Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Close lightning strike filmed in Mutare, Zimbabwe

Close lightning strike with slow motion
© Peter LowensteinClose lightning strike with slow motion
CAUTION! At full volume the bass on slow motion replay is very loud and could damage sub-woofers.

On 14 November there was a violent afternoon thunderstorm with hail and 90 millimeters of torrential rain which persisted into the night. At about quarter past three there was a very close lightning bolt which struck a pole which had just one week earlier been installed by the national telephone company to bring a fiber internet connection to my home. The pole is situated on the opposite side of the road less than 50 meters from the front of the house.

The accompanying video, which begins at normal speed then plays in three slow-mo rates of x0.5, x0.25 and x0.125 and ends at normal speed again, shows the brief but intense lightning flash descending towards the pole which is just below the field of view. It was accompanied by a sharp click of static electricity and almost immediately afterwards by a very loud report which could be felt and shook the house. This was followed by a deep rumbling sound which persisted for almost twenty seconds. An electromagnetic pulse was generated which was strong enough to affect the electronics in the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 being used to film the storm and produced strange bright histogram shaped patterns in the two frames which captured the strike. The video thumbnail image has been processed to remove these.

The fiber optic internet connection was unaffected by the strike but induced high voltages damaged the LNB in my rooftop satellite TV dish and connected decoder.


Windsock

Tornado-like winds whip through western Britain

Aberystwyth storm damage
© Thomas Scarrott /PA WireAberystwyth (pictured) has been one of the worst affected areas by Thursday's stormy weather.
A combination of unstable upper air, heavy downpours and strong gusty winds peaking at 84mph (in Shropshire) earlier produced 'tornadic' winds across Wales and the West Midlands earlier this afternoon.

Reports of actual tornadoes remain unconfirmed by the Met Office and tornado and storm organisation TORRO.

Tornadoes or tornadic winds occur when we have particularly squally (or windy and wet) conditions, where strong wind sheer at the ground meets a strong updraft (due to unstable air and downpours) shooting up into the atmosphere.

The winds then become a powerful, destructive rotating column of air - extending skyward while maintaining contact with the ground.

The UK is no stranger to tornadoes - around 30 are reported every year - but don't always affect populated, urban areas.

A tornado swept through London in December 2006 damaging at least 100 properties and one of the strongest tornadoes on record ripped through Birmingham in summer 2005, where winds peaked at 130mph or more.

Attention

Woman attacked by black bear in Frederick County, Maryland

Black bear
Black bear
Wildlife officials have killed a bear that injured a woman in a rare attack in western Maryland.

Maryland Natural Resources Police spokeswoman Candy Thomson said by telephone Thursday that the attack, the only one she can remember in Maryland for decades, happened Wednesday night when 63-year-old Karen Osborne went outside to investigate why a dog was barking nearby.

She dropped into a fetal position and called 911. The bear eventually left.

Osborne was taken to a hospital with a broken arm, cuts and puncture wounds, but Thomson says her injuries aren't considered life-threatening.

Thomson says wildlife officials tracked the bear and killed it. She says officials believe Osborne got between the sow and her cubs. She says the cubs, who are old enough to live on their own, were released.

Source: Associated Press

Snowflake Cold

Cold blast set to plunge temperatures up to 50 degrees in northeastern U.S.

The first major blast of cold air will sweep across much of the northeastern United States this weekend and will be accompanied by snow and strong winds in some areas.

The same storm set to bring the first heavy snow and blizzard conditions of the season to the northern Plains into Friday will turn eastward this weekend.

Cold air wrapping around the storm will slash temperatures by 25-50 degrees Fahrenheit in about 36 hours from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic. More than half of the temperature plunge can occur in the matter of a few hours.
Friday-Sunday forecast
© Accuweather
Temperatures in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Morgantown, West Virginia, and Buffalo, New York, will plummet from the 60s and 70s on Friday to the upper 20s and lower 30s during Saturday night. Then, temperatures may recover by only 10 degrees or less on Sunday.

The transition to cold air will be slightly less dramatic along the Interstate 95 corridor of the mid-Atlantic. However, strong winds will mark the approach and passage of the leading edge of the cold air during Saturday evening.

In coastal New England, the bulk of the cold air will not arrive until the end of the weekend, but cold and blustery conditions will make their presence known during Sunday and Monday.

Question

Mysterious 'phantom earthquake' reported in San Jose, California

Phantom earthquake in San Jose
© twitter/Rakesh
South Bay residents felt some shaking Tuesday afternoon, however the exact cause is unknown.

The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed that what South Bay residents felt was not an earthquake.

"Our duty seismologist did an extensive search and we did not see any seismic activity in the South Bay," Susan Garcia, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Geological Survey, said to SFGATE. "So it's not an earthquake, whatever they're feeling — as far as we can tell."

Despite that, many local residents did report on Twitter that a rumbling of some sort was felt at about 2:45 p.m.

