Earth Changes
Autumn snow extent has been steadily increasing for 50 years, due to intrusions of Arctic air going further south. last year had the largest autumn snow extent on record.
Snow cover is well above normal again this year.
© Vigili del Fuoco
The sinkhole opened up on a road near Catania.
The sinkhole opened up on a road near Catania.
The car plunged five metres through the eight-metre wide hole on a road in Valverde, in the province of Catania.
The female driver made a miraculous escape having just parked the vehicle before the hole opened up, Corriere reported.
It was then hauled out by firefighters with a crane. The scene was captured on the video below.
A snowy owl rests on a car in the Kohler Corporation parking lot Tuesday morning.
About 30 snowy sightings were reported through Wednesday in Wisconsin, according to Ryan Brady, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources who oversees the Wisconsin eBird website.
The reports are earlier in the season and higher in number than any year on record.
"It's unprecedented," said Tom Erdman, curator of the Richter Museum of Natural History at UW-Green Bay who began conducting snowy owl research in Wisconsin in the late 1950s. "It's causing us to ask 'Why?"
The first snowy of the season was sighted Oct. 15 near Ashland in Bayfield County on Lake Superior. The next day one was seen in Crawford County in southwestern Wisconsin. On Tuesday lone snowies were reported in Kohler and Milwaukee.
And on Cat Island in Green Bay earlier this week, six snowies were seen at once, Erdman said.
© Stephanie Camilleri
Reader Stephanie Camilleri sent in pictures of huge hailstones in Qormi.
The bad weather is expected to abate over the weekend, with another thunder storm predicted for next Tuesday.
In a statement, the police advised motorists to avoid low-lying areas, especially Triq Marina and Triq ix-Xatt in Msida, and Triq il-Wied in Birkirkara, following reports of high rainwater levels.
Video was taken by Charles Bartolo in Luqa
Reportedly, the soldiers were carrying out an operation in the village of Daglica against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The wounded soldiers were taken to a state hospital in Hakkari.
© NZP Chasers / YouTube
Tornado forming in Colorado
Tornado forming in Colorado
The tornado in the video is spawned from a supercell thunderstorm, which has the ability to last for hours and normally cause much greater damage than regular storms. They can travel at speeds of over 160 km/h and produce hail the size of golf balls.
The group behind the video calls themselves 'NZP Chasers.' NZP or 'Near Zero Probability' explains the level of dedication the team will go to as even if there is no chance of a tornado appearing. They are eager to get their cameras ready on the off chance that something might develop, no matter how small the probability.
"This dedication enables us to capture amazing pictures and never regret for having decided not to chase that day," the group stated on their website.
Find out more about the Near Zero Probability storm chaser group here.
© The Telegraph, UK
The volcano, which is 50 miles south east of Mexico City spat ash and smoke 2500 metres above the volcano's crater.
Mexico's volcano experts says the volcano had around 40 exhalations with a series a of rumblings in the past three months.
There are around 3000 volcanoes in Mexico, but only 14 are active. Popocatepetl is one of the biggest and spans across three Mexican states and is the country's second highest peak.
© Nicky Loh/Bloomberg
The Marina Bay district shrouded in smog in Singapore, on Sept. 24, 2015.
The Marina Bay district shrouded in smog in Singapore, on Sept. 24, 2015.
El Nino is back and in a big way.
Its effects are just beginning in much of the world -- for the most part, it hasn't really reached North America -- and yet it's already shaping up potentially as one of the three strongest El Nino patterns since record-keeping began in 1950. It will dominate weather's many twists and turns through the end of this year and well into next. And it's causing gyrations in everything from the price of Colombian coffee to the fate of cold-water fish.
Comment: This El Nino is still brewing and could turn out to be the biggest one yet.
- El Niño has reached strong levels, may eclipse monster El Niño of 1997-1998
- Met Office confirms fears El Nino could cause a harsh winter in Europe: Brace yourself for snowstorms and freezing temperatures
- Australian wildfires rage as 'Godzilla El Nino' takes affect
- Powerful El Niño forecasted to bring significant rain to California, increased storminess to eastern U.S.
© Noel Celis / IFRC
Residents stay on the roof of their houses at Barangay Camunatan, Isabela, north of Manila on October 19, 2015.
Residents stay on the roof of their houses at Barangay Camunatan, Isabela, north of Manila on October 19, 2015.
Dead baby humpback whale
Unfortunately, a baby humpback whale was found dead on a beach on the Osa Peninsula on Sunday.
Zeni Hernandez, a local tour guide, made the discovery. The whale appeared at the very edge of the beach. Photographs were taken. By Monday the whale was gone and locals assume it was taken away by the strong tides.
A marine biology specialist, Frank Garita, described the baby whale as being just one to two weeks old, according to its size. It was between seven and eight meters long and weighed about a ton.
Full grown members of this species weigh up to 40 tons and measure up to 16 meters long.
He added that it is highly unusual to find a whale stranded on a Costa Rican beach, especially such a young baby.
Comment: There was in addition this exceptionally early arrival date reported from North Dakota on September 28th.
See also: SOTT Exclusive: Snowy owls flee northern latitudes for unprecedented fourth consecutive year - Sign of impending Ice Age?
Britain faces longest winter in 50 years after earliest ever arrival of Siberian swan