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Snowflake Cold

Cold weather in Jacksonville, FL breaks record set in 1873; 1,998 records broken over the past 7 days

Blake Matthews
News4jax.com
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 09:06 UTC
Thursday morning not only broke an "ancient" record from 1873, but we also dropped to the second coldest temperature ever recorded in the month of November in Jacksonville.

According to the National Weather Service, for the second morning in a row, Jacksonville set a new cold weather record. Thursday mornings temperature dropped to a bone chilling 24 degrees breaking the old record of 30 degrees set in 1873.

If that wasn't cold enough for you, Thursday's 24 degrees also marks the second lowest temperature ever recorded in the month of November, beaten out only by the year 1970 when the mercury dropped to 21 degrees in Jacksonville in November.

Some areas around Woodbine, GA flirted with the upper teens as the temperature officially there dropped to 20 degrees.

Any thoughts that the winter of 2014-2015 wouldn't be as bone-chilling as last year's may have just been put on thin ice. And it's only November.

Tuesday morning was the coldest Nov. 19 across the United States since 1976, some 38 years, according to Dr. Ryan Maue, meteorologist with WeatherBell. The average temperature across the entire country was just 19.4°.

An astounding 226 million people in all 50 states, that includes the tropical paradise of Hawaii, were below freezing at the same time putting an exclamation point on an already paralyzing winter season -- that hasn't even officially started yet.
Image
© News4jax.com
Locations approaching or surpassing record temperatures on Wednesday morning.
Even Florida didn't escape the icy grip.
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Wolf

Pack of dogs kills 8-year-old girl on Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota

Steve Young
Argus Leader
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 20:44 UTC
Image
© Emily Spartz / Argus Leader
Pine Ridge, S.D.
Pine Ridge authorities are looking for a pack of dogs that attacked and killed an 8-year-old girl Tuesday, and are warning parents not to leave their children outdoors unsupervised.

Deputy Police Chief John Mousseau said Wednesday that the girl, who has not been identified, was attacked around 5 p.m. while sledding near her family's home along Highway 407 just south of Pine Ridge.

He would not release details of the incident, but said his department was "devoting every resource available to locate the responsible pack." They had not found it as of Wednesday evening.

Police Chief Ron Duke told the Rapid City Journal that the girl's death has renewed concerns about packs of dogs moving unrestrained in every district of the reservation. Duke was urging parents to not leave their children outdoors unsupervised until this particular pack was located.


Comment: See also: Feral dog pack found to have killed woman on Wyoming Indian reservation

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Bizarro Earth

Sinkhole opens up near old mine in Russia's Ural Mountains


RT
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 19:45 UTC
sinkhole russia urals

The sinkhole was first discovered by Uralkali's Solikamsk-2 mine workers on November 18. According to local emergency services, it's located some two miles from the mine itself, in an old abandoned mine.
A sinkhole 20 by 30 meters (65 by 98 feet) in size has been found near a Uralkali mine in Russia's Perm region. While the company says the development is of no further threat, locals fear the whole nearby town could go underground.

The sinkhole was first discovered by Uralkali's Solikamsk-2 mine workers on November 18. According to local emergency services, it's located some two miles from the mine itself, in an old abandoned mine.

Old, out-of-use garden patches were affected by the accident, and there is no danger to locals, as the sinkhole is in no close proximity to any residential buildings, the company said.

There are no "catastrophic" effects of the sinkhole neither for the company, nor for the locals, Uralkali CEO Dmitry Osipov said, adding that the incident has been localised.

Comment: Sinkholes are becoming a common occurrence - here is a global map of sinkholes reported just this year alone:



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Blackbox

Mysterious glowing worm has been discovered lighting up the soil in the Peruvian rainforest

Tia Ghose
Live Science
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 19:12 UTC
Image
© Jeff Cremer/Perunature.com
Shown in extreme closeup is a mysterious glow worm that was discovered in the Peruvian rainforest.
A mysterious glowing worm has been discovered lighting up the soil in the Peruvian rainforest. The strange glow worms, which are thought to be the larval stage of an as-yet-unidentified species of beetle, may use their phosphorescence to lure unsuspecting flies and ants into their waiting, open jaws.

Ants or termites will "fly right into their jaws, and then they'll just clamp shut and that's their meal," said Aaron Pomerantz, an entomologist who works with a rainforest expedition company at the Refugio Amazonas near the Tambopata Research Center in Peru, where the glowing larvae were discovered.

In tests, the glow worms readily devoured stick insects and termites, Pomerantz said. Their style of attack seems similar to that of the enormous, man-eating worms in the 1990 campy movie Tremors, albeit at a much smaller scale, he said.
"They're underground, and they burst from the earth," Pomerantz told Live Science.
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Bizarro Earth

Two earthquakes strike San Francisco Bay area in a span of 5 minutes - shaking felt in South Bay


CBS San Francisco
Wed, 19 Nov 2014 18:37 UTC
Image
San Juan Bautista - Two moderate earthquakes have struck central California, one of which was widely felt across the region. The U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude-3.6 earthquake struck at 10:21 p.m. Wednesday and a magnitude-4.2 temblor struck five minutes later. At least one smaller quake followed later.

