Earth ChangesS


Binoculars

Another albatross species turns up in the wrong hemisphere, this time on Suffolk coast, UK

Stuart Winter
Daily Express, UK
Tue, 14 Jul 2015 13:09 UTC
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© RSPBBlack-browed albatross by Ruedi Abbuehl
For golfers, an albatross is achieving an impressive three under par, but for wildlife lovers it is one of the rarest sights in birdwatching.

Little wonder that birdwatchers were celebrating when an incredibly rare black-browed albatross touched down for a few moments on Sunday afternoon at the Suffolk nature sanctuary where the BBC records the popular wildlife show.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' Minsmere reserve is known as one of the best places in Britain to see rare creatures but the albatross's brief visit has left conservationists nonplussed.

By rights, black-browed albatrosses are birds of the South Atlantic and there are only a handful of records of them wandering north of the Equator into British waters.

According to reports from the BirdGuides information service, the albatross was spotted sitting on a pool close to the reserve's South Hide before flying off with its powerful, eight-foot wing span towards the North Sea.

Comment: See also:Lost yellow-nosed albatross from the South Atlantic turns up near Reykjavík, Iceland

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Cloud Precipitation

Heavy rainfall lashes north India for third day; 10 die in Rajasthan


The Times of India
Sun, 12 Jul 2015 12:25 UTC
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© Hindustan TimesA man wades through an inundated market place in Sikar after the heavy showers on Thursday
Incessant rains continued to lash vast swathes of north India and caused flooding, water logging and traffic snarls throughout the region for the third day on Saturday.

Rajasthan has been the worst hit state, where at least 10 people have died in rain-related mishaps.

A sudden rise in water levels in a pond drowned three boys at Gangapur in Sawai Madhopur district on Friday. Police identified the three as brothers Arbaz (15) and Dilbaz (10) and Nagraj (10).

Hours later, six people were killed when a building collapsed at Bharatpur due to heavy rainfall. Officials said three people were rescued alive from the debris of the building. In Sikar, floodwaters washed away a man at Gothada on the same day.

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Ice Cube

New Zealand records lowest maximum temperatures in decades

Rosanna Price
Stuff.co.nz
Mon, 13 Jul 2015 19:40 UTC
New Zealand records lowest maximum temperatures
© John Bisset/Fairfax MediaEmbrace the cold: New Zealand records lowest maximum temperatures in decades.
Complaints about the cold weather this month are justified, as some parts of the country have reported their lowest temperatures.

More than 30 weather stations around New Zealand have also had daily maximum temperature recordings that are either the lowest ever recorded, or at least in the top four coldest for July.

Kaitaia, Kerikeri and Warkworth have all recorded their lowest July temperatures. On Saturday Kaitaia experienced 0°C, while a chilly Sunday brought Kerikeri to -0.7°C and Warkworth to -2.3°C.
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Control Panel

Waterspout knocks out power in North Carolina's Outer Banks


wncn.com
Sun, 12 Jul 2015 16:53 UTC
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© WNCN
Tideland EMC says power is restored on Ocracoke Island after an apparent waterspout Saturday night.

Heidi Smith with Tideland says crews completed work around 4:13 a.m. Sunday morning.

At least 1000 customers were without power after an apparent waterspout in the Outer Banks. Tideland Electric crews repaired and replaced several utility poles along Highway 12.

The impacted area includes just North of the Ocracoke Pony Pen and South of the Hatteras Inlet Ferry dock.

The National Weather Service plans to review the damages.
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Fish

Rare sunfish washes up on remote beach off Tasmania, Australia

Tina Brodal
Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 16 Jun 2015 19:14 UTC
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The giant unexpected 1000 kg ocean sunfish washed up on Maria island off the East coast of Tasmania
A rare 1000 kg ocean sunfish measuring nearly three meters has washed up on a remote beach on Maria island off the east coast of Tasmania.

When the rare fish, also known as a Mola Mola, is found, it's always in tropical waters, so when local Ian Johnstone spotted the fish on nature reserve Maria Island over the weekend, he'd never seen anything like it.

Mr Johnstone is the owner of Maria Island Walk, which is an upmarket four day guided walk.

'I suspect potential global warming issues and warmer water is to blame,' Mr Johnstone told Daily Mail Australia about how he believed the dead sunfish ended up there.

The sunfish is the heaviest bony fish species in the world, and its name stems from the fact that they more than often can be seen basking in the sun near the surface.

