Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Australia: Perth's on Another Record Cold Spell

Lucy Rickard
The Sydney Morning Herald
Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:02 UTC
cold graphic
© n/aPerth is on track to experience longest cold spell in 13 years.
Perth is on track to breaking another weather record as low daytime temperatures continue this week.

Weatherzone meteorologist Robert Wood said widespread cloud cover was contributing to the "massive reduction" in day-time temperatures experienced across WA so far this month.

Perth is set to record its second day in a row where the mercury won't reach 14 degrees, which hasn't occurred for 13 years.

Despite the low maximums, Perth's overnight temperatures remained around 10 degrees for the past two nights, and today's highest temperature - 11.6 degrees at 12.30pm - is just 1.3 degrees higher than the overnight low recorded at 5.30am.

So far this month, Perth has had five consecutive days where the overnight temperatures dropped below five degrees, and on every day except one, the maximum had not exceeded 17 degrees.
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Butterfly

In U.S. Midwest, Butterflies May Be Far Fewer due to GMO and Herbicides

Andrew Pollack
The New York Times
Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:45 UTC
Monarch Butterfly
© Rich Beauchesne/Portsmouth HeraldThe use of a herbicide has taken away a home for monarchs.
As recently as a decade ago, farms in the Midwest were commonly marred - at least as a farmer would view it - by unruly patches of milkweed amid the neat rows of emerging corn or soybeans.

Not anymore. Fields are now planted with genetically modified corn and soybeans resistant to the herbicide Roundup, allowing farmers to spray the chemical to eradicate weeds, including milkweed.

And while that sounds like good news for the farmers, a growing number of scientists fear it is imperiling the monarch butterfly, whose spectacular migrations make it one of the most beloved of insects - "the Bambi of the insect world," as an entomologist once put it.

Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed, and their larvae eat it. While the evidence is still preliminary and disputed, experts like Chip Taylor say the growing use of genetically modified crops is threatening the orange-and-black butterfly by depriving it of habitat.
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Cloud Lightning

Volcanoes may cause more rain than realized

Elizabeth Weise
USA Today
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:48 UTC
Image
© AP

Volcanoes may release particles that can cause changes in local and regional weather at rates up to 100 million times higher than previously realized.

The eruption last spring of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano provided French scientists with the perfect natural laboratory to measure the levels of weather-changing particles released in such eruptions. Taking measurements at the Puy de Dôme research station in central France, they found was that the eruption released much larger amounts of particles at low levels in the atmosphere than previously known.

Volcanoes typically create two types of particles, big primary particles that quickly fall to the troposphere, the lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere, and smaller secondary particles, mostly composed of sulfuric acid, that react chemically with other molecules in the atmosphere and which are responsible for both local and global precipitation changes.
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Snowman

New Zealand: Severe Weather Warning Issued

Natasha Burling
News Talk ZB
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 03:28 UTC
A severe weather warning has been issued for more rain and snow that's set to batter the country today.

MetService is forecasting more heavy snow to nearly sea level in South Westland and Fiordland.

Snowfalls will affect all the main alpine passes and some roads in Southland and Otago.

Motorists are being advised to take extra care and check road conditions before travelling.

Heavy rain is also forecast for the Tararua Ranges today with 100 to 140 millimetres expected.

Warnings for severe gales in parts of Gisborne, Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa have been lifted.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Storm caused power loss for 868,000 in Chicago area, service restored to 502,000

Liam Ford, Ruth Fuller and Annie Sweeney
Chicago Tribune
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:06 UTC
Image
© Terrence Antonio James/TribuneComEd workers repaired downed lines in the alley behind Ozark Avenue near Montrose Avenue in Norridge.
Commonwealth Edison Co. reported substantial progress in restoring power lost in Monday's storms but that still left hundreds of thousands without electricity in sweltering heat. The utility warned it could take days to get everyone back on line.

A record 868,000 homes and businesses were left without power by the storms that ripped through the area at 75 mph--the highest number of outages in 13 years. But by 6 a.m. that had been reduced to 369,200.

The majority were in the northern suburbs, where 207,300 were still in the dark and without air conditioning. About 71,000 were west of the city, 60,000 in Chicago and Maywood and 30,000 in the south suburbs.

In total, power had been restored to 502,600 customers, said ComEd spokeswoman Tony Hernandez.

The last time a storm left a comparable number of customers without power was in 1998, when 865,000 customers lost power in one storm.

ComEd spokesperson Tony Hernandez told WGN radio's John Williams Monday afternoon that "this is going to be one for the record books."
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Bizarro Earth

Feels like 120: Temperature setting stuck on broil across US


MSNBC
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:16 UTC
Temperatures of 100 and above expected in 22 states; heat index could soar higher in areas

Temperatures of 100 degrees and above could hit 22 U.S. states Tuesday, forecasters warned, adding that it could feel like 115 degrees in parts of the Northeast and 120 in the South and Midwest.

Forecasters say the extreme heat could continue for most of the week and perhaps beyond. At the same time, many people won't be able to cool off by taking a dip: Swimming pools in some cities have closed because of budget cuts.


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Igloo

Prelude to Ice Ages: Volcanoes cause more rain than previously realized

Elizabeth Weise
USA Today
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:51 UTC
Image
© APIn this aerial image from video made Saturday May 8 2010, a renewed column of ash rises from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano.
Volcanoes may release particles that can cause changes in local and regional weather at rates up to 100 million times higher than previously realized.

The eruption last spring of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano provided French scientists with the perfect natural laboratory to measure the levels of weather-changing particles released in such eruptions. Taking measurements at the Puy de Dôme research station in central France, they found was that the eruption released much larger amounts of particles at low levels in the atmosphere than previously known.

