Earth ChangesS


Cloud Precipitation

Greening of the desert: Australia's largest lake comes back to life following heavy rainfall

Ada Carr
The Weather Channnel
Thu, 14 Jan 2016 14:50 UTC
Lake Eyre is lush and green after rainfall.
© W Lawler/Australian Wildlife ConservancyLake Eyre is lush and green after rainfall.

Australia's largest salt lake, Lake Eyre, has been brought back to life, drawing birds and other small mammals back to the area.

According to Australia's Bureau of Meteorology, some light rain fell around the lake on New Year's Eve, followed by heavier rains of 1 to 2 inches (25 to 50 mm) on New Year's Day and the day after.

"Additional heavy rainfall added up to between 25 and 100 millimeters (1 to 4 inches) during the first week of January over the Lake Eyre region," said weather.com senior meteorologist Nick Wiltgen.

According to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, the rainfall seen on New Year's Day 2016 was the largest rainfall event it had seen since acquiring the Kalamurina park in 2007.

"This is an extraordinary event - the rapid filling of Lake Eyre by local flooding is unusual and a stark contrast to the slow arrival of floodwaters from the rain in the far-off channel country of Queensland," Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) chief executive Atticus Hemming told Mashable Australia. "The desert around Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre) may not flood like this again for decade."


Lake Eyre in South Australia
© Australian Wildlife Conservancy The photo above shows Lake Eyre in South Australia's Kalamurina Wildlife Sanctuary after it was flooded by heavy rainfall.

Comment: Waterfalls cascade off iconic Ayers Rock in Australia after heavy rainfall

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Handcuffs

Rare elephant rage stomps Indian rickshaw


RT
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 14:08 UTC
Elephant rage
© IndianExpressOnline / YouTube
Known to be quite placid creatures, elephants rarely lose their cool. But when the red mist of rage does descend, the results can be car-shatteringly spectacular.

As this recently recorded amateur video suggests, never get on the wrong side of an elephant. Not only because they are liable to hold a grudge - but the large mammals can also stomp anything in their way into the ground.
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Christmas Lights

Photographer claims microscopic ice crystals in the sky reflect lights of town in Finland

Gianluca Mezzofiore
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 13:51 UTC
Street lights are reflected in the sky
Street lights are reflected in the sky in a vertically flipper mirror image, forming an accurate map of the town
This is the extraordinary sight caught by a Finnish woman in the sky over Kauttua/Eura.

The street lights are reflected in the sky in a vertically flipper mirror image, forming an accurate map of the town.

The jaw-dropping scene was captured by Mia Heikkilä, who later posted the picture on the Space Weather website.

'People gave hints to look if the pattern matches the local map. And there it was! Exact reversed light map of Kauttua, Eura, on the sky. Now I call it #LuxEura,' she wrote.

It may look like a scene from the X-Files but the explanation is more terrestrial.

The phenomenon, known as light pillar, appear when artificial light or natural light bounces off the facets of flat ice crystals in the air, producing luminous columns in the sky.

Light pillars are relatively common in cold, Arctic regions and most people see them from the side, where they look like towers that reach into the sky.
Image caught by Mia Heikkilä is an exact reversed light map of Kauttua, Eura on the sky
Image caught by Mia Heikkilä is an exact reversed light map of Kauttua, Eura on the sky
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Question

New Jersey residents plagued by mysterious loud booming sounds


CBS Local
Fri, 15 Jan 2016 23:09 UTC
mystery booms over New Jersey
© ABC7 (screen capture)
Friday night was far from the first nervous one for residents of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, who have been plagued by loud booming sounds for about a week.

As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported, the source of the nuisance is a mystery.

"We were, like, looking at each other like, 'What was that?'" said Danielle McManus.

It happened twice in the past week to McManus and her family. While inside their home in a usually very quiet Fair Lawn neighborhood, things went bump in the night.

"If we didn't know any better, it almost sounds like a cannon," McManus said, "It was so deep and just like, echoey."

Elsewhere in the neighborhood along the Passaic River, residents say they have heard loud booms as early as 6 p.m. and as late as 2 a.m..

"It was, 'Pssh, pssh, pssh,'" one young boy said.

"I was like, 'Grr! Grr! Brr!' like that," another said.

"I heard the noise, so I came out here," added Susan Kuqi of Fair Lawn. 'Sometimes, you know, people dump garbage. It sounded like a garbage truck."

Comment: Last year mysterious earth-shaking booms also rattled residents in New Jersey, and elsewhere across the US. These strange sounds often remain unexplained by the authorities.

As meteor fireball and seismic activity have increased dramatically in recent years, we suspect that a number of these booms can be attributed to overhead meteor explosions or are earthquake-related. See also:

Unexplained loud booms: A compilation from 2015

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Cloud Precipitation

Waterfalls cascade off iconic Ayers Rock in Australia after heavy rainfall

Peter Devlin
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 15 Jan 2016 20:42 UTC
Rainfall over Uluru
Rainfall over Uluru (pictured) at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in central Australia has given travellers a rare and spectacular sight
Rainfall over Uluru at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in central Australia has given travellers a rare and spectacular sight.

Australia's iconic red rock, also known as Ayers Rock took on a different form this week as it became a waterfall for cascading rains which have been falling constantly since Monday, bringing a cool change to the area.

'The photos are just spectacular. When we get rain at Uluru it cools everything down and wakes everything up. It brings the place to life,' said Kerrie Bennison, acting manager at the national park.

Rain on the rock!- Australia’s iconic red rock
Rain on the rock!- Australia’s iconic red rock took on a different form this week as it became a waterfall for cascading rains which have been falling constantly since Monday, bringing a cool change to the area
She said most people come to see the sunrises and sunsets but rain running off the rock generates great interest.

