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5 killed, 9 injured after bus hit by landslide in Kashmir


Times of India
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 17:33 UTC
The mini bus was crossing a muddy patch when it came under debris and rocks.
The mini bus was crossing a muddy patch when it came under debris and rocks.
Five passengers, including three women, were killed and nine others injured when their minibus came under a landslide at a slide-prone stretch of road in J&K's Doda district on Wednesday.

The bus was travelling from Thathri to Gandoh and crossing a muddy stretch when it was hit by a sudden landslide at Piyakul on Thathri-Kilhotraan road. The debris and boulders came crashing in, resulting in the death of five passengers and injuring nine, said SDPO Gandoh Bhallesa Nawaz Khanday.


Comment: Three days earlier another landslide was witnessed damaging several houses in the same district:



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Bug

Flea infestations triple due to UK's mild winter


Daily Mail
Thu, 25 Apr 2019 00:53 UTC
flea
Calls to pest controllers surged in the first three months of the year, with reports of fleas up by 198 per cent on the same period in 2018 and of flies by 120 per cent (stock image)
Fleas and flies are normally a blight of the summer but infestations have begun early this year because of climate change, according to experts.

Calls to pest controllers surged in the first three months of the year, with reports of fleas up by 198 per cent on the same period in 2018 and of flies by 120 per cent.

The blame has been laid on milder winters allowing the insects to emerge earlier to breed.

This February was the warmest on record, according to the Met Office, with temperatures soaring as high as 20C.

David Cross, head of Rentokil's technical training academy, said: 'There's been a sharp increase in the number of flea and fly inquiries out of season - they are coming out much earlier than we would expect.

Comment: While it is true that, for some areas, this winter has been unusually warm and dry, other areas have seen a continuation of the record breaking cold. Because, overall, our planet is seeing serious cooling and these anomalous and extreme weather patterns are congruent with those that occurred during the last little ice age, and do not correlate with any global warming 'models'. Lest we forget that it was only last year that the UK was being battered with bitter cold by the 'beast from the east':




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Cloud Precipitation

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Climate events across the planet


Adapt 2030
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 11:26 UTC
snow
More unusual heavy and out of season rains during dry Middle East locations into grassy flower lands, this time Mt Tabor in Israel. Lebanon hail and snow stranding motorists and destroying crops. Algeria record grain harvests and unusual ways people are protecting their cars from huge hail, floating swimming pool mattresses.


Sources
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Boat

'Water is life': Unexpected rainfall revives Iraq's historic marshlands

Raya Jalabi
Reuters
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 09:27 UTC
An Iraqi Marsh Arab paddles his boat as he collects reeds at the Chebayesh marsh in Dhi Qar province, Iraq, April 14.
© ReutersAn Iraqi Marsh Arab paddles his boat as he collects reeds at the Chebayesh marsh in Dhi Qar province, Iraq, April 14.
This time last year, most of Iraq's historic marshlands were dry, desiccated by upstream damming and a chronic lack of rainfall.

Now, local farmers are counting their blessings after unexpected heavy rainfall at the end of 2018 caused the dams to overflow by early January and water came gushing back to the wetlands in southeastern Iraq.

For Yunus Khalil, a farmer raising water buffalo in the central marsh, the lack of water meant he had to sell most of his herd at a loss last year.

"We were terrified the water wouldn't come back," Khalil said. "It would've been the end for us."

The marshes, thought to be the biblical Garden of Eden and named a UNESCO world heritage site in 2016, are experiencing their highest water levels since they were reclaimed in 2003, said Jassim al-Asadi, southern director of local NGO Nature Iraq and a native of the marshlands, which stretch to the Iran border.

Comment: Climate change in the form of global cooling (with resulting increased precipitation) appears to be delivering some beneficial environmental improvements for many arid regions in recent years, see also these pertinent accounts -

Lake Eyre in Australia transforms from parched desert to prosperous waterway

Deserts across the planet bloom; heavier rains caused by cosmic rays creating more clouds

Rain brings 2nd California super bloom in 2 years

Incredible satellite images reveal hundreds of lakes in the world's largest sand desert after Cyclone Mekunu

Atacama desert in Chile erupts in floral beauty after unexpected rain falls in driest place on Earth

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Windsock

Cyclone Kenneth: Mozambique hit by its strongest storm ever - Just five weeks after Idai devastated country

Ruth Maclean
The Guardian
Fri, 26 Apr 2019 03:20 UTC
Tropical cyclone Kenneth
© EPA
Wind speeds of 140mph threatens fresh devastation for country reeling from Cyclone Idai

The strongest cyclone ever to hit Mozambique has made landfall in the country's north, five weeks after Cyclone Idai devastated its centre, according to meteorologists.

Surpassing both Idai and the 2000 cyclone that had been the strongest to date, Cyclone Kenneth hit Cabo Delgado province with wind speeds of 140mph (225km/h), bringing the threat of extreme rainfall.

