Earth Changes

Another tornado destroys homes in Germany, this time in Hamburg (VIDEOS)

The Local
Thu, 09 Jun 2016 12:37 UTC

The tornado that hit Hamburg, northern Germany, June 7, 2016

Hamburg locals were shocked by the sight of the tornado on Tuesday, but meteorologists say this isn't the end of the bad weather.

Hamburg fire services on Tuesday declared a state of emergency due to the severe storm - believed to be a tornado - and have dispatched more than half of the available fire service workers in Hamburg.

"There are countless roofs that have flown off and flooded basements. More than 1,000 firefighters and technical helpers are on duty," said a fire department spokesperson.

Meteorologists have not yet declared whether the storm was in fact a tornado, which is defined as having contact with both the earth and a cloud.

Residents reported seeing rain, then hailstones as big as table tennis balls, then suddenly a tornado on Tuesday evening in eastern Hamburg.

Comment: See also:

5 June 2016 - Rare twin tornadoes touch down in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
6 May 2015 - Tornado and severe storms hit northern Germany

Becoming less 'rare' by the day...

20 foot high flames spew continuously from borehole in Madhya Pradesh, India

Hindustan Times
Mon, 06 Jun 2016 19:24 UTC

Panic gripped the Mandi Bamora village in MP's Vidisha district on Thursday when flames as high as 20 feet began to emanate from below the earth's surface during the boring of a tubewell on Thursday. The flames have been emanating continuously since then.

The district administration called a fire brigade to put off the flames but in vain. A barricade has been placed around the spot and policemen have been deployed to restrict people from venturing near the spot.

On Thursday morning, Rajkumar Sahu of Mandi Bamora village brought a boring machine at his farmland for the boring of a new tubewell. When the boring work reached a depth of 400 feet, suddenly flames began to emanate with force, causing panic among the locals. Thereafter the people began to pour water into the borewell to put off the fire but to no avail. The boring machine operators fled the spot and soon the news spread wildfire in the whole area.

On Friday the district administration officials inspected the spot and ordered the area be secured to prevent any major mishap. However, since Thursday morning the spot has become a matter of curiosity as well as panic among the locals. Some are terming the incident as a miracle of nature while others say it is the wrath of local deities.

This is third such incident in which flames emanated during boring of a new tube well in the Mandi Bamora area. Earlier on January 30 this year, flames had come out while a tubewell was being bored near Mandi Bamora railway station. And a few years ago the same thing had happened near a government hospital.

Comment: See also:

6.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia off Lombok coast

RT
Thu, 09 Jun 2016 04:49 UTC

A powerful 6.2 magnitude earthquake has struck some 190 miles south of the Indonesian island of Lombok, according to preliminary data from the US Geological Survey.

The quake happened at a depth of 29 km some 300 kilometers south of Praya, the main town of Central Lombok Regency on Lombok Island.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

The quake happened along the 5,600 km of the tectonically active Sunda convergent margin, where India and Australia plates are converging with and subducting beneath the Sunda plate at a rate of approximately 50 to 70 mm/yr, according to the USGS.

Comment: Only two days ago a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's eastern coast.

London flooding: Cars submerged as flash floods strike Sutton, Croydon and Mitcham

Laura Proto
Evening Standard
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 20:27 UTC

Three people were trapped in their cars after being submerged in flash floods in south-east London

Flash floods left cars submerged as torrential rain hit south London today.

Emergency services were called to Mitcham, Croydon and Wallington as thunderstorms brought heavy downpours to parts of the capital.

Three cars were almost completely submerged under flood water near Wallington station with one person having to be rescued by firefighters.

One man was rescued by a stranger who threw a brick to smash the window of his Mercedes after it became trapped in the flood water.

A London Fire Brigade (LFB) spokesman said: "We were called at 2.21pm to three cars under water two metres deep.

Submerged: a car after flash floods in south London

Comment: Flash floods and lightning strikes caused chaos across the UK on Tuesday as a month's worth of rain fell in just an hour.

At least 9 wildfires in Oregon sparked by lightning in one day

Mark Furman
kval.com
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 18:48 UTC

© South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership
The smoke plume from the Draw Fire as seen from the air on June 6, 2016.

Wildfires sparked by lightning Sunday continue to burn in southeast and south central Oregon as firefighters faced unfavorable hot and windy weather conditions.

The Owyhee Canyon Fire south of Jordan Valley has burned over 20,500 acres, according to fire officials. The fire is 50 percent contained, but the weather forecast could be a problem.

"Wind and lightning are expected today and could frustrate suppression and containment efforts," fire managers said in a report Tuesday morning.

