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Huge sinkhole opens up in Williamson County, Illinois

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Sinkhole in Williamson County
A Spillertown couple woke up to a terrifying sight just outside their house when a sinkhole opened up just feet from their door.

The hole seems to have stopped growing but officials say it's 40 feet in diameter and they're unsure how deep it goes.

James Swann says Saturday you couldn't see the water through all the trees lining this pond. By Tuesday, those trees had vanished into a 40-foot wide sink hole.

"There was several trees but they'd just disappear. It was interesting," Swann described the scene. "Just straight down and gone."

Bob Gibson with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources doesn't know much about the sinkhole, except, it sits over an old coal mine.

"Other than it's a pit subsidence, that's really all I know," Gibson said. "It's roughly 40 feet in diameter and we're gonna gauge how deep below ground water it is right now. If you look at it, it's something like 20 feet from the ground surface to water level and then below water level I don't know yet, we're gonna probe that a little bit later."


Cloud Precipitation

Russia's Olympic city of Sochi hit by flooding

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Floods in Sochi
Local authorities in Sochi, Russia, are struggling to cope with a flash flood that came after two days of torrential rain in the host city of last year's Winter Olympic Games.

The rain has intensified in the last few hours, with some local rivers rising as high as 1.2 meters above the norm, Interfax reported.

Videos from the region showed streets full of cars submerged by torrents of water.



Sochi International Airport reported that dispatching and accepting flights have been problematic due to the weather conditions and the flood.

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Floodwater in Sochi

Wolf

Infant attacked by family dog in San Francisco

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An 8-month-old baby is being treated for injuries after a dog attack this morning in San Francisco's North of the Panhandle neighborhood.

The attack happened around 8 a.m. in the 800 block of Masonic Avenue, according to a fire spokeswoman. The dog belonged to the family, according to police spokesperson Albie Esparza.

The baby was bitten on the head of face, but the injures aren't considered life-threatening.

The dog, a mastiff mix, is being quarantined for 10 days, as is standard procedure after a dog bite, Esparza said.

He said the department's vicious and dangerous dog unit was notified of the incident, as were Child Protective Services and San Francisco Animal Care and Control.

It is unclear what provoked the attack.

Attention

40-foot blue whale dies on shore near Mumbai, India

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Locals gather to catach a glimpse of the blue whale.
A 40-feet dead whale washed ashore near the coast of Revas in Raigad district in Maharashtra. Forest department officials claim that the whale may have got stranded in shallow water and later died; the carcass was later buried near the coast.

Another dead whale was found at the Uran coast around two months ago. Several marine creatures including dolphins have been found dead around the Mumbai coast in the recent past.

The female Blue Whale, the world's largest animal, washed up on the beach on Wednesday morning and despite efforts to move the 20-tonne marine mammal by locals and authorities, the whale died ashore around on Thursday morning.

Recently, blue whales were spotted by researchers along the Sindhudurg coast of Maharashtra in the first such sighting in 100 years.

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Local fishermen and bystanders crowd around the blue whale.

Snowflake Cold

Ice Age Cometh: UK threatened with 'little Ice Age' as slump in solar activity leads to freezing winters

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© Getty-PA
Climate experts warn the amount of light and warmth released by the sun is nosediving to levels "not seen for centuries". They fear a repeat of the so-called 'Maunder Minimum' which triggered Arctic winter whiteouts and led to the River Thames freezing 300 years ago.

The Met Office-led study warns although the effect will be offset by recent global warming, Britain faces years of unusually cold winters.

A spokesman said: "A return to low solar activity not seen for centuries could increase the chances of cold winters in Europe and eastern parts of the United States but wouldn't halt global warming.

"Return of 'grand solar minimum' could affect European and eastern US winters." Long episodes of low solar activity were seen during the Maunder Minimum between 1645 and 1715 and the 'Dalton Minimum' from 1790 to 1830.
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© PAHow Britain would look like from space during an ice age

Umbrella

Waterspout strikes home on Long Beach Island

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Brant Beach
Tuesday's severe storm caused quite a scare for people at the Jersey Shore.

