© emsc.eu
The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) has put the strength of the tremor at 5.1 magnitude. The epicenter of the earthquake was located some 36 km east of Tokyo.
Earth Changes
The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) has put the strength of the tremor at 5.1 magnitude. The epicenter of the earthquake was located some 36 km east of Tokyo.
© AP / Michael Dwyer
More cancellations are expected Friday as the storm lingers in New England.
© Benjamin Kanter / Mayoral Photography Office
Thousands of New Yorkers were left in the cold as parts of the city were blanketed under more than a foot of snow. All inbound and outbound flights at JFK and LaGuardia airports were temporarily suspended.
Winter Storm Grayson hit New York City hard Thursday, causing more than 6,500 New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) apartments to lose power. Six NYCHA developments, which house more than 15,000 people, all lost heat, hot water, or both at some point, according to New York City Patch.
© Getty images
California braced for the big one as series of earthquakes hit San Andreas fault
California braced for the big one as series of earthquakes hit San Andreas fault
In the last 48 hours, the southwestern State in the US has been rocked by eight tremors, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
All but three of the tremors have come along the San Andreas fault - a deadly line which runs through California and is one of the most seismically active regions in the world.
The strongest of the quakes came in Berkeley, near the east coast of California, which measured 4.4 on the Richter scale.
Californian residents took to social media to share their experiences of the earthquakes, with many fearing that the worst is yet to come.
Comment: Nobody knows when the dreaded 'big one' will come - yet it will come.
- The San Andreas' sister faults are active in Northern California
- Enormous earthquakes occur on both sides of the Pacific: Experts warn that San Andreas could "unzip all at once"
- Signs of past mega-quakes show wide-ranging implications of major rupture on California's San Andreas fault
© Igor Buymistrov/TASS
Klyuchevskoy Volcano
Klyuchevskoy Volcano
"The volcano emitted ash as high as 5.5 km [above sea level.] The volcano itself is 4.75 km high," the response team specified. The ash spread 92 km in a north-western direction from the volcano.
This is the third time Klyuchevskoy erupted ash in 2018. On January 3, it spewed up ash as high as 6 km, and on January 4 an orange hazard code was declared for aircraft after the second eruption at the same height.
Locations from the British Isles into France, Netherlands and Germany all endured powerful winds, rain and coastal flooding.
Olhão harbour master, Nunes Ferreira, said the sperm whale was towed to port at high tide by a life boat.
He said the whale, which measured 8.5 metres could be the same one that was beached on Monte Gordo beach on Sunday.
A sperm whale was beached on Sunday in Monte Gordo, but locals and the maritime police managed to get it back out to sea.
© GETTY
US snow: Winter Storm Grayson hits the US East Coast with heavy snow
US snow: Winter Storm Grayson hits the US East Coast with heavy snow
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said flooding from the "historic high tide" prompted the deployment of National Guard high-water rescue vehicles to aid residents and stranded vehicles, the Associated Press reports.
Philadelphia authorities announced a death Thursday as the storm made its sheer power felt by millions.
Local police told AP that a passenger was killed after a vehicle was unable to stop at the bottom of an icy, steep hill and crashed into a commuter train. The driver managed to escape, but the passenger remained inside as the car went through a gate at the railroad crossing. Police later discovered the body along the tracks.
As tides rose in the afternoon hours, coastal areas saw flooding in addition to the wintry precipitation from the storm.
Storm surge poured into the streets in towns like Scituate, Massachusetts, flooding the roads with partially frozen salt water. In the town of Rockport, The Weather Channel storm tracker Jim Cantore watched as water levels rose quickly Thursday afternoon and threatened to wash away several parked cars that were left behind.
Comment: According to the Weather Channel, Winter Storm Grayson has undergone what meteorologists call bombogenesis, defined by a rapid drop in atmospheric pressure of 24 millibars or more in a period of 24 hours.
In over four decades-worth of data compiled by Dr. Andrea Lopez Lang from SUNY-Albany and David Roth from NOAA's Weather Prediction Center, this bombogenesis rate of 59 millibars in 24 hours through 10 a.m. EST Thursday was a record magnitude for this part of the western Atlantic Ocean, dating to 1976.
According to NOAA's ensemble tracks forecast, Grayson's central pressure will drop further today. For comparison, past Northeast storms such as Nemo (February 2013), Juno (January 2015) and Stella (March 2017) had minimum central pressures in the 970s millibars.
See also: North America enters a freeze so deep even the penguins are panicking
© Sueann Musick
A large number of birds were seen lying on the ground dead in Lyons Brook Tuesday
A large number of birds were seen lying on the ground dead in Lyons Brook Tuesday
Motorists driving through the village Tuesday would have noticed at least 20 or more starlings scattered over the road near the turnoff to Hardwood Hill.
Shavonne Meyer, a biologist with the Department of Natural Resources, said Wednesday that based on photos and observations by DNR technicians, it is most likely the birds died after striking a vehicle.
She said a transportation truck drove through the area at 8 a.m. Tuesday and the road was clear, but when the driver returned a short time later, the birds were on the ground. This allowed DNR to pinpoint a time when the strike took place.
Comment: Looking at the image above of the snowy road conditions, it seems unlikely that any vehicle was traveling at any great velocity on the day of the incident. Starlings, well-known for their speed and aerial maneuverability would (one can reasonably argue) normally easily avoid any collision as suggested in this report ( even if the vehicles were moving at normal speed) unless their ability to fly was impaired or were disoriented by some unknown environmental factor.
There have been a sizeable number of similar mysterious incidents in recent years, here's just a small sample of such reports:- Dozens of blood-soaked starlings found scattered along road in Bad Wildungen, Germany
Starlings fall to the ground along motorway near Vienna, Austria
Dozens of dead and dying starlings found on road in Wichita, Kansas
Flock of dead starlings falls out of sky in Bolton, England after 'loud bang' heard overhead
Double deja vu on December 31st? Up to 300 starlings litter roadway and fields in Seymour, Tennessee
Scientists baffled by over 100 dead starlings in Missouri
Grisly Mystery After Scores of Starlings Fall Out of the Sky and Lie Dying...in a SINGLE Front Garden
© Bristol Herald Courier
Tri-Cities Regional Airport.
Tri-Cities Regional Airport.
It seems that this incident was highly localized, but reading a few comments on Facebook. If this did indeed happen, there's two ways that the weather could have impacted this. One of which is a frost quake. The other possibility is the cold air enhancing the sound.
Frost Quake
Frost quakes, or cryoseisms, are nothing new. In fact, they've been observed/studied since the 1800s. In 2014, there were many reports of these loud booms.
Comment: Also See: