Earth ChangesS


Snowman

Canada: Snowfall Hits British Columbia South Coast

Vancouver Snow
© Darryl Dyck/Canadian PressA couple walk on freshly fallen snow in downtown Vancouver on Saturday.
Several centimetres of snow hit Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley on Saturday night, leaving roads packed with snow and ice.

As much as eight centimetres fell in some areas, and Environment Canada said another five centimetres could fall by Monday morning at higher elevations.

However, rain was in the forecast for much of the region Sunday, and officials expected a lot of the snow would be washed away by evening.

By Sunday morning, most major arteries were cleared, but motorists were advised to drive cautiously since many back roads and side streets had not been plowed.

X

UK: Twelve swans on Marine Lake die from mystery illness

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© UnknownAt least 12 swans have died and another 30 have been left critically ill
Twelve swans have died from a mystery infection at a lake in Merseyside.

The RSPCA has rescued another 30 critically ill swans from Marine Lake in Southport over the past couple of weeks.

They have been taken to the Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre near Nantwich, in Cheshire.

RSPCA animal welfare officer Derek Hampson said the illnesses might have been caused by bacteria in the lake but further tests were being carried out.

"We are very concerned," Mr Hampson said.

Cloud Lightning

Lahore, Pakistan gets rare hailstorm

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© Dawn.comVehicles pass thought at a street during fresh snowfall in Lahore on Saturday, February 26, 2011.
The storm struck the city at 4.45pm, concentrating its intensity downtown and in areas around Gulberg. Hailstones the size of small strawberries soon carpeted streets and rooftops.

People watched the freak turn of weather with a pleasant surprise. At some places some people panicked and started giving "azans".

A traffic gridlock followed the hailstorm, making driving a misery on roads awash with a hail of stones.

But on the other hand, motorists were seen relishing the happening instead of fuming over the traffic jam and the young made the most of the opportunity by playing with hailstones. Mobile phones were taken out to take stills and make movies of the falling hailstones.

Reports from different parts of the city indicated the storm was partial as many localities like Faisal Town merely received a light shower.

Cloud Precipitation

Fears for Guyana's rice crop as heavy rains, floods hit during dry season

Authorities in Guyana are pumping water from flooded coastal villages following heavy rains during what is usually one of the driest months of the year.

Officials say about 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain fell in a 24-hour period this week. That's more than the South American nation normally sees in the entire month of February.

Rice farmers fear they may have lost their crops in the middle of harvest season.

Guyana is the region's largest rice producer.


Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said Saturday he was sending drainage equipment to hard-hit areas.

Authorities blame the rains on the weather phenomenon known as La Nina. The wet weather is expected to continue into March.

Cloud Lightning

Philippines: Heavy rains push Bulusan lahar, huge rocks into Irosin river

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Sorsogon City, Philippines - Despite a relatively calm Mt. Bulusan, lahar started to flow down its slopes into a river in Irosin town on Sunday, hours after the rain that began Saturday night.

Close to 100,000 residents in slopes around the volcano, particularly in Irosin and Juban, feared flash floods in case torrential rains followed.

But Crispulo Diolita Jr., volcanologist at the Bulusan Observatory Center based in Cabid-an, Sorsogon City, told the Inquirer on the phone on Sunday that the lahar flows were still confined to the Rangas River channel.

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) and local officials rushed to Rangas River in Barangay Cogon, Irosin, on Sunday morning due to reports of heavy lahar flow triggered by the rain.

Cloud Lightning

Hillside collapses in Bolivian capital after heavy rains, destroying 400 houses

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© AP Photo/Juan KaritaPeople walk next to an area where around 100 houses were destroyed after a landslide was triggered by heavy rains at the Valle de Flores neighborhood in La Paz, Bolivia, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011.
La Paz, Bolivia - Heavy rains caused a hilltop to collapse in a poor neighbourhood of the Bolivian capital Sunday, cracking roads, destroying at least 400 homes and burying people's belongings under mud and debris.

There were no fatalities but significant damage from the landslide in the barrio of Callapa, La Paz Mayor Luis Revilla said.

