Earth ChangesS


Snowman

Storm dumps more on snow-weary Wichita

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© Bo Rader/The Wichita EagleA Kansas Highway Patrol trooper comes to the aid of a motorist on the off ramp from I-235 to Zoo Boulevard. Numerous cars slid off the ice-covered ramp Tuesday morning with several cars getting stuck. Troopers closed the ramp until salt trucks could treat the road.
Closings, cancellations and accidents piled up with the snow in the Wichita area Tuesday as the latest in a series of winter storms dumped snow on the metropolitan area.

The Wichita public school district was one of several that have canceled classes today. Also canceling classes: Andover, Derby, Goddard, Haysville, Maize, Newton, Rose Hill, Valley Center and the Catholic Diocese of Wichita.

About 4 1/2 inches of snow had fallen at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport by 10 p.m. Tuesday.

National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Schminke said up to 1 1/2 inches more snow was expected overnight before tapering off after 6 a.m. today.

Wichita's parochial schools closed at 2 p.m. Tuesday and all USD 259 after-school and evening activities were canceled as the snow continued to fall.

Tuesday's storm came a week after a winter storm packing high winds, low temperatures and plenty of snow closed schools and made driving miserable for much of last week.

Arrow Down

Record Low Temperatures All Across New Mexico

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© UnknownThe doves seem to be having a difficult time coping with the cold.
The villages of Angel Fire and Eagle Nest in Northern New Mexico boasted the coldest temperature in the country at -36 F (-37.7 C) on Thursday morning. Albuquerque set a record low temperature of -7 F (-21.6 C) surpassing the previous low set in 1939. Five other cities set all-time records, Moriarty -34 F, Pecos -31 F, Ruidoso -27, Capitan -22, and Socorro -14. Moriarty is about 40 miles East of Albuquerque on the East side of the Sandia Mountains. Temperature highs around the state ranged from a low of 9 F at Ruidoso to 25 F in Silver City in Southwest New Mexico. I recorded a high of 18 F (-7.7 C) for the day. Winds here were less of a factor than previous days with a high reading of only 9 mph. As a result of the unusually cold temperatures, approximately 32,000 people around the state are still without natural gas as a result of frozen regulators in the pipe line coming out of Texas.

Overnight temperatures moderated somewhat around the state on Friday morning. My home, at the Eastern edge of Albuquerque, recorded a low of 7 F (-13.8 C) this morning. It has now warmed to 33 F (0.5 C), the wind has switched to WSW at 1 to 2 mph, and the sky is clear. All of our major snow drifts have been cleared and we are almost back to normal.

Bizarro Earth

UK: Farmer Devastated as Prize Flock Dies in Freak Weather

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A farmer says he is "devastated" after seeing more than 200 of his elite sheep drowned in a flash flood.

It is the second time in just over a year that Eryl Morris has been hit by the River Dee bursting its banks.

The flood, early on Sunday, has cost him many thousands of pounds and the pride of his flock.

Mr Morris was away in Buckinghamshire helping a sheep farming friend when millions of gallons of water poured on to the rich Bangor-on-Dee grazing land he has farmed for more than a decade.

Almost too upset to speak from the south of England yesterday, he said: "I am totally devastated by this - I have lost a hell of a lot sheep."

His wife Glenys said: "It was 12 hours of flash flooding that did the damage and it started about 1am.

"When I heard on the radio that Bala was flooded I knew we were in trouble too.

"The same thing happened to us in November, 2009, but although we lost some sheep then - about 40-50 - it wasn't anything like this.

"Altogether 230 of our sheep have died and another 70 were saved by the fire service and other people who were going out there in canoes I think.

Igloo

Schools Prepare as Record Cold May Follow Snow, Sleet in Dallas-Fort Worth

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© Michael Hamtil / StaffA lone pedestrian crosses the snowy, windswept DART tracks on Bryan Street Wednesday morning in downtown Dallas.
The arctic cold that sent temperatures tumbling Wednesday and left streets and highways treacherously slick with sleet and ice will continue Thursday with record low temperatures overnight - in the single digits some places - and more icy road conditions.

From 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Dallas police responded to more than a dozen accidents on North Central Expressway and LBJ Freeway. Althought most of the exposed freeway roadways are clear, ice remains dangerous underneath bridges and overpasses.

Conditions on highways deteriorated throughout Wednesday as sleet and snow fell - up to 3 inches in McKinney, which was among the hardest-hit spots locally. A winter storm warning is in effect through 6 p.m.

School officials were already making plans for the freezing weather overnight.

