Earth ChangesS


Umbrella

US, Colorado: More severe weather for the Front Range


The Gazette
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:45 UTC
Image
© Helen H. Richardson / The Denver PostMonica Savage of Ft. Lauderdale takes pictures of an approaching storm near Denver International Airport.
More severe weather hit the Denver area and eastern Colorado Thursday, unleashing heavy rain on already-soaked areas and adding to the debris and mud that closed canyon roads west of Boulder.

A rock slide closed a lane of a highway in the mountains west of Boulder, where crews were still trying to clear mud from roads after up to 1.3 inches of rain pounded the area Wednesday night. State transportation officials said most of the rocks were small and no one was injured.

Some roads were closed again Thursday afternoon and an evacuation center was reopened at a YMCA. A flash flood warning was issued for the area where a wildfire burned away vegetation on thousands of acres last fall.

Two large surges of flood water in Boulder Creek Wednesday night prompted warnings to people to get to high ground. No serious flooding occurred.

Several counties in north-central Colorado and the Denver area were under a severe thunderstorm watch Thursday. Sheets of rain swept through Denver and the suburbs as evening rush hour started. Cars were partially submerged in spots where water backed up and water gushed through normally dry gulches.

Property owners were still assessing the hail damage from Wednesday night's storms.

State Farm Insurance said it expects to get about 6,500 auto claims and 4,000 home claims. Damage includes broken windshields and roof and siding damage.
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Cloud Lightning

Severe weather hits the Netherlands


Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 04:30 UTC
The Dutch national weather centre (KNMI) is warning of severe gusts of wind and heavy rainfall affecting large areas of the Netherlands today. Winds have already wreaked havoc across the country and caused delays at Schiphol Airport.

Twenty flights were cancelled Thursday, according to an airport spokesperson. Further delays are expected as the stormy weather continues.

Southern, central and eastern areas of the Netherlands have been put on yellow alert. Coastal areas have been on yellow alert since Wednesday evening. Yellow alerts are issued when 25 to 50 mm of rainfall is expected with wind gusts of up to 80 kilometres per hour.

In The Hague, the danger of those gusts became all too apparent after a 51-year-old woman was hosptialised in critical condition after a being hit by a wind-swept tree. A 19-year-old boy was also injured in the accident.

Winds are threatening to send a 60 meter tall chimney on the Rotterdam Keileweg to the ground. Police have cleared out a radius of 100 metres around the area in case the tower collapses.

Conversely, the ANWB automobile association says traffic has so far not been too badly affected by the unseasonal weather.
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Sun

US: Drought engulfs 14 states


MSNBC
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:38 UTC
Now to what some are calling, the great drought of 2011. The State of Texas, for one, one of the 14 states suffering and sweltering through this disaster, some have been comparing to the dust bowl of the 1930's. An Epic drought the experts started tracking back in February..

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Igloo

US: Hail storm damages 40 planes, strands passengers


Associated Press
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:47 UTC
Image
© Unknown
More than 100 flights have been cancelled at Denver International Airport after hail damaged about 40 planes and stranded about 1000 passengers overnight.

Airport spokeswoman Laura Coale said on Thursday that all damaged planes had to be evaluated, slowing operations. She says an unknown number of planes have been taken out of service because of damage.

Frontier Airlines says it expects more cancellations on Friday.

The airport was pummelled by three-quarter-inch hail for about 15 minutes on Wednesday night.

Among those stranded at the airport was Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. He tweeted that he slept on the floor of a conference room after airport staff got him a blanket and pillow.

The airport didn't distribute cots and blankets to all passengers because airlines didn't request help. About 200 people typically spend the night at the airport.

Comment: More info from MSNBC:



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Alarm Clock

Another Iceland volcano ready to burst?

Bert Archer
thestar.com
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:35 UTC
Grimsvoetn
© STR/AFP/GETTY IMAGESGrimsvoetn erupted in May, sending clouds over Iceland and causing flight delays
Iceland is making itself felt again on the world scene, with news that Hekla, one of its more active volcanoes, may be on the verge of spewing more of that flight-disturbing ash in the near future.

Hekla has erupted about every 10 years for the past 30 (in 1981, 1991 and 2000). Eyjafjallajökull's eruption in April 2010 created the worst peace-time disruption in air traffic ever, grounding as many as 100,000 flights and stranding millions (and losing airlines hundreds of millions of dollars). This May, Grimsvoetn erupted, shutting airports, and either delaying or cancelling several hundred flights.

