Earth Changes

28,000 lightning strikes recorded during 24 hours in Northern Great Plains

Bill Gabbert
Wildfire Today
Fri, 21 Jul 2017 18:08 UTC

For the 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. on Friday sensors detected more than 28,000 cloud to ground lightning strikes in the portion of the Northern Great Plains shown in the map above.

The National Weather Service issued Red Flag Warnings or Fire Weather Watches on Friday for areas in Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, and North Dakota.

The Red Flag map was current as of 10 a.m. MDT on Friday. Red Flag Warnings can change throughout the day as the National Weather Service offices around the country update and revise their forecasts.

Microburst slams the Catalina Foothills, Arizona (VIDEO)

Jeff Beamish
KVOA Tucson News
Fri, 21 Jul 2017 18:46 UTC

The power of the Monsoon was in full effect Thursday evening.

The Simply Bits Downtown Tucson camera captured a microburst blasting the Catalina Foothills area. On the right hand side of the video, you'll see a burst of rain fall out of the clouds & hit the ground.

Microbursts develop thanks to rain that cools the surrounding air. Because cool air is more dense than warm air, it falls rapidly out of the sky and fans out in all directions when hitting the Earth's surface. Winds within a microburst can exceed 50 MPH, potentially causing damage within a small area.

A rain gauge at the Finger Rock Wash near Skyline Drive recorded 1.85" rain from this storm. Most of the rain fell in a short hour time span.

Hottest day in 145 years for Shanghai, China

Liangyu
Xinhua
Fri, 21 Jul 2017 17:43 UTC

The meteorological department of east China metropolis Shanghai recorded an air temperature of 40.9 degrees Celsius (105.6 degrees Fahrenheit) at around 2 p.m. Friday, the highest on record in the city in 145 years.

A red alert for high temperatures was issued by the Shanghai Central Meteorological Observatory on Friday.

The previous record high temperature in the city of 40.8 degrees Celsius was recorded on Aug. 7, 2013. A total of 13 high temperature red alerts have been issued since the new meteorological early warning system was adopted in 2007.

China has a three-tier early warning system for high temperatures: a yellow warning is issued when high temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius are predicted for three consecutive days, orange indicates a predicted high temperature of 37 degrees Celsius in the next 24 hours, and a red alert is issued when the temperature is forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius within 24 hours.

Heat waves have hit the city since the beginning of summer and are expected to linger until the end of July.

Signs and Portents: 'Demon' baby goat born with human-like features and protruding eyes in San Luis Province, Argentina

Emily Crane
Daily Mail
Fri, 21 Jul 2017 14:03 UTC

The baby goat was born in San Luis province in central Argentina this week with 'demonic' facial features, including protruding eyes and a flat face

A 'demonic' baby goat born with human-like facial features in Argentina has shocked locals and caused quite stir after photos of the animal went viral.

The goat was born with disturbing protruding eyes and a flat face in San Luis province in central Argentina this week.

The animal only survived three hours before it died.

Its owner Gladys Oveido said she was shocked and confused seeing the kid for the first time given its 'strange face' with 'human-like' features.

Man dies from possible lightning strike in Lee County, Alabama

Raven Poole
wtvm.com
Sat, 22 Jul 2017 13:35 UTC

Lee County Coroner Bill Harris confirms to News Leader 9 that a 34-year-old man has died from a possible lightning strike to the head on Lake Harding.

According to Harris, the victim and four others were in a boat on Lake Harding in Lee County trying to get back home when the lightning struck.

No names have been released.

Investigators spent Friday night interviewing witnesses.

Harris tells News Leader 9 in his 30 plus years in the coroner's office, he can't remember a lightning-related death.

Man attacked by grizzly bear north of Vancouver Island, British Columbia

Adam Kveton
The Ashcroft-Cache Creek Journal
Fri, 21 Jul 2017 13:05 UTC

Randal Warnock from Qualicum Beach is recovering at home after being attacked by a bear (not the one pictured here) north of Vancouver Island Monday, July 17. File photo

An evening stroll along the beach is not usually this dangerous.

