Earth Changes

As drought takes over Colorado, Denver nears record snowless streak

Matt Makens
FOX31 Denver
Thu, 10 Nov 2016 19:58 UTC

U.S. Drought Monitor Report released Thursday.

Colorado has been fully taken over by drought. And for the metro area, things are moving into a historic snowless territory.

The drought has dramatically expanded recently. Thursday's drought monitor indicates that more than 98 percent of the state is in a drought, up from only 10 percent at the start of the year.

For most, a dry weather pattern took over in midsummer when the rains ended.

And little snow has materialized. The mountains have had barely 5 to 10 inches across most of the ranges. Denver has yet to see its first snow.

In Denver, the last snow was May 1. The number of days without snowfall is at 193 as of Thursday, the eighth-longest streak since 1948.

In 1992, Denver went 211 days without snow and 2016 might rival that record.

The latest measurable snowfall in Denver was Nov. 21, 1934 and that record might fall this year unless the persistent warm, dry weather pattern breaks down soon.

EF1 tornado hits Gauteng province, South Africa

Times LIVE
Wed, 16 Nov 2016 07:24 UTC

The twister that touched down in Ennerdale, south of Johannesburg, on Monday was rated as being of the type that packs winds of up to 177km/h, the SA Weather Service (SAWS) said on Tuesday.

‏SA Weather Service @SAWeatherServic tweeted: "After assessing damages at Ennerdale (GP), SAWS can confirm that the tornado at Ennerdale on 14 Nov 2016 was rated as EF1 tornado."

Weather Watch SA ‏@storm_sa added some context: "The SAWS has rated yesterdays tornado that struck Ennerdale as an EF1 (estimated winds of 138-177km/h)."

EF stands for the Enhanced Fujita scale, which rates the intensity of tornadoes in the United States and Canada based on the damage they cause - EF0 is the lowest, while EF5 involves wind speeds of 320km/h-plus.

‏

Comment: In July this year Gauteng province was hit by two tornadoes in 24 hours.

Scientists confirm Monday's earthquake in New Zealand lifted seabed 'by at least a metre'

Jamie Morton, Belinda Feek
NZ herald
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 08:39 UTC

© Twitter/TonkinTaylor
Aerial photographs taken showing tectonic uplift of the sea bed of between 2 and 2.5 metres north of Kaikoura.

Monday morning's quake has lifted the seabed around Kaikoura by at least a metre, scientists have confirmed. Although a scientific rarity, it's a phenomenon that those in the tourism industry are saying will spell doom for them and their jobs. Local boat skipper Dean Kennedy said he'd never seen anything like it in his 50-odd years.

He was at South Bay wharf today about 90 minutes before low tide making sure he was seeing correctly. He said the explanation was simple - and it wasn't good.

"Our summer is buggered. We're all out of a job pretty much."

Kaikoura was dependent on tourists and fish, including crayfish, and there wouldn't be any of them around for a few months, he said.

"Normally it's busy, flat out. There are four whale watching boats, three charter fishing boats and three dolphin-watching boats, and long weekends and Christmas we get recreational fishing boats from Christchurch."

But now, instead of diving for paua, the seafood beds had been left exposed by the rise in the sea floor.

All the kaimoana that's in that zone is going to die, probably and even the stuff that moves down that's not the environment it likes to live in.

Dean Kennedy, boat skipper

"Normally where we go diving people are walking out and picking them up.

Tens of thousands of dead fish clog Long Island canal

Jennifer Earl
CBS News
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 17:31 UTC

Dead Fishes in Shinnecock Canal on Long Island

© David Kozatch/Facebook
A Long Islander shares a photo of thousands of dead bunker fish stranded in the Shinnecock Canal on Long Island.

Long Islanders thought winter had arrived early when they walked near the Shinnecock Canal in Hampton Bays, New York, on Monday.

The water looked like it was covered in a thick sheet of ice, but upon closer examination, residents could see it was actually thousands of silver bunker fish wiggling on top of each other, struggling to survive.

Dozens of people posted pictures and videos of the unusual sight on Facebook.

"Strange phenomenon. Cause of man or nature?" local resident Gustavo Zuluaga Buritica asked.

"Wow never seen anything like it!" Long Islander Eric Reilly commented.

As videos of the rare sight go viral, people are now looking for answers.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation told CBS News on Tuesday that they are monitoring the incident.

"No additional fish kills have been reported overnight or today," said Erica Ringewald, the department's media relations director. "Some dead bunker are floating in the Shinnecock Bay but most are believed to have sunk to the bottom."