There's of course no way to prepare for the eruption, and if you've got flights booked to, through or over Western Europe, you might take comfort from Icelandic geophysicist Pall Einarsson, who told Ice News last week, speaking of recent fears regarding Hekla, "I've been saying this for three or four years and 'soon' means different things to journalists and geologists."
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No Entry

US, Colorado: Sink hole closes road in Longmont


The Longmont Times-Call
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:27 UTC
sinkhole Longmont
© Joshua Buck/Times-CallWeld County Sheriff Deputy Chad Walser talks with Longmont Emergency Unit crews and a firefighter from Mountain View Fire Rescue about closing Weld County Road 20 1/2 at Weld County Road 1 as a sinkhole grows Wednesday evening.
A 4-foot wide sinkhole in the roadway has forced emergency crews to close Weld County Road 20 1/2 between county roads 7 and 1.

A broken culvert has exposed a 15-foot by 15-foot cavern under the roadway and it is growing, officials on scene said as water gushed below. A Weld County Public Works crew left to pick up barricades in Johnstown and would return later this evening, Deputy Chad Walser said.

It was not known how long the road would be closed, but emergency crews on scene said they thought at least a week, as most of the area would have to be dug up.
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Arrow Down

England, Dorset: Beach-goers warned to stay away from landslide in Britport

James Tourgout
Britport News
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:27 UTC
landslip in britport
The massive landslip along the coast between Eype and West Bay
Beach-goers and fossil hunters have been warned to keep away from a massive landslip at West Bay.

Councils and coastguards sealed off the coast between West Bay and Eype after the landslide from the cliff to the waterline.

Now they are warning people to beware of the danger amid fears more earth may collapse.

West Dorset District Council technical services manager Steve Woollard said: "We have put up warning signs on both sides of the beach leading up to the landslide and also at the end of the Esplanade at West Bay.
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Newspaper

US, Colorado: Landslide spills debris, sediment into Dillon water supply

Caddie Nath
Summit Daily News
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:18 UTC
mudslide in Dillon colorado
© Summit DailyA portion of the mudslide that's causing some trouble for Dillon's water supply in Straight Creek.
Town will pull from Lasky Gulch while Straight Creek clears

A landslide crashed into Straight Creek on U.S. Forest Service land last week, threatening Dillon and Dillon Valley's primary water supply.

But the town and the valley will be able to pull clean drinking water from the high Lasky Gulch for at least a few months while waiting for the sediment from the slide to clear.

"The immediate concern was the question: Was it a large enough slide to where it could deposit enough material to create a blockage on Straight Creek?" Dillon town manager Devin Granbery said. "There would be a potential for the build up of water behind a blockage and then a release. and there was a potential for damage to property and life safety issues there."

A release of water from a behind a landslide dam could also damage the Dillon and Dillon Valley diversion plants downstream, which pull water from the creek to be filtered for drinking water.
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Sun

US: Help now available as Texas declared a disaster


The Lakelander
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:07 UTC
Texas drought
© Associated PressParched: A dry river bed at Big Bend National Park along the banks of the Rio Grande in Texas, where it has not rained since September 2010
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 213 counties in Texas as primary natural disaster areas after one of the worst droughts in more than a century. The state has sustained excessive heat, high winds and wildfires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres.

Bosque County was recognized as a primary natural disaster area, and Hill County farmers and ranchers are also eligible for assistance because of their proximity to the disaster area. With 213 counties declared primary disaster areas and the remaining 41 qualifying for assistance because they are contiguous, the entire state has been declared a disaster.

"Many producers have lost their crops due to the devastation caused by the drought and wildfires," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "President Obama and I want these farmers and ranchers to know that we will support them through the recovery process and help them once again become productive suppliers of food, fiber and fuel that keep America prospering. This designation will help provide that support."
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Bizarro Earth

US: Girl Dies, Father Hurt in Utah Road Collapse Crash


Huffington Post
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:10 UTC
Utah Sinkhole_1
© Rex OlsenThis is a picture of the car that landed in the sinkhole.
Tabiona - A teenage girl is dead and two people injured after a road collapsed, leaving a 40-foot wide gap in an eastern Utah highway.

The Utah Highway Patrol says heavy rainfall opened the hole more than 30 feet deep along State Highway 35 late Wednesday. It happened near Tabiona, a town about 80 miles east of Salt Lake City.

The highway patrol says 15-year-old Justine Barneck died after the SUV she was riding in crashed as it approached the hole a few minutes after the collapse. Her father, 59-year-old Michael Barneck, was injured in the accident.

Utah Sinkhole_2
© Kevin Ashbv / Vernal ExpressA home sits on the other side of a large sinkhole that was created from a heavy rainstorm washing out a culvert under state Road 35 in Tabiona Wednesday night.
The driver of a second car that plunged into the gap, 37-year-old Heidi Paulson, also was hurt.

The road remained closed Thursday. An investigation is under way.
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