Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Wild weather lashes New Zealand, local state of emergency declared

New Zealand flood
© NZTADouglas Drive at Franz Josef, just before daybreak today
Nearly 200 people have been evacuated on the West Coast, and trees have brought down powerlines in Auckland, as wild weather lashes the country.

Heavy rain caused the Waiho River on the West Coast to breach its bank, the upper North Island has been hit by strong winds and MetService said the bad weather was expected to continue into the afternoon.


A local state of emergency was declared early this morning on the West Coast, after flooding forced the evacuation of nearly 200 people in Franz Josef.

The chair of the Glacier Country Tourism Group, Rob Jewell, said 80 of the tourists were staying in a welfare centre.

Ensuring the welfare of the town's guests was key, he said.

The Waiho River breached its bank near the town about 11.50pm last night.

Authorities said 186 people were evacuated at different stages as the river first made its way to the Scenic Circle Hotel, and moved towards the Top Ten Holiday Park and the Westwood Lodge.

Cloud Lightning

Severe thunderstorms with flash flood risk expected to hit from Texas to Missouri

Texas storm forecast
© AccuWeather
Parts of the central and southern United States will face the return of severe thunderstorms. Some of the storms can cause property damage and flash flooding into Thursday.

Severe weather will erupt as a cold front slices into surging warm air.

Storms will initiate across eastern Texas to part of the central Plains and spread eastward into part of the Mississippi Valley.

A small number of severe storm will extend as far north as southeastern Nebraska and near the Iowa/Missouri border.

"Storms will be capable of producing mainly large hail and damaging winds," AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions Storm Warning Meteorologist Alex Avalos said. "However, a tornado or two cannot be ruled out."

Cloud Precipitation

Golf ball size hailstorm kills flamingos, other birds at Fort Worth Zoo, Texas

flamingo fort worth
© Jared L. ChristopherSevere thunderstorms pounded Tarrant County with hail Thursday morning, covering roadways in west Fort Worth and south Arlington, busting out windshields and killing some exotic birds at the Fort Worth Zoo.
The first ice storm of 2016 hit Thursday.

But it wasn't sleet. It was hail, so thick at times it looked like snow.

The surprise hailstorms busted in windshields from Fort Worth to Arlington, killed exotic birds at the Fort Worth Zoo and made for a chaotic Thursday morning commute.

The hailstones varied in size from blueberries to tennis balls.

"The main ingredient was instability in the atmosphere," said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Stalley. "We definitely had been advertising that there could be a few severe storms but they were more widespread than we anticipated."

Question

Dozens of dead birds found on street in Elmira, New York

Dead starling
"It was really bizarre I mean you wonder what could've caused that."

A strange scene on the street of an Elmira neighborhood has some searching for an explanation.

On Saturday March 19, Ryan Keilman observed one dead bird on his lawn between the curb and the road on Davis Street in Elmira and thought nothing of it until he got a phone call from his mom who sounded concerned with the scene she saw while leaving his residence. Upon observing an unsettling scene of dozens of deceased animals just outside of his home, Keilman contacted multiple agencies to get answers.

"My mother, she stopped by when she was leaving she called me and said hey you need to come outside and I went out and she's like did you see all of these and originally I counted 21 but then I ended up double counting it was 25 dead birds," said Keilman.

Cloud Precipitation

Floods leave hundreds stranded in Padang, Indonesia: 370 mm (14 inches) of rain in 24 hours

Floods in Padang, Indonesia, March 2016.
© BNPBFloods in Padang, Indonesia, March 2016.
Floods in the city of Padang and Padang Regency in West Sumatra have left hundreds of people stranded, according to Indonesia's Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

Meanwhile, floods in Magelang Regency in Central Java have left at least 1 person dead and several injured.

Padang, West Sumatra

As much as 370 mm of rain was recorded in Padang in 24 hours between 21 and 22 March 2016. The heavy rain resulted in the Batang Arau river overflowing.

Three districts - Koto Tangah, Padang Utara and Padang Selatan - have been severely affected by floods. BNPB say that as many as 9 villages are under water up to 1 metre deep.

There have been no reports of casualties, although houses, schools and a bridge have been damaged.

Teams from emergency agencies are carrying out evacuations using inflatable boats. However, BNPB says that given the wide areas flooded, not all flood victims could be reached and estimate that there are hundreds who are trapped and not been evacuated, particularly in Koto Tangah district.

Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills teacher and pupil in Zimbabwe

A MYSTERIOUS bolt of lightning fatally struck a female teacher and a Form One pupil at Chivata Secondary School in Zaka under Chief Nhema last week, a government official confirmed the incident yesterday.
A MYSTERIOUS bolt of lightning fatally struck a female teacher and a Form One pupil at Chivata Secondary School in Zaka under Chief Nhema last week, a government official confirmed the incident yesterday.
Provincial education director Zedious Chitiga said Theresa Mufuka and a 15-year-old pupil identified as Charles Sarai, died at the school after they were struck by lightning.

The two have since been buried.

"We have received the shocking reports. One other teacher was also struck and admitted at Ndanga Hospital, but has since been discharged," Chitiga said.

A teacher at the school who requested anonymity said the incident had left them dumbfounded as there was no drop of rain that fell on the day save for a few clouds that formed and disappeared afterwards.

"She was handing fees receipts to pupils as we were about to end the day, while other pupils were doing general work. Suddenly, as she handed the pupil his receipt, a bolt of lightning struck from nowhere. There were just a few clouds," said a teacher who declined to be named.

Windsock

Narrow escape for woman and child as roof blown off building, as hurricane-force winds hit Russia

Freak winds hit Russia
© Youtube/turbulence (screen capture)
The moment a woman and child escaped with their lives as hurricane-force winds blow the roof off a building just behind them has been caught on camera.

Russia's Krasnodar Krai region has long been known for its benign climate. There's a natural spa that attracts tourist all year round.

But it can also get pretty windy.

Windy enough, in fact, to blow the roof right off the city registrar's office in the town of Labinsk.

A woman and a small child passing by had a worryingly narrow escape when the entire roof came crashing down, almost in one complete piece.

No-one has been reported harmed in the shocking incident.


Fish

Mysterious death of over 17,000 fish, turtles and other rare sea life along 60km of coast near Broome, Australia

An estimated 17,500 fish have died (pictured) in what is believed to be a naturally occurring fish kill in the Kimberly region, in Western Australia’s far north
An estimated 17,500 fish have died (pictured) in what is believed to be a naturally occurring fish kill in the Kimberly region, in Western Australia’s far north
An estimated 17,500 fish have died in what is believed to be a naturally occurring fish kill in the Kimberly region, in Western Australia's far north.

The discovery of the dead fish may be linked to a culmination of environmental factors.

More than 37 different species of fish began washing up dead on beaches near Broome last Monday.

Higher than normal water temperatures coupled with warm weather and sustained onshore winds have been floated by the department as contributing factors.

Experts predict the deaths were contained to a localised area before the fish carcases were spread by strong tides.

Fish, turtles (pictured) and other rare sea life have been found washed up dead on beaches around Broome
Fish, turtles (pictured) and other rare sea life have been found washed up dead on beaches around Broome
A Department of Fisheries spokesman said the fish kill had affected mainly small fish (pictured), with less than three per cent recorded at more than 30cm long
A Department of Fisheries spokesman said the fish kill had affected mainly small fish (pictured), with less than three per cent recorded at more than 30cm long

Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills 3 farmers in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

Lightning
Three farmers were killed as lightning had struck them in Matarbari of Moheshkhali upazila of the district.

The lightning struck them around 9:00am on Tuesday (March 22) while they were working at a salt field in the area.

One of deceased has been identified as Habib Ullah while the names of over victims could be known till filing the report.

Moheshkhali Thana officer-in-charge (OC) Didarul Ferdous confirmed the matter to banglanews.

Snowflake Cold

350,000 farm animals die due to extreme cold in Mongolia

A pile of animal carcasses in Uvs province, Mongolia
A pile of animal carcasses in Uvs province, Mongolia
Hundreds of thousands of farm animals have perished in a slow-moving natural disaster in Mongolia and the international aid response has been insufficient, the Red Cross said Friday.

Mongolia has been hit by a devastating natural phenomenon known as a "dzud", said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) -- a hot summer drought followed by a severe winter.

The combination spells doom for livestock in a country where IFRC said a third of the thinly-spread population rely on animal husbandry for their livelihoods.

Goats, sheep and cows die en masse, unable to graze sufficiently in the warmer months to build up the reserves necessary to withstand later temperatures that regularly drop to -50 degrees Celsius.

More than 350,000 animals have already died, but more than a million deaths are expected, according to the latest available data from the UN mission in the country, IFRC said.