripped through four states, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee causing at least 38 deaths and extensive damage to buildings and homes. The hardest hit area was Lawrence County, Missouri. Officials from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reported sightings of more than 80 tornadoes in parts of central and southeastern United States. Strong storms and tornadoes continued to hit the South and Midwest through the week, bringing the total number of deaths to more than 41. Some towns in Missouri closed schools for the year.
• May 8, Kinshasa, Congo: When the cargo door of a Russian-built Ilyushin 76 opened 45 minutes after takeoff, more than 100 people were sucked out of the plane and died. The plane, an Ukrainian charter, was carrying Congolese soldiers and their families to Lubumbashi in southeast Congo. The exact number of causalities is unknown as there were no passenger lists.
• May 12, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: suicide bombers killed 34, including eight Americans, at housing compounds for Westerners. Al-Qaeda suspected.
• May 13, Hefei, Anhui province, China: A gas explosion in a Chinese mine claimed the lives of 81 miners. Five are still missing and 27 were rescued.
• May 17–18, Sri Lanka: Floods and landslides in south-central Sri Lanka killed more than 300 people, left more than 200 missing, and more than 150,000 homeless. Although May through September is typically the monsoon season, these downpours were the worst in 60 years.
• May 14–June 5, India: A 3–week heat wave with temperatures over 120° F. (48° C) left more than 1,200 people dead from sunstroke and dehydration. Most of the deaths occurred in the southern Andhra Pradesh state where a similar heat wave last year killed more than 1,000 people.
• May 21, Algeria: There were 2,266 people killed and thousands more injured by a 6.8 magnitude earthquake that caused the collapse of numerous buildings. The epicenter was 45 miles east of Algiers, the capital city.
• May 26, Sindal, Japan: A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan, however, there were no casualties and very few people were injured due to the depth (about 44 miles underground) of the epicenter of the earthquake.
• May 26, Macka, Turkey: A Ukrainian chartered airplane carrying Spanish peacekeeping forces returning from Afghanistan crashed into a mountain in heavy fog while attempting to land at Trabzon airport, killing all 75 people onboard.

June 2003 Disasters

• June 17–July, nr. Tucson, Arizona: The Aspen wildfire, on Mount Lemmon northeast of Tucson, burned more than 80,000 acres and destroyed 333 structures in and around the vacation community of Summerhaven.

July 2003 Disasters

• July 1, Louisiana Tropical Depression Bill moved through Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, leaving four dead and 30 million dollars in damage.
• July 8, Port Sudan, Sudan: A Sudan Airways airplane, a Boeing 737, experienced technical difficulties shortly after takeoff and crashed while attempting to return to the Port Sudan airport. One child survived and 116 passengers and crew perished.
• July 8, Dhaka, Bangladesh: More than 400 people drowned after an overcrowded ferry sank in turbulent waters while crossing the rain-swollen Meghna river near Danka in southern Bangladesh. Over 2500 people swam to shore or were rescued.
• July 15, Gulf Coast, Texas: Hurricane Claudette, a Category I hurricane, packing winds up to 85 mph, killed three people and left battered buildings, trailers, and downed trees in its wake. Claudette was the first hurricane of the 2003 season. President Bush declared nine counties as disaster areas.
• July 22–26, Manila, Philippines and southern China: Typhoon Imbudo, with winds up to 143 mph, stuck the Northern Philippines, killing at least 20 people. The typhoon, one of the most powerful in years, continued on to southern China where it killed 20 more people, destroyed crops, and devastated houses.
• June-July, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, China: The worst flooding from the monsoons in years forced the evacuation of millions, left more than 3.5 million homeless, and killed more than 500 people. Some of the worst flooding was along the Huai River
• July, Kulu, India: Flash floods in the Kulu district north of New Delhi killed more than 100 people, bringing the total toll of people killed from the monsoon rains this year in Southeast Asia (India, Nepal, and Bangladesh) to about 400. Thousands of people were driven from their homes as landslides washed away homes and crops.

August 2003 Disasters

• Aug. 1, Mozdok, Russia: Chechen separatists are blamed for an explosion at a military hospital in Mozdok which killed 35 and injured dozens.
• Aug. 5, Jakarta, Indonesia: A car bomb blasted the JW Marriott Hotel, killing 12 and injuring nearly 150. Officials suspect the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group was involved with this bombing and the Bali bombing in October. Several suspects were arrested.
• July-Aug., Europe: A three-week heat wave dominated Europe where temperatures, the highest in decades, ranged from the upper 90s to 104 degrees (F.), breaking records in Britain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Portugal, and Spain. Amarelejo, Portugal recorded the highest temperature since 1856. Fires raged in Portugal, Spain, Italy, and the French Riviera. Fires in Portugal caused more that one billion in damages. Glacial ice melted in the Alps, violent storms hit England, and nuclear power stations cut back due to overheated water. Thousands died with the toll highest among the elderly. The death toll in France was estimated at more than 14,000.
• Aug. 14–15, northeast, U.S. and Canada: The largest power blackout in U.S. and North American history swept across Ohio, Michigan, and Canada and then spread to Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, leaving 50 million without electricity for 24 hours and longer. Billions of dollars in revenue were lost.
• Aug. 25, Mumbai, India: 2 deadly bombs exploded in Mumbai, the financial capital of India, killing 52 and wounding 153 people.
• Aug. 27, Nasik, India: A stampede at the Kumbh Mela Hindu festival killed 40 people and injured 30 when a barricade fell. Ten of thousands of pilgrims were attending the Hindu festival and bathing in the Godavari river.
• Aug., British Columbia, Canada: A summer of heat waves and very low precipitation caused hundreds of fires in the British Columbia province, making it the worst Canadian fire season in decades. The Okanagan Mountain fire that lasted more than 23 days destroyed 230 homes and forced tens of thousands to evacuate from the town of Kelowna.

