Welcome to Sott.net
Wed, 03 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Earth Changes
Map

Cloud Precipitation

Evacuations following floods in Vrsac, Serbia

Department for Emergency Situations in Serbia carried out flood rescues in areas near Vršac.
© Serbia Ministry of Interior
Department for Emergency Situations in Serbia carried out flood rescues in areas near Vršac.
One person has died and as many over 40 people were evacuated when a storm and heavy rain caused flooding in parts of north eastern Serbia on Wednesday 07 June, 2017.

Serbia's Ministry of Interior reported flooding in the villages of Uljma, Izbiste, and Šušara, near Vršac in the province of Vojvodina. Vršac is around 75 km north east of the capital Belgrade, close to the border with Romania.

The Ministry of Interior reported that the Department for Emergency Situations had evacuated 42 people in the affected villages. Dozens of homes were inundated although much of the flood water soon subsided. Local media say that one person, thought to be an elderly woman, died in the floods.


Attention

First shark attack on surfer recorded in the UK

handcut
A 30-year-old surfer survived a shark attack in Bantham Beach, near Devon, in England.

Rich Thomson was grabbed by the leg and bitten by a three-foot smooth-hound shark. As a result, he suffered cuts to his hands and a bruised leg.

According to researchers, it is the first time in the UK that the ocean's predator attacks a surfer. And the strike would have caused worse injuries if he had not worn a thick wetsuit.

"I turned around and saw this little shark was on my thigh and wriggling its head side to side. I hit it on the head, and it swam off. My hand was cut to pieces. I had a quite a sizeable bruise about three inches across," explained Thomson.

Attention

Crop failures could result in apocalyptic scenarios, warn experts

rotten corn
Famines have been known to cause widespread starvation, and now with crops and food being traded globally, one hiccup in the growth of just one crop could cause a massive global catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions.

In the past, a poor year for crops, whether it was too wet or too dry, rarely impacted those outside the immediate region. Only those in close proximity to the failed crops would have to contend with the rising prices and shortages. But with the food is now being shipped around the globe, one failure could be apocalyptic, and experts are trying to warn us. Weather and the cyclic nature of the earth, combined with government regulations and war, could make producing viable crops in quantities that will feed humanity difficult in the next several years, especially when considering the increasing human population.

Less than one-quarter of Earth's total cropland produces nearly three-quarters of the staple crops that feed the world's population. These staples include corn, wheat, and rice, and are the most important cereal crops. The areas which grow these crops are our planet's major breadbaskets. But experts warn that simultaneous crop failures could impact our very near future making global famine a reality. When compounded with the effects of war and the ever-increasing government regulations on agriculture across the globe, food production will continue to face even more difficulty in the coming years.

Pardee Center postdoctoral scholar John Patrick Connors and Anthony Janetos with the Conversation and Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and Professor of Earth and Environment, have been using some mathematical models to study the potential environmental and economic impacts of failures in multiple breadbaskets around the world. They limit their study to only "climate change" however, placing no blame on government beasts who actually bloody their own hands when they hamper food production. But these experts do want the government to "help" should this tragedy occur.

Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills three persons in Jharkhand, India

lightning
Three persons were killed after lightning struck them in Garadih village in Lohardaga district today, police said.

The incident happened under the jurisdiction of Kairo police station.

The victims were identified as Parmeshwar Munda (35), Mangra Munda (40) and his 13-year-old son Bapan Munda, sources said.

Parameshwar Munda was a teacher and Mangra Munda was a farmer, sources said.

All of them were working in a paddy field when lightning struck them.

Parmeshwar, Mangra and Bapan were seriously injured.

They were shifted to a nearby health centre in Nagjuwa village where doctors declared them dead, sources said.

Comment: On the same day as the above event lightning strikes killed 4 in Savar, Bangladesh.


Ice Cube

Heavy pack ice traps boats, triggers rescue operation off Newfoundland

Boats are shown trapped in heavy ice off La Scie, Newfoundland in a handout photo from the Department of Fisheries and Ocean.
© Department of Fisheires and Oceans
Boats are shown trapped in heavy ice off La Scie, Newfoundland in a handout photo from the Department of Fisheries and Ocean.
Unusually heavy Arctic pack ice has trapped multiple vessels, stymied the fishing season and triggered a high-stakes rescue operation from a sinking ship off Newfoundland.

Five fishermen were rescued Wednesday from the Avalon Princess fishing boat, which started to take on water after getting stuck in thick sea ice near La Scie, N.L.

