Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

U.S. Lightning deaths climb to 35, deadliest year since 2007

lighting stats
A Wisconsin man died from a lightning strike this week, the 35th person to get struck and killed this year.

The total number of lightning deaths continues to climb higher, and now 2016 has the most lightning fatalities since 2007.

Lightning deaths were slow to start in the spring with a relatively quiet March, April, May and June when only nine people total were killed by lightning.

That changed in July and August as a total of 24 people died from lightning — 12 each month. August was the deadliest August for lightning strikes in the last 10 years.

This most recent lightning death is the second in September.

Tornado2

Waterspout filmed off Zakynthos Island, Greece

WATERSPOUT
Waterspout spotted off Grecian Island

Alex Reh was visiting Zakynthos Island in Greece when he shot this video of a waterspout.


Attention

12-year-old girl bitten by shark off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Shark attacks
A North Carolina mother says her daughter was bitten by a shark in Myrtle Beach while vacationing over the Labor Day weekend.

Heather Williams, of Autryville, North Carolina, told WRAL in Raleigh that her daughter was bitten while the family was staying at the Kingston Plantation in Horry County.

Williams said her four children were riding boogie boards in the ocean for several hours when her 12-year-old daughter, Rylie, said something bit her.

According to Williams, lifeguards on shore treated the girl before she was taken to the hospital.

Attention

Woman seriously injured following shark attack in waters off Hawaii beach

Shark attacks
A 51-year-old woman was in serious condition Wednesday after an apparent shark attack at a popular Hawaii surfing beach.

Lifeguards pulled the woman out of the water. She appeared to be bitten in her arm and shoulder. An expert is expected to examine her wounds to confirm that it was in fact a shark bite.

The Honolulu Emergency Services Department said lifeguards paddled out on rescue boards and brought the woman to shore. Surfers in the water helped. According to the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the woman was about 300 yards from shore at Makaha Beach.

Officials said she frequently visits the Oahu beach regularly. No information was available on the type of shark.

Lifeguards have posted shark warning signs and cleared the water. Officials will reassess Thursday morning whether to reopen the beach.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Cloud Lightning

2,297 killed by lightning over the last 7 years in the Indian state of Odisha

lightning
© 123RF
In Odisha people are getting killed in large numbers by what is perhaps the most unpredictable natural phenomenon -- lightning. In the last seven years lightning has killed 2,297 persons in the state, a figure which is much higher than the deaths caused by other natural calamities.

On average, in these past seven years, 327 persons died of lightning strikes in Odisha every year, according to a report by the Special Relief Commissioner.

This year alone, 284 persons have so far been killed by lightning, the report said. Of them, 56 persons died in lightning strikes in four days in the first week of August.

Most of the victims are farmers in rural areas.

"The problem with lightning is that it cannot be predicted, which makes it all the more challenging to issue timely warnings. We have decided to issue an advisory to districts about what to do and not to do during lightning strikes," said Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra, the Special Relief Commissioner.

Seismograph

Severe 6.7 earthquake hits Australia's Macquarie Islands

Macquarie Island earthquake
© Google Maps
A severe quake initially believed to have hit Central Otago this morning actually struck south of New Zealand.

GeoNet initially reported a magnitude 5.3 quake had struck 30km southeast of Roxburgh, at a depth of 12km, at 9.48am.

GeoNet classified the quake as severe.

However, GeoNet later revised the strength and location of the quake.

It said the magnitude 6.7 quake actually struck west of the Macquarie Islands at a depth of 10km.

Question

Dozens of birds fell to the ground in Boston

Dead Birds
© NECN Dozens of birds are dead in Dorchester, as well as two cats, and the cause remains a mystery.
Health officials are investigating after 47 birds fell from the sky in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood on Thursday.

Rescuers were able to save 15 of the birds, but 32 have died. Investigators are working to determine the cause, and whether the deaths of two cats in the neighborhood could be related.

"When I arrived, birds would fly, like from a house to a tree, they would flop in the tree and they would fall to the ground," said Alan Borgal of the Animal Rescue League of Boston. "The weaker ones were just falling right out the sky."

All the birds were grackles, black songbirds that typically travel in large flocks. They were found thrashing around on Bakersfield Street and the sidewalks nearby around 2 p.m.

"They couldn't get up," said resident Linda Veale.

"We don't know what is going on," said John Meaney of the city of Boston's Inspectional Services. "So we are investigating all avenues."

City officials are looking at everything from a virus, to environmental poisoning, to something intentional. They're also studying the many feeders neighborhood residents have outside.


Binoculars

Once legendary, white killer whales now unusually abundant in western North Pacific

white orca, white killer whale
Olga Filatova, Far East Russia Orca Project

Call him the tip of the iceberg. Six years ago, on 11 August 2010, whale researchers working in the western North Pacific encountered something very unusual: a white male killer whale, or orca. Two days later the white whale, nicknamed Iceberg, reappeared in a large group of orcas - a group that included a second white whale.

In fact, over the past few years the researchers have encountered no fewer than five - and perhaps as many as eight - white orcas in the western North Pacific. They are virtually unheard of elsewhere in the world's oceans. Their unusual abundance in this one particular region could be worrying evidence of inbreeding.

"What we are seeing is strange. It's a very high rate of occurrence," says Erich Hoyt at Whale and Dolphin Conservation in Bridport, UK, who co-directs the Far East Russia Orca Project.

Hoyt and his colleagues estimate there are several thousand orcas in the region, which could mean as many as one in 1000 individuals is born white. "All the other areas where orcas are studied intensively have zero or one or two [white whales] historically," he says.

Attention

Beached whale's remains discovered in Oman

An official at the Shinas Municipality confirmed the news about the beached whale, adding that they plan to bury the whale’s carcass at sea
An official at the Shinas Municipality confirmed the news about the beached whale, adding that they plan to bury the whale’s carcass at sea
A three-tonne whale was found beached and dead in Wilayat of Shinas by fishermen of the area.

The whale was found beached in the village of Dwanij, Shinas by fishermen and was already decomposing by the time they found it. It weighed three tonnes and was four metres long and two metres wide.

Hassan Al Balushi, head of Fishery Resources at the Department of Fisheries in Shinas said, "A group of fishermen found the decomposed whale on the beach. We have coordinated with the Department of Environment and Climate Affairs and the Shinas Municipality to go ahead with procedures to remove the whale."

Attention

5.6 magnitude earthquake, strongest in state history, rattles Oklahoma early Saturday - revised to 5.8! (UPDATE)

Graph
© Dimas Ardian, Getty Images
An earthquake that initially has been reported as matching the strongest quake in Oklahoma's history was felt across Oklahoma early Saturday, rattling windows and waking residents.

The 5.6 quake was centered northwest of Pawnee and occurred at 7:02 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological survey.

Initial indications on social media were that the quake could be felt across the state, from central Oklahoma to northeast Oklahoma. Reports of feeling the quake also came from Texas and Kansas.

The temblor's initial measurement indicates it matches the strongest quake in state history, a 5.6 magnitude earthquake on Nov. Nov. 6, 2011, in the Lincoln County town of Prague.

Hundreds of earthquakes have shaken Oklahoma annually in recent years, but rarely have they been felt in northeast Oklahoma. Often the quakes are below 4.0 magnitude.


Comment: From USGS: "The U.S. Geological Survey is updating the official magnitude of the September 3, 2016 Pawnee, Oklahoma earthquake to Mw 5.8 (from 5.6), making it Oklahoma's largest recorded earthquake to date."