Earth ChangesS


Blue Planet

14 buried in central China landslide


Xinhua
Sat, 21 Jan 2017 08:51 UTC
14 buried in central China landslide January 2017
© Xinhua
Around 14 people were buried in a landslide which hit part of a hotel in a central China town on Friday night, local authorities said.

The landslide hit the hotel at the town proper of Nanzhang County, Hubei Province around 7:30 p.m. Friday.
14 buried in central China landslide
© XinhuaA landslide hit part of a hotel in Chengguan town of Nanzhang on Friday night. The casualties are still unclear.

Comment: Also see:

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Cloud Lightning

Man has an incredible escape as lightning strikes in the same place twice in Singapore

Kara O'Neill
Daily Mirror
Fri, 20 Jan 2017 21:35 UTC
It hits twice in the same spot
© CENIt hits twice in the same spot
A man had an incredibly lucky escape when he was metres away from a lightning bolt - that struck twice in the same place.

Delivery driver Fahrol Razi, 30, sitting in his van in the Sim Lim Tower car park in Singapore, had already witnessed one bolt of lightning strike nearby.

He got out his phone to video the scene when another bolt struck in almost exactly the same place.

The clip shows a frightening orange blaze of light and a large chunk of a tree being blasted off the trunk and into the car park, with splinters of wood sprayed widely.

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Attention

Dead whale washed ashore on Outer Hebrides, Scotland


The Press and Journal
Fri, 20 Jan 2017 08:26 UTC
Humpback whale
Humpback whale
The public are being warned to stay away from a dead giant whale that washed ashore in the Outer Hebrides yesterday amid fears that it could explode.

The badly-decomposed animal is believed to be a humpback whale.

Humpback whales were once hunted to the brink of extinction in Scottish waters, but in recent years the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust has noticed an increase in the number of sightings. Though still relatively rare there were more than 20 last year.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said a member of the public had raised the alarm at 9.40am after coming across the whale on a beach in Benbecula.
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Snowflake

Several parts of Morocco to be hit with large drops in temperature

Robert
Ice Age Now
Thu, 19 Jan 2017 19:33 UTC
Morocco cold snap
© libe.ma
Several parts of Morocco will be hit by a great drop in temperature until the end of this week, according to the Direction de la Météorologie Nationale (DMN).

These are the provinces of Midelt, Tinghir, Azilal, Al Haouz, Béni Mellal, Boulemane and Ifrane where low temperatures will vary between -11 and -5 ° C, and max temperatures will range between -3 and 0 ° C.

(...) It is the poor and deprived population of the regions, particularly the mountainous massifs of the Atlas and the Rif, that suffer from this great drop in temperatures.
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Ambulance

Up to 30 people feared dead as Italian hotel is buried by avalanche after four earthquakes hit the region (UPDATE: 10 people found alive)

Gareth Davies
Daily Mail (UK)
Wed, 18 Jan 2017 23:28 UTC
Italy avalanche rescue
Rescue teams are still battling to access the hotel - a task made more difficult by huge snow drifts in the area.
Up to 30 people have been killed after an Italian ski hotel was buried by an avalanche during a series of earthquakes.

Rescue teams are still battling to access Hotel Rigopiano, in Pescara, a province in the Abruzzo region, which has been hit by heavy snowfall in the last week.

The search operation was launched after four powerful earthquakes hit central Italy - in regions already reeling from deadly quakes last August.

There are reports this morning that as many as 30 people have been killed at the hotel.

'There are many dead,' Antonio Crocetta, the head of a group of Alpine police that was trying to reach the cut-off hotel, was quoted as saying.

Twenty firemen, two mountain rescue teams, six ambulances and local police were heading for the site last night, but the weather conditions were expected to cause major delays, a civil protection agency spokesman said.

Italy was hit by four earthquakes in four hours on Wednesday, killing one and bringing terror to snowbound mountain areas still recovering from last year's series of deadly tremors.

The quakes, all measuring more than five magnitude, struck close to Amatrice, the mountain town devastated by an August earthquake that left nearly 300 people dead.


Comment: Update: Miraculously, ten people have been discovered alive after being buried in snow for two days. They reportedly were kept warm by the snow, which insulated them "like an igloo."

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Snowflake Cold

Cold Temperatures Set Records Throughout Manitoba

Mike Koncan
Global News
Fri, 20 Jan 2017 19:40 UTC
Riding National Park in Manitoba
© Debra Crammond
It's been two straight days of record setting temperatures across Manitoba and more will likely fall before the weekend.

Since Manitoba has been stuck in the 'extreme cold' a week ago, mild, Pacific air has warmed up the province considerably and brought about record setting temperatures January 15, 17, and 18, with nearly the entire province getting above 0 C on Wednesday.

While the province hasn't taken the title as the country's 'hot spot,' McCreary Man., has consistently been the warmest in the province registering temperatures well above freezing since Sunday. McCreary registered it's highest temperature Wednesday at 9.2 C. The warmest place in the country Wednesday was Violet Grove Alt., at 13.2 C.

Thursday could be a record breaker as well with temperatures getting up near 5 C in some areas. Winnipeg will stay closer the freezing mark, below record levels.

