Earth Changes

Severe storm leaves 138,000 without power across Memphis, Tennessee

U.S. News & World Report
Sun, 28 May 2017 18:06 UTC

More than 138,000 customers in the Memphis area remained without power Sunday evening following severe storms, public utility officials said.

Thunderstorms swept through portions of Tennessee Saturday night and early Sunday morning. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Memphis Light, Gas & Water President Jerry Collins said at a news conference Sunday that it will take more than a week to restore service to all of the 188,000 customers who initially lost power.

Collins said it was the third largest outage in the city's history, surpassed only by a 1994 ice storm and Hurricane Elvis in 2003.

Residents were warned against using generators indoors to prevent the chance of carbon monoxide poisoning.

"I encourage anybody who is in desperate need of air conditioning or power to make arrangements with neighbors or relatives so that you can stay with those folks while we work on restoring the power," Collins said.

Temperatures in Memphis are expected to be in the mid-80s this week and "we encourage everybody to think ahead, have a plan (and) play it safe so that we can keep everybody healthy," he said.

Floods bring rush hour chaos to Bangkok; heaviest rainfall event in one Thailand province for a decade

Hannah Masterson
The Guardian (UK)
Sun, 28 May 2017 21:30 UTC

Thailand experiences the heaviest rainfall in a decade while in Russia, a prolonged dry spell results in devastating wildfires

The city of Bangkok has been inundated after a massive low pressure system encompassing North, Central and East Thailand produced heavy rainfall and widespread flooding last Thursday morning.

The district of Wang Thong Lang was hit the hardest with 169mm of rain, making it the heaviest rainfall event in the province over the last decade, while 90-130mm of rain fell across the city on average. Twenty three major roads, including Lat Phrao and Ratchada, were under more than 20cm of water, causing rush hour chaos.

In contrast, in eastern Russia and Siberia, a federal state of emergency has been declared as wildfires have been breaking out, destroying more than 8,000 hectares of land. The dry, hot weather together with strong winds encouraged the fires to spread ferociously, killing two people.

Alaska's Bogoslof volcano sends ash clouds over 35,000 feet high

Agamoni Ghosh
International Business Times UK
Mon, 29 May 2017 05:29 UTC

© RussiaGarciaB / Wikimedia Commons
Bogoslof Island harbours a volcano in the Aleatian Chain of volcanic islands strung between Alaska in the US and eastern Russia

The aviation colour code was raised to red following the 55-minute eruption, but has been lowered to orange now

The Bogoslof volcano in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska erupted on 28 May, sending ash clouds as far as 35,000ft up in the sky. The eruption resulted in the Aviation Color Code to be raised to red, the highest possible level by the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The volcano has been active for almost six months now, and the eruption took place at 2.16 pm local time and lasted for a total of 55 minutes. Although the aviation alert code has been lowered to orange, the second highest level, now, a red warning for a volcanic eruption means flights could be grounded for several days until the ash is totally clears off the skies.

Ash from volcanoes can harm and even completely halt jet engines when it rises above 20,000ft. So far, however, there are no reports of any flight delays from the eruption.

Ash from the Sangeang Api volcano in Indonesia grounded all flights from Australia and south east Asia in 2014. In 2010, volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland resulted in the largest air-traffic shutdown since World War II.

Bogoslof volcano is a submarine stratovolcano, and the size of the island has more than tripled in size as a result of frequent eruptions in the last six months.

Lightning strikes kill at least 20 people in a day across Bihar, India

Hindustan Times
Sun, 28 May 2017 17:23 UTC

At least 20 people, including children and women, were killed in separate lightning strikes in Bihar on Sunday as violent storms and heavy rains lashed large parts of the state, officials of the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority here said.

The lightning strikes killed six people in Bettiah in West Champaran district, five in Jamui district, four in Motihari in East Champaran district, three in Bhagalpur, and one each in Vaishali and Samastipur districts.

The state government has announced a compensation of Rs four lakh each to the affected families.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Another earthquake registered around Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland

K. Jóhannsson
Ice News
Sat, 27 May 2017 15:07 UTC

Bardarbunga volcano

An earthquake of 3.9 magnitude was measured in Bardarbunda caldera this morning at 9.35 (local time) according to a RUV report and according to the Icelandic Met Office around seventy tremmors and quakes were measured there last week and an additional thirty the week before that. Three of those earthquakes were above 3.0 magnitude and they all originated by the calderas edge in the evening of 20 May, last week.

