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Wed, 27 Oct 2021
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Snowflake

Snow piling up at Red Lodge Mountain, Montana with 2 feet of new snow over weekend

Red Lodge Mountain
Red Lodge Mountain has reported two new feet of snow over the weekend, with more on the way.

The mountain shared a photo of the snowfall on its Facebook page Monday.

Check out current conditions on the mountain's web cam here.

The ski season is scheduled to start in Red Lodge the day after Thanksgiving.


Binoculars

Swainson's thrush from North America spotted in Shetland, Scotland after a wrong turn

Swainson's thrush

Swainson's thrush
One of the rarest species of visiting birds to Britain has turned up on Shetland when it should have been on its way to South America.

A Swainson's thrush, classed as "mega rare" in the UK, landed at Lerwick on Sunday, having taken a wrong turn. Instead of being in jungle it found itself several thousand miles off course in a wintry garden.

There are only usually a couple of recorded sightings in the UK each year and in many years, none. The Swainson's thrush (Catharus ustulatus), also called olive-backed thrush, can grow up to 8in long and is noted for its beautiful voice. It was named after William Swainson, an English ornithologist.

The bird breeds in Canada, Alaska and parts of the US, and migrates to Mexico or as far south as Argentina. Its coastal subspecies migrate down the Pacific coast and winter from Mexico to Costa Rica.

Cloud Precipitation

Floods trap over 100 villages in northeast Nigeria

FLOODS
Over 100 villages in Nigeria's northeastern state of Adamawa have been trapped by floods, caused by persistent rainfall in that part of the country, a local official said on Monday.

While confirming the development to reporters, Muhammad Sulaiman, head of the state emergency management agency, described the current flood situation as the worst ever experienced in the state.

The villages affected cut across seven local government areas of Adamawa, affecting mostly farmers, Sulaiman said.

During an on-the-spot assessment by a team of government officials on Sunday, the official said they observed that in some villages, farmers were seen trying to evacuate what is left of their affected rice and maize.


Info

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Lost Khmer city found and vertical fish farms Asia

Mahendraparvata

Mahendraparvata - an eighth to ninth century capital of the empire - was believed to have existed in the Southeast Asian state in the Angkor period in Cambodia (Pictured: The newly discovered main axes of Mahendraparvata)
Multiple square mile sized Khmer city discovered in NW Cambodia in the highlands plateau, Singapore setting up eight floored vertical fish farming facilities, indoor grow lights and rollerblader in record deep snow Canada.


Comment: Ancient 'lost city' of Khmer Empire is found in Cambodia


Tornado1

Cyclone Kyarr, the strongest storm on Earth, is breaking all sorts of records

Cyclone Kyarr

Cyclone Kyarr
The northern hemisphere's quietest tropical cyclone basin is currently going off. Cyclone Kyarr formed on Thursday and quickly spun up in the Indian Ocean into the most powerful storm on the planet. While the storm won't have a huge impact on land, it's already making its present felt in the record books in what's been a weird and bad year in general for tropical cyclones, a classification that includes tropical storms, hurricanes, and typhoons as well.

Cyclone Kyarr rapidly intensified over the weekend, going from the equivalent of a Category 2 to Category 4 storm in just six hours on Saturday. It's currently packing winds of around 150 mph, putting it on the high end of Category 4. That makes it a "super cyclonic storm," according to the Indian Meteorological Department. It's also the first such system to form in the Arabian Sea since June 2007's Cyclone Gonu. That system made landfall in the Middle East, inflicting the most widespread damage in Oman despite weakening considerably by landfall.

During its rapid intensification, Kyarr's pressure bombed out to 915 millibars. The lower the pressure, generally the more intense the storm. And in the case of Kyarr, the 915 millibar reading set a new record for Arabian Sea cyclones (a 1999 cyclone that formed on the other side of the Indian Ocean holds the all-time low pressure record for the basin).


