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Strange Lights in Iceland Have Natural Explanations


Iceland Reveiw Online
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:14 UTC
According to Saevar Helgi Bragason, chairman of the Amateur Astronomical Society of Seltjarnarnes, all sightings of mysterious lights in the sky across Iceland on Wednesday evening have natural explanations. They were satellites, shootings stars, northern lights or even torches, he said.

Northern Lights
© Olgeir Andrésson
The northern lights seen from Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland in the night of October 25.
"My wife and I were thinking about having ourselves admitted to a psychiatric institution," Jónas Ragnar Halldórsson, an antiquitarian and arts dealer, who noticed very mysterious lights in the sky on Wednesday evening with his wife Sigurlaug Gunnarsdóttir, commented to Fréttabladid.

Halldórsson said they had been on their way home from Hafnarfjördur, where they run an antique store, when they spotted a large fireball with a multi-colored tail explode over Gardabaer, a neighboring town, at approximately 6:40 pm.

"When we had just driven past IKEA I saw a large, green fireball with a silvery head arrive from the Bláfjöll area [where the capital's ski resort lies] with colorful flames tailing it. Then it exploded after about ten seconds with flying sparks in front of us," Halldórsson describes. "It was the weirdest object I've ever seen in the sky and I've seen a lot."
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Control Panel

Governments must plan for migration in response to climate change, researchers say


PhysOrg
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:00 UTC
Governments around the world must be prepared for mass migrations caused by rising global temperatures or face the possibility of calamitous results, say University of Florida scientists on a research team reporting in the Oct. 28 edition of Science.
Image
© Unknown

If global temperatures increase by only a few of degrees by 2100, as predicted by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, people around the world will be forced to migrate. But transplanting populations from one location to another is a complicated proposition that has left millions of people impoverished in recent years. The researchers say that a word of caution is in order and that governments should take care to understand the ramifications of forced migration.

A consortium of 12 scientists from around the world, including two UF researchers, gathered last year at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center to review 50 years of research related to population resettlement following natural disasters or the installation of infrastructure development projects such as dams and pipelines. The group determined that resettlement efforts in the past have left communities in ruin, and that policy makers need to use lessons from the past to protect people who are forced to relocate because of climate change.
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Igloo

US: Major Nor'Easter To Dump More Snow On Southern New England

Terry Eliasen
CBS Boston
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:13 UTC
Boston - A major nor'easter is about to pound southern New England with heavy rain, snow and wind.
Image
© CBS Boston
Projected Snowfall Map
In more than 100 years of record keeping in Boston the most snow the city has ever seen in the month of October is 1.1 inches, six years ago on October 29, 2005.

This storm is almost certain to be one for the record books in all of southern New England.

Timeline

The precipitation will begin Saturday afternoon between 3 and 5 p.m., as mainly rain for all of eastern Massachusetts, a mix in higher elevations to the west.

The intensity of the precipitation will increase rapidly over the next several hours and the rain-snow line will collapse to the south and east as colder air is drawn into the deepening storm on shifting winds to the north.

By midnight, it will be snowing just about everywhere with the exception of southeastern Mass. where it will continue to rain very heavily.

The rain-snow line will collapse further southeast to around the Cape Cod Canal in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning before the storm system pulls away and the precipitation shuts off just after dawn.
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Igloo

US: Up to 6 inches forecast for East Coast


MSNBC
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:25 UTC
National Weather Service issues winter storm watch for Pa., Md., Va. and W. Va

It may still be October, with the World Series in full swing, but some parts of the East Coast could be in for an unexpected wintry blast of up to 6 inches of snow this weekend.


The National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch for Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia from Friday night through Saturday afternoon as a storm blows through the region. Even more snow was expected to fall in higher elevations, including the Laurel Highlands and the Pocono Mountains, forecasters said.
Image
© Vyto Starinskas/AP
Rutland, Vt., residents woke up to this view to the east on Friday, as a storm left a cover of snow, in Killington, Vt. There were up to six inches of snow atop Killington.
Temperatures were expected to drop into the 30s across much of the Northeast by Friday morning. Boston got its first dusting late Thursday night.

Forecasters warned that the early snow could bring down tree limbs - something that Colorado got a dose of this week.

About 12,000 homes and businesses along Colorado's Front Range were still without power Friday morning following a fall snowstorm that downed trees and power lines. Outages were in metro Denver and Boulder and in Greeley, Fort Collins and Loveland to the north. The storm Tuesday and Wednesday brought about six inches of snow to Denver and about a foot to Greeley.
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Radar

US, California: Magnitude 4.7 Earthquake Shakes Sacramento

Joshua Staab
Fair Oaks Patch
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
According to the United States Geological Survey, a 4.7 magnitude earthquake shook Sacramento late Wednesday night around 11:37 p.m. Did you feel it?

We sure did.

The quake could be felt as far away as Reno, Nevada, according to the USGS website.