September 2003 Disasters

• Sept. 2, Guangdong province, China: The storm system, Dujuan, swept through Taiwan and then southern China with gale force winds, killing 40, injuring more than 100, and destroying houses, trees, crops, and the electric and telecommunications infrastructure. Dujuan, downgraded to a tropical depression, had been a Category 3 typhoon hitting Taiwan with 200 mph. winds.
• Sept. 5, Bermuda: Hurricane Fabian slammed Bermuda for four hours with 120 mph winds, killing four, and bringing down trees and power lines. A category 3 storm, Fabian was the worst hurricane to hit Bermuda since 1926. Very strict building codes in Bermuda, that required buildings to withstand wind gusts of 150 mph, limited the amount of damage.
• Sept. 12, South Korea: With winds up to 130 mph, Typhoon Maemi, one of the most powerful typhoons to hit South Korea in a century, killed at least 110 people, disrupted electrical power and communications systems, knocked over ships in the port, and forced the evacuation of thousands from their homes.
• Sept. 18, North Carolina and Virginia: Hurricane Isabel, which reached the status of a Category 5 storm while in the Atlantic, hit the North Carolina coast as a Category 2 storm causing extensive storm surge flooding all up the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac and James rivers. Isabel continued north through Ohio and Pennsylvania dumping heavy amounts of rain in its tracks. At least 50 deaths resulted from Isabel and damages were estimated at $3.7 billion dollars.
• Sept. 25, Hokkaido, Japan: A 8.3 magnitude earthquake, the strongest in the world this year, struck Japan on Sept. 25, 19.50 UTC (Sept. 26 local time) on the northern island of Hokkaido. More that 500 people were injured and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes. Damages were estimated at 90 billion U.S. dollars.
• Sept. 28, Italy: A power blackout throughout Italy left more than 55 million (about 95 percent of the population) in the dark, some for up to 18 hours. Five people died as a result of the outage. Italy, with little electric capacity of its own, relies on Switzerland and France for much of its power.
• Sept. 28, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Hurricane Juan made landfall near Halifax and stormed across Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island heavily damaging farms, causing power outages that lasted more than 2 weeks in some areas, and killing eight people. Damages were estimated at $100 million

November 2003 Disasters

• Nov. 2, Bohorok, Indonesia: Flash floods struck the tourist town of Bohorok, near an Indonesia's nation park and orangutan reserve, wiping out many guesthouses near the river banks and killing more than 150 people. Frequent floods in Indonesia result from the heavy illegal deforestation.
• Nov. 9, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: After breaching security gates in a Saudi Arabic apartment compound, terrorists denoted 3 bombs, killing 17 and wounding 122. Most of the victims were Arabs.
• Nov. 15, Istanbul, Turkey: 2 Turkish suicide bombers detonated bombs simultaneously outside of 2 synagogues, the Neve Shalom synagogue and the Beth Israel Synagogue, killing 25 people, 6 Jews and 19 Muslims, and injuring hundreds more. Although direct links with al-Qaeda has not been confirmed, al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility
• Nov. 20, Istanbul, Turkey: At least 26 people killed and 400 wounded when 2 trucks blow up in Istanbul, Turkey. One truck explodes outside the British consulate, and the other at the British bank HSBC. Al-Qaeda suspected in the bombings. The blasts occur as President Bush was meeting with British prime minister Tony Blair in London.

December 2003 Disasters

• Dec. 2–3, southeastern France: Floods, resulting from three days of rain and winds, killed 7 and left thousands homeless in the Rhone River and its tributaries in southeast France.
• Dec. 5, Yessentuki, Russia A bomb ripped through a morning commuter train near the Chechyna region of Russia, killing 45 and injuring more than 170. The bombing occurred 2 days before parliamentary elections. Russian officials blame Chechen militants for the incident.
• Dec. 9, Moscow, Russia: A bomb exploded outside the National Hotel, killing five people and wounding nine.
• Dec. 5–7, northeastern U.S.: Record snowstorms dumped up to three feet of snow on towns in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire. President Bush approved Federal emergency funds for affected counties in each of these states.
• Dec. 17–23, central and southern Philippines: Heavy rains resulted in landslides and flooding across central and southern Philippines killing more than 200 people and causing a ferry to sink.
• Dec. 25, Cotonou, Benin: A Union des Transports Africains (UTA) Boeing 727 jet bound for Beruit, Lebanon, crashed after hitting a building on take-off, killing 151 people.
• Dec. 25, San Bernardino Mountains, Ca: Heavy rains triggered flash floods and mudslides, killing 14 people in campsites around the area. October forest fires had left the hillsides barren of vegetation.
• Dec. 26, Bam, Iran: a 6.6 magnitude earthquake devastated the ancient historic city of Bam in southeastern Iran, killing more than 30,000 people, injuring tens of thousands, and leaving many more homeless as buildings collapsed. Many of the buildings in this ancient city are made of mud brick and cannot withstand earthquakes. The Arg-e-Bam, a 2000 year-old citadel and a major tourist attraction which was built of sun-baked bricks and straw, was heavily damaged