Oviedo - As predicted, mega mosquitoes, known as gallinippers, have arrived in Central Florida.

Gallinippers, which are 20 times the size of a typical mosquito and pack a painful bite, have been spotted in Seminole County, according to officials.

Entomologists at the University of Florida predicted earlier this year that the mega mosquitoes, about the size of a quarter, would invade the Sunshine State in 2013, a year after being spotted in Florida following drenching rains from Tropical Storm Debbie.

Chauvin resident Patsy Pierron and her husband Roger noticed something strange growing in the bayou behind their home Sunday afternoon.

Attached to the water lilies and sticks that lined the couple's bulkhead on Bayou Little Caillou were dozens of brownish, gelatinous blobs. Pierron, 61, said she'd never seen anything like it.

"They were all over my bayouside, One was as big as a basketball," she said.

Pierron said she and her husband, unable to identify the odd, gooey sacs that were multiplying in the bayou, entertained thoughts of alien cocoons and monster eggs. They worried that the blobs could be dangerous or poisonous.

"They are these hard balls with slime on them," Pierron said. "My husband said it looked like that movie, 'Cocoon.' "

One of her sons came over and urged her to get someone to identify the mysterious spheres. Pierron said she called the Terrebonne Sheriff's Office, and it directed her to the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, which was closed for the weekend.

Global weather patterns seem to get stranger and stranger with each passing year. Almost every day now, the news is telling us about some bizarre weather event that hasn't happened "in 100 years" going on in some area of the globe. All over the planet, we are seeing torrential rainfalls, unprecedented flooding, extreme drought, nightmarish wildfires, record setting tornadoes and very unusual blizzards. Record high temperatures and record low temperatures are set so frequently now that nobody really seems to even notice anymore. So exactly what in the world is going on here? Why does our weather seem to be going absolutely crazy? Perhaps even more important - can we expect our weather patterns to become even more erratic? Some meteorologists are suggesting that these unusual weather events are just an "anomaly" and that things will get back to normal soon. But what if they don't?

I noted that natural disasters seem to be increasing in both frequency and severity in my recent article entitled "Are We Entering The Worst Period For Natural Disasters In U.S. History?" But it isn't just the ground under our feet that seems to be becoming more unstable. The weather patterns that we all take for granted and that society depends upon seem to be rapidly changing.

The following are 22 signs that global weather patterns are going absolutely crazy...

Hungarians are setting aside their differences in a race against time to defend their historic capital Budapest and other areas from what the prime minister predicted will be the "worst floods of all time".

As water levels broke records in the west ahead of an expected peak on Monday, thousands of volunteers joined soldiers and emergency workers -- often crossing traditional social boundaries to make some unlikely alliances -- to roll up their sleeves and don rubber boots.

Students, boy scouts and sports clubs helped to make up and install more than two million sandbags stacked at 16 high-risk locations along the 760 kilometres (475 miles) of the raging Danube River rushing out of Germany and Austria on its way to the Black Sea.

"Hungarians come together at a time of emergency," said one grateful local as she watched workers heave sandbags onto a truck to be taken to a barrier in picturesque, 1.7-million-strong Budapest.

Around 3,000 volunteers, 6,000 emergency service personnel, and the entire Hungarian army have been mobilised across the country. More than 16,000 army, police and civil reservists were also on standby.

This 3-D view from the west was derived from TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR) data captured when Andrea was examined by the TRMM satellite with the June 5, 2234 UTC (6:34 p.m. EDT) orbit. It clearly shows that the majority of the heavy convective rainfall was located on Andrea's eastern side. TRMM PR also showed that the tallest convective thunderstorms reached heights of about 14km (~8.7 miles). Credit: SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce

Towering thunderstorms are a sign of a strong tropical cyclone, and NASA's TRMM satellite spotted thunderstorms reaching heights of almost 9 miles high within Tropical Storm Andrea. NASA's Aqua satellite provided an infrared view that revealed very cold cloud top temperatures that coincided with the towering thunderstorms that TRMM saw.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the temperatures in Tropical Storm Andrea's cloud tops on June 6 at 2:41 a.m. EDT. The coldest cloud top temperatures (in excess of -63F/-52C) and heaviest precipitation was over the eastern Gulf of Mexico and southeastern Florida at the time of the image.



NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite flew directly above tropical storm Andrea on Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 0508 UTC (1:08 a.m. EDT). This orbit showed that Andrea had a large area of moderate to heavy rainfall in the northeast quadrant of the storm and precipitation was spreading over the state of Florida.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Hal Pierce of the TRMM Science Team used TRMM data create a 3-D view of Tropical Storm Andrea. The 3-D view from the west was derived from TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR) data captured when Andrea was examined by the TRMM satellite with the June 5, 2234 UTC (6:34 p.m. EDT) orbit. It clearly showed that the majority of the heavy convective rainfall was located on Andrea's eastern side. TRMM PR also showed that the tallest convective thunderstorms reached heights of about 14km (~8.7 miles).

4:40 PM Thursday UPDATE:

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Routine testing at Redstone creates unusual radar patterns

Redstone Arsenal, Ala.- On Tuesday routine tests were being conducted at Redstone's airfield. During these tests RR-188 (chaff) was dropped from aircraft. This chaff showed as an anomaly on local weather screens as weather conditions caused it to linger longer than normal.

This substance is commonly used by the military in training and testing operations.

There are no known environmental effects caused by RR-188.

"Redstone is committed to ensuring environmental stewardship while balancing that with our critical missions to support the war fighter," said COL John S. Hamilton, Garrison commander.

Terri Stover
Public Affairs Specialist

11:45AM Update: Redstone Arsenal Releases Statement

Public Relations Specialist, Terri Stover, has released the following statement in relation to media inquiries about the mysterious blob detected on radar.

"Aviation and missile technology testing at Redstone collects data that protects and improves the weapon systems that America's sons and daughters are using in ongoing overseas contingency operations, and in forward-deployed areas worldwide. As a matter of Operational Security policy, we do not offer details concerning the circumstances under which testing activities are performed. Further, discussing specific measures and operational procedures could adversely affect the success of testing activities. We routinely evaluate and validate weapon systems and components so that we and our allies can maintain the edge over adversaries. Testing assures that war fighting capabilities are in a high state of readiness."

- Updated by WHNT News 19 Staff

Researchers at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the National Weather Service are working to figure out why radars are showing a mysterious blob above Redstone Arsenal after 1:45 p.m. today, the Times' news partner WHNT News 19 is reporting.

The anomaly showed up late this afternoon and was centered near the northwest edge of Redstone Arsenal close to Zierdt Road and Madison Boulevard/I-565. WHNT reported it was first believed the radar image was being caused by a damaged substation in the Madison or West Huntsville area.

However, Huntsville Utilities used a spectral analyzer to see if a frequency generated at the substation was "tricking" the radar but tests showed no damage or other problems that could be causing the image.

Anglers and those who live along the Jamestown Reservoir are seriously concerned by what they are seeing wash up along the shore.

Hundreds of dead carp are appearing, and North Dakota Game and Fish biologists are stumped as to why.

Living on the east side of the reservoir, Jim Schmitt has seen his fair share of fish, but what he sees now is strange to him. "The darndest thing. They were so high on the water, and it looked like they were gasping for air," says Schmitt.

He has also been seeing dead ones floating near shore.

His concerns are the concerns of many who have been vocal to the Game and Fish Department. Fisheries Biologist BJ Kratz says he first started noticing signs of the fish kill as the ice came off, but then he started getting reports that the carp seemed sluggish.

"It's not typical for carp because carp are usually pretty active this time of year and are also easy to spook and reactive when people approach them," says Kratz.

The carcasses also continue to pile up.

Major volcanic eruptions around the world have coincided with periods of unusually cold weather in Ireland for a span of more than 1,200 years, new research shows. The findings suggest eruptions could have complex effects on regional climates, possibly leading to cooling in areas of the Northern Hemisphere even in wintertime, which hadn't been clearly shown before.

The study, published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, reconstructed the history of cold events in Ireland from the fifth through 17th centuries A.D., based on more than 40,000 writings of scribes and monks from that time. The history of volcanic eruptions was also recreated based on levels of sulfate found in Greenland ice cores - an accepted method to date past eruptions, said study author and Harvard researcher Francis Ludlow. By comparing the two sources, Ludlow and his colleagues found cold events were more likely to occur in the years after these eruptions: More than half of the 69 coldest periods happened in the years following huge volcanic eruptions, Ludlow said.

"This suggests that a very major volcanic eruption can have a long-lasting impact on climate, with extreme cold occurring for possibly several years after an event," Ludlow told LiveScience.