Earth ChangesS


Question

It's a funnel cloud! It's a shadow! No, it's ... what is it?

Zachary T. Sampson
Tampa Bay Times
Fri, 02 Aug 2013 17:28 UTC
Funnel Cloud
© Tampa Bay Times
Dunedin - Mike Weight was strolling the beach at Honeymoon Island about noon Wednesday when he saw something weird.

A black line appeared against the bright blue sky, shooting down from a cloud into the gulf.

"At first I thought it was an optical illusion because it was like a dark piece of sky with a light sky background," Weight said. "You could see through it."

Maybe it's a waterspout, he thought. That theory faded quickly. This was no funnel cloud.

Confused, the 73-year-old Clearwater resident pulled out his phone and took a couple of pictures.

He emailed them to the Times, attached with a note.

"Any idea what this was?"
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Bizarro Earth

Bizarre 'meteotsunami' stirred waves in UK

Tia Ghose
LiveScience
Mon, 05 Aug 2013 14:07 UTC
Meteotsunami
© Oliver Tindall / ShutterstockPeople crossing to the tidal island of St. Michael's Mount in southwest England suddenly found themselves knee deep in water because of a meteotsunami on June 27, 2011.
A tsunami that struck the UK in 2011 was caused by a storm roiling the ocean hundreds of miles away, a new study confirms.

The "meteotsunami" (or weather-induced tsunami) of June 27, 2011, caused swells on a normally calm estuary on a sunny day, left some people knee-deep in water and made other people's hair stand on end in southwest England. Scientists suspected that a storm was to blame for the bizarre waves, but the new study, published in the June issue of the journal Weather, confirms it.

"As far as Britain is concerned this is the first time that a meteotsunami has been recorded," said study co-author David Tappin, a marine geologist at the British Geological Survey.
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Question

Rare mystery bird found in Manchester car park, UK

Kate Banks
Messenger, UK
Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:34 UTC
Image
Nihal Sonmez (6) and Bilal Sonmez (9) with the ibis
A rare and critically endangered bird was found in the car park of Stretford Mall by astonished shoppers.

It was initially believed that the northern bald ibis had escaped from a zoo in Stoke some years ago, but experts at Chester Zoo are baffled as to where the bird came from.

Can Sonmez, 39, and his two children saw the ibis as they were walking to the mall on Saturday, July 20.

"It was basically flying up and down and the literally fell down the side of the building. When I actually picked it up it looked quite lethargic as if it hadn't fed for a while.

"I knew it was an ibis as we'd seen them before at Chester Zoo, but I didn't realise it was a critically endangered species of ibis."

Can, of St Andrews Road, Stretford, then took the bird home and called Chester Zoo, the curator of which collected the mystery bird a couple of days later.

Curator of birds, Andrew Owen, said: "We're pleased to report that after some TLC from our bird keepers and vets the northern bald ibis is now getting on really, really well.
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Snow Globe

Unprecedented July cold - Arctic sees shortest summer on record

Robert Felix
iceagenow.info
Fri, 02 Aug 2013 06:18 UTC
"Normally the high Arctic has about 90 days above freezing. This year there was less than half that," says Steven Goddard website.

Image
Graph courtesy of COI | Centre for Ocean and Ice | Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut

Thanks to F. Guimaraes for this link
"The Arctic ice extent is showing a remarkable recovery from the great oscillations of 2012," says Guimaraes. "Compare with the previous years listed there, you'll see that 2004 is the year that is closest to 2013 in terms of average temps during the summer."
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Cloud Precipitation

Pakistan and Afghanistan monsoon floods kill dozens


BBC News
Sun, 04 Aug 2013 17:12 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Eastern Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan have been hit by torrential rain, causing floods which have killed at least 80 people.

(Click here to watch the video)

Officials said 34 died in the Sarobi district alone, around 65 km (40 miles) east of the Afghan capital Kabul.

Pakistan's biggest city Karachi was also badly affected, with at least 16 killed after days of flooding.

The region has suffered devastating floods during the monsoon period for the past three years.

Afghan officials said that emergency teams and supplies were being dispatched to affected areas.

Hundreds have been displaced in eastern areas of Afghanistan and hundreds of hectares of farmland destroyed, Ghulam Farooq, the head of emergency operations for Afghanistan's National Disaster Management Authority, told AFP news agency.

The floods have caused extensive damage to property in both countries.
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Bizarro Earth

Car nearly falls in giant sinkhole in China


Orange.co.uk
Sun, 04 Aug 2013 14:38 UTC
Sinkhole
© Orange.co.uk
A driver had a lucky escape in southern China when a giant sinkhole opened up just inches in front of his car.

