Dust Storm Blots Out Sun Across Nigeria - Result Of Unseasonable Harmattan Winds - AP/USA Today

[hatrack]

LAGOS, Nigeria — The yellow haze descended across Nigeria, blotting out the sun, canceling airline flights and coating everything with a fine layer of dust. The sudden storm sparked frightened text messages about supposedly killer acid rain, but meteorologists say the weather comes from the harmattan, a yearly trade wind that brings dust from the Sahara Desert through Nigeria and the rest of West Africa. This year, however, the harmattan has come at an abnormal time, a possible result of global warming. Experts say it may delay the rainy season in Africa's most populous nation and there are worries it may even throw off future seasonal changes.

"It is part of the changes of the climate," said Temi Ologunorisa, a professor of climatology at Osun State University. "With the coming of this dust, you cannot have rain." The harmattan, caused by shifting weather patterns, means "tears your breath apart" in Twi, a West African language. The harmattan season typically begins in late November, as Nigeria's dry season begins to end. The winds carry the sands and dust of the Sahara southward, and pick up the loose crop soil of Nigeria's arid northern Sahel with it.

This year, the harmattan briefly appeared in January. It typically ends by February, said Sampson Wilson, a deputy general manager at the government-run Nigerian Meteorological Agency. But it blew back into Nigeria without warning last weekend, first enveloping the country's north in dust and dropping visibility to almost zero, according to Wilson, and forcing many airlines to cancel flights in the country of 150 million people.

As it reached south, the storm encased the megacity of Lagos in a yellow fog that made the setting sun give off no more light than the moon. Northern Nigeria is experiencing growing desertification as rising temperatures allow the edge of the Sahara Desert to creep closer to the country. That additional dust adds fuel for the harmattan winds, said Ologunorisa, an expert on climate change. "The more dust you have, it shows we have more desertification," he said. The harmattan has made it hard to breathe in Lagos, whose air already is polluted by swarms of beat-up cars navigating potholed streets and by electrical generators that provide power during frequent blackouts. Health authorities warned the public to cover faces with wet cloth and stay indoors, but many had to take to the streets to earn a living in a country where most live on less than $1 a day.

EDIT

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/2010-03-24-nigeria-dust-storm_N.htm

[Dogmudgeon]

1. My Most Esteemed and Commodiously Disposed Sir:

It is with awe-filled Trembling and Chillblains at the Acme of Humility that I devoutly beg Your decorous Indulgencies. By way of most prostrate Introduction, my name is George Washington Milhouse Mbotu-Frustrum, formerly the Deputy Assistant to the Vice-Undersecretary of the Adjutant Liaison Office of the Nigerian Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Revenue Enhancement. Due to a demoniacally concerted and most morbid politically-inspired Conspiracy against my Person, Corpus, and Bodice, I have come into possession of 14,000,000,000 (fourteen billions of) tons of prime Nigerian Agricultural Dust worth approximately $70,000,000,000,000 (Seventy Trillions of Dollars (American)) on the world Agricultural Dusts and Soils markets.

This most Precious Agricultural Dust is among the very most Valuable and Sought-After Commodities that our proud and beloved Nation of Nigeria has to offer. It has been assayed by the late World Renowned Dustologist Prof. Dr. Anton Chekov DesMoines-Garambiniumpolo, Chairman of the Osun National University School of Agriculture, the Faculty of the Artifices and Scientologies, and three-time Recipient of the Haroldboys Q. J. Dirtinose Prize for Innovation in Agriculture, Criminalistics, and Sport Stadium Architecture. Prof. Dr. DesMoines-Garambiniumpolo has verified that this fine Agricultural Dust contains sufficiently high levels of Nitre, Potash, and Luciferial elemental stone from which may be grown all manner of Foodstuffs for a Nation of 100,000,000 (One Hundreds of Millions (American)). The Agricultural Dust in question is Likewise pronounced Free from excess pathogenetic Organisms and Toxical Poisonated Substances including (but not limited to) Arsenic, Cadmium, Mercury, Jupiter, Selenium, Molybdenum, Uranium, Neptunium, Plutonium, Sednium, Peripheria, Paraphernalia, Gallium, Trollium, Gollum, Mumia, Lyceum, Listerine, Psilocybine, and diverse species of Black Liquors (both Combustative and Sub-Mephitic).

