Earth Changes

Utah storms bring sun halos and sundogs

Julie Applegate
stgeorgeutah.com
Thu, 21 May 2015 21:54 UTC

With recent storms moving through Southern Utah on a weekly basis, conditions have been good for seeing two fascinating sights in the sky: sun halos and sundogs.

St. George resident Janna Fox was lucky enough to spot a sun halo Sunday, from her driveway at around 900 South and River Road.

"My 13-year-old son saw it first and came in and told us," Fox told St. George News. "I had never seen a sun halo before, in my 35 years! It was neat!"

Both sun halos and sundogs are caused by sunlight passing through ice crystals in the high, thin cirrus clouds that often move in before a storm system. Sunlight reflects and bends, or refracts, causing these sometimes spectacular sights.

These ice-crystal displays can be seen year-round, because the upper atmosphere always below a freezing temperature.

A ring or circle of light around the sun or moon is called a halo, or, for the more scientifically minded, a parhelic circle or ring.

Sundogs are rainbow-colored splashes often seen to the left or right of the sun. Sundogs are also known as parhelions, and are formed by plate-shaped ice crystals drifting in the clouds, according to NASA.com.

Comment: Our skies and atmosphere are changing and it is likely due to comet dust loading, not just ice crystals.

See:

Chemtrails? Contrails? Strange Skies

Spectacular Russian rocket launch - more evidence of comet dust loading our atmosphere

Video: Small tornado strikes southern Netherlands

Janene Van Jaarsveldt
NLTimes
Wed, 20 May 2015 20:35 UTC

A small tornado struck southern Netherlands on Tuesday night. The Tornado was spotted in Asten and Liessel.

A portion of a chicken shed on Gevlochtsebaan in Heusden, Asten was blown away, Omroep Brabant reports. It is believed that the shed contained asbestos and the surrounding area has been closed down as a precaution.

According to Reinier van den Berg of Meteo Group, the trunk of the tornado touched the ground near Liessel. The weatherman said on Twitter that the thunderstorm that moved from Antwerp along Eindhoven had "supercell characteristics", the most serious type among thunderstorms. This type of storm is often accompanied by high winds, lightning and heavy rain.

Four killed by lightning strikes in two days in Cambodia

Chhay Channyda
The Phnom Penh Post
Fri, 22 May 2015 18:55 UTC

Four recent deaths in Kandal and Ratanakkiri provinces have brought the number of people killed in lightning strikes this year to 24, a disaster management official said yesterday.

In addition to the 24 dead, lightning has injured a dozen people and killed 19 animals, said National Committee for Disaster Management spokesman Keo Vy.

In Kandal on Wednesday, two people were killed in the middle of a rice field in Kien Svay district, said district police officer Vong Se.

"They were herding their cattle to eat grass in a rice field. They were not in a hurry during the downpour so they were struck by lightning," Se said.

Two men from Ratanakiri's O'Yadav district also became casualties of lightning strikes after they were fatally hit on Tuesday, Vy said.

The NCDM said that it has recorded 198 storms over the past four months. The storms have led to the deaths of seven people and injured nine others. They have also caused 1,138 houses to completely collapse, partly damaged 3,993 houses and blew away 27 roofs.

"Please raise your awareness since there will be a lot of rain this rainy season," Vy said. "Also, be careful with rain floods, which will arrive in June or July."

Ten tornadoes reported in one day in North Texas

Frank Heinz
NBCDFW.com
Wed, 20 May 2015 23:07 UTC

The National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday that a total of 10 tornadoes touched down Tuesday across North Texas, including three EF-1 tornadoes and seven EF-0 tornadoes.

NWS survey teams said one tornado touched down in each Mineral Wells and Runaway Bay, both rated EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale.

Tornadoes rated an EF-1 can have wind speeds up to 110 mph and cause moderate damage.

Four tornadoes occurred in Wise County, including an EF-1 near Balsora and another EF-1 east of Decatur.

Elsewhere, one tornado was reported in Waxahachie in Ellis County and another tornado occurred in Jack County, according to the National Weather Service.

Considerable damage appears to have been caused by the tornadoes with roofs ripped off, cars destroyed and homes moved from foundations and flattened.