The epicenter was about 2 miles south of San Juan Bautista and 11 miles northeast of Salinas. Nearly 1,500 people reported on the USGS website that they felt the first quake and more than 30 reported the second.

USGS data
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Bizarro Earth

Mýrdalsjökull Ice Cap: Iceland's Katla Volcano is 'due a big eruption'

Hannah Osborne
International Business Times
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 18:29 UTC
Image
© NASA
After and before shot shows how ice cap has changed.
A volcano sitting beneath Iceland's Mýrdalsjökull ice cap is due for a "big" eruption, Nasa has said. Satellite images showing Mýrdalsjökull reveal the ice cap has shrunk dramatically over the last 30 years, and experts believe this is a result of recent volcanic episodes.


Comment: Well, it's nice to see the 'experts' didn't blame the shrinkage on 'global warming'.


The images, from Nasa's Earth Observatory, show before and after photos of the ice cap - the first from September 2014, the second from September 1986.

More than half of Iceland's ice caps and glaciers sit either directly above or near active volcanoes, meaning fire and ice often unite.

Additional images
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Binoculars

Impressive Arctic owls return to Plum Island, Massachusetts

Jim Sullivan
The Salem News
Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:23 UTC
Image
© BRYAN EATON/Staff photo
A snowy owl is perched on a utility pole on Beach Road in Salisbury across from the entrance to Salisbury Beach State Reservation last winter.
After a banner season last winter, the snowy owls are back."These animals are constantly moving around and they don't stay around very long," Parker River National Wildlife Refuge visitor services manager Matt Poole said. "You may hear that there is a snowy owl or a pair of snowy owls that have been seen on Plum Island for maybe a week but it is very possible that those are not the same individuals. They come in and they move through, maybe moving further south to where they are finally going to be for the winter. But if they leave, there may be more animals coming in behind them."

The powerful raptors made wildly popular in the Harry Potter novels and films, have already been spotted and photographed at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge this week."It is typically not a resident bird, if you will," Poole said. "They are a very popular winter bird in this area. They are something that all the birders hope will be around. Given the huge number of them last year, contrast that with the year before when as far as I know there was only one sighted the entire winter. It is highly variable."

While exact numbers are not known, snowy owls were spotted in the area regularly from November of last year through May of 2014 and with their return this month, birders are hoping for another big year. But each year is different for the nomadic bird, said Poole.
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Ice Cube

Shipping season ends on upper Mississippi as earliest ice on record surrounds locks and dams

Michael Hirtzer
Reuters
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 03:43 UTC
shipping mississippi river

The shipping season on the upper Mississippi River will end on Thursday as ice surrounding locks and dams near Minnesota's Twin Cities forced the earliest winter closure on records that date back to 1969
The shipping season on the upper Mississippi River will end on Thursday as ice surrounding locks and dams near Minnesota's Twin Cities forced the earliest winter closure on records that date back to 1969, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said.

"There's so much ice through the whole system," said Bryan Peterson, navigation manager for the Army Corps' St. Paul district. "They're getting the barges they can out and not risking getting stuck there all winter."

There were two tow boats waiting to pass lock and dam No. 2 near Hastings, Minnesota. Once they moved down river, no more vessels were expected, Peterson said.

The shipping season typically ends around the beginning of December on upper portions of the Mississippi River in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. In 1989, no more vessels reached the Twin Cities after Nov. 24, Peterson said.
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Binoculars

3 rare Arctic rough-legged buzzards turn up in Saddleworth, UK


Oldham Evening Chronicle
Fri, 14 Nov 2014 17:46 UTC
Image
© Chronicle Online
A rough-legged buzzard, pictured over Dovestone reservoir
Scores of bird watchers are flocking to Saddleworth's Dovestone reservoir to catch sight of rare rough-legged buzzards.

Three birds have taken up residence after flying in from Scandinavia. Their flights have attracted groups of avid twitchers.

Dave O'Hare, RSPB's Dovestone site manager, said: "These are the first rough-legged buzzards to have stayed in the area for many years. It's a real treat for local birdwatchers."

Tim Melling, the RSPB's senior conservation officer, said: "The birds could hang around until March, but are likely to move away to the coast if snow blankets the hills."
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Binoculars

Scandinavian birds of prey set to invade Britain

John Ingham
Daily Express, UK
Mon, 17 Nov 2014 17:21 UTC
Image

The short-eared owl was battling to reach the Scottish coast
More than 100 miles from land this owl is very much all at sea.

And it is in the vanguard of an invasion which could see hundreds flocking here from Scandinavia.

The short-eared owl battling towards Scotland was one of four spotted at dawn by birdwatcher Andy Williams flying low over the North Sea halfway between Norway and Aberdeen.

Andy, who is working on a survey vessel in the North Sea in the Forties area, said on his pelagicbirder blog: "A couple of days ago I was treated to four short-eared owls flying over the sea and heading WSW. Quite a weird sight seeing these lovely birds on passage over the waves.

"I saw them all in the first hour of daylight so my photos are not the best but they will have to do.

"I saw two single birds then two together and it was interesting to see them occasionally harried and mobbed by the herring and great black backed gulls - as if the owls did not have enough to contend with!

"Although their buoyant flight was relatively strong one bird almost ditched as it banked sharply to avoid an aerial assault from a herring gull. Hopefully they all made it ashore."
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