Earth ChangesS


Snowflake

Delayed spring in Romania means delayed crops

Robert W. Felix
Ice Age Now
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 19:58 UTC
snow in Romania
Most of Romania covered by snow - A "very rare event."

"From what I've noticed spring is delayed by a month this year, which is not a joke," says reader. "It will subsequently affect the crops that will be delayed."

"March was another winter month in most of Europe, which is extremely unusual. Myself I can't remember such a thick snow by this day in many areas.

"Most of Romania is covered by snow at 24th March. Very rare event, I'm not sure if it happened before since the weather is recorded.

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Attention

Agitated moose attacks car and shatters driver's windshield in Norway

Ben Hooper
UPI
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 19:46 UTC
Moose attack
Moose attack
A man in Norway who attempted to guide a young moose off the road ended up with a shattered windshield when the animal became annoyed.

The video, filmed this week, shows the man following the moose on a road in Baerum.

The man attempts to guide the moose out of the road, but the animal instead continues to move forward on the paved path.

The video shows the moose eventually become agitated at the approaching vehicle and jump up on the hood, shattering the windshield with its hooves.

The man said the moose fled the area after breaking the glass.

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Tornado2

'Snow-nado' filmed near Ammanford, Wales


BBC
Thu, 22 Mar 2018 19:20 UTC
SNOWNADO
A so-called "snow-nado" was captured swirling around a field in Llandyfan, near Ammanford, Carmarthenshire.

It is a fairly rare phenomenon that occurs when surface winds generate a vortex over snow cover, resulting in a whirling column of snow particles being raised from the ground.

The footage was captured on Sunday after snow had hit the area.

Part of the reason they are uncommon is because there are rarely large volumes of snow in the UK. More commonly seen is a so-called "dust devil", where a similar spectacle is created from dust particles in the summer.

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Arrow Down

Huge sinkhole discovered in Limerick, Ireland


Independent (Ireland)
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 18:26 UTC
The huge sinkhole
© Pat MurphyThe huge sinkhole
Two birdwatchers have raised the alarm about a suspected sinkhole, measuring 25ft by 16ft, near Limerick.

Pat Murphy from Limerick and his friend Tony Ryan where out on Thursday evening trying to catch a starling murmuration when Tony discovered the massive suspected 'sinkhole'.

"We were out Thursday evening to catch a starling murmuration and my friend Tony Ryan discovered it just as we were walking on the bank," Pat told Independent.ie. "Luckily it was still bright otherwise who knows?"

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Snowflake

'Avalanche' of sand-covered snow buries cars at Russian ski resort


RT
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 12:43 UTC
Avalanche in Russia
© Rez Karden / YouTube
Footage on social media showed how a massive avalanche roared down the slope of Europe's highest peak, Russia's Mount Elbrus, burying over a dozen cars.

The rapid flow of snow hit the parking lot at the foot of Mount Elbrus in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria on Saturday, emergency services said. Peaking at 5,642 meters, Mount Elbrus is in the top ten most prominent mountains in the world, and has some very popular ski resorts.

Comment: RT described it as 'rapid', but as you can see, it's clearly anything but. In fact, it's weirdly slow!

Maybe that has something to do with the coating of 'Saharan' sand on the snow?

See also: Dust storm from the Sahara turns southern Russia yellow

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Cloud Precipitation

Floods in Gauteng, South Africa after a month of rain falls in one day

Richard Davies
Floodlist
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 13:18 UTC
floods
Parts of Gauteng Province in South Africa were hit by a severe storm from 22 March, 2018. Some areas recorded more than a month's worth of rain in 24 hours.

Areas around Johannesburg and Pretoria were particularly badly hit. Strong winds have downed trees and heavy rain had flooded several roads, causing major traffic problems.

A massive sinkhole appeared on the M24 Route between Gauteng and Valhalla.

The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has asked road users to be careful following heavy rains, particularly when crossing bridges.

