Earth ChangesS


Cloud Lightning

Rain, hailstorm damage crops in Rajasthan, India


The Times of India
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:04 UTC
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© HarosMap of India indicating Rajasthan
The unseasonal rain dashed the hopes of farmers in the state who were expecting bumper Rabi crop. The rain has damaged crops in many parts of the state.

Complaints of crop damage have been pouring in from many villages of Bundi and other districts. Heavy rain coupled with hailstorms lashed Bundi district last night damaging crops of wheat, mustard, coriander and lentil.

Hailstorm lashed several villages, including Sukhpura, Gothera, Mandi, Bhagwanipura, Tokera, Panch ki Bawari of Hindoli sub-division last evening following which standing crop was damaged, Mandi village sarpanch Bhuribai said.

Hindoli MLA Prabhulal Saini has demanded a survey of the damage caused to the crop by the rain and appropriate compensation for affected farmers. Bundi sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Amanulla Khan said that the revenue officials have been asked to estimate the loss due to untimely thundershowers.

Reports of hailstorm and showers also came in from Hindoli, Nainwa, Lekhari and Bundi sub-divisions of the district. The thundershowers damaged crops of mustard and coriander seeds in Kankala, Utarana, Budhala and many villages of Lekhari sub-division last evening, officials said.
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Cloud Precipitation

Angola: Rain kills eight in Huíla and Huambo


Angop
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:01 UTC
Eight people were killed on Wednesday by heavy rains that hit the provinces of Huíla and Huambo.

This was said to Angop on Thursday by the spokesman of the National Civil Protection Fire Services (SNPCB), Faustino Sebastião.

He said that six people of the same family such as father, mother and four children die after the collapsing of their house in Patrice Lumumba ward, in the outskirt of Lubango city.
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Cloud Lightning

Heavy rains wreak havoc on agriculture, cause flooding in Lebanon

Mohammed Zaatari
The Daily Star
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:47 UTC
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© unknown
South Lebanon bore the brunt of Wednesday's deluge of rainfall, which is expected to level off Thursday.

While heavy rain slowed traffic and caused flooding throughout the country, the ports of Tyre and Sidon were closed to maritime activities, as fishermen stayed home.

The head of the fishermen's union, Khalil Taha, urged the agriculture minister to look into the situation of fishermen, who are complaining of inadequate government responses to calls for social assistance and benefits.

Tyre, which is undergoing extensive public works as part of a city-wide development plan, experienced flooded streets and major traffic congestion, as police and municipal officials sprung into action to clear the situation.

South of Tyre, one person was in critical condition after a car accident blamed on the heavy weather. Abbas Musa Aqil and his brother Muslim were driving a vehicle that slammed into an electricity pole during the storm. The National News Agency said both underwent surgery at a local hospital, and that one of them remained in critical condition.

In Sidon, the municipality ordered emergency crews to take action after the heavy rain caused flooding in areas near the coast, compounded by sewage networks that were overflowing.
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Cloud Lightning

Propaganda: UK storm blamed on climate change

Geoff Strong and Lindsay Murdoch
The Sydney Morning Herald
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:07 UTC
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© unknownDon't Drink the Fool-Aid!
As Australians from both ends of the country were yesterday cleaning up after storms and floods, a British study has concluded for the first time that an extreme storm in that country is likely to have doubled in intensity due to human induced climate change.

The study, published yesterday in the journal Nature, is significant because for the first time climate change has been blamed for a single event.

But Australian experts are divided over whether a similar study here would have been able to blame climate change for our recent floods and cyclones, because of different factors in play in the southern hemisphere.

The study concentrated on floods in 2000 that devastated parts of England and Wales, causing about $10 billion in damage. Researchers ran 1000 complex computer models to look at how the storms and floods were likely to have happened, both with and without the factors linked to climate change. It found that by adding in the factors the severity risk increased dramatically.

Former head of the CSIRO's Atmospheric Research Division, Dr Graeme Pearman, said that running a similar study in Australia might be able to conclude that recent events such as Queensland's floods or the intensity of cyclone Yasi were linked to global warming.
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Cloud Lightning

Cyclone Bingiza to Worsen Mozambique, Madagascar Floods, UN Says

Brian Latham
Bloomberg
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 11:01 UTC
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© NasaTropical Cyclone Bingiza made landfall on Madagascar on February 14, 2011
Tropical cyclone Bingiza could lead to further flooding in Madagascar and Mozambique where heavy rains have left soils saturated and people without homes, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Between 4,000 and 9,600 households, equivalent to as many as 48,000 people, are likely to be affected by flooding in the Zambezi river valley in Mozambique, OCHA, as the organization is known, said in an e-mailed statement today.

Flooding in southern Africa has affected South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola during the last eight weeks. Crop damage in South Africa, the continent's largest economy, could cost the nation more than $282 million after grape farms were submerged, while OCHA estimates that almost 1 percent of Mozambique's crops have been destroyed by rising water.
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Cloud Lightning

Propaganda: Studies link heavy rains, floods to global warming


Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 10:49 UTC
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© Scooterbaby.comRetro-style Global Warming Propaganda
Two scientific studies appearing in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature were the first to directly link warming climate conditions and greenhouse emissions to major flooding and heavy rains.

One study on the Northern Hemisphere showed that the likelihood of extreme precipitation on any day rose about 7 per cent in the last half of the 20th century.

A second study by Myles Allen of the University of Oxford in Britain and his colleagues found that human-caused climate change had nearly doubled the risk of extremely wet weather that caused floods.

Until now, climate scientists have projected that temperature increases would be accompanied by heavy rains, but studies had been unable to lay out such stark connections, the authors of the studies said.
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Phoenix

Mysterious lava substance oozes from the ground in India


The Extinction Protocol
Tue, 08 Feb 2011 08:14 UTC
Image
© Unknown
In a strange phenomenon, a black chemical substance gushed out from the earth, creating panic in Maddikera village in Kurnool district on Monday. Huge cavities also formed in the three acres of land owned by a farmer, Nagaiah, of Maddikere, about 100 km from Kurnool, soon after the black substance spewed out from beneath the land. Nagaiah said it damaged the soil. The nearby grass caught fire when the black substance spread like lava from a volcano. A cement electric pole in the vicinity collapsed. Nagaiah said he first saw the phenomenon two days ago. Officials rushed to the village to take stock of the strange occurrence. Experts said they would conduct studies to unravel the mystery behind the spewing out of the blackish material from beneath.

- Times of India
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People

Residents near Japanese volcano urged to evacuate

Saika Takano
Reuters
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 08:25 UTC
Shinmoedake
More than 2,500 people living near a volcano that has been spewing ash in southern Japan were advised to evacuate their homes Thursday after heavy rain threatened mudslides of accumulated ash, a local official said.

Shinmoedake began erupting in late January, in its biggest activity in some 300 years. The volcanic activity has disrupted airline flights and blanketed nearby vegetable farms with ash, but there have been no reports of serious injury or deaths.

The Japan Meteorological Agency expected rainfall of more than 4 mm (0.16 inch) per hour to last until Thursday night, an amount that the local government said could cause mudslides.

The official, in the city of Miyakonojo, said 63 people had moved to evacuation centers by midday.
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Cloud Lightning

Australia: Drivers rescued as wild storm brings flash floods in Victoria

Shannon Deery & Nathan Mawby
Herald Sun
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 01:22 UTC
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© Supplied A car stuck in floodwaters at Canterbury Rd, Bayswater North.
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© Peter Buchstaller/SuppliedSevere storms have swept through Melbourne, hitting suburbs including Bayswater.
Victorians should brace for more rain and flash flooding after storms lashed the state last night.

Bureau of Meterology forecaster Terry Ryan said our summer deluge will continue well into the weekend, the Herald Sun said.

"There will be more rain today, and possible storms, with the heaviest rain expected in the ranges," Mr Ryan said.

"And we're expecting heavy falls tomorrow night or early Saturday morning."

Mr Ryan said the weekend storms, which could see 50mm rainfalls, could cause significant flash flooding around the state.

Last night, dozens of motorists were rescued by SES volunteers as storms lashed the city and suburbs.
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Igloo

Farmers Deposit Seeds in Arctic Doomsday Vault, Patrolled by Polar Bears

Matthew Hall
AOL News
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 07:25 UTC
Farmers from Australia are the latest donors to a polar bear-patrolled Arctic doomsday vault that stores seeds as insurance against an international food emergency.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a converted mine, is located about 800 miles from the North Pole in Arctic Norway.

An Australian delegation of farmers and scientists next week will deposit 301 samples of peas and 42 rare chickpeas in the vault, intending to protect the plant species from extinction by climatic or man-made events.

Svalbard
© John McConnico, Associated PressAustralian farmers and scientists next week will deposit 301 samples of peas and 42 rare chickpeas in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, shown here in 2008.
"It's a very robust structure, concrete, made into the side of a mountain at Svalbard in the Spitsbergen Highlands in the Arctic," said Dr. Tony Gregson, a farmer and scientist with Plant Health Australia, an agriculture industry body.

According to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault website, the facility's main purpose is "to store duplicates ('back ups') of all seed samples from the world's crop collections. Permafrost and thick rock ensure that, even in the case of a power outage, the seed samples will remain frozen."
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