Earth ChangesS


Windsock

Storm hits South Iceland with windspeeds up to 50 m/s (111 miles per hour)


Iceland Monitor
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 20:52 UTC
The weather forecast for Wednesday February 14th. As you can see with the red colour a storm rages in the South and South East.
© Iceland Met OfficeThe weather forecast for Wednesday February 14th. As you can see with the red colour a storm rages in the South and South East.
The storms are hitting Iceland relentlessly it seems and this morning the Iceland Met Offie put out an orange alert for South and South East Iceland. The no.1 road between Hvolsvöllur and Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon is closed. All traffic through Hellisheiði and Kjalarnes has also been put to a stop.

All flights to the Westman Islands have been cancelled.

This is no weather for travel states the Iceland Met Office. The storm is accompanied by snow and there is no visibility. Windspeeds could go up to 50 m/s.
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Seismograph

Quakes shake Pacific plate as Ring of Fire activity returns

Leigh Boobyer
Express
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 13:58 UTC
ring of fire earthquakes feb 2018
Alaska was hit by more but weaker tremors, measuring at magnitudes of 4.2, 4.0, 3.9, 3.6, 3.5 and 3.3 while a 4.5 magnitude quake shook Japan.

The earthquake activity returns after a magnitude 6 quake struck 10km deep off the Northern Mariana Islands. No immediate tsunami warning was triggered.

The Northern Mariana Islands have a population of 55,023 while Guam had 162,742 people living on the island in 2016.

Comment: Could it be related to scientists' prediction that there will be an upsurge in major earthquakes for 2018 due to slowdown in Earth's rotation?

See Also: For more happenings, check out our monthly documentary: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - January 2018: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs

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Seismograph

Best of the Web: GARGANTUAN sinkhole swallows several cars and building is evacuated in Rome (VIDEO)

Will Kirby
The Express
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 19:23 UTC
Road collapse Rome sinkhole feb 2018
© EPACars lay strewn in the crater after the road collapsed earlier this evening
The cars swallowed by the chasm fell about 10 metres after the road collapsed at around 6pm this evening.

Two nearby buildings were evacuated as a precaution and firefighters have since confirmed no one was injured in the incident.

Officials are checking other nearby buildings for structural damage.


Comment: Sinkholes and landslides are occurring with greater frequency all over the world and there is never much of a valid explanation forthcoming. But when we take into account the greater picture we can see it is one part of a series of changes happening on our planet: For more information, see: Sinkholes - A Sign of the Times? and Sinkholes: The groundbreaking truth

As well as our monthly documentary: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - January 2018: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs

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Bug

Swarming crickets in Auckland, New Zealand 'like a scary movie scene'

Matthew Cattin
Stuff
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 20:19 UTC
Siobhan Lemme snapped this photo of hundreds of crickets drowned in a paddling pool.
© Siobhan LemmeSiobhan Lemme snapped this photo of hundreds of crickets drowned in a paddling pool.
Sticky humidity isn't the only thing keeping rural residents up at night this week.

Crickets have arrived in their thousands "like a scary movie scene", and they aren't afraid of making a racket.

Some have had their homes invaded by the noisy insects, while others have experienced crickets pounding down on their rooves with a sound like heavy rain.

Steff and Bill Shepherd described a "cricket explosion" in Dargaville.

"The ground is alive with them late afternoon onwards. Some are sizeable, and ping on the roof and walls and windows," they said in a Neighbourly post.

"It's like small gravel thrown at the house."
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Cloud Precipitation

More than 500 birds killed by hailstorm in Maharashtra, India

Vivek Deshpande
The Indian Express
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 20:05 UTC
Bird deaths were also reported from Goregaon in Gondia district
Bird deaths were also reported from Goregaon in Gondia district
Over 500 birds, mostly parakeets, were killed in the hailstorm that hit Bhandara and Gondia districts on Tuesday. Of them, 460 parakeets died in the Tumsar town of Bhangade district alone.

Confirming the deaths, Tumsar Range Forest Officer A R Joshi said, "Over 460 parakeets nestled over a peepal tree perished in the hailstorm between 8 pm and 8.30 pm. The hailstones were weighing about 50 gm each."

