Earth Changes

Car falls into large sinkhole at intersection in Fort Worth, Texas

fox4news.com
Thu, 03 Jan 2019 11:36 UTC

The driver of a Lexus sedan ended up in a sinkhole that opened up in Fort Worth, Jan. 3, 2019.

It may not have snowed in the Dallas-Fort Worth area but road conditions were still bad Thursday morning. And one street in Fort Worth developed a sinkhole.

The hole opened up on the corner of 7th and Carroll streets around 8:30 a.m.

Police said they initially got a call about a large pothole at the intersection. But when officers pulled up, they found something much bigger.

Severe winter weather forecast for parts of US and Europe as the polar vortex splits into 3 pieces

Andrew Freedman
Axios Science
Thu, 03 Jan 2019 10:43 UTC

© GFS model via Judah Cohen/AER Verisk
Computer model projected 10 mb geopotential heights (dam; contours) across the Northern Hemisphere for Jan. 2 through Jan. 18.

Scientists are seeing signs that global weather patterns toward the latter half of January and into February may shift significantly to usher in severe winter weather for parts of the U.S. and Europe.

How it works: The possible changes are being triggered by a sudden and drastic warming of the air in the stratosphere, some 100,000 feet above the Arctic, and by a resulting disruption of the polar vortex - an area of low pressure at high altitudes near the pole that, when disrupted, can wobble like a spinning top and send cold air to the south. In this case, it could split into three pieces, and those pieces would determine who gets hit the hardest.

The big picture: Studies show that what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic, and rapid Arctic warming may paradoxically be leading to more frequent cold weather outbreaks in Europe, Asia and North America, particularly later in the winter.

During the past 2 weeks, a sudden stratospheric warming event has taken place, showing up first in the Siberian Arctic, and then spreading over the North Pole.

Such events occur when large atmospheric waves surge beyond the troposphere and into the layer of air above it. Such a vertical transport of energy can rapidly warm the stratosphere, and set in motion a chain reaction that disrupts the stratospheric polar vortex.
Sudden stratospheric warming events are known to affect the weather in the U.S. and Europe on a time delay - typically on the order of a week to several weeks later, and their effects may persist for more than a month.

Snow blankets parts of the Texas desert - lowest overnight temperatures for 5 years

Tim Stickings
Daily Mail
Thu, 03 Jan 2019 22:12 UTC

Footage taken from a car window near El Paso, Texas, shows the usually arid desert blanketed in snow as the West and Southwest of the United States are hit by cold weather

This extraordinary footage from Texas reveals how huge stretches of America's deserts have been blanketed in snow.

The video, taken from the window of a car, shows the usually dry and arid plains covered in white near El Paso amid the big freeze in the desert.

In improbable scenes snow has fallen on the Grand Canyon and cactuses in the Arizona desert this week, as temperatures dropped below freezing in the West and Southwest.

Today the National Weather Service issued a freeze warning for the desert in California where temperatures were tipped to drop as low as 25F overnight.

The footage from the car was posted online by a Twitter user called Marcus.

It shows vegetation by the side of the road dusted in white, with a layer of snow on the ground and on the roofs of nearby buildings.

Comment: Related article: Snow on saguaros: Desert cities in US Southwest see freeze

Sun pillars and sun dogs seen in southeastern Manitoba, Canada

Connor Gerbrandt
Steinbach Online
Sat, 28 Dec 2019 22:09 UTC

Many people in Steinbach have noticed some unusual light phenomena in the skies over the past couple of days in the form of sun dogs and sun pillars.

Local meteorologist Scott Kehler explains that sun pillars are a vertical beam of light moving away from the sun while sun dogs are little arcs that appear on either side of the sun. Despite their difference in appearance, Kehler says these events are connected.

"They both tend to be related to ice crystals in the air, though the way they are produced is a little bit different. From my recollection, sun pillars occur when the sun is lower in the sky and the sun dogs happen when it is higher in the sky."

Kehler indicates that the conditions for either of these phenomena to occur are quite specific. "Something a lot of people don't realize is that liquid water can actually exist in the atmosphere up to minus 40." This means that ice crystals only really begin to form in significantly colder weather.

Newfoundland rings in 2019 with up to 58 cm (22 inches) of snow

Daksha Rangan
The Weather Network
Thu, 03 Jan 2019 20:26 UTC

Many across Newfoundland welcomed the new year with a shovel in hand, as a potent winter storm delivered a wide range of 20 to 50 cm of snow.

By the time the snow tapered off Wednesday night, Gander had seen 58 cm of snow, while St. John's reached 43 cm.

