Earth ChangesS


Wolf

Baby girl killed by stray dogs in Raipur, India


India Today
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 13:02 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
A 14-month-old girl was mauled to death by stray dogs here today, police said.

The horrific incident took place in Anupam Nagar area today morning when the girl was playing outside her house, a police official told PTI.

CCTV footage of the spot showed the child, Riya Sahu, crawling on the street when two stray dogs attacked her, he said.

The dogs bit her severely before other residents of the area rushed and drove them away, he said.

Riya was taken to a local government hospital where she was declared dead.
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Attention

Dead, decomposing whale found on beach in Auckland, New Zealand


Stuff
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 12:55 UTC
The whale's body appeared to have been bitten by sharks.
The whale's body appeared to have been bitten by sharks.
The body of a dead and partially decomposed whale has been disposed of at sea after washing up on an Auckland beach.

Beachgoers alerted surf lifesavers of the gruesome sight at Murrays Bay, on the North Shore, just after midday on Saturday.

Lifeguard Spencer McGarry inspected the body at 1.30pm.

He suspected it was a dead minke whale.
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Arrow Down

Humongous sinkhole opens up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Michael Tanenbaum
Philly Voice
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 12:39 UTC
Massive sinkhole opens up on Taggert Street in Fishtown on January 19, 2018.
© Thom Carroll/PhillyVoiceMassive sinkhole opens up on Taggert Street in Fishtown on January 19, 2018.
Sinkholes have a weird way of upsetting a viewer's sense of order in the world.

You see a gigantic hole in the street and it makes you think you've survived some kind of earthquake. The reality is that infrastructure can fail for any number of reasons.

Around noon on Friday, neighbors on Fishtown's tiny Taggert Street — a single block connecting E. Norris and E. Dauphin Streets — were stunned to see a giant sinkhole form outside one of the rowhomes.

"Tons of rats were flying out of the hole," one witness told PhillyVoice.

Another neighbor and longtime Fishtown resident said the incident may have been related to a plumbing issue.

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Windsock

Large dust storm engulfs Mardin, Turkey turning sky dark red


Sott.net
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 09:08 UTC
dust storm in Turkey
Strong winds carrying dust from Syria and Iraq hampered daily life in southeastern Turkey on January 19, 2018. Reduced visibility and air quality affected southeastern provinces of Diyarbakır, Şırnak, Mardin, Şanlıurfa and Batman.

Dust clouds accompanied by muddy rain engulfed the area turning the sky dark red. In Mardin province, which was the most affected from the storm, the disabled, unwell, and pregnant women in public offices were given a day's leave from work according to the Daily Sabah.

It reduced visibility across the Kurdistan Region also, down to two kilometres in Erbil, five in Duhok, four in Kirkuk, and less than half a kilometre in Tuz Khurmatu.

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Ice Cube

Global warming theorists tripping over themselves to explain America's brutally cold winters

Christopher Brooker
Telegraph
Sat, 20 Jan 2018 17:57 UTC
Deadly cold disrupts US
One of Shakespeare's persistent themes in Hamlet is that when people set out to fool others, it will eventually catch up with them. Repeatedly he emphasises that "purposes mistook fall on their inventors' heads", that such people end up "hoist with their own petard", or get caught like a "woodcock" in their own trap.

There was a delightful example of this on our letters page last week, when that well-known propagandist for global warming, Bob Ward, tried to challenge what I had written about the recent series of unusually cold winters in North America.

Mr Ward is employed by the Grantham Institute at the London School of Economics, sponsored by a climate change-obsessed billionaire, and challenges anyone who publicly questions global warming orthodoxy. His point last week was to claim that, contrary to what I had written, recent US winters have not been unusually cold at all.

But the only evidence he could cite to support his point was the latest figures from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), suggesting that seven out of the past 10 US winters have in fact been "warmer than average".

Comment: It's not just the US or even the northern hemisphere which is experiencing such harsh winters:

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Seismograph

Magnitude 6.3 earthquake jolts northern Chile


The Hindu
Sun, 21 Jan 2018 05:39 UTC
Chile earthquake
© USGS
The temblor, which was deep at 110 kilometres, struck at 10:06 p.m. local time on Saturday, epicentred at Tarapaca

The US Geological Survey says a magnitude 6.3 earthquake has struck northern Chile.