It's a stunning sight that most visitors to Uluru will never get a chance to witness.

'I've been at the park for eight years. You don't see this sight very often, only a couple of times a year if you're lucky,' said Ms Bennison.

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Eye 2

Third rare sea snake washes up on California beach in 3 months

Jessica Chia
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 19:11 UTC
The Pelamis platura snake
The Pelamis platura snake was found in Dog Beach, Coronado, miles away from its usual tropical habitat
For the third time in about three months, a rare venomous sea snake has washed up on a beach in Southern California.

The Pelamis platura snake, which is usually found in the tropical waters off the western coast of Mexico, was last spotted in California in the 1980s.

The sea snakes require a minimum of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit to survive and are believed to be moving north due to the unusually warm temperatures caused by El Nino.

The snake found at Dog Beach in Coronado on Tuesday measured 20 inches long and died shortly after it was placed in a bucket by a lifeguard.

In October, one yellow-bellied snake was found in Silver Strand State Beach, in Ventura County.


Comment: See also: Incredibly venomous yellow-bellied sea snake spotted in California for the first time in 30 years

Second rare yellow bellied sea snake washes up on California beach in 2 months

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Attention

Devon residents alarmed as beach disappears overnight

Alex Matthews
Daily Mail
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 06:08 UTC
After beach
© APEXHallsands beach devastated by storms leaving only a layer of ancient peat behind.
  • Thousands of tons of shingle have been gouged out from Hallsands beach
  • Ancient peat base-layer has been left behind but it is being rapidly eroded
Residents on the picturesque Devonshire coast are enduring sleepless nights as a beach that has protected them for generations disappears overnight. Storms have battered Hallsands, in Devon, gouging out thousands of tons of sand and shingle - leaving only a base-layer of ancient peat behind. The peat is rapidly eroding and local councillors have warned that the whole of the exposed east-facing coast of that corner of the county is under threat.

Before beach
© APEXBefore: Hallsands quaint shingle beach looks like a postcard scene.
South Hams District and Devon County councillor Julian Brazil said: ''Hallsands is where you can see this problem at its worst. But the erosion over the past three weeks has happened all along this stretch of coast. The continual storms have been eroding the shore like we've never see before. You've got the beach at North Hallsands but you can also see damage at Beesands where more of the road to the left of the village has been eroded. And at Torcross a lot of the beach has disappeared and all that's left is the piling. The houses are vibrating when the waves hit," said Mr Brazil.

"Residents are very concerned and tell me they can't sleep at night because of the booming." Mr Brazil added: "It is alarming. The base-layer of peat is washing away every day. In the middle of the beach there is a big fisherman's winch and that until recently stood 20-foot proud from the bottom of the shore. Now it's down on the peat and the cottages are under threat."

Comment: Climate irregularities are affecting many places around the globe, causing unusual manifestations and sometimes severe and quick changes. Hallsands Beach is one example of a swift and drastic transformation. This is nature's reminder that changes are at hand and we had best pay attention.

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House

Suspected gas leak in Italy completely destroys apartment, 5 killed


CP24
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 16:13 UTC
Italy explosion
© Luca Zennaro/ANSA via APFirefighters work on the rubbles of a collapsed building after an explosion blamed on a gas leak has killed five people in the apartment building in Arnasco, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016.
An explosion blamed on a gas leak has killed five people in the apartment building where they lived in northwest Italy.

Firefighters say they removed the bodies of four men and a woman from the collapsed building in Arnasco, near Savona, after the pre-dawn blast Saturday. A woman who survived was severely burned.

Arnasco Mayor Alfredo Gallizia says the four-story building, where three families lived, was "saturated with gas and everything came down."

The cause of the gas leak is being investigated.

Comment: There seems to have been an increase in the number of massive house explosions around the world in recent months, with investigators still attempting to determine the cause in many cases. Could a 'cosmic' source of ignition be responsible for some of these incidents?

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Cloud Precipitation

150,000 affected by flooding in Paraná State, Brazil

Richard Davies
Floodlist
Fri, 15 Jan 2016 14:30 UTC
flood damage in Paraná state, Brazil
Flood damage in Paraná state, Brazil
The civil defence authority in the Brazilian state of Paraná, Defesa Civil do Paraná, report that heavy rain between 09 and 12 January, 2016, has caused widespread flooding in 49 municipalities of the state. The heavy rain has also caused several landslides in 5 municipalities.

According to latest figures, the floods have affected over 150,000 people, and forced over 2,000 to evacuate their homes. Five people have been injured and one is missing.

Defesa Civil do Paraná say that 74 homes have been completely destroyed, leaving 198 people homeless. A further 10,057 homes have been damaged.

A landslide in Campo Largo affected 405 people and displaced five. Landslides were also reported in Campina Grande do Sul, Fazenda Rio Grande, Santana do Itararé and Ponta Grossa.


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Sun

7,000 cattle dead due to drought in Zimbabwe

Shimoney Regter
Eyewitness News
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 14:20 UTC
Livestock are dying in Zimbabwe
Livestock are dying in Zimbabwe
Severe water shortages are also affecting the Midlands and Matabeleland South.

As South Africa shoulders its own major water crisis, other countries in the region haven't been spared the hardships of the El Niño-induced drought.

In Zimbabwe, reports say around 7,000 cattle have died in its southern provinces.

The worst hit areas are in the south of the country, nearest to South Africa.

The Chronicle says that Masvingo province is the hardest hit, with around 5,000 cattle reported to have died there since temperatures went up in October.
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