Earth ChangesS


Attention

Dolphin found dead on east coast - days after whales died in Lincolnshire, UK


Grimsby Telegraph
Sun, 14 Feb 2016 19:26 UTC
A Hornsea Coastguard officer with the dolphin.
© Hornsea CoastguardA Hornsea Coastguard officer with the dolphin.
A dolphin washed up dead on the east coast, just days after a number of whales were stranded along the Lincolnshire coastline.

Hornsea Coastguard was called out to the beach in East Yorkshire at about 3pm on Friday afternoon after reports of a whale or porpoise on the beach.

It was later identified as a white beaked dolphin, and details were passed to the Natural History Museum to arrange collection.

A spokesman for Hornsea Coastguard said: "Team paged by CGOC Humber to a report of a whale/porpoise on the beach north of Hornsea.
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Binoculars

Migrant birds confused by hot-and-cold winter as hundreds stay in their Dehli homelands, India

Baishali Adak
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 06 Feb 2016 18:51 UTC
Delhi's bird watchers have noticed significant changes in the behaviour of migratory birds this season
Delhi's bird watchers have noticed significant changes in the behaviour of migratory birds this season
While the Capital's citizens missed out on the trademark Delhi chill over the winter months, the flip-flop winter seems to have baffled its winged guests as well.

Some species of migratory ducks, which used to arrive in their thousands, have trickled down to hundreds.

Experts said the arrival of these birds was also delayed, and this is being attributed to the lack of snow in their homelands in Europe and central Asia.

Some of the migratory birds that did arrive this season, apparently, are ready to leave.

Adding to all the 'confusion', a few birds that breed only in summer are nesting and pairing up in January, a phenomenon usually witnessed in April, say experts.

However, it may be too soon to press the climate change alarm, some birders caution, adding that any change in migratory behaviour could have resulted from the disturbed habitats in the city.
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Cloud Grey

Lake Tahoe was flooded with 6 billion gallons of water in 24 Hours

Evan Ssenoffsky
Esquire
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 15:50 UTC
Lake Tahoe
© Getty
More than 6 billion gallons of water have poured into Lake Tahoe in less than two days, helping the lake begin to recover from four years of crushing drought.

Since midnight Monday, the lake has gone up 1.92 inches, the equivalent of 6.39 billion gallons of water, according to the National Weather Service. The water comes as a winter storm slams the Sierra, bringing several feet of snow to higher elevations and rain at lake level, which sits at roughly 6,223 feet.

The lake—the second deepest in the United States behind Oregon's Crater Lake—was hit hard this year by the drought. Over the summer, the lake was shockingly low. Many boaters were unable to get their crafts into the lake after waters pulled back from most boat launches.
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Arrow Up

Condamine River's mysterious bubbling methane 'intensifying' in Queensland, Australia

Mark Willacy
abc.net.au
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 17:03 UTC
Scientists are trying to identify the cause of methane gas bubbling in the Condamine River.
© ABC News: Scott Kyle Scientists are trying to identify the cause of methane gas bubbling in the Condamine River.
Landholders in Queensland are calling on the State Government to find the cause of methane gas bubbling in a major river, which they say has intensified in recent months.

The so-called methane seeps in the Condamine River near Chinchilla were reported in 2012, triggering a series of investigations.

But the Government has told the ABC that it does not have sufficient information to identify the cause of the seeps.

Professor Damian Barrett, the CSIRO's lead researcher into unconventional gas, has been monitoring the Condamine gas seeps.

He confirmed to the ABC that the bubbling had intensified.

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Snowflake Cold

Whiteface Mountain in New York state records minus 114; colder than Antarctica

Alfred Ng
New York Daily News
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 16:09 UTC
Winds at Whiteface Mountain's summit blasted at 45 mph on Saturday night going into Sunday morning.
© The Wild CenterWinds at Whiteface Mountain's summit blasted at 45 mph on Saturday night going into Sunday morning.
While New York City had its coldest start to Valentine's Day in 100 years on Sunday, it would seem balmy compared with the wicked wind chill at upstate Whiteface Mountain.

As temperatures dropped across the Northeast from the blast of a polar vortex, the wind chill at Whiteface, near Lake Placid, made it feel like a body- and mind-numbing minus 114 degrees late Saturday and into Sunday. Central Park could only muster a minus 1 degree.

The Wild Center, which works with the Atmospheric Science Research Center at SUNY Albany, recorded the frigid temperature from a research station at the mountain's summit.

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Sun

'Sun dog' sparkles along Orangeville, Ontario skyline

Chris Halliday
Orangeville Banner
Sat, 13 Feb 2016 12:56 UTC
Orangeville sun halo
© Rose KnottLocal photographer Rose Knott managed to capture an image of a sun dog near Mono early Saturday morning (Feb. 13).
Mother Nature has treated residents in the Orangeville area to a relatively uncommon atmospheric phenomenon only seen a few times every year.

After a band of snow squalls moved through Dufferin County last night, the skies cleared to reveal a parhelion — informally nicknamed a sun dog — near Mono early Saturday morning (Feb. 13).

Local photographer Rose Knott managed to capture an image of the uncommon occurrence early Saturday morning.

"I've never seen a sun dog. It was just so exciting to me," she posted on Facebook. "Just felt so thrilled to capture this."

Sun dogs are formed when sunlight refracts off ice crystals in the atmosphere, creating bright spots on either side of the sun. In some cases, a rainbow-shaped halo can be seen connecting these bright pillars beside the sun.

"It is more the ice crystals high up in the atmosphere that create the phenomena," Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson told The Banner last year. "When those ice crystals reflect the sunlight at a certain angle, it can form these sun dogs."