The earthquake's epicenter is believed to have originated in Portola, California about 150 miles north east of Sacramento, though, according to the USGS, the official location has yet to be determined.

Fair Oaks Patch Facebook fans were quick to respond to our status update.

"It woke me up," said Fair Oaks native and Ground Zero Board Shop owner Brendan Mohr. "Never felt one before that and lived here for 28 years."

"Yep felt it," said Fair Oaks Patch Facebook fan, Danielle Parker.

Information is still coming in. As more is gathered we'll be sure to update this story.
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Bizarro Earth

Iceland's Katla Volcano Rattled by Double Swarm of Tremors


The Extinction Protocol
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
Iceland's Katla volcano was hit by two swarms of tremors today. The strongest of the first cluster of small harmonic tremors which rattled the glacier was of a 2.9 magnitude.

A second, more intense swarm of tremors erupted shortly thereafter; including two 3.0 magnitude tremors - one inside the caldera of the volcano and one erupted on the parameter under the Mýrdalsjökull glacier.

Unrest at Katla has been intermittent but almost continuous since April. Geologists are monitoring activity at the volcano closely for any changes which could produce a hazardous flood-threat scenario for people living within the vicinity of the summit.
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Snowman

US: Snow blankets Denver area - soon after 80-degree day

Keith Coffman
MSNBC
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:51 UTC
Six inches falls, cutting power to tens of thousands

A heavy, wet snowstorm descended on the Denver area early on Wednesday morning, causing widespread power outages and numerous car crashes and minor injuries in the Centennial State.


Just two days after record high temperatures, six inches of snow fell in the Denver area forcing the closure of roads in the mountains and eastern planes. Another two to five inches is expected before the storm moves out on Wednesday evening, according to the National Weather Service.

There were no fatalities but numerous car crashes and slide-offs causing minor injuries, the Colorado State Patrol said.

Some 87,000 customers east of the continental divide and north of Denver were without power, public utility company Xcel Energy, Inc. said in a statement.
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Cloud Lightning

Thailand: Bangkok braced for month of flooding as big evacuation gets under way

Robert Booth and Andrew Chambers
The Guardian
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:38 UTC
Bangkok flood
© Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Thai women use plastic containers in an attempt to bale floodwaters out of their home in Bangkok on Thursday.
Waters flood northern suburbs, swamp Don Muang airport and close in on city centre

By boat, truck and bamboo raft, residents evacuated Bangkok's outer suburbs on Thursday as rising floods - which have claimed close to 400 lives across Thailand since July - closed in on the centre of the capital.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, apparently close to tears as she briefed the media on Thailand's worst flooding for half a century, warned Bangkok's 12 million residents "we're fighting against the forces of nature" and said flood waters were damaging several of the city's dykes. Residents of Sai Mai district were told to evacuate to safer ground and Don Muang airport, location of the government's flood relief operations centre, was inundated.

"What we can do now is to manage it, so that it flows slowly, otherwise everybody will suffer," Yingluck told reporters, her voice trembling. "I haven't cried and I won't. I'll be strong to solve this problem for the Thai people. Right now we need to release floodwater to the sea as soon as possible and we need a quick rehabilitation plan."
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Bizarro Earth

India: 9 aftershocks rattle Sasan Gir region


Times of India
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:28 UTC
With quake aftershocks continuing to rattle Junagadh, residents are experiencing a jittery Diwali. On Wednesday, as many as nine earthquake aftershocks were reported from the Sasan Gir area in the district.

According to Institute of Seismological Research (ISR), Gandhinagar, the tremors had a magnitude of 0.8 to 1.7 on the Richter scale. All nine aftershocks were reported 10-13 km south-east of Sasan Gir.

People are still spending sleepless nights in Junagadh region, which had experienced an earthquake measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale on October 20. "Even a small tremor is scaring us these days. People rush out of their homes the moment they feel the earth shaking. However, people here now know that these are aftershocks and not earthquake,'' said Mensi Sariya, a resident of Talala town in Junagadh district.
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Bizarro Earth

Underwater Eruptions Could Create New Island in the Canaries

Axel Bojanowski
Der Spiegel
Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:18 UTC
El Hierro erruption
© RapidEye
A satellite image taken on Oct. 23 shows a sea of underwater ash off the coast of El Hierro that is already bigger than the island itself.
What would the island be called? And who would own it? Spewing magma and growing in height, an underwater volcano off the Canary Island of El Hierro has captured the imagination of locals in recent weeks. It could eventually rise from the sea to create a new part of the archipelago.

It hasn't yet reached the surface, but residents of the Canary Islands have taken to the internet to suggest names for a potential new islet. There are already more than 500 suggestions. Favorites include "The Discovery," "Atlantis" and "The Best." Meanwhile Spanish newspapers are taking a different approach to the subject, debating who would take responsibility for the new territory.
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