Some "precarious" houses had already collapsed and the provincial capital of Pemba has lost its power supply, local journalist Jonas Wazir told AFP.

Forecasters at Meteo-France warned that Kenneth could bring waves as much as five metres (16ft) higher than usual. Anabela Moreira, who owns a lodge on Wimby beach in the port town and provincial capital of Pemba, told AFP: "I've never seen anything like it in my 15 years in Pemba."

After forming off Madagascar's coast earlier this week, Kenneth passed to the north of the island nation of Comoros on Wednesday night, killing three people and causing widespread damage to homes and infrastructure.

The storm is expected to stall inland for several days and around one metre of rain is expected in the area north of the city of Pemba, more than the usual average for an entire year in the region.

Comment: Death toll rises to 732 with hundreds missing in devastating Cyclone Idai

For more information check out SOTT's monthly documentary SOTT Earth Changes Summary - March 2019: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs.



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Snowflake

Late-season snowfall records fall in far corners of US as winter makes last gasp

Brian Lada
Accuweather
Thu, 25 Apr 2019 18:45 UTC
A storm earlier this month
Near-whiteout conditions at the National Weather Service's office in Caribou, Maine in January
Spring is in full swing across most, but not all of, the United States as April begins its final week. Wintry weather has been lingering over some remote corners of the country.

Old Man Winter paid a long visit to Caribou, Maine, this year, with the town measuring at least one inch of snow on the ground for 163 consecutive days, starting on Nov. 10, 2018 and ending on April 21, 2019. This is the longest streak of its kind on record, burying the previous record of 155 days set from 2002 to 2003, according to the National Weather Service.

This unusually long stretch of snowy conditions kicked off during a stormy November when the town measured nearly 30 inches of snow. Two months later, Caribou saw its snowiest January on record when 59.8 inches fell, including a snowstorm that unloaded over 16 inches in one day.

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Fire

Raging wildfires in Russia's Trans-Baikal region have killed thousands of animals; national parks and conservation sites threatened


RT
Thu, 25 Apr 2019 17:27 UTC
wildfire Trans-Baikal Siberia
© Sputnik/ Evgeny EpanchintsevAccording to the local Ministry of Agriculture, 10,000 sheep, 1,277 cattle, 500 horses, and 1,800 domestic birds were lost. The fires also threaten to destroy the area’s national parks and conservation sites.
Around 12,000 livestock have been killed - through smoke inhalation or burning - by massive wildfires in the Siberian Trans-Baikal region, which also threaten to destroy the area's national parks and conservation sites.

According to the local Ministry of Agriculture, 10,000 sheep, 1,277 cattle, 500 horses, and 1,800 domestic birds were lost. Photos and videos posted online showed piles of burned animal remains among devastated fields covered in ash. The drone footage captured dozens of homes in the villages burned to the ground.


Comment: The fires have also destroyed more than 100 homes in the region, leaving hundreds homeless: Hundreds lose homes as huge wildfires ravage Russia's Trans-Baikal

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Rainbow

'Fire rainbow' seen in sky across San Luis Obispo County, California

John Lindsey
The Tribune
Sat, 20 Apr 2019 15:41 UTC
Fire rainbow over SLO County, CA
© Bob Bowles
Bob Bowles took this beautiful photograph Monday at Suey Creek Road about five miles east of Nipomo.

"It was a horizontal rainbow, never seen anything like it. It hung out in the sky to the east of us and changed colors for about an hour," he said. "I don't know if we were the only ones that got to enjoy this; didn't hear anything."

At around the same time, Teri Hunter tweeted a similar image of a weird rainbow from Nipomo High School.

Looking at Bowles' photo, I was astonished by its mother-of-pearl-like iridescence; it was almost like looking at the inside of an abalone shell.
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Cloud Precipitation

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Hailstorm kills 13 in Uganda as 6000 year pattern unfolds


Adapt 2030
Thu, 25 Apr 2019 15:34 UTC
Uganda floods
© EMLI
Massive hail storm kills 13 people in Uganda, as the area is deluged after a significant drought where flash floods ran off concrete hard ground. Monsoon flows are far off or non existent, which shows a more powerful cycle of 6000 year duration.


Comment: 13 killed, 40 injured by hailstorm in Uganda

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Cloud Lightning

Wild wind and hail batters students in Zhejiang Province, China


Yahoo! News
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 13:14 UTC
storm
Wind, hail and heavy rain battered the city of Wenzho in the eastern Zhejiang province of China on April 24. Laundry was ripped into the air, people were sent flying and a student job fair was utterly destroyed.

The storm occurred at 3pm on April 24 as large convection clouds formed leading up to the devastating hail, wind and rain which affected the whole province.

Beijing news reported that five students at the job fair in Wenzho were hospitalized after suffering serious injuries while many sustained minor bruises.

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