The 20ft wide hole - more than 20ft deep - appeared in Nanning city just days after local TV and phone companies had laid new cables under the highway.

"One second the road was there, the next it was just a hole," said one witness.

"The driver managed to stop just in time just as one of his wheels was touching the edge," they added.

And a giant truck ahead of the motor was almost pulled into the hole when its rear wheels were caught in the other side.

A police spokesman said: "We are investigating the cause of the collapse."
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Cloud Precipitation

Torrential rains play havoc across Pakistan, 25 more killed in rain related incidents


The Nation
Sun, 04 Aug 2013 13:07 UTC
Image
© The Nation
Heavy rains and flashfloods played havoc across the country rendering widespread damages affecting normal life in Karachi, Balochistan, DG Khan and several parts of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa with more areas coming under water and water reaching at dangerous level in rivers and nullahs. According to reports atleast 25 more people were killed in roof collapse, electrocution and drowning incidents bringing the total to more than 100 in the last three days of heavy rains.

Heavy rains resulting in flooding nullahs washed away dozens of residential houses while partially damaging hundreds other in different areas of KP, Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh. The gushing water also destroyed crops cultivated on thousands of acres of cultivated land. Maize and rice crops were adversely destroyed in Pasrur, Rajanpur, Sanghar, and other areas. Life in Karachi, the teeming metropolis of over 16 million, came to a grinding halt as it received heavy downpour of the current monsoon on Sunday. One of the city's main avenues, Shahrah-e Faisal, submerged in rainwater while floodwater entered the airport from Bhataiabad.

At least 20 people died in rain-related incidents as provincial authorities called in army troops to help drain out rainwater from different neighbourhoods. Most of the fatalities were caused by electrocution and drowning. Another person was electrocuted and three died due to a roof collapse.
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Cloud Precipitation

India: Five-inch rain in two hours


DNA
Sun, 04 Aug 2013 12:21 UTC
Image
© DNAPankaj Shukla, Piyush Patel
City gets flooded again; more in store, warns Met.

In a matter of just two hours, Ahmedabad found itself inundated after recording 5 inches of rainfall on Friday. The clouds began gathering early in the afternoon but it was around 2 pm when it started raining.

Earlier, the city had recorded heavy rains in the early morning too. And with the Met department predicting intermittent but heavy rainfall for Ahmedabad in the next 24 hours, this will be the second consecutive rainy weekend for the city.

It was the central zone that received highest rainfall at 30 mm followed by the east and west zone that recorded 27 and 23 mm respectively. Interestingly, the west and central zone received one inch of rainfall in a period of just 30 minutes leaving several roads water-logged.

Due to heavy rains, the Akhbarnagar and Mithakali underpass were closed down. The latter was opened after an hour but the Akhbarnagar underpass continued to be out of bounds for traffic.

Amdavadis who have got used to the intermittent rains meanwhile welcomed it despite the traffic chaos and water-logging. Ashutosh Mishra, a chartered accountant, had to cancel his client meeting due to the showers.
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Question

UK: 100 dead seagulls found in Devon reservoir

Tony Gussin
North.Devon Gazette
Tue, 30 Jul 2013 06:49 UTC
Investigations are under way after around 100 dead seagulls were found in the water at Wistlandpound Reservoir near Combe Martin.

Image
Wistlandpound reservoir.
The reservoir at Blackmoor Gate supplies drinking water to several North Devon communities. South West Water has said the birds had been found in the untreated section of the lake.

It said it had received reports of dead gulls from several of its sites including Wimbleball on Exmoor and Crowdy in Cornwall.

A spokesperson said two seagulls had been sent to the Environment Agency to test for disease: "We have also carried out water quality tests at the reservoirs and algae levels are low.
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Megaphone

Many stranded Bottlenose dolphins may be deaf

Tanya Lewis
news.discovery.com
Sat, 03 Aug 2013 12:54 UTC
Image
© Wikimedia CommonsAn adult female bottlenose dolphin with her young, Moray Firth, Scotland
Dolphin deafness can be caused by aging, underwater noise or other factors.

In waters from Florida to the Caribbean, dolphins are showing up stranded or entangled in fishing gear with an unusual problem: They can't hear.

More than half of stranded bottlenose dolphins are deaf, one study suggests. The causes of hearing loss in dolphins aren't always clear, but aging, shipping noise and side effects from antibiotics could play roles.

"We're at a stage right now where we're determining the extent of hearing loss [in dolphins], and figuring out all the potential causes," said Judy St. Leger, director of pathology and research at SeaWorld in San Diego. "The better we understand that, the better we have a sense of what we should be doing [about it]."

Whether the hearing loss is causing the dolphin strandings -- for instance, by steering the marine mammals in the wrong direction or preventing them from finding food -- is also still an open question.
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