The quake, which was deep at 110 kilometres, struck at 10:06 p.m. local time on Saturday. The epicentre in Tarapaca was 76 kilometres east of the city of Putre, and 118 kilometres southeast of the Peruvian city of Tacna.

No tsunami threat

Local media in Chile said there were no immediate reports of damage and that the navy's oceanographic service had discarded the possibility of a tsunami.

An earthquake with a similar strength shook Tarapaca last October.
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Tornado2

US's first tornado of 2018 touches down during rare storm in Virginia


Washington Post
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 18:45 UTC
Virginia tornado
© JOHN BOYER/Times-DispatchA radar map from 10:02 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 12, shows storms that formed a tornado in northern Amelia County. The tornado formed in the rotating, “S”-shaped segment of the thunderstorm between Amelia Court House and Powhatan, near the county line.
The country's first tornado of 2018 has descended upon one Virginia county.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports a rare midwinter tornado uprooted trees and destroyed a carport during its two-minute existence on Jan. 12, in northern Amelia County. No injuries were reported.

A survey team from the National Weather Service confirmed Tuesday that the damage along the 0.4 mile (0.6 kilometer) path was evidence of 95 mph (150 kph) winds. The storm's unlikely appearance is attributed to that day's unusual warmth and shearing wind in the lower atmosphere.

January is tied with November as the second-lowest month for tornado activity in Virginia. On average, Virginia experiences only 19 tornadoes in a given year. Amelia County was last hit by a tornado in 2013.

The central Virginia county is considered part of the greater Richmond area.
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Alarm Clock

Earthquake swarm hits South Reno, Nevada - More than 230 quakes and counting

Sam Gross
Reno Gazzette Journal
Wed, 17 Jan 2018 12:55 UTC
South Reno earthquake swarm
South Reno has been shaking, ever so gently, for six days now.

If you live there - near Galena High School or where the Mount Rose Highway goes below the I-580 - you likely haven't felt much, if anything. But earthquake detecting instruments in the area have picked up more than 230 small temblors since late last Thursday.

The largest in the swarm so far, which hit Tuesday afternoon, measured a 2.7 on the Richter scale - a magnitude that University of Nevada, Reno seismologist Ken Smith described as "pretty small."

"You'd have to be right above it to really feel anything," he said, noting they've gotten a few dozen reports from people who've felt the jolts.

While earthquakes in Northern Nevada are commonplace (The Silver State is the third-most seismically active state in the nation), Smith said he and his colleagues at UNR's Nevada Seismological Laboratory pay special attention to earthquake swarms.

Comment: In recent months we have seen other areas of the US experiencing these swarms of mini-earthquakes as well:

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Snowflake

Heavy snow and snapping trees concern forest owners in Norway


The Local (Norway)
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 14:46 UTC
tree damage
© Berit Heggholmen
Forest owners in Norway say they are concerned about damage to trees and subsequent loss of earnings caused by heavy snow .

"We can no longer be sure of stable winters," forest owner Thor Wraa told broadcaster NRK.

A week of extreme weather with heavy snowfall in several parts of the country has caused significant disruption, with fallen trees dragging down telephone wires and blocking roads.

Wraa, who comes from the northern Telemark county, told NRK that falling trees directly affected his livelihood.

"We are concerned. Trees with as much snow as there is now are right on the limit of breaking or falling," he said.
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Snowflake

Over a meter of snow dumps on the Alps in 72 hours, with another meter forecast over next 3 days

Patrick Thorne
inthesnow.com
Fri, 19 Jan 2018 13:45 UTC
snow
A number of ski areas in the Alps have reported up to 1.3m (over four feet) of snowfall in the past 72 hours and forecasters are expecting up to 1.3m (over four feet) of snowfall in the next 72 hours.

All the snow is good news for resort bases, but less good for skiers and boarders in resort at present, or travelling out tomorrow, Saturday 20th January, as ski areas are only able to open limited terrain safely, conditions are frequently poor even in those limited open areas , and travel to and from resorts can be difficult.

Austria's Ziller Valley is reporting 1.2m (four feet) of snow in the past 72 hours with Verbier reporting 105cm and the Portes du Soleil region up to 90cm (three feet) of snow. Many other resorts including Crans Montana, Davos, Laax, La Plagne and Zermatt have had 60-90cm of new snowfall.

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