Earth ChangesS


Snowflake

Heavy snowfall brings chaos to roads across northern and central Spain


The Local (Spain)
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 11:10 UTC
snow map
Heavy snow and freezing temperatures have brought chaos to roads across northern and central Spain once more.

Snowdrifts have forced the closure of main thoroughfares in Castilla y León, Cantabria, Asturias and the mountainous regions of Aragon, the Basque Country and even Madrid and parts of the Balearic Islands.

Spain's national weather agency have issued weather warnings in 33 provinces across the peninsula and Balearic Islands in a cold snap that is expected to continue over the weekend and into next week.

Sections of motorway remain closed Friday morning, including parts of AP-6, la AP-51, la AP-61, la A-1 and la A-15.
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Boat

Venice water levels lowest since records began - and it's sinking (PHOTOS)

Devika Desai
National Post
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 23:18 UTC
A gondola is seen tied up in Venice, near the Rialto bridge, on January 31, 2018, as exceptionally low tides have drained the lagoon city.
© VINCENZO PINTO / AFP/ GETTY IMAGESA gondola is seen tied up in Venice, near the Rialto bridge, on January 31, 2018, as exceptionally low tides have drained the lagoon city.
Photographs taken this week show the famed Venetian gondolas helplessly abandoned on the docks, as the low tides caused by Wednesday's 'super blue blood moon' dry up the canals, robbing gondoliers of their money and residents of their transportation.

This is the third year that Venice has experienced record low water levels, with data showing a decrease of up to 60 cm lower than average. Two years ago, the city reported water levels up to 70 cm below normal levels, the lowest ever recorded in city data, according to Express.
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Binoculars

Rare moon dogs light up the skies over Winnipeg, Manitoba


CBC News
Thu, 01 Feb 2018 10:28 UTC
Moon dogs over Winnipeg, Manitoba
© Scott McCulloughMoon dogs appeared in the Manitoba sky early Thursday morning.
Winnipeggers were treated to a relatively rare sight in the inky sky early Thursday before sunrise.

Bright spots, known as moon dogs, were visible on both sides of a halo that ringed the moon.

The lunar halo and spots only happen when there are ice crystals in the air and the moon is bright enough - quarter moon or more - to shine light that can be refracted by the crystals, according to The Stargazer's Guide to the Night Sky.

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Attention

Southern California's drought deepens dramatically

Ellen Knickmeyer & Rich Pedroncelli
PhysOrg
Thu, 01 Feb 2018 21:11 UTC
Los Angeles skyline
© AP Photo/Damian DovarganesIn this Dec. 14, 2017 file photo, Los Angeles skyline is seen through burned trees after a brush fire erupted in the hills in Elysian Park in Los Angeles.
California is rapidly plunging back into drought, with severe conditions now existing in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties-home to one-fourth of the state's population, a national drought monitor said Thursday.

The weekly report released by the U.S. Drought Monitor, a project of government agencies and other partners, also shows 44 percent of the state is now considered to be in a moderate drought. It's a dramatic jump from just last week, when the figure was 13 percent.

"It's not nearly where we'd like to be," Frank Gehrke, a state official, acknowledged after separately carrying out manual measurements of winter snowfall in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which supplies water to millions of Californians in a good, wet year.

Overall, the vital snowpack Thursday stood at less than a third of normal for the date.
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Question

What's causing the loud booms heard in Springfield, Missouri?

Giacomo Bologna
Springfield News-Leader
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 15:25 UTC
Mystery boom (stock)
© Getty Images
No, you're not crazy.

Those loud booms you've been hearing? The city of Springfield wants to know more about them.

City spokeswoman Cora Scott said Wednesday that the city has received two formal service requests and nine calls about the booms in the past few weeks.

And after more booms were heard early Wednesday morning, many more people are chirping about the booms on social media.

Scott said the city wants residents who have "experienced hearing or feeling" the booms to contact them with the exact time, date and location. Residents can call 417-864-1010, email city@springfieldmo.gov or post on the city's Facebook page.

