WEEK 34 Aug 13th to 19th 2001

   Meteorology: INCREASINGLY CHARGED ATMOSPHERE

   During 12 hours Thursday 21000 lightning flares were registered in and around the city of Bergen, in the western part of Norway. Among them at least 2500 struck land. In what is a completely unprecedented "work of Nature" people witnessed "a continuous roll of lightning and thunder, a nature's discothèque". The lightning struck twice or even thrice on a number of houses. Many people were injured, but by some tremendous chain of coincidences no one was killed. Torrential rain and extremely high humidity accompanied the electrical storm. People have described it as "breathing under water".
   During the last few days there have also been heavy electrical activity in Stockholm, south of France and the northeastern United States. In France two people were killed and in United States it added several fires to an already explosive mix of drought and heat.
   Meteorologists have registered a general increase in atmospheric activity the last decade. As the global temperature and particle count in the air is increasing the weather pattern is turning increasingly unstable.