An Action News viewer sent us video from from Brant Beach on Long Beach Island.

The storm appears to whip up a waterspout, sending it across the bay and right into his home.

It also tossed around debris and boats docked nearby.



Cloud Precipitation

Fifty die due to floods in Gujarat, India

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© AFPIndian villagers standing on a building awaiting rescue by authorities as floodwaters rise in Amreli District, some 200kms south-west of Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat on June 24, 2015.
Authorities in India's Gujarat state have asked people to move to higher grounds as incessant monsoon rains have triggered floods and house collapses.

Heavy rains have been battering the worst-affected region, where more than 50 people have died in flood-related incidents.

Nearly 10,000 people have been moved to higher ground, including 1,000 who were airlifted to safety.
India regularly witnesses severe floods during the monsoon season.

But the ferocity of this year's monsoon in Gujarat has surprised many, says the BBC Hindi's Ankur Jain in Ahmedabad, the main city in Gujarat.


Fire

Over 270 wildfires are burning in Alaska right now

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© AK Forestry ‏This map from the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center helps put Alaska's wildland fire situation in perspective.
Following on a record hot May in which much snow cover melted off early, Alaska saw no less than 152 fires erupt over the weekend. A further increase since then had the number of active fires at 243 as of Tuesday — a number that appears to have risen still further to 278 Wednesday, according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center.

"Given the high number of fires and the personnel assigned to those fires, the state's firefighting resources are becoming very limited, forcing fire managers to prioritize resources," noted the state's Department of Natural Resources Tuesday. The preparedness level at the moment for the state is 5, meaning that "resistance to control is high to extreme and resistance to extinguishment is high."

Granted, according to reporting by the Alaska News Dispatch, while this year's fire numbers are high total acreage burned so far hasn't been that huge. Nonetheless, it's quite a busy start to the summer — and there's a lot of fire season left to go.

Cloud Precipitation

3 killed and thousands affected by floods, landslides in Philippines

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© Javes YsipOne of three collapsed bridges in Koronadal City, 24 June 2015.
Three people were confirmed killed while around 800 others were displaced as flashfloods and landslides hit parts of South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces early Wednesday.

Reports from local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) offices said the floods and landslides occurred following the almost non-stop heavy to moderate rains in the area that started Tuesday evening.

In South Cotabato, severe flooding was reported in the municipalities of Banga, Norala, Tantangan, Tupi, and Koronadal City due to the swelling of several rivers and tributaries.

Landslides were also reported in Barangays Bunao and Lunen in Tupi after a portion of a mountain in the area collapsed at the height of heavy rains early Wednesday.

Ira Aguinaldo, staff member of the Tupi Municipal DRRM Office (MDRRMO), said three casualties were reported in the landslide that hit a portion of Purok Tinago, Sitio Akmaon in Barangay Bunao.

Two of the casualties were identified as couple Nonoy and Monita Ga, who were both 74 years old.

Cloud Lightning

Thunderstorms lash U.S. Mid-Atlantic region, cutting off power to thousands

lightening washington DC
© Reuters/Yuri Gripas
A lightening strikes the sky above the Jefferson Memorial after a severe storm in Washington June 23, 2015
Powerful thunderstorms packing heavy rain and high winds lashed the U.S. Middle Atlantic region late on Tuesday, killing one person, snarling travel and cutting off power to hundreds of thousands of customers.

The fast-moving band of storms stretching from Virginia to southern New Jersey dumped up to one inch (2.5 cm) of rain in less than an hour in some places, said Jim Hayes, a National Weather Service meteorologist in College Park, Maryland.

"The storms were intense but they were moving pretty quickly," he said.

Police in Montgomery County, Maryland said a 79-year-old man died after his pickup truck hit a tree that had fallen across the roadway, about 30 miles (48 km) north of Washington D.C.