Comment: Other reports of rare Sunfish for the past year -

Spate of rare deep sea tropical fish found on Norfolk beaches, UK

Rare ocean sunfish weighing 1.5 tons washes ashore at Palu, Indonesia

Rare deep sea Ocean Sunfish found for the first time in Pakistan's waters

Deep ocean sunfish found on beach in North Queensferry, Scotland

"Rare" 300-pound warm-water Mola sunfish washes up on Washington coast

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Cloud Lightning

Thunderstorm causes power outages, flooding in Calgary, Canada


cbc.ca
Sun, 12 Jul 2015 18:43 UTC
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© jermc10/Twitter Streets were flooded in Chestermere, Alta. on Sunday morning after a major thunderstorm tracked eastward from the Calgary area.
People in Calgary woke up with a bang early Sunday morning as a line of thunderstorms hovered over the city, bringing lightning, power outages and overland flooding in communities to the east.

As the storms moved eastward, severe thunderstorm warnings issued by Environment Canada remained in effect for Red Deer, Ponoka, Innisfail and Stettler by 3 p.m. MT. An earlier storm warning for Calgary was cancelled at 9:40 a.m. MT.

"Meteorologists are tracking a dangerous thunderstorm capable of producing up to penny size hail and flooding rain," the agency said on its website.

Thunderstorm watches — the agency's less urgent category of alert — were still in effect for much of the southeastern part of the province by late afternoon.

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Wolf

Pack of dogs injure three in Evansville, Indiana

Zach Evans
Evansville Courier and Press
Sun, 12 Jul 2015 17:22 UTC
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Pit bull terrier
Evansville police shot and killed two dogs that were part of a larger pack that attacked and bit several people Saturday afternoon.

Terri L. Jackson, 30, was one of the victims.

"I was just walking down the street. There were like five dogs across the street. ... One of the dogs ran up to me and started barking," Jackson said.

She didn't think anything of it and kept walking along South Linwood Avenue around 5 p.m. Saturday.

"Then the dog bit me on the back of my leg," she said.

The dog, an "aggressive" pit bull, tried to bite her again, but a neighbor came at the dog with a large stick as a distraction.

Jackson lay bleeding from the wound as the neighbor fended off the dog.
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Cloud Precipitation

Torrential rainfall triggers flash floods in Kentucky

Kathryn Robinson
nbcnews.com
Sun, 12 Jul 2015 16:43 UTC
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© Christine Nash
Heavy storms overnight Saturday into Sunday morning left cars stranded, homes flooded and streets impassable in Kentucky.

Residents felt the downpour with more than three inches of rain falling over the course of a few hours in Metro Louisville and parts of southern Indiana.

The Weather Channel's Chris Friedman said the flash flooding was triggered by a round of torrential rain.

A flash flood warning was issued for eastern Jefferson County just after 7 a.m., but expired at 10:15 a.m.

NBC station WAVE reported that the ground was already saturated from a wet start to July, leaving no place for the water to go.

Jody Duncan, a spokeswoman with the Louisville Metro Government said the water is beginning to recede but they are already preparing for another big storm expected to hit late Sunday night.

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Attention

Police warn of possible coyote attacks in Natick, Massachusetts

Jennifer Smith
The Boston Globe
Sun, 12 Jul 2015 16:28 UTC
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Coyote
Natick police are warning residents after two women in town were reportedly attacked by a wild animal, described as a gray fox or coyote.

State Environmental Police were notified around 9:30 p.m. Saturday that Natick law enforcement had received two separate calls that evening "for encounters with what was initially reported to be either a fox or coyote," said Peter Lorenz, the Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs communications director.

The attacks occurred in 100 block of East Central Street, police said in a Facebook post. The block is a residential and retail area between large stretches of forested land.

Police said the animal did not appear to be provoked before the incidents and is "aggressive and is quite possibly not healthy," Natick police said in their post.

An Environmental Police officer dispatched to Natick gathered additional information and consulted with Natick police. The animal, whose description is most consistent with a gray fox, has not been located, according to Energy and Environmental Affairs officials.


Comment: Se also: Spate of coyote attacks on four children in Irvine, California

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Attention

Mid-July frost recorded in central Europe


notrickszone.com
Fri, 10 Jul 2015 15:59 UTC
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After the European heat wave of last week, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme.

Currently the weather pattern dominating Central Europe is bringing unusually cold air over the continent, and early this morning regions in a number of countries were hit by ground surface frost.

Parts of Belgium, Luxemburg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic saw surface frost - even down to the lower elevations (Belgium is hardly a mountainous region).

German site Wetter24 twittered here a map depicting the frosty areas gripping this 10th of July, 2015. Also see map here.

Swiss meteorologist Jörg Kachelmann here writes and supplies a link showing a German video reporting conditions that the German Eifel region woke up to early this morning. At the 1:50 mark the video reports:
We saw fields that were snow-white. That on the tenth of July I have never seen before. My colleague Fabian had also never seen this before. It just looked wonderful. We just thought that indeed we are not in autumn or spring; we are actually in July. These pictures impressed us, and that we found this frost."
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