Cold air isn't a preamble to a sundog, as Coulson said they could appear pretty much year round. They usually occur in the morning when the sun is rising or when it is setting in the evening.

"What you're really looking for is relatively cloud free conditions," Coulson said. "To be able to view it, you really would had to be within sort of the breaks in the flurry activity to actually see the sun and the phenomena itself."

Comment: Just two days before in nearby Caledon, Ontario: Morning 'sun dog' captures attention of residents in Caledon, Ontario
Caledon/Orangeville
© Google Map


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Camera

Morning 'sun dog' captures attention of residents in Caledon, Ontario

Danielle Marr
Caledon Enterprise
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 23:13 UTC
Caledon sun dog
© Lori Makarewicz
Residents across Caledon were looking to the skies Thursday morning (Feb. 11) as a unique 'sun dog' cast a spherical glow on the landscape.

"It certainly was a beautiful sight this morning, wasn't it?" local resident, Lori Makarewicz said to The Enterprise. "I have never seen one like that before. I almost got frostbite by standing out in my sandals on the front lawn, didn't want to waste any time looking for my boots in case I missed it!"

According to Environment Canada meteorologist, Rebecca Wagner, "sun dogs" which are also classified as parhelion, halos, or "mock suns," are an optical effect caused by the refraction of sunlight by ice crystals in the atmosphere.

"In particular this morning we had a very well developed halo around the sun with two bands with bright spots on either side of the sun, at about the same elevation," she continued.

While they technically occur any time of the year, sun dogs appear more vividly in the winter due to the combination of ice crystals in the atmosphere and the low angle of the sun in the sky - and even still, are usually only spotted about two to three times a year.

As the sun rises in the sky, the halo diminishes as the angle of the light hitting the ice crystals changing.
Caledon sun dog
© Gordon Bentley
Bolton resident, Craig Kellough, spotted the unique optical effect over the North Hill of town.

"I was driving into Bolton around 9 a.m. when I saw this spectacular scene in the sky surrounding the sun," he said. "I had to pull over and take as many shots as I could. It was something I had never seen before."

According to Wagner, with the chilly temperatures and clear skies predicted for this weekend, there might be another in store for those who missed Thursday morning's display.

Comment: A combination of possible comet dust loading, volcanic eruptions and other changes in the layers of the atmosphere is producing all sorts of anomalous phenomena in the sky.

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Snowflake Cold

Record-breaking cold sweeps across eastern United States

Holly Yan and Azadeh Ansari
CNN
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 01:46 UTC
record cold across eastern US
An Arctic surge will bring bitter cold air to the Northeast this weekend, with record low temperatures expected.
So much for a warm and fuzzy Valentine's Day.

About 20 cities across the East endured record-breaking cold Sunday, forecasters say.

New York City's temperature plummeted to 1 below zero at Central Park, shattering the record of 2 degrees, set during World War I.

Boston reported 9 below. Toronto's temperature reached 16 below over the weekend.

And those are just the real temperatures.

Factor in strong winds, and states from northern Pennsylvania to Maine felt wind chills well, well below zero.

In all, more than 75 million people from the Midwest to the Eastern Seaboard are expected to be affected by snow and freezing rain into Tuesday.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio urged residents to brace for dangerous conditions.

"The city is facing some of the coldest temperatures and wind chills we've seen in the last 20 years," de Blasio said. "Extremely cold weather can be life-threatening -- especially for seniors, infants and people with medical conditions."

The mayor thanked first responders.

"I think, the combination of the way New Yorkers have heeded the warnings, and the fact that our first responders are out constantly scanning for anyone who might need help, it's been very effective. And thank God, we have no reports to date of any fatalities," he said.

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Attention

Tens of thousands of sharks seen migrating off Palm Beach, Florida


Daily Mail, UK
Sun, 14 Feb 2016 21:18 UTC
swarm of sharks
This picture shows a swarm of sharks migrating a short distance from the coast in Palm Beach, Florida
With temperatures plummeting below freezing in parts of the country, you may be temped to escape to some winter sun in Florida.

But if you do hit the sunny beaches, you may want to avoid going for a swim.

That's because tens of thousands of sharks are migrating in huge swarms, and it's happening just off the coast.

Florida Atlantic University biological sciences professor Stephen Kajiura took video from the air of blacktip sharks invading the waters of Palm Beach, on Florida's Atlantic coast


Comment: Unusual migratory patterns and deaths of sea creatures around the world seems to be increasing: As the number of volcanoes erupting right now is greater than the 20th century's YEARLY average, a comparable escalation in activity of their underwater counterparts seems logical.

It is estimated there are up to one million submarine volcanoes on our planet. Effects from this volcanic activity, combined with increased methane outgassing, radiation from the Fukushima disaster are probably also causing the ongoing devastation of marine life, mass fish die offs and strange migratory behaviour we are currently witnessing.

See also: Around 500 manatees crowd into a Florida spring to stay warm

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Attention

Magnitude 4.1 earthquake strikes Pu'u O'o volcano in Hawaii

Michael Janitch
Dutchsinse
Fri, 12 Feb 2016 18:54 UTC
Epicentre
A magnitude 4.1 (+/- 0.1) earthquake has struck on the Southern flank of Pu'u O'o Volcano in Hawaii, part of the greater Kilauea volcanic complex located on the "Big Island".

The earthquake struck in the middle of the Southern lava fields off the Pu'u O'o caldera which reaches all the way from the peak of the Volcano into the ocean (several miles away).

The earthquake may be a byproduct of large volumes of moving lava (magma) from the large flow which was observed coming from Pu'u O'o a several weeks ago.

Pu’u O’o caldera
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