Earth Changes
© lompocrecord.com
Aerial fire retardant drop on 70+ burning acres of hillside.
Aerial fire retardant drop on 70+ burning acres of hillside.
The fire started a half mile from Camino Cielo, west of Montecito Peak. Windy, dry Santa Ana conditions are fueling the fire, which was first reported at 5:16 a.m., according to the Montecito Fire Protection District.
Santa Barbara County fire Capt. Dave Zaniboni told the Associated Press winds of 25 mph are pushing the fire to the east. A helicopter and 10 engines are on scene to assist hand crews working on the ground, and a unified command is being established with Montecito Fire, the U.S. Forest Service and Santa Barbara city and county fire departments.
Northerly gusts are expected to shift to the northeast Thursday night, becoming the first significant Santa Ana wind event of the season, AP reports. When those winds sweep down the mountains toward the sea, they create dangerous air turbulence that can prevent aircraft from getting close enough to drop, said Jim Kunkle, a contractor who runs the Santa Maria Air Tanker Base.
Two firefighting aircraft were unable to drop retardant because of air turbulence as of 8:45 a.m. One other air tanker made a successful drop of 1,200 gallons. The Forest Service has ordered more than 10 tankers, Kunkle said via a statement from the emergency management office. "They're going after everything they can get," he said.
Updated 10:38 a.m.: Evacuation warning zone expanded
The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management has expanded the areas under evacuation warnings. The area now includes zones 2 through 5.
© unknown
Gibraltar Fire at the northern edge of Santa Barbara and Montecito, CA, threatens residences.
Gibraltar Fire at the northern edge of Santa Barbara and Montecito, CA, threatens residences.
Comment: The Santa Ana winds, that funnel down the face of the mountain range towards the cities of Santa Barbara and Montecito, increase exponentially as evening approaches, complicating the efforts of firefighters and greatly increasing the risk of fire tornadoes and exploding trees. A full-out initial effort offers the best advantage to achieve a quick containment, especially in steep and remote terrain. That window can be frightfully small.
While one incident was reported at Padalur in Perambalur district, another was at Lalapet in Karur district. Sources said lightning hit when S. Chidambaram (50) and his mother Chinnammal (70) were harvesting onion at a field in Padalur when they were struck by lightning.
Passersby shifted them to the nearby Primary Health Centre where both of them were declared brought dead. The victim, who was killed by lightning in Lalapet, was identified as Meera alias Saradha (40). She was working in a betel field when tragedy struck her.
© Eduardo Rodriguez
Floodwater in Costa Rica
Floodwater in Costa Rica
Local media are reporting that 2 people have died as a result of the severe weather. One of the victims, a young girl, died in flood waters in Paramo de Perez Zeledon, about 30 km from San Isidro. The other victim died in a landslide in San Rafael de Naranjo.
Affected Areas
The National Emergency Commission (CNE) in Costa Rica say that flooding has been reported in San José, Desamparados, Aserrí, Alajuelita, Escazú, Montes de Oca, Tibás, Goicoechea, Cartago, Alajuela and Heredia.
CNE say there have been at least 125 incidents of flooding around the country so far. Seven families had to be evacuated from their homes near the María Aguilar river in the La Puñalada de Sagrada Familia area of San José.
In a statement yesterday, the Mayor of San José,Sandra García, said the city had seen over 60 mm of rain in 24 hours, which is more than twice the normal daily amount. She also acknowledged that work needs to be done in order to better protect the city from future flooding, including improvement of sewage and storm water systems and the clearing of drainage ditches and canals.
Eight quakes rocked the areas around Turangi and Tokoroa between 3.14am and 3.43am, while two other quakes shook near Te Anau and St Arnaud in the South Island.
The rattles kicked off at 3.14am when a 3.4 magnitude quake shook 10km west of Turangi. At a depth of 7km, GeoNet classified the quake as moderate. Around 10 people reported feeling the shake.
It was followed a minute later by a 3.3 magnitude quake 5km south-east of Tokoroa, at a depth of 28km.
The earthquake, which struck at 6:49 p.m. AKDT, was centered about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Amchitka, or about 32 miles (51 kilometers) west of Little Sitkin Island. It struck about 68 miles (110 kilometers) deep, making it a relatively deep earthquake, according to the National Tsunami Warning Center.
The warning center said a tsunami is not expected, and no tsunami warnings or watches are in effect.
Amchitka Island is a volcanic and tectonically unstable island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands. It has had no permanent population since 1832.
Screen capture taken Monday showing the USGS interactive earthquake map. The swarm is makai of Highway 11, north of Pahala town.
An interactive USGS map shows the location of the quakes, and the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory had this to say in Tuesday's Kilauea status update:
"The increase in earthquake activity on the southwest rift of Kīlauea continues. Earthquake swarms in this area are not unusual, and have not correlated with any significant change in activity of the volcano. These deep earthquakes (20-40 km or 12-25 miles) are associated with the conduit supplying magma from the mantle hotspot to the volcano's summit. "
USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory on Oct. 27, 2015
© Randy Becker
A crack opened up in the Big Horn Hills of Wyoming
A crack opened up in the Big Horn Hills of Wyoming
© Randy Becker
Comment: Though not much publicized, the Earth's rotation has been measured to be slightly slowing. Could this phenomenon have partly contributed to the Wyoming event?
- Earth's rotation slowing down: French time lords add one second to 2015
- Russian scientist: Slowdown in Earth's rotation means we're on the verge of major climatic upheaval
- Japan's quake shifts earth's axis by 25 centimetres
© Chen Leopold/FLASH90
The flooded Weizman Street, in the central Israeli city of Raanana, due to heavy rain, October 28, 2015.
The flooded Weizman Street, in the central Israeli city of Raanana, due to heavy rain, October 28, 2015.
Heavy rains down power lines, leave hundreds stranded in major cities in Sharon region
Residents of Herzliya, Ra'anana and Kfar Saba faced heavy floods Wednesday as a brief but intense winter storm swept the area, closing major roads and flooding whole neighborhoods.
Three days after a storm knocked out power for tens of thousands of Israeli homes, Wednesday's downpour left some 15,000 households in the dark for the second time in less than a week.
Ahead of the storm, police and fire crews raised their alert level and beefed up deployment, while the Israel Electric Company called on the public to report any fallen electrical wires and readied crews in case of electricity outages.
Despite preparations, severe disruptions were reported across the area.
Comment: See our latest video recap of some of the other earth changes that occurred in September:
SOTT Earth Changes Summary - September 2015: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs