A two-headed Holstein calf was born live last week at Byland Animal Hospital in Loudonville.
Veterinarian Dr. Jeff Byers delivered the calf from Idylwild Farm by Cesarean section. However, the calf only survived for 20 minutes before it died on Friday.
"I'm surprised, I'd never seen that before," said Paul Weber, owner of Idylwild Farm of Loudonville. "I was surprised it lived."
Though Byers was not certain of the cause of the two-headed birth, the condition of polycephaly — being born with more than one head — can be caused by an incomplete separation of a single embryo or an incomplete fusion of two embryos.
Earth Changes
© NOAA
Weather Prediction Center: "Highs 20-35 degrees below normal"
Weather Prediction Center: "Highs 20-35 degrees below normal"
The culprit: a massive area of high pressure from the Arctic Circle will descend across Canada and into the Northeast, collapsing temperatures to life-threatening conditions ahead of Thanksgiving and into Black Friday.
Massive waterspout in Salerno, Italy.
Eyewitnesses said the whirling column of air and water lifted containers in the city's port area. There were no reports of any injuries.
The rare phenomenon was observed at about 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT), officials say.
A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex that occurs over a body of water and quickly dissolves over dry land.
Footage of Tuesday's waterspout has been widely shared on social media, with some users describing the vortex as "incredible".
© Lyudmila Karabanova
The bird got so cold while flying over Kemerovo region it fell down right in front of a car.
The bird got so cold while flying over Kemerovo region it fell down right in front of a car.
Experts believe it took a wring turn after flying from Kazakhstan to the Arabian peninsula, a distance of some 3,400 kilometres.
Instead the young bird got so cold it 'froze in the air' and crash landed on a road in the Novokuznetsky district of Kemerovo, some 1,300 km in the wrong direction.
Locals picked up the forlorn bird and warmed it in the car before giving it a temporary home beside a bathroom radiator.
© YouTube/Adapt 2030 (screen capture)
Comment: For more information check out SOTT's latest monthly summary: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - October 2018: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs
To understand how and why these extreme weather events are occurring read Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection by Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk.
In reality, ALL of these harsh winter conditions have plagued different parts of the country this fall, leaving little to no areas untouched.
Will this be a sign of what's to come this winter or will Mother Nature start to loosen its frosty grip? More on what's happened (keep in mind we had to limit this to just a few main events because the wintry scenes have been endless) and what lies ahead this winter, below.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Snow accumulation between Nov. 2 and 7 has reached 18 cm on the ground in Dulan County, Haixi Mongolian Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, where the height above mean sea level averages 3,180 meters.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the "roof of the world," is an important region to monitor climate changes with the weather and the glaciers as indicators.
© NOAA/National Snow Analyses
Snowfall so far in 2018-2019 cold season as of November 19. 2018
Snowfall so far in 2018-2019 cold season as of November 19. 2018
The eastern Upper Peninsula has the most deviation from normal snowfall amounts. Sault Ste. Marie has already shoveled 26.7 inches of snow. This is 17.7 inches more than normal to this date.
Marquette is on the fast track to 100 inches of snow, with 34 inches of snow already falling in this early part of the cold season. Marquette is 15 inches above snowfall normal today.
Here's a rundown of how much snow has fallen as of November 19, 2018 and the departure from normal.
© DutchNews.nl
Sunset over Amsterdam.
Sunset over Amsterdam.
Meteorologists define autumn as the period between October 1 and November 30. Southern Limburg has been the brightest place this autumn so far, with 465.4 hours up to now, though this is not a local record. Almost all central and western areas have set new records already this autumn, including the central weather station at De Bilt, which clocked up 2000 hours of sunlight for the year to date.
Comment: Interestingly, this past winter saw the darkest months on record for some parts of Europe:
- Winter of Discontent in France: Protests, Endless Dark Skies, And Crazy New Laws
- A dark December: In one month Moscow totals 6 minutes of sunlight while Belgium bears just 10.5 hours
- Study: Cosmic rays trigger climate change on Earth by increasing cloud cover
Snowy owl
The all-white arctic owl only visits Indiana during cyclical "irruptions" occurring every four to five years, but often the year following an invasion, such as occurred last winter, can produce an "echo effect," bringing another smaller invasion of owls southward, the organization says in a news release.
Comment: This standard explanation of cyclical irruptions has broken down for the last 7 winters, when exceptional numbers appeared every year. See the links below covering the time period which amply demonstrate this point. Some other environmental and/or climate factors seem to be involved.
Snowy owl numbers fluctuate year to year based on their primary prey — lemmings, giant mouse-like rodents — whose population also oscillates based on food supplies and weather conditions in the arctic. When populations spike, the owls respond with higher than normal breeding, with some nests containing ten or more eggs. The subsequent invasions later that fall result in not so much a food scarcity, but because of the abundance of food earlier that summer. Young owls tend to leave the arctic each winter, resulting in the larger-than-normal invasions.
Comment: A sample of the many reports for the last 7 seasons:
Winter 2017-18: Highest number of snowy owls ever recorded of 139 in 2017-18 winter across Indiana
Record number of 280 snowy owls counted in Wisconsin this winter
Winter 2016-17: At least 65 Snowy owls invade Bruce County, Ontario
Winter 2015-16: 30 Arctic Snowy owls arrive in Wisconsin; earliest date ever reported and record numbers
Winter 2014-15: An above average winter for sightings of snowy owls in Northeast America
Snowy owl sightings on the rise across the upper US
Winter 2013-14: Huge Snowy Owl invasion becomes official in Canada and U.S.
Winter 2012-13: Mysterious snowy-owl migration one of biggest on record
Winter 2011-12: US: Snowy owls soar south from Arctic in rare mass migration
Comment: See also these similar reports since 2011: Lost flamingo that was heading for Saudi Arabia turns up in Siberia instead
Flamingos migrating to Caspian Sea in mortal danger - lost in Siberia
Four lost flamingos fly north for the winter and turn up in Siberia
Flamingos Drop From Siberian Sky: Locals Mystified