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Fri, 05 Nov 2021
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Snowflake

Snow covers the Middle East

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Palestinian children play in the snow in the village of Tuqu' near the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday.
A rare cold front swept through the middle east on Thursday and Friday, blanketing parts of Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon with snow.

Roads in and out of Jerusalem were closed and streets deserted in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

The snow covered large swathes of desert, and Jerusalem's famous western wall and Bethlehem's nativity church were sprinkled with white.

The Syrian capital Damascus and surrounding mountains also got snow, while a snowstorm in neighbouring Lebanon closed most mountain roads, isolating villages.

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A Syrian refugee child clears snow in Istanbul, Turkey.

Wolf

Couple attacked by their pit bull in Costa Mesa, California

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© Southern Coubyies News Service
A couple's dog was taken by Costa Mesa animal control officers after severely biting both of them Friday evening in Costa Mesa.
A Costa Mesa couple was attacked by their own pit bull Friday evening, authorities said.

The couple was driving their pit bull through a shopping center in Costa Mesa on their way to Huntington Beach when the dog turned on them.

Authorities said the couple both sustained serious injuries. Witnesses said both were bitten repeatedly in the arms.

The attack occurred just before 7 p.m. in the 1100 block of Victoria Street.

The husband was driving, his wife was a passenger. They said the dog attacked inexplicably.

Snowflake

Niagara Falls is now a frozen icescape

climber niagara falls
© Daily News
Will Gadd ice climbs the first ascent of Niagara Falls earlier this week.
It may have felt too cold on Friday in much of the East to even think of walking outside. But since drones don't feel cold, why not fly one over a mostly frozen Niagara Falls? That's exactly what Canadian videographer Brent Foster did on Friday.

The results were spectacular. Raise your cup of hot chocolate (or iced tea, if you're out West) to Foster, who told Slate's Eric Holthaus about stepping into the frozen icescape to guide his drone and film the video.

Ice Cube

Hudson River freezes over in New York

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© Reuters
Ice floes on the Hudson River
These incredible pictures show New York's iconic Hudson river frozen over as a cold snap continues to grip the U.S. east coast.

In some places the 120-mile long river is coated in ice 1.5ft thick, forcing the authorities to deploy icebreakers.

But while these pictures may be beautiful, behind these images is a stark reality.

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© Slash News
Hudson river frozen over
The Hudson transports 70 per cent of the home heating oil in the north-east of the country - a concern when large swathes of that area are dealing with sub zero temperatures.

In New York City, 2C was recorded in Central Park today, but wind gusts made it feel like -15.


Ice Cube

50 foot high 'Ice volcano' forms at New York state park

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© Rich Robinson/Glen Iris Inn
The arctic conditions have turned a fountain at a state park in western New York into a five-story-tall "ice volcano."

The pressure-fed fountain is in a pond near the Glen Iris Inn at Letchworth State Park, which straddles the Wyoming-Livingston county line 40 miles south of Rochester. Days of subzero temperatures have formed a solid cone of ice several feet thick with water still spouting out of the top.

Park officials tell local media that the formation dubbed an ice volcano is at least 50 feet high.

Bell

M6.1 - 128km ENE of Miyako, Japan

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© USGS
Event Time
  1. 2015-02-21 10:13:54 (UTC)
  2. 2015-02-21 05:13:54 (UTC-05:00) in your timezone
  3. Times in other timezones
Nearby Cities
  1. 128km (80mi) ENE of Miyako, Japan
  2. 133km (83mi) ENE of Yamada, Japan
  3. 142km (88mi) ENE of Otsuchi, Japan
  4. 148km (92mi) ENE of Kamaishi, Japan
  5. 567km (352mi) NE of Tokyo, Japan

Question

Strange sound caused worry among UK residents

Strange Sound
© beautiful-sound.mpacula.com
A loud noise heard over South Shields has caused mystery and worry among residents.

The noise heard in Jarrow has been likened to a jet aeroplane flying over head but it is not known what it is or where it is coming from.

Mary Finnigan, of Beverley Court, Jarrow, said lots of people have been talking about the strange sound since it started to be heard from lunchtime on Friday.

Mrs Finnigan said: "It reaches a crescendo and is quite frightening really.

"I've tried to get information from various people but no-one seems to know what it is.

"Many people have been looking to the skies. It sounds as though a plane suddenly flies over.

"It has caused some anxiety."

Mrs Finnigan has contacted Rohm & Haas chemical factory, and Tedco enterprise agency to try and find out what it may be but to no avail.

She added: "I've never experienced this level of noise having lived here for over 30 years."

Do you know what the noise is?

Arrow Up

Great Lakes ice up four times as much since 1995

There is four times as much ice on the Great Lakes as there was 20 years ago. Experts say that global warming is to blame.

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The EPA wants to ban fossil fuels, because they are making lake ice disappear in the US

Comment: Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!


Binoculars

Rare Arctic gyrfalcon located in Ulster County, NY

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© D. Bruce Yolton
Gyrfalcon
I went up to Ulster County, NY to see the Gyrfalcon that has around for a few weeks. The bird, which depending on the day has been easy to find or hard to find, was very cooperative today.

In addition to the Gyrfalcon, I was able to photograph a Short-eared Owl. Definitely worth driving for four hours!


Comment: See also:

Rare Arctic gyrfalcon found in Wells Harbor, Maine

Rare Arctic gyrfalcon seen in Madbury, New Hampshire


Binoculars

Wrong place, wrong time: Rare hooded oriole seen in Charlotte, North Carolina

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A big part of finding birds is being in the right place at the right time. When the birds show up, you have to be there. Last Friday, local birder John Brammer looked out his window and saw a large yellow bird that he did not recognize. He had the presence of mind to snap off a series of great photos for the next 15 minutes. Then the bird departed.

Local birders pored over online photos of immature male orioles (there are not all that many, by the way), and identified it as a hooded oriole, a bird native to the Southwest and Pacific coast.