Comment: Reports of a sonic boom being responsible for the mysterious shaking also appear to have been discounted. "Based on initial reports we're receiving, it's inconsistent with a military sonic boom taking place," Marc Calero, a spokesperson for the Naval Air Station at Lemoore said Wednesday evening. "The way people have described it seems highly inconsistent with a sound barrier being broken."


Snowflake Cold

Early deep freeze in Siberia closes schools

Hmm..I wonder if Ishould skip my homework about global warming?
© Yuri Smityuk/TASS Hmm..I wonder if I should skip my homework about global warming?
On November 14, the temperature in Russia's Siberian cities is -28 degrees Celsius (-18.4 degrees Fahrenheit)

Schools in Russia's Siberian cities of Tyumen and Khanty-Mansiysk have been closed on Monday due to severe frost, the Khanty-Mansiysk Department of Education said.

"We have cancelled classes in the first to ninth grades as the temperature today is minus 28 degrees Celsius (-18.4 degrees Fahrenheit)," the department noted.

"Because of the low temperature, classes in the first to fourth grades have been cancelled in Tyumen," the city administration told TASS.

Cloud Precipitation

Hailstones the size of golf balls pound Ashburton, New Zealand

Large hailstones fell on Ashburton on Wednesday afternoon, including some the size of golf balls.
© Lauretta ArtzLarge hailstones fell on Ashburton on Wednesday afternoon, including some the size of golf balls.
Hailstones the size of golf balls rained down on Ashburton as thunder and lightning storms swept across Mid Canterbury.

Stones, some as large as a $2 coin, sent Ashburton residents running for cover about 3pm on Wednesday, and as the storm moved north of the town cars were seen veering off State Highway 1 in search of trees under which to shelter.

The storm was accompanied by sustained periods of thunder and lightning, and brought hailstones some residents described as the size of golf balls.

Many workers in Ashburton's town centre returned to their cars after work, wondering what damage they'd find.

Thankfully, much of it was minor, but there were reports of shattered glass in glasshouses.

Other residents reported damage to property and cars.

Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers arable chairwoman Joanne Burke was in town when the first hailstorm hit, and her car was dented, but she said there would be minimal crop damage for the district's farmers.

Attention

Woman bitten by shark off Maui, Hawaii; 7th attack for the area this year

Shark attacks
"Everyone get out of the water, get out of the water, there's a shark," the apparent victim of a shark attack told her fellow swimmers Monday morning, a witness said.

Jordan Snow, 29, who was swimming with the victim as part of a group called the Maui Mermaids, said he did not hear the woman, whom he referred to as Barbara, scream but heard her tell the 20 other swimmers off Kamaole Beach Park I to get out of the water.

"After that, I said, 'You heard the lady, everybody get out of the water,' " Snow recalled telling the others. "She was being a tough lady."

Snow, who is a friend of the victim, said: "She was hurt, bit really badly. She was bleeding so badly."

Russ Butcher, who was on the beach, said he saw the woman come ashore. He described her injuries as a "couple little gashes in a radius" on the woman's upper right thigh. There also was a piece of loose skin and scrapes on the woman's ankle.

Sun

As drought takes over Colorado, Denver nears record snowless streak

Colorado drought map
U.S. Drought Monitor Report released Thursday.
Colorado has been fully taken over by drought. And for the metro area, things are moving into a historic snowless territory.

The drought has dramatically expanded recently. Thursday's drought monitor indicates that more than 98 percent of the state is in a drought, up from only 10 percent at the start of the year.

For most, a dry weather pattern took over in midsummer when the rains ended.

And little snow has materialized. The mountains have had barely 5 to 10 inches across most of the ranges. Denver has yet to see its first snow.

In Denver, the last snow was May 1. The number of days without snowfall is at 193 as of Thursday, the eighth-longest streak since 1948.

In 1992, Denver went 211 days without snow and 2016 might rival that record.

The latest measurable snowfall in Denver was Nov. 21, 1934 and that record might fall this year unless the persistent warm, dry weather pattern breaks down soon.

Tornado2

EF1 tornado hits Gauteng province, South Africa

Tornado damage in Ennerdale
© Faizel Patel ‏via TwitterSome of the damage cause by the Tornado that struck #Ennerdale on Monday, 14 November.
The twister that touched down in Ennerdale, south of Johannesburg, on Monday was rated as being of the type that packs winds of up to 177km/h, the SA Weather Service (SAWS) said on Tuesday.

‏SA Weather Service @SAWeatherServic tweeted: "After assessing damages at Ennerdale (GP), SAWS can confirm that the tornado at Ennerdale on 14 Nov 2016 was rated as EF1 tornado."

Weather Watch SA ‏@storm_sa added some context: "The SAWS has rated yesterdays tornado that struck Ennerdale as an EF1 (estimated winds of 138-177km/h)."

EF stands for the Enhanced Fujita scale, which rates the intensity of tornadoes in the United States and Canada based on the damage they cause - EF0 is the lowest, while EF5 involves wind speeds of 320km/h-plus.




Comment: In July this year Gauteng province was hit by two tornadoes in 24 hours.