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SOTT Focus: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - January 2016 - Part 2: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval (BONUS VIDEO)

With the pace of Earth Changes apparently quickening in 2016, we've decided to publish this second Summary video for the month of January.
Flooding Mississippi
© SOTT.net
The flooding of the great Mississippi River Basin in early January - which followed record-breaking rainfall over the New Year - was unprecedented for wintertime. The only similar event was the Great Flood of 1937, but back then just one tributary - the Ohio River - flooded. Last month saw the Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Arkansas and Meramec Rivers - and the Mississippi itself - all burst their banks, flooding parts of Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee. There are no records in US history of such happening before. In addition, the rivers crested at all-time record heights in a number of places.

The US Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions flipped from experiencing their warmest ever temperatures for December and early January... to being buried under a record-breaking 3-day blizzard that killed 55 people. The North American cold wave extended as far south as Veracruz, southern Mexico, which is experiencing its "coldest winter in history." At the same time, a powerful cold wave in East Asia extended as far south as central Vietnam, where snow fell for the first time ever. An unusual cold wave also extended deep into the Middle East, where hail turned the Arabian Desert white and snow reached as far south as Kuwait (another first!).

Comment: View part 1 here:

SOTT Earth Changes Summary - January 2016: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs


Blue Planet

Yosemite's spectacular 'Firefall' phenomenon draws photographers from around the world

yosemite firefall horsetail fall
© James Nagel PhotographyThe "firefall" effect at Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park.
An annual pilgrimage by amateur and professional photographers to Yosemite National Park to capture a unique solar lighting effect has been revived with the recent wet weather.

For a couple of weeks in February, Yosemite's Horsetail Fall gets bathed in the light of the setting sun, creating what is known as a "firefall," with the waterfall and wet rockface creating an orange glow from the reflection.

In recent years, a lack of water or cloudy weather has meant the spectacular effect does not appear during the brief window when the sun is aligned perfectly on the fall.

This year, images of the firefall at Horsetail Fall has blanketed social media.

Fish

Bizarre deep sea fish found off Victoria coast, Australia

bizarre deep sea creature
The bizarre deep sea creature is the second in the past few weeks to be caught in Australian waters

A bizarre deep sea creature with bug eyes and dozens of needle-like teeth has been pulled ahsore - the second sea monster to appear in Australian waters in less than a week.

The outlandish creature was caught off the Victoria state coast by a fishing trawler, the South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association said.

Experts said the animal may be an Endo's Goosefish - Lophiodes endoi, also known by some people as 'monkfish' - is a deepwater member of the anglerfish family.

Growing to 38cm, this species can be found around the south-eastern and western margins of Australia's continental shelf in waters ranging from 275-500m deep.

Bizarro Earth

Red rainbow photographed over the Netherlands

Rainbows are normally red, yellow, green and blue--in short, all the colors of a rainbow. But the towering rainbow Jan Koeman photographed from Kloetinge, the Netherlands, on Feb. 18th was simply red:
Red rainbow
© Jan KoemanTaken by Jan Koeman on February 18, 2016 @ Kloetinge, the Netherlands.
"I have never seen such a rainbow before," says Koeman. "It appeared just a few minutes after a red sunrise."

What made the rainbow red? It was only color available. All of the other colors of the rainbow had been scattered away by air molecules and dust particles in front of the low-hanging sun.

Koeman notes another puzzle: Rainbows require raindrops, "but it was not raining at all!" he says. Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley thinks the raindrops were there, in the distance. "There could be rain on the horizon or virga. Virga is cloud precipitation that does not reach the ground," says Cowley.

Red rainbows are more common than you might think. They appear with frequency at sunrise or sunset, all around the world. More examples may be found in the realtime photo gallery.

Attention

Dead whale found in waters off Zambales, Philippines

A PYGMY sperm whale that beached in San Narciso, Zambales, on Sunday died on Monday.
© OCEAN ADVENTUREA pygmy sperm whale that beached in San Narciso, Zambales, on Sunday died on Monday.
A dead whale was found in the waters off the coastal town of Candelaria in Zambales province on Saturday morning, local police said.

Residents of Barangay (village) Dampay discovered the carcass of the whale floating some 100 kilometers from the coastline at 9 a.m., said SPO4 Tomas Mejos, team leader of a unit deployed by the Candelaria Police Station.

"The whale was about the size of a minibus," Mejos said in a telephone interview.

The species of the whale has yet to be identified, Mejos added.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Central Luzon has sent a team to determine the cause of the whale's death, said Nelson Bien, chief of the agency's fisheries resources and management division.

As of 1 p.m., residents were still towing the animal to the shore, Mejos added.

Bizarro Earth

Forest Grove neighborhood frustrated over mysterious noise

forest grove orergon
People living in a west Forest Grove neighborhood are puzzled by a high-pitched whistling noise.

Paula Lynch told KATU News she first heard the noise several weeks ago. She's heard the noise about five times, and at all hours of the day.

On Friday, she recorded a 30-second video and posted it to social media, hoping someone had an answer.

Snowflake

Summer snowfall surprise for Tasmanians after a season of weather extremes

Snow on Mount Wellington
© ABC News/ Kieran JonesWith a temperature of -2C there was a fair dusting of snow on Mount Wellington and its lookout.
Fires, flood and now snow: Tasmania has had a summer of weather extremes.

After weeks of warm and dry weather, there has been a sprinkling of snow in Tasmania's Great Lakes district and on Hobart's Mount Wellington.

The temperature dipped to zero at Liawenee in the Central Highlands overnight, with light rain turning to snow early this morning.

Kaylee Hattinger at the Great Lakes Hotel said it started snowing there about 6:00am, but it quickly melted away.

"It covered the cars, it was enough to go 'oh, snow!'," she said.

"But it's very fine, but more than hail, and fluttering down.

"I get really excited with snow, even in winter. But in summer it's even more special, I think."


Bizarro Earth

5.5-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Afghanistan with tremors felt in Kabul

Afghanistan map
© earthquake.usgs.gov
A 5.5-magnitude earthquake has struck northern Afghanistan, USGS reported. The tremors were felt in the country's capital, Kabul, local media said.


The quake happened 43km south of the village of Jarm, 64km and 75km from the city of Fayzabad, the provincial capital and largest city in Badakhshan Province in northern Afghanistan. The city has a population of about 50,000.

The quake was at a depth of 176.7km, USGS added.

Eye 2

Signs and Portents: Rare two-headed python hatched in Wodonga, Australia

Two headed snake
© The Daily Mail/FacebookA two headed snake was hatched in Australia.
Snakes are creepy enough, but a python that hatched with two heads is taking the Internet by storm.

The baby snake is only a week old, born last Saturday.

Owner John McNamara, who is an Australian snake breeder, thought he just had twins, but it was more.

From the tail to the neck, the little coastal carpet python looks like any other snake, but from the neck up, that's when you see four eyes, two mouths and two heads.

As The Border Mail described it, the snake looks like the mythological hydra.


Windsock

Cyclone Winston wreaks destruction in Fiji, five people killed

Cyclone Winston batters Fiji
© EPAPeople in Ba in the north of Viti Levu island awoke to scenes of devastation
Authorities in Fiji are assessing the damage after the most powerful storm left at least five people dead.

Cyclone Winston brought winds of over 320km/h (200mph), torrential rain and waves of up to 12m (40ft).

It destroyed hundreds of homes and cut electricity lines. There are reports of entire villages flattened.

The government has imposed a nationwide curfew and 30-day state of national disaster giving extra powers to police to arrest people without a warrant.

The Category-five storm - the highest level - moved westward since making landfall at 18:30 local time (06:30 GMT) on Saturday in the north of Fiji's main island, Viti Levu.

It changed direction at the last minute, sparing the capital Suva the full force of its winds.

The government had opened about 750 evacuation centres.

More than 1,000 people were sheltering in one on the second largest island of Vanua Levu, north-east of Viti Levu, the Fiji Broadcasting Company said.

Among the victims was an elderly man who died on the smaller Koro Island when a roof fell on him.