A dam from an open-pit mining complex burst on Thursday in southeastern Brazil flooding a nearby community and enveloping homes and cars in sludge. Rescue teams descending from helicopters scoured the site for survivors.

The authorities said Thursday night that they were trying to determine the number of casualties, with Brazilian news organizations reporting that at least one person had died. Union officials representing workers at the mine said they feared that as many as 15 people might have died after the dam burst.

Record-setting snow in the high country on Wednesday has made the roads slick, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation.

ADOT is warning drivers to watch for icy roads in northern Arizona. There have been a few reports of vehicles going off the sides of roads.

The eastbound lanes of Interstate 40 in Williams were closed for a short time Thursday morning to remove ice from a bridge at milepost 162. ADOT officials said Interstate 17 just south of Flagstaff is clear of snow, but drivers should expect a slick road surface. Temperatures in Flagstaff were in the 20s Thursday morning and it's expected to be in the teens Friday morning.

An overnight freeze warning is in effect for elevations between 3,000 and 5,000 feet. Schools in the Flagstaff Unified School District were on a two-hour delay Thursday. Flagstaff received nearly 9 inches of snow on Wednesday and more than 2 feet of snow fell at Arizona Snowbowl. Another round of snow could come next week. Snowbowl hopes to open Nov. 20.

Motorists heading up to the area should be sure to have blankets, warm clothes and a full tank of gas.

New activity/unrest was observed at 5 volcanoes from October 28 - November 3, 2015. During the same period, ongoing activity was reported for 18 volcanoes.

New activity/unrest:

Fuego, Guatemala | Heard, Kerguelen Plateau | Lascar, Chile | Rinjani, Lombok Island (Indonesia) | Turrialba, Costa Rica.

Ongoing activity:

Aira, Kyushu (Japan) | Bagana, Bougainville (Papua New Guinea) | Colima, Mexico | Colo, Sulawesi (Indonesia) | Cotopaxi, Ecuador | Dukono, Halmahera (Indonesia) | Karangetang, Siau Island (Indonesia) | Karymsky, Eastern Kamchatka (Russia) | Kilauea, Hawaiian Islands (USA) | Manam, Papua New Guinea | Nevado del Ruiz, Colombia | Piton de la Fournaise, Reunion Island (France) | Santa Maria, Guatemala | Sheveluch, Central Kamchatka (Russia) | Shishaldin, Fox Islands (USA) | Sinabung, Indonesia | Tungurahua, Ecuador | Ubinas, Peru.

New activity/unrest:

Fuego, Guatemala
14.473°N, 90.88°W, Summit elev. 3763 m

INSIVUMEH reported that during 30 October-3 November explosions at Fuego generated ash plumes that rose 450-850 m above the crater and drifted as far as 10 km W and SW. Incandescent material was ejected 100 m high. Ashfall was reported in Panimache I and II (8 km SW), Morelia (9 km SW), Santa Sofía (12 km SW), and El Porvenir (8 km ENE) during 2-3 November.

Geologic summary: Volcán Fuego, one of Central America's most active volcanoes, is one of three large stratovolcanoes overlooking Guatemala's former capital, Antigua. The scarp of an older edifice, Meseta, lies between 3763-m-high Fuego and its twin volcano to the north, Acatenango. Construction of Meseta dates back to about 230,000 years and continued until the late Pleistocene or early Holocene. Collapse of Meseta may have produced the massive Escuintla debris-avalanche deposit, which extends about 50 km onto the Pacific coastal plain. Growth of the modern Fuego volcano followed, continuing the southward migration of volcanism that began at Acatenango. In contrast to the mostly andesitic Acatenango, eruptions at Fuego have become more mafic with time, and most historical activity has produced basaltic rocks. Frequent vigorous historical eruptions have been recorded since the onset of the Spanish era in 1524, and have produced major ashfalls, along with occasional pyroclastic flows and lava flows.

Heard, Kerguelen Plateau
53.106°S, 73.513°E, Summit elev. 2745 m

A plume from Heard was visible in a satellite image drifting SSW on 30 October.

A pod of 29 pilot whales have died after stranding on a remote Stewart Island beach, the Department of Conservation said today.

The dead and dying pilot whales were discovered by hikers on Tuesday night, but it was two days before they were able to raise the alarm with conservation rangers.

Ranger Phred Dobbins was one of two staff flown to the site at Doughboy Bay yesterday.

Shock and grief engulfed residents of Nyakabingo cell in Kakanju Sub-county in Igara West in Bushenyi District on Wednesday afternoon when lightning killed five pupils of Nyakabingo Primary School and left four others injured.

The lightning struck during a downpour at around 1pm while pupils were having lunch.

The dead have been identified as Benson Ahimbisibwe, Vitas Asasira, Anxious Tusiimirwe, Bentina Owomugisha, all in Primary One and Orphorus Mutahunga who was in Primary Six.

Source: The Monitor (Kampala)

Three men, who took shelter in a cremation shed in a village in Tamil Nadu during heavy rain, died after being struck by lightning on Friday evening.

The incident happened at Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district.

Nallamuthu, 51, son of Arumugam Konar of Ramanujam Pudur, had been tending to his cattle when heavy showers accompanied by lighting lashed the area. The man took shelter in a cremation shed in a burial ground.

Selvakumar,29, son of Petchimuthu of Chinnakulam, and Arumgaperumal,21, son of Murugan of Ramanujam Pudur, who were travelling on a two-wheeler, also took shelter in the same cremation shed.

As they waited for the rain to stop, lightning struck the shed, and all of them died.

Their charred bodies were sent for postmortem.

An earthquake measuring a magnitude of 4.4 made the earth move in the south east of France on Friday morning. Although it was minor, experts say a big one is due to hit the region.

No, you weren't dreaming.

If you were in the south east of France, you may have felt the earth shake for a few moments on Friday morning.

The earthquake measured 4.4 in magnitude according to France's Central Office of Seismology, which wasn't significant enough to cause any major damage.

"I was going to work when I heard a kind of thud, followed by shaking. It lasted four seconds," Pierre Morin from Saint-Etienne-de-Tinée told Nice Matin newspaper.

What did happen on October 31, 2015 in this forest along Apple River in Nova Scotia, Canada?
Look at the ground... It's moving, it's beating as if the Earth just began to breath. Baffling.

You bet this video went viral. Can somebody explain what Brian Nuttall just caught on tape?

Apple River, Cumberland, subd. A, NS, Canada is situated here.

At long last I have the complete figures in from the August 2015 snow survey that was conducted on the 21st and 22nd of that month. There were a couple of discrepancies up until recently, but I have now ironed these out.

The total number of patches counted across Scotland was 678 (see table below). This is way more than double the amount for 2014, and hundreds more than any year since the survey was started in 2008.

Totals since 2008

2008 - 34

2009 - 35

2010 - 34

2011 - 36

2012 - 72

2013 - 81

2014 - 281

2015 - 678

Rough weather has moved to Australia's biggest city, Sydney: watch how a striking storm shelf cloud hangs over Bondi Beach, amazing locals and tourists alike. It comes a day after storms and tornados battered the neighboring state of Victoria.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of severe storms across Sydney, the Hunter region, and the South and Central coasts, saying that heavy rainfall and flash flooding may be in store for residents.