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Dramatic Lightning Storm Over Toronto

Alex Ward
Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:08 UTC
They say lightning never strikes twice but the CN Tower was not so lucky as it was struck repeatedly during a ferocious storm in Canada.

As the lightning lit up the stormy night sky, photographer Richard Gottardo captured the natural phenomenon as more than 25,000 strikes were detected in the storm.

Toronoto's landmark building is the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere and is struck by lightning an average of 75 times a year.
Lightning Storm_1
© Caters News Agency
Landmark alight: Toronot's CN Tower was struck by lightning repeatedly during a ferocious thunderstorm.
Mr Gottardo from Toronto, Canada said: 'This was from a severe storm system in southern Ontario where rain, hail and over 25,000 lightning strikes were detected.

'The CN Tower was battered by six lighting strikes over a half hour period.

'I was in awe of the power of the storm, the thunderclaps were so loud and the lightning pierced the sky. You can see for miles in the CN Tower photos as though it was daylight.'

Mr Gottardo set up a remote camera to take the shots of the tower and went out storm chasing for the rest.
      Read More...
Arrow Down

"The ground just opened up on us": Two North Carolina men pulled out of ground unconscious after their car is swallowed by sudden sinkhole

Elise Esasky
News 14 Carolina
Sun, 29 Jul 2012 15:58 UTC

Image
© ansonrecord.com
The planet is literally opening up...
Wadesboro, North Carolina - A scary ordeal in Wadesboro occurred early Sunday morning.

Officials said flooding caused extensive damage throughout the area, including a large sinkhole that two men driving out of a Mcdonald's parking lot fell in to.

Jeffrey Miles said he never saw it coming, an early morning coffee run suddenly turned in to a trip to the hospital.

"We were driving up to the light and the ground just opened up on us. We fell in the sinkhole," said Miles.

Officials said a gorge behind Highway 74 near the Mcdonalds, gave way during a heavy rain storm around 2:00 am Sunday, causing the sinkhole.

Miles and his friend both said they feel lucky to be alive.

"All of the sudden we just heard this loud noise behind us and after that we just blanked out. I don't know for how long but when we woke up the Mcdonalds workers were pulling us out of the car," said Jamar Richardson.

Richardson and Miles were taken to the hospital, but quickly released.

The Wadesboro Police Chief said the damage doesn't stop there. A brick wall in front of Smith's Funeral Home came tumbling down as well. Chief Janie Schutz said she even has a mess of her own to worry about.
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Arrow Down

Sinkhole swallows road, threatens canal in Albion, New York

Tom Rivers
The Daily News, Orleans County
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:51 UTC
Image
© Tom Rivers/Daily News
Construction crews work to fill in a 30-foot-wide sinkhole on Albion Eagle Harbor Road and a path along the Erie Canal. Crews worked late Monday night to fill the hole and stabilize the site so the canal wouldn't flood two neighboring state prisons.
A massive sinkhole swept away a 30-foot-wide chunk of an Albion road and a path along the Erie Canal on Monday night, forcing crews to work late into the night to fill the opening.

The sinkhole nearly collapsed the embankment that held back the Erie Canal. Had the wall been washed out, officials feared the two state prisons next to the road would have been flooded.

The Canal Corporation activated the lock system, bringing down gates in Albion near Gaines Basin Road and in Holley, a 10-mile section. That is still a lot of water that may need to be drained to determine what caused the sinkhole, which was reported at about 9:30 p.m. Monday.
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Arrow Down

Sinkhole in downtown Baltimore widens, repairs still pending


abc2news.com
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:47 UTC
Image
© WMAR
Public Works officials are still working to fix the sinkhole on Monument Street that widened over the weekend.

As a result of the expansion, sanitation collection lines servicing units between 2326 and 2336 Monument Street, even side only, may have bee compromised. As a precaution, water has been shut off to those units.

The Department of Public Works is considering permitting foot traffic on the sidewalk, and business operation between Patterson Park Avenue and Bradford Avenue.

Before repairs to the sinkhole can occur, it first must be stabilized.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Alpine faults show new evidence for regular magnitude 8 earthquakes


Terra Daily / SPX
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:46 UTC
Image
© University of Nevada, Reno
University of Nevada - Reno seismologist Glenn Biasi spent eight days in the dense forests on the western side of the Southern Alps on the South Island of New Zealand to study the Alpine Fault, among the world's longest, straightest and fastest moving plate boundary faults.
A new study published in the prestigious journal Science, co-authored by University of Nevada, Reno's Glenn Biasi and colleagues at GNS Science in New Zealand, finds that very large earthquakes have been occurring relatively regularly on the Alpine Fault along the southwest coastline of New Zealand for at least 8,000 years.

The Alpine Fault is the most hazardous fault on the South Island of New Zealand, and about 80 miles northwest of the South Island's main city of Christchurch.

The team developed evidence for 22 earthquakes at the Hokuri Creek site, which, with two additional from nearby, led to the longest continuous earthquake record in the world for a major plate boundary fault.

