Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Lightning storms hit UK: Map shows the astounding number of strikes

Alexander Sehmer
The Independent
Sat, 04 Jul 2015 10:13 UTC
lightning storm map of UK
Spectacular lightning storms were witnessed across the UK
If you were kept awake last night by lightning storms, you weren't alone.

Spectacular thunder and lightning shows were witnessed across the UK - by some estimates there were as many as 30,000 lightning strikes.

The image above from LightningMaps.org shows just some of them from midnight on Friday.



Comment: The storms have claimed three lives after two hill walkers were struck by separate lightning bolts and a boy died after getting into trouble in a river.

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Attention

Sick pygmy whale dies following stranding on Surfside Beach, Texas


khou.com
Fri, 03 Jul 2015 16:37 UTC
Image
A sick Pygmy whale washed ashore on Surfside Beach Friday morning.
A sick Pygmy whale washed ashore on Surfside Beach Friday morning, much to the surprise of nearby beachgoers.

People rushed to save the whale, but responders determined the whale was too sick to be transported and had to be put down.

Officials with the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network said that if you encounter a beached whale or dolphin, call 1-800-9-Mammal and follow the instructions of the staff until a rescue team can arrive on scene.
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Windsock

2 waterspouts form near La Union, Philippines

Andrei Medina
gmanetwork.com
Sat, 04 Jul 2015 15:43 UTC
Image
Two waterspouts were caught by a resident in Aringay, La Union during inclement weather there, a report from GMA's "24 Oras" said Saturday.

According to the residents who took the video footage, they first saw one of the waterspouts at sea and was approaching their houses.

They then saw another, larger waterspout building up and seemingly sucking water from the sea nearby.

The waterspouts fortunately did not pass through their houses and no one was reported hurt during the incident.

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, waterspouts are tornados that form over water "They are associated with severe thunderstorms, and are often accompanied by high winds and seas, large hail, and frequent dangerous lightning," NOAA also said on its website

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Butterfly

Monarch butterfly population drops to dangerously low levels

Steve Parren
vtdigger.org
Fri, 26 Jun 2015 13:26 UTC
Image
Monarch butterfly
Monarch butterflies are in decline nationwide, and may be approaching dangerously low levels.

Monarchs have declined nearly 80% in the 21 years researchers have been monitoring their wintering populations, from a high of up to one billion butterflies in the 1990s to roughly 56 million today, according to a recent report from the Xerces Society.

But according to Mark Ferguson, a biologist for the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, Vermont may play an important role in the continued efforts at monarch conservation.

"Vermont's meadows and old fields provide habitat for milkweed, which is a critical food source for monarchs," said Ferguson. "In contrast, increasing levels of herbicide use in large-scale agriculture in the Midwest appear to have greatly reduced the abundance of milkweed in that part of the country, which historically produced half of the monarchs in eastern North America."

Monarchs lay eggs on milkweed and feed on milkweed as caterpillars. Most eastern monarchs overwinter at a single site in the mountains of central Mexico. According to Ferguson, monarchs need to reproduce several times during their north-bound migration, and require milkweed at each of these sites.
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Horse

Horse rescued from sinkhole in Washington County, Pennsylvania

Katherine Schaeffer
triblive.com
Fri, 03 Jul 2015 12:55 UTC
Image
Crews in Washington County rescued a horse from a sinkhole on a Scenery Hill farm Friday morning. The retired racehorse, named Chautauqua Worms, was uninjured except for a few cuts, rescuers said.
The Washington County Animal Response Team rescued a horse Friday morning from a 6-foot sinkhole at a Scenery Hill farm.

Responders lifted the 1,000-pound horse, named Chautauqua Worms, from the hole with an A-frame hoist borrowed from the county, said Ed Childers, a firefighter at the North Strabane fire department, which runs the rescue team known as CART.

The response team arrived at the Amos Road property about 6 a.m., pulling the horse from the pit at 9:30 a.m., Childers said.

"All in all, everything went pretty well," Childers said. "No injuries, no damaged equipment."

Neighbors identified the horse as belonging to horse farm owner Lisa Beinhauer. She could not be reached for comment.
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Arrow Down

Beach closed after large sinkhole appears in Exmouth, UK


Bath Chronicle
Sun, 05 Jul 2015 12:44 UTC
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The sinkhole
A 15ft deep hole opened up on a popular Devon beach on Thursday.

A large part of the beach in Exmouth has been closed to the public over fears of further sinkholes appearing in the sane.

One beach-goer reported the discovery to the coastguard near Orcombe Point.

Specialist teams secured the area and on arrival found a hole approximately 15ft wide and the same distance down had appeared and was filled with water.

The surrounding sand was also soft, with fresh holes starting to appear nearby.

East Devon District Council said a 100m squared cordon has now been put in place after concern was raised that the hole may be indicative of a much larger chamber underneath.
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Attention

Suspected poacher killed by wild boar in India

Mazhar Ali
The Times of India
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 18:57 UTC
Image
© David J SlaterWild boar
A suspected poacher was killed in wild boar attack in the fields of Sonegaon-Shirumpur in Chimur tehsil on Saturday afternoon. Forest officers are investigating the motive behind the deceased, Chagansingh Bhond (56), visiting remote fields away from forest with his accomplices.

As per reports, Bhond, along with a couple of accomplices, was moving through the fields when a wild boar charged at them. Though his aides escaped, Bhond suffered serious injuries and died on-the-spot. His friends rushed him to Chimur rural hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.

Forest officials were informed about the incident. A team led by RFO, Chimur range KR Akkewar visited the spot. He said post mortem report would confirm the exact cause of death. He, however, claimed that footprints of many people along with those of dogs and wild boars were found on the spot. He raised suspicion about motive of Bhond's visit to the remote area.
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Newspaper

West LA fault line might slice all the way down to the Earth's Mantle

Bianca Barragan
CURBED
Wed, 01 Jul 2015 19:13 UTC
Hollywood fault
© California Dept. of Conservation
The Hollywood Fault has gotten a lot of attention lately from opponents of developments in its vicinity, but we can't forget that Hollywood's not the only fault in town. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have just discovered something super fascinating about one lower-profile (but very important) fault: the Newport-Inglewood Fault, which runs along the Westside through the LA basin and was responsible for the 6.4 Long Beach earthquake in 1933. The new findings suggest the fault might be way deeper than previously thought and that it may be the ancient collision site of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates, says the UC Santa Barbara Current, the university's official news site.
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Wolf

Aggressive fox traps 8 people in Alconbury sports club, UK


BBC
Fri, 03 Jul 2015 12:24 UTC
Image
© Mark Magee Mark Magee photographed the fox through a window from the safety of the club
A "vicious" fox trapped eight people inside a sports club for three hours as it stalked them from the car park.

The animal appeared as people were preparing to leave Alconbury Sports and Social Club, Cambridgeshire.

Panic reigned, with a woman being bitten, a man falling off his bicycle as he was chased and a pest controller being pursued back to his car.

Club chairman Bruce Staines, who was chased around the car park, said he had "never seen anything like it".

Mr Staines admitted he "tweaked his groin" trying to get away from the marauding animal and back to the safety of the club.

"None of us could get out. When we tried to use a side door, the fox heard and came haring round there."
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Eye 2

Alligator kills man swimming at marina in Orange, Texas


The Guardian
Sat, 04 Jul 2015 12:00 UTC
Image
© Arco Images / Huetter, Christian/Alamy Alligators are found across the south-eastern United States from Virginia to Texas.
A man was killed early on Friday when an alligator attacked him during a late-night swim at a south-east Texas marina, according to police.

Orange police captain Robert Enmon said Tommie Woodward, 28, suffered severe trauma to a limb when he was attacked early on Friday morning at the private marina, which is along a bayou extending from the Sabine River near the Louisiana line.

Orange County sheriff's deputies and a Texas game warden found his body nearby about two hours later.

Police said Woodward, who lived near the marina in Orange, was swimming with a woman, but Justice of the Peace Rodney Price told KFDM-TV in Beaumont that the woman only jumped from a dock after he screamed for help. The woman was not hurt.

Price said it appeared Woodward was bitten soon after he jumped in.
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