Volcanoes typically create two types of particles, big primary particles that quickly fall to the troposphere, the lowest portion of Earth's atmosphere, and smaller secondary particles, mostly composed of sulfuric acid, that react chemically with other molecules in the atmosphere and which are responsible for both local and global precipitation changes.

Comment: Bingo!

SOTT has been saying that increased vulcanism is behind the increased precipitation for some time now.

Cosmic Climate Change is Underway
Eyjafjallajokull's eruption is another significant marker as we approach catastrophic climate change brought on by the build-up of comet dust in the upper atmosphere. The marked increase in the number of strong earthquakes and volcanism strengthens SOTT's hypothesis that the planet's rotation is slowing down, however slightly, weakening the magnetic field and thus literally "opening up" the planet.

Bear in mind that most volcanoes are underwater, so as they warm the planet's oceans more water is evaporated into the atmosphere where it meets the cooling upper atmosphere and precipitates rapidly as deluges of rain - or, as we've seen above, as snowfall where there shouldn't really be any. We are approaching a tipping point where the feedback loop rapidly locks the planet's climate cycles into ever-increasing precipitation falling back as snow. When we also factor in the low solar activity (sunspot numbers are at a 90-year low) and the planet's intensified water cycle (caused by the warming oceans), an abrupt system shift into a new Ice Age is in the cards. I don't dare call when this will happen, but I'm not alone in thinking that it will happen soon - very soon.


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Camera

Best of the Web: The Harbingers of Change Can Now Be Seen All Around the World! Mysterious Noctilucent Clouds Brighten Up Night Skies


International Business Times
Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:24 UTC
Image
© Martin McKenna/SpaceweatherNLC photographed near Dunluce Castle, Co. Antrim (North Coast), N. Ireland on July 9, 2011.
The season for spotting Noctilucent Clouds or the "night-shining" clouds has begun, NASA said in a statement in early July.

Noctilucent Clouds are composed of tiny ice crystals 40 to 100 nanometers wide, which is just the right size to scatter blue wavelengths of sunlight, a NASA scientist explained.

According to NASA, the best time and location to search for these breathtakingly beautiful phenomenon would be between mid-May and the end of August in the northern hemisphere. However, with no explanation yet found, these glowing, mystical clouds have been seen even as far south as Utah and Oregon and Denver, Colorado in the recent years.

Comment: For the possible explanation, read the comment at the end of the article.

Noctilucent Clouds were first observed in 19th century but their appearance has increased over time and are seasonal, appearing most often in late spring and summer every year.

Comment: Let us suggest a reason for why instances of noctilucent clouds are increasing and intensifying.

What we suspect has been happening, based on our research thus far, is that the upper atmosphere is cooling because it is being loaded with comet dust, which shows up in the form of noctilucent clouds and other upper atmospheric formations.

Magnificent and mesmerizing noctilucent clouds (also called polar mesospheric clouds), were once considered to be rare. But now they are puzzling scientists with their recent dramatic changes. Apparently, the clouds are growing brighter, are seen more frequently, are visible at ever lower latitudes and are now appearing even during the day. If scientists were allowed to conduct honest interdisciplinary research, such changes wouldn't be a mystery.

They would be able to figure out that comet dust is electrically-charged which is causing the earth's rotation to slow marginally. The slowing of the rotation is reducing the magnetic field, opening earth to more dangerous cosmic radiation and stimulating more volcanism. The volcanism under the sea is heating the sea water which is heating the lower atmosphere and loading it with moisture.

The moisture hits the cooler upper atmosphere and contributes to a deadly mix that inevitably leads to an Ice Age, preceded for a short period by a rapid increase of greenhouse gases and "hot pockets" in the lower atmosphere, heavy rains, hail, snow, and floods.

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Attention

US: Russell Springs, Kansas - Unusually Harsh Weather Conditions Cause Exceptionally Rare Hibernation Period in Prairie Dogs

Mike Corn
Hays Daily News
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:16 UTC
Image
© Mike Corn • Hays Daily NewsA young prairie dog is pictured last Friday in Logan County. Prairie dog numbers appear to be down as a result of unusually harsh weather that sent the animals into a rare hibernation
The unusually harsh weather conditions that sent black-tailed prairie dogs underground for what is believed to be an exceptionally rare hibernation period continues to affect the health of the animals.

Population estimates over at the Smoky Valley Ranch owned by the Nature Conservancy, for example, are considered to be about half of normal.

"I suppose it's about that way here," said Larry Haverfield, whose ranch south of Russell Springs has the largest concentration of prairie dogs in the area, and, as a result, the largest population of the highly endangered black-footed ferrets.

Haverfield said the first prairie dog pups of the year were spotted May 25, perhaps as many as 20 days later than normal.

Even then, the number of young in a litter appear to be fewer than normal.
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Cloud Lightning

US: Richmond County, North Carolina: Lightning kills 20 cows

Kelli Easterling
Daily Journal
Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:12 UTC
Image
© Unknown20 of Wesley and Sammy Anderson’s Angus cows were killed by lightning on Wednesday afternoon
A lightning storm Wednesday afternoon claimed the lives of 20 Angus cows belonging to Wesley and Sammy Anderson, of Ellerbe.

The cows congregated underneath a tree when the storm rolled in, and were killed when lightning struck and traveled through the group.

"We're fourth generation farmers, and my dad and I don't ever remember seeing anything like this," said Sammy. "I've heard of cows being hit standing in ponds, but not this many - and I've never seen it myself."

Sammy said that it's normal for cows to congregate under trees during storms.
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