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Seismograph

6.3-magnitude earthquake strikes Papua New Guinea region


The Straits Times
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 13:18 UTC
The epicentre of the quake was located 180km south-west of Rabaul on New Britain island, some 900km north-east of the capital Port Moresby, at a depth of 68km.
© USGSThe epicentre of the quake was located 180km south-west of Rabaul on New Britain island, some 900km north-east of the capital Port Moresby, at a depth of 68km
A 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck off the north-east coast of an island of the Pacific Ocean nation of Papua New Guinea on Saturday (March 24), officials said, but the tremor posed no tsunami threat to the region.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the quake, which was centred in a much more remote region than a magnitude-7.5 tremor that rocked the country's mountainous mainland highlands on Feb 26, killing 100 people.

The epicentre of Saturday's quake was located 180km south-west of Rabaul on New Britain island, some 900km north-east of the capital Port Moresby, at a depth of 68km, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The quake was revised down from an initial reading of magnitude 6.8 and a depth of 60km.
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Snowflake

Philadelphia has 2nd snowiest March on record

Matt Peterson
CBS Philly
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 10:15 UTC
record snow in Philadelphia
© CBS Philly
It has been a messy March across the entire Northeast as four nor'easters have pummeled the region from D.C. up to Boston. Philadelphia only escaped one of the systems relatively unscathed while we got hammered the other three times.

Thanks to the three major storms, especially nor'easters two and four, our snow totals for the month of March are ending up extremely high. How high? We are near record-breaking in more than a few areas across the region. Here is a breakdown of how March 2018 stacks up against other snowy Marches on record.

So far in Philly for March of 2018, we have had a total of 15.2 inches of snow and it has taken 10 days for us to reach that total, with five of those days recording a measurable amount of snow (Amount > .01″). The 15.2 inches of snow that we have seen currently has us tied for the seconnd snowiest March on record for the city of Philadelphia, tying the March of 1914.

Other cities across the region that are in the top five of snowiest Marches on record are Atlantic City, Wilmington and Allentown. In Atlantic City this March we have seen 9.6 inches of snow. In Wilmington we sit at a total of 13.2 inches and in Allentown we currently have a total of 20.7 inches. While all of these totals are extremely high, only Wilmington at 13.2 inches cracks the top two like Philly. Atlantic City and Allentown sit at fifth and fourth all time, respectfully.

Comment: Elsewhere in the US this week:

In New York City this year marks the fifth consecutive season that at least 30 inches of snow have fallen. The only other recorded time it snowed this much, for this long a period, was back in the 1880s (records begin in the 1869-1870 season).

Record snowfall hit Dulles, doubling the previous record set in 1964, as a FOURTH March Nor'easter dumped 8 inches of snow on Washington, DC leaving thousands of flights cancelled and Federal offices closed.

Almost 16 feet of snow fell in 18 days across California's Sierra Nevada.

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Snowflake

Early spring snowfall and floods bring havoc to the Balkans


Daily Mail
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 20:12 UTC
A municipal worker clears ice and snow from the platforms of the Gara de Nord, the main railway station in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, March 23, 2018.
A municipal worker clears ice and snow from the platforms of the Gara de Nord, the main railway station in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, March 23, 2018.
Heavy snow and flooding wreaked havoc across large parts of the Balkans on Friday, forcing road closures, flooding homes and stopping ferries along the Adriatic coast.

The spate of fresh snow came as Croatia was already struggling to contain overflowing rivers that were swollen from melting snow.

Croatian authorities said that only small vehicles were allowed on main roads leading toward the coast while trucks or buses could not pass. Citizens have been urged to avoid traveling.

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Snowflake Cold

70% crop losses due to extreme weather in Australia

Jess Davis
ABC Australia
Tue, 06 Feb 2018 02:21 UTC
crop losses NSW
© ABC Rural: Jess DavisTo the naked eye this wheat crop looks good, but inside are damaged grains.
It was always going to be a big ask for the nation's grain crop to reach last year's record breaker, but extreme weather events across the country have guaranteed the harvest is well down on last year.

Some grain-growing regions have even reported a drop of more than 70 per cent on last year's harvest.

In the north of the country grain farmers battled extreme dry, in NSW and Victoria a late frost and record rains damaged crops, and WA made a comeback late in the season with much-needed rain.

Dry winter impacts yields

For Matthew Dart who farms at Merriwagga in southern NSW it's a harvest he was happy to see the back of.

"It was one of those years where any mistake in any given sequence you were penalised so heavily," he said.

Comment: Weather patterns are out of sync, in particular global temperatures are plummeting, and as a consequence we're seeing devastating crop losses all over the world:

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