Australian 207-foot ship, the Antarctic Chieftain, hit ice up to 10 feet thick and suffered propeller damage near the Ross Sea

A rescue vessel is rushing to free a damaged Australian fishing ship with 27 people aboard which has become trapped in thick Antarctic ice.

The 207-foot ship, the Antarctic Chieftain, suffered propeller damage after hitting a chunk of ice on February 7 in an isolated region near the Ross Sea, south-east of New Zealand. The ship, which is used for harvesting Patagonian toothfish, became stranded in ice floes up to 10 feet thick and lacked the power to break free.

Les Scott, managing director of Tasmanian-based Australian Longline, which owns the ship, said an underwater video inspection showed three of the four propeller blade tips were damaged. None of the crew has been injured.

A storm moving through the Northeast during the Valentine's Day weekend will develop into a blizzard with snow, fierce wind and bitterly cold air.

While the first of two clipper storms this week will stay weak until swinging east of New England, the second clipper storm rolling in this weekend will strengthen significantly.

People on weekend ski trips or partaking in other travel from the Great Lakes to New England will run the risk of getting stuck in the storm and the frigid air moving in.

According to AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity, "The storm could bring life-threatening conditions, especially in New England with very low temperatures and strong winds combining with snow to bring blizzard conditions."

Initially, light snow will move across the Midwest Friday night into Saturday. However, winds will increase after the snow begins as bitterly cold arctic air arrives and AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures plunge below zero F.

The snow and increasing wind will move into the central Appalachians during the day Saturday and will reach the Interstate-95 corridor in the mid-Atlantic and southern New England Saturday afternoon and evening.

As the storm reaches the Atlantic Ocean Saturday night, it will strengthen.

The storm has the potential to bring a moderate to heavy snowfall from the upper part of the mid-Atlantic to southern and central New England Saturday night into Sunday.

A township police officer shot and killed a dog that attacked its owners earlier this month, police said Wednesday.

The attack happened about midnight Feb. 1 at a home on Hickory Street when a large-breed dog attacked two members of the household before being shot by a responding officer.

The dog was acting aggressively when the officer arrived and "due to the serious nature of the residents' injuries, the officer felt compelled to use his weapon," police said.

The two residents were taken to an area hospital with animal bites. Police did not release their identities but said they remain hospitalized.

No other injuries were reported.

An investigation into what prompted the dog to attack is ongoing.

Two children were injured Tuesday by their family dog.

The Kern County Sheriff's Office said it was told the dog turned on the girls, ages 7 and 8, while they were playing. The attack occurred around 5 p.m. on the 11000 block of Kyte Avenue.

The children were taken to Delano Regional Medical Center and then to the children's hospital in Madera. The sheriff's office said the girls will survive, but the injuries were not specified.

Animal control officers captured the dog, described as a pit bull mixed breed.

Thousands of starfish washed up on the beach at Isle of Palms over the weekend.

And it turns out, this happens a few times each winter on Lowcountry beaches.

Usually, strong off-shore winds push them onto the shore at high tide and they're stuck until the tide comes back in. Over the weekend, wind gusts were coming in stronger than 20 miles an hour.

Monday Night, we spoke with Mel Bell, the fisheries management director for the Department of Natural Resources who said this is pretty normal.

Bell said the last time this happened was in December on Fripp Island.

Regular SOTT readers may recall last year's unusual influx of snowy owls into North America from the Arctic (as well as other birds from the tundra and taiga regions). This winter season appears to be shaping up to an unprecedented fourth consecutive irruption year following the invasions of 2011-2012, 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. The following reports are just a small sample of the many that have been seen in the media over the last couple of months:

Last winter brought an unprecedented number of snowy owl sightings in the northern United States, and this winter is turning out to be above average as well.

Scientists believe last year's southward sweep of the arctic species was triggered by a record nesting season in northern Quebec. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says there was another bumper crop last summer in Nunavut in northernmost Canada.