Twenty miles northeast of Chiloquin in south central Oregon, fire crews are working the 500 acre Draw Fire. It's the largest of about 7 fires sparked by lightning there on Sunday. The other blazes were kept to 3 1/2 acres or smaller, the USDA Forest Service said.

Could 2016 be California's worst wildfire season?

J. Weston Phippen
The Atlantic
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 18:39 UTC

A helicopter makes a water drop on a fire in Calabasas, California.

Consecutive years of drought have killed more tress, and recent rains have added to grass growth, which provides quick fuel for fires.

Five years of drought have dried up California's forests and the first six months of this year has seen twice as many acres burned as the same time in 2015, the Los Angeles Times reported.

By Monday, about 400 firefighters working on the ground and in helicopters had extinguished one blaze in Calabasas, a neighborhood on the edge of Los Angeles. On Tuesday at least two other large fires in the state burned, as the Times reported:

In the north, crews tackled the 3,200-acre Coleman fire as it tore through Los Padres National Forest, threatening several homes. Farther south in Calabasas, residents left their homes as flames consumed more than 500 acres. Fast-approaching flames forced a bride, groom and their guests to act quickly and move their entire wedding at the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon to a nearby beach.

Massive sinkhole shuts down street in downtown Ottawa

CBC News
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 11:44 UTC

Mall evacuated, power out in area, police ask residents to avoid scene of the collapse

A massive sinkhole has formed next to a shopping mall in downtown Ottawa, causing a gas leak and forcing the evacuation of all nearby businesses.

The sinkhole formed near the corner of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive, not far east of the Chateau Laurier hotel. Soon after forming, it spread across the entirety of Rideau Street, from sidewalk to sidewalk.

A large volume of water could be seen gushing inside, but the water has since been shut off.

Comment: A list of of recent sinkhole activity can be found here.

Lightning strikes kill 3 and injure 5 in Bangladesh

The Daily Star (Bangladesh)
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 14:22 UTC

Three people were killed and five others injured by lightning in Kaliganj and Patgram upazilas of the district yesterday morning.

In Kaliganj, a thunderbolt hit Mintu Miah and Asadul, sons of Harun-or-Rashid, while they were working at a field in the morning. They died instantly, said assistant superintendent of police Hossain Shahid Suhrawardy.

In Patgram, Saju Miah, son of Islam of Srirampur village, was killed by lightning in the morning, the ASP added.

Forest fires engulf further areas in Russia

Fars News
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 13:55 UTC

The area of forest fires in Russia increased by 20% in the past twenty-four hours to 10,000 hectares, with more than half of wildfires raging in the Russia's Trans-Baikal Territory in East Siberia, the aerial forest protection service Avialesokhrana reported on Wednesday.

"As of midnight Moscow time on June 8, a total of 65 forest fires were active in Russia on an area of 10,094 hectares, including 12 wildfires in forest areas on a territory of 5,789 hectares in the Trans-Baikal Territory," the service said in a statement, TASS reported.

Apart from Trans-Baikal Territory, the largest area of wildfires was registered in the Republic of Buryatia in East Siberia where almost 2,200 hectares of land are ablaze.

More than 2,700 personnel have been involved in the fire-fighting effort. They have been able to extinguish 70 fire outbreaks on an area of over 1,500 hectares in the past twenty-four hours. Nevertheless, the fire has covered a distance of 3,100 hectares of forests over this time.

Emergency regime has been in effect in Buryatia, the Trans-Baikal Territory and in one district of the Krasnoyarsk and Kamchatka Territories each due to wildfires.

Crews fight wildfires blazing through Sweden

The Local se
Tue, 07 Jun 2016 09:13 UTC

A helicopter drops water on the wildfire

Fire crews are fighting wildfires across Sweden, which has been left dry by an early-summer heatwave.

National weather institute SMHI on Tuesday warned of "an extremely great risk of" forest fires spreading in southern Sweden in the afternoon, with the threat increasing in large parts of the north-east on Wednesday.

"It's been very dry for a while now," said Nils Holmqvist, meteorologist for public broadcaster SVT.

Sweden has experienced sizzling temperatures this summer, with the mercury soaring to 30.2C in Gothenburg on the west coast on June 3rd - the season's hottest day so far. But, while welcomed by many, the sunny days have also left the ground dry, making it vulnerable to wildfires.

Forest fires swept across central Sweden on Tuesday, including the Vrinnevi forest in Norrköping, Järpmyrberget in Ockelbo and along the railroad between Grängesberg and Ludvika in Dalarna. A fire near Lidhult in the southern Småland region which took days to put out last week flared up again at around noon.