Seismograph

Philippines hit by 6.6-magnitude earthquake, two weeks after deadly tremor in same region

Philippines quake damage
© Jaypee Catalan via Reuters
A damaged local town hall is seen in Mabini, Davao Del Sur, Philippines after a magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck October 29, 2019 in this picture obtained from social media
A 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck the southern Philippines on Tuesday, geologists said, injuring people and damaging buildings while sending terrified locals fleeing into the streets as schools and offices opened for the day.

The shallow tremor hit the island of Mindanao in the same region where a deadly quake struck earlier this month, the US Geological Survey said, adding there was no tsunami threat.

The quake hit near the town of Kisante, less than 100km from Davao City, the hometown of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and one of the most populated cities in the country. It was about 50km deep.


"Our municipal hall has been destroyed," said Reuel Limbungan, mayor of Tulunan, a town near the epicentre.

"We are receiving lots of reports of injuries, but we have to confirm them," he said.

Rescue teams have begun fanning out to assess the damage to the region, where electricity and phone services were knocked out by the power of the quake.


Rainbow

Circumzenithal arc snapped in skies above Prestatyn, Wales

Circumzenithal arc over Prestatyn, Wales
© Stuart Prince
This rare upside-down rainbow was snapped in the skies over Prestatyn by aviation photographer Stuart Prince.

The circumzenithal arc, sometimes known as Bravais' arc, is a type of Halo.

Stuart, 50, said: "It is rarely seen as the conditions have to be just right and is formed when light reflects off ice crystals."

Stuart, who photographs aircraft around the world - including North Korea - added: "It was such a beautiful sky that afternoon. I looked up and was amazed to see the smile in the sky overhead.

"I was just about to walk my boxer dog Ben to Prestatyn beach when i saw the arc."

Snowflake

SNOW falls in the Western Cape, South Africa in late October!

SNOW
Yes, it's meant to almost be summer, less than two months till Christmas! But, as predicted by Snow Report SA on Friday, a flurry of snow has fallen in parts of South Africa overnight and this morning, 28 Oct 2019... with delighted South Africans sharing their photos and video of this fairly rare occurrence, to receive snow so late in the season.

As parts of South Africa are battling heatwaves and drought, the Western Cape has instead been hit by cold fronts over the weekend... and snow has covered mountain peaks from Kaaimansgat, Villiersdorp to Tulbagh, Worcester and the aptly named Sneeukop (Snow Head) outside of Rawsonville.


Cloud Precipitation

Thousands forced to live in tents as floods hit 11 districts in North Sumatra, Indonesia

Floodwaters
Floodwaters inundated at least 11 districts across Batubara regency in North Sumatra over the weekend following heavy rains that hit the region in the past week, leaving about 1,087 houses flooded and thousands of people stranded in evacuation sites.

The Batubara Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) said high-intensity rainfall had struck the regency for at least the past seven days, causing the rivers to overflow and flood residents' houses.

Among the affected areas were the districts of Air Putih, Datuk Limapuluh, Nibung Habungs, Sei Suka and Talawi.

Puting beliung (small tornadoes) also reportedly hit residential areas in Kuala Indah village of Air Putih district, damaging a number of houses, BPBD Batubara head Anwardi said.


Cloud Precipitation

Death toll from Tanzania's floods and heavy rain rises to 44

Floods in Handeni district, Tanga Region, Tanzania, have damaged bridges and roads, causing severe traffic disruption, October 2019.
© Tanga Regional Office
Floods in Handeni district, Tanga Region, Tanzania, have damaged bridges and roads, causing severe traffic disruption, October 2019.
Four more people have been killed by ongoing heavy rain in Tanzania, bringing to the death toll to 44, police said on Sunday.

Edward Bukombe, Tanga regional police commander, told Xinhua by phone that the four victims, including three children, were killed by flash floods in different parts of Handeni district.

"Today rescue teams found four bodies in different parts of Handeni district," said Bukombe.

On Saturday, the police official said the death toll from ongoing heavy rain in the region rose from 30 to 40.

Bukombe said a car ferrying 10 people was swept away by raging waters at dawn on Saturday after the driver had tried to drive through a flooded river in Handeni district
, bringing to 40 the total number of people killed by current rains in the east African nation.