Earth Changes

Summer snowfall surprise for Tasmanians after a season of weather extremes

abc.net.au
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 13:22 UTC

Fires, flood and now snow: Tasmania has had a summer of weather extremes.

After weeks of warm and dry weather, there has been a sprinkling of snow in Tasmania's Great Lakes district and on Hobart's Mount Wellington.

The temperature dipped to zero at Liawenee in the Central Highlands overnight, with light rain turning to snow early this morning.

Kaylee Hattinger at the Great Lakes Hotel said it started snowing there about 6:00am, but it quickly melted away.

"It covered the cars, it was enough to go 'oh, snow!'," she said.

"But it's very fine, but more than hail, and fluttering down.

"I get really excited with snow, even in winter. But in summer it's even more special, I think."

5.5-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Afghanistan with tremors felt in Kabul

RT
Sun, 21 Feb 2016 13:18 UTC

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake has struck northern Afghanistan, USGS reported. The tremors were felt in the country's capital, Kabul, local media said.

Prelim M5.5 earthquake Hindu Kush region, Afghanistan Feb-21 09:12 UTC, updates https://t.co/Ya13tRvkNr— USGS Big Quakes (@USGSBigQuakes) February 21, 2016

The quake happened 43km south of the village of Jarm, 64km and 75km from the city of Fayzabad, the provincial capital and largest city in Badakhshan Province in northern Afghanistan. The city has a population of about 50,000.

The quake was at a depth of 176.7km, USGS added.

Signs and Portents: Rare two-headed python hatched in Wodonga, Australia

wpxi.com
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 12:34 UTC

Snakes are creepy enough, but a python that hatched with two heads is taking the Internet by storm.

The baby snake is only a week old, born last Saturday.

Owner John McNamara, who is an Australian snake breeder, thought he just had twins, but it was more.

From the tail to the neck, the little coastal carpet python looks like any other snake, but from the neck up, that's when you see four eyes, two mouths and two heads.

As The Border Mail described it, the snake looks like the mythological hydra.

Cyclone Winston wreaks destruction in Fiji, five people killed

BBC News
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 22:58 UTC

Authorities in Fiji are assessing the damage after the most powerful storm left at least five people dead.

Cyclone Winston brought winds of over 320km/h (200mph), torrential rain and waves of up to 12m (40ft).

It destroyed hundreds of homes and cut electricity lines. There are reports of entire villages flattened.

The government has imposed a nationwide curfew and 30-day state of national disaster giving extra powers to police to arrest people without a warrant.

The Category-five storm - the highest level - moved westward since making landfall at 18:30 local time (06:30 GMT) on Saturday in the north of Fiji's main island, Viti Levu.

It changed direction at the last minute, sparing the capital Suva the full force of its winds.

The government had opened about 750 evacuation centres.

More than 1,000 people were sheltering in one on the second largest island of Vanua Levu, north-east of Viti Levu, the Fiji Broadcasting Company said.

Among the victims was an elderly man who died on the smaller Koro Island when a roof fell on him.

Winter rainfall record smashed in Portland, Oregon

Rosemarie Stein
OregonLive
Fri, 19 Feb 2016 10:53 UTC

Portland International Airport set a rainfall record for December through February (the meteorological winter) at 25.27 inches, the National Weather Service reports.

Normal rainfall for the airport during the same period is 14.14 inches. Records have been kept at the airport since 1940.

That's a lot of rain. And February's not over yet, so the number will climb.

Other near-record-setting areas (where records have been kept since the 1890s) include:

Vancouver with its second wettest winter (25.77 inches)

Downtown Portland's third wettest winter (31.06 inches)

and Hillsboro with its fourth wettest winter (24.74 inches).

The ranking is for the period of Dec. 1 1 through Feb. 28-29.

And the Portland area's rainy season is far from over. Keep those rain boots and umbrellas handy.

Comment: Heavy rains saturate Portland, northwest Oregon, causing flooding, landslides, sewer overflow

Minor, very shallow earthquake rattles New Jersey

CBS Local
Thu, 18 Feb 2016 23:13 UTC

Many people said they heard a loud boom and could feel their homes shake. Some even said they smelled burning afterward.

"I heard a loud boom and I'm on the other side of the highway," Lori Milone wrote on Facebook.

"Shook our house and then we detected a burning smell for a little while," wrote Mark Selz.

"Double shakes here off Cascade Way, sounded like someone was in my house," wrote Carrie Shaver. "What happened?"

"Me and my husband were watching TV and he said, "What was that?" It sounded like an explosion," one Butler woman told WCBS 880's Sean Adams. "We just went about our business. We didn't hear anything else. He said to me, "You know, that almost made the house shake."

CBS2's Lonnie Quinn explained that low-magnitude earthquakes happen often in the Morris County area, as it - and Butler specifically - sit on the Ramapo Fault Line - one of the major fault lines in the U.S.

