Earth ChangesS


Igloo

Daring tourists queue up to climb frozen waterfall in China

Ben Burrows
Mirror.co.uk
Mon, 13 Jan 2014 14:04 UTC
The wall of ice in the Miyun district is perfect for a spot of climbing, providing you have a head for heights

Frozen Waterfall
© RexFrozen Waterfall.
It is so cold in the Miyun District that a waterfall has actually frozen solid.

The sub zero conditions have caused havoc in places, but not in China where they're using the plummeting temperatures to their advantage.

Any ice cool tourists brave enough can scale the usually raging torrent with the help of some crampons and a pickax.

Freezing weather conditions have battered much of the globe with parts of America dropping to -60 thanks to Winter Storm Hercules.

Conditions in the north of America are so historically low that the world-famous Niagara Falls actually froze spawning some truly amazing snaps.

Lake Michigan steamed because the water was warmer than the surrounding air, and the small town of Hell froze over - for real.
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Phoenix

256 wildfires suddenly break out in Victoria, Australia amid heatwave

Angus Thompson, James Dowling, Michelle Ainsworth
Herald Sun
Wed, 15 Jan 2014 16:52 UTC
fire ban sign
© Unknown
Crews have worked throughout the night extinguishing hundreds of fires in the driest parts of Victoria sparked by dry lightning from electrical storms.

CFA state duty officer Scott Purdy told 3AW radio crews responded to 256 fires between 5pm and 12am.

The Mallee and Wimmera received the most strikes as electrical storms hit the region and continued to other parts of the state including the central Victorian towns of Castlemaine, Daylesford, Woodend, Macedon, and metropolitan Melbourne.

There are still 22 fires burning in the Mallee. Waterbombing helicopters are monitoring the region and central Victoria to identify strikes before conditions worsen later in the week.

The CFA fears more dry lightning, which means lightning with not enough rain to combat its effect, will hit the state today.

The CFA battled several grass fires yesterday, with the most serious at Kangaroo Ground which is now under control.

There is a total fire ban across the state.

Comment: Dry lightning? Maybe. But then there's also this coming down from overhead:

Breaking News: NSW, Australia - Meteor spotted, 12 January 2014

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Windsock

Severe storms, floods plague East U.S. coast


CBN News
Mon, 13 Jan 2014 16:43 UTC
Wild weather is sweeping the country following last weeks deep freeze.


Over the weekend powerful storms roared down South.

In North Carolina, hurricane strength winds destroyed a condominium complex.

In Georgia, two girls had to be rescued after a tree fell on their home.

Meanwhile, a big thaw from Pennsylvania to Maine is causing major flooding concerns for millions.

In Vermont, roads have been closed and some residents are being forced to use sand bags.

In western New York, homes and yards looked like swimming pools due to massive flood waters. Crews had to use boats and even a bulldozer to rescue residents trapped by the rising water.

Forecasters say more flooding is expected in the coming days.
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Newspaper

Hilarious: Akademic Shokalskiy makes it back to port, #spiritofmawson ship of fools still stuck in Antarctica

Anthony Watts
What's Up With That?
Mon, 13 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:168.3123/centery:-46.88068/zoom:8/oldmmsi:273458210/olddate:lastknown
The comedy just keeps on coming. Plus, now it seems that Turney failed to get some approvals, and his welcome home may not be all the happy. Maybe he'll stay in Antarctica.

After having to prematurely abandon their mission due to being stuck in ice, and having a weather forecast provided that said all they had to do was wait a few more days, which came true, freeing the ship, the intrepid Dr. Turney and his gaggle of global warming geese tourists were evacuated by helicopter to the Aurora Australis, which then sailed to the Australian Casey Station to finish the resupply operations that got interrupted by Turney's distress call.

The #spirtofmawson people are still at Casey Station, waiting for their ride home, while the Akademic Shokalskiy has made it to port in New Zealand. See the current positions of both ships:
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Stop

Walthall County family discovers mysterious hole in yard

Perrise Thomas
WJTV
Tue, 14 Jan 2014 15:02 UTC
Image
Walthall County hole is like a vacuum, and if the family pours water into it, it guzzles it right down.
A Walthall County family sent us a video Sunday morning of what they call a mysterious hole forming in their yard. The home is on Jayess road in Tylertown, Walthall County.

"We don't know what this is. There's a sink hole in our yard, and it's sucking air." says Max McKenzie.

They say it's like a vacuum, and if they pour water into it, it guzzles it right down.

"I don't know what it is, but we're going to have to do something to find out," says Max. His 14-year-old son, Brad, discovered it.

"I heard noise coming from the ground, I got my ear down there and listened to it," says Brad.