Trevor Hodgson, the Canadian Coast Guard's superintendent of ice operations for the Atlantic region, said the heavy ice is more than two metres thick in some areas off the province's northeast coast.

"We had a bit of stuff that forms over the winter, the normal ice in the area," he said. "What we're experiencing now is the ice that has come south through the Arctic due to melting up there."

What's unusual this year, Hodgson said, is the way the winds have pushed the thick pack ice towards land rather than out to sea.

Cloud Precipitation

Powerful storm heading for South Florida days after torrential rains cause flooding

florida floods
© Luis Felipe Lopez/El Nuevo Herald
Water in the streets of the Savanna community in Weston was up to 18 inches, prompting at least one person to venture out in a kayak to navigate the road.
After three days of serious rain and flooding across the area, South Florida will get a slight break on Thursday but an increased risk of storms as the day goes on continues.

There were no flood watches or warnings in effect Thursday but that could change by the afternoon.

Heavy flooding was reported Wednesday throughout Broward, including the parking lot of the Sawgrass Mills mall, which had to close Wednesday and remained closed Thursday due to the flooding.

In Davie, heavy flooding was reported on some streets, including in the area of Southwest 130th Avenue and 7th Court. One resident said he was going to Home Depot to get sandbags for himself and his neighbors to protect from flooding.

"I'm trying to help out my neighbors, I'm a caring person. I lived in the neighborhood a long time, I see people's homes are getting in bad shape," Mitch Gerber said.


Snowflake Cold

June snow again in USA as inter-tropical convergence zone shifts

June snow USA
© YouTube/Adapt 2030 (screen capture)
More June snows across the western states of the USA and a Nor'easter travels up the east coast of the USA and Canada this week with snow possible. The trend is clear that later and later snows have begun in 2015 with July snow through 3 of the last 3 years in the western USA. As with every grand solar minimum the inter-tropical convergence zone shifts, and with it brings unseasonable weather patterns as the new norm.


Cow

Hiker gored to death by cow in Austrian Alps

austrian cow
© Johannes Simon/Getty Images
The Tyrol region has now seen two deaths caused by cows in three years.
A hiker in the Austrian Alps was fatally gored when a cow charged at her, local police and media have said. The victim and a friend were walking their dogs in pasture land in the Tyrol region when the attack happened on Wednesday, the daily Tiroler Tageszeitung reported.

"One or several cows" charged, a police source told the Austria Press Agency (APA), and killed the hiker, a local. Her companion was unharmed.

The incident recalls the 2014 death of a 45-year-old German holidaymaker, gored by a cow in another Tyrolean valley while walking in a group that included children. The woman's husband and son sought €360,000 (£310,000) compensation from the cow's owner in a civil case that has not yet been decided.

Eye 2

Woman killed by crocodile while taking part in a Hindu river bathing ceremony in Uttar Pradesh, India

Gharial

Gharial
A young Indian woman was killed by a crocodile in front of her family while taking part in a bathing ceremony in India's Uttar Pradesh state.

The woman, known only as Neeraj, was washing herself on the banks of a river in the National Chambal Sanctuary when the beast attacked her.

Her terrified family raised an alarm but the crocodile had vanished into the water with her body within minutes.


Officers and divers are now trying to recover the girl's body, the Times of India reported.

The family said the girl was taking a dip as part of a ritual on the spiritual day of Ekadashi, when Hindus abstain from certain food during daylight hours.

It is claimed the crocodile may have attacked her because it is their nesting season when females are more aggressive.

'Crocodiles lay eggs in this season,' Anil Patel, a local forest officer, told the Times of India.

Cloud Lightning

Brilliant blue 'arc flash' filmed crackling along power lines in Dayton, Ohio during storm

Arc flash in Ohio
© Via YouTube/Scott Beale
It looks unreal. A video posted on Tuesday shows a crackling fireball traveling along a utility line in Dayton, Ohio. The footage comes from Laughing Squid founder Scott Beale's brother Chip Beale. The scene was "a recent hailstorm with insane winds." We can forgive the vertical video because the action is so frightening and fascinating.

There's the sound of lightning cracking, followed by a blue fireball traveling behind some trees.

The video may depict an electrical event known as an "arc flash." GE Industrial Solutions describes this:
An arc flash event can expel large amounts of deadly energy. The arc causes an ionization of the air, and arc flash temperatures can reach as high as 35,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This is hotter than the surface of the sun.
This sort of traveling fireball is rarely caught on camera, but a similar incident happened in Montreal during a 2013 windstorm. LiveScience traced the cause of the dramatic Montreal event to an arc flash.