Earth Changes

3 inches of rain in a few hours in Rivera, Uruguay

Subrayado.com
Mon, 16 Oct 2023 10:16 UTC

The Departmental Emergency Coordination Center (Cecoed) of Rivera had to intervene this Monday due to rains and floods in the city of Rivera.

The Cecoed coordinator, Gustavo Guedes, indicated that they were warned that it was going to rain: from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. there was an orange alert and then it was yellow. A lot of rain fell, 80 millimeters were recorded in a few hours.

Guedes stated that there were no calls to 911 from people affected by the floods, but that the Cecoed crews visited the points that are already known as conflictive in the capital on rainy days.

(Translated by Google)

'It's a wake-up call: US declares 21 endangered species now extinct

Brooke Kato
New York Post
Fri, 20 Oct 2023 18:38 UTC

Nearly two dozen endangered species are now classified as extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the latest conservation "wake-up call."

The agency announced that 21 species will be delisted from the Endangered Species Act due to extinction as of Tuesday but will not go into effect until next month.

"Federal protection came too late to reverse these species' decline, and it's a wake-up call on the importance of conserving imperiled species before it's too late," Service Director Martha Williams said in a statement.

The list of species includes the Little Mariana fruit bat, also known as the Mariana flying fox, which was first classified as endangered in 1984 and last seen in 1968. The bat is the only mammal recently declared extinct on the list, which features 10 birds, two fish and eight mussels.

Large hail hits Colonia Rio Verde, Paraguay

Intelsky
X
Thu, 19 Oct 2023 13:02 UTC

Chaos in Spain as Storm Aline floods metro stations, submerges roads and uproots trees with highest-level warning issued in Madrid

Laurence Dollimore
Olive Press
Thu, 19 Oct 2023 12:51 UTC

STRONG winds and rain have brought chaotic scenes in Spain today as Storm Aline makes its way across the country.

Videos shared from Madrid show the stairs leading down to Metro stations gushing with rainwater, while uprooted trees lay on top of cars.

Many trains on the capital city's underground system have been suspended after tracks and the carriages themselves began filling with water.

Meanwhile, roads across the central region are seen in other clips totally submerged in muddy water.

Storm Babet: second severe flood alert in Scotland after two people die

Severin Carrell
Guardian
Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:58 UTC

The Met Office has issued a second "danger to life" red warning for rain covering the region in eastern Scotland already suffering unprecedented flooding.

The weather agency said the very rare red warning of severe flooding and disruption covered Angus and southern Aberdeenshire and was in place for the whole of Saturday. It came as a second person was confirmed to have been killed after a falling tree hit a van near Forfar on Thursday evening.

More localised than the red warning in force for Friday morning, it centres on the town of Brechin, where hundreds of homes have been inundated by flood water, as well as the coastal town of Montrose.

Rescue services have had to extract residents by boat who had not evacuated after Thursday's order for about 350 homes in the town, after the river reached 4.4 metres and breached the town's flood barriers.

Elderly woman dies after suspected bear attack in Japan

Borneo Bulletin
Thu, 19 Oct 2023 13:09 UTC

An elderly woman died after a suspected bear attack in the city of Toyama in central Japan on the Sea of Japan coast, local media reported yesterday.

Local police found the woman collapsed face down on the premises of a house at around 9.40pm on Tuesday, with cuts on her head and face apparently caused by an animal attack, public broadcaster NHK said.

According to the police, a male resident of the house reported on Tuesday night that his wife had been missing since late in the afternoon, and police officers searched the area.

The police believed the victim was the wife of the resident and were trying to confirm her identity.

4-year-old boy killed in dog attack while playing in his backyard in Detroit

NBC News
Thu, 19 Oct 2023 12:47 UTC

A 4-year-old boy playing in his backyard Wednesday afternoon was fatally mauled by one or two dogs, Detroit police said.

The attack occurred just before 3 p.m. on the city's west side, Cpl. Dan Donakowski said.

"We're not sure if it's one or two dogs, but Animal Control has two dogs in custody," Donakowski said. "It's believed that the dogs belonged to a neighbor behind where the victim lived, but as far as how it happened, we're unsure at this time."

Waterspout touches down in Chaumont Bay, New York

wwnytv.com
Wed, 18 Oct 2023 11:39 UTC

A waterspout was spotted in Chaumont Bay late Wednesday morning.

Multiple viewers shared videos and pictures of it through Send It To 7.

You can see the vortex at the top of the photos. The column is only slightly visible as it stretches down toward the water, but you can see the spray and the spin of it where it meets the lake.

Thank you to the viewers who sent their photos and videos.

Gulf Stream weakening now 99% certain, and the ramifications will be global

Ben Turner
Live Science
Mon, 16 Oct 2023 21:02 UTC

© NOAA/NESDIS
A color-enhanced image of surface water temperatures shows the Gulf Stream crossing the Atlantic Ocean from the Florida Straits.

A new analysis has concluded that the Gulf Stream is definitely slowing, but whether it's due to climate change is hard to tell.

The Gulf Stream is almost certainly weakening, a new study has confirmed.

The flow of warm water through the Florida Straits has slowed by 4% over the past four decades, with grave implications for the world's climate.

The ocean current starts near Florida and threads a belt of warm water along the U.S. East Coast and Canada before crossing the Atlantic to Europe. The heat it transports is essential for maintaining temperate conditions and regulating sea levels.

But this stream is slowing down, researchers wrote in a study published Sept. 25 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

"This is the strongest, most definitive evidence we have of the weakening of this climatically-relevant ocean current," lead-author Christopher Piecuch, a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, said in a statement.

Comment:

Floods claimed three lives and left one missing in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Tebogo Mokwena
MSN
Tue, 17 Oct 2023 13:24 UTC

Three lives were lost following the heavy rains in the Eastern Cape in the OR Tambo District Municipality. A 14-year-old learner died while crossing the Phompo River, and a pregnant woman and her child died after a house fell on her in a village in the Nyandeni Local Municipality. South Africans are furious that rural areas have no infrastructure and blame the deaths on the government.

3 people die, and one goes missing

In a statement sent to Briefly News by OR Tambo District Municipality spokesperson Zimkhitha Macingwane, the municipality confirmed that the 14-year-old sho died drowning while crossing the flooded river in Maqwbevu Village on 17 October. A pregnant woman who lived in Rainy Village outside Libode also died after the house she lived in fell on her, sustaining heavy injuries from which she did not survive.