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Wed, 13 Oct 2021
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Attention

Sakurajima volcano in Japan erupts with ash plume 7000 feet high

Sakurajima volcano

Sakurajima volcano
Explosive activity continues. Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) Tokyo warned about a volcanic ash plume that rose up to estimated 7000 ft (2100 m) altitude or flight level 070 and is moving at 10 kts in E direction.


Attention

Eruption at Pacaya volcano in Guatemala

eruption
Eruption Pacaya volcano in Guatemala today - 09/02/2021.


Cloud Precipitation

Icy roads and desert after hailstorm in Abha, Saudi Arabia

icy road
Natural disasters 9 February 2021. It's awesome! Icy roads after a hail storm in Abha, Saudi Arabia.


Attention

Bear mauls man on Alaska ski trip, leaving him hospitalized with head injuries

A brown bear walks
© ABBIE PARR
A brown bear walks through a field at Katmai National Park on August 14, 2020 in King Salmon, Alaska. A man was mauled by a bear while backcountry skiing in Alaska last Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard has said. The type of bear involved was not immediately known.
A man was airlifted to hospital after being mauled by a bear while backcountry skiing in Alaska last Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard has said.

The victim sustained injuries to his head and hands during the attack, which took place on a mountain near the Haines region. He was rescued by a specialist helicopter crew and flown to the capital city of Juneau, where emergency services were waiting.

Backcountry skiing, also called off-piste skiing, is "any type of skiing done outside the patrolled boundaries of a ski area," according to a fact-sheet published online by the outdoor adventure-focused business Recreational Equipment, Inc.

Snowflake Cold

Hundreds of drivers spend night on Autobahn as Germany's snow chaos continues

snow
Long traffic jams built up on motorways in several regions of Germany due to the freezing conditions, leaving hundreds of people stranded in their cars.

The worst log jam came on the A2 motorway outside Bielefeld, in North Rhine-Westphalia where an enormous 37 kilometre line of traffic built up on both sides of the road on Monday night. The queues stretched all the way into the state of Lower Saxony and had still not been cleared by Tuesday morning.

The A2 was blocked in both directions due to trucks coming to a standstill in the snow and not being able to get out. Police reported that hundreds of drivers had to spend the night in their cars.

Video footage showed shivering drivers huddled in their vehicles, complaining of going for hours without food as temperatures plunged to minus 12 degrees Celsius.



Binoculars

Northern Mockingbird from North America spotted in the UK for first time in 30 years

Mockingbirds haven't been seen in the UK since the 1980s
© Getty
Mockingbirds haven't been seen in the UK since the 1980s
The last time a mockingbird was spotted in the UK was in the 1980s - the first in 1982 at Saltash, Cornwall, and the second in 1988 at Horsey Island, in Essex.

Northern mockingbirds are the only mockingbird commonly found in North America. While they're predominantly a 'home bird', some may move south in the harsh winters - so been spotted as far away as Europe is a pretty huge feat. But now Chris Biddle, from Devon, claims to have made an incredible sighting at the weekend in Exmouth, Devon.

Posting images of the bird on Twitter, he questioned whether he had in fact spotted a northern mockingbird.

He wrote: "Spotted this little chap in our garden in Exmouth over the last few days, mainly in the holly and palm flowers. We think a northern mockingbird, any ideas?"

The sighting is the first record of mockingbirds being seen anywhere in Britain or the Western Palearctic in more than 30 years - and birdwatchers were delighted with the find.


Cloud Grey

Cold weather blamed for mass deaths of tree martin birds in Western Australia

Some tree martin birds have survived and are being kept alive in incubators.
© Zac Bruce
Some tree martin birds have survived and are being kept alive in incubators.
Conservationists have blamed a summer cold snap for the widespread deaths of a small native bird in Western Australia's South West.

A low pressure system brought unseasonal cold temperatures and heavy rainfall to southern WA for several days from the weekend.

Parks and Wildlife conservation officer Ben Lullfitz said after the cold weather people had found dead tree martin birds from Augusta to Bunbury.


"It's a small bird which looks a bit like a swallow, basically they are insect feeders which don't like cold weather in the summer ... which has caused them to get into quite a bit of distress," he said.

Mr Lullfitz said the birds were unable to feed or regulate their body temperature during the cool conditions.

"We don't know how many exactly have died but it's been a widespread event," he said.

Cloud Precipitation

At least 28 people dead due to flash flooding in Tangier, Morocco

Morocco Floods

Morocco Floods
At least 28 people have died as a result of flash flooding in northern Morocco.

Flash floods struck in the city of Tangier on 08 February 2021, inundating streets and buildings including an illegal textile factory in a basement of house where over 40 workers were trapped.

As of late 08 February, state media reported the bodies of 28 of the workers had been found. Around 17 people have been rescued and transferred to hospital. A search was ongoing for more survivors.



Attention

Worst mouse plague in a decade: Thousands of rodents wreak havoc in rural Australia

mice
Farmers and communities across large swathes of inland eastern Australia are being hit by their worst mouse plague in almost a decade, threatening to undermine post-drought recovery efforts.

Mouse populations have spiked over the past 12 months as crop-growing conditions have improved across rural Australia and provided the rodents with favourable conditions for eating and breeding.

Elevated mouse populations have been recorded from Central Queensland down to northern and central west NSW and into western Victoria.


In some areas, problems with mice have reached plague-level proportions.

CSIRO mouse researcher Steve Henry told AAP mice feast on the stubble of crops and reproduce roughly every three weeks once they reach six weeks old, making population control a near-impossible task.


Ice Cube

45-feet tall ice volcano forms in Kazakhstan from underground spring

ice volcano
In Kazakhstan's Almaty region, a stunning ice volcano standing 45 feet tall attracted many thousands of people for its incredible formation.

Despite the thick blanket of snow in the area and the harsh weather, tourists were not stopped to visit the ice volcano formation. The frozen structure was formed from an underground spring that spouted water, freezing it once released.

Although this is not the first time an ice volcano formed in Almaty, as small ice volcanoes also formed last year, locals said that the recent ice volcano in the area is the first to continuously spout water from its top opening that mimics a lava-filled volcano. The continuous water spout has created a small ice rink near its base.

A local shared online that the area is usually covered with greenery during summer, but the iceberg increases to 14 meters and creates a picturesque location during winter.