Earth Changes

Northern Nevada wildfire increases to ten square miles

kolotv.com
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 14:16 UTC

A federal official says more firefighters are being brought in to contain a wildfire that spread across more than 10 square miles of grassy rangeland just hours after a lightning strike in northern Nevada.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Gregory Deimel said Friday there have been no injuries reported among the more than 200 firefighters currently battling the fire 25 miles north of Battle Mountain.

Deimel says the fire started late Thursday and grew to some 6,600 acres by mid-day Friday. It's about 20 percent contained, but has been erratic during changing weather conditions.

Deimel says flames are threatening sage grouse habitat, but the closest ranch is several miles to the northwest.

No evacuations have been ordered.

He says air tankers are helping firefighters on the ground.

Source: AP

Amazing 'firenado' filmed near Cornelius, Oregon

CLS AMG
You Tube
Sat, 13 Aug 2016 14:01 UTC

Firenado

This is a fire tornado -- or "firenado."

It occurred not far from Portland. The footage posted by the Cornelius Fire Department shows the twister spinning up smoke and flames as it moves across a field. Watch -- and it becomes a funnel of flames.

They are also called fire whirls, created when a wildfire or brush fire creates its own wind, which can turn into a spinning vortex of flames.

Crews were able to put out the fire without anyone getting hurt.

Bevy of 5 otters attack boys swimming in Shasta Lake, California

Ryan Sabalow
Centre Daily Times
Thu, 18 Aug 2016 12:22 UTC

Chris Whitney and Jacob Savage were 70 yards from shore on a Sunday morning swim in Shasta Lake when they spotted five lithe, brown shapes swimming toward them.

But this family of North American river otters weren't there to give the boys an escort to shore.

They were furious.

On the other side of the lake with a beer in his hand, Chris' father, Ryan Whitney of Cottonwood, said he heard 14-year-old Jacob scream first. Then 13-year-old Chris.

Ryan Whitney said he could see the animals in the water, but he assumed the boys were merely frightened because the otters had gotten so close. He grew more alarmed as he watched three of the otters chasing the boys as they swam frantically back across a narrow section of the lake's Sacramento River arm.

"The boys finally made it to shore after a minute or two and they came running up the shore still yelling," Ryan Whitney said Thursday. "And I noticed blood all over their legs and their feet. They sat down and they were crying in pain."

Jacob had scratches on his neck, a bite on his thigh and some minor bites and scratches on his legs, Ryan Whitney said. Chris got the worst of it.

Japan hit by shallow 6.0 magnitude earthquake, no tsunami warning

The Indian Express
Sat, 20 Aug 2016 09:53 UTC

There was no threat of a tsunami following quake which had a depth of 10 kilometres, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Japan was hit by a strong earthquake for the second straight day on Saturday, though there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, officials said.

A shallow magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck off the coast of northern Japan on Friday, 167 kilometres from Miyako city, the US Geological Survey said.

There was no threat of a tsunami following quake which had a depth of 10 kilometres, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Comment: Also within the last couple of days:

Hundreds of sea urchins washed up on UK beach

The Telegraph, UK
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 23:56 UTC

At first they looked like baseballs or perhaps esoteric vegetables. Finally the hundreds of odd orbs washed up on beaches and have been identified as a species of urchin known as a sea potato.

The sight of hundreds of the objects alarmed holidaymakers in Devon and Cornwall who steered well clear, fearing they could be poisonous. A dog walker, however, was brave enough to take one home as a memento, the Sun reported, before throwing it into the bin as a precaution.

Scientists have identified the objects as sea potatoes, a sea urchin which can grow up to three inches in diameter and able to survive in waters up to 650 feet deep. They have been dubbed sea potatoes because of their dried brownish yellow shells.

Hundreds of the urchins were washed up on the beach between Penzance and Marion on Wednesday night. The last time as many appeared on land was in May 1995. The sea potatoes or Echinocardium cordatum, to give the urchin its scientific name, lives in sand burrows and are commonplace on some sandy beaches.

"You get lots of them on Torbay main beach, for example," told the Guardian. "They are related to starfish and usually covered with little spines."

Mass strandings were not particularly rare, he added.

"I think such things happen from time to time and are entirely natural - bit like bushfires."

