Earth ChangesS


Bizarro Earth

Earthquake Magnitude 5.4 - Eastern Kazakhstan

Image
© US Geological Survey
Date-Time:
Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 17:17:40 UTC
Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 11:17:40 PM at epicenter

Location:
44.708°N, 78.864°E

Depth:
26.4 km (16.4 miles)

Distances:
50 km (35 miles) SE of Taldyqorghan, Kazakhstan

210 km (130 miles) WNW of Yining, Xinjiang, China

225 km (140 miles) NE of Almaty, Kazakhstan

900 km (560 miles) SE of ASTANA (Tselinograd), Kazakhstan

Bizarro Earth

Earthquake Magnitude 5.0 - Coquimbo, Chile

Image
© US Geological Survey
Date-Time:
Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 21:22:08 UTC
Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 05:22:08 PM at epicenter

Location:
30.649°S, 71.526°W

Depth:
35.4 km (22.0 miles)

Distances:
80 km (50 miles) SSW of Coquimbo, Chile

115 km (70 miles) NNW of Illapel, Chile

240 km (150 miles) SSW of Vallenar, Chile

320 km (200 miles) NNW of SANTIAGO, Chile

Bizarro Earth

Moderate earthquake shakes city in southern Peru

Image
© US Geological Survey
Arequip - A moderate earthquake rattled Peru's second-largest city of Arequipa on Saturday and sent residents rushing out of their homes, but there were no immediate reports of damage, witnesses said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the 5.4- magnitude quake was 17 miles (28 km) from Moquegua, a copper-rich province near Arequipa, at a depth of 34 miles (54 km).

Evil Rays

India: Ivory smuggle: five arrested

Thiruvananthapuram - The Forest Department on Friday arrested five persons in connection with the poaching of a wild elephant for its tusks in Shangili forest in Kollam district in May this year.

Forest Range Officer, Kulathupuzha, S.A. Jaleel, said the tusks weighing 15 kg were confiscated from the warehouse of an artefact dealer, William Siliva, at Muttathara in the city. William has been arrested. Jaleel said artisans working for William had converted one of the tusks into a Krishna idol and the other into a Krishna Leela carving.

Igloo

Australia: Cold weather smashes records

A bumper start to the ski season, Canberra frozen, snow over the Melbourne hills, widespread severe frost and records are falling.

The cold snap is abating slowly, but not before a final icy sting that has seen records fall across the southeast in the last 24 hours. Frost under clear skies last night was severe in much of the inland, notably Canberra's -5.8 degrees this morning, their coldest for June in nine years.

Yesterday, Thredbo reached a high of -6.4 degrees, the coldest maximum recorded in New South Wales for 31 years. Last night, Cabramurra's minimum fell to a 12 year low of -6.8 degrees. Coastal locations also felt the cold with Montague Island's mercury levelling out at three degrees last night, their coldest June night in 37 years.

Target

Chicago: Cool, soggy June is dampening spirits

A sea of black metal chairs, stacked to the sky outside a popular outdoor dining spot, told the story better than any meteorologist. The weather has been awful as of late.

As of Thursday, precipitation had marred 8 of the last 11 days, the National Weather Service says. For May, the skies opened up on 14 days; in April, it rained 18 days.

No, it's not always like this. In place of picnics, bike rides and long lunch hours under sunny skies, outdoor waiters are missing out on tips, Little Leaguers are losing practice time and school-age kids are trapped inside on their first precious days of summer break.

Chicago's official rainfall is 5.36 inches above normal year-to-date, said Andy Boxell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, and the rainy days continue a pattern that began last year.

Hourglass

Climate Rorshach Test as News

Apparently an AP news article out today on how we don't know if global warming is making the winds blow with less gusto is not a parody, despite all indications to the contrary. For benefit of readers I have condensed it as below:
Not so windy: Research suggests winds dying down

By SETH BORENSTEIN - 6 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) - The wind, a favorite power source of the green energy movement, seems to be dying down across the United States. And the cause, ironically, may be global warming - the very problem wind power seeks to address.

The idea that winds may be slowing is still a speculative one, and scientists disagree whether that is happening. . .

Still, the study, which will be published in August in the peer-reviewed Journal of Geophysical Research, is preliminary. There are enough questions that even the authors say it's too early to know if this is a real trend or not. But it raises a new side effect of global warming that hasn't been looked into before. . .

Attention

AGW Propaganda: Research suggests winds dying down

Washington - The wind, a favorite power source of the green energy movement, seems to be dying down across the United States. And the cause, ironically, may be global warming - the very problem wind power seeks to address.

The idea that winds may be slowing is still a speculative one, and scientists disagree whether that is happening. But a first-of-its-kind study suggests that average and peak wind speeds have been noticeably slowing since 1973, especially in the Midwest and the East.

"It's a very large effect," said study co-author Eugene Takle, a professor of atmospheric science at Iowa State University. In some places in the Midwest, the trend shows a 10 percent drop or more over a decade. That adds up when the average wind speed in the region is about 10 to 12 miles per hour.

There's been a jump in the number of low or no wind days in the Midwest, said the study's lead author, Sara Pryor, an atmospheric scientist at Indiana University.

Cloud Lightning

Wales: Freak storm brings Newtown to a standstill

A freak storm has brought a Welsh town to a standstill this afternoon, with four-feet of water leaving homes and businesses flooded and hundreds of staff "marooned" in their offices.

Firefighters from four fire tenders are currently pumping out flood water from a cloudburst which blocked culverts and flooded the centre of Newtown in Powys.

Main roads in the town centre near the traffic lights are currently blocked, leading to long tailbacks either side of the town, in the direction of Welshpool and Aberystyth.

Owain Betts, marketing communications manager at Finance Wales plc, one of the businesses affected in St David's House, Newtown, said: "A thunderstorm passed directly over the town at about 2pm along with heavy rain and a freak hailstorm.

Binoculars

US: Twin Cities goes through historic cool snap

St. Paul, Minn. (AP) - The Twin Cities are wrapping up an early summer cold snap that hasn't been matched since 1951.

The State Climatology Office says the temperatures in St. Paul and Minneapolis stayed below for 60 for three straight days. That hasn't happened in June since June 1-3, 1951.

The office says the only other years with three days in a row of high temperatures below 60 in June are 1917, 1935, and 1937. There are no such four-day cold snaps on record.