A large earthquake also rocked south Iceland in early May 17 with reports of Hekla Volcano being ready to erupt.

Bardarbunga, is a volcano located under Iceland's most extensive glacier, Vatnajokull glacier to the north. Bardarbunga is the second highest mountain in Iceland and is a part of a volcanic system that is approximately 200 kilometers long and 25 kilometers wide, that system includes Hekla Volcano.

Lightning bolt kills woman, hurts man on beach in Thailand

The Straits Times
Sun, 28 May 2017 11:11 UTC

© THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
A woman was killed and a man injured after they were struck by lightning at Cha-Am Beach on May 25, 2017

A woman was killed and her male companion injured by a lightning strike at Cha-Am beach in Petchaburi, south of Bangkok on Wednesday (May 25).

Police said they believed that both people were on their mobile phones, which could have been a factor in them being struck.

CCTV footage showed a flash and the two, who were sitting on a mat under a pine tree, were knocked over.

The 27-year-old woman, later identified as Supranee Khuenkankong, was found lying unconscious with burns to the right of her head and blood coming from her nose, mouth and ear. The unidentified man, who appeared to be in his 30s, was in a dazed state with burns on his left leg.

Lightning strikes kill woman, 70 sheep in Andhra Pradesh, India

The Hindu
Sun, 28 May 2017 11:02 UTC

Dasari Narsamma, 50, was killed when lightning struck her at Narsapuram village in Rudravaram mandal on Friday night.

The woman belonging to Yadawada village had came to Narsapuram and was returning with her daughter Pedda Obulamma and son-in-law Pedda Venkateswarlu after plucking weeds in their field when lightning struck her.

About 70 sheep belonging to shepherds Golla Subbanna, Venkatesh and Maddaiah died at Pinnapuram village in Panyam mandal on being struck by lightning during gale and rainfall on Friday night. The dhwaja stambham in the Sri Rama temple at Besta Colony in Rudravaram mandal was damaged when lightning struck it.

A third of the honeybee colonies in America died in 2016: Why you should care

Sean Rossman
USA Today
Sun, 28 May 2017 09:46 UTC

Honeybee

America's beekeepers watched as a third of the country's honeybee colonies were lost over the last year, part of a decade-long die-off experts said may threaten our food supply.

The annual survey of roughly 5,000 beekeepers showed the 33% dip from April 2016 to April 2017. The decrease is small compared to the survey's previous 10 years, when the decrease hovered at roughly 40%. From 2012 to 2013, nearly half of the nation's colonies died.

"I would stop short of calling this 'good' news," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland. "Colony loss of more than 30% over the entire year is high. It's hard to imagine any other agricultural sector being able to stay in business with such consistently high losses."

The research, published Thursday, is the work of the nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership and the Apiary Inspectors of America.

Massive whirlpool filmed on the coast of Corfu, Greece

Alice Evans
Daily Mail
Sat, 27 May 2017 09:38 UTC

Kieran Dickson had just arrived to the seaside village of Kassiopi, Corfu, when he saw the powerful whirlpool several metres in diameter, pictured

A Scottish holidaymaker filmed the incredible moment a huge whirlpool was whipped up by strong winds on the Corfu coast just metres from the balcony of his getaway home.

Kieran Dickson had just arrived to the seaside village of Kassiopi, Corfu, when he saw the powerful winds causing the waves to spin around, creating a whirlpool several metres in diameter.

A short clip of the phenomenon, which Mr Dickson said lasted for five minutes, shows the dangerous spiral of water off the northeast point of the Greek island.

Although hoping for a holiday filled with sun, sea, and sand, the Scot soon realised he might have had better weather if he had stayed in the UK.

The rotating mass of water in the Adriatic Sea looked to be gaining speed as the wind picked up around the cameraman.

More global temperature manipulation data to hide onset of Mini Ice Age

Adapt 2030
Youtube
Sat, 27 May 2017 07:19 UTC

With the grand solar minimum and crop price rises expected at the end of the year which will begin exponential food price costs, there is a concerted effort to homogenize data in the temperature record to show warming, even though almost everyone on this planet sees that the weather / climate in their local area is out of sync and not right this year. The timeline going forward is a 2x amplification from July 2017-Jan 2018, then a 4x increase through 2018. This will in my opinion begin the global grain production crop losses.