Earth ChangesS


Camera

Noctilucent rocket fumes filmed over Okinawa Island, Japan

Epsilon-3 launch
© Kagaya
On Jan. 18th, the Japanese space agency JAXA launched a small rocket from the Uchinoura Space Center. It made a big display. Japanese artist and photographer Kagaya captured dramatic images of the rocket's exhaust glowing in the starry pre-dawn sky over the Pacific:

"I watched the launch from Okinawa Island and photographed it using my Sony α7RIII camera," says Kagaya, who has posted a must-see video of the event on Youtube.


Ice Cube

Hundreds evacuated as ice jams cause flooding in USA and Canada (PHOTOS)

Ice jam on the Saco River in Fryeburg
© Adam EpsteinIce jam on the Saco River in Fryeburg
Ice jams have caused severe problems along some rivers in north eastern USA and eastern Canada since 12 January, 2018. States of emergency have been declared and around 200 people have evacuated their homes and north eastern USA and a further 100 in New Brunswick, Canada.

Heavy rain over the last few days has also caused rivers to overflow and some surface flooding. Two people died in West Virginia when their vehicle was trapped in flood water. Flood rescues were required in Pittsburgh after a major road was flooded.

Ice jams in northeastern USA

Media have reported dozens of ice jams along rivers in north eastern USA. Below is a short summary of some of the floods.

Parts of the Connecticut River near Haddam are so blocked, ice breakers from the US Coast Guard have been called in to break the jam.

Comment: For videos see: Record-cold wave recedes, but now ice jams are causing flooding in US northeast


Question

Loud explosion in southern Wisconsin rattles homes, 'knocks things off walls'

Mystery boom in WI
© Angela Major
Law enforcement officials Thursday afternoon were investigating an explosion in a field north of Janesville that was linked to a noise dozens of residents reported hearing Thursday morning.

Leon Brown, who lives next to the property where the explosion occurred, said a vehicle exploded around 9:30 a.m. Photos taken at the scene show the remains of what appears to be an obliterated vehicle.

Rock County 911 Communications Center Director Kathy Sukus said officials were investigating the incident in connection with the explosion noise and shaking houses in Janesville, Milton and Edgerton reported earlier.

Reporters at the scene Thursday afternoon saw several law enforcement officials and vehicles in a field north of the intersection of North Kennedy and East Manogue roads. A lone law enforcement vehicle with a trailer was spotted several dozen yards southwest of the officials.

Ice Cube

Temperatures have dropped to -91°C (-131,8°F) in the stratosphere!

upper sky and clouds
Over the last few days, and especially on Saturday, extremely cold temperatures have been recorded in the stratosphere. As a reminder, the stratosphere is a layer of the atmosphere located between 10 and 50 km above sea level.

During the day of January 13, the temperature reached -91°C (-131,8°F) locally at about 25 km above the Barents Sea in northern Scandinavia.

These extremely cold temperatures for the season are associated with a very powerful cyclonic vortex, also known as the polar vortex and centred not far from the North Pole. Because of its power, cold air remains confined over the Arctic regions at very high altitudes and is not attenuated or driven away by any external forcing.

earth cold
© Université de BerlinOverall situation on January 13 2018 (temperature and geopotential at 30 hpa, i. e. about 23 km from alt)

Bizarro Earth

Magnitude 6.3 earthquake strikes Mexico

Loreto Earthquake
© USGSThis map from the U.S. Geological Survey indicates the location of an earthquake that struck around 45 miles north-northeast of Loreto, Mexico, on Friday, Jan. 19, 2018.
Gulf of California-- A preliminary-magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck Friday morning in the Gulf of California, just west of Mexico's Sinaloa state.

The quake struck at 8:17 a.m. PT and was centered about 48 miles north-northeast of Loreto, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Attention

Pair of pit bull terriers severely maul 4-year-old in Melbourne, Florida

PIT BULL ATTACK
A 4-year-old child "severely mauled" by a pair of pit bulls Thursday afternoon in Brevard County was airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando for treatment, police said.