Qualicum Beach man and BC Ferries captain Randal Warnock is resting up at home after being attacked by a juvenile grizzly bear while taking a stroll on a small island north of Vancouver Island near the mainland on Monday, July 17.

On his way to captain a ferry run between Bella Coola and Bella Bella, Warnock said he left Port Hardy on his boat Monday morning, and was just north of Cape Caution at about 6 p.m. when the weather started getting rough.

So he anchored his boat in Millbrook Cove, and thought he'd stretch his legs with a walk on the beach of a small island just off the coast.

He figures the wind and noise of the waves on the beach might have contributed to his accidentally startling a juvenile grizzly bear after picking up a discarded buoy to re-use.

Mysterious plumes of steam rising from Greenland glacier

Sott.net
Sat, 22 Jul 2017 06:00 UTC

The photo above was taken by pilot Ágúst Arnbjörnsson on July 11, 2017 during a flight from Keflavik to Portland, from a height of approximately 34,000 feet. The location is 75 km from Kulusuk in Greenland.

The image appears to show three plumes of steam rising from cracks in the glacier, which according to the blog of volcanologist Haraldur Sigurðsson, is 1.5 to 2 kilometers thick. This may be a sign of powerful geothermal activity from below.

Earlier this year a team of NASA researchers observed an ominous crack growing in the Petermann Glacier along the northern coast of Greenland.

Recently Greenland recorded the coldest temperature ever in the northern hemisphere for July.

California sees 100 new wildfires in four days, and more are surely on the way

Hector Amezcua and Sam Stanton
The Sacrament Bee
Thu, 20 Jul 2017 17:12 UTC

© Reuters/Stephen Lam
A firetruck is seen parked along a firebreak beneath a burning ridge during the Detwiler fire in Mariposa, California

Firefighters and determined residents of Mariposa County continued their battle against the massive Detwiler Fire on Thursday as wildland blazes continued to burn around the state, generating smoke for hundreds of miles.

More than 350 square miles of land has burned so far this year, and the Detwiler Fire west of Mariposa continued to pose danger to historic small communities that have been emptied out by evacuations since the fire began Sunday.

In tiny Catheys Valley along Highway 140, the danger appeared to have passed for now, but a handful of residents who opted to stay and fight recounted how close the flames had come.

"The fire jumped the ridge, came over here; it was 30- to 40-foot flames right in front of our houses," said Frank Gomes, who has lived in the ramshackle collection of homes and trailers for five years along with about 30 neighbors. "Me and the owner of the property, we stayed to defend the property because this is actually low income, so we just didn't want to see everybody lose the little bit that they had."

Slopes of Mount Vesuvius ablaze in wildfire

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Fri, 14 Jul 2017 20:01 UTC

© European Space Agency
Much of the woodlands in Vesuvia National Park, which contains the Mount Vesuvius volcano, have been destroyed by wildfires, shown here in this satellite image on July 12, 2017.

A thick plume of smoke is rising from Italy's Mount Vesuvius, but don't panic. Pompeii isn't about to happen all over again.

The smoke, visible in a new set of satellite images released by the European Space Agency (ESA), is coming from a series of wildfires on the mountain. According to the ESA, much of the woodlands in Vesuvia National Park, which contains the volcano and its surroundings, have been destroyed.

Cold sweeps the Southern Hemisphere, major crop damage

Adapt 2030
You Tube
Fri, 21 Jul 2017 19:41 UTC

Record cold engulfs South America decimating crops and leaving a wake of frost destruction and hundreds of thousands with out power. All the while main stream media touts a few degrees over normal in NYC. They forgot absolute anomalous cold and frost event that crossed the entire continent of South America. It was -8C in areas where average temperatures for this time of year are 17C. Crop losses are in the same areas as cold damage to agriculture last year. The 2017 losses will be tallied over the next weeks and it looks at early estimations of nearly 100% losses for fruit inn Southern Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Where is the coverage on this in the main stream media?????????