Earth ChangesS


Windsock

Cyclone Winston wreaks destruction in Fiji, five people killed


BBC News
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 22:58 UTC
Cyclone Winston batters Fiji
© EPAPeople in Ba in the north of Viti Levu island awoke to scenes of devastation
Authorities in Fiji are assessing the damage after the most powerful storm left at least five people dead.

Cyclone Winston brought winds of over 320km/h (200mph), torrential rain and waves of up to 12m (40ft).

It destroyed hundreds of homes and cut electricity lines. There are reports of entire villages flattened.

The government has imposed a nationwide curfew and 30-day state of national disaster giving extra powers to police to arrest people without a warrant.

The Category-five storm - the highest level - moved westward since making landfall at 18:30 local time (06:30 GMT) on Saturday in the north of Fiji's main island, Viti Levu.

It changed direction at the last minute, sparing the capital Suva the full force of its winds.

The government had opened about 750 evacuation centres.

More than 1,000 people were sheltering in one on the second largest island of Vanua Levu, north-east of Viti Levu, the Fiji Broadcasting Company said.

Among the victims was an elderly man who died on the smaller Koro Island when a roof fell on him.

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Cloud Precipitation

Winter rainfall record smashed in Portland, Oregon

Rosemarie Stein
OregonLive
Fri, 19 Feb 2016 10:53 UTC
Record setting rainfall in Portland
© NOAARecord setting rainfall 2015/16
Portland International Airport set a rainfall record for December through February (the meteorological winter) at 25.27 inches, the National Weather Service reports.

Normal rainfall for the airport during the same period is 14.14 inches. Records have been kept at the airport since 1940.

That's a lot of rain. And February's not over yet, so the number will climb.

Other near-record-setting areas (where records have been kept since the 1890s) include:

Vancouver with its second wettest winter (25.77 inches)

Downtown Portland's third wettest winter (31.06 inches)

and Hillsboro with its fourth wettest winter (24.74 inches).

The ranking is for the period of Dec. 1 1 through Feb. 28-29.

And the Portland area's rainy season is far from over. Keep those rain boots and umbrellas handy.

Comment: Heavy rains saturate Portland, northwest Oregon, causing flooding, landslides, sewer overflow

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Bizarro Earth

Minor, very shallow earthquake rattles New Jersey


CBS Local
Thu, 18 Feb 2016 23:13 UTC
New Jersey earthquake
© USGSU.S. Geological Survey reported a 1.6-magnitude earthquake one mile northwest from Bloomingdale.
Many people said they heard a loud boom and could feel their homes shake. Some even said they smelled burning afterward.

"I heard a loud boom and I'm on the other side of the highway," Lori Milone wrote on Facebook.

"Shook our house and then we detected a burning smell for a little while," wrote Mark Selz.

"Double shakes here off Cascade Way, sounded like someone was in my house," wrote Carrie Shaver. "What happened?"

"Me and my husband were watching TV and he said, "What was that?" It sounded like an explosion," one Butler woman told WCBS 880's Sean Adams. "We just went about our business. We didn't hear anything else. He said to me, "You know, that almost made the house shake."

CBS2's Lonnie Quinn explained that low-magnitude earthquakes happen often in the Morris County area, as it - and Butler specifically - sit on the Ramapo Fault Line - one of the major fault lines in the U.S.

Quinn reported the reason the earthquake was felt by so many people in the area was that it was very shallow - occurring only about a mile to a mile and a half underground.

By contrast, the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles was 11 miles deep.


Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Massive sinkhole swallows buildings in Norhausen, Germany


Strange Sounds
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 20:45 UTC
Sinkhole
A huge sinkhole opened up between two buildings in Nordhausen, Germany.

The giant 40 to 50 meters deep, 30 meters wide crater is filled with water and still growing. It has already swallowed parts of an office building. Another house is on the verge of collapsing.

A first sinkhole opened up between two farm buildings in Nordhausen at around 7pm on Friday evening.

Then the ground collapsed another time. The two holes than merged into a giant cavity measuring 30 meters in diameter and 40 to 50 meters deep. That is gigantic

As the ground collapsed, witnesses reported a strong rumbling noise like that we hear during an earthquake.

The two buildings were empty as they collapsed into the ground.

In this video, you see one of the house collapse @ 3:33:.


Comment: See in addition: Sinkholes: The groundbreaking truth

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning kills another 3 people in South Africa; total of 10 in a week


iol.co.za
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 19:06 UTC
Lightning
© Warren Dick
Three more people have died in lightning strikes in KwaZulu-Natal, bringing to 10 the number of people killed in one week, the provincial co-operative governance and traditional affairs department said on Saturday.

