Earth ChangesS


Attention

SOTT Focus: FEMA Requests Millions of Rations For 'Catastrophic Disaster In New Madrid Fault System'

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New Madrid Fault Zone area (on the right)
The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently put out a tender or 'Request For Information' (RFI) for a LOT of emergency rations. The reason, in their own words, is: "to identify sources of supply for meals in support of disaster relief efforts based on a catastrophic disaster event within the New Madrid Fault System for a survivor population of 7M to be utilized for the sustainment of life during a 10-day period of operations"

Is there something they're not telling us? It's interesting to note that many of the recent animal 'die-offs' happened in the region of the New Madrid fault zone which stretches 150-miles (240 km) southward from Cairo, Illinois; through Hayti, Caruthersville and New Madrid in Missouri; through Blytheville into Marked Tree in Arkansas. It also covers a part of West Tennessee, near Reelfoot Lake, extending southeast into Dyersburg.

It's true that the area has been rocking and rolling of late with the the U.S. Geological Survey reporting, more than 500 measurable earthquakes in central Arkansas since September 2010. A magnitude-3.8 earthquake that shook north-central Indiana on December 30th 2010 was called "unprecedented". It was strong enough to actually cause cracks along the ground and it was felt in portions of Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Kentucky.

In addition, the sun appears to be spewing out some major solar flares recently. The effects of the associated solar radiation on earth is very poorly understood, at least that's what they tell us.

If the US government knows, or even suspects, that a major quake is likely, they need to tell the people in the area in advance!

The FEMA RFI is reproduced below, with a screen-shot in case it disappears.

Snowman

Meteorologists At A Loss to Explain The Winter Weather

Another huge snowstorm moved through the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states last week, and forecasters are calling for more snow this week and possibly next. In New York City last Thursday, 19 inches of snow landed in Central Park. That snowfall brought the city's January snowfall total to 36 inches, well above the 1925 record of 27.4 inches. The snowy winter has people upset because previous winters have not been so bad, although last year when a blizzard descended on Washington, D. C., President Obama was moved to describe the storm as a "snowmageddon." He was quick to point out that his daughters didn't quite understand why school was cancelled since in Chicago this was a normal winter experience.

This winter has brought 51.5 inches of snow to Boston, easily topping the city's winter average of 42.3 inches. The record snowfall for the city was experienced during the 1995-1996 winter when Boston was buried under 107 inches of snow. New York so far this winter has experienced 56 inches of snow, although its record was also experienced in 1995-1996 when 75 inches fell.

Besides the dramatic snowfall records this winter, average temperatures also have been colder than normal. Importantly, the winter weather has impacted much more of the United States than normal. On January 11th, every state except Florida had snow on the ground, including Hawaii where there were seven inches atop the dormant volcano Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. Slightly over 70% of the nation's aerial extent was snow covered that January day as shown in Exhibit 6.
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© NOAAExhibit 6. January 11, 2011, Shows Snow In 49 States

Cloud Precipitation

Australia: Victorian towns put on flood watch


Torrential rain boosted by the remnants of tropical cyclones Yasi and Anthony led to flash floods in Victoria, with parts of Melbourne battered by high winds and people rescued from rising waters in Mildura.

Lightning strikes cut power to 30,000 homes when a belt of storms hit late yesterday.

The Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade said it was overwhelmed by calls for help from disabled people.

In one emergency, fire crews helped a wheelchair-bound man who was up to his hips in water inside his home in the suburb of Mulgrave. Firefighters also rescued a girl swept away in a flash flood who managed to grab a tree branch in Ashwood, south-west of Melbourne.

Many roads in regional Victoria were cut, and the Monash Freeway was closed outbound at Toorak Road, with traffic causing long delays last night.

Between 50 and 100 millimetres of further rain was forecast for the weekend.

Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Pulsating Auroras

During the geomagnetic storm of Feb. 4th, Fredrik Broms of Kvaløya, Norway, witnessed an episode of elusive pulsating auroras. "The sky was filled with patches of green that oscillated in brightness," he explains. A snapshot with his Nikon D3 caught the phenomenon in mid-pulse:

Pulsating Auroras
© Fredrik Broms
"The patches didn't move much, but their intensity changed. When one patch got brighter another became more diffuse and so on," Broms describes.

Reports of pulsating auroras go back more than a century, but until recently no one knew what made the aurora borealis behave like a strobe light. Researchers from UCLA solved the puzzle in 2009-10. Using data from NASA's THEMIS spacecraft, they discovered that auroras pulse in sync to 'chorus waves' in Earth's magnetosphere. This is a type of plasma wave that, apparently, can modulate the flow of solar wind particles down to Earth during geomagnetic storms. It sounds cool, too--hence the name 'chorus.'

Bizarro Earth

Downgraded Yasi extends into South Australia

A severe weather warning has been issued for parts of South Australia as the downgraded Cyclone Yasi sweeps into the state.

State Emergency Service (SES) duty officer Darryl Wright said reports were coming in on Friday afternoon of heavy rains in many parts of the Flinders Ranges, north of Adelaide.

The Bureau of Meteorology was forecasting rainfall of between 50 and 100mm in some areas, increasing to up 200mm in the northwest pastoral district, north of Coober Pedy.

The bureau said a severe thunderstorm warning and a flood watch was current for some districts.

"We have received reports that a number of creeks in the northern Flinders Ranges, including the Bandioota Creek near Blinman, have started to flow," Mr Wright said.

Cloud Lightning

Australia: More Flooding Forecast for Victoria

Aussie flood
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MARK COLVIN: Victorians are being warned to prepare for heavy rain and possible flash flooding this weekend as a tropical air mass from Cyclone Yasi moves south.

North-east and central Victoria are expecting to be the hardest hit and some of those areas still haven't recovered from flooding in January.

Samantha Donovan reports.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Many Victorians are still cleaning up after flooding rains last month. But with an air mass from ex-tropical Cyclone Anthony and Yasi feeding into a strong Southern Ocean weather system, the north-east and central areas in particular are facing a new flood threat.

Tim Wiebusch is with the Victorian State Emergency Service.

TIM WIEBUSCH: The north-east of the state is our main concern given the likelihood of seeing at least between 100 to 150 mils and maybe localised totals up to 200 millimetres. This will result initially in flash flooding and then, potentially, right through to major riverine flooding along the Goulburn, Broken, Mitta Mitta, Kiewa, Ovens Catchments and may affect places like Benalla, Wangaratta and right through the Ovens valley, including places like Bright and Myrtleford.

Igloo

US: Snow, cold make Dallas feel more like Green Bay

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© Matt Slocum/Associated PressFans pose for photographs near the NFL Super Bowl Experience during a winter storm, Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, in Dallas.
Football fans whose flights had been canceled struggled Saturday to get to Dallas for Sunday's big game, while those already in town for the Super Bowl were contending with temperatures and snow typical of Pittsburgh and Green Bay but unusual in Texas.

A fresh blast of snow and ice canceled hundreds of flights Friday, transformed highways into ribbons of white and caused dangerous sheets of ice to fall from Cowboys Stadium, sending six people to the hospital. It was enough to turn the biggest week in American sports into a Super Mess.

The injured included private contractors the NFL hired to prepare the stadium for the game, authorities said. One man was hit in the head, another in the shoulder. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening.

Alison Crombie, a spokeswoman for Getty Images, said Saturday one of its photographers, Win McNamee, also was hurt. He was flying home and would be assessed by his doctor there, she said.

Igloo

US: Storm reaches South Texas, freezing Brownsville

Snow and ice hampered travel in parts of Texas as a winter storm closed Dallas Love Field and gave more students another day off.

Love Field, home to Southwest Airlines, closed early Friday. City of Dallas aviation spokesman Jose Luis Torres told The Associated Press that crews were working to clear snow from the runways.

About 120 flights were canceled Friday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as a winter storm warning covered much of North Texas.

Meteor

Flashback Prince warns Saudi Arabia of apocalypse

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Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah (R) meets US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Riyadh, February 15, 2010.
Saudi Prince Turki bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud has warned the country's royal family to step down and flee before a military coup or a popular uprising overthrows the kingdom.

In a letter published by Wagze news agency on Tuesday, the Cairo-based prince warned Saudi Arabia's ruling family of a fate similar to that of Iraq's executed dictator Saddam Hussein and the ousted Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, calling on them to escape before people "cut off our heads in streets."

He warned that the Saudi royal family is no longer able to "impose" itself on people, arguing that deviations in carrying out the religious concepts that make up the basis of the Saudi government "have gotten out of our hands," so that the opposition views our acts as "interfering in people's private life and restricting their liberties."

"If we are wise, we must leave this country to its people, whose dislike for us is increasing," said Prince Turki, advising Saudi officials to escape with their families.

"Do it today before tomorrow as long as the money we have is enough for us to live anywhere in the world; from Switzerland to Canada and Australia...we should not return as long as we are able to get out safely, we must take our families quickly and pull out," he urged.

Bizarro Earth

New Zealand: New Bid to Free Re-Stranded Whales

Stranded Whales
© Serge ZollingerVolunteers help keep the beached whales hydrated at Puponga Point on Friday.

Three pilot whales were found dead near Farewell Spit, at the top of the South Island, after they beached for the third time this morning.

Department of Conservation (DOC) spokeswoman Trish Grant told NZPA the two groups of whales which restranded on Farewell Spit yesterday afternoon moved with the high tide overnight, and have now formed three groups.

She said there were about 19 whales near Puponga, about 25 at the base of Farewell Spit on triangle flat, and about 25 whales 10km down the spit.

The groups were believed to include the 66 whales which refloated themselves on Saturday morning after becoming stranded at Puponga Point, north of Taupata Point, on Friday. Fourteen of the pod died in that stranding.

"Some of the dead are calves," Ms Grant said. "This is the third time they have stranded and to be stranded even once is a quite a stressful ordeal for a whale. They are doing surprisingly well considering what they have been through."