The incident happened about 1:15 p.m. at The Meadows mobile home park off Rolling Rock Drive near John Rodes Boulevard, just north of Eau Gallie Boulevard. Paramedics responded to the scene within minutes.

"They're working on him now," Melbourne police Lt. Steve Sadoff told News 6 partner Florida Today.

Three pit bull mixes were taken from the scene by Brevard County animal control, but four dogs were at the residence at the time of the attack, officers said.


Police said the child suffered multiple lacerations but is believed to have non-life-threatening injuries.

Ice Cube

Cold snap hits Lake Michigan

Ice Chicago
© euronews

A new cold snap converted the beach of Lake Michigan in Chicago into an ice sculpture park as trees and grasses in the area got coated with thick ice and frost.

The second round of strong cold air in the new year started striking the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and other areas in central and western U.S. from Sunday, bringing heavy snow and lowering temperature to minus 15 degrees Celsius.

The snow lasted three days and reached more than 10 centimeters in thickness in many areas. The snow accumulated near Lake Michigan even was knee-deep.

High humidity and low temperature enveloped the trees and grasses with ice and frost around the lake, forming natural-looking ice sculptures of various shapes. While some look like eagles on the tree branch, others seem like blooming flowers.

The lighthouse turned into a huge umbrella covered by ice and snow. Though the beacon has been fully covered, icicles keep shining through in bright sunlight.


Cloud Grey

A dark December: In one month Moscow totals 6 minutes of sunlight while Belgium bears just 10.5 hours

Moscow Gets 6 Minutes of Sunlight in December
© Andrei Lyubimov / Moskva News Agency
The Russian capital survived without direct sunlight for an entire month in what was surely welcome news for sun-averse readers.

The last month of the year is traditionally the darkest throughout Russia, according to the Meteonovosti weather portal. Although Moscow sees on average 18 hours of sunlight in December, this year, the sun failed to shine for an entire month, the portal said.

Comment: Whether those months were also the warmest is in question because temperature stations are often placed in areas known for human activity thus leading to corrupted readings, if they're even there at all.

There are at least two possible factors contributing to this dramatic drop in direct sunlight; there's the increase in cosmic rays and then the rise in meteoritic dust in our atmosphere, both of which lead to increased cloud cover:


Snowflake

Snow blankets all 50 American states for the first time since 2010

snow cover
Wisconsin isn't alone when it comes to the cold and snow. The latest blast of wintry weather brought accumulations as far south as the Gulf Coast! Wednesday morning started off with snow cover in all 50 states and 52.3 percent of the country covered in the white stuff.

To have snow on the ground in all 50 states at the same time, is a fairly rare feat. The last time all 50 states had snowfall on the ground at the same time was on February 12th, 2010.

A little known fact about Hawaii is that it often snows. Of course, that is always on the Big Island's Mauna Kea volcanic peak. Typically, the hardest state to get accumulating snowfall is Florida. This season has already featured three snowfall events in northern Florida!

Tornado2

Rare tornado touches down in Carinthia, Austria

''Gustnado' touches down in Stall in Mölltal, Austria
© YouTube/Peter Maier (screen capture)A rare tornado or 'gustnado' touches down in Stall in Mölltal, Austria
A rare tornado touched down in Stall in Mölltal (district Spittal an der Drau), Carinthia, Austria on Wednesday, 17 January, stirring up snow in the Mölltal valley of this mountainous area. A rare 'snownado' was filmed in Poland recently, as well as in Canada and Scotland.

According to the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), the weather phenomenon (captured on video by Peter Maier), is either an F0 tornado (weakest class) or a so-called "Gustnado", a turbulence caused by a strong gust of wind. The Netherlands and other parts of Europe have been battered by very strong winds this week.

ZAMG meteorologist Gerhard Hohenwarter said this is a "rare and extremely exciting" weather event. Less than two weeks ago another rare tornado ripped through two towns in the French Pyrenees causing significant damage.