Almost 40 million birds dead as avian flu ravages Midwest

Lorraine Chow
ecowatch.com
Thu, 21 May 2015 17:47 UTC

The devastating avian influenza sweeping the Midwest has forced the mass slaughter of nearly 40 million diseased chicken, turkey and wild birds in order to contain the outbreaks, according to the latest grisly numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

BREAKING: State officials confirm #Malvern landfill among those receiving avian flu remains. http://t.co/bwJsCNtikQ pic.twitter.com/qUGMvDsvtp

— Nonpareil Photos (@NonpareilPhotos) May 20, 2015

According to the USDA, since it was first detected in December 2014, there have been several ongoing highly pathogenic avian influenza cases along the Pacific, Central and Mississippi Flyways (or migratory bird paths). The strains in particular, H5N2 and H5N8, have been found in wild birds, as well as backyard and commercial poultry flocks.

This is the worst epidemic of bird flu in the nation's history. Egg-producers in Iowa, the top egg-producing state, have been hit the hardest, with a shocking 40 percent Iowa's egg-laying hens dead or to be euthanized.

In a report from Harvest Public Media (via NPR), while some local incinerators are burning dead birds 24 hours a day, other landfills have been turning away the carcasses for fear of contamination and neighbors' complaints.

New giant sinkhole opens up in Russia's Perm region

The Moscow Times
Wed, 20 May 2015 14:49 UTC

Another giant sinkhole has appeared in Russia's Perm region, which has seen its soil imploding into a series of large craters in recent years, possibly as a result of the vast network of mines in the area.

The latest sinkhole appeared in the village of Lunyevka, in the Aleksandrovsk district of the Perm region. The town had been a coal mining center, but the last mine was closed there more than 50 years ago the head of the district administration, Lyubov Babich, was quoted as saying by the local Valekse news portal on Monday.

Accounts of the sinkhole size varied. The head of the Aleksandrovsk district civil defense department, Alexander Golchikov, put it at 20 meters in diameter and 10 meters deep, the regional outlet of the national Argumenty i Fakty newspaper reported. Meanwhile, Babich estimated the size at 25 meters in diameter and 4 meters deep, Valekse reported.

Snow covers Arxan City in north China

newscontent.cctv.com
Mon, 18 May 2015 14:25 UTC

Snowfall in Arxan, China

A heavy snowfall falling with northern cold front on Monday brought winter back to the Arxan City of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region while much of China bracing bright summer days.

The snow started to fall early Monday morning and stopped at around 11:00 am. Streets in downtown Arxan were covered by 10 centimeter thick snow and residents going outdoors were seen dressing in layers to keep themselves warm after a sharp drop in temperatures.

Number of cars hit on road apparently decreased due to the snowy weather. Those who hit on road slowed down their speed and drove cautiously.

Local border police division dispatched soldiers to help pull the cars stranded in snow to safety.

Municipal authorities have organized personnel to clear the tough heavy snow from streets since morning. Flights at the local airport were not affected as the snowfall continued only a short time.

Izmir hit by flash flood after 30 minute downpour, Turkey

Today's Zaman
Thu, 21 May 2015 13:53 UTC

Turkey's western province of İzmir was hit by a flash flood caused by heavy rain that lasted around half an hour at around noon on Wednesday.

Flooding in İzmir

The rain, accompanied by northeaster winds and hail, led to floods, especially at high points in İzmir. Meanwhile, social media users circulated striking photographs on the Internet showing the gravity of the situation. The photograph of a man drifting away in a flood in the Gültepe neighborhood particularly drew attention on the Internet. Adem Altıparmak, the man seen in the picture, managed to survive after he was dragged around 400 meters in the flood.

In the meantime, cars sustained severe damage due to the flood. The local administrator of the Trakya neighborhood told the Cihan news agency the area is often damaged by flash floods and that he petitioned the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality twice for gutters to be built to evacuate the rainfall. He added that a local lost his life in a flash flood last year.

Huge hail storm in Pecos, Texas

youtube.com
Mon, 18 May 2015 13:46 UTC

Large hailstones

Large hail fell from a tornado warned storm near the town of Pecos, Texas covering the roads and damaging vehicles in the area.

Snowfall in Italy in late May

Robert Felix
iceagenow.info
Wed, 20 May 2015 13:26 UTC

Snow in Italy

While the center and south of the peninsula is very sunny and warm, in the north it snows. Even for our latitude snow in late May is not common.

Spring snow in Alto Adige. On the A22 motorway on the Austrian border movement of vehicles partially restricted. Huge traffic jams and many accidents.

Snows from early in the morning at the Brenner Pass: as shown in the photo taken by the webcam Site A22 snow is creating heavy traffic disruption in both carriageways between Sterzing and the state border. Especially heavy vehicles proceeding slowly slowing down the entire flow of vehicles.