Algeria is the latest Mediterranean country to be hit by wildfires, after blazes hit Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.

Wildfires fanned by blistering temperatures and tinder-dry conditions have killed at least seven people in Algeria, the interior minister said Tuesday, adding the fires had criminal origins.

Photographs posted on social media show huge walls of flame and billowing clouds of smoke towering over villages in the forested hills of the Kabylie region, east of the capital Algiers.

During the day, some traffic accidents with minor damages were reported in different sectors of Punta Arenas, as well as falls of people due to snow and frost.

In the early hours of yesterday, a heavy snow began to fall in Punta Arenas, which covered the main streets of the city in white, and even more so in the western sector.

This created problems for drivers, who found it difficult to walk, also considering that in recent days the flow of vehicles increased considerably.

China's monsoon season has been catastrophic so far, unprecedented heavy floods have taken a heavy toll. The southwest and central regions in the Yangtze river basin witnessed the heaviest rainfall in 1,000 years, and the water continues to pour down with no rest.

Across Henan, rains deluged 1,700 large-scale farms, killing more than a million animals, and whose many small farmers still play a major role in meat production. The floods also caused a major explosion in an aluminum alloy unit in central Henan.

At least 14 people lost their lives in Zhengzhou city when their subway train flooded. More than 500 people were trapped in the subway in one of the worst-affected areas of the city.

China's biggest river, the Yangtze, and several of its tributaries have risen to dangerous levels after days of heavy rain, forcing evacuations of thousands of people and triggering an unprecedented emergency response alert.

A very serious double earthen dam failure sent 46 million cubic meters of water to the Hulunbuir area of Inner Mongolia, causing massive flooding.

The Three Gorges Dam has successfully contained the heavy floods, sighing relief to Chinese authorities, as a collapse could have had an even more catastrophic impact on the area.

Severe flooding caused by historic rainfall wreaked havoc across western Europe taking the lives of 189 people. Tens of thousands were unable to return to their homes and were left without access to power and drinking water. Towns in river valleys and low-lying plains in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Austria were heavily damaged. Most of the affected areas had not experienced that much rainfall in 100 years.

Drought and extreme heat triggered the two largest wildfires in the Western US. The fires have burned land nearly the size of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago combined.

The Dixie Fire in California scorched 241,000 acres has destroyed more than 60 houses. The widespread fires have forced the evacuation of more than 7,800 residents.

The Bootleg Fire is still raging in southern Oregon, burning 413,000 acres since igniting this month. The fire has torn through more than 400 houses.

Greek firefighters faced dangerous and unprecedented conditions as they battled 154 wildfires through Athens, with one of them threatening Mount Parnitha national park — one of the last remaining substantial forests near the city. Meanwhile, in Turkey, eight people died in the country's worst blaze in decades that raged through swaths of the southern coast.

Hot weather and strong winds fueled multiple wildlife fires in Akkar, Lebanon, consuming the iconic Lebanese pine forests. The flames forced thousands to evacuate.

And on the southern hemisphere, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay reported rare snowstorms and surprisingly cold temperatures this winter.

A magnitude-8.2 earthquake rattled Chignik, Alaska this month, it has been recorded as the most powerful U.S. earthquake in half a century. Several Alaskan coastal communities were evacuated following the quake, but no major damage was reported due to the remote location and depth of the epicenter.

Have you noticed that more and more people, cattle, buildings, and trees are getting struck by lightning? Things are charging up in higher layers of the atmosphere. Keep your eyes open, and prepare accordingly!

All this and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for July 2021:

The major Atlantic ocean current, to which also the Gulf stream belongs, may have been losing stability in the course of the last century. This is shown in a new study published in Nature Climate Change. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, transports warm water masses from the tropics northward at the ocean surface and cold water southward at the ocean bottom, which is most relevant for the relatively mild temperatures in Europe. Further, it influences weather systems worldwide. A potential collapse of this ocean current system could therefore have severe consequences.
"The Atlantic Meridional Overturning really is one of our planet's key circulation systems," says the author of the study, Niklas Boers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Freie Universität Berlin and Exeter University. "We already know from some computer simulations and from data from Earth's past, so-called paleoclimate proxy records, that the AMOC can exhibit - in addition to the currently attained strong mode - an alternative, substantially weaker mode of operation. This bi-stability implies that abrupt transitions between the two circulation modes are in principle possible."

A fire broke out on Tuesday afternoon in Varybobi, a northern suburb of Athens.

The Greek national road, which runs from Athens to Lamia has been closed due to the blaze.

The fire is thought to have started in the nearby heavily forested area of Kryoneri, but has spread significantly throughout the afternoon.

Evacuation of Varibobi was ordered short after 4:30 p.m.

As the blaze is near some power substation there are reports of problems in the power surge and thus on the hottest day in the Greek capital where over 42 degrees Celsius are being recorded.

In Potosi, Bolivia temperatures dripped below zero, providing the perfect climate for the downpour of snow.

Some locals threw snowballs in the town square in delight, while across town a soccer match was suspended amid the rare snowy conditions.

In Arequipa, Peru vehicles were left stranded after snow covered the landscape, blanketing roads into a sheet of ice.

The cold weather is expected to continue in Bolivia and Peru for the remainder of the week.


Source: Reuters

There's been fresh snowfall reported above around 3,000 metres on glaciers in the Alps over the past few days.

The currently closed (for skiing and boarding) Stubai Glacier near Innsbruck in Austria is the latest to report a dusting of summer snow, following fellow Tirolean glacier ski area Hintertux last week (below).

Hintertux is one of five glaciers currently open for August skiing and snowboarding, along with Les 2 Alps in France, Zermatt and Saas Fee in Switzerland and Passo Stelvio in Italy.

Some southern skifields received a decent dumping of snow as a cold front made its way up the South Island on Tuesday.

Canterbury skifields received the majority of the heavy snowfall over the 24 hours to Tuesday evening, according to the SnowNZ website.

The Arrowsmith, Ragged, and Palmer ranges, operated on by Methven Heliski, led the way with a mammoth 62 centimetres of new snow. Tekapo's Roundhill Ski Area received 50cm, while Mount Cook Heliski region got 40cm, Temple Basin ski area near Arthur's Pass got 20cm, Ōhau got 15cm, Porters had 10cm, Wānaka's Treble Cone got 7cm, and Broken River got 5cm.

As Brazil gets hit repeatedly by unusually low temperatures, destroying crops, the flooding in China's Henan province -- which accounts for 10% of their grains production -- has damaged wheat, infrastructure, and thousands of large hog farms. All hopes are on US, which is also having its own issues. This signals a huge red flag for worldwide food production as these are the #1/2/3 producers/exporters of many grains. In fact, Brazil has started importing! Christian explores what this means in this episode of the Ice Age Farmer broadcast.

Temperatures have dropped below freezing mark in parts of southern Brazil

A fierce cold snap is bearing down on homeless people in Brazil, and authorities, activists and religious leaders are doing what they can to limit suffering on the streets.

Temperatures in some areas of southern Brazil have dropped below freezing, and dozens of cities received snow and freezing rain.

That's especially worrisome this year, after the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated homelessness by punishing Brazil's job market, and the federal government diminished welfare spending that was a lifeline in 2020.

Brazil's most populous state, Sao Paulo, on Thursday donated 7,500 blankets and 1,000 sleeping bags to organizations that help people who are homeless.