"With the province of KwaZulu-Natal still licking its wounds after seven people lost their lives in the area of KwaMachi near Harding in the Umuziwabantu local municipality, another tragedy has struck as more lightning, hail, and storms have hit the neighbouring uMzimkhulu municipality killing three more people and injuring dozens of others as well as damaging homes," MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube said.

In wards 14 and 18 in uMzimkhulu municipality more than 80 household were affected by storms. A team of disaster management personnel led by the local mayor Mphuthumi Mpabanga had been undertaking door-to-door visits to all the affected families and providing first-line support, she said.

Comment: See also these other recent reports from South Africa: Lightning kills four in Harding, South Africa

Lightning strike kills three in South Africa

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Fish

Piranha attacks on swimmers in Brazil leave over 50 people injured in a month

Janet Tappin Coelho
The Independent (UK)
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 18:37 UTC
A white piranha (Serrasalmus rhombeus)
© AlamyA white piranha (Serrasalmus rhombeus), aka ‘white bitch’, held by a fisherman in Los llanos, Venezuela
Hundreds of swimmers in Brazil are being warned to stay out of the water following a spate of attacks by shoals of deadly piranha, which has left more than 50 people injured in just over a month.

Unsuspecting tourists have had chunks of flesh bitten out of their hands and feet as drought conditions in the South American country force the lethal predators to migrate from their natural habitat to deeper waters packed with holidaymakers.

This week at least eight bathers were bitten by the man-eaters, known as "white bitches", the 6in-long species blamed for the attacks, on beaches in Palmas, in Tocantins State, north-east Brazil. Three children were among the casualties as people took to the waters to cool off during the hot holiday weekend. A four-year-old boy had a chunk taken out of his heel.
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Fire

'Firenado' filmed during Missouri wildfire

Ben Hooper
UPI
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 18:20 UTC
firenado
© Southern Platte Fire Protection District/Facebook A firenado spins flames into the sky during a Missouri wildfire Thursday.
Firefighters battling a massive wildfire in Missouri captured video of a "firenado," or fire tornado, blowing flames into the sky.

The Southern Platte Fire Protection District, one of several agencies battling the wildfire Thursday in Platte County, just north of Kansas City, posted a video to Facebook showing the firenado, also known as a fire whirl, spinning flames high into the sky.

"Oh, that's freakin' awesome," a firefighter can be heard saying in the video.

Authorities said the wildfire, which spread across more than 1,300 acres, was started by sparks that shot from a malfunctioning prison lawnmower near the Centennial Bridge.

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Cloud Precipitation

Flood emergency declared in 6 key farming provinces in Argentina

Hugh Bronstein
Yahoo News
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 14:27 UTC
Flooded field
The resolution, announced in the government's morning gazette, covers the provinces of Cordoba, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Chaco, La Rioja and Corrientes. Argentina's top grains producing province of Buenos Aires was not included in the emergency, but floods were reported there as well.

Six of Argentina's main farm provinces were declared flood emergency areas by the government on Friday, making special credit lines and tax breaks available to affected growers in the soy and corn exporting powerhouse.

The resolution, announced in the government's morning gazette, covers the provinces of Cordoba, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Chaco, La Rioja and Corrientes. Argentina's top grains producing province of Buenos Aires was not included in the emergency, but floods were reported there as well.

This year's El Niño weather pattern, which causes global climate extremes, has worsened floods in some parts of South America, including Argentina. In other areas, such as Colombia, it has brought drought.
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Ice Cube

Pakistan government warns the country to prepare for global cooling

Adapt 2030
Youtube
Thu, 18 Feb 2016 13:40 UTC
Heavy snow fall in Murree, Pakistan
© Sohail abbasiHeavy snow fall in Murree, Pakistan. 11.2.2016
The Pakistan Meteorological Bureau put out a lengthy 59 page report warning the citizens of Pakistan that Global cooling will begin in 2019 and there needs to be a strategy with urgent action in order for the society to cope with the changes. This is the second country to now come out and tell its citizens to prepare, Russia was first, now Pakistan.


Comment: See also: Heavy snowfall cripples life in northern Pakistan

30 leading scientists predict global cooling

Ice Age Cometh: Russian Academy of Sciences experts warn of imminent cold period: "Global warming is a marketing trick"

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Attention

15ft basking shark found dead in Skelmorlie, Scotland


BBC
Fri, 19 Feb 2016 12:50 UTC
Dead 15ft basking shark washes up in Scotland
© Largs Coastguard Recue TeamDead 15ft basking shark washes up in Scotland
Pictures have been released of a dead 15ft (5m) basking shark which washed up at Skelmorlie, North Ayrshire.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said the fish, which weighed "a few tonnes" was found near the A78 Shore Road.

North Ayrshire Council was notified along with Largs Coastguard Rescue Team which photographed the shark.

Basking sharks can be up to 40ft long and are the largest fish found in British waters.

They are the second largest fish in the world, after the whale shark, according to the Shark Trust charity.
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