Earth ChangesS


Cow

CCTV captures moment cow attacks man in Pakistan

The animal pins him up against the wall and then then sends him flying through the air with an almighty flip of its head
The animal pins him up against the wall and then then sends him flying through the air with an almighty flip of its head
This moody cow decided to take some frustration out on an innocent bystander while it was having a stroll down an alleyway.

The footage, shot in Pakistan, shows a man stood talking on his mobile phone next to a wall.

Wandering the streets of its own accord, the cow is seen heading down the same alleyway, seemingly minding its own business.

However, it clearly takes a disliking to something the man is doing, and pauses behind him.

After a couple of seconds of consideration, the cow instigates its vicious attack by digging its horns into him and catching the man, who has his back turned, completely unawares.


Comment: See also: No milk today: Rampaging cow sending man spinning through the air filmed in Nigeria


Black Cat

Leopard enters village, attacks 8 in Gurugram, India

Leopard attack
© Manoj Kumar
A leopard was thrashed to death after it strayed into Mandawar village in Sohna, 26km south of Gurugram, and injured eight people on Thursday morning. The leopard, a two-and a-half-year-old male, sneaked in around 8am and kept villagers on their toes till noon with the forest department failing to tranquillise it and or capture it with nets.

The first to be attacked was Sundar Bharadwaj, a 46-year-old farmer. "I was tending to my field when the animal attacked me," said Bharadwaj. He noticed the leopard crouching furtively amid tall grass, before it lunged at him. He slipped his arms between its jaws, grabbing them while trying to fend off its deadly bite. During the struggle, he sustained grievous injuries on his shoulder and chest. Villagers later admitted him in Sohna's Civil Hospital.

When Bharadwaj spoke to TOI, he had a blood-soaked sling across his shoulder. According to other villagers, the leopard was first noticed in the morning by two farmers, Sumeet (21) and Rajesh (23), as they were returning from their fields. In panic, the duo raised an alarm. Scared, the leopard leapt into the compound of the Government Primary School, Mandawar. Luckily, the school was closed. "When we approached the big cat in a group, it ran away and hid inside a mound of hay," Desh Raj, a 20-year-old villager, said.

Seismograph

Magnitude 6.5 earthquake hits northeast Tajikistan

Graph
Earthquake hits northeastern Tajikistan.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 struck northeastern Tajikistan, close to the borders with China and Kyrgyzstan, at 1424 GMT on Friday, the US Geological Survey said.

The quake, initially reported as a magnitude 6.8, struck at a depth of 75 kilometres.

Source: Reuters

Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills two in Zambia

lightning
Two people of Mushona township in Zambezi district have died after being struck by lightning during a downpour.

Acting Zambezi district commissioner Sombo Chiteta said in an interview that the incident happened on Tuesday afternoon and he named the victims as Fulayi Lunkunu, 34, and Peter Luvuwa, aged nine.

"The information we got is that the two went to a nearby house to seek shelter when the rains started and that is where they died after being struck by lightning," she said.

Ms Chiteta said the house caught fire after it was struck by lightning.

The bodies are in the Zambezi District Hospital mortuary.

Seismograph

Shallow earthquake of magnitude 5.4 hits Taiwan

A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan early on Friday, the US Geological Survey said
A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan early on Friday, the US Geological Survey said
A 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan early on Friday, the US Geological Survey said, but there were no reports of damage or casualties. The quake hit at 5:55 am (local time) and was centred 81 kilometres east of the city of Hualian at a depth of 10 kilometres, USGS said. The tremor comes after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in February left 117 dead when an apartment complex collapsed in the southern city of Tainan.

That quake also raised questions over shoddy construction — five people have been charged over the deadly building collapse. Taiwan lies near the junction of two tectonic plates and is regularly hit by earthquakes. A 6.3-magnitude quake that hit central Taiwan in June 2013 killed four people and caused widespread landslides. The island's worst quake disaster came in September 1999 when a 7.6-magnitude earthquake killed around 2,400 people.

Windsock

Hurricane Otto hits Nicaragua, Costa Rica as major earthquake shakes region

Hurricane Otto
© ReutersHurricane Otto is seen approaching the coast of Central America
Hurricane Otto battered Nicaragua and Costa Rica with powerful winds and torrential rains on Thursday, the same day a major earthquake shook the region, with homes damaged and thousands evacuated, but no deaths reported.

The storm was weakening rapidly on Thursday evening after hitting the southeastern coast of Nicaragua, and was expected to become a tropical storm by early Friday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. A hurricane warning was also in effect in neighboring Costa Rica, where fallen trees, blackouts and flooding were reported.

