Earth Changes
Highs winds are expected to die down as evening approaches as the low pressure area responsible for the stormy weather moves eastward.
Residents of northern areas also awoke Thursday to some rare white June landscapes. Snowfall was seen especially on the fells of Lapland and in the Saariselkä region which recorded as much as eight centimetres in some localities.
Heavy rain over the past few days has caused damage to homes and infrastructure in cantons Solothurn, Aargau and Basel-Country, with numerous cellars and roads flooded. The police and fire services were called out 400 times in Aargau alone, and in several areas civil protection volunteers were out in force. In the town of Stetten 60 millimetres of rain fell in three hours.
Rail services were affected between Lenzburg and Othmarsingen on the Zurich-Aargau line. In Oftringen a barn was set ablaze after being struck by lightning but no one was injured. On Wednesday afternoon the A1 motorway was flooded near Lenzburg causing tailbacks for over an hour.
The country's National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has asked residents of flood prone areas to move to higher ground. They have also asked for residents' co-operation in reporting floods around the city.
The Odaw River has overflown and drainage channels including the Onyasia, Odaw and Nima are full. Local media say that flooded areas of greater Accra include Kwame Nkrumah Circle, parts of Teshie, Airport Residential, Dzorwulu, Achimota and Tse Addo.
Personnel from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Ghana Police Service (GPS), the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the Ghana National Fire and Rescue Services (GNFRS), are working in the flooded areas. Earlier today, President Mahama thanked them for their efforts.

Meteor fireball seen, heard and felt from across southeastern Canada and northeastern US, 17 May 2016
Last month, more volcanoes erupted during one week than would typically erupt during an entire year in the 20th century. Hailstones the size of tennis balls fell across southeast Asia, while the Indian subcontinent roasted in a record-breaking heatwave for the second year running. Europe experienced record-late snowfall in many places, followed by tornado outbreaks, devastating flash-floods and hailstorms that required snowploughs to clear streets. Wildfires raged across vast expanses of sub-Arctic regions, notably in central Canada, where the population of an entire city was forced to flee.
Month after month, the rain falls harder, the winds blow stronger, and the meteors come closer. Devastated homes can't be rebuilt fast enough before the next waves of natural disasters hit. The leaders of the free world, while waging more wars, plundering more resources, and causing ever more death and suffering, are telling us we've never had it so good.
Based on this snapshot of global environmental upheaval in May 2016, Mother Nature apparently begs to differ...

Mt. Bulusan in Sorsogon province spewed a 2-kilometer ash column around 11:35 a.m., Friday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported.
"The phreatic explosion (also called a steam-blast eruption, which happens when magma heats ground or surface water) was confirmed by Raffy Alejandro, director of the Office of Civil Defense in the Bicol Region. It lasted for five minutes," reports ABS-CBN News.
As indicated in the eruption notification released by Phivolcs' Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction Division (VMEPD), Mt. Bulusan spewed an ash plume that went up to a height of around 2,000 meters.
Prior to this, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) recorded at least 113 volcanic earthquakes around Mt. Bulusan in the past 24 hours.
"The local government units and the public are reminded that entry into the four-kilometer radius Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ) is strictly prohibited due to the possibility of sudden and hazardous steam-driven or phreatic eruptions," the advisory noted.

Paso Los Libertadores, which links Santiago, Chile and Mendoza, Argentina, is completely buried and shut down after 10+ feet of snow.
A huge snowstorm slammed into the Central Andes ski resorts of Chile and Argentina, dropping close to 10 feet in some areas late last week and into the weekend. The main mountain pass between the two countries, Los Libertadores, is burred in over 10-12 foot drifts and remains closed to all vehicles due to high avalanche danger and crews trying to move the snow.
Comment: Keep in mind the tremendous floods that have plagued countries all over the world lately. If such an amount of precipitation were combined with much lower temperatures due to volcanic eruptions or other causes, snowfalls of this magnitude may become much more common, and more widespread.
The body was so severely mauled that the police have yet to identify the victim. But the police were looking for 74-year-old Tsuwa Suzuki in the area where they found the body in a mountain forest in Kazuno, Akita, after she was reported missing the previous day.
Near the spot where the body was found, the police found a car Suzuki had apparently used as well as a mobile phone and food inside the vehicle. Suzuki, who lives in Towada in neighbouring Aomori Prefecture, is believed to have gone to the area to pick edible wild plants.

Stinging creatures, like this yellow jacket are swarming around Fort McMurray.
A buzzing anxiety has gripped the city of Fort McMurray.
A black mass of wasps, hornets and all kinds of stinging insects have swarmed into the northern Alberta community.
People who have returned to the wildfire-ravaged city have been terrorized by the pests, and social media is humming with close-encounters, and tips about the best extermination methods.
Nests have cropped up on countless porches and patios; some colonies have even made themselves at home inside long-abandoned homes.
When the raging wildfire called "The Beast" pushed residents out last month, the stinging insects moved in.
This series does not mean to suggest that the world is ending, but that what is happening across the world is leading to bigger 'earth changes'.
If you're following the series, then you're seeing the signs. It's much more than one video; check out previous installments here.
Real Earth Changes have been taken place in recent weeks... Thanks for watching and stay safe... Links are posted here.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
Three more women have been also injured in the lightning strike, reports added.
The tragedy struck while the villagers were picking their daily essentials from the weekly market late in the afternoon.
According to reports the deceased have been identified as Ram Bhadra, Chaiti Bhadra, and Nitai Ray.
The injured have been shifted to Umerkote Community Health Centre and are undergoing treatment.















Comment: See also: Summer snowfall hits China's northernmost province
Global warming? Snowfall in Siberia marks the official start of summer