Snowy owls are being reported on the online eBird database this winter across the northern-third of the Lower 48 states from Washington state to Maine.

Here's some short film footage taken at Beech Hill Preserve in Rockport, Maine (on 30 January 2015), of one of the many snowy owls seen this winter:

Brazilians are hoarding water in their apartments, drilling homemade wells and taking other emergency measures to prepare for forced rationing that appears likely and could leave taps dry for up to five days a week because of a drought.

In São Paulo, the country's largest city with a metropolitan area of 20 million people, the main reservoir is at just 6 percent of capacity with the peak of the rainy season now past.

Other cities in Brazil's heavily populated southeast such as Rio de Janeiro face less dire shortages but could also see rationing.

Uncertainty over the drought and its consequences on jobs, public health and overall quality of life have further darkened Brazilians' mood at a time when the economy is struggling and President Dilma Rousseff's popularity is at an all-time low.

After January rains disappointed, and incentives to cut consumption fell short, São Paulo officials warned their next step could be to shut off customers' water supply for as many as five days a week - a measure that would likely last until the next rainy season starts in October, if not longer.

State officials say they have not yet decided whether or when to implement such rationing, in part because they are still hoping for heavy rains in February and March. Indeed, thunderstorms in recent days have caused lakes to rise a bit.

Still, independent projections suggest that São Paulo's main Cantareira reservoir could run out of water as soon as April without drastic cuts to consumption.

As such, the race is on to secure water while it lasts.

Large hospitals in São Paulo are installing in-house water treatment and recycling centers, among other measures, to make sure they can still carry out surgeries and other essential tasks if regular supply stops.

Biologists with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in St. John's are hoping to perform a necropsy on a rarely-seen whale found beached on the shore in Point Lance on Saturday.

A dead Sowerby's beaked whale was discovered on the beach in Point Lance on the Cape Shore.

Crews with DFO went to the site with a trailer to haul the carcass to its offices.

Waves of arctic air will bring the lowest temperatures and the harshest conditions of the winter from late this week through the middle of the month.

The arctic air will be pushed along by a couple of Alberta Clipper storms with rounds of light snow in parts of the Midwest and the potential for a couple of heavy snow events in part of the coastal Northeast.

In perspective, the benchmark low, or the coldest it has been thus far this winter, in New York City was 8 F, on Jan. 8. On that same day, the temperature dipped to minus 2 F in Detroit, minus 1 F in Boston, 11 F at Atlanta and 12 F at Washington, D.C.

Like the frigid air during early January, the waves of arctic air moving in could bring disruptions to some of the trains in the northern cities. The prolonged cold penetrating deep into the ground could also cause water main breaks from the Midwest to the Northeast.

According to AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Lada, "The combination of frigid air will not only be painful to endure for short periods of time outdoors but can bring life-threatening conditions for those not properly dressed."

The dangers will range from difficulty breathing to frostbite and hypothermia.

The first blast of arctic air will sweep from the Midwest to the Atlantic coast through the end of the week.

During multiple days, temperatures will not climb above zero F in northern Minnesota and part of northern Michigan.

While on the coldest days temperatures will climb into the single digits and teens from Minneapolis to Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Boston, AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures will be below zero for many hours on multiple days. Actual nighttime low temperatures will dip below zero on occasion.

Residents of Fanø were treated to an usual sight on Wednesday: the partially rotting corpse of a 12-metre sperm whale.

The rotting corpse of a 12-metre-long sperm whale has washed up on the shore of the Danish island Fanø, local police said on Wednesday.

The massive creature was naturally garnering attention, but the Danish Nature Agency (Naturstyrelsen) warned that curious onlookers should stay away from the whale, which it characterized as "a bacteria bomb".

"Experience from previous whale strandings shows that many people want to go up and touch the dead whale, but it can be deadly as dead whales are often indicted with pathogenic bacteria," the Nature Agency wrote on its website.