Earth Changes

Passenger films incredible tornado swirling above a river from aeroplane window over Council Bluffs, Iowa

John Hutchinson
Daily Mail
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 16:37 UTC

Tornado on the ground in Council Bluffs, Iowa

This is the moment a passenger filmed a tornado from her aeroplane window as the aircraft she was travelling in, came in to land.

The tornado swirled over Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Thursday and could be seen from Omaha, Nebraska, on the other side of the Missouri River

Erika Morral captured the waterspout stretching to the sky above a body of water, as the aircraft made its descent.

The tornado swirled over Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Thursday and could be seen from Omaha, Nebraska, on the other side of the Missouri River.

Forecasters had warned of storms with damaging winds in parts of southwest and west central Iowa and east Nebraska last week.

It is not known exactly which airport the plane was coming into, but Eppley Airfield is three miles north-east of Omaha, and handles around 75 flights each day.

Waterspouts are like tornadoes, but gather over water rather than land.

They are created by swirling air currents. Waterspouts are common in the tropics, but can occur anywhere in the world where there is a body of water and stormy weather.

Comment: See also this footage taken at ground level: Waterspout forms over Lake Manawa, Iowa

New record set as three more tornadoes touch down in Manitoba, Canada

Jim Bender
Winnipeg Sun
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 09:09 UTC

Thirteenth tornado of season touches down in Waywayseecappo, flipping bus and putting Manitoba over the top

Manitoba may have unofficially set a rather dubious weather record.

With three more tornadoes touching down on Monday, this year's total has reached a total of 13 to date, Environment Canada meteorologist Terri Lang confirmed Tuesday.

The highest previous total Lang could find was nine back in 2013.

While early reports said there were actually four tornadoes in Manitoba on Monday, the fourth could not be confirmed, Lang said.

"Sometimes, what people think are tornadoes are land spouts," she said. "And there were a lot of land spouts, not tornadoes, last year."

There were only eight confirmed tornadoes in Manitoba last year, Lang said.

So, why the sudden increase this year?

"It's been a very active year, with more moisture than there was last year," Lang said. "And with that moisture, there is more positive feedback. When the moisture in the ground evaporates, it causes more storms. Crops are also growing better here, which is also giving off more moisture this year than last year when it was very dry.

"Plus the overall patterns from the Gulf of Mexico this year, it's just been too much."

So, whether Manitoba gets even more tornadoes this year will depend on that moisture.

Comment: A couple of weeks ago an "exceptional" storm ripped through Southern Manitoba. The EF 1 tornado produced a "swath of 10 to 20 kilometres wide of straight-line wind damage affecting a significant part of the region" Environment Canada said, with some of the winds gusting up to 140 km/hr.

Over 700 forest wildfires break out in Portugal

abcnews.go.com
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 13:17 UTC

More than 4,400 firefighters battled hundreds of forest blazes across Portugal on Monday, authorities said, as the annual summer wildfire season hit a peak

More than 4,400 firefighters battled hundreds of forest blazes of varying sizes across Portugal on Monday, authorities said, as the annual summer wildfire season hit a peak.

The National Civil Protection Authority said on its website that by late afternoon almost 1,500 vehicles and 32 water-dumping aircraft were deployed at 702 wildfires, some of which have been burning for days.

It classified eight wildfires in the north of the country as major blazes that were out of control.

The fires spread quickly through mostly pine and eucalyptus forests that are tinder-dry after weeks without significant rain. Daytime temperatures in recent days have exceeded 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) and in some northern cities exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Monday.

The National Civil Protection Authority classified eight wildfires in the north of the country as major blazes that were out of control

Lightning bolt kills four students in Uganda

Martin Okudi
All Africa
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 09:05 UTC

Four students of Adjumani Secondary School in Ciforo Sub-county, Adjumani District have been confirmed dead while three others sustained injuries after they were struck by lightning on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Buni Stephen Aju, the school's deputy head teacher, identified the deceased as Isaac Chandiga, who was in Senior One, Robert Manza, Richard Edema, and Nail Majak, all Senior Two students.

"We have five lightning arrestors on different structures... but if such a heartbreaking incident can occur within the school premises, then I strongly doubt the functionality of the lightning arrestors," Mr Buni said.

Mr Ismail Yabaga, the head boy elect of the school, who witnessed the incident, said the lightning struck one of the trees near the school laboratory and it affected most of the students nearby.

Atmospheric changes: Strange cloud anomalies, rare ball lighting and more hail damaged aircraft

Adapt 2030
YouTube
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 06:58 UTC

Strange cloud anomalies are appearing globally with higher frequency and intensity. At the same time low cloud formation brought on by increases in cosmic rays are leading to more in-flight hail damage requiring emergency landings.