Iridescent clouds, sun dogs appear over Denver, Colorado

Chris Spears
CBS News - Denver
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 16:22 UTC

There were several reports of 'rainbows' and 'fire rainbows' in the sky on Friday but these terms are misleading because they were not rainbows, nor associated with fire.

To get a rainbow you must have rain clouds with the sun at your back.

What was happening is something we call iridescence caused by iridescent clouds.

An iridescent cloud is any cloud that exhibits brilliant bright spots, bands, or borders of colors, usually red and green, observed up to 30 degrees from the sun.

The coloration is due to the diffraction of light with small cloud particles which produce the effect. Iridescence is usually seen in thin cirrostratus, cirrocumulus, and altocumulus clouds.

Most of the clouds over Denver Friday afternoon were high cirrus clouds that likely had more ice than water particles inside, which helped scattered the light much like a prism would, creating the cool effect.

A few people also saw a sun dog which is a halo around the sun with a distinct bright spot on either side. These are often seen when the sun is low on the horizon.

Sinkhole swallows car in Citrus County, Florida

ClickOrlando
Mon, 14 Nov 2016 20:07 UTC

A water main break in Citrus County caused a huge hole to open up on the road Monday.

The hole swallowed an entire car, according to the Citrus County Sheriff's Office. Pictures show the rear wheel sticking out from the water-filled hole.

Truman Boulevard in Beverly Hills was shut down while crews with Citrus County Road Maintenance worked to clean the area.

The water main is owned by Rolling Oaks, a private utility company, deputies said.

The vehicle's occupants were able to safely exit the car before it fully submerged.

The car was removed from the hole as of 4 p.m. Monday, but officials were still asking drivers to avoid the area.

Over 1,250 dead waterbirds discovered near Edam, Netherlands

DutchNews.nl
Mon, 14 Nov 2016 19:54 UTC

Over 1,250 dead birds have been found in the province of Noord-Holland in the past week, increasing fears that bird flu has taken hold in the wild bird population again.

The dead birds were found around Edam, Volendam and Medemblik and it is not yet known if they are infected. Last week, scientists found the H5N8 virus in several dead water birds in the region.

Water board staff were out all weekend, removing the dead birds and more reports are being made all the time, a spokesman told broadcaster RTL Nieuws.

Last week poultry farm owners were ordered to keep their birds indoors because of the risk of infection.

The last outbreak of bird flu in the Netherlands was in 2014 but that was restricted to a handful of farms. The 2003 avian flu outbreak cost the Dutch poultry and egg industry at least €300m in direct costs at that time.

Loud boom, house shaking reported along Charleston, South Carolina coast

Angie Jackson
The Post and Courier
Tue, 08 Nov 2016 17:57 UTC

A loud booming sound was reported Tuesday morning along Charleston County's coast, and the National Weather Service says it was most likely caused by a sonic boom.

The weather service started receiving reports of the boom and shaking around 8 a.m. A James Island resident wrote on Facebook that the boom shook her house. A man said he heard it in West Ashley.

The United States Geological Survey has not reported an earthquake in the area.

"At this point, we're pretty confident it's not an earthquake," said Carl Barnes, a meteorologist with the weather service. "Unfortunately, we really can't say with any confidence what it was. ... If it is military testing, which is certainly a possibility, they don't let us know."

Otherwise, Tuesday in Charleston started off with cool temperatures, but more comfortable weather is ahead. The high is expected to be near 69 with sunny skies.

Stunning halo effect around the sun seen in Russia's North

RT
Mon, 14 Nov 2016 12:03 UTC

Internet users from Murmansk, Tyumen, and Chelyabinsk are uploading photos of a shining circle around the sun - a natural phenomenon known as the halo effect, especially stunning in the dim northern skies.

Sometimes called winter rainbows, the halo is created by ice crystals which cause refraction, just as rainbows are caused by water droplets. The symmetrical patches of light, tinged with red on the inside, are called mock suns, parhelia, or sundogs.

The caption to this image from the city of Chelyabinsk (remember the meteorite in 2013?) reads "Right now: halo effect in Chelyabinsk."

Halos can have many forms, ranging from colored or white rings to arcs and spots in the sky. Circular halos, light pillars, and the above-mentioned sundogs are among the better-known forms of the phenomenon.

These photos were uploaded from the city of Tyumen, where the temperature is around -20C.

Sweden all time snow record broken and Asia -50 F below normal temperatures

Adapt 2030
You Tube
Sun, 13 Nov 2016 15:31 UTC

NOAA backtracks on warm winter forecast for Europe and Asia as record snow blankets Stockholm, Sweden and -50F below normal temperatures across central Asia.

Japan below normal temperatures and 75% of oceans across the planet are cooling as well.