Costa Rica's National Emergency Commission said thousands had been affected by the storm and emergency alerts had been issued throughout the country.

Otto, the seventh Atlantic hurricane of the season, landed north of the town of San Juan de Nicaragua as a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity, the Miami-based hurricane center said. Thousands of people were evacuated from its path.

It had weakened to a Category 1 storm as of Thursday night, with top sustained winds of 75 mph (121 kph), about 5 miles (8 km) southwest of San Carlos, Nicaragua.

Soon after the storm landed, a 7.0 magnitude quake struck 93 miles (149 km) southwest of Puerto Triunfo, El Salvador, at a depth of 6.4 miles (10.3 km), the U.S. Geological Survey said.


Comment: Otto was the southernmost hurricane on record to hit Central America. It also set a new record for the latest hurricane to ever form in the Caribbean.

The National Meteorological Institute (IMN) reported that the eye of Hurricane Otto made landfall in Costa Rica at around 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the northern Alajuela canton of Los Chiles, making it the country's first hurricane landfall in recorded history (since 1851).


Bizarro Earth

Tsunami warning lifted in El Salvador and Nicaragua after 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes in Pacific Ocean

El Salvador earthquake map
© USGSThe 7.0 magnitude quake struck at a depth of 20 miles (33 kilometers), some 96 miles (154km) south-southwest of Puerto Triunfo in El Salvador

Earthquake hits, triggering tsunami warnings, after Nicaragua Caribbean coastline battered by hurricane


A 7.0 magnitude earthquake has shaken El Salvador and Nicaragua, just an hour after a powerful hurricane hit Nicaragua's eastern coast.

The double whammy was a grim test for a largely poor region which lacks resources and emergency plans for natural disasters.

Salvadoran authorities issued a tsunami alert as a precaution after the tremor, which struck around 75 miles off the coast of El Salvador, at a depth of 20 miles beneath the Pacific Ocean, according to the US Geological Survey. The quake was first measured at a magnitude of 7.2 but was then downgraded.

"Hazardous" waves measuring about up to 1m (three feet) were anticipated to hit coastal areas within 300km of the quake's epicentre. Officals warned anyone living on the Pacific coast of El Salvador to withdraw at least 1km away from the shore.

The tsunami warnings were lifted within hours of the earthquake on Thursday, according to the assistant director of the Sinapred national disaster prevention agency, Guillermo Gonzalez, said at a press conference.

Mr Gonzales said they would continue to monitor the threat from hurricane Otto, which continued to dump heavy rain and winds on Nicaragua.

Fire

Wildfires in Israel force over 80,000 people to evacuate Haifa, Netanyahu blames 'arsonist terrorism'

Israeli firefighters
© Baz Ratner / ReutersFirefighters work as a wildfire burns in the northern city of Haifa, Israel November 24, 2016.
Tens of thousands of people were told to immediately evacuate Israel's third largest city, Haifa, as wildfires encouraged by extreme wind rage through the country for the third day.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed "arsonist terrorism" for the blaze.

More than 80,000 people were forced to leave their homes and rush from Haifa while authorities struggle to bring the fire under control. It has been spreading especially quickly due to dry weather and strong winds.

Arrow Down

Huge sinkhole opens up in Selly Oak, UK

The damage to Harborne Lane Island
The damage to Harborne Lane Island
A huge sinkhole has opened up in Harborne Lane after a burst water mains disaster flooded Selly Oak.

Millions of gallons of water cascaded down the road and into surrounding streets, with many areas remaining shut to traffic until at least the weekend.

Harborne Lane will remain shut from the new roundabout at the junction of the A38 up to the petrol station just before the junction with Quinton Road.

A river of water surged down the roads yesterday after the water mains burst turning the area into a raging torrent.

Seven Trent Water said the pipe had now been switched off and the water drained but the the company was working on cleaning up and starting repairs.

There was a huge crater where the burst pipe was situated in Harborne Lane.

Cloud Precipitation

Northern Italy on high alert, battered by 3 days of heavy rainstorms

Floods Italy
Severe weather warnings have been put in place in parts of northern Italy as more storms are expected on Thursday, following three days of heavy rain.

Liguria and Piedmont are at highest risk, with red and orange alerts (the two highest levels) across the two regions.

Bad weather can also be expected across the north, with yellow alerts in place in Valle d'Aosta, Tuscany and Lombardy and particularly strong rains predicted for Thursday afternoon and evening.

The video below shows the heavy rain in Liguria on Wednesday, where around 300mm of rain has fallen in the past three days, with 600mm in one area, Fiorino in Genoa, Liguria.