They took a shovel and dug around the hole, hoping to figure out what it is. They even stuck a pipe down there to see how deep it is. And no matter how much water they pour into the hole, it guzzles the water, and it just disappears.
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Igloo

Fish encased in ice: Mass death in Norway as the water froze

Torkel Ødegård
Doubtful News
Tue, 14 Jan 2014 15:20 UTC
The school of fish perished as they froze to death when the water rapidly froze over this weekend at Lovund island, in the Nordland province in Norway.

A temperature of -7/8°C (that's approx 17-19°F) with an east wind made the bay freeze over very quickly. The fish had probably been chased towards the shore by cormorants and did not make it back to the open sea before the water froze solid.

Aril Slotte at the Sea Research Institute says it's not uncommon for fish to be chased to the shore by predators. The type of fish is described as coalfish or pollack (Pollachius virens).

It made for a striking photo op.
Frozen Fish
© Ingolf Kristiansen
Not the first time this has happened in Nordland this year.
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Black Cat

India scrambles to save tigers from deadly virus


The Times of India
Tue, 14 Jan 2014 11:46 UTC
Image
India is scrambling to protect its beleaguered tiger population after several big cats tested positive for a virus common among dogs but deadly to other carnivores, experts said.
India is scrambling to protect its beleaguered tiger population after several big cats tested positive for a virus common among dogs but deadly to other carnivores, experts said.

In the last year, canine distemper virus has killed at least four tigers and several other animals across northern and eastern India, according to Rajesh Gopal of the government's National Tiger Conservation Authority.

The revelation is bad news for wild tigers - already endangered by rampant poaching and shrinking habitat as India undergoes breakneck development to accommodate the staggering growth of its 1.2 billion people. That same economic development and population growth means more people - and more dogs - are coming even closer to wildlife.

India will now test every tiger carcass it finds for the virus, Gopal said, while authorities also consider a massive campaign to vaccinate dogs against canine distemper.

"We cannot vaccinate every dog, of course. But even 50 percent of dogs in the zones around sanctuaries would help," Gopal said. He did not give details of the plans being considered. There is no vaccine for big cats.
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Hardhat

Multiple owl attacks reported in Springfield, Missouri

Linda Russell
ky3.com
Thu, 09 Jan 2014 11:31 UTC
Image
You would be wise to keep an eye on the sky going outdoors or getting out of a car in southeast Springfield. You really should give a hoot because you might be the next target.

Timmery Clark sent us a photo of an owl landed on her head the week before Christmas. "This was the second time the owl landed on me in the space of 5 minutes outside Hebrews Coffee on Republic Road. It was very gentle--I thought it might hurt me, but both times it very calmly and gently settled on my head (even though I was laughing and screaming). It was pretty surreal, but a funny moment to have caught on film!" says Clark.

Most of the attacks, probably about a dozen in all, have been reported in the neighborhoods south of Republic Road, Ravenwood, Spring Creek and Ravenwood South. The owl or owls seem to like landing on human heads.
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Ambulance

Terrifying moment British teacher is gored by an elephant through her car as it flips it with its trunk on a Safari park's dirt road

Tom Kelly
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 10 Jan 2014 10:39 UTC
Image
The enraged bull elephant pushes the car over
  • Sarah Brooks from Spalding, Lincolnshire was injured last week
  • Elephant's tusk ripped through the back of Ms Brooks' upper thigh
  • Their car rolled three times and was flung 40 metres in the attack
  • Ms Brooks is in a stable condition in hospital
This is the moment an enraged bull elephant flipped over a car containing a British teacher and her fiance during an African safari.

Sarah Brooks, 30, and her fiance were filming the animal from their car as it drank at a waterhole when it turned and went for them.

It flipped their vehicle and shunted it around 130ft down a track into thick bushland.

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Attention

Australia warns of fire danger as heatwave hits

Amy Coopes AFP
Yahoo News
Tue, 14 Jan 2014 09:59 UTC
Image
© AFP Photo.Map showing three-day heatwave forecast for Australia starting Tuesday.
Australian authorities warned Tuesday of some of the worst fire danger since a 2009 inferno which killed 173 people, with most of the continent's southeast sweltering through a major heatwave.

Victoria state, where the so-called Black Saturday firestorm flattened entire villages in 2009 and destroyed more than 2,000 homes, was again bracing for extreme fire weather.

"These next four days promise to be amongst the most significant that we have faced in Victoria since Black Saturday," said acting state premier Peter Ryan.

Tens of thousands of firefighters were on standby, and 1,290 brigades were in a "state of high preparedness", he added, with the peak danger day expected on Friday when very strong winds are forecast.

Two separate grass-fires tested crews early at Little River, west of Melbourne, and Kangaroo Ground to the east.

The flames raced out of control and triggered brief emergency alerts before water-bombing aircraft and engine teams managed to bring them under control.
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