Photo captures waterspout at Donner Lake, California

kcra.com
Thu, 18 Aug 2016 19:06 UTC

A water spout was spotted on Donner Lake on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016

A water spout was spotted at Donner Lake Thursday as thunderstorms moved through the Sierra.

Jeremy Jensen posted a photo of the water spout on his Facebook page. He said the spout picked up a paddle boat and knocked two children into the water. The children were okay, he said.

The spout formed around 4:30 p.m. near Chine Cove at the lake, Jensen said.

KCRA's Mark Finan reported Doppler looked quiet at the time, but there were thunderstorms over the area earlier.

"Nature is wild, I've never seen something like this in Truckee," Jensen said on Facebook.

Record year for cetacean strandings in Ireland as fin whale washes up on Dublin beach

Barry Arnold
Dublin Live
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 17:55 UTC

A whale has washed up at Shankill Beach amid windy conditions in south Dublin.

In this video, the whale, roughly 25 feet long, appears to be dead as it sits in shallow water after being pushed inland in the bad weather and rough sea conditions.

The mammal, believed to be a milky white whale, was first spotted off the coast of Wicklow on Thursday evening.

A video of the floating body has been posted online via Twitter.

@BrayPeople whale washed up on Shankill beach, huge, sad pic.twitter.com/dYooL6z6UZ

— barbeldearbra (@barbeldearbra) 19 August 2016

Comment: According to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group,

Together with four other strandings received in the last couple of days, this brings the total of strandings received by IWDG so far in 2016 to 152, the highest on record for any year to this date.

Large waterspout filmed off coast of Outer Banks, North Carolina

Emily Satchell
WAVY
Thu, 18 Aug 2016 23:45 UTC

Several WAVY News viewers sent in photos and video of what appears to be a waterspout seen off the coast of the Outer Banks Thursday. People reported seeing the waterspout in the Nags Head, Wanchese and Oregon Inlet areas.

There weren't any thunderstorm warnings or tornado warnings issued for the area Thursday. Chief Meteorologist Don Slater said the waterspout was likely nothing to worry about. Waterspouts can have strong winds, though, and are capable of throwing lightweight outdoor objects around, like umbrellas or lawn furniture. However, waterspouts often fall apart when they make landfall.

Storms did move through the Outer Banks Thursday evening, but were mostly contained to the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge area.

'Upside-down rainbow' (circumzenithal arc) spotted above Salford, UK

Tom Rodgers
Salford Online
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 11:10 UTC

Settled skies and warm weather combined this week to produce a minor meteorological phenomenom: the 'upside-down rainbow'.

Adam Davies captured this image of the inverted coloured curve while sitting out in his garden in Sportside Avenue, Walkden. Known as a 'Bravias arc', it's not technically a rainbow as it's produced when light from the sun is refracted through ice crystals, rather than raindrops.

High up among the cirrus clouds, water droplets turn to ice. It's here where light refracts through tiny hexagonal ice crystals, which bends the wavelength of the light and makes it appear inverted to the human eye.

The spectrum of colours is only produced under special atmospheric conditions: when the air high up above us is relatively still, and when the sun is shining down at an angle less than 32 degrees from the horizon.

Comment: And it appears to be happening more often because part of the 'special atmospheric conditions' include increased particulates in the atmosphere, i.e. increased volcanic ash/dust and 'meteor smoke' debris left by meteor fireballs exploding in the atmosphere.

Adam used his HTC One M9 smartphone to capture the image. "You could also see a kind of halo ring effect around the sun - I've never seen it shining that bright before," he said.

Portugal's August wildfires make up half of EU's 2016 total

Fox News
Wed, 17 Aug 2016 15:11 UTC

Authorities say a series of wildfires this month in Portugal has burned more than half of the land lost to blazes in the entire 28-nation European Union so far this year.

The EU's Forest Fire Information System, which collates wildfire data, says wildfires have charred more than 217,000 hectares (536,200 acres) in the bloc in 2016.

Almost 116,000 hectares (286,600 acres) of the charred forest land is in Portugal, the agency told The Associated Press.

Four people have died in the country's worst wildfires in recent memory.

However, Portuguese emergency services reported Wednesday that cooler temperatures and a drop in wind strength gave fire crews some respite after two weeks of battling intense flames.