Edwin Herrera, a city government spokesman, called Sunday's slide the worst that La Paz has ever seen - and he said the earth was still moving downhill.

"So far we are talking about 5,000 (people) affected, but the slide is affecting neighbourhoods in lower areas," he said.

Residents began evacuating late Saturday when the hill, saturated after prolonged rains, began sliding and cracks appeared in streets and homes.

Igloo

Heavy snowfall, rain bring temperature down in North India

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Get ready for yet another spell of cold weather in North India. Heavy snowfall in the hill states like Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have sent the mercury plummeting to freezing point.

The plains have also witnessed a drop in temperature as heavy rain lashed parts of Punjab and Haryana.

The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway, the only road link to the Valley, was closed for vehicular traffic on Saturday following heavy snowfall and rains. "The highway is closed for traffic due to heavy snowfall at Jawahar Tunnel, Banihal and Patnitop areas resulting in blockade," police said.

Srinagar experienced slight rainfall with mercury plummeting to freezing point before dawn and rising to 7 degree Celsius in the day, three notches below normal.

Cloud Lightning

US: Microburst Ripped Through New Jersey Town

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A storm with heavy rains and fierce winds ripped roofs from homes and toppled trees as a storm moved through Lakewood, N.J. Friday.

The microburst that hit Lakewood contained winds of 75 mph winds, according to the National Weather Service.

"It was spinning in a circle, like 'The Wizard of Oz.' The grills, chairs off of a patio," said Matthew Draheim a worker who witnessed the gusts.

The winds were so strong, part of the roof ripped away from an entire apartment building.

The four families that lived in the affected part of the building are staying in a hotel. They can return as soon as their homes are safe to be in, officials said.

Meteor

Small Nuclear War Could Reverse Global Warming for Years

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© APA nuclear bomb explodes in a test on the Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia in the early seventies.
Regional war could spark "unprecedented climate change," experts predict.

Even a regional nuclear war could spark "unprecedented" global cooling and reduce rainfall for years, according to U.S. government computer models.

Widespread famine and disease would likely follow, experts speculate.

During the Cold War a nuclear exchange between superpowers - such as the one feared for years between the United States and the former Soviet Union - was predicted to cause a "nuclear winter."

In that scenario hundreds of nuclear explosions spark huge fires, whose smoke, dust, and ash blot out the sun for weeks amid a backdrop of dangerous radiation levels. Much of humanity eventually dies of starvation and disease.

Today, with the United States the only standing superpower, nuclear winter is little more than a nightmare. But nuclear war remains a very real threat - for instance, between developing-world nuclear powers, such as India and Pakistan.

Comment: Besides the suggestive undertones hinting that controlled regional nuclear warfare could be a GOOD thing for the planet, this rather sounds like a plausible cover story for atmospheric blasts produced by comets/asteroids and for the coming Ice Age (which will be precipitated by interaction with same, initially "at a distance" ref. McCanney).

Astronomers Victor Clube and Bill Napier even named their ground-breaking book on neo-catastrophism The Cosmic Winter, a play on the concept of a "nuclear winter" because of the high degree of probability that cometary bombardment will be mistaken for nuclear attack.


Radar

Iceland: Four day long earthquake swarm intensifies at Krísuvík volcano

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Picture is from Icelandic Met Office graphic web tool.
While this earthquake swarm in Krísuvík volcano does not appear to be big in size. It is clear that was rather long and might even be ongoing. But it is interesting how long this earthquake swarm did last. So far the time is about 2 days. It is impossible to know if the earthquake swarm is over or not. Current number of earthquakes is about 60 earthquakes so far.

The earthquakes are on North-South fault line according to the visual evidence. Depth of the earthquakes is from 12 km and up to 3 km at the moment. It is hard to know at the moment if this is due to magma inflow under Krísuvík volcano or just normal tectonic activity along the rift zone in Reykjanes.

Icelandic news about this earthquake swarm.

Hrina smáskjálfta í Krýsuvík (Vísir.is, Icelandic)