As the weekend approaches, the forecast will start to change. Southern Manitoba will continue to see mild temperature but rain and snow will likely show up a few times on and off Friday night and through the weekend. Temperatures are expected to start to cool off close to the middle of next week.

January 18 records (and previous records):

Comment: Winnipeg also reported its snowiest December in more than 100 years.

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Arrow Down

Sinkhole threatens to swallow car in Reading, Pennsylvania

Amanda VanAllen
WFMZ 69 News
Wed, 18 Jan 2017 18:08 UTC
Sinkhole in Reading, PA
© WFMZ
A sinkhole opened and a six-inch water main broke Wednesday on Fairmont Avenue, near Bruckman Avenue, in the Reading's Northmont neighborhood.

The hole, estimated to have an opening of about 18 feet long, threatened to swallow a car that was parked on Fairmont, adjacent to the Quadrant corporate office.

"Another employee came flying in the office like, "Oh my God! Your car is almost in the sinkhole," and I was like, 'What? You've gotta be kidding me,'" said Elanie Diana, the owner of the almost-doomed car.

But it was no joke. When Diana got outside, she saw her car holding on by a thread, teetering over the sinkhole.

"Oh my God. It's almost paid for, and now it's gonna end up in a hole," she said.

Soon, a tow truck driver was able to get it out. Diana started her car, and was on her to find a safer place to park.

"It's a major sinkhole, a major water main break here on a 6-inch line," said Ralph Johnson of Reading Public Works.
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Question

Loud mysterious bang that 'sounded like a bomb' puzzles Canterbury, UK residents

Joy Basu
Kent Live
Wed, 18 Jan 2017 18:14 UTC
Loud boom heard in Canterbury
© kentlive.com
A mysterious explosion heard in Canterbury has sparked widespread speculation on social media.

The noise, which one person described as possibly being a beam falling off a crane, woke people from their sleep on Monday (January 16).

People in Sturry Road, Hales Place, Broad Oak and Thanington all confirmed they had heard the bang around 10.45pm. Dozens of people took to social media to speculate on the cause.

One person from Sturry Road told Kent Live: "It sounded like an actual bomb or something going off. But no one seems to know what it was." Another person from New House Lane said: "It sort of resembled the vibration and boom sound we experience from MOD Shoeburyness." But her speculation was shot down by others who pointed out the firing range is closed at night.
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SOTT Logo Media

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


Sott.net
Fri, 20 Jan 2017 21:23 UTC
fireball guatemala
© Sott.netMeteor fireball fragments over Central America, as seen from Guatemala, 28 December 2016
As we enter a new and uncertain geopolitical climate with the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, so we also appear to be entering a new and uncertain natural climate.

The relentless global escalation of extreme weather, geological upheaval, and cosmic bombardment continued last month, ending a year the authorities claim was (again) "the warmest ever - and it's humans' fault."

Still no explanation from them as to how 'man-made CO2' is responsible for - among other new or increased natural phenomena - all the sinkholes opening up and killing people; the meteor fireballs raining out of the sky; redirecting the course of high-altitude jet streams; and increasing the frequency of earthquakes two or three-fold.

But pay no attention to those details - they're probably just signs that we're heading into another ice age.

Highlights in our Earth Changes Summary video for December 2016 include:
  • Persistent, heavy fog across the world last month - northern Europe, India, China and the Persian Gulf
  • Return of the 'polar vortex' to both North America and Russia, bringing record-breaking snow and cold temperatures
  • Snow in the Sahara Desert, Arabian Desert, and Syria
  • Thundersnow, snow-nadoes, 'fog walls', 'fog domes', 'spinning ice disks', and other bizarre cold weather-related phenomena!
  • Severe flash-flooding (and a tornado) across southern 'sunny' Spain
  • Outbreak of forest fires in the Swiss Alps... in winter!?
  • At least a half dozen spectacular meteor fireball events in North and South America, Europe, and Central Asia
  • A string of powerful earthquakes and volcanic eruptions around the Pacific Ring of Fire
  • Widespread flooding in Southeast Asia during its 'dry season'
  • Record-breaking rainfall in Australia's desert regions
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Snowflake

2,000 trapped overnight as snow cuts off highways in Spain


Yahoo! News
Fri, 20 Jan 2017 15:59 UTC
A statue of a bull is covered by snow at the entrance of the bullring in Ronda, southern Spain, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017.
A statue of a bull is covered by snow at the entrance of the bullring in Ronda, southern Spain, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017.
Authorities say some 2,000 people were trapped overnight in vehicles as heavy snowfall cut off several roads in eastern Spain.

The army's emergency unit said Friday it was distributing blankets and hot drinks to hundreds of people trapped on the A3 highway linking Madrid to the coastal city of Valencia and on other roads in the region.

Soldiers and firefighters used snowplows to try to clear the snow, managing to open A3 traffic toward Valencia although it remained blocked toward Madrid.

Some train services in the region were also interrupted.

Heavy snowfall and rainstorms have hit many parts of Spain this week with some eastern coastal tourist towns reporting their first snow in decades.

The AEMET weather agency said that more snow and freezing temperatures were expected Friday.

Snow Spain
Source: AP
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