Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

US: Second dead gray whale found in Puget Sound

dead gray whale
© Mark Harrison / The Seattle TimesA research team with the Cascadia Research Collective, conducts a necropsy on a 27-foot long gray whale found Monday.

A second gray whale has been found dead in Puget Sound. KIRO-TV reports the carcass washed up Monday on a beach near Blaine.

A whale expert says it's a little unusual to have two dead gray whales in Puget Sound at the same time.

John Calambokidis of Cascadia Research in Olympia planned to take part in Tuesday's necropsy on the whale that washed ashore Monday near Blaine.

Radar

Two Russian Volcanoes Spew Ash

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© National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationKamchatka volcanoes: A cluster of snow-capped volcanoes stretching across eastern portions of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.
Two of Far East Russia's most active volcanoes threatened aviation and wildlife during eruptions that spewed ash above the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Ash from Shiveluch soared nearly five miles high near some key trans-Pacific aviation routes.

RIA Novosti reports an eruption of Kizimen volcano brought hazardous conditions to areas inhabited by wild animals, including some endangered species.

The news agency said reindeer were leaving their normal habitat because their usual winter food supply of moss was buried beneath a thick crust of ash-covered snow.

Experts from the Krontosky Nature Reserve told reporters that reindeer numbers may be reduced to less than 1,000 as a result of the eruption.

Cloud Lightning

150-mph Jet Stream a Key Factor in Wednesday's Tornado Outbreak

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© National Weather Service Forecast OfficeThis image shows tornado reports from Wednesday's outbreak. There were more than 160 reports of tornadoes, most of which were in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.
A 150-mph jet stream was one of the key players in why Wednesday's historical tornado outbreak in the South was so devastating. The persistent presence of a strong jet stream over the South is the main culprit in why this April has been such a terrible month for tornadoes.

It takes a very particular setup of "ingredients" for a rare event like Wednesday's to happen. What is even more rare is to have setups like this be so repetitious in April, with tornado outbreaks occurring about every few days and yielding nearly 900 reports of tornadoes for this month so far.

"In my 25 years as a meteorologist, this is the worst April I've ever seen," said AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity.

Bizarro Earth

Rare clash of forces creates a wild month of weather

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© Gary Cosby Jr / APA large tornado sweeps through Limestone County, south of Athens, Ala., on Wednesday. Until now, no April on record had surpassed the 267 tornadoes recorded in 1974.
Well before the first tornado touched down, John DeBlock sensed that something horrific was brewing in the steamy Alabama air.

"The air was palpable with the potential," said DeBlock, the warning-coordinator meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Birmingham.

By the time the storms ended early Thursday, the destruction awed even veteran storm observers - 148 reported tornadoes, winds perhaps exceeding 300 mph, and at least 297 deaths from Alabama to Virginia.

Overall, it was a dramatic climax to one of the wildest months in U.S. weather history. The atmosphere has been in a state of riot.

At least 750 tornado sightings have been reported this month, according to the government's Storm Prediction Center. Those figures include some double-counting, and the final total should be around 600. Until now, no April on record had surpassed the 267 tornadoes recorded in 1974.

What's going on?

Radar

US: 4.3 earthquake measured 84 miles southeast of El Paso

A 4.3 earthquake shook part of West Texas and Northern Chihuahua late Wednesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The temblor was centered in the state of Chihuahua about 40 miles south of Fort Hancock, Texas, said Aaron Velasco, a seismologist and chairman of the Geology Department at the University of Texas at El Paso.

UTEP has a seismograph that records seismic activity.

Velasco said the earthquake occurred in an area that includes a valley used for agriculture and some mountains.

The earthquake began just before 11 p.m. on Wednesday and emanated from about 6.2 miles deep in the earth. The region of the epicenter is about 84 miles southeast of El Paso.

Velasco said the shaking took place in a region that does not appear to have a history of significant earthquake activity.

"There was a whole sequence of events," he said. "There was a 4.3 and a 4.1 earthquake and six to seven smaller ones. We're going to study this further."

Cloud Lightning

US: Historic Flooding Unfolding Along Mississippi, Ohio Rivers

Flood waters from the Ohio River
© AP Photo/Darron CummingsFlood waters from the Ohio River crash against a step of a home along the river in Utica, Ind., Monday, April 25, 2011.
As if tornadoes and damaging thunderstorms were not enough, historic flooding is also threatening the Mississippi River, below St. Louis, as well as the lower part of the Ohio River.

The rising waters are expected to top levels set during February 1937. This mark is the middle Mississippi Valley's equivalent to the 1993 event farther north along Old Man River.

Even if rain were to fall at a normal rate for the remainder of the spring, the consequences of what has already happened in the Midwest will affect way of live, property, agriculture and travel/shipping/navigation for weeks in the region.

While the amount of evacuees currently numbers in the hundreds, it could soon number in the tens of thousands as levees are topped or breached and rivers expand their girth into more farming communities, towns and cities.

Cloud Lightning

US: Tornadoes take staggering toll in Alabama and Deep South

A massive thunderstorm front spawned 137 tornadoes, killed at least 180 people, and mangled sections of Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and Huntsville, Ala., on Wednesday. April is now one of the most violent weather months in the region in decades.

A line of violent thunderstorms - the latest in a deadly series - rolled across the Deep South Wednesday, spawning dozens of tornadoes, razing churches and fire stations, trapping people amid debris, and finally leaving at least 180 people dead, mostly from heavily populated parts of Alabama.


Attention

US: Tennessee Valley Shuts All Browns Ferry Nuclear Reactors After Storm

browns ferry nuclear reactor
Tennessee Valley Authority shut all three Browns Ferry reactors in Alabama yesterday after severe storms and tornadoes caused a brief power outage at the plant, Barbara Martocci, a company spokeswoman, said.

The plant, which includes the three reactors, automatically shut at 5:30 p.m. local time after losing the off-site power supply, Martocci, who is based in Knoxville, Tennessee, said today in a telephone interview.

Cloud Lightning

US: A look at the death toll from storm system that spawned tornadoes, decimated South

tuscaloosa tornado
© Don Kausler Jr./Tuscaloosa BureauThe enormous tornado that hit Tuscaloosa Wednesday afternoon.
Here are the most recent death tolls in the states hit hardest by the storm system that spawned dozens of tornadoes across the Southeast, killing at least 280 people:

- Alabama: 194 dead

- Mississippi: 33 dead

- Tennessee: 33 dead

- Georgia: 14 dead

- Virginia: 5 dead

- Kentucky: 1 dead

Cloud Lightning

US: East Tennessee wakes up to massive storm damage

Thursday morning, East Tennesseans along with most of the South are recovering from deadly storms.

In the 10News viewing area Cocke and Greene counties were the hardest hit. Greene County officials are reporting five fatalities. WCYB in the Tr--Cities is reporting that 7 people are dead in Washington County, VA. Bradley County was also hit hard with five confirmed dead in Cleveland.