Earth Changes
The SCWXA Special Weather Statement (viewed here) went into effect this morning at 7:45 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. The statement outlines a concern for strong winds and possibly a storm system combined in a rare flow into Southern California.
TWS Senior Meteorologist Kevin Martin calls the event a once in a decade event and is watching it closely. "The storm system is going to come in from the north, through the interior of the country," said Martin. "This means that it will generate cold air with it across the Great Basin and shove that southward in the form of Santa Ana Winds. Furthermore, this storm system will bring moisture into it from the Pacific so we are looking at a rare combo of Santa Ana Winds and Thunderstorms across the Southland."

Heavy rain causes a traffic hazzard for drivers along 12th Avenue in Vancouver.
The Canadian Avalanche Centre issued extreme avalanche warnings for several places including The Kootaney Boundary, Whistler Backcountry and the South Coast Inland. Parks Canada has issued a statement cautioning people to stay away from back country slopes. Skiers and snow boarders are urged to stick to designated trails.
The main cause of the turbulence across the province is a very strong Pacific system wrapped across the North-central coast of B..C combined with an intense warm front that is spreading copious moisture across the province, said Environment Canada meteorologist Greg Pearce.
The full brunt of this weather system is being felt by the Central Coast and North Vancouver where wind speeds are expected to reach speeds of up to 110 kilometres per hour.
Gusting winds, hitting as high as 130 km/h in some areas, are wreaking havoc in southern Alberta Sunday.
Gale-force winds, which hit 68 km/h in Calgary at 3 p.m. according to Environment Canada, have triggered the city's Municipal Emergency Plan.
Winds in the city reached up to 91 km/h earlier in the afternoon.
Officials have shut down the downtown core to traffic and pedestrians and have suspended LRT services in that area.
Sgt. Kevin Cain of the Calgary police said windows at TD Square downtown have been blown out, roofing material and debris is flying off downtown buildings and a roof was ripped off at a home in the 100 block of Slopes Grove S.W.
The U.S. Geological Survey says a 3.2 magnitude quake struck just before 6 a.m. Sunday about 27 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. The Logan County Sheriff's Office says no damage was reported
On Saturday, a 2.4 magnitude tremor was recorded at about 7 a.m. about 50 miles northeast of Oklahoma City near Sparks.
Sunday's earthquake is the sixth in the area since Thursday, when a 3.7 magnitude quake was recorded near Prague. Three more were recorded Friday.
A 5.6 magnitude quake, the strongest ever recorded in Oklahoma, shook the state Nov. 5. That quake damaged dozens of homes, buckled a highway and caused other damage.
Geologists say earthquakes with magnitudes of 2.5 to 3.0 are generally the smallest felt by humans.

The sun shines low in the sky just after midnight over a frozen coastline near the Norwegian Arctic town of Longyearbyen in this April 26, 2007 file photo.
The study, which gives the most detailed picture ever of the northern oceans over the previous millennium-and-a-half, also concludes the current decline has already lasted longer than any previous one in that period.
"When we look at our reconstruction, we can see that the decline that has occurred in the last 50 years or so seems to be unprecedented for the last 1,450 years," Christian Zdanowicz of the Geological Survey of Canada said Wednesday.
"It's difficult not to come up with the conclusion that greenhouse gases must have something to do with this," added Mr. Zdanowicz, one of the co-authors of the report in Nature.

Katie McFarland, an FGCU marine biology graduate student, prepares a dead mullet for testing.
Katie McFarland, an FGCU graduate student, first saw large numbers of dead mullet floating in the bay and washed up along the shoreline Friday.
Saturday morning, McFarland took another trip onto the bay to take water samples and saw hundreds of mullet between FGCU's Vester Field Station and New Pass.
The DMC officials said 17 people have been confirmed dead and 30 fishermen who ventured out to sea are missing.
Another three people are missing in Monaragala and Anuradhapura districts after heavy rains overflowed reservoirs and streams.
The DMC figures as of this morning reported 33,957 people belonging to 8,359 families have been affected due to the adverse weather condition prevailing in the country.
Matara District of Southern coast has sustained the most damage from the gale force winds, the Assistant Director of DMC, Pradeep Kodipilli said.
The brief quakes, which started Thursday and ranged from 1.8 to 4.6 in magnitude, have occurred in the municipality of El Carmen, some 163 km (101 miles) east of the capital of San Salvador, the country's National Territory agency said.
Jorge Melendez, in charge of civil protection, said on Friday that 80 homes were damaged by the tremors, known as an earthquake swarm. A hospital in the area showed cracks on the walls but no structural damage so far, he said.
Army troops were sent in to monitor the damaged areas. While authorities have not ordered evacuations yet, many residents of El Carmen chose to sleep in the open and the army was handing out tents.
El Salvador suffered two powerful earthquakes 10 any ten years ago: one of 7.6 magnitude in January 2001 and another of 6.6 magnitude a month later. The quakes killed more than 1,150 people and left about one million others homeless.
"Radioactive materials (such as cesium) that scattered and fell from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant belong to individual landowners there, not TEPCO," the utility said.
That argument did not sit well with the companies that own and operate the Sunfield Nihonmatsu Golf Club, just 45 kilometers west of the stricken TEPCO plant in Fukushima Prefecture.
The Tokyo District Court also rejected that idea.
But in a ruling described as inconsistent by lawyers, the court essentially freed TEPCO from responsibility for decontamination work, saying the cleanup efforts should be done by the central and local governments.
Groesbeck Mayor Jackie Livingston said the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department told town officials at a City Council meeting late Monday they could run the line through Fort Parker State Park. But she said construction on the line would not begin until the written contract is received, which should take less than a week.
Towns throughout Texas have been struggling with dwindling reservoirs and water resources as a historic drought parches the state.
Livingston said the town of 6,500 people about 100 miles south of Dallas normally draws water from a nearby river. The river, however, has run dry and the town has purchased a four-month supply of water from a rock quarry seven miles away. The pipeline would bring the quarry water to the town's water treatment facility.










