Earth Changes
While parts of the country baked in 29C heat during the day, the hot weather continued through the night with lows of 19C.
The humid conditions saw Scotland and surrounding seas hit by around 20,000 of the 39,302 lightning strikes between 3pm Tuesday to 10am on Wednesday.
Ninety per cent of the strikes came in a six-hour blast from 4am to 10am on Wednesday, Met Office UK area lightning detection system data passed to Netweather showed.
Met Office figures showed 25,000 lighting strikes is 10 times higher than the usual number of strikes from a lightning storm.
- Motorists urged to take care with snow warnings for Desert Rd, Napier-Taupo Rd and Rimutaka Hill Rd
- South Island roads impacted include the Lindis, Lewis, Porters, Arthur's Passes and the highway between Dunedin to Waitati
- Sub-zero temperatures expected for South Island
- Schools closed in Dunedin
The bitter cold snap is set to smash a weather record that has stood for more than a century as an icy chill takes hold of the South Island.
Temperatures are set to plunge to a frigid minus 15C across the South Island tonight - but it's expected to be even colder overnight Saturday.
Philip Wallace captured this footage showing snow falling in Wellington at the Rimutaka summit.
Purnia district has reported maximum number of deaths (26), followed by 21 in Araria, 15 in Katihar, eight in Supaul and five in Kishanganj, it said. Four persons have died each in Madhepura and Gopalganj, three in Darbhanga, and one each in Saharsa, Muzaffarpur and Saran, the statement said.
Rivers like Mahananda, Bakhra, Kankai, Parmar, Koshi and others have primarily caused inundation in Purnia, Kishanganj, Araria, Darbhanga, Madhepura, Bhagalpur, Katihar, Saharsa, Supaul, Gopalganj, East Champaran, West Champaran and Muzaffarpur districts.
According to latest reports, the Ganga is flowing above the danger mark in Kahalgaon (Bhagalpur), while Ghaghra river is flowing above the danger mark at some places in Siwan district.
The thunderous downpour covered the northwest Valley over Interstate 17 and scooted to Loop 101 in Scottsdale. Power was out to at least 17,000 households.
The ramp at Interstate 17 and Thomas Road was flooded and the area around Thunderbird Road and Seventh Street was swamped.
A flood advisory went into effect for a large chunk of the Valley, particularly Scottsdale, north Phoenix, Cave Creek and Carefree. The weather service tweeted out a warning to Scottsdale residents to move to higher ground.
A rain gauge at Pinnacle Peak in Scottsdale had recorded over little over 2½ inches of rain by 10 a.m. and traffic signals were out all over the city, police said.
Police, fire and rescue crews responded to the home in Vernon on Thursday afternoon. Three of the victims were outside when rescuers arrived, while the other four were trapped in the rubble. Crews dug through what was left of the house to pull them to safety.
"Those four people have been rescued with varying degrees of injury," said Vernon police Lt. William Meier.
Four children, all under the age of 16, were among the victims. They were taken to Connecticut Children's Medical Center, where one was treated and released. The other three remained hospitalized early Friday morning, but none had life-threatening injuries, said Dr. Brendan Campbell, head of the hospital's trauma unit.
A 7-year-old boy appeared to suffer the most serious injuries, according to police. Two adults were taken to Hartford Hospital. Another adult at the scene refused medical treatment.
The blast blew the front door of the home across the street and into a neighbor's yard. Glass and other debris littered the roadway. "I never heard anything like it. It wasn't just a vibration. The house shook," neighbor Alan Fisher told the Hartford Courant.
Comment: With such a small amount of information it is hard determine what might be the source of these explosions or booms. They might be a result of the increase in fireballs or a sign of some earth changes.
A loud explosion has been heard in the cities of Tourcoing and Roubaix near Lille in northern France, not far from the border with Belgium, local residents say. Only few details were immediately available. (more)
The incident happened just before 3 a.m. local time on Friday when residents in Tourcoing, as well as other places in the area, reported hearing a loud explosion followed by a smaller boom. Scores of witnesses took to social media to write about what they heard.
The blast appears to have happened on a truck carrying gas cylinders, though there was no immediate confirmation from emergency services. There have been no reports of casualties and there are no indications that the incident is linked to terrorism.
The explosion in France was also heard in communities on the Belgian side of the border.
We're working to gather more information about what happened.
However, skiers in the Bío Bío region of Chile in South America on August 2 were struck by an unexpected threat - an erupting volcano. The Nevados de Chillán volcano began to billow smoke, ash and gases while a group from ski and snowboard guide company Powder Quest were on the neighbouring slopes.
Skier Jess McMillan caught the whole thing on film and posted the video on her Instagram feed, with the caption: "So crazy to see a #volcano #eruption @nevadosdechillan Very cool way to end an epic bluebird powder day @powderquest #ladiesfreeridecamp."
Experts from the website Volcano Discovery suggest the eruption started around 5:10pm on August 1 - the dense plume of ash from the crater, which is off-limits to skiers and snowboarders, rose to 3,600m and quickly dispersed. In total the activity only lasted a few minutes, but nonetheless caught those enjoying the sunny South American slopes off guard.
Jess said: "The volcano has been giving off gases all season, there's now a closed area surrounding it to keep skiers and snowboarders a safe distance away. The volcano has emitted gases twice since in the past three days - it makes no sound and there's no earthquake when it happens."
It didn't make a big splash in the mainstream media in the United States, but this week Mt. Popocatepetl erupted and coated homes and vehicles in Mexico City with a thick layer of volcanic dust. And now some scientists are becoming concerned that this recent activity may be building up to "a major disastrous eruption"...
RÚV reports that a quake measuring a 4 on the Richter scale was recorded near the northern end of Bárðarbunga at about 5:00 Wednesday morning.
Einar Hjörleifsson, a natural disaster expert at the Icelandic Met Office, told reporters the quake is amongst the largest that have been recorded since the volcano stopped erupting in early 2015. The past week has been relatively quiet at the site, he said, but over the course of this day many tremours were recorded. He emphasised that the quakes in themselves do not necessarily mean that another volcanic eruption is on the way.
This is not for the first time in recent months that tremours have been recorded near Bárðarbunga. As reported last May, a quake measuring 4.4 was recorded near the volcano, followed by several aftershocks.
While scientists do not yet have reason to believe another eruption is imminent, they are still monitoring the area closely for increased activity. The Grapevine will keep readers updated in the event an eruption occurs.
The incident occurred on the property of Kybybolite farmer Andrew Shepherd, who said it was the first sinkhole he had come across on his farm.
"It opened up underneath the tractor and spray unit," Mr Shepherd explained.
"We were very lucky that the weight must have broken the ground, but hadn't actually dropped until the sprayer was basically all the way over it.
"The driver (Max) that was driving the tractor was thrown out of his seat and hit his head on the roof. He stopped to get out and have a look and he found the sinkhole.
"It's something I wasn't expecting, that's for sure."

















Comment: See also: UK has already experienced more thunderstorms this year than its average for a whole year