The team established that the Alpine Fault causes, on average, earthquakes of around a magnitude 8 every 330 years. Previous data put the intervals at about 485 years.

Relative motion of Australian and Pacific plates across the Alpine Fault averages almost an inch per year. This motion builds up, and then is released suddenly in large earthquakes.
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Cow Skull

Study says western North America faces 21st Century 'Mega-drought'


Environment News Service
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:26 UTC
Oregon - The climate's "new normal" for most of the coming century will parallel the long-term drought that hit western North America from 2000 to 2004 - the most severe drought in 800 years - scientists report in a study published Sunday.

"The severity and incidence of climatic extremes, including drought, have increased as a result of climate warming," the researchers said, adding that these long-term trends are consistent with a 21st century "megadrought."

Crops and forests died and river basins dried, but as bad as conditions were during the 2000-04 drought, in the future they may be seen as the good old days, a group of 10 researchers warned Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Image
© Craig Allen, U.S. Geological Survey
Pinyon pine forests near Los Alamos, New Mexico, had begun to turn brown from drought stress in 2002, left. Another photo taken in 2004 from the same vantage point, right, show them grey and dead.
      Read More...
Arrow Up

Little Rock, Arkansas hits third highest temperature ever recorded: 111 F (44 C)


The Republic
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:35 UTC
Triple-digit heat intensified across Arkansas on Monday, setting records in at least two cities and increasing the danger for wildfires. Temperatures exceeded 100 in some areas, and are expected to stick around for much of the week. Low humidity also is settling in, increasing the threat for wildfires.

The daytime high reached 111 degrees in Little Rock, which not only broke the date's record but marked the third-highest temperature ever recorded in the state's capital city. The previous record for July 30 was 108 degrees in 1986.

Little Rock reached 114 degrees last year on Aug. 3, the city's hottest day in 132 years of records. The city's second-highest temperature on record occurred July 31, 1986, when it hit 112 degrees.

Also Monday, a record was set in Jonesboro, where the mercury peaked at 104, a degree higher than the record set in 1986.
      Read More...
Attention

Storms cause widespread power failure across Pakistan: protests against outages turn violent


Press TV
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:30 UTC
Image
© File photo
Activists of Pakistan Muslim League (N) demonstrate during a rally in Rawalpindi
Prolonged and widespread power outage in most of Pakistan's cities during scorching summer heat has triggered violent protests in most areas of the country. Coupled with hot and humid summer weather, the prolonged blackout has forced outraged citizens to take to the streets to protest the tough living conditions. The protests turned violent as some of the angry protesters reportedly attacked offices of the power supply department in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, damaging official and private properties.

Offices of Pepco, the Pakistan Electric Power Company, were also attacked in Islamabad, Abbottabad, Charsadda, Okara, Multan, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot, and Sheikhupura and many of them were reportedly set ablaze. No loss of life was reported, but the roads were blocked till late night. Reports indicate that in some areas people face 12 to 14 hours of rolling blackouts, while the rural residents suffer up to 18 hours of power outage.
      Read More...
Arrow Up

Europe wrestles with searing high temperatures


The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:23 UTC
Finland - The mercury rose to over 30 degrees Celsius for the first time this summer in eastern Finland as meteorologists warned of severe thunderstorms later in the day. The temperature exceeded the 30-degree mark in Tohmajärvi, Lieksa and Juuka in North Karelia, close to the Russian border. But the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) says that a cooler weather front has already arrived in western Finland and will start moving eastwards soon, making the current heatwave quite short-lived.

Severe thunderstorms are expected to whip up very strong wind gusts on Monday, warns the FMI. Winds may reach speeds of 25 meters per second in North Ostrobothnia and western Finland, and elsewhere in the country gusts of some 15 m/s are expected. Additionally, heavy rainfall is forecast for various parts of Finland on Monday. Thunderstorms left thousands without electricity in different parts of Finland on Sunday. Most of them had been fixed by Monday afternoon. At 1pm, some 200 Fortum customers were still without power. Elenia (formerly known as Vattenfall) had about 1,200 customers without service at that time. -YLE
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Severe heatwave: drought and wildfires destroy Russian harvest


The Voice of Russia
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:18 UTC
Image
© Eugene Nikitenko / RIA Novosti
Russia is currently in the grips of an extremely strong heat wave. City and town residents are suffocating from the sweltering heat. For example, it is about 30 degrees in Moscow with prospects of the thermometer going up in the next few days. The heat wave situation is aggravated by wild fires producing clods of poisonous smoke. The wood rich Siberian taiga near Krasnoyarsk is fighting 83 fires on the territory of 12.130 hectares. As for rural Russia, that only last year was the world's third-biggest grain producer, it suffers colossal damages. It threats to destroy a significant part of the crops. If last year's harvest amounted to 94 million tons, this year it is a predicted at 80 to 85 million. Given the situation, earlier in July the Agriculture Ministry had to revise its harvest predictions.
      Read More...
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