"Problem was compounded for the birds by the honey bees that started attacking the birds when their comb also came down due to the hailstones impact. Many of the bees also died in the storm," Joshi added.
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Bizarro Earth

Enormous wild boar dubbed 'Pigzilla' caught rummaging in bins near primary school in Hong Kong

Rachel Bishop
Mirror
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 13:13 UTC
wild boar hong kong
Parents spotted the giant beast chowing down on some rubbish as they walked their kids to school in Hong Kong

A humongous wild boar dubbed 'Pigzilla' has been caught eating out of bins 'just a few feet from a primary school.'

Parents spotted the giant beast chowing down on some rubbish as they walked their kids to school in Hong Kong.

People have reacted in horror at the sighting, as boars can be incredibly dangerous - with razor sharp teeth and a huge amount of power in their front legs.

The short clip shows the animal with three of its little ones, who all seem to patiently wait at her trotters while she gets them a meal.

She is seen grabbing at a rubbish bag with her teeth as she balances her feet on the edge of the rubbish bin.

Comment: See also:

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Ice Cube

Great Lakes are now 69.1% ice covered, for only 2nd time in last 24 years

Bill Steffen
woodtv.com
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 14:04 UTC
map map
Great Lakes ice cover reached 69.1% on Saturday. That's only the 2nd time that we have had that much ice cover on the Great Lakes in the last 24 years (the other time was 2014). This is quite a leap up since Feb. 1, when we had just a 22.6% ice cover. The growth of ice has been caused by consistently cold temperatures and relatively calm conditions.

The first 11 days of Feb. were 6.3 deg. colder than average in Grand Rapids, 7.3 deg. colder than avg. in Milwaukee and 8.0 deg. colder than average in Chicago. Over the last 6 days, the average wind speed at Muskegon MI and at Holland MI has been 6.1 mph. Note with all the snow we've had, there has been very little drifting. Last year on 2/11 we had a 12.3% ice cover and on 2/11/16 we had just a 7.8% ice cover on the Great Lakes.
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Snowflake

Heavy snowfall continues to cripple life in northern parts of Pakistan (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)


Geo News
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 13:06 UTC
A vehicle covered in snow in Nathiagali Bazaar area of Abbottabad.
© PPIA vehicle covered in snow in Nathiagali Bazaar area of Abbottabad.
Vehicles were stranded at various points on the roads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the second consecutive day, with passengers facing difficulties owing to shortage of food and other necessities.

One of the tourists, Rabiya Ahmed Shaikh, who was staying at a hotel near Nathiagali due to the roadblock there, said there was no food or water at the facility.

"The hotel [management] is saying shops around their facility are closed which is why they cannot get us food," she told Geo News. "They have lavatories but there is no water here."

People have lost contact with their relatives as there is no electricity in the area for them to charge their mobile phones and other devices.

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Cloud Lightning

3 killed by lightning strikes in Rajouri, India


Greater Kashmir
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 12:51 UTC
lightning
A woman was killed when she was struck by lightning in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said today.

Parveen Akhtar (35) was inside her house in Kandi village when she was struck by the lightning last night, a police official said.

Her death raised the number of people killed in lightning incidents in this region to three since yesterday.

A father-son duo was killed when lightning struck their house at Launcha village of Mahore in Reasi district yesterday.

They were identified as Ali Mohammad (30) and his son Shabir (3).

Source: PTI
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Attention

Another large eruption registered at Turrialba volcano in Costa Rica

Laura Alvarado
The Costa Rica Star
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 12:30 UTC
Turrialba Volcano Costa Rica
Turrialba Volcano Costa Rica
The Turrialba Volcano registered yet another important eruption, this Monday, February 12 at approximately 4:30 a.m. with a column that reached 1000 meters above the crater and 4,340 meters above sea level (14,235.2 ft.).

The impressive was even visible from the Irazu Volcano as you can see in the video included below. The emission of ash is continuous and of variable volume and has been constant for over one week now.

Ash is being dispersed by the winds to the Ash is being dispersed by the winds to the southwest and several communities have reported ashfall in the entire metropolitan area (Cartago, Alajuela, Heredia, San Jose).
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