Angela Edwards, 47, has lived her whole life in Springfield and said she has never heard anything like what she heard early Wednesday morning. "This is something huge. This is something big ... I wouldn't know how to describe it. It was like a deep, loud boom," Edwards said. "It wasn't normal - whatever it was."
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Cloud Precipitation

France: Winter 2017-18 had the most rain and least sun


The Connexion
Sun, 28 Jan 2018 19:45 UTC
stormy skies
This winter has officially been one of the rainiest and least sunny on record.
This winter has officially been one of the rainiest and least sunny on record, according to a forecaster at Météo France.

The period from December 2017 to January 2018 has seen between 30% and 50% less sun than the usual seasonal average, and a significant part of the country has been affected by much higher-than-usual rainfall, according to Olivier Proust, a national forecaster, speaking to news website France Info.

This will come as no surprise to many, with several regions - including Ile-de-France - continuing to be at risk of floods and broken riverbanks.

The Seine river is said to have reached a peak of 5.95 metres in Paris today (Sunday January 28), and in the town of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, Val-de-Marne, just two days ago, over 390 people had been evacuated from their homes, and over 14,000 households were left without electricity power due to catastrophic flood levels.

Comment: A dark December: In one month Moscow totals 6 minutes of sunlight while Belgium bears just 10.5 hours

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Seismograph

Shallow 6.0 magnitude earthquake on the Pacific Antarctic Ridge


Earthquake Track
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 15:10 UTC
graph
6.0 magnitude earthquake

2018-02-02 11:37:53 UTC

USGS page: M 6.0 - 265km NE of Scott Island Bank, Antarctica
USGS status: Reviewed by a seismologist
Reports from the public: 0 people

10 km depth

Comment: This latest quake comes 24 hours after this one: Shallow 6.0 magnitude earthquake in the Fiji region

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Question

Millions of kangaroos wiped out by mystery disease that causes massive haemorrhages and internal bleeding

Mikaela Barwick
Daily Mail
Wed, 27 Dec 2017 14:23 UTC
Red kangaroos have died from massive ­hemorrhaging and internal bleeding (stock image)
Red kangaroos have died from massive ­hemorrhaging and internal bleeding (stock image)
A mysterious illness has been killing millions of kangaroos which has left experts scratching their heads.

In NSW, wildlife researchers have found the red and grey varieties of kangaroos have died as a result of massive ­hemorrhaging and internal bleeding around the joints.

'You would see a whole family sitting there but they were all dead,' veterinarian Greg Curran told The Australian.

'It's a disease, it's not a genetic problem. We haven't been able to find a bacteria, we haven't been able to find a virus.

'Parasites, they aren't part of it. Given the huge area and different kinds of country and feed, its very unlikely to be a plant poisoning. You've ruled out all the known causes of diseases.

"The drop is so great it can't simply be due to culling rates. The number of ­animals that have been harvested for the meat market is low. It can't possibly be starvation or malnutrition,' Dr Curren added.
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Snowflake

Global cooling continues after an El Niño induced string of warm years

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 14:04 UTC
Sea ice covers Cape Cod Bay as viewed from Rock Harbor Beach, Cape Cod, in Orleans, MA, on Wed., Jan. 3, 2018. Image credit: Scott Eisen/Getty Images.
© Scott Eisen/Getty Images.Sea ice covers Cape Cod Bay as viewed from Rock Harbor Beach, Cape Cod, in Orleans, MA, on Wed., Jan. 3, 2018.
From Dr. Roy Spencer:

UAH Global Temperature Update for January, 2018: +0.26 deg. C

Coolest tropics since June, 2012 at -0.12 deg. C.

The Version 6.0 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly for January, 2018 was +0.26 deg. C, down from the December, 2017 value of +0.41 deg. C:
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Attention

Large whales are dying along the East Coast at an alarming rate - 29 minkes in a year, 62 humpbacks in 2 years and 18 right whales in 8 months

Maddy Lauria
delawareonline
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 13:44 UTC
whale
© Jason Minto, The News Journal
Three of the five large whale species known to frequent First State waters have been washing up on East Coast beaches at an alarming rate.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday announced minke whales - as well as humpback and endangered North Atlantic right whales - are experiencing what officials call "an unusual mortality event."

This is the first time the agency has seen three unusual mortality events of large whale species occur at the same time and in the same place, said Teri Rowles, coordinator of NOAA's Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Program.

"We're still going through the analysis to determine what might be the cause, and as we pull that information together across all the [species], then we'll have a better idea if there is a common causal or contributing agent that can be driving those [deaths]," Rowles said.
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