In addition, this Agricultural Dust is charged with primordial Earth Energies owing to the presence of Certain Trans-Uranic elements, in Sufficient Quantity and Puissance (> 5.5 TBq/g) to emit a refined blue glow when observed in Perfect Darkness; called by our esteemed physicists the ,,Cerenkov Radiation''. Its Presence establishes the Worth of this Agricultural Dust as a primary source of the Materials required for the Establishment of a Program of Atomic Energy including Numerous Instantiations of Thermonuclear Ordnance with which to Elevate the International Esteem of a small Country, Kingdom, Republic, People's Republic, or Principality.

Such is my lamentable Ill-Fortune that I am unable to quickly dispose of this, my Worldly Fortune, in a Biologically Safe and Civilly Legal manner. And yet, I am obligated to raise Substantial Monies to underwrite the unrelievedly Burdensome Costs of my impending Jailbreak from the Nigerian National House of Corrections, where I am cashiered in posh (if Spartan) Accommodations within the secure precinctures of the Department of Capital Punition (lead-alloy projectile emplacement punition technologies subdivision).

Therefore, I am hereby summarily Authorized to Grant and Extend to You this Most Unique and Lucripetous Offer. I will part with my Commoditary Investiture of $70,000,000,000,000 (Seventy Trillions of Dollars (American)) upon receipt of Your certified Banquer's Cheque and/or VISA MoneyGram in the amount of $100,000,000 (One Hundred Millions of Dollars (American)); alternately, said Monies may be electronically transfected into One or Both of my Private Accounts in Le Banc Intermondiale Quatrième de Genève or PayPal, as You may cybernetistically prefer.

I certainly do not expect You to transmit this Amount without the fungible Exchange of some Token of each other's Good and Excellent Faith. Therefore, I will convey to You and/or Your Agents, Heirs, and Assigns, this complete Stock of prime Nigerian Agricultural Dust in the Worth of approximately $70,000,000,000,000 (Seventy Trillions of Dollars (American)) upon Receipt of a mere 0.000005% of the Full and Total amount, being $50,000,000 (Fifty Millions of Dollars (American)) and a Signed Promissory Note pledging Your Intentionality to remit the Balance in Five (5) equal Payments of $13,999,990,000,000 (Thirteen Trillion, Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine Billion, Nine Hundred and Ninety Millions of Dollars (American)).

Indeed, should You satisfy this Transaction within the Temporal Superfection of the ensuing and/or next 90 Minutes, I will be Delighted waive one of the Five Payments of $13,999,990,000,000 (American) and to additionally convey to Your Domicile a copy of Dr. Kevin Trudeau's Suppressed Toe Fungus Cures THEY Don't Want You To Know About!, a $49.95 value, at no cost to You. You will therefore become the proud and incipient Owner of prime Nigerian Agricultural Dust valued at approximately $70,000,000,000,000 (Seventy Trillions of Dollars (American)) for the low price of $55,999,960,000,000 (Fifty-Five Trillion, Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine Billion, Nine Hundred and Sixty Billions of Dollars (American)).

The Best Feature of this Transaction is that should You change Your Mind, Your Good-Faith Payment of $50,000,000 (Fifty Millions of Dollars (American)) will be returned Cheerfully, and You may retain Possession the afore-conveyed Book as my Special Gift to You and Your Loved Ones.

Please Hurry and make Haste to secure Your Assumption of this Offer, as by Law it will be withdrawn on December 31, 2010, or upon my Demise, whichever occurs first.

I Am, and Shall Remain,

Your Humble and Obedient Servant,

(signed,)

George Washington Milhouse Mbotu-Frustrum, AB, PhD, CE, OBE, NCE,
Deputy Assistant to the Vice-Undersecretary of the Adjutant Liaison Office of the Nigerian Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Revenue Enhancement (1992-2005)


May It Please You To Address All Correspondence To:
George Washington Milhouse Mbotu-Frustrum
The Nigerian National House of Corrections
Suite D-45, Capital Offences Wing
3000 Bonenfante Avenue
Lagos, Nigeria
Postal Code 14B31
Attention:
Prisoner 791-3308-92
Cell D-45

[Nihil]

2. Well played that man!

:spray:
:applause:

[Dead_Parrot]

3. ...

:spray:
:yourock:

[phantom power]

4. ...

:patriot:

:toast: