Earth ChangesS


Fire

Firefighters battle large brush fire in south Wichita; associated with loud, mysterious booms?


kake.com
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 14:02 UTC
Brush fire in south Wichita
© Justin ProvenceBrush fire in south Wichita
Wichita firefighters have contained a large brush fire Saturday afternoon on the city's south side.

Crews were called around 3 p.m. to a fire the area of South Hydraulic and the Kansas Turnpike. Dispatchers said they received several reports that the fire was spreading within a row of evergreen trees near a neighborhood.

Crews were able to keep the flames from spreading to any homes and had the fire under control about 30 minutes later. Firefighters remained on scene through the afternoon.

No injuries have been reported.

There's no word yet on what caused the fire.

Fire Wichita
Fire Wichita

Comment: Interestingly, Witchita experienced mysterious loud explosions on the same day, so perhaps a fragment of an exploding, disintegrating space rock overhead hit the ground and ignited the local vegetation? It does seem highly likely.

See in addition this report: Loud booms, violent home shaking reported in Wichita, Kansas area

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Tornado1

Deadly tornadoes rip through central Florida


The Guardian, UK
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 17:03 UTC
florida tornado damage
© APIn this photo provided by the Sarasota County Government, damage from a storm surrounds a vehicle Jan. 17, 2016, in Sarasota, Florida

Couple killed but son and grandchildren escaped injured after twister destroys home as state officials report damage in other areas

Severe weather sparked a pair of tornadoes that ripped through central Florida before dawn on Sunday, officials said. A couple was killed and their son and four grandchildren were injured when one of the twisters destroyed their mobile home.

"I'm amazed to see anybody got out of this alive," said Manatee County sheriff Brad Steube during a news conference.

Steube said that the victims of the tornado in Duette were asleep in their mobile home when the tornado struck. Steven Wilson, 58, was killed immediately, while his wife, Kate, died from a heart attack after being taken to a hospital.

Their son, also named Steven Wilson, crawled out of the wreckage and helped his four children out of the home. The children are between the ages of six and 10.

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Fire

Brutal cold gripping midwest U.S. to sweep east with snow squalls; 10-20ºF below normal

Kristina Pydnyowski
Accuweather
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 17:43 UTC
Brutal cold gripping the Midwest this weekend will sweep into the East to start the new week, ushered in by snow and localized squalls in the Northeast.

The new arctic blast will be the harshest the Midwest and East has experienced so far this season. According to AccuWeather Chief Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok, "The arctic deep freeze will last two to three days in most places."

Parts of eastern North Dakota, Minnesota and northeastern Iowa will not see temperatures climb above zero until Tuesday, making for a total of 72 hours of subzero readings since the weekend started.

Temperatures will dangerously drop under 10 below zero F Sunday and Monday nights in and around Minnesota with some communities near the Canadian border registering lows under 20 below zero F.

AccuWeather RealFeel temperatures will be life-threatening if people venture out without being properly dressed from the northern Plains to the Ohio Valley.
Cold outbreak
The cold will not be as brutal when the arctic air grips the eastern U.S. early this week, but will still hold temperatures 10-20 degrees below normal Monday into Tuesday.

Subfreezing highs and biting winds will encompass the Northeast and mid-Atlantic both Monday and Tuesday, a stretch the I-95 corridor in the mid-Atlantic has not dealt with yet this winter.
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Snowflake Cold

Winter shows teeth in Greece: Bridge collapses, snow, strong winds and rainfall

Robert Felix
Ice Age Now
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 23:57 UTC
Greece bridge collapse
© thetoc.gr
Bad weather collapses bridge. Snow down to the lowlands, cold, strong winds and rainfall for today, Sunday and Monday.

There was intense snowfall with strong winds in Kozani.


The bad weather collapsed a bridge in Diava Kalambaka.


As transmitted by trikalaola.gr, eyewitnesses of the collapse of the bridge were the Deputy Head of Trikala, Mr. Christos Michalakis and Thessaly Regional Councillor, Mr. Boutinas.

Comment: An ice age cometh:

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Ice Cube

Snownado! A massive snow shaft photographed off the coast of Aberdeen, UK

Ewan Cameron
Evening Express
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 11:18 UTC
Snownado!
© James Cheyne

A massive snow shaft has been photographed off the coast of Aberdeen today.

Reader Ian Cheyne's son James took the picture at around 10am from Hilton Drive.

Initially it was believed the weather phenomenon was a waterspout however it's now thought to be a snow shaft.
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Meteor

Loud booms, violent home shaking reported in Wichita, Kansas area

Shardaa Gray
KSN.com
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 14:40 UTC
Wichita Kansas neighborhood
© Kansas Leadership Center
Sedgwick County emergency dispatchers report receiving numerous reports of explosions from various locations around Wichita Saturday.

Those calls began coming in at 1 p.m. They came from citizens at:
  • 5400 Block of S. Santa Fe
  • 1100 Block of E. 31st Street S.
  • 5100 block of S. Ash
  • 1900 block of E. Pine Bay
Several viewers sent KSN emails saying they heard a loud boom and felt their homes shake. One viewer who lives near Hillside and Mt. Vernon in southeast Wichita said in an email, "At 1:00 p.m. we felt the house shake violently accompanied by a loud bang. Everything looks fine, but we wonder what it was."


A person who lives in Haysville also reported the incident. "Shaking of house loud boom sound around 1 p.m. Forest Ct. in Haysville." A KSN viewer in Derby reported hearing a loud boom followed by the shaking of her house at about 1:02 p.m. A Derby viewer said she spoke with a friend near 47th Street South and Broadway who also heard what sounded like an explosion. Another viewer who lives in the 3300 block of S. Oak St. wrote asking if there had been an earthquake at 1:05 p.m.

It appears the boom was not an earthquake since no earthquakes were recorded in Kansas or Oklahoma by the US Geological Survey at the times the booms were heard. "I was told that we could contact command post about what people heard," says McConnell Airman First Class Christopher Thornbury. "And, they don't have any information on that event. Nobody at the base has knowledge at this time of what it could have been."

Comment: The loud boom and ground shaking is likely from an overhead space rock exploding in our atmosphere. There are more to come! See: Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!

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Windsock

Red sand storm sweeps across Libyan city


RT
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 21:34 UTC
Libya sandstoorm
© ritajfawzi / Instagram
The port city of Tobruk on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast near Egypt has turned red, as a dust storm has smothered the area, according to reports on social media.

Social media users have posted images of the spectacular sight online:

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Alarm Clock

Peru's Ubinas volcano erupts: 3km smoke ash cloud

Adam Justice
International Business Times
Sat, 16 Jan 2016 19:48 UTC
Peru's Ubinas volcano
Peru's Ubinas volcano
Peru's Ubinas volcano erupted on 15 January at 12.53pm local time (7.53am GMT), emitting smoke and ash that affected seven nearby towns. The volcano spewed an ash cloud some 9,842ft (3km) high, according to the scientists who monitor the volcano.

Volcanologists from the Volcanology Southern Observatory said the ash spread south and southeast some six miles (9.65km), affecting seven surrounding towns. Scientists expect smaller eruptions of smoke and ash to continue throughout the day.

Just days earlier, a team of volcanologists had ascended Ubinas to study the crater and take readings. After being dormant for several years, the volcano has become increasingly active since September 2013. The Ubinas volcano is in Peru's Moquegua department, 776 miles south of Lima.

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Bizarro Earth

Possible 'meteotsunami' occurred in Southwest Florida

Jim Dickey, Meteorologist
ABC7
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 19:31 UTC
Meteotsunami
© NOAA/NOS/CO-OPS
According to the National Weather Service, a "meteotsunami" may have occurred early this morning in Naples as the powerful, tornado warned storm that brought widespread damage to the area moved onshore.

Water levels rose sharply in the Naples area as the severe thunderstorm moved in, packing wind gusts over 80 miles per hour.

A meteotsunami, according to the NWS is caused by air pressure disturbances often associated with fast moving weather systems, such as squall lines.

These disturbances can generate waves in the ocean that travel at the same speed as the overhead weather system.

Such a squall line moved through Southwest Florida this morning. Its arrival at high tide led to widespread coastal flooding up and down the coastline as the strong thunderstorm winds helped drive the water onshore.

However what happened in Naples appears to be more than standard coastal flooding during a high wind event. As the water level readings show below, the water levels rose sharply at the moment the storms moved inland, reaching a height of over 7 feet, nearly 6 feet higher than a normal high tide. From there, continued spikes and falls were observed--signs of continued wave action in response to the initial wave's passage.

According to NWS, while uncommon, meteotsunamis are well documented and occur a few times a year in Florida.
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Binoculars

Arctic Redpolls invade the southeast of Idaho


East Idaho News
Sun, 17 Jan 2016 18:50 UTC
Redpoll
Redpoll
With a group of 20 small birds attacking the seeds on the birch trees at Beaver Dick Park, seeds littered the snow turning it into a tan brown carpet.

"Common Redpolls," I thought as I got out of the truck for a closer look. They moved a little higher in the trees, but did not stop their eating in the bitter cold of a minus 12 degrees.

This winter is the first time I had seen flocks of them since the winter of 2012-2013 when they invaded most birch trees in the Upper Snake River Valley. While following big game migrations from the mountains two weeks ago, I found a small flock on the desert, north of the St. Anthony Sand Dunes. They have also been recorded in Ashton and on the Rexburg and Howe Christmas Bird Counts. In the last few days they have been visiting my backyard to feed on Niger seeds.

Redpolls
Redpolls
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