Quinn reported the reason the earthquake was felt by so many people in the area was that it was very shallow - occurring only about a mile to a mile and a half underground.

By contrast, the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles was 11 miles deep.

Comment: See also:

Massive sinkhole swallows buildings in Norhausen, Germany

Strange Sounds
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 20:45 UTC

A huge sinkhole opened up between two buildings in Nordhausen, Germany.

The giant 40 to 50 meters deep, 30 meters wide crater is filled with water and still growing. It has already swallowed parts of an office building. Another house is on the verge of collapsing.

A first sinkhole opened up between two farm buildings in Nordhausen at around 7pm on Friday evening.

Then the ground collapsed another time. The two holes than merged into a giant cavity measuring 30 meters in diameter and 40 to 50 meters deep. That is gigantic

As the ground collapsed, witnesses reported a strong rumbling noise like that we hear during an earthquake.

The two buildings were empty as they collapsed into the ground.

In this video, you see one of the house collapse @ 3:33:.

Comment: See in addition: Sinkholes: The groundbreaking truth

Lightning kills another 3 people in South Africa; total of 10 in a week

iol.co.za
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 19:06 UTC

Three more people have died in lightning strikes in KwaZulu-Natal, bringing to 10 the number of people killed in one week, the provincial co-operative governance and traditional affairs department said on Saturday.

"With the province of KwaZulu-Natal still licking its wounds after seven people lost their lives in the area of KwaMachi near Harding in the Umuziwabantu local municipality, another tragedy has struck as more lightning, hail, and storms have hit the neighbouring uMzimkhulu municipality killing three more people and injuring dozens of others as well as damaging homes," MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube said.

In wards 14 and 18 in uMzimkhulu municipality more than 80 household were affected by storms. A team of disaster management personnel led by the local mayor Mphuthumi Mpabanga had been undertaking door-to-door visits to all the affected families and providing first-line support, she said.

Comment: See also these other recent reports from South Africa: Lightning kills four in Harding, South Africa

Lightning strike kills three in South Africa

Piranha attacks on swimmers in Brazil leave over 50 people injured in a month

Janet Tappin Coelho
The Independent (UK)
Mon, 15 Feb 2016 18:37 UTC

Hundreds of swimmers in Brazil are being warned to stay out of the water following a spate of attacks by shoals of deadly piranha, which has left more than 50 people injured in just over a month.

Unsuspecting tourists have had chunks of flesh bitten out of their hands and feet as drought conditions in the South American country force the lethal predators to migrate from their natural habitat to deeper waters packed with holidaymakers.

This week at least eight bathers were bitten by the man-eaters, known as "white bitches", the 6in-long species blamed for the attacks, on beaches in Palmas, in Tocantins State, north-east Brazil. Three children were among the casualties as people took to the waters to cool off during the hot holiday weekend. A four-year-old boy had a chunk taken out of his heel.

'Firenado' filmed during Missouri wildfire

Ben Hooper
UPI
Sat, 20 Feb 2016 18:20 UTC

© Southern Platte Fire Protection District/Facebook
A firenado spins flames into the sky during a Missouri wildfire Thursday.

Firefighters battling a massive wildfire in Missouri captured video of a "firenado," or fire tornado, blowing flames into the sky.

The Southern Platte Fire Protection District, one of several agencies battling the wildfire Thursday in Platte County, just north of Kansas City, posted a video to Facebook showing the firenado, also known as a fire whirl, spinning flames high into the sky.

"Oh, that's freakin' awesome," a firefighter can be heard saying in the video.

Authorities said the wildfire, which spread across more than 1,300 acres, was started by sparks that shot from a malfunctioning prison lawnmower near the Centennial Bridge.

New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer neighborhoods, safer communities, and our children are going to get a good...

parzival

Bill Gates is going to be the one with the uncertain future,,, * New Lt. Governor of Virginia Winsome Sears: "We're going to have safer...

parzival

The more we hear about adverse affects the more we will merely shrug. It's a catch 22. Is that an asteroid trail in the photo?

sass

Welcome to the new normal. The more sensory exposure we have about such things, the less it is an issue.

sass

more misbehaving phuqqin' jewzskies starring on the sott; speaks for itself

Jibrish

Earth Changes

Summer snowfall surprise for Tasmanians after a season of weather extremes

5.5-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Afghanistan with tremors felt in Kabul

Signs and Portents: Rare two-headed python hatched in Wodonga, Australia

Cyclone Winston wreaks destruction in Fiji, five people killed

Winter rainfall record smashed in Portland, Oregon

Minor, very shallow earthquake rattles New Jersey

Massive sinkhole swallows buildings in Norhausen, Germany

Lightning kills another 3 people in South Africa; total of 10 in a week

Piranha attacks on swimmers in Brazil leave over 50 people injured in a month

'Firenado' filmed during Missouri wildfire

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