Comment: It is likely that atmospheric dust loading from increased comet and volcanic activity is contributing to the 'strange skies' we are witnessing, the cooling effect of which causes ice crystals to form. See also:

Electric universe theory provides rational, intelligible explanations for such atmospheric phenomena as ball lightning, plasma discharges, noctilucent clouds, lightning, hurricanes and tornadoes. For more information on this and much more read, Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection by Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk.

Several dead after heaviest snow in two decades hits Lesotho, Africa

Pam Wright
The Weather Channel
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 18:15 UTC

© NASA's Earth Observatory
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image of the heavy snow that fell on Lesotho on July 27, 2016.

A winter storm dumped more snow on Lesotho, a high-altitude kingdom surrounded by South Africa, in late July than has been seen in any snow event since 1996.

According to Traveller 24 News, at least eight tourists were airlifted as a result of the storm and the deaths of several shepherds in the Joe Gqabi District Municipality were attributed to the heavy snow that fell on July 27.

Stefan Grab, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, told NASA's Earth Observatory it has been at least two decades since a storm of this magnitude hit the area, but noted that things are very different today because of how quickly the snow melts at altitudes above 5,900 feet and how infrequently the area receives any snow compared with years past.

News reports did not say how much snow fell in the country, but it was more than enough to cover the higher elevations.

"This particular snowfall was an extreme event, but it's only extreme in the context that we haven't had something like this in a long time," said Grab in the report. "In the first half of the 20th century, or certainly in the 19th century, these were very common."

According to the government's website, Lesotho is a high-altitude, hilly kingdom completely surrounded by South Africa. With typically short winters, Lesotho is comparable in size to Maryland and tends to have mild winters. In recent years, the kingdom has suffered a severe drought, which may be a contributing factor in the infrequency of heavier snowfalls.

Interesting and positive changes in Arctic sea ice volume

Frank Lansner
Watts Up With That?
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 23:12 UTC

© NASA/JPL
In addition to satellite data from NASA's Grace mission, the scientists used measurements from Arctic Bottom Pressure Recorders deployed to the Arctic Ocean floor to monitor changes in Arctic Ocean circulation.

DMI publishes daily their Arctic ice volume data in the form of graphs. From these it is possible to retrieve the data and plot them as you like.

So, first I plotted all years available, 2003 - 2016 for the period May 16 to Aug 8 to show the melt season. Not all dates in the period was used, but enough to get the overall picture.

The first that caught my interest was obviously how 2016 was "performing" in comparison with the other years 2003 - 2015. The winter winds Nov 2015 - Feb 2016 were quite harsh to the ice as it was generally blown towards the Atlantic via East Greenland. This may explain the very low levels of ice volume May 2016. Whatever the reason for this low level of ice volume May 2016, it appears that 2016 during summer melt did not melt as fast as most other years.

Youth killed by bears in Odisha, India

Odisha Sun Times
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 20:34 UTC

Sloth bears are found in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan but shrinking habitats and rampant poaching have reduced their numbers

© Manpreet Romana
Sloth bears are found in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan but shrinking habitats and rampant poaching have reduced their numbers

A youth was killed in a bear attack this morning in Odisha' Balasore district while engaged in farming land.

The deceased has been identified as Ganeswar Mallik of Budusahi village in Bhaunriabada panchayat under Nilagiri block in the district.

According to reports, two bears attacked Ganeswar from behind about 6 am today while he was channeling water to his farming land in his village.

Locals heard screams and rushed to the spot to find him profusely bleeding.

He was rushed to the local hospital where the doctor declared him dead on arrival.

The US is approaching 4,000 days since a major hurricane strike

Roy W. Spencer
drroyspencer.com
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC

In less than two months (October 6, 2016) it will be 4,000 days since the last time a major hurricane made landfall in the U.S., which was Wilma on October 24, 2005.

Wilma was a record-setter, being the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record, with peak estimated sustained winds of 183 mph and lowest surface pressure of 882 mb. That surface pressure corresponds to a 13% removal of atmospheric mass in the core of the hurricane compared to normal sea level pressure.

But after the record-setting 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, with a whopping 27 named tropical storms, the bottom pretty much dropped out of hurricane activity since then.

Waterspout seen in Sai Kung, Hong Kong

Coconuts - Hong Kong
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 20:10 UTC

The skies of Sai Kung were briefly graced with a waterspout (think tornado, but over water) earlier today while the Hong Kong Observatory's Thunderstorm Warning was in place.

At around 4:55pm, Hongkongers spotted the dramatic funnel-shaped column of water rotating over the surface of the sea.

A witness told Apple Daily she was at Pak Sha Wan Pier when the sky suddenly changed colour. "One of the clouds began spinning rapidly, like during a Typhoon 3, and formed a tail [the waterspout]. There was thunder and lightning... the entire process took around 15 minutes."

A spokesperson for the HKO told Apple Daily that the phenomenon came from a funnel cloud, which are sighted mostly during the wet 'n' wild (at least, temperature-wise) summer months in Hong Kong. According to the HKO, waterspouts and tornadoes are seen in Hong Kong once every one to two years.