For those in Gander, this blizzard event rivals the town's current record for the most snow seen in a single day: a whopping 58.6 cm, which fell on March 18, 1993.

Powerful winds accompanied the winter weather, as gusts between 90 and 130 km/h hit areas along the northeast and south coasts.

Four skiers still missing after Norway avalanche

The Guardian
Thu, 03 Jan 2019 19:55 UTC

Police said there was a high risk of triggering

Weather stops rescuers from continuing search for tourists from Sweden and Finland

Four tourists from Sweden and Finland are still missing, a day after they were feared to have been swept away by an avalanche in Arctic Norway, police have said.

The avalanche occurred on Wednesday in the northern Norwegian region of Troms. Three Finns and a Swede were skiing in the area and were reported to police as missing at around 1500 GMT, police said.

Weather conditions did not allow rescue crew to continue their work on Thursday, although the searches were not called off.

"The snow mass is huge. There is a high risk of triggering a new avalanche ... and there is a small storm in the area," Troms police chief Astrid Elisabeth Nilsen told a news conference.

Pajarito Ski Resort in New Mexico receives 3 feet of snow in 24 hours

krqe.com
Thu, 03 Jan 2019 19:37 UTC

Pajarito Ski Resort is celebrating after the ski area reported 36 inches of snow in the last 24 hours.

KRQE News 13 viewer Tim Lovell sent in photos of the area.

Lovell said he could barely move as he was knee deep in the snow.

The accumulated snowfall got so heavy it was bending trees.

Comment: Related article: Snow on saguaros: Desert cities in US Southwest see freeze

Alabama photographer captures 'upside-down rainbow'

Tom Smith
Times Daily
Mon, 30 Dec 2019 18:41 UTC

Johnny Raper was spending Wednesday afternoon at the Rockpile Recreation area near Wilson Dam in hopes of photographing bald eagles that sometimes visit there.

He got the photo of the bald eagles, but he also got a picture of something he had never seen before - a circumhorizon arc or as Raper calls it "an upside-down rainbow."

"I had been watching a juvenile eagle up in a tree waiting and watching for it to fly to get a photo," said Raper, of Florence. "I turned around to watch a pelican in the river and when I turned back to look at the eagle, there was this cloud with all these colors.

"I had never seen anything like it before, and I grabbed my camera and started trying to take photos. It was there maybe five minutes, I got three photos and it was gone," Raper said. "It was amazing. So glad I got to see it and got a photo."

According to Andy Kula, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Huntsville, a circumhorizontal arc is an "optical phenomenon" cause by ice crystals in the clouds.

Spectacular mammatus clouds form over Sydney

SBS
Wed, 02 Jan 2019 16:38 UTC

Dramatic backlit mammatus clouds over Sydney.

An unusual cloud formation has covered skies in parts of Sydney as NSW was again hit by wild weather.

Social media has lit up after an unusual cloud formation was seen around Sydney on Wednesday.

Known as mammatus clouds, the formation is most often associated with thunderstorms.

"Never seen anything like it," one Twitter user wrote.

Trumpeting sounds heard in the skies of southwestern Quebec, Canada

Sott.net
Wed, 02 Jan 2019 15:43 UTC

On January 2, 2019, YouTube user 'Saba rah' posted video footage of strange sounds she heard in the skies of Pierrefonds, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She reports that she's heard the sound before, 'but this time was really intense'.

"The FDA has many decisions to make beyond just approving the drug, or not. It must decide whether pregnant women - and any other at-risk groups -...

prehistoric

Many people who are hesitant to be vaccinated for Covid-19 see the drug as a treatment or prophylactic for the disease, though so far there is no...

Good Optics

With mail in voting likely to become a thing, does it really matter any more? Stick a fork in us...this country is done.

Bezel Bub

Other comets coming sooner, although not quite as big. E.g. "Leonard" this December https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2021_A1_(Leonard)

Tsidkenu

Tornadoes here in Aus too, as I reported here [Link]

Tsidkenu

Earth Changes

Car falls into large sinkhole at intersection in Fort Worth, Texas

Severe winter weather forecast for parts of US and Europe as the polar vortex splits into 3 pieces

Snow blankets parts of the Texas desert - lowest overnight temperatures for 5 years

Sun pillars and sun dogs seen in southeastern Manitoba, Canada

Newfoundland rings in 2019 with up to 58 cm (22 inches) of snow

Four skiers still missing after Norway avalanche

Pajarito Ski Resort in New Mexico receives 3 feet of snow in 24 hours

Alabama photographer captures 'upside-down rainbow'

Spectacular mammatus clouds form over Sydney

Trumpeting sounds heard in the skies of southwestern Quebec, Canada

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