Earth Changes
The giant Sicilian volcano - Europe's most active - began erupting on Thursday evening, Corriere della Sera reported.
In the course of the eruptions, the volcano spewed out a huge column of black ash, which rose kilometers into the sky and emitted spectacular fountains of lava that residents captured in the video below.
Reggio Calabria airport serves 1.2 million visitors a year but was closed on Thursday morning, disrupting scheduled flights to Rome and Milan.
The 1997-8 El Niño killed 20,000 people and caused almost $97 billion of damage as floods, droughts, fires, cyclones and mudslides ravaged the world.
Now the current El Niño has surpassed the 1997-8 El Niño on a key measure, according to the latest figures released by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.

Flood-ravaged Chennai, India, on Thursday after heavy rains.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to Chennai to assess the flooding on Thursday, as the death toll reached 269 in the surrounding state of Tamil Nadu, said the home minister, Rajnath Singh, in an address to Parliament.
Heavy rains began in Tamil Nadu on Nov. 12, said Laxman Singh Rathore, the director general of India's Meteorological Department, part of a monsoon season that lasts in the region until late December. Nearly 14 inches of rain fell in Chennai on Wednesday, he added.
Schools and the airport have been closed, and the state government advised private companies in Chennai and two other districts to declare a holiday on Thursday and Friday, the Press Trust of India reported.
According to the USGS, the epicenter was 19 miles from San Diego Country Estates, Calif.; 22 miles from Alpine, Calif.; and 24 miles from Ramona, Calif.
In the last 10 days, there has been one earthquake of magnitude 3.0 or greater centered nearby.
This information comes from the USGS Earthquake Notification Service and this post was created by an algorithm written by the author.
The "dirty thunderstorm" caused lightning to strike through the clouds in a sight both terrific and terrifying.
Italian Mount Etna erupted with spectacular lava fountain https://t.co/oLAl2xNykP pic.twitter.com/pt1nlzLYSm— L'Italo-Americano (@Italo_Americano) December 3, 2015No casualties were reported in Mount Merapi's new blast, which came as Indonesia struggles to respond to an earthquake-generated tsunami that devastated a remote chain of islands. The two disasters unfolding on opposite ends of the country have killed nearly 500 people and strained the government's emergency response network. In both events, the military has been called in to help.
Merapi has killed 38 people since it started erupting a week ago. Monitoring officials have raised alert levels at some of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, with two under watch for possible eruption within two weeks and 19 showing increased activity, an official said.
Source: AP

Savage: Four dogs manage to crawl under the fence of a yard in this Detroit neighborhood and maul to death a four-year-old boy walking by with his mother. Three dogs were killed by police, this one was taken into custody
The Wayne County Medical Examiner completed the autopsy Thursday, stating the cause of death to be from "multiple puncture wounds."
Xavier Strickland, 4, was walking down the street with his mother, Dolly Strickland, when the neighbor's dogs attacked. Witnesses told Local 4 the dogs dragged the toddler under a fence. They were headed to Thurgood Marshall Elementary School to volunteer.
Yolanda Samuels heard the mother's calls for help and called 911.
"The dog had grabbed the baby and pulled the baby underneath the fence," Samuels said. "When I saw them carrying her baby, all I could do was just grab my baby and say, "Oh, my God. He's lifeless."
Susan Mill posted a video on the Higgins Storm Chasing Facebook group showing the whirlwind -- or "willy willy" as its sometimes called in Australia -- kicking up dirt Friday at the side of a Parkes, New South Wales, road.
"I think I would like to become a storm chaser. This was extremely exciting," Mill wrote.
Mill wrote the footage was filmed near Lions Park in Parkes.

Alaska-Canada snow cover (white) and sea ice (yellow) 28 November 2014 (left) and 2015 (right).
Snow cover in Europe and Asia is also much more extensive than at this time last year

Europe-Asia snow cover (white) and sea ice (yellow) 28 November 2014 (left) and 2015 (right).

The Central Anatolian city of Sivas was quickly covered by heavy snow on Wednesday. There has also been snowfall in the capital, Ankara. (Photo: Cihan)
A number of villages were closed to traffic and temperatures dropped to -2 degree. People had difficulty in reaching the city center from nearby provinces. Municipal teams have been spreading salt on the roads and removing snow on the pavements.
According to the Meteorology Directorate, the snowfall will be ongoing for two days. the depth of snow reached 37 centimeters in higher parts of Palandöken Mountain.