Frisco, McKinney and Allen ISDs said they would open on a two-hour delay on Thursday, while other area districts are so far opting to wait until Thursday morning to make a decision.

Southern Methodist University , which had been open during the day, canceled Wednesday night classes at its Dallas and Plano campuses. A decision regarding Thursday will be announced in the morning.

But even though afternoon temperatures will struggle to reach the freezing mark, Thursday should be the end of the brutally cold weather across the Dallas area for the next week to 10 days, forecasters said.

X

Blizzard roars through US's snow-weary midsection

A second powerful blizzard in a week roared through parts of the nation's midsection on Wednesday, whipping up biting winds and dumping a foot of snow in areas still digging out from last week's major storm.

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© Associated Press Photo/Salina Journal, Tom DorseyAnn Gaines is caked with snow Tuesday morning Feb. 8, 2011, as she cleans her driveway in Salina, Kan. Between three to four inches of snow fell in the Salina area by mid-morning, with the temperature at 5 degrees.
The storm that rolled into Oklahoma on Tuesday had dropped about a foot of snow by Wednesday morning in Bartlesville, about 50 miles north of Tulsa, and another 9 inches across the state line in Siloam Springs, Ark., said Michael Lacy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tulsa. He said strong winds created blizzard conditions that limited visibility and made travel hazardous.

Heavy snow was reported in parts of Kansas and Texas, where many school districts cancelled classes in anticipation of yet another round of unusually icy weather.

Question

UK: Government vets investigate five swans' deaths

swan
© Unknown
Government veterinary officers are working to establish how five swans died in the County Down area.

It is understood two more birds are ill. The dead birds' remains were found on private land in the Killyleagh area.

A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (Dard) said the swans had been removed so that post-mortem exams could be carried out.

"This is the second case that has been brought to our attention," he said.

Bizarro Earth

Next Central U.S. Earthquake May Not Strike New Madrid

The most powerful earthquakes known to have hit the central U.S. were the New Madrid quakes of 1811 and 1812. Now, a new study suggests that the next 'Big One' in the region may not occur along the New Madrid fault, but somewhere else.

The new research, published in the journal Lithosphere, examined earthquake records in China. Earthquakes have been recorded and described in China for some 2,000 years, but have never occurred twice in the same place.

"In North China, where large earthquakes occur relatively frequently, not a single one repeated on the same fault segment in the past 2,000 years," said Mian Liu, a professor of geological sciences at University of Missouri and one of the authors of the new study. "So we need to look at the 'big picture' of interacting faults, rather than focusing only on the faults where large earthquakes occurred in the recent past."

Different faults form a web of interacting stresses. A large earthquake on one fault can increase stress on a different fault. Important faults can remain dormant for years then jolt awake in a brief period of violent activity.

Better Earth

SOTT Focus: Pole Shift in March? Not Likely!

I've recently become aware, via some Facebook posts, that there are a number of people posting videos on youtube about an alleged coming Pole Shift in March of this year. It seems that these people are using my posts about Comet Elenin along with my astronomer friend's little comet animation, without our permission to promote this ridiculous idea.


Comment: See also: Bright Prospects for Comet Elenin?

Comet Elenin is Coming!

Abnormal Sunbound comets may mean larger one to come


Bizarro Earth

CALIPSO Spies Polar Stratospheric Clouds

Polar Stratospheric Clouds
© Earth Observatory / NASANASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using CALIPSO data provided by the Langley Atmospheric Science Data Center, with meteorological analyses by Andreas Dörnbrack, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
Polar Stratospheric Clouds_1
© Earth Observatory / NASA
NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite was in the right place at the right time earlier this month. On January 4, 2011, while flying over the east coast of Greenland, CALIPSO caught a top-down glimpse of an unusual atmospheric phenomenon - polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), also known as nacreous clouds.

Clouds do not usually form in the stratosphere because of the dry conditions. But in the polar regions, often near mountain ranges, atmospheric gravity waves in the lower atmosphere (troposphere) can push just enough moisture into the high altitudes. The extremely low temperatures of the stratosphere condense ice and nitric acid into clouds that play an important role in depletion of stratospheric ozone.

Bizarro Earth

Icelandic Volcano 'Set to Erupt'

Scientists in Iceland are warning that another volcano looks set to erupt and threatening to spew-out a pall of dust that would dwarf last year's event.

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© ReutersLava and ash explode out of the caldera of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano
Geologists detected the high risk of a new eruption after evaluating an increased swarm of earthquakes around the island's second largest volcano.

Pall Einarsson, a professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland, says the area around Bárdarbunga is showing signs of increased activity, which provides "good reason to worry".