Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Parisians on edge as 'endangered' wolves freely roaming suburbs, fear they may make the capital their new home

Grey wolf Paris
© AFPThere's strong evidence the European grey wolf is edging closer to Paris surburbs.

Parisians are frightened that the endangered beasts are now within howling distance of the capital and can't be stopped

French people have been told not to fear wolves roaming Paris streets - as "they only eat four-legged animals".

Parisians are frightened that the endangered beasts - which have fought back from near extinction in the 1930s - are now within howling distance of the capital.

Indeed the discovery of paw prints, messy droppings and late-night howls from wolves - a distant relative of the domestic pet dog- are reported to be a now frequent occurrence in the city's suburbs.

While they are known to normally hunt in packs - when they are notoriously most dangerous - only lone wolves have been spotted so far wandering its streets.

Experts and eyewitnesses claim they are freely roaming French 'departments' (an administrative district) of Yvelines and Essone in Île-de-France - which overlaps with the Paris metropolitan area in the south and west - at night.

Snowflake Cold

More heavy snowfall across Mediterranean countries

Snow covered car in Corte, Corsica
© AFPSnow covered car in Corte, Corsica
Much of southern Europe is experiencing its second round of snow in just under two weeks. Many in parts of southern Europe may be feeling that winter has targeted them in giving them the brunt of heavy snow and winds caused by the second winter storm to affect the area in just 10 days.

The excursion boat MS AquaMarin is locked in by snow and ice on the Okerstausee reservoir, Germany
© AFPThe excursion boat MS AquaMarin is locked in by snow and ice on the Okerstausee reservoir, Germany
While similar to the previous storm that brought heavy snow and extremely cold air across much of the region, this storm will also stay locked in place over the Mediterranean. The weather pattern continues to keep a "blocking" pattern in place across much of central Europe and the steering winds stay well to the north.

While we may see a few breaks in the weather, the forecast into late January keeps many of these storms bringing snow, winds and rain to the countries around the Mediterranean Sea.

Attention

Large sinkhole swallows excavation truck in Georgia, U.S.

Excavation truck falls into sinkhole
© NBC
An off-duty hydro excavation truck transporting approximately 1,600 gallons of water fell into a large sinkhole in Hall County, Georgia, early Tuesday morning.

The Badger Daylighting truck fell through the parking lot of a mechanic's garage at roughly 7:45 a.m., where it had been since before the start of operating hours of nearby businesses, said Hall County Fire Services Capt. Zachary Brackett.

Authorities are playing it safe and waiting until the hole is graded and checked to remove the truck.

"It being a sinkhole, there is a possibility of the outer walls of the current hole being unstable," Brackett said. "We don't want to cause a further collapse or anything by pulling the truck out

Snowflake Cold

Italy sends in the army to assist people trapped by snow

Snow in Italy
© AFP
Heavy snowfall and unusually harsh weather have left hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity, schools closed, and roads unusable.

Recent days have seen up to a metre of snow in southern areas, strong winds in the north and coastal areas, and temperatures well below the average for the season in most of the country, reaching lows of below -30C in some northern mountain towns.

The wintry conditions are expected to last for at least another week, due to the arrival of a polar air mass in the country, weather experts at Meteo.it explained.

On Tuesday evening, Italy's Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti confirmed that the army had deployed soldiers to Abruzzo, which is suffering the brunt of the wintry spell with road closures, power blackouts and some smaller villages isolated.

Attention

Young gray whale found dead north of Main Beach in Laguna, California

The carcass of a newborn gray baby whale is being examined at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles on Tuesday.
© Jim DinesThe carcass of a newborn gray baby whale is being examined at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Experts at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles said Tuesday that a necropsy on a week-old gray whale found dead near Main Beach on Monday gave no indication of what may have caused its death.

"Unfortunately, nothing stands out as a cause of death," said Jim Dines, who did the examination and oversees the museum's marine mammal program.

Dines determined that the whale was a female, was a full-term neonate and likely was a week old. She measured 15.5 feet and weighed 1,800 pounds. There were no signs of trauma or disease.

Snowflake Cold

Record snowfall forces migration in areas of Pakistan

snow road
Food shortages caused by blockade of a main road owing to heavy snowfall in Kaghan valley have triggered migration of local people to plains of Hazara division.

The residents of upper parts of Kaghan valley continued to migrate to Balakot, Mansehra, Abbottabad and other parts of Hazara owing to shortage of food items following blockade of Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road.

"We have relocated our police station in Kaghan to Mahandri area of Balakot tehsil as local people have been migrating to lower parts of Hazara because of heavy snowfall and blockade of roads in the upper reaches," SHO Tariq Khan told reporters.

Mr Khan said Gattidas, Baiser, Barawai, Battakundi, upper and lower Soch and Saiful Muluk Lake posts had already been closed, and now Kaghan police station was relocated.

Hotels in the Kaghan valley have also been closed following the heavy snowfall. "Our hotels are closed since start of the snowfall and now watchman and other staff are leaving Naran because of heavy snowfall in the valley," Saith Matiullah, president of hoteliers association, Kaghan, told reporters.

He said Kaghan-Naran section of Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad road remained closed since last week.

Comment: Pakistan government warns the country to prepare for global cooling


Binoculars

'A Waxwing Winter': Soaring numbers of rare birds invade the UK

Waxwings
© Les WilliamsWaxwings
An unusual species of bird is enjoying a winter vacation here in the UK, according to the RSPB charity.

Waxwings are a small starling-sized bird with a prominent crest and colourful markings. They only travel here from Siberia and northern Scandinavia when they experience a particularly harsh winter or if there is a shortage of food.

So many have been spotted this year, the RSPB has described it as a 'Waxwing Winter'.
They're moving across the country from east to west and they're devouring trees full of berries .... Only ever 3 or 4 years do these birds come in large numbers.

- JAMIE WYVER, RSPB
The wildlife conversation charity hopes the rare winter visitor will encourage more people to take part in its annual Big Birdwatch, the world's biggest wildlife survey.

Waxwings mostly feed on fruit.
© Les WilliamsWaxwings mostly feed on fruit.

Comment: See also: Rare waxwing birds from abroad that signal harsh winter seen across Gloucestershire, UK as temperatures plummet


Seismograph

5.4 magnitude earthquake hits central Italy, tremors felt in Rome

Rome
© Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters
Quake comes months after almost 300 people were killed in Central Italy earthquake

An earthquake has struck Italy, shaking buildings in Rome just months after almost 300 people were killed in one of the worst disasters in living memory.

Residents of the capital described their homes and offices shaking at around 10.25am local time (9.5am BST).

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) measured the quake at magnitude 5.4, placing the epicentre in Central Italy, just over 10 miles from Maltignano.

There was no immediate indication of deaths or severe damage, the organisation said.

Small tremors have reportedly been felt in Rome for several weeks but Wednesday's was the biggest seismic event in several months.

It comes just months after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake killed at least 299 people in the country's central regions in August.

It was followed by at least two more deadly earthquakes in Umbria and Marche in October, both measuring over six on the Richter scale.

Attention

Woman plays dead to stop rogue kangaroo attack in Melbourne, Australia

Grey kangaroo
Eastern grey kangaroo
A 54-year-old woman named Debbie Urquhart has shared that she needed to play dead to stop a rogue kangaroo from viciously attacking her. The animal attack took place while she was jogging along a running track in Melbourne's northeast at about 6AM on Jan.14.

The incident happened just 500m from her Templestowe home in Melbourne's northeast. She has recalled that she was kicked by a kangaroo repeatedly. The woman said she was left with no other option but to fake her death.

Urquhart managed to jog her way home after the attack. She was rushed to the hospital, where she received 35 stitches in her arm, shoulder and buttocks.

Urquhart shared that the animal has ripped her to pieces. "I was trying to crawl away. He left me for a bit and I thought he was going to come back and kill me," she told Manningham Leader.

Camera

Frozen Baikal: Stunning Photos of the Deepest and Oldest Lake On Earth

frozen lake Baikal
© Кристина Макеева
Baikal is... impressive. It's the deepest and the cleanest lake on Earth. When we were planning our trip, we had no idea how wonderful, majestic, and fairy it would be. We were enraptured by its beauty, so much so that we almost didn't sleep all 3 days we were there.

Lake Baikal is about 600km (373 miles) in length. The thickness of the ice on top reaches 1.5-2 meters (5-6.5 feet)—at its thickest, it can tolerate vehicles of about 15 tonnes, but sometimes we saw cars that had been fallen down.

But the ice isn't just strong, it's also gorgeous: displaying different patterns in different parts of the lake because the water freezes layer-by-layer. Baikal's ice is also the most transparent in the world! You can see everything all the way to the bottom: fish, green stones, plants, and bluish gulf. The water in the lake is so clear that you can see various objects even as deep as 40 meters (130 feet).

The bubbles in the ice are the result of methane gas that is produced by algae.